Recipes / Food - Drink

[Ea]

Originally Posted by Katti's Cat

Well, know that you have read through the yummy cookie receipe here is an old family favourite.

WARNING: this dish looks quite disgusting at the end but so far I have never met anyone who doesn't like it. My stepdaugter & her sisters call it (very unfortunate but not far from the truth) "Spew with egg"

We just call it 'Labskaus' (I believe in other parts of the world it's called 'hot pot'). Please note that this is a family receipe and not the 'offical labskaus' receipe you can find elsewhere.

The way you describe it, it sounds like a German recipe (esp. with the name). You are right, it tastes good, but doesn't look quite inviting

So I'm going to add my favourite winter comfort food, which is not quite unlike your labskaus, but which might not scare the guests This is a dish that is served in (almost) every Danish home.

Danish 'Skipperlabskovs', four servings

500-600 g beef or veal, bite-sized dice (the kind of meat that's meant to simmer for a long time)
a little bit of fatty bacon, diced finely (for taste - optional, only if frying meat)
2 onions, diced
about 130-150 gram of potato per person - MUST be a white, floury type, potatoes for baking are the best - diced, 1.5-2 cm
1 teaspoon of whole peppercorn
2-3 bay leaves
salt
water
Optional: 2-3 carrots, in 5 mm slices - it's not traditional, but it makes the dish look nice, and it adds a bit those vegetables we all need more of. Doesn't hurt the taste either.

First step is optional, but it enhances taste a little and makes the dish look better (less of those floaty bits you get when boiling meat):
Melt a little butter or margarine on a frying pan. Add the bacon, and fry it until the fat starts melting. Turn op high and sear the meat quickly on all sides. Put the meat in a large cooking pot. Turn down the heat and fry the onion a few minutes. Musn't get too dark. Add the onion to the meat.

If you skip frying, just put meat and onion in a large pot. Add enough water to just about, but not quite, cover the meat. Let it simmer on low (very low) for an hour or two. This can also be done in a slow cooker (6-8 hours).

About 45 min. to one hour before serving time, add the potatoes, and if using, the carrots. You may need to add a little more water at this step. You don't need to peel the potatoes, but it does look nicer if you do.

When the potatoes are well done, you skim off a good deal of the liquid. About half should do it. Now, using a large spoon, break apart some of the potatoes, and generally just stir it vigorously. The end result should be like wet, very lumpy, mashed potatoes with meat (and carrots) mixed in.

Spoon into a serving bowl and sprinkle with freshly chopped parsley. Serve with sliced, pickled beetroot as a condiment.

If you've followed my advice on frying the meat, peeling the potatoes, added carrot, and sprinkled with parsley, you should have an inviting looking dish, nice enough for guests. If you haven't, it'll look browner and plainer, but it'll taste great nonetheless If you've used yellow, firm potatoes, you'll end up with a thick soup with potato lumps - so don't.

BTW, if you sprinkle with fresh parsley and want to save leftovers, you need to stir in the parsley and re-heat the skipperlabskovs well to kill any bacteria lurking on the parsley.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Single cream apparently has around 18% fat, so closer to coffee cream than whipping cream

You were right. "My" coffee cream is 9-12% though

Originally Posted by desertgrandma

I had to look it up....its a US thing......heres a good explanation
....

According to Wikipedia, single cream is 18% cream in the UK. Half-and-half in USA is 10.5-18% cream.

So there's lot's of percentages to choose from I think I'll stay with whole milk. Cream and butter gives a nice texture, but - oh! - the calories, with all that butter and cream.

[Ea]

I have a craving for horseradish at the moment, so I dug out a good, old, traditional recipe - the kind if food I got at my grand-aunts' and grandparent's home.

The gravy could be made vegetarian or vegan - and I think it would be great with a mix of baked root vegetables.

Veal (or beef) breast in horseradish gravy

2 servings

300 gram of veal or beef breast (or some equivalent type of veal or beef meat) - preferably a whole piece, though diced would be okay, too
2.5-3 dl (deciliter) water
2 dl white wine (or water with 2 tablespoon white wine vinegar)
1 small onion, quartered
1 small carrot, in sticks or diagonal slices (it's for taste, doesn't need to look nice)
1 bit of root celery, almost as much as the carrot (also for taste, and optional - could also be a bit of leaf celery)
1/2 teaspoon peppercorn
1/2 tespoon whole coriander seed
1 nip allspice
1-2 bay leaves

Sauce
2 teaspoon butter
3-4 teaspoon wheat flour
2-3 tablespoon cream (any kind - the gravy is thickened with starch, so "light" creams work fine, too)
1 large tablespoon fresh, finely shredded horseradish
3.5-4 dl of the cooking liquid
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon vinegar (plain white, "kitchen vinegar")

Serve with:
Baked parsnip and boiled potatoes (or baked potato wedges, which is easier if you already bake the parsnips).

The meat can be cooked in a slow cooker as well as a pot. In the slow cooker it can easily do 8 hours. Simmered in a pot, it takes 2-3 hours.

Put the meat, onion, vegetables, water, wine, and spices into a cooking pot or slow cooker pot and let it simmer until done.

About half an hour before dinner time: prepare the potatoes. If boiled, you know what to do. If baked, slice them into wedges, coat with a little oil and perhaps a bit of thyme. They need 25 min. at 200 C in a convection oven.

When you've put the potatoes in the oven, clean and cut the parsnips into halfs or quarters. Coat with a little oil and add to the potatoes after 7-10 min. Parsnips need 15-17 min.

Pull out the meat from the cooking liquid and slice it (7-8 mm).

Melt 2 teaspoon of butter in a small saucepan. While waiting for it to melt, pour the cooking liquid into a bowl, and strain it in the process. There should be about 3.5-4 dl. This is supposed to be a "white", light-coloured, gravy, so - for looks at least - it's important to strain it well.

Add the flour to the melted butter and whisk. It should create a firm roux - a "flour-ball". Don't brown it.

Add the cooking liquid little by little, while stirring with a whisk. Add the cream, horseradish, vinegar, sugar, salt and perhaps a little white pepper. Bring it to a gentle boil for a few minutes. If necessary adjust the taste with more horseradish, salt, sugar and vinegar - depending on how strong and sharp you want the taste (it's not supposed to be a sweet-and-sour gravy, so go light on the sugar and vinegar).

Add the meat back into the sauce for re-heating, while you deal with the potatoes and baked parsnips. Serve the meat in the sauce in a serving dish - arrange the slices and then pour a little of the gravy over. Serve the rest of the gravy in a gravy boat.

[happy_terd]

Title: Blood Sausage (Kiszka)

Ingredients

------------------FROM: GREAT SAUSAGE RECIPES-------------------------
1 ingredients for 100 lbs.
2 lb salt
5 oz onion powder
5 oz coarse black pepper
2 oz marjoram
1 1/2 oz ground allspice
1 ga beef blood
4 oz cure
50 lb pork snouts
20 lb pork tongues
10 lb pork skins
20 lb buckwheat groats or barley

--------------------PROCESSING AND GRINDING---------------------------
1 ingredients for 10 lbs.
6 tb salt
2 tb onion powder
2 ts coarse black pepper
1 heaping tsp. marjoram
1 tb allspice
1 lb beef blood (1 pint)
1/2 ts cure
1 meat in pounds

Instructions

All meats must be cooked for at least 2 hours and then cooled. Grind all
the meats thru 3/16" grinder plate. Buckwheat groats or barley shall be
placed in a container and covered with hot boiling water for at least 2
hours. Be sure you place a cover on the container to prevent too much heat
from escaping. (You may cook either of these items until the volume is
doubled.) Remove and let cool. After all the meats and groats have cooled,
place in a mixer and add all seasonings, blood, and mix well. Stuff into
beef bungs or beef middles. Blood sausage is then cooked in 160 degree F
water until the internal temperature reaches 152 degrees F. Remove from
cooker and shower with cool water until the internal temperature is reduced
to 110 degrees F, remove to cooler for at least 24 hours. Note: Since there
always seems to be some breakage in the sausage business, you may add
whatever broken sausage you have to the above formula. This blood sausage
is spiced quite heavy and will cover up most other spices. You may add up
to 5 lbs. of broken sausage to a 100 lb. formula. Shared By: Pat Stockett
Courtesy of Shareware RECIPE CLIPPER 1.1


http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-...2/074501.SHTML

[Ea]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

Title: Blood Sausage (Kiszka)
....

Have you tried to make this yourself? It would be more interesting if you have....

Blood sausage is - if oldfashioned - quite common where I live, and thus I have not made it myself, just bought it ready-made at the butcher. But I've thought it could be interesting to make myself one day, and good advice would be welcome.

Also, a few times I've thought that a tiny amount (such as 1-2 tablespoons) of blood would be a good addition to a gravy/sauce, but I haven't tried that yet.

[happy_terd]

I like blood sausage but it is hard for me to come across. I do plan on trying to make some if I ever get a chance.


"Also, a few times I've thought that a tiny amount (such as 1-2 tablespoons) of blood would be a good addition to a gravy/sauce, but I haven't tried that yet."

Blood is often used as a thickener to gravies and sauces.

[Ea]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

I like blood sausage but it is hard for me to come across. I do plan on trying to make some if I ever get a chance.


"Also, a few times I've thought that a tiny amount (such as 1-2 tablespoons) of blood would be a good addition to a gravy/sauce, but I haven't tried that yet."

Blood is often used as a thickener to gravies and sauces.

Where do you live/come from?

[badgoodDeb]

Originally Posted by happy_terd

Blood is often used as a thickener to gravies and sauces.

Originally Posted by Ea

Where do you live/come from?

Must be the same planet that spawned the Plant, Audrey II, in "Little Shop of Horrors".

[Ea]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Must be the same planet that spawned the Plant, Audrey II, in "Little Shop of Horrors".

*LOL* Why is it so bad to eat blood - but not bad to eat meat? Blood sausage was something we had for dinner once in a while when I was a child. Then I became a teenager and had a period when I thought blood=Eeuugh!!!

Then... I thought that since I ate meat, I'd better just get over myself. So I did - and remembered I didn't mind blood sausage when I was a kid. Never ate a lot, but a little bit, served with apple sauce and cinnamon-sugar is quite nice.

You know... just get over that icky feeling. If you eat meat, you shed blood of an animal. Served the right way, it can taste fine. If you don't want to shed the blood, don't eat meat. Simple.

[happy_terd]

From ohio then moved to Ca a while back. Brother in Law was a butcher for over 10 years. They killed a lot of their own / customer's animals and used almost all of the parts.

[Katti's Cat]

We used to make blood sausages - slightly different receipe and we included some fillet as well. And no beef blood - all pork. Usually done when we slaughtered the pig.

I always hated having to stir the darn blood. But the sausages were worth it. Hmm, now that I think of it, we called it 'Black Pudding'. Will have to google if Blood Sausages are the same.

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by Ea

The way you describe it, it sounds like a German recipe (esp. with the name). You are right, it tastes good, but doesn't look quite inviting

You are right, it is a German receipe. Allegedly an old seafarers dish.

Thanks for posting your 'upmarket' version. Will try it out on one of the next cooler days

[Ea]

Originally Posted by Katti's Cat

You are right, it is a German receipe. Allegedly an old seafarers dish.

Ah, that's why it's called 'skipper-labskovs' in Danish. I've sometimes wondered why.

Originally Posted by Katti's Cat

Thanks for posting your 'upmarket' version. Will try it out on one of the next cooler days

Sometimes in a few months I presume You have good sense - it's a cold-weather dish.

[Katti's Cat]

Originally Posted by Ea

Ah, that's why it's called 'skipper-labskovs' in Danish. I've sometimes wondered why.

Apparently 'labskaus' was first mentioned sometime around 1700 - it was 'created' by shipscooks with what they had on board, i.e. pickled meatsand other stuff that could last. The name seems to originate in the english language from 'lobscouse'. Which I checked and was translated as 'meal for tough men'. Having seen the dish, one can relate to the name. People from the south often called this dish a 'test' that can only be braved by closing the eyes and thinking of the fatherland . But serious, although it looks rather vile, it is very yum. And in eating and later making it myself for the last decades I have never met anyone who didn't like it (once they closed their eyes and thought of the fatherland.

And yes, cooler weather is still some months away.

[nicolafurlong]

Hey Folks,

Dreams kindly suggested I post my ab fab fudge recipe so here goes but careful! Incredibly easy and tasty.

In large microwaveable bowl, add

2 cups packed brown sugar
1 can (300 ml) sweetened condensed milk (I use Eagle brand low fat!)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup butter (I've reduced this by 1/8 and it's great)

Have on hand 1 + 1/4 cup chocolate chips. I use 3/4 milk and the rest semi-sweet but it's up to you. You can also use all white chocolate for a 'sucre a la creme' fudge or butterscotch or whatever. I'm into real chocolate.

Put the bowl with the four ingredients into microwave for 11 minutes on high. At 9, 6 and 3 minutes, remove and stir. At 1 minute, dump in chocolate chips and stir. Return to oven.

Remove at end, beat for 2 minutes, then pour into a buttered ~8x8 inch pan. I use parchment paper instead of butter and a 'meatloaf pan' as I like it thick.

Best part is eating it out of the bowl. As I mentioned, it freezes really well just in plastic freezer bags.

Let me know what you think. Cheers.

Nicola Furlong
www.epubbing.com