Lobster Bisque

Mom and I stopped at Aldi's yesterday while we were in Dubuque and they had lobster tails so I thought as a Valentine's gift to myself, I would make my favorite soup.

I seldom make it because of the cost, but always order it when I go to Red Lobster. So today I'm sharing lobster bisque with you.  

2 each lobster tails
1 quart lobster stock 
1 tablespoons salt
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 pint cream
1/4 cup dry white wine (optional)
Juice from 1/2 of a lemon  
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. fresh thyme (1/2 tsp. if dried)

Bring 1 quart of salted water to rapid boil. Add thawed lobster tails and cover, steaming until tender (approximately 5 minutes depending on size of tails, but do not over cook or they will be tough) over very high heat.  Remove lobster meat and reserve shells for lobster stock. Dice par-cooked meat into small pieces.

Melt butter in sauce pan and stir in flour to make a roux. Cook this for 3 to 5 minutes over medium heat. Slowly add the hot lobster stock constantly whisking to avoid lumps. Add the cream and simmer gently over medium heat stirring often for about 15 minutes. Add the diced lobster, paprika, thyme, white wine and lemon juice. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as desired. Will make about 1 quart.

Lobster Stock:

2 each lobster shells from above

1 tablespoon butter

1 diced onion

1 carrot

1 stalk celery

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1/2 cup dry white wine

Pepper to taste

1 bay leaf

Add the shells to the water you boiled the lobster in (1 quart) with butter, onions, carrot, celery and tomato paste stirring gently over high heat until mixture becomes slightly golden brown.

Add dry white wine, pepper, and bay leaf. Boil uncovered for 30 minutes to make a stock. Strain and reserve hot stock. 

Since it is just for me, I won't fuss, but if you are doing this for a special Valentine, cut out the center of a nice round artisan bread and make a bread bowl.  Cut it out in the shape of a heart if you like and fill it with the bisque.   

Fix something special today for Valentine's Day and do not forget yourself.  Have a great Valentine's Day.  Be happy and may God bless you and yours.  

Asian Pork Steaks

It what's for dinner.  Have to fix grandson's supper so pulled pork steaks out of the freeze.  While I'm out and about today, my crock pot will go to work.  This is a super simple dish and so little work.

Asian Pork Steaks

4 pork steaks

½ cup soy sauce

1 cup ketchup

½ cup light brown sugar

½ cup maple syrup

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 tsp. onion powder

Black pepper to taste (Soy Sauce has a lot of salt so do not salt)

Mix the sauce ingredients in the bottom of the crock pot to save dirtying a dish.  Put meat in the crock pot.  Ladle the sauce mixture from the bottom of the pot over the meat, cook on low for about 5 plus hours.  The meat should be tender and moist.

Serve with brown and wild rice.

Variation – Add a can of crushed pineapple to the sauce for an even sweeter sauce.  

Great day to be out and about.  The temps are to be in the 40's and the sun is to shine all day.  I'm heading for Dubuque.  I might have to stop in HyVee to see what great finds I can pick up that I can't get here in Maquoketa. 

Be happy and may God bless you and yours.  

Orange Glazed Chicken

It's chicken for dinner tonight.  Here is a new idea for chicken.  I love dark meat and often pick thighs because they have more flavor, but you may do this with chicken breasts also. They will be so moist from marinating them. You need to plan ahead and start the night before or start your marinade early in the morning.

6 bone in, skin on chicken thighs

1 cup orange juice

1/2 cup of good balsamic vinegar

2 tbs. brown sugar

Pinch Kosher salt

1 tbs. fresh Rosemary, chopped (use 1 1/2 tsp dried) 

Pepper

In a medium bowl,  whisk together the orange juice, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, salt, pepper and rosemary. Place chicken thighs in a large zip top bag and pour 3/4 of the marinade over the chicken. Cover remaining marinade and set aside, to brush onto chicken, as it cooks. Place the zip top bag containing the chicken in a plastic container and refrigerate for at least 6 hrs or over night.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove chicken thighs from the zip top bag, discarding the marinade. Place on a foil lined baking tray and place in oven. Cook for 15 minutes, reduce heat to 350 degrees and brush chicken with reserved marinade. Cook for an additional 30 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees; brushing with marinade every 15 minutes.  Dark meat takes longer to cook than white, so even though your breasts are larger than the thigh, they should not take any longer to cook.  Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Variation - No rosemary....then use thyme.  Use the same amount as the recipe calls for the rosemary.  Want to goose it up a little more, then sprinkle a little garlic and onion powder into the marinade.  

Be happy and may God bless you and yours.

Kolache

Kolache (pronounced "ko - losh") are a type of Czech/Slovak pastry filled with different things like fruits, cheese, or sausage.  I remember my best friend Ruth Ann's (I called her Than) grandmother, Gram Huebner making kolaches once a week along with home made bread. I would stop there with Than on the way home from school to get her fresh homemade pastries.  Gram Huebner would always make hers with fruit jams she made.  I wish I had her recipe now, but have to go with what I think is a close copy.  My memory always goes back to hers as being the best though.

Dough

1  .25 ounce envelope fast acting dry yeast

1 cup of warm milk

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup soft butter

1 egg

3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 pint jar peach (or your very favorite) preserves

Sprinkle yeast over the warm milk (not hotter than 110 degrees or you will kill the yeast) in a large bowl or better yet, the bowl of a stand mixer that has been fitted with a dough hook.  Let sit for 5 minutes or until foamy.

Add the sugar, butter and egg to the milk mixture in the bowl and stir until the mixture is combined.  Add the salt.  Slowly add the flour, one quarter at a time until it is completely mixed in and dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.  Knead for 5 minutes.

Spray a large bowl with non-stick cooking spray.  Place the dough in the bowl and spray the top with more cooking spray.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and a cotton towel.  Place in a warm, draft free space and let rise until double in size, approximately 1 to 2 hours.

Roll dough out onto a lightly floured surface.  Divide into 16 equal portions.  Roll portions into balls and place in a greased baking dish (you may have to use 2 pans to fit all the dough).  Don't worry about crowding them just a bit as they will bake together.

With the back your fingers, make an indention in the middle of each ball of dough.  Fill each indention with a heaping teaspoon of your favorite preserves. 

Cover with additional plastic wrap and let rise again for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Place your risen kolaches in the preheated oven and bake for approximately 20 minutes or until light golden brown.

You may drizzle a simple powdered sugar glaze on top (powdered sugar, milk and vanilla)

Hope you have a great Monday and be happy.  May God bless you and yours. 

Year of the Snake

Happy Chinese New Year.  Today begins the year of the snake.  In celebration, I'm sharing a simple recipe that Sal and I have made several times, snake bread.

1 can crescent rolls

Flour for dusting
4 tablespoons spicy mustard
10 ounces thinly sliced ham
12 ounces Monterey Jack, grated
Red and Green Liquid food coloring
1 egg
1 Pimento
Toothpicks
Olives
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Line a cookie sheet with foil. Grease the foil and set aside.

Dust a flat surface lightly with flour. Spread out the crescent dough - do not separate. Pinch together the seams so that you have 1 piece of dough. Roll out to make a large rectangle. Make sure the dough is not stuck to the surface at all.

Lay ham down the center of the rectangle, leaving a 1 inch border on either end. You can feel free to use your favorite cold cuts.

Top the meats with the cheese. Fold 1 side of the dough over the filling, lengthwise. Then, fold the other 1/2 over and press the seal the filling inside. Take 1 egg yolk, and beat lightly with a fork. Brush the egg over the top of the dough. Divide remaining egg in ½ and put red food coloring in one and green in the other.  The yolk will act as the glue to hold. Fold the dough in 1/2 again lengthwise. Pinch the seam with your fingers to seal. Press the outside of the dough to make sure everything is sealed tight and to make an even thickness for the body of your snake. Taper 1 end of the dough to form a tail shape.  Form the other end into a head shape.

Using a clean paintbrush, "paint" the snake with the egg food coloring mixture.

Transfer the snake to the foil lined sheet tray. Form into an "s" shape so it looks like the snake is slithering. Insert 2 cloves into the head to look like nostrils.  Bake at 350 for about 20 to 25 minutes  or until golden.
Create a mouth or tongue with a pimento.  Cut olive in half and attach with a toothpick as eyes.  Put 3 olives on a toothpick for rattle if you wish to make it a rattle snake.  

Variation - We have also filled this with pepperoni and mozzarella cheese and a little pizza sauce making it a calzone.  You can fill it with what ever you like.

It is a rainy day here today.  We need the ground water so the Chinese New Year is starting off well.  Good day to stay inside and make snake bread.

Be happy and may God bless you and yours.

Strawberry Glazed Ham

With Ash Wednesday next week that means Easter is coming. It brings to mind an old recipe I got back in the 60’s in Milwaukee for Easter ham, so I thought I would share it with you. The red might make it a good Valentine's recipe also.

I always buy a fully cooked spiral ham, but improve it by baking it with a glaze.  I was given this recipe in Milwaukee by a friend that asked me to her Easter dinner.

There are some rules and tips to follow when baking ham.  First of all, always buy a ham with the bone it.  The bone adds more flavor.

  

If the ham is fully cooked allow 10 minutes per pound to heat through. 

Place the cut side down in the pan when cooking and baste at least every 20 minutes. 

Glaze

½  cup honey

½ cup strawberry pop (yup, pop…that was her secret)

½ cup strawberry jam

2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

¼ cup cider vinegar

1 pinch ground cloves

You may need to double if you get a really large ham.

Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl and baste ham with mixture at least every 20 minutes while cooking.

Once cooked remove ham from pan, slice and pour liquid over ham and serve. 

  

Be happy and may God bless you and yours.

Rhubarb Custard

Yesterday I shared a hot dessert for a cold winter's day.  Today I'm sharing another.  I love rhubarb.  This year I should be able to harvest some thanks to my sister Wendy.  She helped me replace all the plants I lost (I lost every plant.  Come to find out you have to retransplant them because if you don’t they have a life span of about 12 years).  I love rhubarb pie, rhubarb crisp and rhubarb custard.  I can’t say I like one over the other.  I like them all.  So I’m sharing my rhubarb custard recipe with you in celebration of my love of rhubarb.  I can’t wait for spring.

Crust:

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter, softened

5 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

Custard:

3 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 cups raw rhubarb

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the crust ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Pat crust mixture into a 9 x 13 pan. (It doesn't look like enough at first, but it will cover the bottom. Just keep patting.) Bake crust for 15 minutes.

Combine custard ingredients in order given. Mix well. Pour custard over crust and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes until custard is set and top begins to lightly brown.

You may serve warm or cold.  I prefer it hot.  Add a dollop of whipped cream to garnish it.   

Stay warm, be happy and may God bless you and yours.