Sausage and Cheese Kolaches- from Dave's Blog

I worked on a recipe from Dave's blog, Kolaches. They are great. So I thought I would share the link!
The International Texican, plus there are more good recipes there.
Yum!! Made Eggs Benedict and placed them on top of the Kolaches!

Lamb Shanks

This is one of Kelani’s favorite dishes. I have made some adjustments to the original recipe as I do not have the proper pots/pans.

4 lamb shanks
Flour, salt and spices for dipping the shanks in (I like the smoked red pepper flakes)
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 bunch of scallion, green onion chopped (including some of the green)
3 tomatoes cleaned and coarsely chopped
3 teaspoons oregano
3 tablespoons tomato paste

3 tablespoons red pepper paste
1 cup red wine
4 cups water (or lamb stock or beef stock)
2 carrots, diced
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh Italian parsley

Heat oven to 375F, 190 C.

Dip the shanks in the flour mixture. Quickly fry them in the olive oil until lightly browned on all sides. Place shanks on a plate. Pour off excess oil and add the butter to the pan to melt. Cook garlic and scallions for about a minute stirring until soft but not browned. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, green pepper paste, oregano, wine and water, I also add the leftover flour mixture but this is optional. Bring liquid to a boil.

Place lamb shanks in a 9 X 13 pan, pour the hot liquid over them. Cover tightly with foil and place in oven for 1 hour. After an hour, add the chopped carrots and cook for an additional 30 minutes.

Remove from oven add the parsley and serve. I like to use a bowl and put mashed potatoes or baked French fries in the bottom before placing meat and sauce.

TMs Chicken Cordon Blue

4 skinless and boneless chicken breast halves

Salt
Pepper
Spinach pesto
Sliced Swiss cheese (I grated Emmental- two types don’t know as were Turkish)

Thinly sliced ham (we use thinly sliced beef as can’t find ham here very easily)
½ cup seasoned bread crumbs


Preheat oven to 175 C, 350 F. Butter a 9 X 11 (or smaller) baking dish.



Pound chicken breasts until they are 6 mm thick. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Place a spoonful of spinach pesto on each slice and spread. Place a slice of “ham”on each layer of pesto, and then a thin layer of grated cheese Roll this up and place a toothpick in the roll to keep it from unraveling.

Place rolled chicken in the greased pan and sprinkle the chicken evenly with the bread crumbs. I poured a little chicken broth in the bottom of the pan so that the leakage from the rolls would not burn. Place in oven and cook for about 30 minutes, until chicken is not pink. Take the pan out of the oven and sprinkle some cheese on top of the chicken pieces and cook for another five minutes.

Take out the oven, remove the toothpick and enjoy. I suggest serving with a little red sauce to enhance the flavors.

Spicy Peach Chutney

4 pounds (2 kilos) sliced peeled peaches
1 cup raisins, I like the yellow raisins
3 or 4 cloves garlic, minced
¾ cup chopped onion
½ cup preserved ginger (I used the pickled stuff you use for sushi b/c I don’t have preserved ginger)
1 ½ tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon curry powder
4 cups sugar plus 1 ½ tablespoons molasses (OR 4 cups brown sugar)
4 cups apple cider vinegar
¼ cup pickling spice tied up into cheesecloth

In a large heavy pot, stir together all the ingredients (add the cheesecloth wrapped spices last).

Bring to a boil and cook, uncovered, over medium heat until the mixture is the consistency you want it to be. This will take about 1.5 to 2 hours. Stir frequently so that the bottom does not burn.

Take out the spice bag and ladle the mixture into hot, sterilized jars. Wipe rims and seal closed, then place in lightly simmering water bath for 10 minutes. This will seal the jars so that you do not have to refrigerate them until you have opened the jar- if you skip this step you will have to keep the mixture in the refrigerator.

Corn Salsa avec Turkish Peppers

Since corn was 6 on the cobb for 5 tl, I decided to try an experiment. I like it and it will be good with various dishes. Careful with the hot peppers though.

6 corn on the cob still in their husks

Cook these in the oven 180 C, 350 F, for 1 hour until they are “spongy” when squeezed. After they have cooled for about 20 minutes, take off husk and silk and slice corn from cob. Place in a bowl.

Sauce:

3 cloves garlic- finely chopped

1 teaspoon freshly chopped ginger (I use about 1 tablespoon)

1/3 cup lemon juice1 tablespoon ground cumin

3 tablespoons sugar

Salt and Pepper

Mix all ingredients for the sauce.

And finally

1 medium onion, chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

2 green/red hot peppers (they look like jalapenos) OPTIONAL

3 cups quartered cheery tomatoes

Mix all ingredients with the corn. Let set in fridgerator for at least 30 minutes.

Creamy Oriental Dressing

from Sam Choy's Cooking from the Heart

this makes a great dressing for cole slaw.

I usually cut the ingredients by 1/3.

3 cups mayonaise

1/2 cup soy sauce

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 1/2 tablespoons black seasame seeds

1 tablespoon seasame oil

Whisk all ingredients together until well blended. Refridgerate so flavors blend.

Cherry Cobbler, 2nd edition

1 kilo (2 pounds) fresh cherries, clean and take seeds out (cherry pitters are good for cherries and olives)

1 cup flour

1 cup brown sugar (otherwise mix white sugar with 1.5 tablespoons molasses- I use mulberry molasses)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

60 grams (or 4 ounces) butter (a little soft), cut into tablespoon or smaller pieces (this is a correction, on first post I wrote too much)

Freshly grated nutmeg

Heat oven to 180 C or 350 F. Lightly butter the bottom of a 18 X 25 cm pan (that in inches is a 8 by 10?). Place cleaned pitted cherries evenly in the bottom.

In a food processor, you may do this by hand if you want, place flour, sugar (and molasses), cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter. Mix until it forms small crumb like pieces. Put this over the cherries, evenly.

Cook in the oven for 45-50 minutes until brown and bubbling. Excellent with vanilla ice cream.