Comfort food: Hash browns with cheese

As comfort food, this is even better, to me, than macaroni and cheese. Potatoes and cheese -- nothing is better! And if you have a food processor, nothing is easier.

For this recipe, take two medium potatoes, wash them. If you are really fussy, or if you are going to grate them manually peel them, but it doesn't matter.  Grate them. For years, I used a manual grater, in which case you leave them whole but peel them. But now I use my food processor. So I wash them and cut them into quarters to stuff down the chute of the food processor.

Turn the oven to 350. You'll need it later.

On the stove top, heat that big ol' cast iron skillet with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Put the grated potatoes in and press them down a little to ensure contact. Cook on high for about 5 minutes or until brown on the bottom side.. Turn. Cook for another 5 minutes or -- well, you know. By then the oven should be at 350. Stick the skillet in and set a timer on 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, add grated cheese. Cook for another 10 minutes until the cheese is melty and even a little crispy. Yum..

To make it pretty, cut rounds of hash browns and cheese, and add garnishes such as cherry tomatoes and basil.. I used an Iced Tea glass to cut the rounds, because although I may have a round biscuit cutter somewhere, I learned to use what was handy. But if you are not taking a picture, skip that part and just enjoy.

Scones

In Scotland, pronounced to rhyme with Fonz, these are sort of in between biscuits and muffins. Not nearly as sweet as muffins. I've never made them myself before and plan on tinkering with the recipe further, but these came out pretty well. Some recipes call for milk, some for cream. I only had skim milk on hand, so decided to be brave and use 2% fat Greek yogurt, and added a teaspoon of baking soda to try to balance the acidity.

Preheat oven to 400.

In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 T baking powder
3 T sugar

Cut in with a pastry cutter (or two forks, or use a food processor), as for pie dough
6 T unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

In a smaller bowl, mix:
2 eggs
1/3 C. Greek yogurt

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix just until combined -- don't over mix; as with biscuits, that would make them tough. With floured hands, pat onto a lightly floured board, either into a round shape to cut into eight wedges or a square to cut into eight triangles.

Carefully transfer to a baking sheet, preferably with a silicon baking mat or parchment paper, or greased. Bake 20-25 minutes, being careful not to overbake. Optional: After about 15 minutes, brush with butter and sprinkle sugar on. Cool on a baking rack for 5 minutes. Eat with butter, yogurt, preserves, honey, whatever you like.

Next time I think I will add blueberries to the wet ingredients!

Mushroom-tomato soup

What’s better on a chilly, windy December day than hot soup? Hot homemade soup!

1 large onion, diced
1-1/2 pounds mushrooms, sliced (I used mostly creminis; I would NOT use all “white mushrooms,” as I don‘t think they have as much flavor.)
3 - 5 cloves of garlic, crushed and/or minced
1 large can diced tomatoes, with juice
herbs -- your choice; I used a mix of oregano, basil, thyme and other stuff in a blend from Penzey's called "Sunny Paris," but an Italian blend would obviously be appropriate as well.
salt and pepper
1 - 2 Tablespoons olive oil
good bread
grated or shredded cheese, your choice -- I used asiago because I had it
6 cups chicken broth (if you want to keep it vegetarian, use vegetable broth or even water); I happened to have a couple of cups of turkey broth left over (!) so I used that and a 32-oz carton of low-sodium chicken broth.

Dice the onion. In a large pot -- my trusty cast-iron Dutch oven, for example -- "sweat" the onion for a couple of minutes while you rinse and slice the mushrooms. A sprinkle of salt is good, but go easy if you are using a commercial broth that is salty.

Add the sliced mushrooms and another pinch or so of salt.  Stir occasionally, and be amazed at how much liquid comes out of the mushrooms. And that isn't from having washed them -- Alton Brown proved it on his show.

Add the garlic once there is enough liquid to keep it from burning. Burnt garlic is nasty.

After 5-10 minutes, add the tomatoes, juice and all, and the herbs. Stir and bring to simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Add the stock or other liquid and simmer another 15-20 minutes.  Taste and add salt and/or pepper as needed.

Serve with bread, toasted bread or, since this is me doing it, toasted cheese bread. Garnish with basil (parsley would work, or you could skip the garnish and just eat the dang soup).

More pelmeni photos

Because Blogger is having issues.

 Here are the pelmeni, before cooking, and after.

Pelmini photos

Pelmeni (Ukrainian dumplings, like ravioli)

We had a pelmeni making party tonight because my nephew-to-be is from Ukraine, and we want to serve them as appetizers at a post-wedding backyard barbecue party. He brought his mom's recipe, which, as he translated it, was: Grandma's noodle dough! With ground pork inside, like ravioli. He even brought his mom's pelmeni press, which makes something like 3 dozen at a time.

Here's how it works: You make a meat mixture, in this case ground pork with chopped onion, salt and pepper. Then you make pasta, noodle dough, whatever you want to call it: Put about one cup of flour on the counter or bread board, make a well, add a pinch of salt, crack an egg in, add a teaspoon or less of water (or milk), "pinch" the flour into the egg until you have dough. Chill it for a few minutes, then roll it out on a floured board with a floured pin, making sure to turn it over and turn it around so it doesn't stick and so it stays round.

Wrap it loosely around your rolling pin to transfer to the mold, which is about the size of a pie pan but has small holes in it. While one person presses the dough into those holes and puts a little of the meat mixture in, make another round of dough. Put it over the top, roll it down so the "cutters" kick in, and voila! Pelmeni!

Repeat.

When you have enough, put them in boiling water for 8 minutes. Serve with sour cream and dill, and caramelized onions once you know about that part! I didn't, but now I do.

Hard to not like something that (a) has porky goodness and (b) involves mandatory sour cream.

Scallops with lobster sauce

Last night, after devouring the lobster tails, I put the shells in some water and boiled them. Then refrigerated the resulting lobster stock. So tonight, I took that stock, boiled it down some more, added butter and white wine, cooked it down some more, quickly cooked scallops in butter, made toast, and poured the lobster sauce over the scallops and toast. Unfortunately, you can't see or smell what that lobster sauce does, but trust me. Among other things, that's the best toast anyone has ever eaten.