Friday, June 21, 2013

Spicy Fat Free Salad Dressing Recipe

  • 1 clove garlic (finely chipped)
  • 1 Thai pepper (finely chopped)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • dash of black pepper
  • juice of 1 lemon
Smash salt into chopped garlic and pepper with a fork.  Squeeze lemon and mix in with the salt garlic and pepper.  Sprinkle black pepper over the salad and drizzle dressing over the salad.  This recipe makes enough dressing for one dinner plate size salad.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Double Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 cup milk
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 cup homemade chocolate syrup  
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (chopped)
Whisk together all ingredients except chocolate chips and pour into the ice cream maker.  Run ice cream maker for approximately 20 minutes.  Add chocolate chips after 15 minutes.  Freeze ice cream up to 3 hours before serving.

Variation: Add peppermint extract instead of vanilla to make mint double chocolate ice cream.

Ceylon Cinnamon Extract Recipe

After looking all over for Ceylon cinnamon extract and not finding it on line or in any store, I decided to make my own extract. 

Ingredients:
  • 8-10 small Ceylon cinnamon sticks (can be found at Whole Foods)
  • Vodka
Clean and sterilize a half pint mason jar.  Add the cinnamon sticks and then fill the remainder of the jar almost full with vodka.  Put a lid on the jar and shake.  Note: Lid can be used and does not have to seal.  Store jar in a dark place to conserve flavor.  Shake jar every couple of days.  Cinnamon will be ready in four months. Strain extract and place in a clean jar.  For a stronger cinnamon flavor, the cinnamon sticks can be left in the vodka.

Cinnamon Basics
Flavor Extracts

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

  • 2 cup water
  • 2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup Hersey's chocolate powder (or another natural powdered chocolate)
  • 2 tsp natural vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp natural cinnamon extract
Mix water, sugar, and chocolate in a pan until the chocolate is moist.  Stir slowly over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil.  Stir constantly for approximate 3 minutes and then remove from heat.  Once the syrup cools stir in flavor extracts.

Use syrup for chocolate milk or an ice cream topping.  Keeps in the refrigerate for up to two weeks.

Note: Cinnamon extract is not strong enough to make the chocolate taste like cinnamon but it flavors it enough that the syrup does not taste like Hersey's chocolate.

Friday, May 17, 2013

Feingold Stage 1 Baked Chicken and Vegetables Recipe

  • 1 chicken (cut up) 
  • 2 potatoes (peeled and sliced thin)
  • 2 zuchinis (sliced thin)
  • 1 large onion (cut in half and then sliced)
  • 4 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 1/4 cup parsley (chopped)
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil or light in flavor olive oil
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp dried basil
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Cut chicken into pieces and place in a large baking pan.  Layer the potatoes, zuchinis, and onions on top of the chicken in that order.  Sprinkle salt and basil over the chicken and vegetables.  Sprinkle the parsley and mince the garlic over the chicken.  Trickle the oil evenly over the vegetables.  Bake uncovered for one hour.

For Feingold level 2 - add 1/4 tsp black pepper, 2 green peppers (sliced) and 2 large tomatoes (sliced).  

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Bread Maker Nan Recipe

  • 3 cups (14 3/4 oz) bread flour
  • 1 1/16  cup (8 3/4) oz water
  • 1 1/2 tsp yeast

Place all ingredients in the bread maker, set to French bread dough setting, and press start.  Once the dough cycle has completed, remove dough and kneed slightly on a lightly floured surface to assure elasticity.  Preheat oven to 450 F with a baking stone on the bottom rack.  Separate dough into 6 equal parts and form into balls.  Flatten each ball out on the floured surface to form a round disk.  Transfer dough to a greased baking sheet and poke flat disks with a fork.  There should be room for three pieces of bread on each sheet.  Place a cooking sheet on top of the baking stone and bake for 10 minutes.  Bread will not be browned but will be cooked and soft.  Bake the second sheet of bread.



Recipe development notes

Flat Bread (Nan) Experiments & Recipe Development

I heard that you can make Afghan style flat bread with just flour, salt and water.  This can be cooked in a frying pan or in the oven.  My goal is to produce a recipe that I can use with a bread machine and that also uses yeast. My hope is that by using the same (lack of ingredients) that is in the traditional nan, then it will be closer to the actual thing.

#1
My first experiment to produced flat bread was edible but a little too tough.  I used an unmeasured amount of all purpose flour and about 10 oz of water and mixed this by hand.  After mixing, I had to add a lot of flour so it was not too sticky and could be kneeded.  I let it stand for about 30 minutes and then formed round flat bread with my hand and baked at 400 degrees.

Suggestions:  I need to get the water and flour quantity right so I don't have to add too much flour afterward.  Also, I should cook at a higher temperature and use a baking stone under the pan. Will also use bread flour next.

#2
I used the recipe I have for French bread dough but did not include other ingredients.  I used yeast 1 1/2 tsp, Bread flour - 3 cups, and water 8 3/4 oz.  The bread machine is mixing this but the setting takes over 3 hours to mix.  If this does not work out, the next trial will be my pizza dough recipe minus the other ingredients.

Here is the Nan Recipe I developed from this experiment.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Natural Tomato Pasta Sauce

  • 1/2 cup olive oil (or enough to layer the bottom of the pan)
  • 1 Onion (finely chopped)
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp pepper (optional)
  • 2-3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
  • 5-6 Roma tomatoes (chopped)
  • 3 x green onions (chopped)
  • cilantro (about 1/4 tsp)
  • oregano (about 1/4 tsp)
  • basil (about 1/4 tsp)
Saute unions in the oil on high until browned.  Stir in garlic, salt and pepper and cook until the garlic smell starts to become strong.  Stir in tomatoes and sprinkle in cilantro, oregano, and basil to taste.  Cook tomatoes on medium to medium high for several minutes and then stir in green onions. Continue cooking and stirring occasionally until the tomatoes become a chunky sauce and the liquid evaporates enough for the oil to rise. 

Stir in noodles and serve.