donna's daily dish

tempting flavors

12/28/2022

The year ended on a flavorful note. A neighbor shared some Ruby Red grapefruits he received as a gift. While you can eat the grapefruits as is, my husband found an interesting recipe in the December 2022/January 2023 issue of “Garden and Gun Magazine” for Easy Winter Grapefruit Salad. It’s from Chef Aaron Bludorn of Houston, Texas of the restaurant Bludorn. For the recipe you’ll need one fennel bulb, sea salt, olive oil, one lemon, 2 grapefruits, capers, oil-cured black olives, fresh parsley, mint leaves, fennel pollen and bottarga.

Unfortunately, I was unable to located the fennel pollen or bottarga. The recipe suggested substituting ground fennel seed in place. I also left the mint out as a taste preference. Overall, the salad was quite easy to prepare. The grapefruit needs to be peeled and segmented. I recommend a sharp knife for this task.

2 Comments

December 27th, 2022

12/27/2022

0 Comments

Sometimes I prepare so many new and exciting recipes, that we never have them twice.

As it’s been so cold the past few days, I would like to suggest a Broccoli and Arugula Soup. This recipe was found in the January 2022 issue of “Charleston Magazine.” The soup was thick and creamy despite there being no cream in the soup. Both my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Some of the best recipes from 2022 came from The New York Times/NYT Cooking. One such recipe is Kay Chun’s Korean Cheeseburgers with Sesame-Cucumber Pickles. These are not your parents’ cheeseburgers. The burgers are flavored with soy sauce, scallions, garlic, pepper and sugar. They’re served with a mayonnaise dressing flavored with the same ingredients as the burgers plus toasted sesame oil. These burgers were incredible. I also made Ali Slagle’s Chicken Parm Burgers that were fabulous. Between the aromatic basil, the intensity of the tomato paste, these burgers were packed with flavor.

0 Comments

holiday savories

12/26/2022

0 Comments

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa holiday. I’m late with this post, however, I feel with New Year’s Eve on the heel of Christmas these two recipes will be great for the upcoming weekend.

After baking numerous batches of Christmas cookies, I had the desire to try a recipe that I’ve had in my possession for years from the Penzeys Spice catalogue, Crispy Cheese Crackers. I wasn’t in charge of Christmas dinner, but my son-in-law requested that I bring appetizers and a salad. I thought these crackers would be a wonderful to nibble on.

0 Comments

Spice up your holiday cookies

12/17/2022

0 Comments

UPDATE December 17, 2022 -
I just baked off my Gingerbread Latte Cookies, what a delicious cookie. I loved the coffee/gingerbread flavor. They are a little chewy, but I'm curious to see how they taste tomorrow.

I followed the directions in Vreeland Vaughn's recipe and they came out just as he described. I only prepared half the amount of sugar coating, which was sufficient. I also, used my cookie scooper, which was not a full two tablespoons as he suggested, but the size was perfect. This is a wonderful recipe and a delightful change. A wonderful accompaniment with your favorite hot beverage.

I am a subscriber to The New York Times and part of that subscription give me access to their webpage NYT Cooking. I love the variety of contributors to their website as well as the variety of recipes that they showcase.

One of their contributors is Eric Kim, who is a NYT staff writer. One of his recent recipes that caught my eye was for Gochujang Caramel Cookies. It just so happened I had gochujang in my refrigerator and was curious as to what they would taste like. For the recipe you’ll need unsalted butter, dark brown sugar, gochujang, granulated sugar, an egg, kosher salt, ground cinnamon, vanilla extract, baking soda and all-purpose flour. Just a suggestion, I recommend that you click here for a video demonstration by Eric Kim as I found it helpful in making the cookies.

0 Comments

yes, another chicken recipe

12/14/2022

0 Comments

Chicken Stroganoff
By Ham El-Waylly
The New York Times/NYT Cooking

Serves: 4
Time: 35 minutes

“This Brazilian stroganoff is a riff on the classic Russian-American beef, mushroom and sour cream stew that was considered peak haute cuisine in the United States during the 1950s. In Brazil, stroganoff is often made with beef, chicken or shrimp, but with a tomato base and heavy cream instead of sour cream. The biggest difference is in the accompaniments: The stew is served with rice and topped with crispy potato sticks. Do not omit the crunchy potato; it may be a garnish, but it is essential. If sticks are hard to find, replace them with lightly crushed chips.”

Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 pound button mushrooms, wiped clean and cut into quarters
Kosher salt
1 large yellow onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 fresh or dried bay leaf
1 cup heavy cream
1-pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into ½-inch pieces
1 cup tomato purée or passata

0 Comments

yes, another sheet pan meal

12/13/2022

0 Comments

For my birthday one year, my daughter gave me a tee shirt that read on the back “Sheet Pan Everything;” I still do. Recently, I found on the website Half-Baked Harvest a recipe for Sheet Pan Sticky Ginger Soy Chicken and Broccoli. This was a perfect meal for me to prepare on Saturday evening as we were babysitting our 1-year-old grandson. I was able to get everything on the sheet pan before he arrived and just pop it in the oven.

For the recipe you’ll need chicken breasts or thighs, broccoli florets, honey, ketchup, tamari or soy sauce, pomegranate juice (or orange juice), fresh garlic, fresh ginger, chili flakes, jasmine rice for serving and for optional garnishing, sliced green onion and pomegranate.

0 Comments

what's new and tasty

12/5/2022

0 Comments

After recovering from Thanksgiving, I’m ready to try some new recipes that I can prepare during the upcoming holiday season. Recently on “America’s Test Kitchen, which airs on public broadcasting, they demonstrated a recipe for Easy Pancakes. I’ve been making a Betty Crocker recipe for many years that uses buttermilk and makes light and fluffy pancakes. However, sometimes you don’t have buttermilk on hand and an easy, from scratch recipe, is just as quick as a box mix. For the recipe you’ll need all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract. To achieve fluffy pancakes, ATK amped up the amount of baking powder, with minimal amounts of baking soda and liquid. The proportions make for a thick batter that should also have some lumps, no over mixing here, and rests for 10 minutes before preparing.

As I don’t have the patience in the morning to wait 10 minutes for the dry ingredients to absorb the liquid, I opted to make these for my lunch the other day. In order to achieve an even golden pancake, the recipe calls for pouring a tablespoon of vegetable oil on the griddle and wiping the oil around until you have a light film on the pan. The best way to test if your griddle is ready for cooking, is to lightly sprinkle the surface with water. If the water beads up and dissipates, your griddle is ready.

0 Comments