Side dish – Page 10 – Rosemary and the Goat

Entree/ Fish/Seafood/ Side dish/ Vegetables

Crab, Corn and Bacon Maque Choux

The last of my summer corn and it tasted fresh out of the field.

After making my Corn and Crab Fritters back in the summer I decided to use some of my corn that I had frozen and add some crabmeat to a Corn Maque Choux recipe I have been wanting to try for a long time. Good decision.

Can’t say I ever had Maque Choux before but when a neighbor once showed me how she was cutting the corn off the cob, I knew that was what we always called “fried corn”. Our version didn’t have the onions or peppers — just good corn, and bacon drippings and you cooked it until it was creamy and thick.

Sometimes we get fresh crabmeat on sale and when that happens, I just have to buy some. I decided to add the crabmeat to this dish and I think it would make a wonderful accompaniment to a steak dinner — surf and turf.

January 12, 2011 By Sherry

Desserts/ Morning Foods/ Side dish

Macadamia Nut Pineapple Casserole

No I haven’t been to Hawaii

But I have a friend on her way there and I hope she will bring back pictures of pineapple fields and macadamia nut trees and maybe of she and her husband doing the hula on the beach.

I love finding a recipe that can be served for brunch, lunch or with dinner and this is such a recipe. I received this recipe back in the 70’s from a friend in our church group and even though I don’t make it often, it has remained one of my favorites.

My sister and I put together two cookbooks of our favorite recipes, one called Double Delight (we are twins) and the other Two Peas In A Pod. In our first book if we both had a recipe we liked and we couldn’t agree which one to put in, we would do both versions, each one of us thinking “ours” was the best. Her pineapple dish had pineapple chunks, Colby cheese and did not have the bread cubes. My recipe takes on more of a bread pudding consistency.

This recipe is delicious with brunch or goes great with a pork roast or baked ham or even a Caribbean themed party. It is very easy to throw together.

January 7, 2011 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Rosemary Roasted Vegetables

Thanksgiving day roasted vegetables.

Can’t you just smell fall in the air, looking at these roasted vegetables. This is the time of the year in Texas that I start feeling like it is fall. Some of the leaves are falling, a few trees may be changing colors, and the temperatures have gotten out of the 80’s and 90’s, and these wonderful vegetables can be found very proudly sitting in the produce isle just begging you to buy them.

Some graffiti eggplant, golden beets, red beets, miniature onions, maroon carrots, a few potatoes and Brussels sprouts.

I do roasted vegetables just about any time during the year but for some reason it seems like they are perfect for the fall season. All the beautiful colors and shapes that you find in your produce section just makes you want to gather up a bunch and take home to roast for dinner.

Recently, I was at gourmet grocery waiting to take a class in their Viking Cooking School. I had some time to kill and I love walking around in this store so I was looking for some vegetables to cook for dinner.

November 20, 2010 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish

Rainbow Slaw with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

There are probably eight million recipes for slaw and this is just one of them.

Ok, this is really dating myself (again). But, back in the 50’s there was a TV show called the Naked City and the tag line for the show was “There are eight million stories in the naked city, and this is has been one of them”.

Happy Halloween everyone. I should be posting a pumpkin recipe I guess but this recipe with roasted, salted pumpkin seeds is as close as I’m getting to a pumpkin today.

Ya know, there are probably a million recipe for slaw/coleslaw out there in the universe just circulating through the Internet and I can’t believe I have never posted a slaw recipe because I probably have at least a gazillion in my recipe files. This recipe for Rainbow Coleslaw with Roasted Pumpkin Seeds is a beautiful slaw with colors of the rainbow. The purple and green cabbage along with the orange carrots and green onions make this a very attractive addition to any plate of food.

Growing up my mother would make several types of slaw. One I remember was called freezer slaw (or really a refrigerator slaw). That particular recipe had shredded cabbage, onion, green onions and green peppers and the dressing was a boiled dressing of sugar and vinegar and a few spices. The dressing would get poured over the slaw and you could keep it refrigerated for at least a month and it would stay crunchy and fresh.

There is also a hot slaw I make that is cooked shredded cabbage with tomatoes, onions and green peppers and lots of black pepper. Now, don’t ask me why it is called “slaw” since it is cooked, but that is the name of the recipe. My mother-in-law always had a special type of slaw she made when she cooked fish for us — a mustard slaw. Her recipe had a little mustard, mayo and a little sugar to sweeten the slaw a tiny bit. For BBQ dinners I like a slaw that doesn’t have mayonnaise in it. And, who doesn’t love KFC coleslaw. I have learned the secret to the thin dressing is adding some milk to the mayonnaise. One of my favorite slaw recipes is one I’m sure everyone has made that has Ramen noodles and sunflower seeds. A friend of mine always makes that when I ask her to bring slaw and it is delicious with the toasted nuts and noodles added in right before serving.

October 31, 2010 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Cuban Style Brown Rice and Black Beans

Braggadocios over this rice dish!

In case you don’t know where Braggy or Braggadocio is, well it’s in Southeast Missouri, the “Bootheel” of the State. And it is where my twin sister lives and where her husband grew up farming cotton, wheat, soybeans, rice, and running a cotton gin until a tornado blew the gin away a couple of years ago.

When we go back home for I always start thinking of all the farming adages ….. like “I’m in tall cotton”, “we’re in the short rows”, “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”, “make hay while the sun shines”, and many others that I can’t think of right now. If you haven’t heard any of these look them up and you will understand what they mean.

The closer we get to our part of Missouri, we start seeing rows of crops growing in different stages. I always start thinking of our (my twin and me) grandfather teaching us to drive in hay fields and how we would swerve in and out around the hay bales trying to perfect our driving skills, or, how we chopped cotton once and were fired by the time we broke for lunch. Also remember wheat fields that use to be in our back yard and how we would take a wooden sled out and drag it through the wheat to make little paths that we could play in. That is the extent of my farming experience. We weren’t raised on a farm but we were surrounded by them. We had huge grain elevators on the river and a big compress in town to compress cotton bales for shipping. My mother or grandmother would often go out to my grandfather’s sister house to buy butter, milk and eggs at their farm. My husband’s family use to buy unpasturized milk from her too (they’d pour the milk into gallon mason jars). Maybe that’s where he learned to like milk so much — he can drink 4 gallons a week by himself.

August 27, 2010 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Thin and Crispy Onion Rings

I have two words to say about these onion rings — thin and crispy!

I have always loved onion rings but always hated biting into one and having the onion slice slither out of the breading, usually burning my lip because I was in a hurry to eat it. This will not happen with these onion rings.

This was one of my parent’s recipes that my mother use to make. When my dad started taking over a lot of the cooking, he then did these to perfection also. He would even use this same method to make fried squash or even fried banana peppers. I really think you could use this on just about any vegetable. I’ve been wanting to try green beans and will do that the next time I get out my deep fryer.

If you have never tried making onion rings because you think it would be too complicated, think again. In this recipe you simply dunk the thinly sliced onions (I think having a mandoline is a must) into buttermilk. Let them set a few minutes and then shake in self rising flour. Definitely use self rising flour because the flour already has salt and baking powder in it and it just makes for a tastier coating . I’ve tried using plain flour but when I do, it seems like I can never get them salty enough after frying.

August 23, 2010 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Zucchini Corn Boats

How about putting some of that summer produce to use with these Zucchini Corn Boats.

This is a delicious recipe using zucchini and corn that you may pick up at your local farmer’s market this summer.

I love going to farmer’s markets in the summer and getting all kinds of wonderful locally grown produce. I purchased some corn and zucchini recently and just love making these little boats. I have made this often and think they are so cute.

If you don’t want to fool with trying to make the boats then I have put all the mixture in an oval casserole and put some corn husk at each end and pile in the corn/zucchini mixture. Looks like a big corn cob. Then you can just sprinkle all the chips and cheese mixture on top and bake in the oven or out on your outdoor grill. This is a great accompaniment to your summer bar-b-q.

June 19, 2010 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Fried Smashed Potatoes with Lemon Thyme

I don’t think I ever met a potato I didn’t like.

I was laying in bed this morning watching one of my favorite FoodTv chefs, Giada and she was making everything with lemons. I sit out on my deck each evening admiring all the blooms on my Myer Lemon Tree and I swear there are at least a million blooms on this tree this Spring and I’m envisioning what kind of things I will be able to make with the beautiful lemons come fall. Even with all these blooms I will probably only get about 20 lemons. Never figured that out but I appreciate each and every one I get off this tree.

I have a fabulous herb garden this year and am anxious to try my lemon thyme and parsley in this dish. I love potatoes, and who doesn’t. This is a great recipe that would be oh so good for summer cookouts. And, believe it or not, it is so much fun smashing these little potatoes with your hands.

April 23, 2010 By Sherry

Appetizers/ ColdApp/ Garnish/ Side dish

Herbed Potato Window Panes

You will want to do more than window shop these windows! You get to eat these.

I have done a “One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato” blog entry where I posted three of my favorite baked potato recipes. This has to be “four”.

It was really nice here in our part of Texas today and I should have been out surveying all of our dead plants that we lost during the winter this year. But, my husband has already cut back and pulled up every dead thing in our yard and right now it is looking like a pretty naked yard. You get him going with a chain saw or pruners and watch out. No such thing as “take a little” off with him. I can put off taking a look until tomorrow. Today, I decided to just practice bridge and play around with making these little potato delicacies

I saw this recipe years ago in a cookbook and recently I was searching for how to make them and and came across this site. A couple of weeks ago I did a little cooking demonstration for our garden club on herbs. We had one member talking about the herbs and then I showed them how to make somethings using that particular herb. I did a cucumber soup, my Rosemary and the Goat appetizer, Lavender scones, a lemon basil/mint sorbet and these Potato Window Panes.

I love potatoes. Even though we don’t eat them often, I’m always looking for new recipes. Last summer I found this recipe using potatoes and arugula and after tweaking it I came up with my Potato and Arugula Salad using purple and white new potatoes. I think potatoes are one of the most versatile vegetables. They can be part of a meal or the meal itself. You can grate them and use for a potato bread sour dough starter. I remember as a kid we cut them and made designs and used ink pads to stamp out designs with the potatoes. I also remember playing a shower game where you put the potato in a panty hose leg, tied it around your waist and tried to knock a ball across the room (some game huh).

March 10, 2010 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

Pistachio Zucchini Fans

Here I go again playing with my food!

The other day I was cleaning out my freezer, or at least looking to see what I had in there that has been hiding for a long long time and I came across some panko bread crumbs (Japanese bread crumbs) and some chopped pistachios that I had left over from making cannolis a while back.

I love zucchini and I had bought some smaller ones recently and decided to make this dish to go with some grilled fish my hub was making for dinner.

I learned to play with food way back when I had a semester of Garde Manger. This was when I first made sushi (never tasted it), I did my first and only ice carving, cooked all kinds of organ meats, did terrines, galantines, plate painting and learned to make all sorts of vegetable garnishes. I would go home from this class all eager to go to the grocery and buy an arm full of vegetables and start carving away. I remember trying to make this staircase from carrots. That was a disaster. I’ve done kiwi birds, napa cabbage angels, pear reindeer and even Mario boiled eggs (yes, they did look like Mario).

November 16, 2009 By Sherry

Side dish/ Vegetables

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato Four….

One Potato…..

Remember that rhyme for picking who is going to be “it”. Everyone would put out two fist and whoever was doing the taping would start — One Potato, two potato, three potato four, five potato, six potato, seven potato more. Each time “more” was said whoever got their fist tapped would have to put that hand behind their back. Last one left holding out a fist was “it”.

I don’t think kids play these games anymore, any more than they play kick the can, Mother May I or even pinch lightening bugs tails off and make “diamond” rings from them.

Well, today, I’m picking three of my favorite baked potato recipes.

This potato is great for all those people who don’t like to eat the potato peel plus they are so much prettier without that big blob of aluminum foil sitting on your plate.

Crusty Baked Potatoes -- One Potato

Ingredients

4 medium potatoes peeled and dried
4 Tbsp. butter
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika
sour cream cheese and chives to garnish

Instructions

Peel the potatoes, wash and dry really well. Melt the butter and set aside. Mix the bread crumbs with the salt and paprika. Take one potato at a time and dip in melted butter to coat thoroughly, take the potato and roll in the seasoned bread crumbs and put on a greased cooking tray. Continue with the remainder of the potatoes.
Cover and bake at 350° for 1 hour. Uncover for the last 20 minutes. Any butter left can be added to the serving dish. Split open, and top with your favorite potato toppings such as sour cream, chives, cheese, or bacon bits.

Two Potato….

Crab and Shrimp Baked Potato —

For those of you who love seafood, this recipe has some added to the potatoes. Years ago I used canned crab and shrimp. Living in Texas for the last 20 years, I wouldn’t think of getting any kind of seafood out of a can. So for this one I bought a set of snow crab legs and a few shrimp. I had a professor once in one of my cooking classes that said you should never cut a potato in half for twice baked potatoes. So after baking, just cut a 1/4 or so off the top and scoop out the potato pulp.

After baking the potato I scoop out the potato pulp, mix in some butter, sour cream, crab meat and the shrimp and a little salt and pepper. I still have some of my Williams Sonoma Chili Lime seasoning left so I sprinkle it on my raw, peeled shrimp and saute it to go in the potato. I chop it up and leave a couple to garnish the top of the potato.

I rub the potato with shortening and then sprinkle with Kosher salt. I like the look of the crunchy salt on the outside. Just be careful not to knock it all off when you start scooping out the potatoes.

Crab and Shrimp Baked Potatoes

Ingredients

4 baking size potatoes
1/2 lb. raw shrimp season with you choice of seasoning
1/2 cup butter or more if desired
1/2 lb. crab meat 2 sets of crab legs would be enough unless you want to buy it already picked out
1/2-3/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup shredded cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Wash and dry the potatoes. Grease the outside of the potatoes with shortening then sprinkle all over with Kosher salt. Bake in 350° oven about an hour or until done. Remove from oven. Slice off about 1/4" or so from top, leaving most of the potato intact. Scoop the potato pulp being careful not to knock of the salt from the outside. Mash the potatoes with butter and sour cream. Add the salt and pepper to taste and the cheese. Fold in the crab meat and also the shrimp that you have sauteed earlier. Fill potatoes with this mixture and you can top with more cheese. Put these back in oven for about 15 minutes right before serving time. Garnish with chopped chives.

Three Potato….

Herb Crusted Fanned Potato — I’m a fan of this one for sure. These are also called Hassleback potatoes.

One technique to keep from cutting too deep is to put a chop stick on each side of the potato so that the knife does not go all the way through. I find it easier to do without the sticks. Just be careful not to go all the way to the bottom. But, the deeper you go the more the potato will fan out.

You can see that the slices are pretty thin. My kids always liked these because they could pull off the thin slices with their fingers and eat them.

Fanned Potatoes

Ingredients

Small to medium size baking potatoes
melted butter
fresh or dried herbs
Parmesan cheese

Instructions

Cut the potatoes as explained above being careful not to cut all the way through to the bottom. Put potatoes on baking sheet and drizzle with a little melted butter. Salt and pepper and bake at 425° for 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with fresh herbs and Parmesan cheese and drizzle with more butter. Continue cooking another 15-20 minutes until peel is crusty and the flesh is nice and soft and fanned out.

August 21, 2009 By Sherry

Salads/ Side dish/ Vegetables

Kumquat, Corn, And a Few Other Things Salad

There are so many summer vegetables out now, it would be a crime not to try something different with all those wonderful things you may be picking up at your farmer’s markets in your area.

Kumquat, corn, avocado and a few other things makes this a great summer salad to serve with your steak which I am making tonight for my daughter along with a chimichurri sauce.

I teach technique classes at Williams Sonoma and earlier in the week I saw that I was suppose to make a roasted corn salad that tomatoes and feta. As usual, I started thinking of ways I was going to tweak this and I have made my version twice this week.

July 26, 2009 By Sherry

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