Luncheon Recipes 2012 (and beyond)

Ya gotta eat, after all...

Here are some recipes I've enjoyed (and some I've even made and brought along) for Master Gardener Luncheons and other culinary occasions. They are in no particular order. Most come from the Internet. except for the last ones in pantheon- they are from Christopher Baker.

And if you "hunger" for more, refer to Luncheon Recipes 2013, Muffins a la Grace, and Sandwiches.

• • Frosted Cranberries - Easy recipe; prepare at least the night before to let the berries dry. I avoided the whole salmonella debate by using light corn syrup. My other "tricks" are below. The real secret is to use good quality cranberries. The berries you buy should look very firm - no shriveled ones. Even if a fair percentage are not ruby red, a fresh firm yellowish berry will trump an flaccid or bloated red one. Sometimes the harvest years aren't so stellar and the berries in your store look kind of rotten. Don't bother trying to sort out the bad berries. Skip the whole thing. Even the good-looking berries won't be that tasty and they will deteriorate too quickly. Likewise, these are best served from cranberries just harvested - not those that have been in storage waiting for Christmas. I found the recipe on a website. Read the recipe and all the helpful reviews at:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Frosted-Cranberries/Detail.aspx

Frosting "Tricks" - I dried the cranberries thoroughly after washing them. To drizzle the corn syrup over them, I put a small batch in a flat-bottomed colander and put the colander over a wide dish. I drizzled corn syrup over the berries and used a fork to get the excess syrup to drain. Then I coaxed the berries (not the extra syrup) out of the colander into a big bowl of sugar. Using the fork, I rolled the berries in the sugar until they were coated. Coaxed the berries OUT of the sugar bowl onto a wire baking rack. Some of the berries will fall out of the rack, so have a dish underneath to catch them. Refill the sugar in your sugar bowl, pour another batch of berries into to the colander and repeat... Let them dry overnight and store in an open bowl (a closed bowl has too much humidity).

If you get your berries too saturated with corn syrup the sugar will "glump" up and not crystallize. No worries. Place the glumpy berries in a separate dish with a little extra sugar. Let them dehydrate overnight. Then roll them in the sugar bowl again - they should be dry enough to work with. Then place these super-coated berries on the baking rack for another dry-out session.

Update 2013 - Cranberry quality can deteriorate after several days if left at room temperature. You can store your frosted cranberries in the fridge with no worries if you keep them separated from each other (uncovered on a cookie sheet). The taste more flavorful if served at room temp, so about an hour before serving, remove from the fridge an put cranberries back on a rack to allow air to flow through.

SOUPS

Greek lemon chicken soup (avegolemono)

https://comfortablefood.com/greek-lemon-chicken-soup/

The soup incorporates raw egg into the broth. If the broth is too hot it will cook the raw egg and you’ll end up with egg drop soup instead of a creamy rich broth. Follow the instructions for tempering the sauce before introducing the eggs to the soup.

I used the recipe as written with a few variations. Because I was bringing the soup to a luncheon, I made it the night before and stored it in the fridge. Here’s how I pulled it off:

I didn’t want the rice to get gummy by sitting in the soup for a long time, so I cooked it separately in a rice cooker. I used a mix of water and chicken broth to perk the flavor of the rice up.

Once you have added egg to the soup by tempering it, do not let the broth boil or your egg will separate into strands. Keep the temperature under control. Let the soup gradually cool before putting into the fridge (don’t leave it out so long that it spoils).

In the morning, bring the soup and the rice together in a crock pot. Gradually reheat the mix on low until the soup is warmed. Turn the temperature up for about an hour just before serving. This should keep your soup creamy and warm, and keep the rice from gumming up.

Add garnishes if you like. I had sprigs of fresh thyme floating in the soup for flavor and color.

SALADS

• • Salad with Pears, Nuts, Blue Cheese and Walnut Oil Dressing - Emeril's recipe calls for frying the cheese. I just used crumbled blue cheese. I did not add any garlic or scallions (and didn't bother with the cheese frying). I substituted pecans for walnuts. And I used pears instead of apples; since I cut them up the night before I kept them from browning by immersing them in a diluted version of the salad dressing. That kept them more appealing looking and infused them with a light taste of the dressing. Oh, and I threw in some dried cranberries and golden raisins for a little extra color. The recipe is at:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/fried-pont-leveque-salad-with-walnut-oil-dressing-recipe/index.html

Consider omitting the arugula and using a combo of tender garden lettuces.

BREADS

• • Sourdough Whole Wheat (or White)* I modified this recipe originally found in Allrecipes.com If you cannot open the PDF link, contact me or use the original sourdough wheat bread recipe.

  • Sourdough Pumpernickel* I modified this recipe originally found in Food.com If you cannot open the PDF link, contact me or use the original pumpernickel sourdough bread recipe.

  • Sourdough Pumpernickel swirl bread option is discussed in the two sourdough recipes above.

  • Maintaining and Using Your Starter. Points to Remember: A starter is living thing. It needs food (flour/complex carbohydrates). The warmer it is the more it feeds. Kept in the fridge it doesn't need feeding more than once a week. Use the instructions here to feed/maintain the starter. Use your starter in a recipe approximately 12 hours after you feed it (it will be vigorous then). If it's not used, back in the fridge it goes. Starters can go bad - even deadly! Find out how to assess your starter by reading the Troubleshooting section. This is not a common occurrence, but it's best to know what you're putting into your body.

  • Make Your Own Starter The King Arthur Flour company has detailed instructions for making your own starter from flour; also there are links to variations on starters, including a gluten-free version. Points to Remember: A typical starter needs about two weeks of diligent feeding before it's ready for use (or storage in the fridge/freezer). Each time you feed your starter, you'll end up with TWICE as much starter as before the feeding. Plan to give some to friends or to freeze it after it has developed. I haven't used the stuff I freezed just yet, but I figure, if I can't revive it, I have plenty unfrozen. Once your two week feeding period has ended you are ready to use the Maintaining and Using Your Starter section above.

  • A Free Fast Starter. You can get a free package of starter by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to Carl Griffith's 1847 Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter. The beauty of this starter is that it can almost instantly be used. Follow their reviving instructions.

  • Greek Easter Bread with Colored (Jello Jiggler) Eggs - Homemade bread was a given around the holidays in my family. We would make a sweet rich yeast bread, And bake it with a few colored hard-boiled eggs decorating the top. The bread in this recipe reminded me of the bread we'd bake around Easter in my Italian household. The recipe didn't include the colored eggs, so I'll explain how they get into a holiday bread. The basic bread recipe is at:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/greek-easter-bread-10000001031632/

The only tweaking I did was: 1) the spices. I just used off-the-shelf spices, and approximated the amount the recipe would have used. The cinnamon I used was Saigon Cinnamon, available at a higher-end grocery store, This is cinnamon with a kick. Be sure you know how it stacks up taste-wise before using it in a recipe. It gave my bread a more exotic taste, which is fitting for an Old World holiday treat.

Once you have braided the dough for the last rising, you will need to add the colored eggs - or not. You can just bake the loaf according to the recipe and you will have a very authentic tasting holiday bread. If you want your bread to look like the photo below ("lifted" from http://www.instructables.com/id/Italian-Braided-Easter-Bread/ ) proceed with the instructions for the eggs. Then bake according to the bread recipe.

Now for the eggs. A purist would use real dyed eggs, three-four of them of them is about right. We cooked them, died them, and then put them in the bread. I have seen recipes calling for the eggs without cooking them - they get cooked during the baking process, according to the recipe. If you use real eggs, put them in the shaped bread for the final rise and then just cook the bread with them. Most of the photos I found that show holiday bread with eggs feature the bread braided into a "basket" holding the eggs, rather than a loaf decorated with eggs. We always used a loaf; it is easier to slice and serve.

Back to the jello jiggler eggs. I did not want to use the last of my eggs so I settled on a substitute that was popular in the '80's - jigglers. But I needed a creamy substance to give my jigglers a more egg-like appearance. Since I had jello, cream cheese, and some "egg molds" I opted for creamy jello egg jigglers. The recipe for the creamy jello is:

2 packs jello

8 oz cream cheese softened (not whipped)

1 cup hot water

1 cup pineapple juice

1 cup cold water

Mix jello into boiling hot water until smooth. Blend pineapple juice and cream cheese - or whip it until creamy. Add to jello. Mix in cold water. Pour into jiggler egg molds that have been greased with veggie oil. Refrigerate until set.

Since you can't bake the bread with THESE eggs, you can cheat. I braided the bread in preparation for the last rising. Then I took a real egg, and made three indents in the pre-risen bread dough to outline the proper shape. To "hold the shape" I wrapped a clean egg-sized stone (the type you'd use in an indoor fountain) in aluminum foil and put three of them in the bread. I let the bread rise and baked according to the recipe with the "stones" in place.

When the bread cools, remove the "stones". Just before serving take the jello eggs out of the molds and place them in the "wells" in the bread. Do not store the bread with the eggs. If you have leftovers, just scoop the jello into a container and put in the fridge. The bread can be covered and put in a bread box.

Here's the end result. The bread has been braided thickly here because I didn't have a very long baking sheet - so I made the braids fat. Don't forget to brush bread top with egg yoke - makes a truly special looking bread. If you forget, you can always brush the cooked (but still warm) loaf with egg yoke and pop back in the oven for about 3 minutes, or until the yoke is baked on.

My finished Easter bread (thanks for the photo Abbe). Click on the photo for a full-size image).

Happy Easter!

• Rapini Rice Stuffing (a Gluten-Free Alternative)

• Spinach Feta Pie or Casserole

Real men WILL eat "quiche" - which is what the casserole approximates, EXCEPT, it has more veggies! Of course, you can always use lowfat or fat free cheeses and eggs if you are on a restricted diet. See recipe HERE. If you have trouble opening the document, there is also a link to it at the bottom of this page and you can try that. Google has been making some changes to how things work so we're in new territory here... Contact me at battled@gmail.com if you can't open the recipe. Or just go to allrecipes.com/recipe/spanakopita-greek-spinach-pie for the original recipe.

• Eggnog Texas Sheetcake for the Holidays

• Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

• Chicken Mungo