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Scones This is my favourite Scone recipe. Great with raspberries, blueberries, fresh currants, etc... Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table Scones ================ 2 1/4 cups flour 1/2 cup sugar 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 6 Tbsp. cold butter 1 cup heavy cream 3/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries/blueberries, etc.. extra cream and sugar Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut butter into mixture with pastry blender until it resembles a course meal. Add cream to dry ingredients. Mix lightly with fork and just before the mixture comes together add the frozen berries. Form the dough into a ball and then pat out into a circle on a floured board. Roll into 7-inch round and cut into 6 or 8 wedges. Place 1 inch apart on greased baking sheet; brush tops with cream and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes. Note: When adding fruit to the scone mixture, make sure the raspberries or blueberries are frozen. Otherwise you end up with crushed fruit. Still tastes as good, but not as pretty. Keywords: Breakfast, Dessert, Bread ( RG1737 )

Warren's Chicken Salad with grapes and walnuts This is a recipe I created for our local church bazaar. I sell it by the quart and by the sandwhich every year. It is very popular and very nice in the summer. 2 c cubed chicken 1 c peeled grapes cut in half 1/2 c chopped walnuts 1/4 c chopped fresh tarragon 1/2 c finely chopped celery 1-1/2 c mayo (Helmans) 2 fl oz sherry or more to taste Salt and pepper to taste Combine in a large bowl the chicken, grapes, celery and walnuts. In a seperate bowl combine the mayo, tarragon, sherry and salt and pepper until the flavors balance. Don't pour all the sherry in at once rather stream it in until you can taste the sherry but it does not overpower everything else. If the dressing is too thick you can thin it out a bit with a bit or milk or cream. Fold the chicken mixture and the dressing together and place in the fridge to chill. While this can be served warm the flavor is better if served after there has been an opportunity for the flavor to meld a bit. Allegric to nuts? This salad is very tasty without them. I added the walnut for their crunch. The extra flavor the nuts brought to the dish was a bonus. Keywords: Salad, Chicken, Easy ( RG1736 )

Persian Pickled Grapes I have no idea where I got the original recipe from, but I have fiddled with the amount of sweetness and the additional flavourings over time. These are great with cold meats, cheese platters etc, and are so easy they hardly constitute a "recipe". 1 bottle good wine vinegar (750 ml)- white or red is fine, but I might try pomegranate next time. 1/4 cup Golden Syrup; sugar works OK but does not give the slightly caramelly flavour. Honey might be good. 2 teaspoons salt. a bunch of grapes. a stick of cinnamon if you are so inclined. Boil the vinegar, syrup, and salt together. Cool. Pour over little bunches of the grapes that you have snipped off from the big bunch, and put into sterilised glass jars (with the cinnamon stick if you wish). Seal and keep in a cool dark place for a month before eating (if you can!). Keywords: Easy, Fruit, Condiment ( RG1735 )

Pam's Lime Salad Dressing 2 T fresh lime juice 1 T fresh lemon juice 1 tsp fresh ginger, finely grated 1 large garlic clove, crushed 1 tsp brown sugar 2 tsp sweet chili sauce 2 tsp tamari soy sauce 1/4 c canola oil Simply combine all ingredients in a small mixing bowl, measuring cup or jar. Use right away or refrigerate for a few days. Toss with salad or serve on the side. Keywords: Condiment, Salad ( RG1734 )

Decadent Brownies These are my all time favourite brownies. If you like a fudge style brownie then you will love these. I've played around with this recipe for a number of years. I call it Decadent because of the 20 ounces of chocolate in the batter. Rather than melt butter with the chocolate and then add the sugar. I melted the butter and the sugar together and then added all the chocolate. I also used a combination of brown and white sugar and I think the flavour is even richer. I edited the recipe to show the change. And I topped some of them with a glaze. But decided that they are decadent enough without the glaze. They freeze well. I usually cut them into bars, wrap in plastic wrap and put them into a freezer bag. Easy to pull out a bar when a chocolate craving hits. Home Cookin Chapter: Recipes From Thibeault's Table Decadent Brownies ============================ 1 Cup butter 20 Ounces chocolate 1-1/2 Cups sugar Pinch of salt 4 eggs 1 Cup flour vanilla to taste 1 Cup toasted pecans/walnuts (or more. I usually add about 1 1/2 cups) Options: Use 3/4 cup brown and 3/4 cup white sugar Add a shot of real espresso Line a 13 X 9 inch rectangle pan with foil and butter. Melt butter and sugar together over medium heat until the butter has melted and the mixture is smooth. Add the chocolate and stir until chocolate melts. Continuing stirring until the mixture is smooth. Remove from the heat. Add one egg at a time and mix well using a wooden spoon. Add vanilla (and espresso if using). Stir in flour and salt and mix well. Stir in the pecans or walnuts and pour into prepared pan. Bake in a 350 °F for approximately 30 minutes. Do not over bake. Brownies should be set in the middle but still slightly soft. Place immediately in the freezer. When cold, remove and cut into bars. Wrap each bar in plastic wrap and store in the freezer. Keywords: Chocolate ( RG1733 )

Rose Pomegranate Truffles Serves 30. Pomegranate molasses is available at middle eastern grocery stores. 225 g bittersweet couverture 45 g whipping cream 25 g pomegranate molasses 10 g white corn syrup 20 g rose water milk chocolate for dipping Melt bittersweet chocolate in microwave. Heat whipping cream and pomegranate molasses until steaming. Mix melted chocolate with hot liquids and stir until smooth. Stir in corn syrup and rose water. Let sit overnight, scoop out in 1 tsp balls, roll quickly between your hands to smooth. Dip in tempered milk chocolate. ( RG1732 )

PAO DE QUEIJO (cheese Rolls) Pão de Queijo means in Portuguese Bread of cheese. However in first days of Pao de Queijo had no cheese in it. Everything started back in the years 1600’s when the slaves of our Minas Gerais state were making Manioc Flour to the rich farmland owners. That was pretty much the time Feijoada was invented as well. But going back to the Pãa de Queijo history, the slaves used to crop manioc (yucca root), peel them off, finely grate them, and soak them in a big wood bowl (gamela) with plenty of water. So they wash and drained this grated manioc, then spread this manioc on a tiled floor outdoors and let it dry under the sun. When dried, they scraped this manioc into big bags and stored them for food consumption throughout the year. This was a noble food prepared to the farmland owners. Therefore slaves were not supposed to eat them. Even today this manioc flour is largely used in Brazilian cuisine. In our site we can see a recipe of Tutu (creamed beans) prepared with manioc flour, and also it is used to prepare the Farofa (a seasoned manioc flour). I’ve seen some people here say it tastes like beach sand. But don’t be fooled, a well prepared Farofa with manioc flour is a “Farmland owner’s exclusive food!”. OK. But our hard working slaves end it up with a fine white powder left in the big wood bowls after taking out the manic flour. This was the manioc starch that dried out in the “gamelas” after preparing the manioc flour. The manioc flour had the starch washed out that’s why the sandy appearance. So the slaves managed to scrape this white starch off the gamelas, make small balls and bake them. This manioc starch balls had neither cheese nor milk in it, just plain manioc starch. These baked balls became popular among the slaves and rich people just discarded this type of food. More than 200 years latter, cattle farms became widespread in Brazil and slaves (that were being freed by that time) gained access to better foods such as milk and cheese. So they began to increment the baked balls with milk and ultimately cheese! When Brazil had no more slaves, their culture began to spread among the rest of the population. And Pão de Queijo became popular in Minas Gerais. Today, in every house you visit in Minas, they will prepare for you a fresh brewed coffee with Pão de Queijo. The manioc starch latter got the name of “Polvilho” and now we have two types of “Polvilho”. Sweet polvilho that is made in the same way our ancestors slaves used to do: wash out grated manioc and dry the milky liquid in a large open tiled floor, or big wood bowls. The second type is the Sour Polvilho. This one is made by letting the germs in the wood bowl to ferment the milky liquid before putting it to dry. The sour polvilho makes a Pao de Queijo a little more acid and bigger. The prepared mix you buy is made with sour polvilho. During the slavery times in Brazil, the Africans incorporated old traditions they brought from Africa with the culture they developed in the new country Brazil. Their culture blended in our Brazilian culture and we are very proud of it. Today people have a hard time to remember if a specific tradition or food is from African slaves origin or not. Food such as the Chicken Ximxim, vatapa, canjica, cocada, Feijoada and Pão de Queijo are better known by the geographic location they exist than by ethnic origin. And the same I can say about the martial art Capoeira and the samba music. They are just Brazilian, there is no racial segregation in my loved country Brazil. 2 lb of manioc starch (polvilho). You can use either sweet or sour manioc starch. Some people complain that sour manioc starch causes heartburn, however sour manioc starch makes the rolls rise more. It is 1 lb of mashed potatoes (just cooked potatoes, mashed with no salt or oil). 2 T margarine 1/2 c vegetable oil 4 eggs 1 tsp salt 3-1/2 oz grated parmesan cheese 2 c (500ml) milk If Making is from Stratch: The mashed potato should be cool before using. In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except the milk. Then add the milk slowly while you mix until you get a soft dough. Place 1 inch balls spaced in a unbuttered cookie sheet and bake at moderate oven (350 F) for about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Makes about 50 rolls. IF USING MIX: BLEND: In a medium bowl: 1 package of Cheese Bread Yoki mix 1/2 cup water 2 eggs HEAT: Preheat oven to 350° F BLEND: In a medium bowl: 1 package of Cheese Bread Yoki mix 1/2 cup water 2 eggs BEAT: 4 minutes at slow speed or by hand until get smooth consistency. BAKE Place dough balls spaced in a cookie sheet. Bate at 350° F for 25 minutes or until golden brown STORAGE: You can freeze the balls for about two months. Hint: make the balls, place them in a cookie sheet and freeze them in the cookie sheet. Then take the frozen balls out of the cookie sheet and store in plastic container with a plastic film between the layers to make the removal easier. To bake, take them directly from the freezer to the preheated oven. (do not thaw before baking). Keywords: Latin American, Bread, Appetizer, Easy, Snack ( RG1731 )

MARIA BONBONS (Brazilian Candy) Serves 60 as Dessert. Easy to make. Even kids can do it!! 3 packages Maria cookies 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk ½ cup seedless raisin 2 c (12 oz pkg) chocolate Morsels 1 T vegetable shortening PREPARE: Grind cookies in a food processor until you get coarse flour. Place ground cookies in a big bowl. Pour condensed milk while mixing with a wood spoon until you get dough. Make small candy balls. Place couple raisins inside the balls while shaping them. Coat candies with chocolate: Line baking sheet with waxed paper. Melt morsels and shortening in small saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally, until smooth. Dip each candy into chocolate using a fork; place on prepared baking sheets. Let stand until chocolate is set. SERVE: Place in candy cups to serve. Make about 60 candies. Keywords: Dessert ( RG1730 )

Pudim (Brazilian Flan) Serves 12 as Dessert. Hello Fellow Brazilian Cookers and Brazilian Lovers. I have a recipe here that took me 2 years to master. Although I am american, People swear that I am 100% Brazilian and I cook better than there Grandmother..lol I want to share my recipe of a Brazilian Flan (Pudim) that is a favorite trditional Dessert in Brasil 2 cans (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk 8 eggs 2 T of Vanilla 2 T of Corn Starch 2 c of milk 2 c granulated sugar PREPARE: Using a pan large enough that a Bundt Pan can fit into without sinking. Please 1/4 inch of water into Pan and heat on med temp Heat 2 cups of granulated sugar in saucepan over medium-low heat. Stir constantly until sugar dissolves and become caramel colored. Quickly pour and Swirl caramel Sugar around the inside of the Bundt Pan until you have covered the bottom, sides and the middle cone part then place in the Pan of water so it is sitting on top. Mix in a blender: sweetened condensed milk, eggs, vanilla, corn starch & milk. Pour into prepared Bundt Pan and use a towel big enough to wrap around the lid and tie it tight. Place the lid on the bundt pan and cook at med heat for 1 hour or until tooth pick comes out clean and the pudim is firm to the touch. Once you have established the pudim is firm. Take out of the pan and refrigerate for 3 hours until cooled. Once cooled, carefully use a butter knife and loosen the sides until you can move the pan back and forth (swish it) so it comes loose. Place a large dish or Platter over the top and flip it fast until it falls on the platter. Lift the bundt pan off and you have yourself a perfect Brazilian Pudim. Enjoy!! Keywords: Dessert ( RG1729 )

Lardo 300 g salt 1 l water 2 cloves of garlic 9 g fresh rosemary 7 sage leaves 3 bay leaves (i used fresh) 7 juniper berries 1000 g hunk of backfat (as thick as you can find) Make a brine and bring to a boil, add the herbs and let it sit as if you were making a tea (i let it sit covered until it was cool) Put lard in a tightfitting tupperware or non reactive vessle that you don't need for 3 months pour brine with all the herbs over the lard. The lard is going to want to float, so you need to so something to keep it down. I used a clean meatl chain to weigh it down, and then put a weight on top of the tupperware lid. Put in the fridge Flip ever 30 days Leave minimum 3 months. Take it out, rinse and dry very well. Keywords: Appetizer, Hors d'oeuvre, Italian ( RG1728 )

Orange Bacon This is a sweet bacon, but I find it works well in some savory dishes as well. The ingredients are for a small batch (since I generally buy small pieces of pork belly, rather than doing an entire belly at a time). References: Cooking (or curing) from Charcuterie, sausages, terrines, cured meats 1 T Lapsang Souchong Tea 1 T Pure Expressed Orange Oil 1 T Finely chopped dried orange peel 1/3 c Brown Sugar 1-1/2 T Basic cure (Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing ) 1-1/4 lb Pork Belly, Skin On Prepare the pork belly as normal with the cure mix (as per the cookbook referenced above). Pour the orange oil across the meat side, and then cover the meat side evenly with the dried peel and tea leaves and brown sugar, and then cure for one week as normal. Note: Yes, this really needs the cookbook. But the cookbook is worth it, and I'm not giving advice on meat curing when there is a perfectly good reference readily available. Additional note: I use FoodSaver bags for making bacon, because then I can keep the meat entirely in the cure, and flip it easily in the refridgerator. Keywords: Pork, Easy ( RG1727 )

Cranberry-Chipotle Braised Lamb This is an easy to prepare recipe for a smokey, cranberry, lamb. It takes time to cook, but very little effort, and goes quite well with rice. 1 2-4lb Lamb Shoulder Roast 2 cans Jellied Cranberry Sauce 1 Chipotle Pepper Red Wine Empty two cans of jellied cranberry sauce into a mixing bowl. Fill one of the cans with red wine, and add the red wine to the bowl. Squeeze the jellied sauce with your hands until the result is a cranberry and wine slurry. Add the chipotle pepper, and put aside. Put a large (3 or 4qt) pan over high heat. The pan must be large enough to hold the entire shoulder roast and still be covered. Add oil to the pan (unless you are using nonstick, in which case it isn't necessary), and add the shoulder roast (with the netting still on), and brown the roast, turning it to be sure that the roast is fully browned. If you are not using nonstick, add a small amount of wine to deglaze the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat to medium, and add the cranberry slurry. Cover the pan, and let the roast cook for 60 to 90 minutes (until it is cooked through), stirring the sauce and turning the lamb occasionally. Then remove the pepper, slice the roast (removing the netting first), and serve with the sauce over rice. Keywords: Main Dish, Lamb, Easy ( RG1726 )

Chicken and Dried Fruit Curry This is an original dish, based on spices found in Indian cuisine. As with most of my recipes, it requires obscure ingredients which can almost only be found in specialty grocery stores. This is a very mild curry, with a tart fruit flavor, and just a hint of heat. Ingredients: Spice Rub 1-1/2 tsp Garam Masala 2 T Aamchore Powder (Dried Mango) 1/2 tsp Chili Powder Ingredients: Simmering Sauce 1 c water 2 T Tomato Paste 1 T Tamarind Concentrate 2 T Palm Sugar (or refined sugar if Palm sugar is unavailable) Ingredients: Stir Fry 1 T oil 1 tsp shredded Ginger 1 tsp minced Garlic 2 chopped sweet onions Other Ingredients 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs 1/2 c Golden Raisins Combine the spices for the rub, and apply it evenly to the chicken thighs. Put the spice coated thighs aside. Combine the incredients for the simmering sauce, whisk them together, and put them aside. Chop the ingredients for the stir fry. Put a sautee pan (or other large flat bottomed pan with high sides) over high heat, and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and ginger. Stir the garlic and ginger for 30 seconds or so, and then add the chopped onions, mixing well. Turn the heat down to medium or medium-high, and cook the onions (stirring them to ensure they do not stick or burn) for another 4-5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent. Remove the pan from the heat, and put the onions in a heat safe bowl. Return the pan to high heat, and place the chicken pieces in the pan, being sure that each piece is resting on the pan and not on another piece of chicken. Cook the chicken for 2-3 minutes per side, or until each side is well browned and the spices look somewhat crisp. Add the simmering sauce to the pan, and reduce the heat to medium or medium-high. Mix in the sauteed onions, and the raisins, and cover the pan. Let the curry simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then serve over rice. Keywords: Main Dish, Chicken, Indian, Easy ( RG1725 )

Eastern European Sweet and Sour Cabbage Soup This is my Grandmother's recipe for sweet and sour cabbage soup, with one slight modification (the substitution of Bavarian Sauerkraut for regular Sauerkraut). 1 2-3lb green cabbage 1 lemon 1 onion 1 c sugar 1 14oz can of Bavarian Sauerkraut 1 12oz can of Tomato Paste 1 28oz can of Sliced or Chopped tomatoes 1 T salt Slice the cabbage and put it in a large pot. Chop the onion, and put it in the same pot. Cut the lemon in half, and squeeze the juice and pulp of the entire lemon into the pot. Add the sugar, salt, and all of the canned ingredients to the mixture. Take each can, fill it once with water, and pour the water into the mixture. Bring the soup to a boil, and then lower heat to a simmer. The soup should be cooked for several hours, until it no longer smells of cabbage; the cabbage should be soft and translucent. The soup will cook down a fair bit in volume; the longer it cooks the more pronounced the flavor will be. If you cook it down too much (either the first day or when reheating it), just add some water and cook it some more. Ingredient Notes You may substitute normal saurkraut for the Bavarian Saurkraut if you like. If you want to use meat, put a tablespoon or so of olive oil in the soup pan first, and sautee a soup bone in it. Then follow the rest of the instructions as written. Keywords: Soup, Jewish, Easy, Vegetarian ( RG1724 )

Lime Citrus Fusion Marinade This recipe is more Vietnamese (which, with its strong French culinary heritage, is a fusion cuisine all of its own) than anything else, and depends upon the staples of the Southeast Asian cuisines. This particular marinade can be used with poultry or pork, and possibly with beef as well. The left over marinade should be kept, because together with any drippings, it can be easily turned into a rich sauce. If the drippings are particularly fatty (for example, a dish made with chicken thighs), you may want to consider making a roux and making a conventional gravy with the drippings and the leftover marinade. Otherwise, simply bring the marinade and drippings to a frothing boil over high heat for a few minutes (to cook it thoroughly and reduce it in volume), and add 1 to 2 TBS of butter, to make a sauce. 1 T Finely chopped Lemon Grass 1 Kaffir Lime Leaf 1 Slice Dried Galangal 6 T Lime Juice 4 T Fish Sauce 4 T Water 4 T Sugar 2 T Carmelized Sugar Combine the ingredients to form the marinade. Ingredient notes: Frozen lemon grass is fine. If using dried, make sure to hydrate it first. There is no substitute for a Kaffir Lime leaf. If you can't get one, you can leave it out and see how you like it. The leaves last for a long time if frozen, and can be used frozen in this dish. Dried, fresh or frozen sliced Galangal all work fine, I've just been using the dried. If you can't get galangal, substitute ginger root. To make carmelized sugar, mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water, and bring to a boil over high heat. When the mix starts to brown, start stirring it. When it reaches a deep brown, add an additional 1/2 cup of near boiling water. This may well cause spattering and cause the sugar mix to solidify in some fashion, so be warned. Return it to the high heat, and stir for about 5 minutes. Add a capful of lemon juice, and let it cool. Carmelized sugar will keep in a jar in a cupboard for a long time. Keywords: Intermediate, Marinade, Vietnamese ( RG1723 )

Hot & Sour Soup Serves 3 as Main Dishor 4 as Soup. This is one of my most prized recipes. Years ago, I sat down with a stack of ingredients, a stack of various recipes that claimed to make Hot and Sour Soup, and a weekend. This recipe is the result. The soup itself is sour and complexly flavored, with the heat (coming from peppercorns, not chile peppers) taking time to build. This recipe calls for a few exotic ingredients, they are crucial to the flavor. I make no promises as to what happens if you substitute... Base: 3 cans Chicken Broth (Approximately 40-42 ounces) 1 lb Extra Firm Tofu 1 can sliced Bamboo shoots (if you can find sour bamboo shoots, these are preferred) 1/2 oz (approx) dried Cloud Ears 1/3 c sliced cooked meat (optional) Lotus Buds to taste (optional) Seasonings: 1 T Sugar 1 T Dark Soy Sauce 3 T Red Wine Vinegar 3 T Lemon Juice 3 T Fish Sauce 3 T Chinese Black Rice Vinegar 3 T Corn Starch 1/2 T Salt (to taste, and depending on the saltiness of the stock) 3/4 tsp Ground Roasted Sichuan Peppercorns 1/2 tsp Ground Black Peppercorns 1/2 tsp Sesame Oil Garnish: 1 large egg (beaten) 3 T minced green onions (optional) Set the cloud ears in luke warm water for 30 minutes to rehydrate. If you are using Lotus Buds, rehydrate them with the cloud ears. Once they have rehydrated, slice them (I find it easiest to hold them in a bunch, and then just slice across the mushrooms) if they are too large to eat comfortably. Slice the tofu (half an inch wide and high, and the length being half the width of the Tofu block works well), and combine the tofu, cloud ears, bamboo shoots, and the lotus buds or meat if you are using them, and put them aside in a bowl. You may find you have a little too much, if you do just set it aside for another batch or another recipe, and make a little less the next time. This is the place to experiment, all sorts of vegetables or meats could be added here. In a bowl or liquid measure, combine all of the seasoning ingredients, and stir well. These are the most important ingredients, they are what give the soup its flavor. Do not substitute. Bring the chicken stock to a boil over high heat, in a pan capable of holding about three times the volume of the chicken stock. Once the stock reaches a boil, add the bowl of chopped vegetables and meats, and again, let the soup come to a boil. You want to leave room for the seasonings and the garnish, so don't overfill your pan. Once the soup again starts to boil, add in the seasonings (being sure to stir first, so that the corn starch doesn't clump). While the soup again moves towards a boil, beat the egg in the same container you had the seasonings in (to get that last bit of flavor stuck to the sides) and mix in the green onions if you are using them. When the soup again reaches a boil, slowly spoon in the egg mixture. Turn the heat down to simmer, and serve. Keywords: Soup, Easy, Chinese ( RG1722 )

Sichuan Bacon This is a savory bacon, that I use primarily (but not exclusively) in Chinese cooking. The ingredients are for a small batch (since I generally buy small pieces of pork belly, rather than doing an entire belly at a time). References: Cooking (or curing) from Charcuterie, sausages, terrines, cured meats 1 T Lapsang Souchong Tea 1 T Sichuan Peppercorns 1-1/2 T Basic cure (Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing ) 1-1/4 lb Pork Belly, Skin On Prepare the pork belly as normal with the cure mix (as per the cookbook referenced above). Cover the meat side evenly with the peppercorns and tea leaves, and then cure for one week as normal. Note: Yes, this really needs the cookbook. But the cookbook is worth it, and I'm not giving advice on meat curing when there is a perfectly good reference readily available. Additional note: I use FoodSaver bags for making bacon, because then I can keep the meat entirely in the cure, and flip it easily in the refridgerator. Keywords: Easy, Chinese, Pork ( RG1721 )

Japanese crab cake Serves 25 as Appetizer. See the brainstorming thread. 1 lb crab meat 4 T tempura batter (substitute cake flour) 3 T Kewpie-brand sweet mayo 3 T furikake seasoning (substitute seasoning of your choice) 4 T wakame seaweed, reconstituted 1 egg 1 tsp baking powder 1 c panko (substitute conventional bread crumbs) 1. Mix first seven ingredients and half of the panko together. Reserve remaining panko for dredging. 2. Optional: refrigerate for an hour so ingredients will adhere together. 3. Form cakes with hands, dredge in panko, fry. Keywords: Crab, Appetizer, Seafood, Japanese, Hors d'oeuvre ( RG1720 )

Gouda cheese biscuits The province of Zuid Holland is justly famous for it's cheese: Gouda, Leidse (with cumin), Edam. The favorite way (for most Dutch people) to eat cheese is on a (often openfaced) sandwich, but over time a lot of recipes have been developed to use up all that wonderful cheese. These little savoury biscuits are available in most supermarkets in the 'factory version', in some bakeries you can buy them fresh, but since they are really simple to make (and highly addictive) I thought I'd offer the recipe here. Now, these will only taste as good as the cheese you put in. The more mature and piquant the grated cheese you use, the better the flavour of the biscuits will be. If your cheese is blander than you'd like, add a little extra salt and pepper to the dough, or even a dash of cayennepepper to spice things up a bit. Or add some crushed cumin seeds for a "leidse" version! 125 g selfraising flour 75 g melted butter 100 g mature Gouda, grated 1 eggyolk 50 ml milk salt, pepper, cayenne extra milk to glaze extra cheese for sprinkling preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F. Mix all the ingredients for the dough together. You should have a fairly firm, but sticky dough. Roll the dough into marble-sized balls and place on a lined baking sheet. Brush with a little milk. Bake for about 10 minutes, than take from the oven and sprinkle with a little extra grated cheese (optional, but it does make them look better) Bake for 10 more minutes or until golden brown. They should be quite dry and crispy, a good way to get that is to leave them in the oven for another 10 minutes or so after you've turned off the oven, to dry them out a bit. They will also become crispier upon cooling. see the Dutch Cooking thread for pictures. Keywords: Easy, Cheese, Snack ( RG1719 )

Bacon Cookies Serves 30 as Amuse. Savory bacon cookies that go well with stews, soups, or to make your dog very happy! 4 slices chopped bacon 2 c AP flour 1 pinch salt 1 pinch black pepper 1/2 c chilled butter 1 egg, lightly beaten 3 T heavy cream 1 egg yolk, beaten Saute the bacon bits until not quite crispy. Drain and cool. Mix flour, salt and pepper and cut in the butter. Mix in the egg and cream, just to combine. Add the bacon and form the dough into a log about 1 1/2" diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill til firm. Preheat oven to 350'. Slice cookies and brush tops with yolk. Bake until brown (about 15 minutes) and cool on a rack. ( RG1718 )

Butter Tart Filling 2 T butter 1 T white vinegar 1 large egg 1 c brown sugar 1 tsp vanilla 1/2 c plumped raisins Mix all ingredients and place about 1 tbsp in each unbaked tart crust. Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes. ( RG1717 )

Venison Sausages Inspired by this book -- Charcuterie, the art of smoking, salting and curing, a whole bunch of us have become obsessed with home smoked bacon, homemade and stuff sausages, dry cured items, etc. Many of us have taken parts and parcels of the recipes and come up with our own creations. You'll find out about our obsession on this topic: Charcuterie My father-in-law gave me two deer this season. Recognizing that the freezer is not a safe deposit box, and recognizing that venison and sausage are a natural, this is what I did. I wanted something quite different from what most meat markets here do with venison and sausages. 3-1/2 lb diced venison, all tendons and sinew removed 1-1/2 lb diced pork back fat, skin removed 1/4 c minced sage (packed) 2 T toasted fennel seeds 1-1/2 T granulated or minced garlic 3 T Morton's kosher salt (scant 3 T.) 1/2 c diced dried cherries 1 c red wine 10 feet hog casings 1. If your casings are dried and packed in salt, remove 10' from the package, rinse with water. Open up the opening and flush water down through the casings. Soak in water in the fridge overnight. 2. Soak the cherries in wine for a couple of hours. Drain, reserving wine. Put wine in fridge. You'll want the wine to be very, very cold! 3. Combine venison, fat, sage, fennel seeds, garlic, salt and drained cherries. 4. Follow instructions in the book to grind, bind and stuff. Make sure that everything is as cold as possible as you grind and bind! You could also just grind and bind and fry the sausage as patties. These sausages were wonderful grilled to an internal temperature of 150 (F). Keywords: Main Dish, Intermediate, Game ( RG1716 )

Carnival Corn 4 strips bacon, chopped 1 stick, unsalted butter 3 white onions, finely chopped 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped 4 c fresh or frozen corn 1-1/2 tsp salt 1-1/2 tsp pepper Fry bacon in dutch oven. When it begins to render, add butter and melt. Add onions and peppers and saute until they're limp. Stir in corn and spices, cook until corn is done -- about 3-5 minutes. Serve. Colorful, tasty, and oh so easy. Then, take a plantain and slice it lengthwise into narrow slices. Deep-fry these slices until crisp. Serve as a garnish. Keywords: Side, Vegetables ( RG1715 )

cardamom shortbread I'm on a quest to rediscover my baking roots, so all things scottish are running through my mind... I've been thinking about orkney broonie, fochabers gingerbread and shortbread. this prompted me to dust off sue lawrence's "on baking", a book I bought years ago and ditched in my "pile of despair" as recipe after recipe failed. however, experience has taught me something about shortbread, and taking her recipe as inspiration I threw caution to the wind, the results, delicious! I always fancied these cardamom shortbreads, they're golden, crisp, light and slightly spiced... they are fabulous with a coffee but better still with a hot chocolate. g gram or chickpea flour g strong white flour g unsalted butter slightly softened green cardamom pods g caster sugar preheat the oven to 190 split the cardamom and remove the seeds, crush in a mortar or do what I do, get a cleaver out and chop them as fine as you can, that leads to little specks of cardamom seeds and bursts of flavour. cream the butter and sugar until light mix in the flour and spice, it will not make a dough, just moist looking crumbs in the bowl tip into a lined pan, I used a square 20cm brownie pan, but you could do a round instead. with your fingers and palm press the crumbs out and flatten them till they become cohesive and have a flat surface chill for 15 minutes bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden/brown at the edges mark out squares or petticoat tails with a knife dredge with caster sugar and leave to cool completely in the tin turn out, break into pieces and store in an airtight tin. Keywords: Easy, Cookie, Dessert ( RG1714 )

Blender Hollandaise Easy, foolproof hollandaise. 3 egg yolks at room temperature 1-1/2 T lemon juice 3/4 c butter 1 T hot water dash cayenne 1 tsp mustard Put the eggs and lemon juice in a blender and blend. Melt butter until bubbly. Add the hot water and the mustard to the egg mixture and blend. Add the cayenne and salt and blend. Pour the butter through the hole in the top of the lid of the blender, slowly, with the blender at high speed. This should take about 10-15 seconds to blend and thicken. Keywords: Blender, Sauce ( RG1713 )