easy recipe

[a non-amos]

This Friday Mrs. A came in from a work trip.  I knew she would be tired and hungry and also tired of eating out (would want home cooked food).  I did not know what she would want to eat.  I had a variety of dishes ready to go, with food ready to eat in at most a half an hour.  I asked her what she wanted, and gave her a list of what was ready to go.

We could have had a nice hot curry (chicken and veggies), stuffed baked potatoes, burgers, queso dip and chips, a few other things that do not come to mind, or artichoke and spinach dip on fresh bread.  She chose the artichokes.  I had everything ready to go into the oven.

Ten minutes into the twenty minute cook time, she mentioned that she didn't like artichokes or artichoke dip.  She asked me where I got the dip from, or is it my own.  I told her that this one is mine, that this might be something like the gumbo or the pralines.  She might not have liked what she has had, but please give the benefit of the doubt in tasting mine.

She tried one.  She tried several more.  It was great to watch her ravenously eating the food she said she did not like, then eating more because it tasted so good.

Here's the basic recipe:

• 1 can artichoke hearts
• 3/4 to 1 cup mayo
• 3/4 to 1 cup grated or shredded parmesan cheese

As you can see, the exact proportions are a matter of some debate.

Rinse the artichokes; they come in a brine that is very salty.  If you like salt, rinse them less.

Chop the artichokes.  How finely do you chop them?  Depends.  How large a chunk of artichoke would you like to see in the dip?  This is a matter of taste.

Use only good mayo for this.  Bargain basement will not do.

Combine the ingredients and put into a baking dish.  I use a pie tin.

Bake at 375F for about 20 minutes or until it has a nice bubbly cheesiness.  It's also good to leave it longer to get a bit of a brown crust on the cheese.

This is very good, but the real magic is how you dress it up.  Please don't use all of the following suggestions in the same batch.

These suggestions are combined with all else before it goes into the pan.  Press a couple cloves of garlic into it.  Finely mince a jalapeno into it.  Sprinkle some ground cayenne.  Shred some spinach.  Shred some fresh basil.  Add a little shredded mozzarella.  Take a leek.  Horseradish?  Do something unexpected and see if it works.  Keep in mind that there is not much cooking time, and not much time for flavors to meld and equalize.  Ingredients with strong flavors need to be minced very finely so the flavor is well distributed.

Please excuse me while I polish off the leftovers!   

[a non-amos]

In case you haven't guessed, one of my favorite things to do with food is to take something that someone dislikes, cook it differently, and turn it into something they enjoy.

I have deleted many boring stories about introducing kids to real vegetables, me being introduced to some vegetables I thought I disliked, food parties that made some of the guests first cringe and then salivate, and other cooking that has at least made my lovely bride give me the benefit of the doubt.

A few years ago my lovely bride brought home an unusual vegetable, just to see if I could do something with it.  They might have been parsnips or a turnips or something similar.  I peeled them, sliced them, boiled them, and served them au gratin and au Mexican (there might have been some jalapeno involved).  Not at all bad.

- A

[ensiform]

Oh sure, if you put cheese and spices on it, a tire isn't bad eatin'.   

[a non-amos]

You found my secret recipe?

Now I will have to go on tirelessly.   

[yelnats]

Tyrelessly just doesn't doesn't work in British English.

[Les303]

a non-amos ..." She chose the artichokes."

Two elderly ladies happen to meet at the market after not seeing one another for some time. After inquiring about each other's health, one of them asks how the other ones husband is doing. "Oh, Henry died last week! He went out to the garden to dig up an artichoke for dinner, had a heart attack and dropped down dead right there in the middle of the vegetable patch!" "Oh, dear! I'm very sorry." replied her friend. "What did you do?" "I opened a can of peas instead."

Les

[Les303]

" A few years ago my lovely bride brought home an unusual vegetable, just to see if I could do something with it.  They might have been parsnips or a turnips or something similar."

OK  a non , how about this one ;

One day two turnips, who were best friends, were walking together down the street. They stepped off the curb and a speeding car came around the corner and ran one of them over. The uninjured turnip called 000 and helped his injured friend as best he was able. The injured turnip was taken to emergency at the hospital and rushed into surgery. After a long and agonizing wait, the doctor finally appeared. He told the uninjured turnip, "I have good news, and I have bad news. The good news is that your friend is going to pull through." "The bad news is that he's going to be a vegetable for the rest of his life".

[a non-amos]

Good food does not have to be complicated, and it doesn't have to take all day.  Some good food does take some time and effort, but not all of it does.

One of my favorites has been called a Southern Sandwich, but I have also heard it called a Southern Classic.  This is a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato, but that really does not describe it.

I have stories about this, all too long and boring.  Cut to the chase.  Traditional does not include a fried egg, but it probably should.

The real magic is the tomato.  It needs to be fresh, straight out of your own personal garden.  All fresh tomatoes are fantastic, but some varieties are more fantastic than others.  By random dumb luck I found a wonderful variety (25 years ago) and have not been able to find it since.  Until this year.  It is every bit as good as I remember, and maybe a bit better.

This variety is named "Goliath".  Other notes deleted.  You probably don't care how tall my tomato plants are; the magic is in the flavor.

My recipe(s):

Fry an egg, over medium (moderately low heat, of course.  It's an egg.).  Use a very small amount of butter (not margarine).  This is where creativity steps in.  Sprinkle with paprika and cayenne, or throw on some shredded basil or some herbs de provence, or whatever strikes your fancy, but at least once you need to try it bare and naked.

If you pop the yolk, all is not lost.  Sometimes I intentionally pop the yolk (to a small extent) after I turn the egg.  It makes the sandwich less messy, and less likely to burn fingers.

After the egg is done, slip a slice of bread and a slice of cheese under it.  Put a layer of tomato and another slice of bread over it, and cook it like any other grilled cheese sandwich.

Bon appetit!

- A

[lilys field]

Yum and thanks to the Non-amos & Mrs.

The Frugal Gourmet taught me this about scrambled eggs:  use one half eggshell of water for each egg.  It make them fluffy...for fluff lovers.

[a non-amos]

I stumbled across another easy recipe.

I have been experimenting with an electric pressure cooker.  It cost a bit more than expected, but it's worth the money (even if you already have a stove-top pressure cooker).  The electric ones have built-in safety features such as an automatic cutoff when either the pressure or the temperature pass a limit. 

They also have timers; you can set it up to start cooking later in the day, cook for X amount of time, and turn itself off.  The meal can be ready to eat when you walk in the door.  Be careful with this; you still need to be careful about food safety.  You don't want meat to lay around at room temperature for 4 hours before it starts cooking.

Yesterday's recipe:
1/2 cup dried black beans
1/2 cup dried pinto beans
1 medium onion, chopped coarse
1 cup canned salsa
2 tbs cajun spice
1 piece tasso, cubed (about 1.5 cm or a half inch)
2 cups water

Throw into pot, stir, set to pressure cook for 45 minutes.

Serve with cornbread or corn muffins (last night we just used Jiffy corn meal muffins).

Complain to Alan that tasso is still not considered a word.

Notes:
For a vegetarian option, you can leave out the tasso.  This has plenty of protein without it, but the tasso gives it a nice smokey flavor with some ham flavor.  If you leave it out, try adding a little liquid smoke.

These pressure cookers are great with dried beans.  You don't need to start soaking the beans the night before.  These days, the stores only carry dried beans that have been washed and sorted (no dirt or gravel).  Just throw them into the pressure cooker, using twice as much liquid as beans.

The default setting for beans on my pressure cooker is 40 minutes (push the button that says "beans").  It's a little better if you increase this to 45 minutes.

No doubt others can find better variations on this.  Feel free to add green peppers, celery, carrots, or whatever else inspires you.  I just threw together stuff we had laying around, and the other veggies had gone bad.

Next time I will have to make a larger batch; we do not have enough leftovers.

[Tom44]

OK, I'll bite.  What is tasso?  Some kind of sausage?

[mkenuk]

'Tasso ham is a specialty of south Louisiana cuisine. In this case "ham" is a misnomer since tasso is not made from the hind leg of a hog, but rather the hog's shoulder. This cut is typically fatty, and because the muscle is constantly used by the animal, has a great deal of flavor. The butt, which will weigh 7 to 8 pounds, is sliced across the grain into pieces about 3 in (7.5 cm) thick. These are dredged in a salt cure, which usually includes nitrites and sugar. The meat is left to cure briefly, only three or four hours, then rinsed, rubbed with a spice mixture containing cayenne pepper and garlic, and hot-smoked until cooked through. Though tasso may be eaten on its own, it is more often used as part of a flavor base for stews or braised vegetables. It is used in dishes ranging from pasta to crab cakes to soup and gravy. Appropriate to its roots, tasso is most often found in recipes of Creole origin, such as jambalaya.'

From 'Wikipedia'

[a non-amos]

I would disagree with Wikipedia on some of the finer points and maybe add a few more details.

From better sources, this is lean and not fatty.  Salt, nitrites, and sugar are not always present.  You need to find a better source for tasso (or a source for better tasso).

The good stuff is cold smoked slowly over a week or two, using the smoke from pecan wood.  This also means that the good stuff is an uncooked pork product.  It is heavily smoked and preserved, but still uncooked.  Spices are generally not required in good tasso; it has much flavor, but that's from the cut of meat and the heavy smoking.

Since the good stuff is preserved by smoking, it is sliced to about 1cm thickness before smoking.  This accelerates the preservation process (and prevents decay).  It's about the size and shape of a pork chop, but there is no bone.

Tasso is not a sausage, but its most frequent used is to make a sausage.  They use a very coarse grind (chunks up to 1/2 cm) and add a small amount of various spices and make it into a sausage, then they stick it back into the smokehouse for another week or two.

This double smoked sausage is, of course, andouille.

Although tasso has found its way into some Creole dishes, it is primarily Cajun.  Many people do not recognize the difference.  The historical and culinary differences are noteworthy, but I'm not sure others are interested.  The interplay between history and cooking is fascinating to me.

- A

[a non-amos]

I came up with another idea that sounds good.  It might work, might not, or it might work with some modifications.  Invention is not a well defined process.

This started several months ago when my daughter gave us some canned artichokes.  They were given some canned artichokes and did not know what to make of them.  They figured that Dad was more likely to make something of this, and did not want the food to go to waste.  OK, not a problem.  I made an artichoke-spinach-garlic-jalapeno-parmesan dip and served it over slices of a fresh baguette.

My lovely bride mentioned that she really did not like artichoke dip, so I commented that it might be like the gumbo or the pralines or the souffle or . . . others that have become her favorite foods.  She decided to take a bite, then another, then half the loaf.  She enjoyed it very much.

My new idea:  What happens when you cover a salmon fillet with this dip and put it in the broiler?  It's probably a delicate balance; you don't want to overcook the salmon but you do want to crisp the cheese on top.  The dip should offer some protection for the salmon.

I will need to experiment.  I will keep you posted.

The next question is what to serve it with.  Maybe some asparagus and curried rice?  We shall see.

- A