Rabbit Munchies, Anyone?

Today the Eccentric Cook has gone into "Rabbit Mode", craving salad. Rather than making my usual "Garbage Salad", with everything but the the kitchen sink in it, I went a little more conservative; even stooping to using commercial salad greens blends from my grocer's cold case. The "eccentric moment of truth" in this meal came when I realized all we had in the house to dress the salad was mayonnaise; I abhor a naked salad, especially which its star attractions are sliced avocados and crumbled bacon! Here is how I solved the dilema.

Salad With Eccentric Style Homemade Dressing
(To make one large individual serving)

Ingredients

 Salad greens of choice
Half a ripe Haas Avocado sliced
Three Rashers Crisp Smoked Streaky Bacon

For the Dressing

Two heaped TBS Mayonnaise
100 ml Olive Oil
50 ml  Malt Vinegar
1 tsp sugar or honey if desired
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp finely crumbled Tarragon leaves

Mix the Mayonnaise, Olive Oil, Vinegar, Sugar/Honey Salt, Pepper, Ginger and Tarragon well and allow to sit for 5 to 10 minutes for the flavors to marry properly.

Assemble the salad in a bowl, crumbling the bacon on top as a garnish.
Pour over the dressing, serve, and watch the diner's face light up!

The Drink That Eats Like a Meal

When I still lived in Chicago IL, there was a strong restaurant tradition of holding the Sunday Brunch. The headliner of "traditional" brunch drinks was the Bloody Mary; but you never had one like this before! Some restaurants had a "Bloody Mary Bar" where the diner could mix his or her own exotic drink with non-traditional Bloody Mary ingredients.

I made one of these as my entire brunch this morning here on English soil.

Brunch Style Bloody Mary

To make one pint-sized Bloody Mary "Food Drink"

1-3 shots Vodka

3g chopped fresh spring onion tops

3g sliced fresh Chestnut Mushroom

4g julienned Kabanosi or other smoked sausage

2g diced celery

6 cheese cubes diner's choice of variety

celery salt, black pepper, Habanero Tabasco, and Worcestershire sauce to taste

Fill glass with tomato juice after adding all of the above; stir and add ice if desired. Virgin-Mary drinkers can leave out the vodka and still enjoy this nutritious "meal in a glass."

Ham and Potato Soup -- Eccentric Style!

Today, just out of curiosity, I Googled Ham and
Potato Soup, as I had recently made a cauldron of it myself. I was astonished!

EVERY recipe I saw for this wonderful soup used a roux. Why bother with a roux, when the potato itself is quite capable of providing the thickening? Add butter-based roux to ham fat, (if you make this soup as I do by boiling a whole UK cut smoked ham hock which weighs a bit over a kilo normally), and you have a recipe for a bad cholesterol overload...lol.

Here is the healthier (to be debated on a health forum at some later date) Eccentric way to make Ham and Potato Soup. WARNING: This is an all day project for very hungry
people!

Ingredients: (to feed 4-6 as a main course with leftovers for next day)

1 large smoked ham hock (3/4 to 1 and 1/3 kg in weight)

8-10 medium potatoes or 5-6 large baking potatoes

8 cloves garlic

1 head celery

5 large carrots

1 large onion (preferably a Spanish onion...VERY large)

1 tbs sage

1 tsp tarragon

1 tsp thyme

(Any other vegetables you might care to add...to taste)

Salt

Black or white pepper

Place the hock in a 8 litre stock pot and cover with cold water. Bring quickly to the boil, and skim off any scum which might rise to the surface of the water. Turn pot down to fast simmer and allow to cook for four hours, topping up water as needed. At the halfway mark, add two tablespoons of sea salt.

(As ham is salty in its own right, I hear my readers asking why add salt? Salt migrates to the area of least concentration; this is why very few salt water fish will live if one moves them to fresh water. Likewise, if you add no salt to your cooking water, the ham will be well cooked, but rather tasteless.)

Remove the ham from the pot when done and set aside to cool so it may be comfortably de-boned. If you haven't already cut up your veggies, now is the time.

Here is the eccentric secret to this dish; the order of vegetable addition to the broth provided by boiling the ham hock.

If you are using medium potatoes, 3-4 of them cut into 1-inch cubes go in first, along with four cloves of garlic, and white or black pepper to taste. 30 minutes after this, half of your onion chopped, goes in. Same with your baking tatties, only the first 2-3 go in with the garlic, onion and pepper following.

From this point on, stir the soup every ten minutes or so to prevent sticking.

About this time, you should be able to take your ham off the bone. You may cut it into neat cubes, or like I do, allow it to follow the natural divisions of the musculature and come out in irregular chunks; this is much more "rustic". It isn't time to add it back to the pot yet, however.

Three more medium potatoes or another large now, and the celery. By now, your soup should start to look like the roux-based version, but you might consider it a bit watery; don't let that fool you! Every moment that passes, it is thickening under the influence of the potato starch; so don't be afraid to cook it until its thickness pleases your eye, adding more water when necessary. 20 minutes more
and in goes the other half of the onion, the sage, tarragon and thyme.

20 minutes more, and add as much of the remaining garlic as your taste buds say is needed, along with the chopped carrots, and remaining potatoes. When the carrots have been in for 5 minutes, add the ham, and allow another 40-45 min. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

Serve in large bowls, and be prepared to serve seconds.

The wonderful thing about doing this soup in this fashion is the longer you cook it, the thicker it becomes. It grows on your guests, quickly becoming "moreish". But due to the lack of extra fat caused by allowing the spuds to be the only thickening, one need not worry about causing or aggravating any cardiovascular conditions...*grin*.

Getting The Most From Fresh Produce

How many of my readers are aware that we often
discard parts of fresh produce that are perfectly
edible?

Examples include: outer leaves of bunches of
greens, the leafy greens of Broccoli and
Cauliflower/Broccoflower, and radish greens?

Such greens if too tough to go into the main
vegetable serving, can be used for veggie
stock as a base for homemade soup.

If not too tough to be served immediately,
such may be cooked alongside their vegetable
of origin, and used as an edible bed or garnish.

Corn silk from corn in the husk, also can be dried
and used as an herbal tea.

Beef and Ale Stew

There is nothing like a good ale to tenderize
what may be a tough piece of beef. Combine
this with seasonal vegetables, and you have
at the close of cooking, a feast fit for a
Lord.

To make this savoury dish...

(to serve 4)

One pound (454-500 grams) stewing beef

Two 500 ml bottles of dark ale or bitter
(US users may use Lager but the flavor
will be totally different)

Four or five large carrots

Two large onions

five stalks of celery

Two large baking potatoes

Cooking oil with which to
brown beef (about 1/3 cup)

If beef is in the form of a
"stewing steak", cut into
1 inch chunks. Dredge with
flour. Heat oil in a large
frying pan and when hot add
the beef, turning quickly so
that it browns on all sides
evenly. You may cut up the
vegetables while the beef
browns if one has not done
it already.

Remove the browned beef from
the frying pan with a slotted
spoon and place on a plate.
Discard the oil, unless you
wish to use it instead of
butter in the roux to follow.

Now take a 4 Litre casserole
place the browned beef into
it along with any juices that
may have accumulated around it,
and pour in the ale, topping
up with water if necessary.

Make a Roux with the following:
4 TBS flour and an equal portion
of butter, or the reserved oil
from the prior browning of the beef.
Set aside for later.

Place casserole in a 180C (350F)
oven for two hours. At the end
of two hours, remove from oven,
stir in the roux and vegetables;
season to taste with salt, pepper
and herbs of your choice. Return
to oven for a further hour and a
half, or until the beef is tender.

Remove from oven, serve and enjoy!

Oven-Broiled Rump (Butt) Steak with Black Bean Sauce

This recipe is a no-brainer.

Ingredients:

1 Bottle or Jar Chinese Black Bean Sauce

2 Rump Steaks (US cut Butt Steak) of approx
1 lb or 1/2 kilo each.

Preheat oven to 200C, or 400F.

Place steaks in separate Pyrex baking dishes.
Add Black Bean Sauce generously to cover top
of steaks.

Oven broil for 15-20 minutes for medium rare,
25-30 minutes for well done, turning each
steak two or three times during cooking.

Serve with baked or mashed potatoes and
fresh steamed seasonal vegetables.

Alas and Alack!

When I tasted the Pierogi in its gravy,
I knew that Ewa and her husband had to try this way of eating it.

So I packed some up and off I went to the market, this being Tuesday.
Imagine my horror when Ewa told me they were in process of closing
out the market stall! I started panic-buying, but Ewa's hubby
told me to calm down please. For one thing their last day on
the Harborough Market is not until the 21st of April, and
better yet, they are going to do a home delivery service!

(Whew! That's much better...)

I will email my vendor-friend tonight to find out how
she liked the Pierogi, and to find out if she is going
to make radical changes to the web site.