I remember getting up one morning with an insatiable desire to have ox tail stew for breakfast.  No kidding.  And I wasn’t even pregnant.  Without a doubt, this is one of my favourite meals.  I first had it in Jamaica and have loved it ever since.  It takes a long time to cook, so this isn’t something you do in a hurry.  So, without any further ado, let’s get started.

• You’ll need about three tails.  Try for the leanest tails possible.  Have the butcher cut them into 2″ sections at the large end and longer as the tail gets thinner.
• Get out your dutch oven and drop in about 1/4 cup oil. Ideally, this would be coconut oil but failing that canola oil will do. Coconut oil gives it that unique island flavour.
• Dust the ox tails with flour.
• Finely chop about two medium onions
• Mince 4 or 5 good sized cloves of garlic
• Over medium heat, cook the onions until they are soft, then add garlic.
• Remove the cooked onions and garlic and set aside
• In the same dutch oven, brown the oxtails, adding more oil if needed
• When all the oxtails are browned, add back the onions and garlic.  Then add:
• 1 litre of chicken or beef stock (home-made or store-bought).  Make sure the ox-tails are well covered with the stock.  Pour more stock if needed.
• 1T salt
• 1tsp pepper
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 T dried basil
• 1T Soya Sauce
• 1T Thyme (dried)
• 2 finely diced carrots (large)
• 2 large potatoes, finely diced

Turn down the heat, cover with lid and let it do it’s job. 

You can check back every hour or so.  To test, use a skewer and poke the meat.  Doneness is reached when the meat almost falls off the bone. It must be very tender.

Meanwhile, take two cups of regular flour, add 1 tsp. of salt and 1 tsp. of baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 Tablespoon dried chervil or parsley.  With a fork and, adding enough milk to bind it, stir until all the moisture is used up.  You should have a dough that be handled.  If it needs more milk or flour, add as necessary.

Next, take a bit of dough and roll it into a fat noodle between your palm, and drop it in the pot of bubbling stew.  These are called Spinners.  Keep doing this until all the dough has been used up.  Stir the pot to make sure nothing sticks.  Taste the stew.  Check for seasonings.  They may have to be refreshed. 

I had a friend who never tasted while she was cooking.  She told me the thought of it made her sick.  Her food never tasted great.  Come on, all the great chefs in the world taste as they cook.  How else are they going to know if it needs a little of this or a little of that?

Next, add 2 cups of frozen kernel corn, 2 cups of frozen peas and 1 large can of lima beans.  Wait till the stew bubbles again.  Now add one cup of red wine.  1/4 cup of rum.  Let the stew bubble until the alcohol evaporates.  The final touch to this amazing stew is 1 cup of heavy cream.

Serve on a bed of rice and a side order of fried plantain.   Figure-friendly?  Are you kidding?  BTW, leave out the alcohold if you so desire.  It will still taste wonderful.

So, good luck.

Tags: oxtail-stew, rum, spinners, wine

3 tablespoons butter
Sliced leek whites from about 3 or 4 leeks
1 tablespoon flour
3 cups peeled, diced Idaho potatoes
1 quart chicken stock (home-made or store-bought)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and white pepper
1 tablespoon chopped chives

• Melt the butter in a soup pot, add the leeks and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
• Dust the leeks with the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the potatoes and stock.
• Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes until potatoes are done.
• Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly
• Puree until smooth.
• Line sieve with cheesecloth and ladle soup, one ladle at a time, through sieve using back of ladle to squeeze it through
• Stir in the milk and cream and adjust seasoning.
• Chill for 2 hours and serve garnished with chopped chives.

Yield about 10 8-ounce portions

Definitely not figure-friendly.

Tags: chicken broth, cream, potatoes

Take any chicken you have.  If you have a whole chicken or just pieces of leftover chicken parts like wings and necks and backs, that’s fine too. Never waste food.

There is a store across the street that sells a whole chicken that’s been stripped of its meat. There’s still plenty of meat on the bones and a whole pack is only one dollar. I buy it every time I need to make stock.

We eat a fair amount of asparagus. We like the fat ones as opposed to the skinny ones. The fat ones have a pretty woody stem at the bottom half. I just snap off the woody stems and save them in a plastic freezer bag and freeze them until I make chicken soup. They really add to the flavour.

Next, get out your stock pot with the drainer insert and throw in the following ingredients:

1 whole stripped chicken or parts you have saved from previous meals
1T salt
¼ tsp. pepper
4 bay leaves
1 T dried Thyme
1 T dried Chervil
1 T dried Basil
asparagus stems - if you have them. Make sure they’re rinsed well to get rid of the sand.
1 or 2 carrots
1 chopped celery but if you don’t have celery, throw in some celery seed
4 cloves garlic
1 large whole onion, cut into quarters - leave the skin on. If you use a big red onion, it will colour the soup a beautiful, rich reddish colour.
Add enough water to just cover your ingredients. Put a lid on it.

Simmer over low heat for at least an hour, until all the flavour from the chicken and the herbs have been extracted. I often put it on the lowest heat and simmer all night. Yes, all night. You can bet by morning, all the flavours that were in the various ingredients will have been extracted. Remove from heat. Let cool slightly, then lift the strainer insert and let the liquid drip into the pot. Throw the remnants on several sheets of newspaper, wrap and put in a couple of plastic garbage bags and take out immediately.

Get a fresh pot, take a big sieve and line it with a large coffee filter.  Now take a ladle and carefully pour the stock into the filter-lined sieve.  This is slow going because of the filter being quite dense.  You will, however be surprised that not only does it filter out all the little bits and pieces of stuff, but also the fat that normally sits on top and where you’d normally have to wait till it’s cool before being able to remove it.

What is left is a very flavorful, very clear broth.  Taste it to make sure you have enough salt. Adjust seasonings to taste but leave out the dried herbs. After all, you just worked real hard to make the broth clear.

This wonderful broth can then be made into noodle soup by adding a handful of the thin soup noodles.  You can add beans or peas or carrots - whatever you like - to this soup.  Or, especially if you’re not feeling well, leave it as a clear broth. 

I think you will love it.

Tags: chicken soup

Always a staple at our house.  It’s so delicious.

6 cups water
3 cups navy beans

Bring beans to a boil in a 4 quart oven proof Dutch oven, turn down heat and let simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Let stand for 1 hour.

Meanwhile: Preheat oven to 350

Add to bean and water mixture the following ingredients:

1 large onion - sliced
6 cloves garlic - minced
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¾ cups Splenda or molasses – I use Splenda because Charlie is a diabetic. You can use molasses.
I don’t like the taste of molasses so I would use more brown sugar.
1 smoked pork hock
2 T Tomato paste
5 Bay leaves
1 quart chicken broth
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/8 tsp. pepper

Stir well, cover and place in oven.

After 3 hours, take off cover. Taste. Chances are, the beans are still pretty tough but you’ve got plenty of liquid. Continue to cook in oven, uncovered, until the beans are soft and you have just the right amount of liquid left. (Think Libby’s canned beans, to give you an idea). If you need to add more liquid, add some chicken broth. 

Remove the hock bone. Discard skin. (Actually, I like the skin.  It’s as soft as you please and, when you chop it up real fine, who’s going to know it’s skin?) Cut up rest of meat into cubes and return to the beans. This is wonderful on its own with some lovely bread and a salad. You can also serve it with wieners or frankfurters. You may never want to eat steak again.

Tags: beans, chicken broth, hock, navy, pork

1 ¼ cups mashed bananas
4 eggs
1 ½ cups brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
½ buttermilk or sour milk
2 ½ cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ cups natural bran
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp. Salt
tsp baking soda

In mixing bowl, combine mashed bananas and eggs and beat well.  Add sugar, oil and buttermilk, blend well.  In a large bowl, mix together remaining dry ingredients.  Add liquid to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened.

Spoon batter into muffin tins lined with paper baking cups, filling each to top of paper liner.  Bake in 375° oven for 25 to 30 minutes.  Makes 14 to 16 muffins.

You can add nuts, raisins, or any other dried fruit for variety and interest.  Can also add chocolate chips but that would be very naughty.

Tags: bananas, bran, muffins

3 cups bran flakes
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup Splenda
1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
¼ cup salad oil

Method

Preheat oven to 400F.  Grease eight  3-inch muffin-pan cups or sixteen 2 ½- inch muffin-pan cups and set them aside.

In bowl, mix first 5 ingredients.  In small bowl with fork, beat egg, buttermilk and salad oil until they

are thoroughly blended.

Stir in egg mixture into flour mixture just until flour is moistened.  Spoon batter into muffin-pan

cups.  Bake 25 minutes for 3-inch cups, 15 minutes for 2 ½” cups, or until they are lightly browned. 

Immediately remove muffins from pan and let cool on a cooling rack.

Here’s what I do to this recipe:

I double it because I’m too lazy to bake every week. I add a handful of raisins, and various seeds and nuts such as sesame, sunflower, walnuts or almonds, depending what I find in the cupboard.  I’ve even added chocolate chips but not lately.

Almost forgot – I get the little paper muffin cups and stick them in each muffin tin.  No wash-up and the paper looks nice.

Have fun with it and change it up to your liking.  I like this recipe because it doesn’t have a lot of oil.

Tags: almonds, bran, muffins, sunflower seeds, walnuts

I met a lovely Mennonite woman at the Farmer’s Market one day. Her apple fritters were so wonderful I begged her for the recipe.  Here it is.

• 2 cups flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder                        
• ¼ tsp. Salt
• ¼ Cup Sugar              
• 2 eggs beaten with 1 cup milk (more or less)
• 1-3 cups chopped apples                           

Mix the first 4 ingredients with whisk or fork.

Add eggs, milk and apples    

Carefully drop the batter in the hot oil, one tablespoon at a time.  Fry until golden.  Drain on paper towels.  Serve immediately with Maple Syrup.

SIGNED:                 Elizabeth Drudge (Mennonite)

Tags: apple, fritters, maple syrup, mennonite

Serves 6

1 bunch green onions
3 tbsp. Butter
6 tbsp. Oil (as desired)
12 chopped slices of Hot Italian Bacon (Pancetta)
½ cup Vodka
½ cup White Wine (Dry)
6 Fresh plum tomatoes
4 oz. 35% whipping cream (or more, if desired)
Grated Cheese (Parmigiana) to taste

• Saute chopped green onions in butter and oil.
• Add chopped Italian bacon.
• Let it simmer for 6 or 7 minutes.
• Add Vodka (flambe).
• Add wine, and let boil until the alcohol evaporates.
• Add fresh chopped tomatoes.
• Simmer for 5 minutes: add whipping cream.

It is now ready.

• Boil your pasta (Penne Rigate).
• Drain, add your sauce and the Parmigiana.
•  Pepper to taste.

No, this is not “figure friendly” but for a special occasion or when you have friends for dinner, there is nothing finer.  Better make a double batch.

Tags: pancetta, parmigiana, Pasta, tomatoes, vodka, wine

3 ½ grated carrots
1 c. coarsely chopped walnuts
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
4 Eggs
1 tsp. Vanilla
2 c. Whole Wheat Flour
1 ½ tsp. Baking Powder
1 ½ tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Cinnamon
1 tsp. Salt
¾ tsp. Nutmeg
¼ tsp. Allspice
1/8 tsp. Mace

Mix carrots with nuts and set aside.In a large bowl mix sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla. Beat well and set aside.Measure remaining dry ingredients in a large bowl. Stir with a fork till well mixed.Gradually beat into the egg mixture. Then add carrots. Mix well. Turn into a greased Bundt Pan. Bake at 350F for 55 – 60 minutes till cake bounces back lightly when touched in the centre.Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool before icing.

Icing

8 oz. Cream cheese¼ cup butter1 cup icing sugar Blend cream cheese and butter slowly.  Add sugar.  Blend until smooth.

Hint.  For extra moisture, add 1/2 cup apple sauce to shredded carrots.  Or, peal and core a fresh apple, grate it and add to carrot mixture.