When I was a child, we’d go visit my grandparents every couple of years or so. Grandmother would spend days prior to our visit, making cakes and pies, jello-salads, any manner of really goodtasting food. She graduated from Texas Tech University in 1936, a real accomplishment for a woman at that time, with a degree in Home Economics. And boy could she cook. Here is a recipe from her personal journal:

Carrot Pineapple Muffins
1-8oz can crushed pineapple
milk-with liquid from the pineapple to equal 3/4 cup
2 cups flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup oil
2 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
3/4 cup grated carrots
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla
Drain pineapple and reserve the liquid. Add enough milk to make 3/4 cup, set aside.
combine next 7 ingredients in a large bowl, stirring until the carrots are coated. Make a well in the middle, put in mixture of milk, pineapple, oil, egg, and vanilla. Stir until coated. Spoon into greased muffin cups-2/3 full. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Makes 1 dozen.

Recently my 95 yr old grandmother gave me her notebook of handwritten recipes. joy! Anyway, here’s the very first one. It isn’t named but I call it apple punch.

2 cups apple cider
1 cup orange juice
2 cups ginger ale
1/2 cup sugar

Boil sugar and water (1/2 cup) before adding to juices. Chill.

I love this stuff! For a quick, relatively kinda authentic Thai supper, take a can of curry paste as listed in the link, mix with a can of coconut milk, and marinate chicken parts in it for a couple of hours. Then grill the chicken parts, or maybe broil them, or whatever your favorite method is for cooking chicken parts. Save the marinade, and use it to make some peanut dipping sauce, and maybe cook up a pot of sticky rice (or just regular white rice, if you’d rather)to go with.

Peanut sauce:
Leftover marinade from the chicken (add chicken broth to make a cup)
1/4 cup peanut butter-smooth or crunchy
juice of 1 lime
Mix all together and bring to a boil in a pot, then turn temp down low and simmer. Add chicken broth if it’s getting thick.
Now, if you happen to have a bottle of fish sauce, the peanut sauce would benefit from a few squirts. A little ginger is good as well, but not necessary.

The thing about a good Thai meal is the juxtaposition of flavors and textures. Creamy, crunchy,sweet, salty,hot, mild are elements you find, and really tasty they are, too.

So, you have the spicy grilled chicken, the creamy peanut sauce (also spicy), bland sweet rice, and finish it with some crunchy raw cabbage. You’ll find that the flavor of the cabbage is stellar at cooling the heat from the spicy sauces. I like to take a cabbage leaf, put a bit of rice in it, a piece of chicken and some sauce and fold it into a package…very tasty!

I recommend that you heigh to your local Asian market, and get you a few cans of Maesri brand curry paste. I have found the massaman curry to be the mildest, then the panang, the red and finally the green being REALLY! hot. I tried the kaeng kua and karee pastes, but was unimpressed with their flavor.

Today is cold (well, relatively speaking) blustery day, and I want some seriously filling, stick to the ribs comfort food. For me, that means meatloaf, mashed potatoes made from scratch, and stewed okra with tomatoes.

Now, meatloaf can be anything. I’ve read recipes where you mix beef, veal and pork, others that just call for ordinary grocery-store ground beef, recipes with all sorts of esoteric ingredients, and others that have 3, maybe 4 items. Tonight’s meatloaf is from the Minimalist Betty Crocker school of meatloafery. Here’s the recipe:

2 lbs ground beef (I used a pound of chuck and a pound of sirloin, because it’s what was in the freezer)
1 package Onion Soup Mix (you know, the stuff you make that dip from)
1/3 cup dried bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/3 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons dried italian seasoning
Mix it all together, form into a loaf, and bake at 375 until done- about an hour.
I put some ketchup on top, as well.

Serve with homemade mashed potatoes:
3 pounds of russet potatoes, peeled and cut into smallish chunks
Boil until tender, and drain, then put back into the pot.
Add about a cup of hot milk (I just warm it in the microwave) and half a stick of butter
Salt to taste
To make it interesting, add a cup of shredded sharp cheddar cheese, a shake or so of garlic powder, and some chopped parsley (or flakes)
Mash up with your potato masher, or use a hand held electric mixer. Add more milk if you need to, to reach the consistancy you like. If for some reason you add too much milk and they’re thin, thicken them with some instant mashed potato flakes.

For your vegetable, try this:
3 cups frozen sliced okra
1 small can of diced tomatoes
2 cups water
1 beef boullion cube (or a teaspoon of beef base)
2 teaspoons dried onion flakes
a pinch of red pepper flakes
Mix everything together in a pot, and cook on medium until it begins to boil, then turn the temp down to medium-low, and simmer until time to eat. You don’t want to bring this to a vigorous boil, or keep it there, because the okra will become mucilaginous, and provoke rude comments about it’s texture.

That’s dinner tonight, warm, comforting food that tastes good and makes everyone happy.

What’s your comfort meal?

My big New Years resolution was to improve the quality of the food I prepare and eat. A subset of this involves fish. I don’t know much about preparing fish, and tend to be a little leary of it. However, through careful piddling around I have come to the conclusion that Tilapia is where it’s at for me. It’s sweet and mild, no fishy over or under tones, I can get a 4 lb box of it for $10, which will make 2 meals.

I can also negate any nutritional value it may have by frying it, so I’ve been looking for non-frying alternatives. Last night I made pan-seared fish with a lemongrass mayo. Yum.

(a hint…if you ever come up on lemongrass, buy a bunch of it, prep it and freeze it. Then you’ll have all the appearance of fresh lemongrass in your cooking without having to send to California, wait 2 weeks, and hope it’s not all dried out when you get it.)

Crispy pan-seared tilapia

3 egg whites
1 teaspoon soy sauce
Beat the egg whites and soy sauce together until soft peaks form. Then:

8 Tilapia fillets
1/2 cup flour, sifted
salt and pepper
Season the fish with the salt and pepper, then dredge in the flour, knocking off the excess.
Dip the fish in the egg whites, coating them well. Roll them around in:

2 cups of rice krispies cereal, lightly crushed

Add a little oil to a non-stick skillet, and get it nice and hot. Pan sear the fish until golden brown, maybe 2 minutes to a side, and lay the fillets on a cookie sheet. Put in a 300 degree oven while you work on the rest of the meal.

The fish scorches easily, I learned this the hard way by using a cast iron skillet instead of a nonstick one, so you will have to keep an eye on it. Since it’s going in the oven to finish, you don’t need to worry that it’s not quite done in the skillet.

Lemongrass slaw
5 stalks lemongrass, just the tender white part, cut into 1 inch pieces
small handful of fresh cilantro
3/4 cup mayonnaise
juice of 1 lime
1 green onion, cut into 1 inch bits
tablespoon soy sauce
tablespoon rice vinegar
Whizz all this up in a food processor, until it is smoothish with no chunks. Taste and adjust seasoning
Set aside 1/4 cup of it to use in the slaw. Use the rest as a sauce with the fish.

Slaw
generous handful of snow peas, slivered lengthwise
1 whole bell pepper, slivered much like the snow peas
1 carrot, use your vegetable peeler to slice into ribbons, the same size as the other stuff
1 very generous handful of fresh mung bean sprouts
Toss all this with a 1/4 cup of the lemongrass sauce.

Almond Rice:
3 cups water
1-1/2 cups white rice
1 tsp salt
Cook according to directions
Add:
1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds
1 green onion sliced thin
1/4 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (if you have it, if you don’t, go get some)

Even #4 liked this meal, and he pretty much only ever wants to eat chicken fingers.

Recipe courtesy Lab Munkay, Resident Chef of Scandinavian Heritage

Smoked Salmon Quiche:
It is all in the pastry base. Really!!! What you want is something that is firm and interesting, and for this reason I added about 20 almonds that I had ground into small crumbs. They are surprises in the pastry. In addition I added half a teaspoon on rough crushed extra hot red chillies and half a cup of grated tangy Hergard cheese from Sweden. The other ingredients are 3 cups of flour and six table spoons of olive oil. Mix the whole lot in a bowl until it looks like a pastry dough. Squeeze it though your fingers untill all the crumbs are bonded together. Then place it in the centre of a big baking dish and press it out from the centre to the edges until it covers the dish. Put it in the oven and bake for 10 minutes at 350 Now for the killer filling and I do mean killer filling since the amount of calories and fat and cholestorol is equivilent to a heart attack on a plate. Crack three eggs into a bowl and add i container of sour cream and half a cup of grated strong mature black label Emental. Then add three large dollops of mayonase, and five finely cut mushrooms.
Beat the hell out of the mixture and when it looks thick and creamy pour it into the pie dish and then sprinkle some smoked salmon over the top and dust down with som Parmesan cheese. Pop it in the oven for 40 minutes at 325 and sit back and enjoy the aroma that fills the kitchen.
Course where you are at- you might use corn meal in place of almonds, and any dry stinky cheese in the crust, and with a house full of boys I do not call it quiche but pie.

My favorite way to eat it is on rye crisp slathered with butter, minced onion on top and a squirt of sweet creamy mustard and a shot of cold vodka or aquavit

I have 8 oz of premium wild smoked salmon, and I have no idea what to do with it. I read some recipes at FineCooking.com and Epicurious.com and they all seem to involve cream cheese, dill and red onion. I read a frittata recipe, a soup recipe, all the same stuff with the cream cheese, dill and onion. What have you done with smoked salmon that worked? All I know of for sure is to put it on a bagel w/ cream cheese, or scramble it in eggs. I want some new ideas.

In the comments of the last post, LabMunkay requested beans recipes- you know, BBQ beans type stuff. Here’s 2 ways I make them, one is Georgia Style, and the other isn’t. Post your bean recipes in the comments sections, and I’ll put them up front with these recipes.

1. Georgia Style Baked Beans
1 huge can of Bush’s Homestyle Baked Beans (or Showboat Beans)
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoons mustard (the yellow kind)
1/4 cup brown sugar
Mix everything together and put it in a casserole dish.
Top with several slices of your favorite bacon
Bake at 325 for a long time, at least an hour, maybe even 2. You want the bacon done. Time and temp aren’t critical as long as the temp is low and the time is long.
I have been known to add a tablespoon of blackstrap molasses, it gives a smokey flavor. I also know not everyone has a bottle of the stuff, so it’s not really all that important. It’s more my thing, instead of a Georgia thing.

Texas Style Beans
1 small piece of salt pork, cut into dice
4 cups cooked pinto beans. Canned are fine.
1 tablespoon dried onion chips
2 teaspoons ground toasted cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried chipolte pepper (more if you want some heat). Really any kind of dried red pepper is fine, but chipotle has some smokey thing going on.
Salt and black pepper to taste

Fry up the salt pork dice in the cast iron dutch oven (or oven safe pot, if you don’t have a mesquite fire in your back yard).
Stir it all together and simmer in a cast-iron dutch oven over an open mesquite fire. (or an oven, if you’re a city-slicker).
If you’re so inclined, and you don’t have the backyard fire, you could add a shot or two of liquid smoke. Be careful tho, it doesn’t take much.

Welcome to Rootie’s Kitchen, where the Elite Meet to Cook Tasty Treats (or something like that). The purpose of this blog is to share ideas and opinions on all things culinary. If you try a new recipe, and love it, please share it! If you hated it, share that, too.

I will from time to time post lessons, as I learn new techniques. I am always trying recipes on for size, and I’ll let you know how they fit, and if they were as easy as touted (sometimes they are, sometimes they aren’t).

Bro. Scott sometimes shows up and rattles on about “hardwood lump charcoal” and making roux and stuff. He is my REAL brother, and I can bear witness to his culinary prowess, even if he is a charcoal snob. Me, I’m content with my %!&-@$$ gas grill, and reserve charcoal for smoking boston butts and the like. But that’s because I don’t really ever decide to grill something until, like 20 minutes before supper.

This forum is intended for every level of cooking skill. If you’re strictly a mac-and-cheese from a box person, and want to learn some ways to maybe branch out without having to invest in fish sauce and panang curry paste, we can help you. If you have mastered the art of ganache, then share the wisdom! A place for everyone, that’s this. Rootie’s Egalitarian Kitchen. Aprons recommended.

For the slaw:
2 T lemon juice
1 t olive oil
1 t sugar
1/2 cup green cabbage, shredded fine
1/4 cup carrot, shredded
1/4 cup red onion, sliced thin
1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and sliced thin
salt to taste

For the tartar sauce:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 T sweet pickle relish
1 T lemon juice
2 t. prepared horseradish

For the tortillas
You’re supposed to get fresh tortillas and fry them up yourself. Phooey. Get some from the box and crisp them in the oven.

For the fish:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 t salt
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 cup club soda
1 T tabasco or other hot sauce (I used sriracha)

1 cup panko crumbs. Seriously, buy the ones in the bag, they’re cheap and perfect.

1/2 pound firm white fish, cut into 8 pieces. (I used tilapia. Cod is good, and catfish would probably work well)

Make the slaw- whisk together the first 3 ingredients, and drizzle over the remaining slaw ingredients. Refrigerate.

Make the sauce- combine all the sauce ingredients, cover and chill.

Warm the taco shells in a 350 degree oven for about 6 minutes, cover to keep warm.

Make the fish- whisk together the flour, slat and baking soda. Add the club soda and hot sauce. Whisk until combined (will be a little lumpy, that’s ok). Spread the panko in a shallow dish
Heat 1/2 inch of canola oil in a skillet until the handle of a wooden spoon stuck in the oil has bubbles coming out of it (Or, roughly 375 degrees if you have a thermometer). Dip the fish in the batter, then coat in the panko and fry, 2 monutes to a side, until golden brown. Drain on a paper towel.

To assemble the tacos, put some slaw in the bottom of the taco shell, put a piece or two of fish on top and spoon some tartar sauce on it all.

These are strangely more filling than the usual beef taco. My family will typically eat 4 or 5 beef tacos, but were content with 2 fish tacos.