Butternut Squash and Leek Soup

Serves approximately 6 people

Ingredients

2 Butternut Squash
Pint Half and Half
2 Cans of Chicken Broth (Low Sodium)
1 t Butter
1/3 Cup White Wine
 2 Bay Leaves
1/2 t Black Pepper
1/2 t Salt
1/2 t Thyme
1/2 t Garlic

Directions

Split the squash in half vertically and seed each half.  Place the halves flesh side up (skin side down) on a baking sheet.  Drizzle a little bit of olive oil on each half along with a dash of salt and pepper.  Then, put the squash halves in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 to 40 minutes.  This will allow the flesh to soften and thus it will be easier to remove from the skin.

While the squash is in the oven, soak the leeks in water to remove any trapped sand.  Next, remove the top "tuft" of leaves as well as any of the dark green outer leaves so that the leek stalks are only a light green/ white color.  Then, slice the leeks horizontally into medallions.  Slices should be about 1/4 inch apart.  Now, your leeks are ready to be cooked. 

The leeks will be the first component to go into your soup.  Place a medium soup pot on medium-high heat.  In the pot add about 1 t of butter and when it is sizzling add the leeks.  Stir the leeks until they start to wilt and are translucent.  Once they have have wilted and become translucent, add the wine and 1/2 can of broth to the leeks.  Turn the heat down to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, turn off the heat, allow the leek mixture to cool and puree the mixture in a blender.  Put the blended leeks back into the soup pot and put it off to the side.

At this point, you should remove your squash from the oven.  Again, the squash should be in the oven for about 30-40 minutes.  Allow the squash to cool for a few minutes and then remove the flesh of each squash with a spoon.  Once you have removed the flesh, place it in the blender with a can or broth.  It is possible that you will need to do this in two blender runs.

The pureed squash can now be added to the leeks in the soup pot.  Put the pot back on medium heat, add the half and half, spices and the remaining broth.  Allow the soup to simmer for about 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes, you are almost ready to eat.  At this point, remove the bay leaves from the pot.

Your last step is to puree the whole soup one more time.  This will give the liquid a silky texture.

You are now ready to enjoy a soup which is perfect for a winter day. 

Sweet Italian Sausage

Makes 12 Patties

Ingredients
1 Pound Ground Pork
1 Tb Fennel Seeds
2 Tb Red Wine Vinegar
2/3 Tb Dried Basil
1 Ts Black Pepper
1 Ts Honey
1 Ts Brown Sugar
1 Ts Red Pepper Powder
1/2 Ts Salt
2 Garlic Cloves (Crushed)

Directions
Mix ingredients together by hand in a mixing bowl.  Make sure that all of the spices are spread evenly throughout the sausage mixture.

Once the meat has been mixed with the spices, cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator and allow it to sit over night. 

After the sausage meat has rested over night, remove it from the refrigerator and separate it into 12 pieces.  By hand, flatten each sausage into a patty.

Lastly, in a lightly oiled skillet on high cook the sausages.  I would suggest cooking no more than 3 at a time.  As the sausages are cooking, give them a flip when they become brown on one side. 

At this point, you can opt to finish your sausages in a pot of simmering tomato sauce (see the meatball recipe) or you can cook them through on the skillet.  Either way, the sausages are ready to eat when they are no longer pink in the middle. 

Moist Banana Bread

Makes One Loaf

Ingredients
3 Bananas (Cut into "coins")
2 Cups Flour
2 Eggs
3/4 Cups Sugar
1/3 Cup Butter (Melted)
2 Tb Cream Cheese
1 Tb Brown Sugar
1 ts Baking Soda
1 ts Cinnamon
1/4 ts Salt

Directions
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

Mix the flour, eggs, sugar, butter, cream cheese, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a mixing bowl until they are smooth and the batter has an even consistency.  The thickness will be similar to that of cake batter.  Next, add in your bananas.  Use a metal spoon to stir in the bananas and use the back of the spoon to crush them.  You want the majority of the banana flesh to be crushed so that it stirs into the batter.  It is acceptable, though, (and sometimes preferred) to have a few lumps when you are done stirring.

Pour the batter into a lightly greased loaf pan and allow it cook on the middle rack of the oven.  It will probably take between 20 and 30 minutes to finish. 

You will be finished when the bread is thoroughly solid in the middle and brown on the outside.  To test the middle you can insert a skewer into the bread to check for done-ness.  If the skewer, when removed from the bread, is clean, your bread has baked through.

After removing the bread from the oven, allow it to cool for 40 minutes.

Once it is cool, you may remove the bread from the pan and cut it into slices.  

Meatballs and Frybread

Meatballs on Frybread

Makes 15 Meatballs

Ingredients

Meatballs

1 Lb Ground Beef

½ Lb Ground Pork

3 Stalks Parsley

2 Pinches Salt

5 Cloves Garlic

2/3 Cup of Mozzarella Cheese

¼ Cup Water

6 Tb Bread Crumbs

½ Ts Black Pepper

Olive Oil For Cooking

Frybread

½ Ts Baking Soda

¾ Cup Water

1 Tb Sugar

1 Tb + 1 Ts Melted Butter

2 Ts Yeast

2 Cup Flour

Pinch Salt

Olive Oil For Cooking

Sauce

4 Pounds Tomatoes, Stemmed, pureed

4 Tb Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Tb Chopped Basil

1 Tb Sugar

1 Tb Lemon Juice

Salt to Taste

Directions

Sauce

Mix all of the ingredients for the sauce in a large mixing bowl and then place it in a large pot on low.  Allow the sauce to reduce by about ¼ to 1/3.  You should see the sauce go from a light red color to a richer, darker red color. 

Frybread

Bloom yeast by mixing it with the sugar and warm water.  Allow this mixture to sit for 5 minutes until it starts to foam at the top.

Place the other ingredients into a large mixing bowl and then mix in the water/sugar/yeast mixture. 

Knead this dough with your hands until all of the ingredients are mixed in.  You will probably need to knead for about 5 minutes.  The consistency of the dough should be slightly sticky.  The dough will also have a slight sheen due to the addition of the butter.  Once the dough has been mixed and kneaded, allow it to rise for 1 hour.

Separate the dough into about 10 pieces and roll them out into rounds with about a 6 inch diameter.

Then, place each piece of dough in a frying pan with about 2 Tb of Olive Oil on medium-low.  Cook on each side until it is golden brown.  Also, just be certain that the center is fully cooked.  This may take a little practice. 

Meatballs

Mix the garlic cloves and parsley with the water and blend them in a blender.  Take this mélange and mix it with the other ingredients for the meatballs. 

Use your hands to mix the ingredients until they are evenly spread and mixed together. 

Then, separate the meatball mixture into 15 separate spheres. 

Lastly, brown the meatballs on high in a skillet with a little bit of olive oil.  Do not cook the meat balls through.  They should just be brown on the outside.  Also, it is probably wise to brown the meatballs in batches of 5.  Otherwise, the skillet cools down and the meatballs will not be properly browned. 

After your meatballs are browned, place them in the pot with the tomato sauce.  Cook the sauce in meatballs on low for about a half hour until the meatballs are cooked through.

Serve the meatballs with the fry bread.  You can either eat this with a fork and knife or you can use the fry bread to make wraps with the meatballs.  

Baozi

(An American’s Take on Baozi)

Baozi are small Chinese steamed buns/ dumplings.  They can be filled with meat or vegetables.

This recipe makes 7 Baozi

Ingredients

Dough

3 Cups Flour

1 Tb Oil

1 Cup Warm Water

1 Tb Yeast

1 Tb Sugar

½ Tb Baking Soda

Pinch Salt

Filling

1 Small Tomato, Seeded, Chopped

½ Onion (Rough Cut)

½ Pound of Ground Pork

¼ Pound of Ground Beef

100 G Cheddar Cheese, Grated

Pinch Salt

1 Tb Basil, Chopped

1 Tb Olive Oil

1 Tb Soy Sauce

1 Tb Chili Paste

Directions

Dough

Bloom yeast by mixing it with the sugar and warm water.  Allow this mixture to sit for 5 minutes until it starts to foam at the top.

Place the other ingredients into a large mixing bowl and then mix in the water/sugar/yeast mixture. 

Knead this dough with your hands until all of the ingredients are mixed in.  You will probably need to knead for about 5 minutes.  The consistency of the dough should be slightly sticky.  Once the dough has been mixed and kneaded, allow it to rise for 1 hour.

After the dough has risen, separate it into 7 separate pieces.

Filling

In another large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the filling.  Stir all of the ingredients together until they are evenly spread out.

Filling the Baozi

Roll one of the pieces of dough on a floured surface to a 6 inch diameter.  Then, position your right hand, pretending to hold a glass.  Next, place the Baozi dough on top of your thumb and index fingers.  The middle of the dough will sag in the middle (where a glass normally would be if you were holding a glass).  Thus, the dough is resting in a concave fashion on your hand.

In the middle of the dough, place 1 Tb to 1 ½ Tb of filling.

Lastly, pinch the four “corners” to the top to seal the dumpling.

Before steaming your buns, allow them to rise again for about 15 minutes.  This will let them be fluffier.

Steaming

The buns should then be steamed in a steamer for about 6 to 7 minutes.  Make sure the dough and meat are cooked through.  Also, make sure to cook the dumpling on a piece of parchment or foil.  It is possible that they will stick without this.

Philly Cheese Steak

Recipe for a 12 inch hoagie

Ingredients
1/2 Onion, Diced
1/2 Green Pepper, Diced
300 Grams of finely sliced beef.
3 slices of aged provolone cheese.
12 inch fresh baguette

Vinegar
Salt
Sugar

Suggestions
Beef: Finding beef for a cheese steak can be tough in many places.  If you are near a butcher asked them to slice some rib-eye very thin.  For me, I actually have used slices of beef normally designated for Chinese fondue.  The thickness of the beef is perfect and the cut is normally of a decent quality (as it is meant to be eaten without a fork and knife).

Baguette: Finding the right baguette is really crucial.  I highly suggest an artisan baguette which has a little big more density in the middle and just a slight firmness in the crust.  You do not want factory baked bread.  It is too soft and often too fragile.

Directions:
Place the peppers in a skillet (with a little olive oil) and start browning them.  Two to three minutes later add in your onions as well.  After the vegetables have browned, add about 1/3 of a cup of water.  This will help soften the vegetables even further.  Also, add a pinch of salt and sugar as well as about 2 tea spoons of vinegar to the vegetables.  This will add a little bit of acid to the rich sandwich.  After the liquid has been cooked off, remove the vegetables and put them to the side.

Next, add the beef the a skillet (again oiled).  You can use the same skilled, but its probably wise to clean it off before adding the beef.  As the beef gets close to being browned, add the vegetables to the combination as well as one slice of the cheese.

As the meat gets close to completion, you need to be sure that your sandwich is sliced (lengthwise, but hinged, of course) and that the other 2 cheese slices have been placed at the bottom of the cavity in the sandwich.

As the meat becomes fully brown, remove it from the skillet and place it straight into the sandwich.  The heat from the meat will melt the slices of provolone at the bottom of the sandwich.

French Fries

French Fries are, of course, a rather simple dish, but there are some tricks to perfecting them at home.

Recipe Serves 2 People

Ingredients
4 Potatoes, peeled
Large pan
Olive Oil
Large pot of Boiling Water
Salt (and any other seasonings you like on your fries)

Directions
Cut each of your potatoes into 4 medallions.  Then, cut each of your medallions lengthwise into 4 slivers (Fries).  This should give you 16 fries per potato where the height and width of each fry is approximately 2/3 cm by 2/3 cm.  Try your best to make the fries as even in size as possible.  This will help them cook evenly.

Next, place all of your uncooked fries into the pot of boiling water and let them cook for approximately 7 minutes.  Depending of the type of potato you are using the cooking time can vary.  Every few minutes check the consistency of your potato.  The fries are ready when they are pliable, but still can snap when bent (Andante).

Next, place the now boiled fries into a large frying pan, on medium high.  In the frying pan make sure that there is enough olive oil to coat the entire bottom.  Also, be very careful with temperature.  If the heat is too high the olive oil can burn.

Because you are not using a deep fat fryer you will need to constantly flip your fries to make sure each side browns.

Your fries are ready to be removed when the sides are consistently a golden brown.

Take your fries out of the pan, drain and blot them.  While they are still hot dust them with a dash of salt.  I also like to cover my fries with a little bit of red pepper, black pepper and garlic powder.