Unusual pairings for salmon, cauliflower
Welcome to a week when, to your great surprise, you will find yourself hungry again. A day or two ago that seemed impossible. Lucy Keller is asking for recipes using fresh cranberries, as she had a good many left over from Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities.
Odell Waddell asks for help creating an unbeatable Brunswick stew.
And here’s one that repeats every year: What was the best meal you cooked? The best dish you prepared? The best meal or dish you were served? And what was the best edible gift you gave?
Finally, some wrap-up requests as we wrap up 2017: Indian butter chicken and directions for freezing herbs in ice cube trays.
TANGY DRESSING
A good while back we had a request for the Faucon dressing as once served at Tomlinson’s Restaurant. No recipe has appeared that gives Tomlinson’s credit, but this one from Euela Laubenheim explained the origin of the dressing.
“Faucon salad, I have read somewhere on the web, is native to Nashville, where it was served at the Belle Meade Club. The writer said, ‘Now that I’m making my own Faucon Salad at home, I make my own dressing for it, because it’s just better than anything in a bottle. You all know how to cut a head of iceberg lettuce into wedges, boil some eggs and fry some bacon. But here’s the dressing recipe.”
Blue Cheese Dressing
3 heaping tablespoons of mayonnaise, preferably Duke’s or Hellmann’s 1 heaping tablespoon sour
cream
Juice from half a lemon Liberal grinding of pepper 1 (4-ounce) container
crumbled blue cheese Milk to thin
Mix everything but the milk together. Thin the dressing out to the consistency you like with the milk. Refrigerate at least two hours for all the flavors to blend together.
EASY PORK CHOPS
Here is an easy pork chop recipe from the prolific Fairfield Glade kitchen of Roseann Strazinsky.
Smothered Pork Chops With Onions and Thyme
This recipe makes 2 servings and may be doubled. 2 (6- to 8-ounce) centercut pork loin chops (1 inch thick)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1 large onion, sliced 1 teaspoon dried thyme,
crumbled
½ cup low sodium chicken broth (more if needed to make a sauce and keep pork from drying out)
Season pork with salt and pepper. Heat oil in heavy medium skillet over medium to high heat. Add pork; cook until brown about 3 minutes per side. Transfer to plate. Add onion to skillet and cook onion until soft and beginning to brown, stirring occasionally, about 7 minutes. Add thyme and stir 30 seconds. Reduce heat and return pork and any accumulated
juices to skillet, spooning onions over. Add broth and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until pork is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Transfer to plates. Simmer sauce until slightly reduced, about 2 minutes. Spoon over pork.
SALMON AND FRUIT
Sandra Oliver found food page recipes from long ago, including this salad that calls for canned salmon.
Ruth Harmon’s Salmon Fruit Salad
1 large can salmon
1 diced, unpeeled apple 2 boiled eggs, riced
1⁄2 cup diced celery 2 tablespoons sweet
chopped pickles
1⁄2 cup cooked seashell
macaroni
1⁄2 cup mayonnaise
Toss the above ingredients together and chill. Serve on lettuce.
COCOA AND CAULIFLOWER
A Paleo cookbook, “Well Fed,” enticed Daisy LaNieve, and then she shared it with Fare Exchange. Most of the recipes had lengthy ingredients and directions, but this one seems both simple and quirky — cocoa on cauliflower, just a teaspoon.
Cocoa-Toasted Cauliflower
1 head fresh cauliflower 1 teaspoon paprika 1 teaspoon unsweetened
cocoa
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon ground black
pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
(about 1 teaspoon) 2 tablespoons coconut oil
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. With a sharp knife, remove the core of the cauliflower and break it into florets. Place the florets in a large mixing bowl.
In a small microwave-safe bowl, mix the paprika, cocoa, salt, pepper and garlic with a fork. Add the coconut oil and microwave for 15 to 20 seconds until the coconut oil is melted and the spices are fragrant.
Drizzle the spiced coconut oil over the cauliflower in the bowl, then toss with 2 wooden spoons until well coated. This should take at least 2 minutes. Name a food for every letter of the alphabet to amuse yourself while you toss. Do a taste test and adjust the seasonings.
Spread the cauliflower in a single layer on the baking sheet and roast in the oven for about 25 to 30 minutes, until it’s tender and starting to get nice brown spots.
REINDEER FOOD
Martha Brock read the request for reindeer food and found her recipe for Reindeer Gorp.
Although the reindeer have already fled back to the North Pole, this might just as easily be used as Post-Reindeer Gorp.
Reindeer Gorp
1 (14-ounce) package holiday-colored, candycoated chocolate pieces (M&M’s) 1 (12-ounce) jar dryroasted salted peanuts 1 (16-ounce) can sliced
natural almonds
1 cup butterscotch chips 1 cup raisins
Combine all in an airtight container.
RECOMMENDATION
As this column went to the editor, Michele Brown answered a request for lemon-flavored finishing salt. “About the only place in this area I know of that may carry the lemon finishing salt would be The Spice and Tea Exchange on Gunbarrel Road next to Jason’s Deli. If the owner doesn’t have it, she can probably get it. She has products I’ve never imagined putting together.”
As I look back on Christmas past, I think of some small blessings. Popcorn cooked in coconut oil in an old-fashioned popcorn cooker surely beats the microwave variety.
I think of things that may be prepared ahead of a busy season and frozen: soups, for instance. And of stopping to pick up a pound or four of barbecue on the way home, needing little more than a salad or slaw and some canned ranch-style beans. Oh, and this: Having somebody help in the kitchen, setting the table, prepping the food, washing the dishes. What were your small blessings on the big days? Pass them on; how about it?