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No-Bake Cherry Crisp

Adapted by LKD from Cook’s Country recipe | June/July 2014. This turned our really well – very tasty and hard to tell from a traditional oven-baked crisp. I think this could be easily made on the boat stove. If there’s time, make the topping at home the day before and store in covered container until ready to use in Step 4. Top with ice cream or whipped cream (TJ’s has good aerosol whipped cream).

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

TOPPING

  • 3/8 cup sliced almonds, divided
  • 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 Tbs packed light brown sugar
  • 2 Tbs granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

FILLING

  • Scant 3 Tbs granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp cornstarch
  • 1 lb can tart pie cherries, drained, juice reserved
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup dried cherries
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Dribble of almond extract

INSTRUCTIONS

1. FOR THE TOPPING: Finely chop 1/8 c. of the almonds. Combine flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, and chopped almonds in bowl. Stir in melted butter until mixture resembles wet sand and no dry flour remains.

2. Toast remaining 1/4 cup almonds in 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium-low heat until just beginning to brown, about 4 minutes. Add flour mixture and cook, stirring constantly, until lightly browned, 6 to 8 minutes; transfer to plate to cool. Wipe out skillet.

3. FOR THE FILLING: Combine 1 Tbs sugar with cornstarch in small bowl; set aside. Combine cherries, salt, remaining 2 Tbs sugar, and a little of the reserved cherry juice in now-empty skillet. Cover and cook over medium heat until cherries release their juice, about 7 minutes, stirring halfway through cooking. Uncover, stir in dried cherries, and simmer until cherries are very tender, about 3 minutes. Stir in vanilla and almond extract.

4. Stir in cornstarch mixture and simmer, stirring constantly, until thickened, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove skillet from heat and distribute topping evenly over filling. Return skillet to medium-low heat and cook until filling is bubbling around edges, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; let cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

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Curried Chicken and Rice Salad

Make ahead: cook rice and chicken.

Dressing

  • 2/3 c. mayo
  • Scant 1/2 c. plain yogurt
  • 1/2 c. raisins
  • 3T chutney
  • 1T curry powder (or a little more, to taste)
  • 1T lemon juice

Salad ingredients

  • 4 1/2 c. cubed, cooked chicken
  • 2c. cooked rice (I make Baked Brown Rice)
  • 1/4 c. sliced green onion
  • 1 banana, sliced (optional)
  • 1/4 c. peanuts
  • 1/4 c. coconut

Combine mayo, 2T raisins, chutney, curry, and lemon juice in blender until smooth. Combine chicken, rice, onion, and raisins. Mix in dressing. Chill. Garnish with banana, peanuts and coconut. Serves 6.

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Saucy Curried Chicken

Quick to prepare, especially if you cook the chicken and rice in advance. From the Chicago Tribune, slightly adapted by LKD.

  • 1 jar (19 oz.) roasted red peppers, drained
  • 1 Tbs. honey
  • 1 tsp. curry powder
  • ½ tsp. salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 1 Tbs. olive oil
  • 1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed (I usually cook whole chicken breasts and cut into cubes in advance – makes the recipe much faster to prepare)
  • 1 can (15 oz.) chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 1 c. plain yogurt
  • 2 Tbs. chopped fresh mint (I use dried mint and add it to the skillet with the pepper sauce)
  • Cooked brown rice, ww pasta, or grain of choice

In food processor or blender, process roasted peppers, honey, curry powder, salt and pepper until pureed. Can be made a day in advance and refrigerated.

Heat the oil in a large skillet; cook the chicken, turning once, until almost cooked, about 6 minutes. Add chickpeas and pepper sauce to skillet. Cook, stirring frequently, until chicken has reached desired doneness and chickpeas and sauce are heated through, Remove pan from heat; stir in yogurt.

Serve over rice or pasta; top with mint.

Serves 4.

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Roasted Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde)

Adapted from Rick Bayless, Season 8  Mexico – One Plate at a Time (Roasted Tomatillo Salsa). Double the recipe to use in Enchilada Casserole.

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces (3 to 4 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
  • Fresh hot green chiles to taste (1 serrano or jalapeno), stemmed
  • 2 large garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • 6 sprigs of fresh cilantro (thick bottom stems cut off), roughly chopped
  • 1/4 small white onion, finely chopped
  • Salt

Directions
Roast the tomatillos, chile(s) and garlic on a rimmed baking sheet 4 inches below a very hot broiler, until blotchy black and softening (they’ll be turning from lime green to olive), about 5 minutes.  Flip them over and roast the other side.  Cool, then transfer everything to a blender, including all the delicious juice the tomatillos have exuded during roasting. Add the cilantro and 1/4 cup water, then blend to a coarse puree. Scoop into a serving dish. Rinse the onion under cold water, then shake to remove excess moisture.  Stir into the salsa and season with salt, usually 1/2 teaspoon.

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Corned Beef and Cabbage

From Cook’s Country, February/March 2012

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Corned beef and cabbage makes its way to the dinner table (in this country, anyway) but once a year in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, and maybe for good reason. This meat can be unbearably salty, dry, and rubbery. And when cooked with the stale spice packet that often gets packaged with the meat, it’s flavorless at best. The accompanying vegetables are usually mushy, greasy, and monotone in flavor. To solve the dry, stringy meat texture, we got rid of the typical stovetop simmer and moved a covered pot into a low-temperature oven for gentler cooking. To help flavor the meat, we replaced some of the water with chicken broth and added celery, carrot, and onion, along with peppercorns, allspice, a bay leaf, and thyme, to the cooking liquid. For the cabbage, carrots, and potatoes typically served with the corned beef, we strained and defatted the cooking liquid and then cooked the vegetables in stages––potatoes first, then carrots and cabbage. A little butter added to the pot helped flavor the vegetables.

SERVES 6 TO 8

Use flat-cut corned beef brisket, not point-cut; it’s more uniform in shape and thus will cook more evenly. When slicing the cabbage, leave the core intact or the cabbage will fall apart during cooking.

INGREDIENTS

1 (4- to 5-pound) corned beef brisket roast, rinsed, fat trimmed to 1/4 inch thick
4 cups low-sodium chicken broth (* See LD note in step 1)
4 cups water (* See LD note in step 1)
12 carrots, peeled (3 chopped, 9 halved crosswise)
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 onion, peeled and quartered
(my brisket came with spices on it already, so I just used those instead of the following)
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
1 teaspoon whole allspice
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 pounds small red potatoes
1 head green cabbage (2 pounds), cut into 8 (2-inch) wedges
Pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300 degrees. Combine beef, broth, water, chopped carrots, celery, onion, bay leaves, peppercorns, thyme, and allspice in Dutch oven. Cover and bake until fork slips easily in and out of meat, 4½ to 5 hours. (*LD note: My chicken fryer barely held the 5lb. brisket and vegetables, and only two cups of broth, but it turned out well.)

2. Transfer meat to 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Strain cooking liquid through fine-mesh strainer into large bowl, discard solids, and skim fat from liquid. Pour 1 cup cooking liquid over meat. Cover dish tightly with aluminum foil and let rest for 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, return remaining cooking liquid to Dutch oven, add butter, and bring to simmer over medium-high heat. Add potatoes and simmer until they begin to soften, about 10 minutes. Add carrot halves and cabbage, cover, and cook until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer vegetables to serving platter and season with pepper to taste. (Reserve cooking liquid for making Creamed Chipped Beef using leftover corned beef; recipe at right.)

4. Transfer beef to carving board and slice against grain into ¼-inch-thick slices. Serve with vegetables.

TO MAKE AHEAD: Prepare corned beef through step 2. Refrigerate moistened beef and cooking liquid separately for up to 24 hours. To serve, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Transfer meat to carving board and slice against grain into ¼-inch-thick slices and return to baking dish. Cover dish tightly with foil and bake until meat is heated through, about 25 minutes. While meat is heating, proceed with step 3.

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Nor’easter Cocktail

Inspired by Char No. 4, and adapted by LKD from http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-the-noreaster-cocktail-the-10-minute-happy-hour-200385. Equally lovely on a cold winter evening or a hot summer day. Serves 1.

  • 2 ounces bourbon (I prefer Knob Creek)
  • 1/2 ounce fresh lime juice
  • 1/2 ounce real maple syrup (skip this recipe altogether if all you have is Log Cabin, etc.)
  • Fresh ginger juice to taste (1/2″ knob of fresh ginger, grated on the Microplane and pressed through a fine-mesh strainer to extract juice)
  • Ginger beer (so far, I like Reed’s best – available at Trader Joe’s)

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, combine the bourbon, lime juice, maple syrup, and ginger juice. Shake and strain into a rocks glass with ice. Top with ginger beer.

Recipe notes: If you don’t have ginger beer you can substitute ginger ale but the cocktail will be sweeter. Most ginger beer is non-alcoholic; Crabbies is about the only brand with alcohol. Either way is tasty.

 

Nor’easters for a crowd (Makes 1 gallon)

Base (48 oz.):

  • 32 oz. Bourbon
  • 8 oz. fresh lime juice
  • 8 oz. real maple syrup
  • Fresh ginger juice to taste (or use bottled organic ginger juice, available at Whole Foods)

Ginger beer (96 oz. = 8 12 oz. bottles of Reed’s)

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Kale and Potato Gratin

Adapted from http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-kale-and-potato-gratin-63094. This is really great leftover for breakfast with a poached egg on top.

  • 1 1/2 pounds potatoes (I used baking russets, which worked very well)
  • 1 large bunch kale
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 teaspoons coarse salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/3 cup Panko bread crumbs
  • 1/2 tsp. olive oil
  • 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Get a pot of water boiling large enough to accommodate the potatoes.

Meanwhile, slice the potatoes 1/4-inch-thick. Set aside. Remove and discard the spines from the kale then tear the leaves into smallish pieces. Wash, rinse, and spin dry the kale.

When the water is boiling, add a dash of salt and gently drop in the potatoes, cooking for about 4 to 5 minutes, until tender, but not cooked through. Drain immediately.

In a large bowl, combine the olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper. Add the kale and massage the olive oil into the leaves, being sure to coat each leaf surface. In a small bowl, mix the Panko crumbs with the 1/2 tsp. oil. Stir in the Parmesan.

Layer the kale and potatoes alternately with a sprinkling of bread crumbs and Parmesan in a 9″x13” rectangular glass baking dish.Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15 minutes, until top is crispy.

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Easy Crockpot Mongolian Beef

Adapted from http://whoneedsacape.com/2012/11/easy-crockpot-mongolian-beef/.

Ingredients

  • 2 lb. stew meat
  • 2 tsp. olive oil
  • 1 onion, thickly sliced
  • 1 tbsp. minced garlic
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. fresh minced ginger
  • 1/2 cup hoisin sauce

Instructions

Freezer directions- dump all ingredients into a labeled freezer bag, seal, mix up, freeze flat. It’s as easy as that! When you’re ready to cook, take the bag out of the freezer the night before and let it defrost in the fridge.

The next morning dump the bag into the crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. If you’re going to be longer just add a bit more water so it doesn’t dry out. Serve with fresh sliced green onions and rice.

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Ginger-Lime Chicken

From WeightWatchers. Delicious and very easy. I mixed up the marinade the night before, and then added the chicken in the morning, so it marinated all day. We grilled the chicken instead of broiling, so there wasn’t any sauce.

  • 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
  • 3 Tbsp fresh lime juice
  • 2 tsp lime zest, finely minced
  • 2 Tbsp ginger root, finely minced or grated
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 Tbsp honey
  • 1 Tbsp chili oil, or other hot oil
  • 1/4 cup cilantro, fresh, chopped, divided
  • 1 pound uncooked boneless skinless chicken breasts, four 4 oz pieces
  • 2 Tbsp uncooked scallions, finely minced

Instructions

  1. In a large non-reactive bowl, combine soy sauce, lime juice, lime zest, ginger, garlic, honey, oil and 2 tablespoons cilantro; mix well. Remove and reserve 2 tablespoons of the marinade. Add chicken to bowl, tossing to make sure each piece is coated; refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours.
  2. Preheat broiler to high. Remove chicken from marinade and place in a baking dish; discard marinade. Broil chicken, 4 to 6 minutes; flip and brush chicken with reserved marinade. Return chicken to oven and broil until chicken is cooked through, about 4 to 6 minutes more.
  3. To serve, sprinkle chicken with scallions, remaining 2 tablespoons cilantro and any sauce accumulated in baking dish. Yields 1 chicken breast and about 1/3 cup sauce per serving.
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Flourless Egg and Cottage Cheese Savory Breakfast Muffins

This is our go-to weekday breakfast. They freeze well. Makes 12 muffins; recipe created by Kalyn of KalynsKitchen.com. http://www.kalynskitchen.com/2012/10/flourless-nutrient-dense-savory-breakfast-muffin.html

Dry Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup almond meal (buy at TJ’s)
  • 1/2 cup raw hemp seed (TJ’s has shelled hemp seeds at a very reasonable price)
  • 1/2 cup finely-grated Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup flax seed meal (Buy whole seeds at Whole Foods and grind just what you need for the recipe)
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. Spike Seasoning (optional but good; can substitute any all-purpose seasoning mix)
  • 1/4 tsp. salt

Wet Ingredients:

  • 6 eggs, beaten
  • 1/2 cup (113g of Daisy brand 4%) cottage cheese (I freeze the unused portion and then thaw and refreeze as needed – doesn’t seem to affect anything)
  • 1/3 cup thinly sliced green onion

Instructions: Preheat oven to 375F/190C. Spray baking cups or muffin pan with non-stick spray or olive oil.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the almond meal, raw hemp seed, Parmesan cheese, flax seed meal, nutritional yeast flakes, baking powder, Spike Seasoning (if using), and salt.

In a smaller bowl, beat the eggs and then mix in the reduced-fat cottage cheese and thinly sliced green onions. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Scoop out the mixture with a small measuring cup and fill the muffin cups until they are nearly full, dividing the mixture evenly between the muffin cups. Bake for 25-30 minutes (29 minutes in my oven), or until the muffins are firm and nicely browned. These muffins will keep in the fridge for at least a week or can be frozen. Reheat in the microwave (30 seconds, or 45 if frozen) or in a toaster oven.