recipe – Page 12 – Alice the Cook

October 19, 2011March 5, 2012

Young Octopus with Saffron Rice & Lemon

Many of the recipes posted of late were prepared and demonstrated at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We cooked each of these dishes on an open fire.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that we did several unusual dishes for the final weekend at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. Among them were Whiskey Beef and Bacon Hash, Oxtail Soup, and Young Octopus with Saffron Rice & Lemon.

The nearby grocery store was having a special on octopus and I thought it would be an unusual cooking demonstration for our audience. Little did I know this dish would be so tasty. The timing is crucial; the saffron rice should be the first part of the preparation.

Saffron Rice with Lemon

2 cups of white basmati rice
3 ½ cups of vegetable stock
½ tsp of turmeric
½ tsp of saffron threads
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lemon, zest and juice
¼ tsp sea or Kosher salt

Pour the vegetable stock into a medium sized pot with a tight fitting lid and place over high heat. While the stock comes to the boil, add the turmeric, garlic, lemon juice and half of the zest. Stir well and add the rice and salt. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, and reduce the heat to low and cook for 12-15 minutes. Turn off the heat, but keep the lid on for an additional 5-10 minutes.

Young Octopus
½ lb. young octopus
1 cup rice flour
1 tsp of ground coriander
1 tsp of ground cardamom
¾ tsp of ground cinnamon
¾ tsp of fresh ground black pepper
½ tsp of chili powder
½ tsp of salt
3 cups of olive oil

Rinse the octopus in cold water and cut into thirds (roughly a tad larger than bite-sized). Once done, add all of the spices to the flour and blend well. Pour the oil into a medium sized pot and put on medium to high heat. The goal is to get the oil to 350 – 375 degrees.

While the oil heats up, dredge the octopus in the seasoned flour, until completely covered in flour and flash fry the octopus for about 10-30 seconds. Do not add more than two octopi into the pot to fry at a time, once it has curled up and cooked on all sides, remove from the pot and place on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.

Once fully cooked, fluff the saffron rice with chopsticks and add to a plate. Add the octopus on top of the rice and use the remaining lemon zest on top of the dish. Now it is ready to serve.

Serves 2 – 3 people.

October 14, 2011March 5, 2012

Cock-a-Leekie Soup (15th century)

Cock-a-Leekie Soup (15th century)

Cock-a-leeky soup

Ingredients:
1 chicken, deboned
1lb leeks cleaned and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 pints vegetarian or chicken stock or water
1/2 cup long grain rice
One teaspoon brown sugar
Salt and pepper
bay leaf, parsley, thyme
1/4 lb chopped bacon

Fry up the bacon in a large saucepan and add the chicken once the bacon is about half done. Continue stiring until the chicken is about half done (7 minutes). Add broth/water and cover. Add three-quarters of the leeks, (green as well as white sections), herbs (tied together in a bundle), salt and pepper and return to the boil. Simmer gently for 2-3 hours, adding more water if necessary. Add the rice and the remaining leeks and simmer for another 30 minutes. Check for flavor and serve with a little chopped parsley. Serves 6/8 people.

October 10, 2011

Lamb Stew and Farrells

The following recipe was made during the final weekend at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival on October 1 – 2, 2011. This particular recipe (and the farrells) are a favorite at the family’s dinner. I hope you enjoy it too!

Lamb Stew

2 lbs of lamb stew meat
1/4 cup of butter or oil
1/4 cup of flour
1 lb of sweet potatoes, 1” cubes
2 lbs red potatoes, 1” cubes
1 lbs of carrots, 1” pieces
1 lbs green beans (optional), halved
1/2 lbs onions or leeks, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 tsp. Thyme
Kosher salt (to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)

Make sure the stew meat is cut up into 1” cubes. Preheat oil or butter in soup pot. As it heats, coat the meat with flour until browned. Once browned, add enough water to cover the meat, bring stew to simmer for 45 minutes.

While cooking, cut up vegetables. After the meat has cooked for 45 minutes, add the vegetables, spices and herbs. Add more water if needed (should only cover the stew). Continue to cook until vegetables are fork tender. Stew should have a think consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let stew rest off of heat for 15 minutes prior to serving. Serves 6-8 people.

Potato Farrells
Ingredients:
2 cups of mashed potatoes
2 cups of flour
2 eggs
2 TB softened butter
1 tsp of baking powder
3 TB Chopped chives
bacon fat or oil (it tastes a lot better with bacon fat!!)

Mix the potatoes, flour, baking powder, eggs butter and chives together in bowl to form soft dough. Flour your cutting board to continue to work dough so that it bounces back from finger press.

Separate the dough into farrells (quarters) and roll each section out to the size of a small salad plate. Heat oil/bacon fat in fry pan and fry each “patty” until golden brown on each side. While finishing the final side, cut it in to quarters again and serve like biscuits. This is a TRUE Irish dish and is usually served with a stew.

If you want the dough may be rolled out and biscuits may be cut. It is important to press down and lift up to remove the biscuit. If you twist the cutter, the biscuit will not rise properly.

October 6, 2011March 5, 2012

Beef in Claret

Beef in Claret

Beef in Claret

Ingredients:
1/4 lb lean bacon
6 to 8 small, young onions
two cups chopped button mushrooms Ingredients for the meat:
3lb stewing steak
4 tablespoons oil
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tablespoons flour
1 bottle of fruity young claret (Burgundy or Beaujolais)
Salt and freshly milled black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
Bunch of fresh herbs

Cutup and cook the bacon in a frying pan until it is lightly brown. Add the onions and cook uncovered for roughly ten minutes. Then add the mushrooms, stir, cover and cook gently for a further ten minutes.

Cut the stewing steak into cubes roughly 1½” square. Add the beef to the bacon, onions and mushrooms and begin to brown the cubes of meat. Add the garlic and sprinkle the flour over the meat. Stir from time to time.

Add wine, light seasoning and herbs. Cover and simmer for 3 hours or until the meat is tender. Serve with boiled potatoes sprinkled with chopped parsley or mashed potatoes.

October 6, 2011March 5, 2012

Oxtail Soup Cooked Over an Open Fire

Final weekend approached us very quickly and we cooked up several dishes. All unique and very tasty. People were surprised at the variety of ingredients we used. This recipe is the first of four recipes we did this past weekend. I will post each recipe separately.

Oxtail Soup

Oxtail dishes are found across cultures. From Northern Europe, across the British Isles, Ottoman Empire, Mediterranean, Arabic, and Far Eastern cultures have all used oxtail in a variety of dishes. Some dishes were primarily delicacies, but secondarily offered homeopathic cures to various ailments including back and hip pain.

The Chinese added shredded cabbage mushrooms, and carrots, among other vegetables to provide a heart stew. Arabic and Mediterranean cultures added tomatoes and chickpeas, while European cultures, including Italy even added wine or brandy to the dish during the post-Restoration period.

Oxtails were once inexpensive, but with their increased use in many cuisines, the price of oxtails has become expensive. Asian grocery stores offer oxtails at about a third of the cost of main stream grocery stores.

This is a favorite among my male friends as oxtails, when cooked properly, can take on a prime rib flavor and texture. This particular dish, was cooked over an open fire in a cast iron Dutch oven.

Ingredients:
3 lbs of oxtails
1 lbs of beef shoulder soup bones.
2 lbs red potatoes, thinly sliced
3 parsnips, peeled and shredded
1 lbs of leeks, cut into rings
3 sprigs of rosemary
1/4 cup of butter or oil
2 lbs carrots, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 small can of tomato paste (optional)
Kosher or sea salt
Black pepper

Begin preparing the dish by adding the beef shoulder bones in a large pot with enough water to cover the bones and add 1 tsp of sea or kosher salt. Bring items to a boil for a half an hour. Remove and dispose of the bones and reserve the broth.

Heat oil or melt butter in a different soup pot. Once heated, add the oxtails to brown and slowly add the leeks and garlic; continuing to cook. Once browned, add enough of the new broth to cover the cover the oxtails by an additional 3 inches, water may be added to increase the amount of liquid. At this moment, one may add optional tomato paste. Let cook for 1 hour and stir occasionally. After an hour, remove the soup bones, but leave in the oxtails. Begin adding the potatoes, carrots and rosemary. Cook for an additional 20 minutes or until potatoes are fork tender.

This dish is very rich and if one’s constitution prefers a less rich version, one may choose to put the soup in a cooler and remove the excess fat from the top before reheating. Add additional salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 6-8.