The Charmed Kitchen

Cherry Almond Clafouti

I posted the picture of my clafouti and now, as promised, here is the recipe. Clafouti is a sort of pancake, sort of quiche. Its a wonderful dish that is the perfect dessert for fresh fruit. I used cherries in this one but you can use all sorts of fruits- peaches, plums, blueberries, raspberries….. Most people enjoy it as a dessert but it is also nice with that morning cup of coffee.

Cherry Almond Clafouti

2 c. pitted cherries

1/3 c. sliced almonds

3 eggs

1 c. sugar

1/2 c. flour

2 t. vanilla extract

1 t. almond extract

pinch of salt

1 c. half and half

powdered sugar, optional

Grease and flour a 9×9-inch baking dish. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cherries and almonds in the prepared pan. In blender combine eggs, sugar, flour, flavorings and salt.* Blend until smooth. Add half and half and blend again until smooth. Pour batter over the cherries and almonds. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until clafouti is browned around edges and puffed up. Allow to cool and dust with powdered sugar, if you like. Serves 6.

* You can whisk the ingredients together by hand, if you prefer.

Green Beans with Herb Butter

With fresh green beans everywhere it seemed like a good time to share this recipe. I love them  and can’t get enough this time of year.  I like this preparation because it adds flavor and a nice twist without covering up the flavor of the beans. Fast and easy to make, too, which is always a plus.

Green Beans with Herb Butter

1 lb. Green beans, washed and trimmed

¼ c. butter

¾ c. minced onion or shallots, I used shallots

1 clove garlic, minced

2 T. chopped parsley

¾ t. salt

1/2 t. each oregano and basil

Boil or steam beans until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside. Meanwhile, start sauce. Heat butter in skillet and add shallots or onion and garlic. Cook 5 minutes then add seasonings and cook, covered, 5 minutes more. Toss beans with sauce.  Serves 4.

Peach and Almond Smoothie

I have been enjoying fresh peaches a lot lately. I wanted to use some of them in a smoothie. I peeled and sliced  a couple of peaches and put them in the freezer. I combined the frozen peaches with almond milk, honey and a little vanilla. I will definitely make this one again!!

Peach and Almond Smoothie

2 peaches, pitted and peeled- then frozen

1 1/2 c. plain almond milk

2-3 T. honey, or to taste

1 t. vanilla

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Makes 1 large or 2 smaller servings.

Easy Turkey Vegetable Soup

Its been a little cool lately. Made me want to have some soup. I had picked up some turkey drumsticks so I put them in the crock pot with some onions, carrots, celery, garlic and herbs. Covered the meat and veggies with water and let it cook overnight. The next morning I strained it and had lovely turkey stock. I also had some seasonal veggies so I threw it all together and ended up with an easy and tasty dinner. If you don’t have turkey stock- use what you have.

Turkey Vegetable Soup

1 onion, chopped

 oil

 3 carrots, peeled and sliced

3 small potatoes. peeled and cubed

1 c. corn- cut from 1-2 ears

1 medium tomato, peeled and chopped

2 c. shredded cooked turkey *

 3-4 cups turkey stock- or whatever you have and like

Fresh parsley and basil

 salt and pepper to taste

dash of hot sauce

Heat oil in pot and cook onion until golden. Add carrots and cook a few more minutes. Add remaining vegetables, turkey and stock and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes- or until veggies are tender. Add herbs and simmer a few more minutes. Adjust seasoning and add hot sauce. Serves 2-3 for dinner.

*If you want to turn this into a vegetarian soup add vegetable stock  and add a couple of cups of cooked beans. Kidney beans would work well.

Chicken with Cherry Sherry Sauce

I had some beautiful sweet cherries and wanted to use them in my dinner somehow. Been on a fruit with dinner kick lately, as you might have noticed. I decided to make a sauce for some chicken. It came out great. I added some horseradish to spice it up a bit and a generous splash of sherry. Here is the recipe.

Chicken with Very Cherry Sherry  Sauce 

6-8 chicken thighs

salt and pepper

Cherry sauce, recipe follows

Place chicken in a roasting pan and season with salt and pepper. Roast in a 400 degree oven for 45-60 minutes or until juices run clear. While chicken is cooking make the cherry sauce in a large skillet. When the chicken is cooked place it in the skillet with the cherry sauce and cook, turning often until chicken has had a chance to absorb flavor from the sauce, about 5-10 minutes. Serve chicken with sauce spooned over it. Serves 3-4.

Very Cherry Sherry Sauce

oil

1 medium onion, sliced thin

2 cloves garlic, sliced

3-4 c. pitted sweet cherries

1/2 c. chicken stock

1/2 c. sherry- don’t use cooking sherry

2 t. prepared horseradish

1 t. thyme

salt and pepper to taste

hot sauce to taste

fresh chopped parsley

Heat oil in skillet and saute onion until golden. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Add cherries and cook over high heat, stirring often for several minutes. Add stock, sherry and horseradish and cook at a simmer for 10-15  minutes more. As sauce cooks it will thicken. Adjust seasonings and add herbs and simmer a few more minutes. Reheat just before adding chicken.

I will be teaching a food preservation workshop after the seed saving class. Come for one or both.

Anyone needing a refresher or a first-time discussion of seed saving whys and how-to’s are invited to come:
FOOD NOT LAWNS, CLEVELAND, with support from OSU EXTENSION, presents
SEED SAVING WORKSHOP/POTLUCK

To register for either workshop contact Mari Keating at  beanpie55@att.net

Venison Meatballs

I had gotten some ground venison from a friend a while ago and finally decided how to cook it. Thanks to Tracey and Jeff Bales for sharing it with me. 🙂 I ended up making meatballs and they were fabulous. The meat was very lean so I added oil to the pan when cooking them. My friend Jonathan was coming over and I knew he loved venison so it seemed the right time to make the meatballs. He loved them. Served them over pasta with sauteed greens. Really tasty.

Venison Meatballs with Greens and Pasta

1 recipe venison meatballs-recipe follows

oil

1 large onion, chopped

8 cloves whole garlic, peeled*

8 cups chopped greens- I used a combination of kale and collards

salt and pepper to taste

Hot sauce to taste

 hot cooked pasta

Prepare venison meatball recipe. Heat oil in skillet and brown the meatballs on all sides over medium heat. Cover the skillet and allow the meatballs to cook through over medium-low heat. While the meatballs are cooking in another skillet heat more oil and saute onion until wilted. Add garlic cloves and cook several minutes longer. Add greens and cook, stirring, until greens are wilted. Cover pan and allow greens to cook until just tender- about 10 minutes.  Adjust seasonings. While greens are cooking cook pasta. Combine greens with meatballs and stir to combine. Spoon over hot pasta on a large serving platter. Serves 6.

Venison Meatballs

2 lbs. ground venison

2 eggs

1/2 c. bread crumbs

1/4 c. dried minced onion or 1/2 c. minced fresh onion

2 t. minced garlic

2 t. salt- or to taste

1 t. ground ginger

1/2 t. ground cinnamon

hot sauce to taste

In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients with your hands and form into balls. Try to handle the mixture as little as possible to keep the meatballs tender. I took a small amount of the mixture and cooked in in a skillet to check seasoning levels before cooking the whole batch.

* the reason I used so many whole cloves of garlic is that Jonathan really likes a lot of garlic. By leaving the cloves whole I could flavor the dish- but make it easy for him to eat the garlic and me to avoid them. Feel free to just add the amount of garlic you like.

Lemon Tea Cake

I made this Lemon Tea Cake for a brunch I went to earlier today. Its is one of my favorites. After the cake comes out of the oven you poke it with a large fork and drizzle a lemon syrup all over. It ends up moist and a little tangy. Easy to make and they freeze well, too. 

 Lemon Tea Cake

2 lemons

3 T. sugar for topping

½ c. butter, softened

¾ c. sugar

2 eggs, beaten

3/4 c. flour

6 T. milk

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8- inch loaf pan and line with wax or parchment paper. Grate the lemon rinds and set aside. Combine the juice of 1 of the lemons with the 3 tablespoons of sugar, stirring to dissolve sugar. Set aside.

Cream together the butter with the rest of the sugar and beat until fluffy. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time until well mixed. Stir in the flour and lemon peel and beat well. Add the milk and beat well. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake about an hour. The cake should spring back when touched lightly. As soon as you remove the cake from the oven pierce it all over with a long-tine fork or a skewer. Pour over the reserved lemon juice mixture. Cool cake in pan before serving. Cake will be moist and tangy.

Blueberry Sweet Rolls

I love this recipe and decided to make them for a brunch I am attending tomorrow. Not too sweet, lightly glazed and studded with blueberries they are a hit every time I make them. 

Blueberry Sweet Rolls

3-3 1/2 c. bread flour

1 package active dry yeast

1 1/3 c. evaporated milk

2 T. butter

1/4 c. sugar

1 t. salt

1 egg

6 T. butter

1/2 c. sugar

2 t. cinnamon

1 t. grated lemon or orange peel

2 c. fresh or frozen blueberries

In bowl combine 1 1/2 c. of the flour with the yeast, sugar and salt. Heat together the milk and 2T. of the butter until warm and add to the flour mixture, beating 2 minutes. Add egg and beat 2 minutes longer. By hand stir in enough of the remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding flour as needed until dough becomes moderately stiff. Place in greased bowl, turning once to coat and cover. Allow to double in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours. Punch dough down, cover, and let rest 10 minutes. Divide dough in half. Roll each half into a 14×8 inch rectangle. Brush dough with the melted butter. Combine the remaining sugar, peel and cinnamon and sprinkle over the dough. Top with the blueberries and press the berries into the dough. Starting at the long side roll up dough jelly roll fashion and seal edge by pinching. Repeat with second roll. Cut each roll into 12 slices and place 12 rolls in greased 9 inch round pans. Cover pans and allow to rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. While rolls are warm, you can top with a powder sugar glaze, if desired. Makes 24.

Summer Vegetable Soup

I made some vegetable soup the other day and it made me think of my Mother. Every summer as the gardens were producing beautiful veggies I would stop by her house and drop off much of what I had harvested. She would often use them to make a summer vegetable soup. She especially loved adding fresh green beans and I planted extra just for her soup. The recipe is far from exact. Use what you have and let the flavors simmer together. If you have some cooked meat around feel free to add that, too. Every batch was a little different but always wonderful. When I make this soup today I always think of her and am grateful for the cooking skills she passed on to me. Miss you, Mom.

Summer Vegetable Soup

oil

1 onion, chopped

2 qts. chicken or vegetable stock

6-8 cups mixed veggies, chopped

2 c. cubed cooked chicken, optional*

salt and pepper to taste

fresh herbs

Heat oil in soup pot and cook onion until tender. Add stock and veggies and simmer until veggies are tender, about 20 minutes. Add chicken or other meat, if using. Add a handful of fresh chopped herbs and simmer a few minutes longer.

Note: For a heartier soup you can also add 1/2 cup of raw rice with the veggies and simmer until the rice is tender.

* You can also add cooked beans like kidney or garbanzo beans for a vegetarian option.