Wild Rice Soup and Popovers (from Tastemade Struggle Meals)

Ingredients

Mushroom Wild Rice Soup

• 1 cup wild rice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 butter packets
• 1 medium yellow onion, diced
• 12 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch thick
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 2 large carrots, peeled and diced
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
• Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1/3 cup heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

Popovers

• 5 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup milk, warm
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp thyme leaves

Steps

Mushroom Wild Rice Soup

1. Rinse the wild rice with cold water in a strainer. Drain the water and pour the rice into a large saucepan. Cover the rice with 4 cups of water and add 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cover with a lid. Simmer for 45-50 minutes. Rice should be chewy but tender when done. Drain the remaining water if needed.
2. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and mushrooms and sauté until tender and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the white wine to deglaze and release flavor from the bottom of the pan. Add the chicken broth, 1 1/2 cups of water, carrots, thyme, and bay leaf and bring to a simmer. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and stir in the heavy cream and cooked wild rice. Finish with the vinegar. Serve with popovers.
3. Cook’s Tip: Wild rice is a tough seed that absorbs water slowly. It can take 45 minutes to an hour for wild rice to fully cook and no longer be crunchy. Since the cooking time can vary it’s easiest to cook the rice like pasta.

Popovers

1. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the empty muffin tin in the oven to heat for 5 minutes.
2. Mix the eggs, milk, 1 tablespoon melted butter, salt and thyme in a medium bowl. Add the flour in 1/4 cup increments, whisking well after each addition. The batter should be smooth without lumps.
3. Carefully remove the hot muffin tin from the oven and drizzle 1/2 tablespoon melted butter into each cup of a 12 cup muffin tin. Fill each cup with 1/4 cup of batter, about half full. Bake for 20 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 degrees F and bake until popovers are puffy and golden brown, about 10 more minutes. Remove from the pan and serve hot.

Old-fashioned pancakes

 Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C flour
• 3 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 T white sugar
• 1 1/4 C milk
• 1 egg
• 3 T butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
2. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg, and melted butter; mix until smooth.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan and Cook the Pancakes!!!

I made this on Friday, Nov. 5, 2021 for Luca and Alex.  After I mixed the batter, I split it in half, then added yellow food coloring to one, green food coloring to the other.  I also added some chocolate chips.

Delicious!   I'll make it again!

Apple Cake Recipes

This one is from Aunt Mary Slattery

Ingredients

• 4 C chopped apples
• 1 C chopped nuts
• 2 C sugar
• 3 C flour
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 C vegetable oil
• 2 eggs (well beaten)
• 1 tsp vanilla

Directions

1. Mix apples, nuts, and sugar.
2. Let stand one hour, stirring often so mixture makes its own juice.
3. Add all the dry ingredients to apple mixture.
4. Mix oil, vanilla, and eggs together and add to apple mixture.  Mix by hand.
5. Pour into greased and floured tube pan.  
6. Bake at 325 deg. for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours.

This one is from the Smitten Kitchen Website.   https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/09/moms-apple-cake/

Ingredients

For the apples

• 6 apples
• 1 T cinnamon
• 5 T sugar

For the cake

• 2 3/4 C flour
• 1 T baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 C oil, melted butter also works
• 2 C sugar
• 1/4 C orange juice
• 2 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1 C walnuts

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 deg.  Grease a tube pan.  Peel, core and chop apples into 1" chunks.  Toss with cinnamon and 5 tablespoons sugar and set aside.
2. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.  In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar, vanilla and eggs.  
3. Mix wet ingredients into dry ones.
4. Pour half of batter into prepared pan.  Spread half of apples (and their juices) over it.  Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top.  
5. Bake at 350 deg. for 1 1/2 hours or until a tester comes out clean.

Cool completely before running knife between cake and pan, and unfolding onto a platter.

The cake is great the first day, but absolutely glorious and pudding-like on the days that follow.  Keep it room temperature covered with foil.

**Tip:  the apples love to hide uncooked pockets of batter, especially near the top.  Make sure your testing skewer or toothpick goes not just all the way down to the bottom, but does a shallow dip below the top layer of apples to make sure it comes out batter-free.  Should your cake be browning too fast, before the center is baked through, cover it with foil for all the last few minutes in the oven.  

Berkeley and Seattle, Summer 2016

Toured Google but only on the outside with Nick's friend, Mike D'Andrea.

Ate at Vik's Chaat, Indian street food.  My cousin, Yosh (Alan) Sakasegawa, picked us up.

Then went shopping at the Berkeley Bowl - very fresh produce and such a variety!

 Nick's way cool clothes spinner.

 Bored out of our gourd while waiting for flight to depart to Seattle :)

 Puget Sound.

 Toulouse Petit Kitchen and Lounge.  Cajun and Creole in Queen Anne, Seattle.

Asian Broccoli Salad

 

BROCCOLI SALAD INGREDIENTS:

• 1 large head broccoli, cut into small florets
• 1 cup shelled cooked edamame
• 1/2 cup thinly-sliced green onions
• 1/2 cup peanuts
• 1 batch peanut sauce (recipe below)
• sesame seeds, for garnish

PEANUT SAUCE INGREDIENTS:

• 1/4 cup natural peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce (if you are gluten-free, use GF soy sauce or tamari)
• 1 tablespoon honey or agave nectar
• 1/8 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
• 1–2 tablespoons hot water, as needed to thin the sauce

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INSTRUCTIONS

TO MAKE THE BROCCOLI SALAD:

1. Heat a large pot of water until it is boiling.  Add in the broccoli florets and boil for 30 seconds.  Use a mesh strainer to transfer them into a bowl of ice water, which will immediately halt the cooking process.  Drain.  Then add the remaining ingredients and toss until combined.  Serve immediately, garnished with sesame seeds if desired.

TO MAKE THE PEANUT SAUCE:

1. Whisk all ingredients together until combined. If the dressing is too thick, whisk in hot water a tablespoon at a time until it reaches the consistency you desire.

Layered Pan Sushi

 3 cups rice, cooked

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream
1/2 tub of tobiko (orange sushi roe)
About 12 sticks of imitation crabmeat, shredded (could use tuna)
1/2 cucumber, diced or thinly sliced into matchsticks
Furikake for garnish
Green onions for garnish (optional)
Unagi sauce (optional)

In a medium bowl, mix mayonnaise, yogurt or cream cheese, tobiko, crab meat, and cucumber. Press rice in an even layer in a 9×13-inch pan. Spread crab mixture into an even layer on top of rice. Sprinkle green onions and furikake on top. Drizzle with unagi sauce. Broil for a few minutes until top is bubbly. Serve with seasoned nori.

Layered "Make Your Own" Spicy Ahi Poke Sushi (from Julie Doi)

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked rice, cooled to room temperature
• 1 1/2 pounds spicy ahi poke, chopped into smaller pieces
• 3 to 5 T French's fried onions, crushed into smaller pieces
• 2 to 3 T mayonnaise
• 1/2 to 1 tsp chili garlic sauce or Sriracha sauce
• 2 T Kabayaki sauce
• 2 to 3 T thin sliced shredded nori
• 2 T black sesame seeds
• 2 T tobiko
• 1 to 2 stalks green onions, chopped
• 2 to 4 packs roasted seasoned Korean nori 

Instructions

1. Lightly coat a 9 x 13" pan with sesame seed oil.  Spread cooked rice into pan.
2. Spread poke on top of rice.
3. Mix mayonnaise and chili garlic sauce or Sriracha in a small ziplock bag and seal the bag.  OR just buy Sriracha mayo!  Cut off corner tip of bag and pipe in a zigzag motion over poke.
4. Drizzle Kabayaki sauce in the opposite zigzag motion.
5. Sprinkle crushed fried onions, shredded noti, tobiko, green onions and black sesame seeds on top.

Scoop a small spoonful of the mixture and place onto one Korean nori sheet and pop into your mouth! 

Tobiko!