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2009 Picnics Recipe Collection


leleboo

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Hi all ~ since there were some requests for recipes from the Fall Picnic, and there doesn't seem to be a thread for the Spring Picnic, I'm starting one here, based on threads of yore. Feel free to post your recipe(s)!

One rule: Please give credit where credit is due -- if you took it from somewhere, please link or at least reference your source.

If you don't feel like posting, you can PM me and I'll put them up here.

(And if one of the mods could import GennaroE's and DanCole42's posts about their recipes from the dr.com 2009 Autumn Picnic thread, that would be awesome-tastic!)

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"Drippy" Shrimp

My mom used to make this for hors d'oeuvres every Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we'd eat it all, and then no one wanted turkey ... so now we save it for the day after, to supplement leftovers. :(

3 lb. shrimp (peeled, deveined, and cooked)

2 1/2 to 3 tsp. celery seed

1 bottle capers with juice (Mom doesn't specify what size bottle of capers; use your discretion)

1 large yellow or white onion, sliced thin20 bay leaves (fresh are better)

1/2 cup neutral or "salad" oil -- no need for the absolute best EVOO here

1 cup warmed white wine vinegar (Mom's note: I've used champagne vinegar too)dash or two of tabasco

1/4 cup worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon sharp mustard

Arrange the shrimp in 2 layers in shallow dish with a tight-sealing cover. Put on celery seed, capers with juice, onions and bay leaves. Blend oil, vinegar, salt, tabasco, worcestershire and mustard. Pour over shrimp and cover tightly. Let marinate two days in refrigerator, flipping over on second day (Ed. note: Can flip more often if you have less time.)

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Tuscan Chicken-Liver Paté (from Food and Wine Magazine, Marco Canora's Chicken-Liver Crostini)

1 pound chicken livers

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 white onion, finely chopped (Ed. note: I've used shallots with success)

2 sage sprigs

1 rosemary sprig

1 anchovy fillet, minced (Ed. note: I usually use at least three anchovies for the whole pound of livers)

1 tablespoon drained capers

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1/4 cup cognac

Trim the chicken livers of any sinews and veins and set them on paper towels to dry for about 20 minutes.

In a large skillet, melt the butter in 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Add the chopped onion, sage and rosemary and cook over moderately high heat, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the minced anchovy and capers and cook over low heat until the onion is lightly browned, about 8 minutes longer. Scrape the mixture into a medium bowl.

Add the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil to the skillet. Season the chicken livers with salt and pepper, add them to the skillet and cook over high heat until browned, about 2 minutes. Flip and cook the chicken livers for 1 minute longer. Stir in the onion mixture. Add the cognac and carefully ignite it with a long match. Cook the livers until the flames subside.

Discard the herb sprigs (Ed. note: I usually take the herbs out before the flambé . I've had bad luck with burnt rosemary.) and scrape the contents of the skillet into a food processor; let cool slightly, and season with salt and pepper. Pulse until desired smoothness.

Serve with thin slices of toasted baguette.

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Okra and shrimp gumbo

2 pounds cut okra

2 pounds shrimp (season with salt, black and red pepper)

1 gallon shrimp stock (shells boiled with 2 celery stalks and 1 onion quartered)

1 large onion

1 large green bell pepper

2 celery stalks

seasoning mix (salt, black and red pepper)

vegetable oil

Optional: tomato sauce

Optional: peppers (I used 3 cayennes)

Add okra, onion, bell pepper, and celery to hot oil and cook over medium high heat for ~2 hours. You are cooking this down to almost the consistency of a paste. This IS the roux or thickening agent for the gumbo. Frequent stirring to avoid scorching. Add a little stock if it is scorching but do not add more until it is dissolved.

Once the okra is the right color and consistency (brown and like a paste) add tomato sauce if you like and cook ~15 minutes. Add stock and cook another half hour. Add shrimp, cook another 10-15 minutes. Dish in bowls, add rice.

I put a pictorial of the process on eGullet a while back. It is here: http://forums.egulle...a/page__st__210

Scroll down to post #240, by My Confusing Horoscope.

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Spring Picnic: The Kale "Ceviche" recipe (Which turned out as intended.)

Fall Picnic: Half Moon Crispy Squash (Absolutely did not turn out as intended. I used way too much olive oil so this turned into roasted, soft slices that needed flavor CPR from a heavy hand of Penzey's Balti seasoning. Was somewhat OK, and I am always glad to represent the potassium-rific hard squash family, but an execution flail and overall "meh".)

And another secret ingredient for working with hard squashes: A Rubber Mallet

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Recipe Requests:

Those awesome peanut butter balls.

The red cabbage slaw (my CSA stuck me with a giant red cabbage that needs to be gotten rid of, and this would definitely be a delicious way of achieving that goal)

And I'd ask for the crab rangoon recipe, but if I had that information I'd be liable to clog my arteries even worse than usual.

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A few people mentioned wanting a recipe for the Suppli, so I'll throw that up here too. It's pretty much just a Mario Batali recipe that I modified to exclude the meat and mushroom filling that he uses.

Mario Batali's Version

Mine:

Ingredients

2 cups of stock (don't use low sodium, it comes out lacking salt even with all the parmigiano - keep extra stock in case the risotto dries out too much before reaching al dente)

1 - 2 tbsp tomato paste

16 ounces peeled San Marzano tomatoes and their juice, crushed by hand

3 tablespoons butter

1 and 2/3 cups Arborio (or other risotto) rice

2 eggs

2/3 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano (more to taste)

Fresh Mozzarella

Panko

Batali says to mix the butter, stock, and crushed tomatoes in a pot, then to bring it to a boil and add the rice. Not how I did it, but I doubt it makes much of a difference. I melted the butter on low heat in a big pot while starting to heat the stock in a saucepan. Whisked the tomato paste into the stock, crushed the tomatoes through a strainer, and added the rice to the melted butter. Mixed the rice with the butter to coat it, then added the stock and the crushed tomatoes. Jack up the heat, mix thoroughly, and lower to a simmer once it comes to the boil. Stir every few minutes, and when it's al dente, turn it out into a large bowl.

Whisk the 2 eggs, and gradually mix them into the risotto along with the cheese, then allow it all to cool (the colder it is, the easier it is to work with). Spreading the risotto out in a shallow pan can make things go more quickly. In the mean time, do a 1/4-inch dice on the fresh mozzarella. When the risotto is cool, use a spoon to scoop some up, shape it like a football, make a nook inside with your finger, and add 3 or 4 pieces of the mozzarella. Seal it back up, then roll the risotto in the panko. Refrigerate the finished rice balls for at least an hour so that they set and keep their shape (I usually leave them overnight).

Take them out and let them start to warm up as you heat oil - both deep and shallow frying work, just make sure the oil isn't too hot since the suppli need to cook a while for the mozzarella inside to melt. For deep frying about 325 degrees seems right. Fry until browned and crisp, lift them out, drain on paper towels, and sprinkle with coarse salt.

As for the basil aioli, I sort of just figured out the proportions as I went along. Started with 4 cloves of garlic mashed in a mortar and pestle with some kosher salt. Whisked an egg yolk until its color shifted, added in the garlic paste, some salt and pepper, and around 1.5 tbsp of lemon juice. Slowly whisked in about 4 ounces of light olive oil, but the more you add the thicker it'll get (1 yolk can emulsify up to 8 oz of oil, I think). Mashed up a bunch of basil with the mortar and pestle, whisked that in along with additional black pepper and some parmigiano, and thinned the whole mixture down a bit with a little water, and it was done.

And that's it. I doubled the recipe and got 38 suppli, but I made them relatively large using a heaping tablespoon of risotto for each.

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And I'd ask for the crab rangoon recipe, but if I had that information I'd be liable to clog my arteries even worse than usual.
The simple goodness in life. Crab Rangoon is meant to be enjoyed.

You can substitute neufchatel, if you'd like.

Crab Rangoon (Makes about 50?):

1 package of square-wonton wrappers (Not Nasoya and not the type with eggs in them. It should contain only flour, water, corn starch and salt or preservatives)

1 8oz package of cream cheese or neufchatel

4 tbsp of sweetener - sugar or brown sugar

4-5 sticks of fake crab meat or 1/2 of the real crab meat in the cups (I used Philips in this case)

1 dash of white wine or rice wine or alcohol if using the real crab meat

1 teaspoon of salt

Make sure cream cheese is at room temperature. Rinse and drain the real crab meat. Mix the alcohol with the real crab meat to take away the fishiness of the meat. If using fake crab meat, cut into small pieces.

Put the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and whip it up or soften it up a bit by mixing so that it's easier to combine the crab meat. Once softened and mixed, add the sugar and salt. Mix well. Taste the cream cheese to make sure it has just a touch of sweetness to it. Then add the meat and mix until thorough.

Take one square, lay it in front of you in the diamond position. Add one teaspoon of the mixture to the center.

Ignore the recipe in this video, but watch how to fold it. The cream cheese acts as a natural sealer and will "pinch" the crab rangoon together.

Do your normal frying routine, drop them in, watch it bubble, and take it out and drain on paper towels when it turns a nice golden to rich brown color.

Enjoy!

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Kinpira gobou (simmered burdock root) -- Adapted from Tokiko Suzuki's "Japanese Homestyle Cooking"

3-1/2 oz burdock root (available at Asian food stores; stiffer roots are fresher than flexible ones)

1 dried red chile pepper (togarashi; I often use two)

1T vegetable oil (or sesame oil, for a different flavor)

Simmering stock

2T sake

1T sugar (I often use less b/c I find that the recommended amount makes the kinpira too sweet)

1T mirin

1T soy sauce

1. Soak the chile pepper in warm water until soft. Cut off the end and remove seeds. Slice into rounds.

2. Scrub the burdock root until clean, but make sure not to take off the skin. Pare away any small roots.

3. Cut the root into about 1-1/2" lengths. Immediately put into bowl of lightly vinegared water (preferably rice vinegar).

4. Cut each length into julienne strips. Immediately return the strips to the vinegared water.

5. Soak the strips for about five minutes, until the water turns brown. Drain and rinse the strips.

6. In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over high heat until shimmering. Add the julienned burdock root and toss with oil to coat well. Add the chile pepper and mix again.

7. Lower the heat to medium, then gradually add the seasonings in the order described above: sake, then sugar, then mirin, then soy sauce.

8. Continue stir-frying until liquid is reduced.

9. When the liquid is almost completely gone, tilt the pan and cook the liquid until further reduced, holding the strips away from the liquid as it cooks down. Note of caution: if the liquid gets very dark, gooey thick, and smells like battery acid, you've gone too far.

10. Stir the very small amount of remaining liquid into the strips, then turn out into a large flat container to cool.

Iburigakko (smoked pickled daikon radish)

1. Fly to Tokyo.

2. Find way to Tokyo Station or Ueno Station (I prefer the Keisei Skyliner to Ueno, although the JR Narita Express to Tokyo means you don't have to switch rail companies).

3. Reserve seat on the Tohoku-Akita Shinkansen ("Komachi"). Take Komachi to Morioka; continue on to JR Akita Station.

4. In Akita Station, find the Akita Prefecture local goods store. Look for the refrigerated section; there you will find packages of a long, yellowish-brown pickle. This is iburigakko. Buy as many as you can.

4a. Grab some sake on your way out. I recommend Hokushika (北鹿).

5. Reverse steps 4-1.

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Wild Rice and Barley Salad (adapted from Cooking Light, Jan/Feb 2008)

1 3/4 c chicken broth

1/4 c uncooked brown rice

1/4 c uncooked wild rice

1/2 c uncooked pearl barley

3/4 c chickpeas

1/3 c golden raisins

1/4 c sliced green onions

2 T red wine vinegar

1 1/2 t olive oil

1 t Dijon mustard

1/4 t salt

1/4 t pepper

2 T chopped fresh basil

2 T chopped fresh mint

2 T sliced almonds, toasted

Combine broth, all rice, and barley in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until liquid is absorbed (~40min).

Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 min.

Add chickpeas, raisins, and green onions.

Whisk vinegar, olive oil, mustard, salt, pepper in a small bowl. Pour over barley mixture. Cover & chill for 2 hr.

Stir in herbs & almonds. Serve.

Yield: 5-6 c.

(edited to add barley to the instructions.. oops)

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Porcini-Crusted NY Strip Sandwich - with Beefonaise, Onion Confit, Arugula, and White Truffle Salt

As requested. I suck at measurements. These are best guesses. Do what tastes right.

For the steak:

1 bag Dried porcini

1-2 tbl Cloves

1-2 tbl Coriander

1-2 tbl Black pepper

NY strip

For the beefonaise:

Water

Reserved beef trimmings

1 Egg yolk

Lemon juice

3/4 cup Grapeseed oil

Salt

1 Drop Dijon mustard

Half clove Garlic

Liberal amount of Tabasco

For the onion confit:

Olive oil

Red onion

Maple syrup to taste

Salt

Pepper

2 Bay leaves

Several sprigs Thyme and/or rosemary

For the arugula, truffle salt, and bread:

Uhh... arugula, truffle salt, and bread

Toast the cloves, coriander, and pepper. Grind with the porcini. Trim the fat off the steaks and reserve. Coat the steaks with the rub and salt to taste.

Heat a pan thoroughly to 400+ degrees, and immediately add grapeseed oil followed by the steaks. Cook until both sides are brown and crispy, then transfer to a 450 degree oven until your expensive Thermapen reads 125 degrees at the center.

Remove steaks and let cool.

In a food processor or grinder, grind the reserve beef fat. Add to a pot of water to barely cover and let simmer until all the fat has rendered. Strain into a narrow glass and cool until you can extract your hockey puck of delicious tallow.

Grate the garlic into a bowl with the dijon mustard, salt, and lemon juice. Whisk in the egg yolk, and add the grapeseed oil per standard mayo method, but only use 75% of the oil you would normally use. Heat the beef tallow in the microwave until it's liquid but not hot. Whisk into the mayo along with the tabasco sauce. Season to taste.

Using a benriner, slice the onions paper thin, then put in a pan over low heat, adding enough EVOO to cover. Add the herbs, bay leaf, etc. Add the syrup about halfway through the cooking process. The onions should end up almost spreadable. Strain off the oil (and save for dippin'!). Season onions to taste (AFTER draining the oil!!!).

To complete: Slice the NY strip thinly on the bias. Slice the ciabatta lengthwise. Spread on the confit, mayo, arugula, steak, then season to taste with white truffle salt. Don't be afraid to use a heavy hand with the salt: it's a cold sandwich, and the sweetness of the confit will help balance the salt.

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