Pickled Shrimp by annen

To 2 1/2 lb shrimp add boiling water to cover. Add 1/2C celery tops, 3 1/2tsp salt and 1/4c mixed pickling spices. Cook shrimp 10-12 min. drain. cool with cold water. Peel under cold running water and remove black line. OR buy about 2 lb shrimp already cleaned and steamed. Sauce: Combine 1 1/4 C salad oil, 3/4 C white vinegar, 1 1/2 t salt, 2 1/2 t celery seed, 2 1/2 T capers and juice and a dash of Tabasco. Mix well. Alternate shrimp in container with thinly sliced onions. Add 7-8 bay leaves. cover with sauce. Refrigerate at least 24 hrs. Will keep at least 1 week in refrigerator.

Oatcakes by gaudy Night

(from Herr Ritter's father: note I have never actually made this recipe myself).

1 c. flour, sifted with
1 T sugar
1 t. baking powder
½ t. salt

Place this in a large bowl, and mix with 2 c. quick rolled oats (must be the “quick” variety). Then cut in ½ c. soft butter or margarine (I find half and half works best).

Finally, add ½ c. milk. Mix the milk in with a large spoon so that eventually you get a single round blob or ball of dough. Put flour on your hands and shape the ball into a reasonable sphere (it’s likely to be sticky). Make sure you have a large counter or board to work on. Cut the ball of dough in half and put half to one side; place the other in the middle of a pile of flour and pat it down into a rough circle about ½ inch thick. Now take a rolling pin and begin to roll it out, again keeping the circular shape. You’ll probably need to use a spatula or something to pick it up off the board and turn it over into more flour before it gets too thin or stuck to the board. Repeat the rolling process, shaping it toward a rough oval shape. When it’s thinned down to about ¼ inch [more like 1/8; remember it will rise] and about the size of a greased cookie sheet, use the sheet to slide under the dough in one smooth motion.

Bake at 375º for 12-15 minutes; take it out when it gets just brown.

Gluten-free Flour Mix by Miriam

For my flour mix, I use a mixture of around 40% rice flour (white and/or brown), 30% corn starch, and 30% tapioca flour. I'm not exact about it. I don't have access to xanthum gum here in Japan so I don't use that. In fact, it kind of grosses me out so I have just skipped it in my baking. In any recipe, I substitute between 75-80% of the flour called for with this mix, and for the remaining 20-25% I use almond flour, which does a great job of improving the crumb and texture. For any kind of quick bread, biscuit, or cake, I always use yoghurt or sour cream instead of milk, and I use half baking soda and half baking powder for the rising (whatever amount is called for in the recipe). For cakes, I always separate the eggs and beat the egg whites with a few tablespoons of sugar and fold them in at the end. It significantly improves the overall experience of gluten free cake. With these tricks, I feel like I can make just about any baked item short of yeast bread, and it tastes just as good as wheat based recipes, even according to my daughters. Now I need to figure out the secret of making tasty yeast bread that doesn't contain too much bean flour, which to me has a wacky taste.

I should also also point out that my batters are lot less liquidy than some wheat based batters, particularly since I am using less liquid overall with the yoghurt/sour cream substitution. If your batter gets too liquidy, the end result will not be great. I shoot for a batter that can sit in a spoon in a mushy lump and not flow around and off the sides, kind of what you want to see in a classic muffin batter.

Lowering the Calorie Count of Sauces by bookseller

In terms of sauces, adding a little cornstarch in a slurry (i.e., dissolved in liquid, typically in a 1:3 ratio) to ygurt, even lower-fat yogurt, will keep the yogurt from breaking and allow for a creamy sauce. If you, for example, braise some chicken with onions and greens, remove the chicken, boil down the liquid and veg to concentrate the flavors and evaporate most of the liquid, puree the veg and the remaining bit of braising juices, return this puree to the pot, stir in the yogurt slurry, simmer, return the chicken to the pot for a few minutes, and dish it up, maybe with some chopped dill or capers or lemon zest, something that will go well with the yogurt's mild acidity, you'd probably have a very nice dish that would taste much more calorically expensive than it really was.

I also find that Greek yogurt, or strained yogurt, makes a very good substitute for either sour cream or cream cheese, depending on the thickness. However, it can be a bit tricky, because the full-fat stuff doesn't save you a lot of calories, but the reduced-fat stuff can be REALLY sour once it's strained, so you'd need to experiment with brands and levels of concentration and also your own taste for sour.

I used to make a lower-fat maynnaise substitute, using roasted onions and tofu and fresh thyme, that I liked quite a lot; I think the recipe is in the Otters' recipe log. In fact, tofu can "creamify" things (like soup, especially, and desserts -- makes a very convincing mousse) very nicely. There will be lots of recipes online, and you might be interested in Deborah Madison's I Can't Believe It's Tofu. She's an extremely well respected vegetarian chef, was the chef at Chez Panisse before branching out on her own.

Worth knowing, btw, that almond milk (widely available here, not sure about where you are, though it's easy enough to make yourself) makes for a very pleasant bechamel, substituting for milk or cream, and certainly lower in carbs than the one and in calories than the other. You do need the flour to thicken it, though; on its own it has about the consistency of skim milk, so not much use as a sauce.

Finally -- and I think this is the last trick I know -- in southern Italy, pasta is often eaten with a topping of toasted coarse breadcrumbs, rather than cheese. Partly this is because that part of Italy has historically been desperately poor, and bread is cheaper than cheese but it performs some of the same functions; it helps drink up a bit of the sauce and thus thickens it and helps it cling to the pasta. Bread is also a caloric bargain over cheese; if you make pasta this might be an easy and tasty switch.

Saag Paneer by Picklehead

I'd made Madhur Jaffrey's recipe before, but forgot that Flatmate took that book with her when she moved out, so I had to improvise based on memory. Here's what I did:

Ingredients:

4 oz. paneer

approx. 8 oz. cooked spinach

4 oz. water

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

Oil and butter

Fry the oil and butter together. Add the mustard seeds. When they pop (about 30 seconds), add the cumin and stir. Add the paneer and cook until brown. Add the garam masala, chili powder, and turmeric, and cook for approximately 5 minutes, until the liquid is absorbed and the pan is close to dry.

Add the water, spinach, and garlic, turn the heat down to low, and simmer for approximately 20 minutes, stirring regularly. Add more water if needed.

(It probably could have been improved with a dollop of cream a few minutes before serving, but I didn't think of that.)

Rye Rolls and Rye Sausage Buns by Erythrosine

Rye Rolls

1 cup plus one tablespoon water
2 tablespoons sugar
1.25 cups whole rye flour
2.25 teaspoons instant yeast
0.5 cup all-natural sour cream
(optional one teaspoon to two tablespoons caraway seeds or sesame seeds)
1.5 teaspoons salt
2 cups white 100% whole wheat flour (King Arthur brand, which is lighter than whole wheat flour made from red wheat)
2 tablespoons wheat gluten

In the pan of a bread machine, mix the water, sugar, rye flour, and yeast together with a non-scratching spoon or spatula. Let the dough rest for twenty minutes, while the yeast wakes up and becomes bubbly. Add sour cream, seeds, salt, wheat flour, and gluten, then place in bread machine set to "dough". When the dough is ready (1.5 hours later in my machine), divide the rolls into 12 or 16 or 24 equal parts, depending on the size of roll you want, roll between your hands, and then flatten to the shape of a hamburger patty. Place on a sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet and allow to rise in a warm place for 45 minutes, then preheat the oven to 425°F.

While the oven is preheating, brush the rolls with water, using a pastry brush or silicone brush, and sprinkle on seeds, if desired. (Water works just as well as beaten egg yolk and is less trouble.) Use sesame seeds for hamburgers, or a mixture of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, minced dried garlic, minced dried toasted onion, and kosher salt for "everything" buns.

When the oven is preheated, bake the rolls until their internal temperature reads between 190 and 200°F on an instant read thermometer, about twelve minutes.

Variation:

Sausage buns

Include 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds in the dough. Cut a one-pound kielbasa into eight pieces, and wrap each one in one-eighth of the dough, when it comes out of the bread machine. Wrap carefully and place seam-side-down on the parchment paper on the baking sheet. Cook in a 425°F oven until the instant read thermometer says at least 190°F in the middle, about fifteen minutes.

Here is the original that the above recipes are based on: King Arthur Caraway Rye Bread. It does not call for the use of a bread machine, and it calls for more water and different flours, and doesn't mention buns or sausage rolls.

Pork adn Eggplant Curry by bookseller

Curry recipe by way of Fine Cooking magazine, but fairly heavily tweaked:

1 T coconut oil
1 cup sliced onion
3/4 pound pork loin, thinly sliced
3/4 pound eggplant in small, bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 t fish sauce
1 T brown sugar
1/2 of a 14 oz. can of coconut milk (not "light)
1 heaping T Thai red curry paste
grated zest of 1 lime
fresh lime juice to taste
1 t cornstarch
Garnish: 2 T chopped roasted peanuts or dried coconut or fried shallots/onions; fresh cilantro if you got

1. Shake the coconut milk so the thick and thin parts mix together.

2. Brown the pork, then the onions, and finally the eggplant in the coconut oil over medium heat; remove to a bowl.

3. Deglaze the pan (over slightly higher heat) with 1/4 cup of the coconut milk; simmer 2 minutes or so to thicken.

4. Stir in the broth, curry paste, fish sauce, sugar, lime zest, and remainder of the coconut milk (remember, you're only using half the can in total); simmer 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning (this is the point when I said WHHHHOOOO HOT HOT HOT! and threw in more coconut milk). It will look extremely unimpressive, like dirty dishwater, but it will taste great.

5. In a small bowl, dissolve the cornstarch in 1-2 T of the sauce; stir this slurry into the sauce and bring to a boil, stirring, until the sauce thickens. Taste again; add lime juice as desired (I added the juice of about 1/2 a lime).

6. Add back in the pork, eggplant, and onion, and simmer to heat through. Garnish with peanuts, toasted coconut, chopped cilantro (and bean sprouts, shredded carrots, thinly sliced chilies...all those would be good, too) as desired.

For me, this serves two over a large-ish bowl of mesclun greens (undressed).

Note the pork is much easier to slice when it's partially frozen (and in fact, I wound up making this because the only pork I had was FROZEN frozen, and I knew I'd need to slice it really thin if it was going to thaw in time for anything like dinner).

If diabetes is an issue here, FWIW, instead of sugar I used Locanto/Whey Low in a 2:1 ratio. Worked beautifully. The cornstarch comes out to 1/2 teaspoon per serving, which is 1 gram of carbohydrate. And by serving it over salad rather than rice, of course, it becomes very diabetes-friendly.

The original recipe added 2 cups sliced cabbage to the eggplant; I think that would be a good addition. And this would work with any number of veggies instead of the eggplant -- I plan to mix in some snowpeas for the second round, and maybe some sliced red pepper.

You could certainly make this more complex by adding some thinly sliced lemongrass and/or grated ginger to the simmering sauce, and/or by garnishing with some slivered Thai basil or pea shoots. Very good as is, though. And takes less time to make than it has to type up.

Finally, if you don't have coconut oil (delicious and very good for you) or peanut oil, use unflavored vegetable oil, like canola; don't use olive oil.

Walnut Martini by Grizzled Adams

Ingredients:

2 shots Vodka

3/4 shot Tuaca Liqueur

3/4 shot Walnut Liqueur

3/4 shot Vermouth (Dry)

Fruit Salad by bookseller

At this time of year, my vote would be for an enormous fruit salad. You can make a syrup by boiling down orange juice (and lemon juice, if you got) with some zest, maybe a few cardamoms, and some sugar; when it's the consistency of, say, light cream (don't go all the way to maple syrup), glug in some liqueur if you have any (Gran Marnier?), and toss it all with the berries, any other fruit, ideally some orange segments (the cherries are out, they would go nicely), and stick it in the fridge to marinate. Come time to serve, toast some walnut halves and scatter them on top -- or pistachios, they'd be pretty, maybe some fresh mint. Offer some whipped cream or Greek yogurt to anyone who wants, but it will be just wonderful without, and nobody will feel remotely deprived.

Oatcakes by MollyDunlop

Here is the oatcake recipe I use. It's from Dan Lepard's book The Art of Handmade Bread, which you must all go out and buy now, to make up for my stealing his recipe.

Oatcakes

1.5 cups (250 g) fine oatmeal
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1.25 tbsp (20 g) unsalted butter or lard
6 tbsp (100 g) water at room temperature
additional oatmeal for rolling

In a bowl, combine the oatmeal, salt and baking soda then rub in the butter until all the lumps disappear. Add the water and mix to a soft dough.

Sprinkle a little oatmeal on the work surface, place the dough on top, and sprinkle more oatmeal over the dough. Use the heel of your hand to flatten the dough, then sprinkle again, over and under, with oatmeal. Roll it out to a scant 1/4" thickness. You may need to run a spatula under the dough to make user it doesn't stick. Cut out disks with a 3" cutter, and place on a baking sheet that has been sprinkled with oatmeal. You can rework this dough without destroying the structure, so re-roll it as needed to get as many cakes as you can.

Bake at 400 F (200 C) for 30-40 minutes, until crisp and beginning to brown at the edges. Cool on a rack, then store in an airtight tin.

You don't so much bake oatcakes as dry them; the oven will fill with steam as they cook. It is almost impossible to screw them up unless you actually burn them. They're excellent with butter and a sharpish berry jam or good marmalade, and very good with cheese or smoked fish.

New Home

When Salon Table Talk closes on 10th June, 2011, the Otter discussion thread will continue at drive we said. In fact, we're there already--join us!

Romany Creams by liz isabella

Biscuit
1/2 lb butter, plus 1 tablespoon butter
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups desiccated coconut
2 ounces semisweet baking chocolate, melted
1/2 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon baking powder

Butter cream filling
1 lb icing sugar
1/4 lb butter, softened (not melted!)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3-4 tablespoons milk
A couple of teaspoons of reserved melted chocolate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Cream together butter and sugar; add flour, coconut, and baking powder.

3. Dissolve melted baking chocolate by whisking into boiling water; add to mixture. Reserve a teaspoon or two to mix into your filling.

4. Roll mixture into small 1-inch balls. 5. Place balls on greased cookie sheet and, using a fork, press criss-cross to flatten.

6. Bake in a moderate oven, 350F, for 10 to 12 minutes until desired doneness (some people like them crispier than others); let cool on a wire rack.

7. Make the butter cream filling: cream one-third of the icing sugar with softened butter and salt in large bowl.

8. Blend vanilla extract, 2 tablespoons milk and remaining sugar into mixture.

9. Gradually stir in remaining milk to filling until desired spreading consistency is reached.

10. When cookies have cooled completely, sandwich them together with the butter cream filling.

Apricot Bread by Sicut Cervus

[Based on recipe from Beard on Bread, with corrections.]

I can't speak to whether it's better with apples, peaches, etc., since Pops has a different recipe (from the same book) for Apple Walnut Bread that is also delish but quite different in texture and crumb, being based, like cake, on creaming butter and sugar together. As to dried peaches vs. apricots, I can say that my friend Clio who now lives in Merced, CA, just sent me some dried nectarines from her local farmers' market, and OMG sooooooooooo good.

Anyway. The recipe.

1 1/2 cups dried apricots (one package if you buy them that way)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups unbleached flour (Pops uses about 2 cups white, 3/4 cups whole wheat)
1 cup chopped nuts (he usually uses about 1/2 walnuts, 1/2 almonds, but you could also use pecans or any other combination of nuts)

Preheat oven to 350.

Pour 1 cup boiling water over the apricots and let stand till just tender -- do not oversoak. Drain off the water and reserve it. If it's now less than a cup, add more water to make 1 cup water, and pour into a large mixing bowl.

Add baking soda, sugar, and eggs and mix well.

Roughly chop the apricots, and toss with flour, baking powder, and salt in a second bowl. Pour the liquids into the solids. Add the nuts and mix well.

Butter and flour two loaf tins. Divide the batter into equal parts and pour into the tins. (You can line the tins with wax paper or parchment paper if you want to be sure to get the loaves out without any of the crust sticking to the pans).

Bake about 45 minutes (takes less in our oven, so start checking at 30-35 minutes in case your oven is similar) -- till loaves are nicely risen, dark in color, and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow to cool before slicing, if you can stand it. Once cooled, bread is delicious sliced cold, or sliced cold and warmed briefly in microwave OR briefly toasted in toaster; plain or spread with butter or cream cheese and/or topped with sliced sharp or mild cheese.

Could probably also be baked in a bundt pan as a coffee cake.

Seafood Stir-fry with Arugula by liz_isabella

My favourite seafood stir-fry is mixed shellfish fried lightly in butter, lemon and garlic, then add in chopped coriander, chopped rocket (arrrrrrrrrrrrugula, love that word), and if I have any, spring greens, warm through until wilted. I have it with couscous usually, but I have A Thing for couscous.

Arugula by bookseller

I particularly love "wild" arugula (which is in fact simply a different, and cultivated strain that is much spicier than the regular stuff). It makes a great pesto and also a great soup, particularly with some starch (potato, usually) for balance; I also love it stirred into lentil soup, the way I might use kale. And it's terrific stirred around with olive oil and garlic and used to sauce pasta. But to tell you the truth, I like it best in salads.

One thing you might could do is branch out beyond the usual salads. Frex, arugula is delicious in a salad that incorporates, say, grapefruit and orange segments and maybe some cooked white fish or (even better) crab or lobster. It plays very well with the softer, sweeter salad greens like mache or Boston lettuce, with maybe a little endive for a nice jolt of bitterness. Mmmmmm a citrus vinaigrette, throw in an egg if you'd like it creamy, with a little fresh tarragon and some toasted slivered almonds or a few toasted baguette slices (brushed with a little garlic olive oil) on the side....MAN am I hungry!

Carnitas by Calamity Jeanne

This afternoon I dusted off an old recipe for carnitas. It's one I basically cobbled together from two recipes out of two different library-loan cookbooks back when I lived in Silver Bay 20 years ago. I used boneless country-style ribs: simmered the wee out of them in water with a sliced onion and some ground cumin and dried oregano, then removed them from the broth, salted them and baked them in a 350F oven until browned, then allowed them to cool and cubed the meat, then put the meat cubes back into the baking dish, seasoned them well with cumin, oregano, chili powder and garlic powder, dumped in the onions from the cooking stock as well as a cup or so of the stock, covered it with foil, and let it bake for another 45 minutes. The meat is amazingly tender. I serve it on soft corn tortillas spread with refried beans, rolled up like taquitos, with Mexican rice on the side.

Squash and Meat Pie by Sicut Cervus

[From The Victory Garden Cookbook]

1 partially cooked pie crust (use your usual recipe for that part -- flour, a bit of salt, fat, water); roll out and put in pie pan, prick with a fork, weigh it down with another pan buttered on the bottom and full of old pennies or whatever; bake at 425, take it out after 8 minutes and get rid of the weighing-down pan, prick again and adjust the edges if needed, put back for a couple more minutes, take out and let cool.

Meat layer

3/4 lb ground beef
1 stalk celery
1 small onion
1/4 lb ham
2 T butter
1 egg
1/2 cup grated swiss cheese
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 t thyme
1-1/2 t salt (I found this a bit excessive and would use less next time)
freshly ground pepper

Topping

2 eggs
2 cups cooked winter squash
1/2 cup cooked rice (or other similar-textured bland carb, whatever you've got)
2/3 cup cream
1 T melted butter salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

To make meat layer, brown ground beef, drain off fat, and put meat in mixing bowl. Chop celery and onion, dice ham. Melt butter and sauté celery and onion till barely wilted, 3-5 minutes. Add ham and cook for 2 minutes. Stir into ground beef.* Beat egg and mix with beef mixture along with cheeses, parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. Let cool while you make the custard layer.

Put all ingredients for custard in food processor and blend till smooth.

Put cooled meat mixture in the pie shell, spread around and pat down. Cover with squash topping (I had extra topping; I didn't measure the squash, so there may have been more than 2 cups of it; plus the recipe is for a 10-inch pie pan and mine are 9-inch. I put the extra custard in an oven-proof dish and baked it separately.)

Sprinkle with parmesan cheese (I forgot to do this).

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, turn down heat to 325 and bake for 20-30 minutes longer till crust is nicely browned and filling is set and starting to brown around the edges.

Confession: I was in a hurry. I baked it for 15 minutes at 375, then turned it down to 300 for 10 more. It was perfect.

*I did this in my usual order -- do the onion and celery in the butter, then add the (raw) beef and brown it, then the ham, etc. It saved one dirty bowl, and probably blended the flavors a little more.

New York Times Moussaka

3 medium-sized eggplants
1 cup butter
3 large onions, finely chopped
2 pounds ground lamb or beef
3 T tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
6 T flour
1 quart milk
4 eggs, beaten till frothy
nutmeg
2 cups ricotta or cottage cheese
1 cup fine bread crumbs
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Peel the eggpalnts and cut them into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Brown the slices quickly in four tablespoons of the butter. Set aside [my annotation: sprinkle with salt]

2. Heat four tablespoons of butter in the same skillet and cook the onions until they are brown. Add the ground meat and cook ten minutes. Combine the tomato paste with the wine, parsley, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Stir this mixture into the meat and simmer over low heat, stirring frequently, until all the liquid has been absorbed. Remove the mixture from the fire.

3. Preheat the oven to 375 F

4. Make a white sauce by melting 8 tablespoons of butter and blending in the flour, stirring with a wire whisk. Meanwhile, bring the milk to a boil and add it gradually to the butter-flour mixture, stirring constantly. When the mixture is thickened and smooth, remove it from the heat. Cool slightly and stir in the beaten eggs, nutmeg and ricotta.

5. Grease an 11 x 16 inch pan and sprinkle the bottom lightly with bread crumbs. Arrange alternate layers of eggplant and meat sauce in the pan, sprnkling each layer with Parmesan cheese and bread crumbs. Pour the ricotta sauce over the top and bake one hour, or until top is golden. Remove from the oven and cool 20 to 30 minutes before serving. Cut in squares and serve.

Chicken Livers with Onion and Bacon by liz_isabella

I was actually really chuffed with how easy it was to do the livers, you should definitely give it a try.

I grilled some bacon before hand and set it aside.

Then I chopped up an onion, and chopped some garlic, and set that to fry. Once the onions started to change colour I added the chicken livers (I had drained them and rinsed them a bit before hand, because they can be quite mucky). Keep gently frying them until they're brown on the outside and a little pink on the inside. Their texture will change a little, and get a bit smoother.

Get some potatoes on the boil, then mash them up. Put that on a plate and then pop the cooked livers and onion on top. Add the bacon. Then put a couple of spoons of red wine and some nice balsamic vinegar into the still warm pan and swirl it around to get some of the bits out, pour that out over the livers and mash, Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt, dinner.

It only took me about 15/20 minutes. Yummy.

Oxtail Stew by liz-isabella

Yesterday I pan fried the oxtail until it was sealed on the outside. I then fried up some diced celery, onion, garlic and carrots, added the meat back in and covered it up with some beef stock. I added some thyme and some rosemary and let the whole lot simmer for four hours.

I left it in the fridge to cool overnight, and then this afternoon I topped it up with a bit of water and a glass of red wine, simmered it for another half an hour. Then I made some rosemary and garlic doughballs (dumplings) and added that in for last 5 minutes or so. It was good. And the house smelled so nice while it was all cooking.

Slow Roasted Lamb by liz-isabella

Yesterday I did a slow roasted lamb dish via Nigella. Lamb chops chopped up, in a roasting pan with diced raw potatoes. Over that a mix of olive oil, rosemary, garlic, and chilli. Slow roasted at about 150 degrees for around an hour and a half. It was lovely, all juicy and tasty. I had it with brussel sprouts and broccoli and felt virtuous and stuffed.

Peach Torte by Alecto the Night Owl

1 c butter
1 egg
1/2 c sugar
2 c flour
2 tsps baking powder
pinch if salt

Cream butter and sugar together. Add the beaten egg. Add sifted dry ingredients. Take out enough for topping - 3 cookie-sized balls. Press into a 10" or 11" springform pan.

Filling:
1 28 oz can of peaches
2 small packages of cooked chocolate pudding (can use mousse)

Make pudding/mousse per instructions. Drain the peaches and line the bottom of the pan. Cover with the pudding/mousse. Flatten out the dough balls and arrange on the top in a pleasing manner. Bake at 350°F for 40-45 minutes. Serve garnished with whipped cream or creme fraiche. This is good still warm from the oven or cold.

Mujaddra (Rice & Lentils) by bookseller

Cook both rice and lentils -- maybe the same amount of each, doesn't matter -- as you normally would (though maybe don't put them on the heat till the onions are about halfway done). Slice up about twice or three times as many onions as you think you'll need, getting them as thin as possible, and separating them into rings. Pour an unconscionable amount of olive oil (must be olive oil) into a pan, and cook the onions over the lowest possible heat. Getting them as dark as they can go will take quite a long time, easily an hour, maybe more, but you really don't have to poke them or fuss with them; just come in and check every 20 minutes or so; stir the darker ones in with the lighter ones, make sure nothing's sticking. When at least half of them are a really dark brown (and the other half are deep gold), mix the contents of the pan -- onions and onion-y olive oil -- together with the rice and lentils (which are still warm), and season everything with salt and black pepper and (if you're me) some cumin seeds that you have toasted in a dry pan till fragrant, and ground. Good warm, good cold, good plain, good with extra bits in, good with green eggs and ham, good all around. Too high in carbs for me to indulge often, sadly, but great comfort food. And as comfort food goes, actually not bad for you.

FWIW, my recipe, which I started making in college, comes from the Frugal Gourmet, who may have been a perv but put out some good cookbooks.

Magic Bulgur by bookseller

Saute 1 diced onion in 4 tablespoons butter. You could use olive oil, and you could probably cut the amount in half. Recipe says to add a couple stalks of celery; I'd rather get root canal with a rusty can opener. Stir the onion around over medium heat until it's translucent.

The stir in 1 cup bulgur -- I like the coarse grind, recipe doesn't specify. If you're looking for more of a porridge-y texture, fine would probably be the way to go. Add a pinch each of kosher/sea salt and black pepper, and stir this all for about 1 minute, till the bulgur starts to smell a little toasty.

Add 1.5 cups chicken broth or water, cover the pan, and let everything simmer (that probably means turning down the heat under the pan) for 15 minutes or so, until the bulgur is tender. At this point, if you'd like to cook it ahead and reheat it, you can. Stop, scrape everything into a bowl, stick it in the fridge. Later, you can heat it up in a bit more oil or butter (which will make it crisper and toastier and altogether more delicious) or you can steam it in a covered pan with a little bit of stock or water, which will still be tasty, but hey, steaming v. butter...choose your own sin.

When the bulgur is hot and you're ready to eat, stir in about 2 tablespoons good plain yogurt (I'd go with Greek, personally) and the same amount of chopped parsley (my choice) or dill (if you want a northern European flavor -- which would be very good with fish). In my vegetarian days, I used to make entire extremely happy meals out of a bowl of this stuff and some steamed veg -- cabbage and carrots in particular. But I also love it as a side to any kind of plain fish or seafood, either grilled or steamed, and I bet it would be great with lamb chops, in which case a raw zucchini salad with a sharp oregano vinaigrette, and maybe a few soaked currants in the bulgar, would be pretty fab.

Oooh, you know what I bet would be great? Make this up, but with butter and yogurt only, no onions or pepper, no parsley or dill, no savory ingredients. Eat it hot with some cold stewed fruit, like a classic eastern European kompot of apples or pears and dried apricots and prunes stewed with sugar or honey, a vanilla bean and some lemon rind, and either water or juice or red wine. That would make some kind of fabulous breakfast. With a nice glass tea, you'd be ready to go pick mushrooms in the forest with Zasha and Yevgeny.

ETA In fact, with a little forward planning, this would be an extremely easy breakfast. Not only does the kompot keep well, but I know from personal experience that it also freezes well, like in little 1/4-cup twists of Baggie. We already know the bulgar can be made ahead. The night before, take one of your Baggies outa the freezer, and leave it to thaw in the fridge overnight. In the morning, nuke some bulgur till it's hot, stir in a little yogurt, and top it with your cold, syrupy fruit. If you are determined to get fancy and cause your breakfast guest to adore you, toast a few heart-healthy walnut halves while the bulgur is nuking, chop them roughly and sprinkle them on top.

Your guest will never leave.