Savory Cheese Scones/Biscuits

A couple of brothers in one cooking course described these as “ warm and cheesy”.   They are easy to make and loved by all ages.  

The preparation of the savory quick bread, gives the child an introduction into sifting dry ingredients (or sieving them),  evenly blending margarine into flour,  briefly kneading, and cutting out on a floured surface. 

Preheat oven:  200C/400F Makes:  9-10 medium scones 

Ingredients:

250g/10 oz./2 cups plain white flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried sage or caraway seeds (optional)

100g/4 oz./1/2 cup baking margarine

½ mug grated Cheddar cheese (Be careful of fingers when grating.)

5 fluid oz. whole milk

      1.  Sift/sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
      2.  Work in the margarine with a pastry blender, fork or fingers until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

      3.   Stir in Cheddar cheese and spices if using.

      4.   Add milk all at once; stir with fork until dough follows it around the bowl.

      5.   Turn dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead for about 30 seconds.

      6.   Pat out dough with floured hands to one cm./1/2 inch thick.  Using a scone cutter or glass cut out          
            scones and place them on an un-greased baking sheet leaving a small gap between each.

Bake in a pre-heated oven for 10 to 12 minutes.   Enjoy with soup.

© Judy Labi 2013

Potato Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce and Parmesan

This is an inexpensive vegetarian food that can be eaten from the plate with just a fork.  The potato gnocchi balls, topped with bright red tomato sauce, and sprinkled with grated Parmesan is also very appealing for children to try.  

Adult supervision of cooking the potatoes and gnocchi in a pan of boiling water is advised.  Use of a draining spoon makes easy work of lifting the ‘just cooked’ gnocchi from the hot water to a warm serving plate.

A large pan is required. Serves 6

Gnocchi ingredients:

1 kg/2 1/4 lbs. potatoes, pealed and cut into quarters

200g/7 oz. plain flour

1 egg

pinch nutmeg

salt and pepper

Parmesan cheese, grated

1. Cook the potatoes in boiling water until tender.  Drain and then mash until smooth.
2. Stir in the flour, egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
3. Turn out on a lightly floured board and knead briefly until smooth.
4. Using floured hands, shape into 2 1/2cm/1 inch balls.
5. Cook the gnocchi, a few at a time, in a large pan of gently boiling water.  They are cooked when they rise to the surface.  Remove with a draining spoon onto a heated platter. Start next small batch in same boiling water. 
6. Serve with tomato sauce (below) and grated Parmesan.

Tomato sauce:

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 x 425g/14 oz. tin chopped tomatoes, plus the seed centres from pizzaiola tartines starter, see October post

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon sugar

salt and black pepper

1 teaspoon pureed garlic

1. Put all the ingredients in a small sauce pan and bring to a low boil (simmer).
2. Cook uncovered for 20 minutes or until the sauce is thick.

© Judy Labi 2013

Banana Cream Pie

BANANA CREAM PIE

This dessert has been requested time and again in my cooking courses over the years.  One kid’s comment, “For anyone with a sweet tooth this pie is heaven.  But be warned when you start, you won’t be able to stop”.  

You will need two fairly firm bananas but all the other ingredients are normally on hand in one’s kitchen.  Following the recipe below, you and your children/ will easily master pastry making.  Steps to follow for separating eggs are given.  The custard can be made while the pastry dough chills.  

Preheat oven:  220C/450F       Makes one 9-inch/22 1/2 cm pie

Ingredients:

125g/5 oz./1 cup plain flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

50g/2 oz./1/3 cup baking margarine

Cold water

Baking paper

Baking marbles or dried beans

1. Sift/sieve together flour and salt into a large mixing bowl. Add margarine and mix into flour with pastry blender, fork or fingers until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs.
2. Add 2 tablespoons cold water and mix with fork until dough follows fork around in the bowl.  Another tablespoon of water may be needed to achieve this.
3. Shape into a ball then cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Lightly flour surface to be used to roll out pastry dough. Place ball of dough in centre of surface. Pat down with fingers. From center out, roll dough with a floured rolling pin. Roll the circle to the size of the pie plate plus 2 1/2 cm./1 inch.
5. Fold the rolled out dough into quarters and place it in the pie plate. Unfold.  Turn under edge of dough all the way around to fit the pie plate. Using the forefinger and thumb of one hand and the forefinger knuckle of the other  flute edge or simple press the edge down with a fork.
6. Prick bottom of pastry shell several times with a fork. Place a sheet of baking paper over pie shell and fill with baking marbles or dried beans. Bake 12 minutes; remove filled parchment paper and bake pie shell another 5 minutes or until lightly browned.

Remove from oven and allow to cool.

CUSTARD FILLING FOR BANANA CREAM PIE

Custard seems to be an old favorite in the U.K. although this pie is an American dessert.  Any extra custard is great with some homemade granola sprinkled on top.  See previous post.

Custard is cooked over, not in, boiling water.  Use of a double boiler makes it much easier and safer to prepare.  More supervision by an adult will be required if a metal bowl is placed over a pan of boiling water.  

 Ingredients:

125g/5 oz./2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons corn flour, rounded

1 pint whole milk

4 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1. In the top pan of a double boiler, or in a large metal mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, salt, and corn flour.  While stirring, gradually add the milk.  Leave for 10 minutes over boiling water, for mixture to thicken.  Stir occasionally.  Remove top pan or bowl from heat.
2. Beat egg yolks in a separate bowl.  Pour hot milk mixture into eggs while stirring.  Return mixture to top pan or bowl over boiling water and cook and stir until thickened.  Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.  Cool.
3. Slice 2 bananas and evenly distribute over baked, cooled, pie shell.  Pour  custard filling over being careful not to overflow the baked pastry.
4. Prepare meringue, from recipe below.  Spread on top of hot custard filling right up to the edge of the baked pastry.  Bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown in a 180C/350F preheated oven.  Remove from oven and cool on wire rack before serving.

SOFT MERINGUE TOPPING

To make this meringue, you will first need to separate eggs.  To do this, follow the instructions below.

Ingredients:

4 egg whites, at room temperature

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

100g/4 oz./1/2 up caster sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

1. In a clean,  glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until soft peaks form.
2. Add, sugar, one tablespoon at a time, beating after each addition.
3. Add vanilla and beat on high speed until peaks are stiff but not dry.
4. Spread the meringue over pie filling or Baked Alaska, securing it to the edge of the crust or aluminum covered board.  Bake in a hot 220C/450F oven for 5-7minutes or until golden brown.

TO SEPARATE AN EGG:

1. Have two small bowls ready.
2. Crack the egg on the side of one bowl.
3. Holding the cracked egg upright with one hand, use the other hand to lift 

off the top half shell.

1. Let the white overflow into one bowl.

1.   Tip the yolk into the other half of the shell, letting the rest of the white   fall  into the same bowl.
2. Drop the yolk into the second bowl.

To separate an additional egg, use a third bowl and follow steps 1 to 4 above, and then slip the white from the third bowl into the first, and the yolk into the yolk bowl.  Carry on using the third bowl in this manner for any additional separated eggs needed.  

© Judy Labi 2013

Mother's Day Treat

This is an easy one to impress your mother on her day.

Simply go to my previous post:  Chocolate Fondue.  Stick with the same ingredients except just use large strawberries for dipping.  Leave the stems on.

Instead of a fondue pot, use a double boiler or a bowl over lightly boiling water to melt the chocolate (medium heat).  Be careful to stay clear of the steam escaping from the hot water. It can burn hands/arms. Just take care and wear long sleeves.
Stir in the cream and blend until even.
With oven gloves, remove pan of chocolate sauce onto the protected kitchen counter.
Dip large strawberries (washed and dried)  into the chocolate sauce, keeping the stem and upper half free.  Place them in a single layer on a platter.
Unless being eaten quite soon, refrigerate until ready to serve.

© Judy Labi 2013

Barbecued Vegetable and Beef Kebabs

Even though it is only Mach, I've started cooking on the Weber grill here in London.  This post shares the recipe I used today and leads with another one of my Alaskan homesteading recollection stories.

For Americans the Fourth of July picnic is the biggest one of the summer. The year I was 16, in mid-June I started having terrible pain on my right side.  The pain got so bad that my parents decided they must take me to our doctor.  That meant getting me twenty miles away to a town on the Kenai River, called Soldotna.  The two and a quarter mile dirt road through the thick spruce and birch forest was impassable by car at this time of year because of deep mud.  Dad, with me seated uncomfortably at his side, used our small tricycle gear tractor to get out.  Mother walked behind. Unfortunately, the tractor had no suspension springs or shock absorbers.  We bounced and lurched along until I was throbbing with pain. Abandoning it at our homestead boundary, Dad carried me piggyback the remaining half mile to our red Land Rover Jeep. It was an easier drive on the gravel, yet bumpy Sterling Highway to Doctor Isaac.  

After examining me and administering a blood test, Doctor Isaac decided that I should be kept close by for the next few days.  Our kind town friends, the Parkers, made up a bed for me in their living room.  After a few days, the pain worsened, my white blood count shot up and Doctor Isaac decided he would operate to remove my appendix. 

In l964 the hospital in Soldotna did not have the facilities for operations.  My parents drove me about 100 miles to the seaside town of Seward where there was an operating theatre. The drive took longer than usual as this was the year of the Alaskan earthquake and caution had to be taken when crossing over temporary precarious bridges above the fast flowing Kenai and Snow Rivers.  We pulled up to the hospital in late afternoon and Doctor Isaac performed my appendectomy that evening. Mother and Dad returned home but I remained in the hospital two weeks recovering.

Doctor Isaac flew me back to Soldotna in his bush plane.  It was a scenic, noisy journey in the two seater with almost constant dipping and climbing. Below white patches of snow lingered on the Kenai Mountains. The green hills rolled along covered with spruce and birch trees interrupted with openings of wide mossy swamps, river valleys, and lakes. I tried to say a few words to Doctor Isaac as he  piloted the plane but the roar of the engine and propeller drowned out speech. I gave up after I asked him to look at all the moose below and he became concerned, thinking I had said there were planes below. When we landed, my parents were waiting with our Land Rover. We thanked the doctor for the lift, made our hasty goodbyes and started the journey back to the homestead. Tomorrow was the Fourth of July and we were hosting a picnic for family and friends.  It was easier as ‘drying up’ had occurred since I had been away, and Dad was able to drive right up to the cabin door. 

The next day Dad built a small camp fire several feet from the cabin. There were no Webers grills for outdoor cooking back then.  We arranged tree stumps for people to sit.  Dad and my two younger brothers cut Willow sticks and carved each with sharp ends for roasting wieners, and afterward, marshmallows for S’mores. My sister and her husband, as well as a couple of families from town, arrived to join in the celebrations bringing along favorites to contribute to the celebration meal. Mother and I, slightly bent over as evidence of my recent operation, brought out potato salad, deviled eggs, and freshly baked rhubarb creme pie. Dad performed his usual grand finale with a fireworks display beside the lake. It was a superb Fourth!   

As many meals cooked on the barbecue, this is an easy one but very tasty and satisfying.  The marinade used is made quickly in the food processor.  The charcoal are lit about thirty minutes before use. Marinated chunks of zucchini/courgettes, red onion, and sweet pepper are loaded onto long metal skewers and sizable marinated beef pieces on separate ones.  Close supervision is needed for young children.  Older ones can get on with the meal quite independently but the presence of an adult is recommended. 

This outdoor cooked meal is a great one for family gatherings.  

Marinade:

1 onion, peeled, stemmed, and quartered

6 garlic cloves, peeled

zest from one lemon; remove yellow peel with vegetable peeler

1 tablespoon, dried rosemary

5 tablespoons water

1 beef cube

5 tablespoons vegetable oil

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

1 teaspoon black pepper

1. Place all the above ingredients into the bowl of the food processor and blend about one minute until smooth.
2. Transfer 3/4 cup marinade to a large sealable plastic food bag and set aside.
3. Transfer the rest of the marinade to a second large sealable plastic food bag and set aside.

Beef and Vegetable Kebabs:      Serves 4-6

2 pounds/1000grams sirloin or rump steak, trimmed of fat and cut into 2-inch/5cm chunks

2 zucchini/courgettes, ends trimmed, and sliced into 1-inch/2 1/2cm chunks

3 red or yellow sweet peppers, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1 1/2-inch/3 cm pieces

2 red onions, ends trimmed, peeled, halved lengthwise, each half cut into 4 wedges

1. Add beef chunks to fullest bag containing marinade; secure bag closed and move bag between hands until marinade has coated all the beef. Place in refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
2. Add chunks of zucchini/courgettes, sweet peppers, and red onions to remaining bag of marinade; secure bag closed and move bag between hands until marinade has coated the vegetables.  Place bag in refrigerator.
3. Remove bag of marinaded beef from refrigerator.  Have ready two 12-inch/30cm metal skewers.  Thread the chunks of meat onto the two skewers.  Place on a tray to be carried to the barbecue for roasting.
4. Remove bag of marinaded vegetable pieces from refrigerator.  Have ready two 12-inch/30cm metal skewers.  Thread the pieces of pepper, onion, and zucchini/courgette onto the skewers.  Place on the tray for carrying to the barbecue.
5. 30 minutes before use, load about 1 1/2  gallons/ litres of charcoal into the barbecue; wet with starter fluid/gel.  Light with a (long preferably) match.  Allow to burn until fully ignited and partially covered with ash; about 25 minutes.
6. Place cooking grate in position carefully over hot coals.
7. Position loaded beef skewers in the centre and vegetable ones on each side.
8. Grill beef skewers until browned, about 10-12 minutes, turning every skewer every couple of minutes with hand in a protective mitt.
9. Transfer beef skewers to waiting platter and cover with foil.
10. Cook vegetable skewers about 5 minutes longer, turning every couple of minutes; transfer to platter along side of beef.
11. Using a fork, push the beef and vegetables from the skewers onto the platter and serve.

© Judy Labi 2013