Alaskan Cooking Video: Baked Alaska and More

           

               I do not own the rights to any songs used in this video.  They belong to the respective artists.

Miso Soup

Steaming Miso soup with floating garnishes of thinly sliced shallots and carrots is my current favourite lunch.  It warms one through to the deepest parts on these cold winter days.  Also low in calories so a great way to go light between over indulging in the lead up to Christmas.  You will find the few needed ingredients in a Japanese shop.






Makes 4 servings

Miso  (Soy Bean Paste Soup)

75g/3 oz white or red miso
1 litre/1 quart soup stock (below)
2 shallots, thinly sliced for garnish
1/4 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced for garnish

First, make the stock:

4-inch square kombu, cut across a few times, not quite through
1 litre/1 quart  water in a pot
5g/1/4 oz dried bonita fish

Wipe the kelp with wet paper towel; put in the pan of water.  Bring to the boil over a low heat; add the bonito fish and turn off the heat.  Leave for 30 minutes; strain through a sieve.

Second, to make the Miso:

Mix a small amount of the sauce with the miso in a small bowl.  Add the blended mixture to the pan of sieved stock.  Bring up to the boil and then immediately turn off the heat.  Serve with prepared garnishes of shallots and carrot.

Thanksgiving celebrations 2013

2013 Thanksgiving celebrations were with our kids, Adam and Suzanne and many of their friends and ours around two tables. The Tennessee cornbread is what I choose to share with you. It is one of my favourite recipes from living in that wonderful state for many of my adult years.  Suzanne's friend, and mine, Sarah, made 3 times this recipe for our 20 sit down guests.







Heat oven to 200C/400F   Makes 12 servings

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup buttermilk
3 tablespoons olive oil

Sift dry ingredients into a bowl. Add eggs and buttermilk; stir just enough to blend. Heat the oil in a 9" pan. Pour batter into hot pan and bake for 25 minutes.

Nibbles of Spiced Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli

We plan to welcome our guests with a glass of steaming mulled wine and these tempting savoury spiced nibbles on a toothpick this Thanksgiving. Everyone eats hot roasted veggies. The oven does most of the work.








Oven temperature: 200C/400F Serves 4-6 as nibbles before your meal.

Ingredients:

1 head broccoli, broken into florets, (cut into half florets for the large ones)
1 small head cauliflower, broken into florets (cut into half florets for the large ones)
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dry coriander
Salt
Black pepper
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

Toothpicks on a platter to serve

On a large baking sheet drizzle the oil and add the spices and garlic. Rub the florets in the spiced oil and roast in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes. The vegetables are best enjoyed with a slight crunchiness left so don't allow to over cook.

Serve hot on a platter with toothpicks. Enjoy along with your chosen beverage.

Roasted Stuffed Pumpkin

Isn't this just the perfect meal to add to your Autumn favourites?! The whole family will love it. This easy to follow recipe makes light work of preparation because most is done in the oven. Beautiful aromatic flavours of cinnamon, cumin, coriander and lamb fill your kitchen as the stuffed pumpkin is roasting. Also roast the removed seeds for extra fun if you so desire.






Ingredients:

One 10-inch pumpkin, top sliced off and saved; seeds and fibers scraped out using a tablespoon
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1 pound//500g minced lamb or turkey
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 400g empty tin filled with tap water
1 cup dry white rice
2 teaspoons dry cumin
1 teaspoon dry coriander
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Small bunch of fresh curly parsley, snipped with kitchen shears, for garnish

Heat oven to 160C/325F

Put all ingredients in a large wok, except pumpkin and parsley. Mix together thoroughly and bring up to the simmering point and cook for a couple of minutes.

Place the prepared pumpkin in the centre of your roasting pan, lined with foil. Fill with the hot meat mixture from the wok. Place pumpkin top back on. Move roasting pan to the bottom oven rack and roast for two hours, or until the rice is soft.

Remove from oven and place roasted stuffed pumpkin on serving tray. Garnish with parsley as shown in the picture. Enjoy!

Richard's Plum Tart

We were recently invited for wine followed by this magnificent dessert served with vanilla ice cream and  coffee at our friends, Richard and Marie. The deep red and yellow plums were dripping with the light sweet syrup as we savoured every bite. What a treat! Richard shares the recipe, handed down from his mother, Helga, below.

Here is a magic formula that is the answer to Life, the Universe & everything.

"TWO, FOUR, SIX".

...it's the family secret that my mother passed on to me and basically that's all you need to know to live an ecstatically happy (if rather short) and contented life, living only on earth-shattering good Viennese Apple or plum tart.

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Oh yes - you want to ask the same complicating but unnecessary questions that I did all those years ago.  "Yes, but of what.. for how long etc?....."

Here is the accompanying idiot's guide to achieving easy success and the admiration of friends and neighbours:

Ingredients,
2 Granulated sugar
4 Stork margarine
6 Flour (4 wholemeal: 2 Plain white)
3 or 4 Bramley Cooking apples

A spinkling of Sultanas

Mixture of granulated sugar and cinnamon (use plenty)

I think we are talking old money ounces, but it's the proportion that's important.

Mix it all together in a processor or my hand and form into a ball.  You can press it out into a slightly greased baking tin immediately (it makes one 12inch cake or two 9 and 7 inch ones - or you can keep the pastry in the fridge or freezer indefinitely.

Peel quarter and thinly slice three or four Bramley cooking apples, place in bowl and liberally sprinkle / coat with premixed (use a jam jar and shake it) granulated sugar and cinnamon.

Press out pastry in baking tin, add some sultanas and cover liberally with apple slices, shake over some more gran sugar/cinnamon mixture and place in preheated oven at 180C for about 45 minutes, until edges are slightly burnt.  Place on rack to cool. Separate from base and sprinkle with icing sugar to serve.

There - now you know everything there is to know.  Or nearly, ‘cos the Apple cake recipe can and should be tried using plums.  Unfortunately Svitzen (don’t know how it should be spelt) plums have long been extinct in the UK, but this year I tried President plums, which make a brief appearance in late September.  I blind baked the pastry, (covering the base with baking roll) for 20 or so minutes before adding the halved (lengthwise) stoned plums, coated in the gran sugar/cinnamon mixture, and returning to the oven.  Be careful that the oven is not too hot or the plums will shrink. The result was blissful.

Bon appetite.

Richard    

Salmon Starters

These colourful starters, using Red Alaskan salmon, hard boiled egg, and mixed vegetables, are so easy! The preparation is done ahead of time. They can also be used on a larger plate of vegetable salad as a lunch or light supper.

This recipe was inspired by the lovely meal we recently enjoyed with our friends, Margaret and Adrian in Bournemouth. We could eat plenty because our afternoon was spent biking along the beautiful seafront. What a day!!








Two servings (very generous).

Line to ramekins with plastic wrap, leaving some to hang over the sides.

Ingredients:

200g Smoked (preferably Alaskan) salmon
150 raw salmon
1 lemon, squeezed
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3-4 sprigs snipped fresh dill
Coarsely ground black pepper, good shaking
100g Cream cheese or creme fraiche

Line the plastic wrap covered ramekins with half of the smoked salmon. Cut the rest of the smoked salmon and all of the raw salmon into very small pieces; place in a small mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and thoroughly blend. Spoon mixture evenly into the ramekins on top of the sheets of salmon. Cover with the overlapping salmon and plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Remove salmon starters from the ramekins by pulling up on the plastic wrap. Plate onto  small plates of mixed vegetable salad, garnished with hard boiled egg quarters. See earlier post on Salmon Nicoise. Enjoy.