Family Recipes.

[Mike029]

I Like to cook. Well, eat more than cook but cooking is fun too. :p Now I'm no professional chef so understand I never measure my ingredients. I do it old style, a little of this and a little of that. A pinch of this, well you get the point. :cool:

I'll start off with an easy one here. Sausage & Peppers. Just made this last night. Very easy almost can't mess it up. ;) I cook for four+. The plus is so I can have leftovers. \m/
Here is what you'll need.

3-lbs of sweet or hot Italian style sausage. (I prefer Sweet)
One large onion. Sweet or Spanish (Yellow)
3-lbs of bell Peppers. I buy red, yellow and Orange. Green is ok and cheapest. I like the red best.
4 garlic cloves.

Wash the veggies thoroughly.
Clean out the center of the peppers and throw it away. (Seeds, etc) Slice the peppers into 2 or 3 inch strips.
Slice the onion into half-moon slices.
four cloves of garlic sliced thin.


Place the peppers, garlic and onions into a large roasting pan and place into the oven at 400 degrees. Cooking the oven about 30 to 40 mins. mixing the peppers every 15 mins.

In a large skillet or frying pan add two tablespoonful of olive oil at medium heat. When the oil is hot add the sausage and brown on all sides. If the sausage starts to split then lower the heat. Remember to prick sausages all over with fork while the sausage is cooking.

When all sides of the sausage are brown, remove the sausage and slice as desired or place into roasting pot whole. I cut my sausage into half inch thick slices. Add to the roasting pot in the oven and stir. Reduce heat to 375 degrees and cook for about 45 mins to an hour mixing the sausage and peppers ever 15 mins. or so. I like the sausage to brown and the Peppers to soften.

Remove from oven and eat as a dish or add it to a roll or whatever bread you like and eat as a sandwich.

There you have it. Lot's of variations to this dish. This is just simple and basic. Leftovers reheat fine so don't worry if you make too much.

Buon appetito

[Christopher Herr]

Sounds interesting, Mike, gotta try that one day. I like to cook and I am not ashamed to say this as a male, no offense intended! ;)

I will add one of my favorite dishes, which is Swabian cheese noodles with onion rings or cheese spaetzle (natively called Käsespätzle over here).

What you need; weights depending on how much you intend to make and eat and on how many people you want to make happy :p :

(Spelt) wheat flour or "ordinary" wheat flour, (the former flour is supposed to be more healthy)
three or four hen's eggs,
salt,
water;
Grated Emmenthal cheese, perhaps mixed with alpine cheese, also grated; (the latter cheese, if you like it more strong-tasting)
black grinded pepper, preferably grinded freshly;
one or two large onion(s),
and rapeseed or olive oil

Take a cooking pot, large enough to heat and boil several liters of water, pour a couple liters of water into the pot and put it on the boiling plate, until it boils. Add salt like you would for pasta.

Prepare the dough in parallel:
Take a mixing bowl and an eggbeater, put in the bowl flour, salt and the hen's eggs (without the eggshells of course ;) ) and stir with the eggbeater. Add small amounts of water and stir again, until you have a well-stirred dough dripping or falling heavily from the eggbeater. If it gets too liquid, add small amounts of flour and stir again!

Making and boiling the spaetzle:
That is the hardest part and is considered a craftsmanship or even an art over here. For grating the dough into noodles we use a specialized spaetzle grater or some of the older Swabian people just a large knife and a chopping board.
Preheat the oven to about 120 to 150 °C or 250 to 300 °F.
I guess you can simply make really tiny lumps of the dough with a tiny teaspoon and add the lumps in portions into the boiling salted water in the pot. That is why it is so important the dough is not too liquid!
If you own a pasta maker you can try to make noodles from the dough with it, but no guarantee whatsoever.
They are ready to be taken out with a perforated dipper/spoon, when they begin to float on the surface and the water boils again, so you can be sure the eggs in it are boiled well, too.
Then take them out and put them into a roasting pot, strewing portions of the grated cheese among them. Repeat this until you have no dough left.
When you are done boiling the spaetzle and all of them are in the pot, strew the rest of the grated cheese over them. Then grind or strew (grinded) black pepper over the spatzle with the cheese, depending on how spicy you want them to be. I love black pepper...
Put the pot into the preheated oven.

Making fried onion rings:
Peel and slice the onions into rings with a mandolin slicer or a sharp knife. Strew a small amount of flour over them and turn them in the flour, so they become crispy when they are fried.
Take a frying pan, pour enough oil into it and fry the onion rings in portions, until they are all crispy and golden brown.
Then take the pot out of the oven, switch it off and put the onion rings with or without the oil over the spaetzle.

Serve them with a mixed green salad and a German blonde or dark wheat beer or an off-dry/semidry red wine, whatever you prefer.

Leftovers can be eaten cold or reheated, whatever you prefer.

An guata! ("Enjoy your meal!" in written Swabian dialect) :D

I guess you can tell this dish is not good for the body regarding fatty acids and bad cholesterol, but it sure as hell is good for the soul! Anyway, maybe you should not tell your physician about it or prepare that dish before you have to get your blood sampled... :D

Sorry, I am not very adept at translating recipes into English, so simply ask, if you have questions, please! Many of the words I had to look up first. :o

[Duke of Buckingham]

Recipe for the perfect family
How To Create The Perfect Family

You will need:
1 large house
3-6 people, depending on how long you want to wait for it to be done
3 cups of pets
2 cups of patience
3 ounces of anger/frustration
3 quarts of laughter
4 teaspoons of trust
And last but definitely not least,
Lots and lots of love

First, open the house, and make sure that it will be the right size for your family. Mix the desired amount of people with the pets, carefully so you don’t damage them. In a separate bowl, stir the love and laughter together. Set aside. Taking each person separately, evenly distribute the patience and trust, making sure that each one gets an equal amount (Failure to distribute evenly may lead to different recipe! See recipe for “My impatient family” for details…). Carefully open the bottle of anger/frustration. Using a Q-tip, dab small portions of the anger/frustration onto each person. Lastly, take the love and laughter and sprinkle it all over the house, pets, and people. Let sit until all parts of the recipe are thoroughly combined, and voila! Your Perfect Family is complete.

[Cruncher Pete]

You guys never cease to amaze me. I too do not mind giving my wife a rest now and than and prepare something that I like hopefully that she does as well. So far I have done that. The secret is not to over do it and take away the pleasure from her. The amazing thing is that I bet you will all say that your Mother was a great cook. Personally, I question that my was or not but in any case I loved whatever she put in front of me as a child. Years and years later, I still miss those flavours that she was able to produce and Often I am trying to replicate her purely from memory of watching her cook and not from any recipe.

Just now I do not have one handy to tell you now but I like the idea of swapping recipes. Well don Mike for thinking of it..:):-bd

[Christopher Herr]

You guys never cease to amaze me. [...] The amazing thing is that I bet you will all say that your Mother was a great cook. Personally, I question that my was or not but in any case I loved whatever she put in front of me as a child. [...] Often I am trying to replicate her purely from memory of watching her cook and not from any recipe.

[...] Well don Mike for thinking of it..:):-bd

And I think you have put it in a way like hammer and nail, Pete! :-bd
I loved and love what my mother prepares for any dish and I learned most, if not even all, from her. Of course, tastes change with time and things I did not like so much as a child now are my favorites and vice versa.
I wrote that entire thing I hope anyone is able to replicate purely from memory. :-s

Yes, Mike thanks for this great idea! >:D< That way an entire collection could possibly come to life from all over the world, some exotic, some rather common, but anyway an interesting mix of all the cultures, people and nationalities coming together here.

[Duke of Buckingham]

I am better eating than cooking but I will try one very Portuguese recipe.


Chorizo Bake

Ingredients:
Servings: 4-6 Units: US | Metric
8 ounces Portuguese chorizo sausage, thinly sliced 6 ounces cream cheese, softened 1/2 cup cornmeal 3 tablespoons sugar 4 eggs 1 (12 ounce) can corn kernels, drained (or 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen) 1 1/2 cups shredded old cheddar cheese 6 green onions, sliced 1/2 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced 1 teaspoon dried oregano 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon pepper

Directions:
1 Preheat oven to 375ºF (190ºC).
2 In skillet, cook sausage over medium heat, stirring often, for about 5 minutes or until golden.
3 Meanwhile, in bowl, beat together cream cheese, cornmeal and sugar until smooth.
4 Beat in eggs, 1 at a time, beating until smooth after each addition.
5 Stir in corn, 1 cup of the cheese, onions, jalapeno pepper, oregano, salt and pepper.
6 Pour half of the egg mixture into greased 8-cup (2 L) casserole.
7 Cover with three-quarters of the sausage.
8 Pour remaining egg mixture over top.
9 Sprinkle with remaining sausage and cheese.
10 Bake in oven for about 30 minutes or until light golden and set.
11 Let cool for 5 minutes.

Bon Apetit


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_5ZytAPk_aDw/Stb4jx7gRDI/AAAAAAAAAwU/vYRNHsOoWpA/s400/P%25C3%25A3o%2Bde%2BChouri%25C3%25A7o%2Bcom%2BAzei tona_3.JPG

[Cruncher Pete]

Ric. your Chorizo recipe sounds very interesting for I love chorizos. I will keep it in mind and will have a go at doing it one day when it is my turn to cook and the atmosphere is right...:-bd

[artemis8]

I don't eat much meat. But I have some vegetarian chorizo. I am gonna try that too!

[DrPop]

Man, you are making me hungry! :D The Mexican restaurants down here make chorizo and eggs with rice and beans that you wrap up in a tortilla and it's soooooooo good! *drool* ;)

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

[Slicker]

Bourban Manhatten, Neat

Ingrediants:
2 cups small ice cubes or crushed ice
2 oz Straight Kentucky Bourban Whiskey
1 oz Sweet Vermouth
1/8 oz Bitters
2 Martini glasses
1 stainless steel shaker w/ strainer
1 maraschino cherry

Put 1/2 cup ice into each of the martini glasses
Put 1 cup ice into the shaker
Add the bourban, vermouth, and bitters to the shaker
Do NOT shake!!!! Shaking is for twits like James Bond who drink cheap gin and can't taste when the liquor is bruised
Instead, stir with a spoon or coctail stir stick about 4-5 revolutions and no more.
Empty the ice from the martini glasses
Using the strainer to keep out any ice, pour the Manhatten into the martini glasses
Add the maraschino cherry
Enjoy.

Note: Only those who have no manners eat the garnish, so leave the cherry in the glass when drinking it. Besides, what are you going to do with the stem if you eat the cherry?

[Mike029]

@Slcker, Now that is a recipe I must try.. :p

[Duke of Buckingham]

First I made 5 of those Manhattan.
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/99187/99187,1282768284,3/stock-photo-very-drunk-man-smoking-cigarette-on-trashcan-59763820.jpg

Then I made 4 of it.
http://img.kendincos.com/Wnr/lpf/jvztxdhrvdhhl.jpg

Then I tried 3.
http://img.youtube.com/vi/JZQsA7G0hvQ/0.jpg

I was about to give up but I tried 2.
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/196/442737812_ff5b680559_z.jpg?zz=1

Finally I made only one.
http://www.flushthefashion.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/drunk-guy1.jpg

Man I don't understand nothing the less I drink the drunker I get. This last one was very powerful.
http://man-over-board.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Drunk-Guy.jpg

Duke

[Christopher Herr]

Ric,
I guess the trick should be to enjoy one or two of them, but anything like Scotch and Bourbon in masses will get you hammered. :P

[artemis8]

+1 for the chorizo bake. I used vegetarian chorizo. My seven year old picked out the jalapenos, but we all liked it :D

[Duke of Buckingham]

+1 for the chorizo bake. I used vegetarian chorizo. My seven year old picked out the jalapenos, but we all liked it :D

Thanks for saying something artemis and good you like it. I will go to old Mom old book and see what else she got there.

Ric:cool:

[Duke of Buckingham]

Bahian Shrimp in Coconut Cashew Sauce - Vatapá

There are lots of recipes from Brazil and this one is taken from Internet, there are no secrets on this very old recipe, that comes from Africa and has some small adjustments on Brazilian ingredients. This is a famous Afro-Brazilian dish from the city of Bahia. It's a kind of shrimp curry, with a sauce made from onions, coconut milk, peanuts, cashews, and thickened with bread crumbs. Traditional ingredients also include dried shrimp, which give it a much stronger flavor, and palm oil, which gives the dish it's beautiful yellow/orange color. Although the flavors are rich and complex, this dish is simple to prepare using frozen shrimp. A food processor also comes in handy.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

2 cups torn pieces of white bread
1/2 cup coconut milk
3/4 cup roasted, salted peanuts
3/4 cup roasted, salted cashews
2 cups water or fish stock
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lime
1 pound of frozen shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large onion
1 red chile pepper, roughly chopped with seeds removed
1 clove garlic
3 tablespoons palm oil, or vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Soak the bread pieces with the coconut milk for 10 minutes. Place them in the blender (with the coconut milk) and blend until smooth. Set aside.

Grind the peanuts and the cashews in a food processor until finely ground. Set aside.

Bring 2 cups of fish stock or water to a boil. Season with salt and pepper, and add the garlic and juice of one lime. Add the shrimp and boil until pink, about 5 minutes. Remove the shrimp and set aside. Reserve cooking liquid.

In the same food processor, add the onion, chile pepper, and garlic, and process until finely chopped.

Heat the palm oil (or vegetable oil) in a skillet, and sauté onion mixture for about 5 minutes, until soft and golden.

Add the ground nuts to the skillet and sauté a few minutes more, adding a little oil if necessary, until golden.

Add the bread crumb and coconut milk mixture and 1 1/2 cups of the shrimp cooking liquid to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until sauce has thickens, about 5 minutes, adding more liquid if necessary.

Add shrimp to sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve warm, over rice.

Bon Apetit
http://www.afrobrazilfest.com/asts/img/blog-vatapa-recipe.jpg