Back-Engineering a Recipe

All over the world are people converting standard recipes to short-cut versions. Instead of doing this...buy this. Half the work is done for you. Don't bake a cake from scratch, use this box, and add this, it changes it.

Well, OK, if that's what you want, none of my business. I find these short-cuts to be mostly useless. Often they don't save any time. They certainly don't save money. But the main thing is, they generally aren't as good.

Now, before you all roll your eyes at me, I'm not totally against cheating. If it tastes fine, isn't too expensive, and saves HOURS, I say go for it. But anyone who thinks that adding things to a boxed cake mix saves you a lot of time is deluding themselves.

My main objection to some of these recipes is that the cheat ingredient is either poor quality or really not good for you. Nobody eats healthy food all the time, not even me, but given a choice between two thinngs, that do the same job, why choose the unhealthy one?

So last night I promised to back-engineer this:

Lemon Delight

Ingredients:

1 stick butter - melted

1 cup flour

1 1/2 cup pecans - chopped (reserve 3/4 cup for topping)

1 16 oz. container Cool Whip

8 oz. cream cheese - softened

1 cup sugar

2 boxes Lemon Instant Pudding - regular size (made to directions and refrigerated)

Directions:

Making 4 layers in a 9 x 13 glass dish

1st layer - butter, flour and 3/4 cup pecans mixed together and pressed into the bottom of glass dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 - 15 min until light brown. COOL completely.

2nd layer - cream cheese, sugar and 1 cup Cool Whip. Blend until creamy and spread over 1st layer.

3rd layer - Lemon pudding (made to box directions) spread evenly over 2nd layer.

4th layer - extra Cool Whip spread evenly over 3rd layer and topped with remaining pecans.

Cover and refrigerate for several hours before serving.

Let's begin with a complaint to the recipe-maker about the stick of butter. That is no freaking help to those of us in place where butter is not sold in sticks. It's the usual Americentric rubbish. But it's a 1/2 cup or 4 ounces or 113grams. 

While I'm here I'll add that 1 cup of flour is 4.4 ounces or 125 grams. 

The first item there I will change is the Cool Whip. I'll eat it, I'm not totally opposed to it. But it really serves no purpose. Use whipped cream. It's cheaper. Don't pay for AIR, that's just silly. To achieve the same final quantity (volume) as 16oz container of Cool Whip, you don't need 16 fluid ounces of whipping cream. Half that is plenty. 

Now the Lemon Instant Pudding. When I've had a similar dish to this it was not the lemon flavour, and in fact you can make ANY flavour "pudding". There are two ways. Simplest first.

Pudding is essentially a commercial version of blancmange, and nowhere near as good. All you need are sugar, milk, cornstarch, and flavouring. 

Cornstarch is funny stuff, and can mess you around when you try to mix it. Always add sugar to it, and then just a little milk, to make a thin paste, before you add anything else.

Pudding 1

You'll need:

3 tablespoons of cornstarch (cornflour)

1/3 cup sugar (2.65 ounces or 75 grams)

pinch of salt

2 1/2 cups milk (1 pint or 1/2 litre)

1 tsp real vanilla extract

So, as I said, add a splash of the milk to the cornstarch, sugar, ands salt, along with the vanilla, then heat the rest of the milk, but don't boil it. Then add the hot milk to the rest while whisking, and continue to whisk while heating gently, it will thicken. So long as you keep whisking and don't overheat this (i.e. don't burn it). You will have a perfectly good blancmange. Flavour as required. This is the basis of simple CHOCOLATE pudding, simply add 2 1/2 tablespoons of good quality cocoa powder along with the cornstarch. Any other flavour can be made.

Chill.

HOWEVER

With lemon pudding, you are better making a slightly more complicated pudding, that includes eggs.

Pudding 2

You'll need:

1/4 cup of cornstarch (4 tablespoons or 1 ounce or 22 grams)

3/4 cup sugar (6.6 ounces or 187 grams)

pinch of salt

3 egg yolks, beaten together

2/1/2 cups milk (1 pint or 1/2 litre)

1/2 cup lemon juice (8 fl oz or 227ml)

2 tablespoons finely grated lemon zest

2 tablespoons melted butter

Start with the cornstarch, sugar, salt, and a splash of milk, then add hot milk while whisking as before. Now add in those egg yolks, and the lemon zest, and continue to whisk while it thickens. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and melted butter. If you want this absolutely smooth you can put it in the blender, but for pity's sake let it cool first, because if you don't you're cleaning up the mess, not me.

Chill. 

The second version can be adapted to any fruit, and is the better choice, in my opinion.

Please note the tablespoon is a standard measurement (15 ml).

The question that remains, is how much is equivalent to 2 boxes of commercial pudding? Well, how much milk do you add to the box ingredients? Compare that to the milk in these pudding recipes, and you can figure it out. 

Questions?

Curry

If you Google this word you'll get so many hits your brain will implode. Let's take it one step at a time.

Curry is an English word which is used to refer to vegetable and/or meat dishes that are stew-like, that is to say small pieces in a gravy, with Asian spices. This is generally served with rice and/or a flatbread. Because there are a lot of these type of dishes in India, it has often been mis-used to refer to most or all Indian food which is quite wrong. The word curry really refers to the gravy arrangement.

However it's not as wrong as what happened next. The vague idea of an Indian flavour gave rise to the idea of "curried", in other words, foods cooked with Indian flavours. As there are hundreds of different spices used in India, and two dishes can be cooked with exclusively different ones and still be seen from the West as curry, this is pretty hard to explain, but people seem to know what they mean.

Possibly the greatest silliness is the idea of a "curry sauce", which could be seen to be a "gravy gravy". But there it is, people say it all the time, AND, again....everyone knows what they mean.

I have joked over the years that the typical British way of serving Chili con Carne over rice, makes the dish a Mexican curry, but I get funny looks. Prove me wrong.

Now then, you can become an Indian food purist. A real snob. Go ahead.

OR, you can say, "well, I'm not Indian, but I like this type of food, can I just make it up as I go along?".

Yes.

What do you think Indian cooks do?

Look - I'm English. Curry is the national dish of England. The first curry house opened in England in about 1780, and we never looked back. Some of the top dishes in the world thought of as Indian were in fact created in England. I grew up on the stuff, I am intimate with it. What I cook is NOT Indian food. So don't bother telling me it isn't, I know. I cook English curry, and I do it well.

So.

Here is the non-Indian way of making avant garde curry, as a quick, tasty, and cheap meal. I do it all the time.

First choose your base. Meat or vegetable? This is a great dish for vegetarians (or people trying to save money by skipping meat) because the rich flavour replaces the umami missing from non-meat meals. Chick peas, lentils, and beans are typical ingredients in a curry anyway, and used instead of meat they make it hearty.

If you are using meat, decide if it needs long slow cooking or not. Chicken breast does not. Lamb or beef, the cuts intended for stew anyway, need to be started at least 1 1/2 hours before you plan on eating. Dried legumes need about the same time. So if it's to be a long cooking time, plan ahead accordingly (you can also use a slow cooker).

If it's all vegetable, it doesn't take quite so long, although some root vegetables benefit from longer cooking.

Start by heating some oil or the traditional Indian ghee (clarified butter, tastes like heaven) and sauté some onions in it. You add your spices NOW, but we'll discuss that in a minute. The hot fat draws the flavours out.  Add diced meat, brown it, and any veggies that you need to add now (if unsure, ask me). I would certainly add carrots, rutabaga, and potatoes at this point. Also add garlic now, and lots of it.

Once the meat is brown, and the veggies are tender, you need to add liquid. It doesn't really matter what it is, it can be a frugal stock (when flat broke I've used water, frankly), but you can't go wrong with passata (tomato juice) and/or coconut milk. I often use half and half. If you don't like the taste of coconut, fear not. You won't taste it. But it lends a creaminess without that risk of burning you'd get from milk. Cover everything with your liquid. Now is when you add legumes. Put a lid on this and simmer it until everything is tender, adding short-cook vegetables as appropriate. Test the flavour 10 minutes before serving, as you can add a bit more spice if need be then.

What are good vegetables to use? This is where English curry differs from Indian curry. Use what you have and what you like. In India - a HOT country - lots of exotic vegetables grow. Do you need them? No. Indian cooks use them because that's what they have. I use carrots, peas, potatoes, cauliflower, zucchini...whatever is lying around.

Now then, if you want to use chicken breast, or fish, or sausage (oh yes you can), it doesn't need so long. You can even do a stir-fry version. Just figure out how long each ingredient takes to cook, plan ahead.

You can use leftovers, and this is a perfect way to hide things that didn't turn out well. No, I'm quite serious, If you have a stew, a soup, or anything that went wrong, you can recycle it into curry. I hate waste.

You can tip everything raw into a slow cooker in the morning and come home in the evening to a fantastic curry. It won't be as good, but it'll be good enough. Meat is always better if it is browned first, don't ask me why (I'll tell you in the Fall, I'm taking a gastronomy course!) it just is. But it will be OK effectively boiled with spices.

So, the spices.

You can cheat. You can buy "curry powder". Each brand is different and you can find a favourite, or just vary it up a bit. OR, you can use this ratio:

3 parts coriander
3 parts cumin
1 part turmeric
1 part ginger
1 part cayenne
a little cardamom (optional)

Mix this in whatever amounts you like, and then use 4-6 tablespoons of this. If you are a bit nervous, use less at the start, and adjust at the end. You can reduce the cayenne (or save it until the end) if you prefer a mild curry, as this is the heat. There are lots of other spices that can be used, but you will get a flavourful sauce with this. I should mention, at this point that a lot of people are using cinnamon in curries, and you can too if you want, but I don't.

You will also need some salt and pepper, about a teaspoon of each is plenty.

So, when everything is tender, and you are happy with the spices, serve with boiled rice and/or naan bread.

Questions?

Licker

An oddity here this morning just so I can post a link elsewhere.

In England, most specifically around the London area, is a traditional dish known as Pie and Licker. This used to be sold in fish & chip shops but is gradually disappearing. Licker is one of those things you either love or hate, but it's certainly distinctive (bright green). You will see it written as liquor in books, as if to correct the spelling, but it's wrong.


You'll need:


2oz butter
2oz cornflour (*cornstarch)
Pint of good chicken stock (*2 cups)
Large bunch of fresh parsley, finely chopped.

Melt butter slowly over low heat, whisk in the cornflour to make a roux. Add stock slowly, simmer gently two minutes, then add parsley. Stir continuously until thick to avoid lumps.

A Bit of a Survey

We're having burgers for dinner, it's Tyler's turn to cook and he's scratching his head a bit...have I remembered everything?

I always find myself doing that too. OK, got the pickles, got the cheese.......and I am always convinced I've forgotten something. (Sometimes, I have).

It's not the sort of thing you can ask anyone either, because we all have our own preferences of what's included. On the other hand the list of possibilities is long.

The same applies to pizza, only more so. Here, the possible toppings are virtually endless. So, what do you like? What do you put in your burger, or on your pizza? There are no wrong answers. When I was a child it never occurred to me that you could have anything more than ketchup and fried onions in a burger(and I still like them that way now, from time to time).

So, if I show you mine, will you show me yours?

My choices:

Burgers

Usual:

Sliced chedder
Ketchup
Mustard
Lettuce
Tomato
Dill pickles
Raw onion rings

Maybe:

Bacon
Salsa

Pizza:

Usual:

Tomato sauce
Cheddar Cheese
Mozarella Cheese
Green Peppers
Onion
Mushrooms
Salami
Italian Sausage
Olives

Maybe:

Artichoke Hearts

Tom's Week - Day 5

Which I didn't eat.

Tonight Martin requested chili, and quite frankly, I'm not keen. The chili in this house is good, but I am just not a chili lover. Can't tell you why. Just something about it leaves me stone cold. So I had salmon.

Before I share the chili recipe with you I want to be quite clear on something. I do not claim to offer an authentic chili recipe. I am not from the part of the world where chili comes from.

My early experience of chili was in England, obviously, where it was ALWAYS called chili con carne, and was always served over rice. I don't really care for rice. It tastes of nothing, and it dilutes the flavour of the food. To me it's like pouring water on your dinner. But because the English are used to eating curry, and chili is sort of Mexican curry, it was served with rice. I did not invent this, so don't blame me.

IF I eat chili, these days, I have it with cheese on top. Somehow it needs that. But I'd rather not bother.

Anyway, this is our "everyday" chili recipe, simple, quick, ten minutes prep.

Brown ground beef, pour off fat and give to dog or cat. Add diced onions and peppers, cook until veggies are soft. Add tomato sauce and the Mexican flag seasonings. NO, silly, don't dice up a bloody flag. It's a mnemonic. For the green - oregano. For the white - garlic. For the red - chili powder. Then throw in beans and corn. Simmer. It's always well-received.

Oh sure you can spend all day slaving over a chili, but if you want it fast and still pretty good? Never had a complaint yet.

Tom's Week - Day 4

There's a new (to me) dish that is all the rage, and it has a very ugly name - Pulled Pork. What is wrong with people that they name a dish like that? Why not have Splatted Chicken, Trampled Beef, or Thrown Against The Wall A Few Times Fish? Back in the day dishes had nice foreign names. Hey ho.

I call it Shredded Pork which is marginally better.

The first time I made it, it was great, and it's never been as good since, I should have written it down.

Today is Tom's turn and there are great smells coming out of the slow cooker.

We won't be eating it in buns. I'm sorry, that's just revolting. We'll have it over rice so we can eat it with a fork and not need a shower afterwards.

So, I asked him what he used as a sauce so I could pass it on to you, and he said "Umm....". So if it's good we won't be able to repeat it again. But depending on how it turns out, it may prove what I've always believed...THERE IS NO RECIPE.

As far as I can tell you throw together whatever you have on hand. Tom started with a bottle of passata, and went from there. I can smell cumin and garlic anyway, and it occurs to me we could do a fully Indian version, so I'll do that next time. But as far as I can tell it's a bit of this, and a bit of that, he's been watching his sister.

Tom's Week - Day Three

Last night was Fisherman's Pie  and I know this is going to annoy you. Like many of the dishes I write about, we don't have a set recipe for this, it varies tremendously.

Fisheman's Pie is a potato-topped pie like Shepherd's Pie, and as a "peasant" dish it makes use of what you have rather than insisting on set ingredients.

So the first thing you need is fish, any fish, and plenty of it. Cook as much as if you were serving fillets. At least 4 ounces cooked weight per person. You don't need to fuss over this part of it, I just bake it, covered with foil. We used sole last night, but you can use a mixture, and you can include seafood if you wish.

Then you need some mashed potato. Please see previous blog if you need help there. (You could also use potato slices, if you are into au gratin).

Crumble the fish up, or leave it whole. Doesn't matter. Make sauce or don't bother. Add vegetables and/or seasonings, or not. Top with potatoes and bake. Yes, THAT flexible. This could really be an ultra-basic two ingredient dish, with everything else on the side.

But last night it was as follows:

Melt butter in pan, add diced onions, green peppers, and mushrooms. Lots of garlic too. Cook vegetables until tender, then add flour to make a roux. Add rich fish stock and then milk to create a thick sauce. Stir in cooked peas. Add black pepper and thyme. Mix this with fish (crumbled) and then top with potatoes and bake.

This was exceptionally good, but could probably even better. There's really no limit to the vegetables you could cram in here. Herbs are very much to your taste. My fish stock included salt and some herbs and spices (mace, parsley, bay leaf) yours may differ, or you can add these separately, and you can use whatever you like. If you have no fish stock (it probably has to be home-made, it is almost impossible to buy in a store in many places) don't worry, just add more seasonings.

The point is you can use up leftovers, or just eat it simple. You could fry the fish first for a different taste, you could add things to the potato. All I can tell you is that when this is on the menu here everyone goes wild with excitement.