Harry's Slow Lamb

Harry doesn't even own a recipe book.  But he experiments with herb and spice combinations with great results.   The recipe is loosely based on Laura Calder's French Cooking At Home. 
The leg of lamb came from Famous Foods and was grass fed local lamb.
Use a heavy white wine with this dish.

Ingredients
1 or 2 legs of lamb
Olive oil
Butter
Garlic
1 bunch each of fresh sage, basil, thyme, rosemary
2 fresh bay leaves
12 Juniper berries
1 cup white wine

Instructions
Preheat over to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and place the rack so that your roasting pan with lid will fit in the middle.
In a seasoned cast iron frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of butter on medium heat.
Then add 2 cloves chopped garlic, 4 crushed juniper berries, 2 tablespoons chopped fresh  rosemary, and 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil.  Saute briefly to infuse the butter.  The butter will brown or blacken a bit but that's okay.  
Strain the garlic, berries, and herbs out of the oil with a seive and put the oil back in the pan. 
Add 2 tablespoons butter to the plan and turn the heat up to medium high.  
Rub Greek olive oil all over the lamb (helps make it golden crisp).
Sear the meat sides of the lamb and then the fat sides and remove to a side plate.
Turn the frying pan down to low.  Add 1 cup white wine to the pan to deglaze.
Add 8 juniper berries and 5 tablespoons of roughly chopped fresh herbs.   Cook for a minute or two just to soften.  Crush the berries with your spoon.
Arrange the rest of the fresh herbs in a thick layer to form a rack for the meat on the bottom of a small roasting pan.   Place the leg of lamb on top.  Pour the herb mixture from the frying pan over the meat.
Put the lid on the roasting pan and roast for for 4 hours.
Meanwhile, prepare potatoes, parsnip, carrots, onions, and garlic on a separate baking sheet. Coat with oil, salt and pepper, and chopped parsley.  Put in the oven about 2 hours before the lamb is done.
Check the roast every 90 minutes and add 1/4 cup water if necessary to make sure it remains moist.
Place the meat on a platter and garnish.   The meat will be pull apart tender -- let the guests pull off the meat and serve themselves.
Place vegetables on another platter.  
Pour the liquid (without the herbs) out of the roasting pan into a sauce boat to drizzle over meat and vegetables.

Chicken Cacciatore

This is another dinner express recipe.  I have made it for years.  You can see I am not a fan of slow cooking, in the sense of cooking stews for hours.  

I use chicken thighs, with skin and bone, but you could use leftover chickenAI use fresh tomatoes (or frozen).   Canned tomatoes are tasty and nutritious but the cans are lined with BPA, which is not good for you.  

Those white button mushrooms are pretty tasteless and pointless but the brown ones are good (Crimini).  They have just the right taste and texture.  Be sure to get ones that are dry not kind of slimy or sticky. 

Ingredients
1 lb chicken thighs
2 cups chicken broth
2 lb (4 cups) tomatoes, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, chopped
4 - 8 oz. mushrooms, chopped
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
Garlic, grated
1 tsp. basil, dried

Rice or noodles.

Instructions
Cook the chicken in broth for 10 minutes.
Add tomatoes, onion, pepper, and mushrooms, garlic, and herbs.
Simmer 20 minutes.  
Cook pasta or rice.
Serve.

Spicy Chicken Chili

This chicken chili is much better than chili made with hamburger, and it's really quick.  I have been making it for years.
You have to have cooked the beans ahead.   I cook extra beans when I soak and cook them so I always have some in the freezer.  

Ingredients
1 Tbsp. oil
2 garlic cloves
1 lb chicken thighs, cut into strips (boneless, skinless)
4 tsp, chili powder
1 T. cumin powder
2 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. salt
2 jalapeno peppers, chopped and seeded
1-1/2 cups chopped tomatoes (fresh)
1-2 cups chicken stock
2 cups any white beans, cooked
2 cups black beans, cooked
1/2 tsp black pepper
Fresh cilantro

Instructions
Saute onion and garlic for 3 minutes
Saute chicken 3 minutes
Stir in spices and tomatoes and stock.
Simmer 15 minutes
Add beans and simmer another 15 minutes.
Add chopped cilantro and serve. 

Swedish Meatballs with Dill and Sour Cream

This is a classic recipe and one of the few that I find worth the trouble of making meatballs.  Somehow, they always just taste like hamburger.
You can use either fresh or stale bread of any kind although some favour fresh white bread.   I am generous with the dill seed (get the seed not the dried green stuff)

Swedish Meatballs with Dill and Sour Cream
Ingredients
Meatballs:
2/3 cup milk, warmed
Fresh or stale bread
2 Tbsp. grated onion
1 lb. ground beef
2 tsp. dill seed
1 large egg
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper
2 Tbsp. butter
Sauce:
1 Tbsp butter
1 T. flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup fresh dill, chopped
Salt and pepper

Instructions
Soak the bread in the warm milk.  Use your hands to break it up into mush.
Mix all the ingredients, using hands mix quite a while until the mixtures is really well blended.
Make meatballs and fry in 2 T. unsalted butter over medium.
Remove to a plate.
Cook the sauce in a small pot and pour over the meatballs.

Turgay's Turkish Salata

Several years ago, I had a Turkish doctor staying with me for 6 weeks, learning English.  He was young and quite engaging, newly married, and his wife expecting.  He learned English very fast and we had many laughs. He called me bossy, which surprized me a little as I thought I was so nice, and one day he was talking about bossyness when the penny dropped and I realized he was saying busy.    

And he was a great cook, very very fussy about everything, and taught me some basics about Turkish cooking.   He wouldn't let anyone else dish the ice cream because they just dug into the middle.   It had to be cut straight down one side of the bucket.

Turkish Salata
Ingredients
Tomato, peeled
green pepper
cilantro leaves
cucumber, peeled
Lettuce
Green onion or dry onion
Sumac
Salt

Lemon
EVOO
Dired mint

Instructions
Cut the vegetables up very fine.
For the onion, add the salt and sumac and hand press.
Hand press all the ingredients.
Serve on a flat plate.
Drizzle oil over.
Sprinkle dried mint over.

Harry's Fruit Salad

Harry’s Fruit Salad recipes could be a whole cook book.  This is was written by my sister Joan.

Harry’s theory is to use the same base for all the types of salad and then change the main ingredients to suit the type of salad. The presentation and the preparation are part of the what makes it so good. So you can prepare these salads in front of your friends, family or guests or as a special ritual for yourself.

His Four Versions of Fruit Salad are:

• Dessert

• Breakfast
• Salad served with the main evening meal
• There is a fourth type which is a brunch salad, which can be a variation of the three.

To start with, here are the Five “Must Do Basics” for all types of salads.

1) Basic Ingredient #1: The base is always oranges and grapefruits. The peeling of them is very important. First, cut off the ends, then slice down all sides. What is left is just the meat of the fruit. Then cut out each one of the segments with a sharp knife. Do this over a large bowl so that you catch all of the juices that drip into the bowl. It’s very quick after you get used to doing it. Then squeeze the juice out of the remaining pulp. This makes a nice presentation and no pulp in the salad for your guests.

2) Basic Ingredient #2: Fresh Ginger grated to taste.

3) Basic Ingredient #3: Fresh sea salt and fresh pepper.

4) Basic Ingredient #4: A good Extra virgin cold pressed olive oil.

5) Basic Ingredient #5: Finely grated hard Reggiano cheese on top.

Version #1 - Dessert Salad
Ingredients
Orange
Grapefruit
Ginger, fresh grated
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
EVOO
Reggiano
Spinach leaves
Tropical fruits
Lime
Honey
Mint Leaves

Instructions
 Start with a martini glass or some kind of see through dish for nice presentation so that you can see what’s in the salad.

 Line the martini glass with fresh baby spinach leaves.

 Put in the orange and grapefruit, less for a dessert salad and add “tropical” fruit like banana, kiwi, mango, or papaya. Mix it nicely into a large mixing bowl.

 Inside the bowl, grate fresh ginger, a fresh lime which you cut the same way that you do the oranges and grapefruits…cut the wedges out with a sharp nice, then squeeze the juice out of the remaining pulp.

 Melt a little honey in the microwave. Drizzle on salad – not too much, not to take away from the salt and pepper taste. But it pulls together the fruit flavours.

 Put all the fruit onto the lined spinach leaves in your dessert dish.

 Grate an excellent Reggiano cheese with a fine grater on top.. just a little.

 Top with mint leaves. Serve with a fork.

 At the end, a special treat is to drink the remaining juice mixture out of the martini glass.

Version #2 - Breakfast Fruit Salad

Ingredients
Ginger, fresh grated
Sea saltBerries go well in this salad – blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries. It all depends on what you like and what your guests like or what is available.
Freshly ground pepper
EVOO
Reggiano
Berries
Banana
Brie or Camembert
Honey
Dried herbs
Bread

Instructions

Leave out the spinach leaves, no avocado, no citrus fruit is necessary.

A nice Brie or Camembert cheese can be used as a garnish.

 For example, this morning Harry made a warm Brie and Blackberry salad.

 Slice a little banana, maybe ½ per serving, into the bottom of a serving dish. Place the ¼ round of Brie or Camembert per person on top of the banana. You will not see the banana underneath. Warm in microwave for 25 to 30 seconds. You will not notice the banana flavour but will think that the cheese and the banana are one. It will have a combined flavour that is indescribable.

 Around the sides arrange blackberries and drizzle warmed honey mixture and olive oil on top. In this case, Harry warmed up some dried herbs from the garden in a cast iron frying pan (mixture of all types including lavender, sage, basil, etc.) and added the warm honey. Then he drizzled this mixture on top of the Brie, banana, and blackberries. If using the Brie or Camembert, then you don’t need the grated cheese.

 Serve a thinly sliced toasted heavy German or Transylvanian or multigrain bread cut into wedges on the side of the dish. We also had some bacon as a side dish with this which worked with the dried herb flavours.

Version #3 – Evening Meal Salad served with or before the main dish

Ingredients
Orange
Grapefruit
Spinach
Fresh herbs
Green onion or shallots
Sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Fresh Ginger
EVOO
Avocado
Brie or Camembert
Parmesan

Serve this salad in a larger, deeper, wide rimmed white bowl. Put more spinach leaves in..again that show at the edge of the bowl.
 Herbs – Put in fresh herbs - more dill, cilantro, basil, mint, whatever you have.

 Add sliced green onion or shallots.

 No honey on this one.

 Use more citrus fruits, less banana, less tropicals.

 Add the sea salt, pepper, ginger and EVOO

 Add Brie or Camembert or your favourite cheese (a five year old white cheddar is also good) in wedges around the edge of the bowl.

 Garnish with sliced avocado.

 Grate Reggiano Cheese on top and add mint leaves.

 This salad goes well with fish, smoked salmon, or smoked goldeye.

Salad with Grapefruit Dressing

I have a huge bag of pink grapefruits from Costco so I am using some of them to make dressing for salads.  It's so easy and delicious.   Did you know pink grapefruits have more nutrients that yellow? 

Grapefruit Dressing

Ingredients:
1 Pink grapefruit
Dijon mustard (prepared)
Freshly ground pepper
Mixed greens
Fresh basil
1 - 4 close fresh garlic (optional)
Olive oil

Instructions:
Squeeze the juice out of the grapefruit into a pint jar using a wooden reamer.  Don't worry about chunks in the juice.
Add 2-3 large Tbsps mustard to the jar.  Taste to check the balance.
Grind some pepper in.
Grate in 1 - 4 cloves garlic
Whisk the ingredients with a mini whisk.  Then put the top on the jar and shake well.
Put greens into a large bowl.
Add lots of fresh basil if you have it.
Pour over about 1/4 cup of the dressing.
Pour on olive oil
Toss the salad.

The dressing keeps in the frig for about 3 days worth of salads.