Grandma's Shrimp Salad...kinda'

My Grandma Brown made the best shrimp salad.  My aunts make it now and their's is just as good.  Last week I made some shrimp salad in the tradition of Grandma Brown and my brother said it was the best shrimp salad he had ever eaten, and I liked it too.  So I thought I'd write it down for the next time that I want to do it.  This isn't a tested recipe so I'm sorry I don't have exact measurements on everything.  Grandma made it with tiny pasta shells rather than elbow macaroni.  I like the elbow macaroni because it is shaped like shrimp.  Use whatever you have.  I'm sure Grandma never used greek yogurt but everything else is pretty close to the way she made it (I think).  I think that what made my brother say it was the best was the amount of salt I put in but it could be the combination of yogurt and homemade salad dressing that I used.

I had some frozen shrimp in the freezer but they were large so I just cut them up into pieces about the size of a pea.  I think grandma used tiny canned shrimp.  I think it is best with some kind of fresh or frozen shrimp rather than canned.

I hate Miracle Whip, I'm a mayonnaise girl all the way, but this salad really screams for Miracle Whip! Because I don't buy Miracle Whip (or mayonnaise for that matter) I made my own "salad dressing" the same way I make mayonnaise, only I added about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar for the acid and about 1-2 tablespoons of sugar, a pinch of salt, and 1 teaspoon of dry mustard to 1 egg and 1 cup oil.  Check out how I do it  here.  If you don't want to make your own use good ol' Miracle Whip, no problem.

This is a great salad for those summer pot lucks. Just check with me if you are going to bring it to a pot luck I'm at.


Grandma B's Shrimp Salad

About 1 lb elbow macaroni (tiny pasta shells)
1 stalk of celery, chopped
about 5 green onions, chopped
about 5-6 chopped hard boiled eggs
Shrimp (about the size of the pasta)
1 cup Miracle Whip
about 3/4 cup greek yogurt
salt to taste

Cook the elbow macaroni in well salted water.  Drain, and run cold water over the pasta to stop the cooking and cool the pasta.  Drain the pasta well.  Taste the pasta for saltiness, add salt to taste.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix.

French Onion Soup

A few weeks ago I picked up my first Bountiful Basket.  I love the concept.  Monday at 10 AM I check the web site and give them my contribution.  Saturday morning I go and pick up the order.  You never know what you are going to get and that week there were 10 onions in the basket.  I love this recipe for French Onion Soup that I got from Cooks Illustrated so this is what I made.  I froze the soups in small one cup containers that fit perfectly in my French Onion Soup bowls.  When I'm ready, I pop one of the frozen soups out,  put it in the soup bowl and microwave it for a couple of minutes until it is bubbling.  Meanwhile, I preheat the oven broiler.  Once the soup is warm I top it with the croutons and the cheese, pop it under the broiler for a couple of minutes until the cheese is melted and brown and then enjoy this soup.  I hope you like it as much as I do.

French Onion Soup, from Cooks Illustrated

3             tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces

6             large yellow onions (about 4 pounds), halved and cut pole to pole into 1/4-inch-thick slices

  Table salt

2             cups water, plus extra for deglazing

1/2          cup dry sherry

4             cups low-sodium chicken broth

2             cups beef broth

6             sprigs fresh thyme, tied with kitchen twine

1             bay leaf

   Ground black pepper

1             small baguette, cut into 1/2-inch slices

8             ounces shredded Gruyère cheese (about 2 1/2 cups)          

                                                                                                                       

1. For the soup: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 400 degrees. Generously spray inside of heavy-bottomed large (at least 7-quart) Dutch oven with nonstick cooking spray. Place butter in pot and add onions and 1 teaspoon salt. Cook, covered, 1 hour (onions will be moist and slightly reduced in volume). Remove pot from oven and stir onions, scraping bottom and sides of pot. Return pot to oven with lid slightly ajar and continue to cook until onions are very soft and golden brown, 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours longer, stirring onions and scraping bottom and sides of pot after 1 hour.

2. Carefully remove pot from oven and place over medium-high heat. Using oven mitts to handle pot, cook onions, stirring frequently and scraping bottom and sides of pot, until liquid evaporates and onions brown, 15 to 20 minutes, reducing heat to medium if onions are browning too quickly. Continue to cook, stirring frequently, until pot bottom is coated with dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes, adjusting heat as necessary. (Scrape any fond that collects on spoon back into onions.) Stir in 1/4 cup water, scraping pot bottom to loosen crust, and cook until water evaporates and pot bottom has formed another dark crust, 6 to 8 minutes. Repeat process of deglazing 2 or 3 more times, until onions are very dark brown. Stir in sherry and cook, stirring frequently, until sherry evaporates, about 5 minutes.

3. Stir in broths, 2 cups water, thyme, bay leaf, and 1/2 teaspoon salt, scraping up any final bits of browned crust on bottom and sides of pot. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes. Remove and discard herbs, then season with salt and pepper.

4. For the croutons: While soup simmers, arrange baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet and bake in 400-degree oven until bread is dry, crisp, and golden at edges, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

5. To serve: Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Set individual broiler-safe crocks on baking sheet and fill each with about 1 3/4 cups soup. Top each bowl with 1 or 2 baguette slices (do not overlap slices) and sprinkle evenly with Gruyère. Broil until cheese is melted and bubbly around edges, 3 to 5 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before serving.

Hot Mushroom Dip

With the Super Bowl coming up this weekend I thought I'd post my mushroom dip recipe.  This recipe freezes well so I usually make a big batch and then nuke it when it is needed.  Even though there are a lot of onions in this recipe there are onion haters that I know who love this dip and ask me to bring it to certain family get-togethers.  

I got the inspiration from Hope Miller who is Orson Miller's wife.  Orson Miller was a renowned mycologist and wrote a very good book about North American Mushrooms (http://www.amazon.com/North-American-Mushrooms-Inedible-Falconguide/dp/0762731095/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296658756&sr=8-1). I met Hope and Orson the summer before he died, at a Utah Mushroom Society foray along the Mirror Lake Highway.  Hope made a version of this recipe but I didn't quite agree with the way that she made it so I came up with this method.  

I usually serve this hot with wavy potato chips.  It is kind of thick so regular potato chips won't stand up to being dipped in it.  I have used different kinds of mushrooms for this.  White button mushrooms work well but I really like more flavorful mushrooms in this too.  The brown mushrooms that are more common in stores now work really well.  I've also made it with wild morels, wild oyster mushrooms, fresh shitaki mushrooms,  and chanterells.  Also, I usually use Better than Bouillon chicken bouillon.  I love Better than Bouillon products, it is so easy to use and it makes things taste so good.  I add it to all kinds of things, including mashed potatoes, gravy, clam chowder and Finnan Haddie (clam flavored).

This dip can also be used in other ways.  I've been known to make cream of mushroom soup by adding milk or cream and chicken broth.  You can also make an appetizer by placing a teaspoon of the dip on a long strip of phyllo dough then folding the phyllo dough over it like you would fold a flag to make a triangle of dough stuffed with mushroom dip.  I would brush that with melted butter then brown them in an oven.  My favorite way to use mushroom dip is to stir it into scrambled eggs then spoon my grandma's chili sauce over the top.

HOT MUSHROOM DIP

1 lb.           mushrooms

1 med.       onion

8 Tbsp       butter

2 Tbsp       flour

1 Tbsp       lemon juice

1 lb.           carton sour cream (may use low-fat sour cream)

2 tsp.         chicken or vegetarian “Better than Bullion” or granules

                  Tabasco sauce, mustard or salt and pepper to taste

Finely mince onion.  Finely mince mushrooms.  A food processor is the best tool for doing this

Melt 6 Tbsp. butter in a sauté pan add minced onion and cook until softened.  Add mushrooms and sauté until softened.  Add remaining butter and melt, add flour and cook flour until a paste is formed.  Add bullion and sour cream.  Heat through and cook a while longer until the mixture thickens.  

Add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

Best served hot but may be served at room temperature with potato chips.

Thai Green Papaya Salad

I love this salad and it is so unexpected. I mean, who would think that you would make salad out of GREEN papaya, and then you put mint, basil and cilantro together, but that is typical of Thai food. I love ripe papaya made as a smoothie but GREEN papaya???  Yes, it works!

I have made the dressing with just garlic, fish sauce, lime juice and sweet chili sauce (egg roll sauce) in fact that is the easiest way for me to make it.  I wouldn't suggest using dried herb, I just don't think it would work.

The dish is made from unripe Southeast Asian papayas, which have firm, almost white flesh and white seeds.  I find them in an Asian market that I frequent.  I have also made this with Mexican papayas (in Mexico...I planned ahead and took some fish sauce and sweet chili sauce in my luggage) and I don’t mind if they have a little color to the flesh, however this dish is best with papaya that is very unripe.  I use a mandolin instead of a shredder because I like long, skinny, square pieces of papaya in this salad.  You may want to ask your grocer for unripened  fruit as they may not display them.  Just ask for the greenest papaya that they have.  He'll probably think you are strange but what do you have to loose?

One more thing...Fish Sauce!  Fish sauce is one of those mystery ingredients that you can't believe makes food taste so good.  It's like anchovies in Caesar Salad.  They carry fish sauce in my local market (Harmon's) along with all of the other ingredients as well.  I was shopping for fish sauce one day at the Asian market and the young proprietor of the Asian market suggested that I tried using fish sauce in dishes that aren't Asian yet need some saltiness.  I'm sure it would work I just haven't found the right thing to try it out with.

Green Papaya Salad with Shrimp

¼             pound   small shrimp (about 9), shelled

For dressing

1                           large garlic clove, forced through a garlic press

3             Tbsp      fresh lime juice

1 ½         Tbsp      Asian fish sauce (preferably nuoc mam)

1             Tbsp      sugar

1                          small thin fresh red or green Asian chili (1 to 2 inches long) or serrano chili, or to taste, seeded and chopped fine (wear rubber gloves)

I usually make the dressing by mixing fresh lime juice, fish sauce and sweet chili sauce.

For salad

3/4         lb            green papaya, peeled, seeded, and coarsely shredded  (about 3 cups)

1                              carrot, shredded fine

1/3         cup         Fresh Thai basil leaves, washed well and spun dry (regular fresh basil will work)

1/3         cup         fresh cilantro leaves, washed well and spun dry

1/3         cup         fresh mint leaves, washed well and spun dry

2            Tbsp       roasted peanuts, crushed

In a small saucepan of boiling salted water cook shrimp 45 seconds to 1 minute, or until cooked through. In a colander drain shrimp and rinse under cold water to stop cooking. Halve shrimp horizontally and devein.

Make dressing:

In a large bowl whisk together dressing ingredients until sugar is dissolved.

Add shrimp, papaya, carrot, and herbs to dressing, tossing well.  Salad may be made 2 hours ahead and chilled, covered.  Bring salad to room temperature before serving.

Serve salad sprinkled with peanuts.

Serves 4.

Ruth's Fettuccine Alfredo from the BVI

 Last week this was my view.

I took that picture on Anegada in the British Virgin Islands on November 1st.  Notable, because November 1st was the first day of Lobster season.  We were all excited to eat lobster and it was good!  Bruce didn't like the lobster much so I got extra helpings of lobster.

I was on a sailing vacation Bruce's sister's family.  That's Bruce's sister Ruth and her husband Mike.  Mike was our fine boat captain, Ruth was the first mate.  What a fabulous vacation it was. I loved the gentile ocean breezes and the sailing and the fishing and the snorkeling and the food and...

This is one of our meals that Ruth cooked, Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and broccoli.  It was very easy and very good. Especially when eaten on the bow of a sailboat in the Virgin Islands.  I bet Blackbeard never ate this good.

Here's the recipe from Ruth:

Fettuccine Alfredo

8 ounces cream cheese

1 cup parmesan cheese 

½ cup butter

1 cup half and half

Combine and stir over low heat till smooth.  Add cooked shrimp, chicken or steamed vegitables and serve over 8 ounces of cooked fettuccine.

Overnight Breakfast Casserole

My friend Lecia (we were roommates in college so many years ago) asked for this recipe.  She came to my house for my holiday breakfast and we had this.  Actually, this is what my brother brings to the breakfast.  Our Mom had breakfast on Christmas morning and when she passed away I invited everyone to my house.  I serve Finnan Haddie (a creamed fish served over toast) and my brother brings a casserole like this.  I try to have something there that everyone might enjoy (I know most people won't like the Finnan Haddie).  I also try to keep it as simple as this and this recipe fits the bill especially since you make this the night before then put it in the oven.  I don't know who Bonita is and I'm not sure if the notes are her's or my brother's.  Lecia and my former roommate Sandy fixed something similar for her son's mission farewell but it had potatoes in stead of bread.  Maybe I'll have to get Sandy's recipe.

Overnight Breakfast Casserole

Bonita Ensenberger, Albuquerque, NM

Makes 6 servings

1 lb. lean bulk sausage

6 slices white bread, cubed

2 Tbsp. butter, melted

1 1/2 cups shredded cheese

5 eggs, beaten

2 cups half-and-half

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. dry mustard

1.  Brown sausage and drain excess fat.

2.  Toss bread cubes with melted butter and arrange in greased 9" x 13" baking pan.  Top evenly with sausage and cheese.

3.  Combine all remaining ingredients and mix well.  Pour over casserole dish and chill overnight.

4.  Bake at 350 deg. for 40-50 minutes.  Serve.

I make a few adjustments.  If I'm using a 9" x 9" pan, I use 3 eggs and about 1/2 cup of milk and a little less bread.  I think this is really the basic part of the recipe (pretty much a bread pudding).  Then I use one link of Italian sausage (minced up), a handful of grated cheddar cheese and a small can of mushrooms.  I also make other adjustments, like adding onions and/or peppers, use bacon instead of sausage, etc., etc.

Pot stickers

The summer I turned 20 I visited my brother in Beijing.  It was a big deal for me to get there, I had to get an invitation from him.  Then I had to fly to Hong Kong and make the rest of my travel arrangements from there since I couldn't fly directly to Beijing from the US.  

One of the things that I remember the most about that trip was the jiaodz (boiled dumplings) that we ate at a place called ErTan.  They were wonderful!  The jiaodz were hand made including the wraps.  The name "jiaodz" indicates that you are steaming them not frying them.  When I lived in Taiwan we ate them at least once or twice a week and they were almost as good as the ones we ate in Beijing.  In Taiwan we called them "SweiJiao" but they were exactly the same thing cooked in exactly the same way.  Once or twice I had "GwoTie" or pot stickers.  I never thought the pot stickers were as good as the sweijiao.  They were the same thing just cooked differently, boiling vs. frying.  You'd think that frying would taste better than boiling but it never does, at least for me. Maybe its just the memories that boiling the dumplings brings up in my mind.

Most Americans know and love pot stickers but I long for those wonderful jiaodz that I ate for the first time in Beijing.

You can use pot sticker wraps(skins) that you buy in the store or you can make them yourself.  They'll be easier if you buy them but they'll taste better if you make them.  They'll also taste better if you take the time to carefully pleat them when you are sealing them.  I don't know why...they just will.  You can boil, steam or fry these once they are made.  They freeze well before they are cooked, just don't freeze them stuck together.  Place them separately on a tray in the freezer then put them in a bag once they are frozen solid.

Pot stickers

1              lb.           Ground pork (ground chicken or turkey may be substituted for all or part)

1              lb.           Chinese cabbage (Napa cabbage), finely chopped

1              cup         minced green onions

1              tsp          minced ginger

3              Tbsp      soy sauce

1              tsp          salt        

1              Tbsp      sesame oil

Pot sticker wraps

Mix all of the ingredients together except the wraps. 

To create a dumpling hold the pot sticker wrap in the palm of your hand.  Place about 1 teaspoon of the meat mixture in the center and fold the wrap in half.  Press the edges together and seal with water. You may want to pleat the edges as you seal them to make these look nicer.  Place on a floured tray until ready to serve.  These may be frozen and served later.  Be sure if you are freezing them that they are individually frozen and do not stick together while you are freezing them.

To serve you may place them in salted boiling water until they float or steam them.

To serve them as pot stickers: heat a nonstick skillet with a little oil in the bottom.  Place the fresh or frozen dumplings in the hot oil and cover the bottom of the pan with pot stickers until they are barely touching one another.  Cook for a minute and then pour water in the pan until the water come up about ¾ of the way up the pot sticker.  Place a cover on the pan and cook until all of the liquid is evaporated. 

Serve with a dipping sauce.

Dipping sauce

2              parts      Soy sauce

1              part        Vinegar

Sugar (just a little)

Sesame oil (dash)

Grated ginger (optional)

Hot sauce (whatever kind you like) (optional)