Tapas Night for April

I know you've been waiting for this, I do.    As usual, a wonderful variety of foods were made, brought and enjoyed at Tapas this month.    I do love hosting this gathering, not only do we get a wonderful group of people together, there are some incredible cooks here as well, and they share their expertise, or should I say the results of their time in the kitchen with the rest of us.

So without further ado...

Had to showcase one of my recipes first, well, it is my blog, so I get to go first. 

Dosa's with Chutney Sauce.

 In the front some Pepper Beef and Brown Rice.  Jeri left a little behind and I scarfed it up for lunch today.  Very, very nice.

Who doesn't like Shrimp Scampi?   Well, not too many people.  This was yummy.

You know me, you know I love Curry and Indian food in general, this was very good served with some Basmati Rice.   Come to think of it, I should have put some on one of the Dosa's and eaten it that way, hmmmm, too late now.

I made some Greek Souvlaki Ribs and also some Black Olive Tapenade.    I'll be sharing the recipe for the ribs later on this week.

Don't know if it's the Danish in me or not, but this Chicken Liver Pate was very good.  I do love Liver.  

Taco Rollups, what's not to like about them?  I mean really?   They were pretty popular as well.

I didn't get to sample these until all the little rolls were gone, but the peppers were very tasty.   At least I got a picture of the plate before the ravening hordes descended on it.   OK, so they were guests. 

How about this for a take on Cucumber Sandwiches?   They had tuna in the middle and were really fun to eat, oh, and they tasted good as well.

Doesn't this look so pretty?  And they tasted good as well.   Gorgonzola stuffed figs with walnuts.   (Don't tell anyone but I ate two).  

These were the hit of the evening, well kinda.   Peanuts, freshly picked and roasted just that day.   I mean, how fresh can you get?    Such a treat.

 I didn't get a chance to taste these, but they looked good.

Chorizo and Goat Cheese on melba toast, really good.    I did manage to scarf one of these up. 

Waldorf Salad, it disappeared before I got back to taste it.   Just lucky I actually was able to take a picture.

 Can't forget the dessert table.   I managed to miss getting  a shot of the chocolate pie, but the rest of the desserts were a big hit.    So there you have it, a round up of deliciousness and another month gone.  

Dosa's for "Taste and Create".

We have a monthly gathering at our house, called Tapas Night.   And I thought that Tapas Night and my assignment from Taste and Create should go hand in hand.

And they did, beautifully.

  I tried this, Rawa Dosa from Study Food.    It was also a recipe that had previously been made for Taste and Create.    Taste and Create is a bunch of bloggers who are assigned a blog and then they have to make a recipe from that blog, and write about it.    I was asked to join them a couple of months ago, and I did.

I got rave reviews on this dish by the way.    Although I did have to modify it a bit.   I had no way of getting Semolina flour or Farina without traveling 60 miles to the nearest story that sold it, but it just so happened I had some Gram Flour, also known as Chickpea Flour in the cupboard.   Plus of course the rice flour I had made previously so I used them.

1 1/2 cups Chickpea Flour
1/2 cup Rice Flour
1/2 large red onion, finely minced
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/2 finely chopped Jalapeno Chilies  (I used some that I keep in my freezer)
1/4-1/2 teaspoon grated ginger (I keep a ginger root in my freezer and use my microplane to get fresh grated ginger when a recipe calls for it)
1/2 cup  Plain Greek Yoghurt
1 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves (I actually didn't have any)
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
2 cups + of water, enough to make a thin batter
Peanut oil for frying

 Mix up the batter and let sit at room temperature for at least one hour before making the Dosa's.    This should resemble a thin pancake batter.   And this is important.   I made a Dosa from it just after mixing it, and it tasted totally different from those I made after the batter sat for the hour or so.  It's almost as if they matured in taste.

Finely minced onions dumped into the chickpea flour mixture

 After trying to make larger Dosa's, and having them stick to the pan

 Trying to turn the second Dosa, made it fall to pieces. 

If you have a non-stick pan, use it.   I don't, but do have a nice little pan that usually doesn't stick, but these dosa's do stick really easily to the pan when cooking.   I attempted to make larger ones, that you could wrap around some meat I'd cooked, but ended up making small dosa's instead cause they stuck to the pan so bad, even with oil and non stick cooking spray.   I will make these again.  So tasty.  
Next time I might add some flour to them, I was also trying to keep them gluten free, but I think the addition of flour might help, will help a lot.    When frying these, wait til they turn translucent and bubble a little before turning them.   In other words, pretend they are pancakes.

I served these with some Major Grey's Chutney and they were so good together.   The combination of the sweet and the hot were so good.

See how pretty they looked on the table.    And this is after a few people had sampled them.  

 I'll be posting the pictures of all the great food everyone brought to Tapas Night later on.  

Grilled Steak and Cheese Sandwich.

Some years ago I had an absolutely yummy grilled steak sandwich at a chain restaurant.   That particular restaurant isn't one we frequent so some time went by before we ate there again, and by this time, they had changed the menu and the sandwich was no longer available.    I cried, but they wouldn't relent and make me one anyway. 

The other day I had a lovely piece of leftover steak and decided to recreate the sandwich.    I'd had that sandwich on my mind for quite awhile, and got this AHA!! moment when I spotted this lovely leftover steak in the fridge.    I didn't have any Swiss Cheese on hand, and the bread wasn't the same kind, but I didn't care, I had the steak and there was a bottle of Caesar dressing in the fridge and the next thing I knew I was putting this together.   I persevered and here's my version, and it was very tasty.

 I spread some Caesar dressing on the bread, layered my lovely, very thinly sliced steak on it.

And since I didn't have swiss cheese, I added some shredded colby jack cheese on top (which was not a mistake),  then placed another buttered slice of bread on top of that and placed them in the pan.  OK, so I made myself two sandwiches, but it was from a baguette loaf so the slices were really small, I mean, it only really counts as two slices, really it does.  

I was kind of hungry at this point and drooling, which wasn't a pretty sight at all, however, I was able to summon the patience for them to cook, well, grill up in the pan.

The finished result, and yes, one of them has a big bite taken out of it, but I was hungry and it tasted so good.











You need some lovely bread for this, I choose a nice Artisanal baguette, thinly sliced, butter, Caesar dressing, some cheese, and a nice piece of grilled steak.   Mine was medium rare, and it did cook a little more, so I would start with a steak cooked almost as much as you want it.  Cooling the meat before slicing it, is also recommended, as the meat has a chance to firm up and you are able to slice it very thinly.   (and dare I confess, I would so go and cook up a nice steak, just so I could make this sandwich again).
And if you have a Panini Press or maybe a George Forman grill, I bet it would work in that as well.  In fact I think I'll haul my George Forman out, but first I need to go and cook another steak up.
See you later.  



Enjoy.

Home Made Tortillas

 I love a fresh hot tortilla, dripping with butter and with some lovely Chile Verde inside.    We had some Chile Verde the other day, and I made some tortillas to go with it.   It just so happened I actually remembered to take pictures this time, and I thought I would let you follow me along while I made them.

First off, you need the makings for the dough, I use Quakers Harina Preparada  Para Tortilla Mix.  Yes, I said mix, and if you read along here you know I use very little prepared foods, I really prefer to do it as much of it from scratch as possible.   But, this mix, well, I've tried many recipes, and most are pretty good, but using this mix is pretty much Sid proof.

To start with, measure out two cups of mix into the bowl of your Kitchen Aide mixer if you have one, or just use a good wooden spoon to mix it together.   Add just over a 1/2 cup of very hot tap water, mix and knead for a few minutes, then set it aside to rest for a little while.   The dough will be lovely and elastic.     We like our tortilla's a little thicker and poofier so I learned to add just a touch more water.

After the dough has had a chance to rest from all that mixing together stuff, take it out and cut into 5 even pieces.  Well, if you want six or more you can do so, but I've found this makes 5 'right size' tortillas.

 Lightly and I do mean lightly, flour the counter with a little of the dry mix, make a little ball out of each piece of dough and then pat out into a roughly circular piece.  You can keep patting it out or use a rolling pin to finish it off. 








 Heat up a cast iron skillet til very warm, don't grease it, just get it nice and hot.   Place one of the dough rounds into the pan.  It will start to bubble a little, at which point you flip it over.  This only takes about 30 or so seconds per side.    I usually turn down the heat a little on the third tortilla, cause let's face it, cast iron skillets hold their heat, and while you want a nice brown to the tortilla, you don't want it burnt.  Just a couple of char marks, for flavour.

And here is the finished tortilla.   After I remove the tortilla from the pan, I spread some butter on it and wrap it in some foil.   This keeps it warm as I finish cooking the rest of the tortillas, and adds some flavor as well.   And keeps them soft as well. 

If you notice the nice little almost burnt bits on the tortilla, this is what makes a tortilla taste great.     And the little puddle of butter on top, well, that just pushes it over the top.

 

SRC- 2 fer Stuffed Peppers and Loose Meat Sliders

My assignment this month for the Secret Recipe Club was Suzanne's blog    Thru the Bugs on My Windshield
 She is actually one of the founding members of The Secret Recipe Club so I was excited.   And even though she's got some issues with her blog, ( some links don't work)  I found a recipe and made it and it was good.   I love stuffed peppers anyway, but haven't found 'the recipe' to make them yet.  But this is pretty darn close, oh who's kidding who?  I'll make them like this again and again and again. .  And then I could use the leftover meat for Sliders.   Wait, can I post about making a two-fer?    Too bad, I did.    2-fer is the title of the link, really...

The Secret Recipe Club is a fun idea, bloggers are assigned a blog from another member to make something from.   And until the 'Reveal' day, you have no idea who has your blog or what recipe they will choose from your blog.   And it's always fun to see what someone does with one of your recipes, they tweak, they twiddle, and most of the time, improve on it.  I'm not one who goes looking at a lot of food blogs, just don't have the time, so this gets me out of my comfort zone and looking at new ideas as well.  

At any rate, I got all the ingredients together, realized I didn't have any more sun dried tomatoes so I cut up a Roma tomato, very thin, sprinkled it with some olive oil and a touch of salt and threw it into the oven for 60 minutes at 200 degrees, then I upped it to 300 degrees for another 30 minutes  (I didn't waste that heat either, I was cooking some chicken so I could make dog food for my dog, and I had the frozen chicken in there with the tomato cause it needed to be thawed as well and she doesn't care how I do the chicken).

Once I made the 'fake' sun dried tomatoes I was ready to proceed.  I sauteed the beef, had the rice all cooked and ready to go, (I like to prepare the rice and let it cool first, it doesn't seem to absorb and swell as much that way).   Par cooked the peppers the way Suzanne suggested, and got busy stuffing...  Oh yeah, you par cook the peppers in microwave for about 2-4 minutes, no blanching here. 




I also used a 6 cheese shredded mixture, cause I had it on hand anyway.  

Ground Beef Mixture
1 lb. Ground Beef
1 medium Onion, diced
1 Tbsp Red Chile powder
1 Tbsp minced Garlic, fresh
Put fresh ground meat into frying pan along with all other ingredients and cook meat until browned. Drain fat if necessary.   You won't use all of this meat mixture, so you can save it for some loose meat sliders or something else entirely.


 Stuffed Peppers
2 Green Bell Peppers , tops cut off and seeded
1/2 pound Ground Beef Mixture (see recipe above)
1 1/2 cups cooked  Rice.   I love Uncle Ben's Converted Rice, but use whatever brand you like.
1/2 cup finely shredded Cheese, I used some leftover pizza cheese
7-8 pieces Sundried Tomatoes in olive oil, chopped or make your own from a ripe roma tomato you dried in the oven at 300 degrees for about an hour. 
2 teaspoons chopped scallions (I buy it in a little jar, keeps for up to two months in the fridge.)
3 Tbsp Tomato Paste (I love the paste in a tube, but if all you have is a can, then go ahead and open it, and freeze the rest in tablespoon measures, great for last minute additions)
2 Tbsp sliced Black Olives
1/2 cup sauteed Mushrooms
1 tsp. Cumin
Cut the tops off the peppers, just below the stem indentation. Take seeds out of the bottom and discard.  Use the tops for another recipe or just do what I do  and eat it.  Love fresh green peppers anyway.

Rinse peppers thoroughly and place in a small microwavable baking dish, open side up. Microwave on high for about 2-4 minutes, or until slightly steamed.   (by the way, this is also a great tip for mushrooms as well if you are making stuffed mushrooms, sorry couldn't help throwing in another hint.)
While the peppers are in the microwave, mix all the remaining ingredients, except for 1/4 cup of the cheese, in a large mixing bowl, or do as I did, mix it in the skillet.  Saved washing up another bowl. 
Remove peppers from microwave and stuff with your ground beef filling. Top with remaining cheese and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

(I only made one of these, as I'm the only one who eats stuffed peppers in this house, but oh was it good, I also added some sautee'd mushrooms as I had some made anyway.)

Now for the second part of the 2 fer.   Divide the rest of the meat into two or three portions, mound them on either small hamburger buns or small buns that have some ketchup and mustard spread on them.  Then just add some sliced onions, and pickles and maybe some cheese and serve.   Nice as a change of pace.