Won't be too long before we need to be planning our Chinese New Year parties! We'll celebrate the Year of the Horse on January 31. I was born during the Year of the Horse, so I'm hoping my kitchen remodel is all finished and everything is back in order so I can have a little gathering that night. I'm waiting on the arrival of the countertops!
I've posted one of my cooking columns from last year. It originally appeared in the Murphysboro American Newspaper. You might like the recipe for your next Asian themed dinner. It's a crock pot meal ... so it will be an easy one!
Good Food: Local
By: Debbie Moore
Not every woman brags about her son-in-law, but I do! I have a good one! A couple years ago, he got up really early
the day after Thanksgiving and went to one of those early bird shopping events
and bought one of my Christmas presents.
I was stunned to learn that it had been his idea to give me a crock pot
buffet server with three little pots in it, and he had to be an early shopper
to get a red one! We like to eat, and we
like to entertain, and that gift has been used many times.
The history of the crock pot dates to 1971 when the Rival
Company introduced the trademarked Crock-Pot name to home cooks. As you know, the handy little countertop
cookers come in a variety of brands, sizes and shapes and offer busy parents a
perfect way of getting a meal on the table!
There are lots of other advantages of crock pot cooking, and probably
the best example is the fact that slowly simmering a cheap cut of meat turns it
into something wonderful. However, the
most significant disadvantage is that the same process can turn vegetables into
morsels of mush that have few nutrients left in them. But, they taste good, so we enjoy them
anyway!
The history of crockery cooking dates to the earliest ancient
days of food preparation and is still remains prevalent in virtually every
culture. The Chinese still cook in an
unglazed clay pot that they first soak in water, so the steam escapes,
enhancing the contents. The German’s Römertopf, which actually means “Roman pot”,
is another example of an unglazed clay roaster that you soak in water before
roasting meats and vegetables. One of my
favorite methods of clay pot cooking, which is a column for another day, is
using the Moroccan Tagine to turn simple chicken thighs into a delicious, melt
in your mouth, Sunday dinner!
One of my
favorite Southern Illinois grown vegetables to keep over the winter is
butternut squash. All you have to do
is make sure you get squash that don’t have any blemishes, then keep them in a
cool but dry place. That doesn’t mean
the refrigerator or crisper, but more like a closet shelf or a spot in your basement. They will keep for about three months and
sure do add great flavor to soups and vegetable medleys.
However, if
you’d like to freeze your butternut squash in the fall for wintertime use,
there are a couple of easy ways to do that.
You can simply peel and remove the seeds and fibers from the
squash. Cut it into one-inch (or less)
cubes and seal them in a plastic bag and freeze them. That would be perfect to add to soups,
risotto or simply roast. Another easy
way is to make puree and freeze it. To
do that, all you have to do is cut the squash in half, remove the seeds and
fiber, and place it skin side up in a roasting pan with an inch of water in
it. Roast the squash at 375 degrees for
30 to 50 minutes, depending upon the size of the squash. It is ready, when you can stick a fork through
the skin. Remove the squash from the
water and let it cool. You can scoop the
squash from the peels, mash it a little and freeze it in a bag. As always, when you use a bag as a freezer
container, make sure you press all the excess air from the bag before you seal
it.
Today, I’m sharing two recipes that have a splash of sunshine in them because I’ve used plenty of orange zest and orange juice; Roasted Butternut Squash and Orange Ginger Beef. In addition, I’ve included a simple salad dressing recipe that you’ll make with ingredients which are probably in your cupboard all the time. Finally, I’ve included a recipe for banana bread turned cookie bar that is made even better with a browned butter frosting and a big drizzle of chocolate sauce at serving time! Good cooks always remember that we eat with our eyes before we ever taste a thing, so that glistening sauce over the creamy buttery frosting looks delicious and makes your mouth water!
I hope you’ll try all these recipes, but especially the roasted
squash. It is so easy and is not only
good, but local!
Recipes
Orange Ginger Beef
Ingredients:
1 pound of beef stew meat
½ cup chopped onion
¼ cup soy sauce
2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil
1 teaspoon minced ginger
Zest of 2 oranges
2 cups orange juice
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Combine all the ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4
hours until the meat is fork tender.
Serve over steamed white rice or your favorite noodles.
Roasted Butternut
Squash
Ingredients:
4 cups cubed raw butternut squash
2 Tablespoons orange infused canola oil
1 orange
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Place the squash on a heavy baking sheet. Drizzle the oil over the squash and sprinkle
with salt and pepper. Slice the orange
and lay it over the squash. Roast at 350
degrees for 15-20 minutes until the squash is tender and slightly brown on the
edges. Remove from the oven immediately
and serve warm or at room temperature.
Olive oil may be used instead of canola oil and if you don’t have orange
infused oil, squeeze the juice and sprinkle the zest of an orange over the
squash before roasting.
From the Cupboard Asian Dressing
Ingredients:
½ cup rice wine or red wine vinegar
½ cup canola oil
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon sugar or equivalent sugar substitute
This recipe is simple enough!
Whisk all the ingredients together and serve with your favorite
salad. The salad I’ve chosen to
accompany my Orange Ginger Beef is shredded salad greens topped with thinly
sliced pears and finished with chopped scallions. Easy and good!
Banana Bread Bars
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
2 teaspoons almond extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup chopped walnuts
Brown Butter Frosting
Ingredients:
1 stick butter
3 cups powdered sugar
2 teaspoons almond extract
3-4 Tablespoons milk
Whip together the butter, sour cream, eggs, sugar, bananas
and extract until smooth. Sift together
the flour, baking soda and salt and add it to the wet ingredients. Continue to beat the ingredients until well
blended. Fold in the chopped
walnuts. Pour the batter into a 15x10
inch baking sheet, which has been buttered and floured. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes until the
center springs back when you touch it.
Remove from the oven and let the bread bars begin to cool. Prepare the frosting by melting the butter
over medium heat. Use a large heavy pan,
so you can mix the icing right in the pan.
Constantly stir the butter as it heats to a boil and just as soon as it
starts to brown, remove it from the heat and add the extract and powdered
sugar. Stir quickly and add the milk, a
Tablespoon at a time until it reaches spreading consistency. Frost the bread bars while they are still
warm. The frosting will be thick, so it
helps to work with it while the sheet of bars is warm. Top with another sprinkling of walnuts. You can cut these into squares are
rectangles, but I love to cut them with a big biscuit cutter and drizzle them
with chocolate or caramel sauce.