The Charmed Kitchen

Herbed Sweet Potato Biscuits

If you are looking for a new way to cook sweet potatoes try adding them to your biscuit dough. As they bake they add moisture and tenderness. These are a fast and tasty addition to your dinner. Perhaps even for the holiday table. The biscuits are tender and are best served warm with sweet butter.

Herbed Sweet Potato Biscuits

2 1/4 c. flour

1 T. baking powder

1/2 t. grated lemon peel

1/4 t. each baking soda, dried basil and dried thyme

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 c. shredded sweet potato, about 1 large

1/2 c. fine chopped green onions

1/2 c. sour cream

2T. butter, melted or olive oil

Stir together dry ingredients in large bowl and set aside. Combine remaining ingredients and add to flour mixture mixing until just blended. Turn onto lightly floured surface and knead a few times until dough just stays together. Dough will look too dry- but it will come together after you knead it. Press into an 8-inch square and cut into four squares.* Cross cut each square into four triangles. Place on greased baking sheet and bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for 20 minutes. Makes 16.

* I press the dough into a lightly floured 8×8-inch baking pan and then flip it out onto the work surface. That way you’ll get nice, even edges.

Freshly mixed dough will seem too dry

After a little kneading dough comes together

Cut dough into 16 triangles

Venetian Cabbage

I love cabbage. I use it in salads, soups and in cabbage and noodles. I am always looking for more recipes to use it. This is one of my favorites. This will be a side dish for an Italian inspired dinner. There are not a lot of ingredients but all of them pack a punch, flavor-wise and the dish is amazingly tasty. Give it a try. I think you will love it, too.

Venetian Cabbage

3 slices minced pancetta (Italian bacon) or thick bacon

3-4 cloves garlic, minced

1 T.  rosemary, minced

1 T. olive oil

2 1/2 lbs. green cabbage, trimmed and shredded

1/2 c. chicken stock or white wine

Place bacon, rosemary and garlic in large skillet and drizzle with oil.Cook bacon, garlic and rosemary  until mixture starts to sizzle. Stir in the cabbage, tossing to coat well. Cook, covered, over medium heat for 20-30 minutes adding the stock or wine a little at a time. Stir from time to time. I like to get a little color on the cabbage. Add salt to taste before serving. Serves 6.

Venetian Cabbage

3 T. minced pancetta (Italian bacon) or thick bacon

1 clove garlic, minced

pinch of rosemary, minced

1 T. olive oil

2 1/2 lbs. green cabbage, trimmed and shredded

1/2 c. chicken stock or white wine

Cook bacon, garlic and rosemary in saucepan until mixture starts to sizzle. Stir in the cabbage, tossing to coat well. Cook, covered, over low heat for an hour adding the stock or wine a little at a time. Add salt to taste before serving. Serves 6.

Bacon, rosemary and garlic

Drizzle in oil and heat until sizzling

Stir in cabbage

Add wine a little at a time

Cover and cook over medium heat.

Bread Pudding

When it comes to comfort food it would be hard to top bread pudding. It is always a welcome dessert with family and friends and a great way to use up old bread. Plus you can tweak ingredients based on what you have and what you like. Add more dried fruit-or not. Add more spices according your taste. Super easy and super delicious!! While you can use many kinds of bread I love to make mine with cinnamon bread to add extra flavor.

Bread Pudding

9 slices day-old bread – plain white or whet bread is fine, but I like cinnamon bread. Some people even use old dinner rolls

2/3  c. raisins or other dried fruit, optional- although much better with the fruit

1/3 c. melted butter

6 eggs

3 cups milk or half and half

1 c. sugar or 1/2 c. each white and brown sugar

1 T. cinnamon

1 T. vanilla

Tear or cut bread into small pieces and place in a lightly greased 9×13-inch pan. Sprinkle with the dried fruit, if using, and then drizzle with the melted butter. Combine remaining ingredients and pour over the bread cubes. Use a fork to push the bread down into the egg mixture to be sure they all get moistened. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 45-55 minutes or until golden brown and set. The middle might be a little soft- but should test clean with a toothpick. Serve warm or cold. Serves 8.

Bread cubes with raisins

Pour over egg/milk mixture

Press down with a fork

Tiramisu

It’s a popular dessert at Italian restaurants and always a hit when made at home. It is so loved by a friend of mine I make it for her birthday every year. Luxurious and truly a spectacular dessert. Most of the work is just making the egg custard. The rest is just about assembly. If you never made your own tiramisu before maybe now is the time to try it.

Classic Tiramisu

5 egg yolks

1/4 c. sugar

1/2 c. Marsala wine (not cooking wine)

1 c. whipping cream

2 T. sugar

1 lb. mascarpone cheese- Italian cream cheese- available in most larger grocery stores

2 c. strong coffee, room temp.

2 T. sugar

1/2 c. brandy

1 T. vanilla

48 ladyfingers*

3 T. cocoa

Make zabaglione (egg custard). In double boiler, over simmering water, beat together egg yolks and sugar until lemon colored. Stir in Marsala and continue cooking, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and will mound on a spoon. This will take about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool down. You can place in bowl in fridge 30 minutes or so. Beat together whipping cream and sugar until stiff peaks form. Beat in mascarpone and chilled zabaglione. Chill 1 hour. Stir together coffee with remaining sugar, brandy and vanilla and set aside. Assemble tiramisu by placing 16 of the ladyfingers in the bottom of a 9×13-inch pan. Drizzle about 1/3 of the coffee mixture over the ladyfingers, about 1 tablespoon each. Top with 1/3 of the cream mixture and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the cocoa. Repeat this process 2 more times until all ingredients are used. Chill until ready to serve. Serves 12.

* There are 2 types of ladyfingers in stores- soft and crisp. Either will work but I prefer the crisp ones I find at a local Italian market. The crisp ones are also bigger.

The brand I use

Polish Mushroom Soup

This soup is a tradition in my family. My Busha would make it every Easter and my Mom for Christmas Eve. It is made with dried mushrooms. I use shitake but often add fresh mushrooms as well. You can use other dried mushrooms. If made with vegetable stock it can be a great meatless meal, too.  We had it in my cooking class last night with kluski noodles. I made it today with fresh spaetzle. Either way it is really yummy. The mushrooms can be found at specialty grocery stores, most larger grocery stores and at Asian markets.

Polish Mushroom Soup

4 qt. Chicken, beef or vegetable stock

5 c. dried mushrooms, about 4 0z. I use Shitake.

Water for soaking

½ c. flour

1 pint sour cream

¼ c. balsamic vinegar

2 T. sugar

1 Lb. Kluski-style noodles, cooked and drained

Soak mushrooms in water for 1-2 hours.  Lift mushrooms carefully out to leave any sand in the bowl of water. Rinse and drain. Set aside.  Bring stock to a boil and add the mushrooms. Simmer, covered for about 1½ hours, or until mushrooms reach desired tenderness. Mushrooms will retain some “chewiness”.  In medium bowl whisk sour cream into flour gradually until smooth. Stir in vinegar and sugar until smooth.  Add a small amount of the hot soup to the sour cream mixture, whisking until smooth.  Continue adding hot soup to the sour cream mixture until sour cream mixture is warm. Add the warm mixture to the pot of soup and stir to combine. Return to simmer and simmer 1 minute, stirring continuously.   Place desired amount of kluski into bowls and ladle over the hot soup. Serves12.

Note:  You can add a variety of fresh mushrooms to the soup to make it even more special. You might use portabellas; crimini, button or whatever mushrooms are at the store that day. Add in addition to the dry mushrooms; don’t reduce the amount of shitakes.

You can use other cooked pasta. Mom said you might want to try spaetzels or even gnocchi. You might also need more than one pound of kluski, depending on how much pasta your family likes in their soup.

Dried Shitake Mushrooms

Soaking the mushrooms

Hot Cross Buns

These are one of my favorite Easter time treats. They are rich and moist but not too sweet. The frosting on top gives just the right pop of sweetness. You can, of course, make them year round but I seem to make them for Easter every year and they are always well received.  One of those holiday traditions that never goes out of style. If you have never made them before perhaps this will be the year.

Hot Cross Buns

 2/3 c. sugar

1 t. salt

2 packages active dry yeast

About 5 cups bread flour

1 ½ c. milk

½ c. butter

2 eggs

1 c. raisins

Icing

¾ c. powdered sugar

1 T. milk

In bowl combine sugar, salt, yeast and about 1 ½ c. flour. Heat together milk and butter until very warm. Beat milk mixture into to flour mixture and beat 2 minutes with electric mixer. Beat in 1 egg and 1 cup flour and beat 2 more minutes until batter thickens. Stir in raisins and enough additional flour to make a soft dough. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead until smooth, about 10 minutes. Place dough in greased bowl, turning to grease top, cover with a towel and allow to rise in a draft free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Place dough on floured surface and divide into 15 equal pieces. Cover with towel and lest rest 15 minutes. Meanwhile grease a 9×13 inch pan. Form dough into smooth balls and place in prepared pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat remaining egg. Cut a cross in each bun and brush with the egg. Bake for 25 minutes or until buns are golden. Remove buns to wire rack to cool 15 minutes. Make frosting, place in decorating bag and pipe onto buns.* Makes 15.

* If you don’t have a decorating bag just put the icing in a plastic baggie and snip a corner off. Then you can pipe your frosting on the hot cross buns just like a pro.

Easy Bean Salad

With wintery weather this week it makes me feel better to forgo the soups for a day and make a salad for dinner. Celebrating warmer weather ahead. I love bean salads and they can make a quick dinner or side dish. For my salad I used a combination of baby carrots, green and wax beans and kidney beans but feel free to use what you have on hand. I also added some sweet onion and made a quick Italian dressing.

Easy Bean Salad

2 c. green beans

2 c. wax beans

2 c. baby carrots

1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained- use whatever beans you have on hand

1 c. chopped sweet onion

1/2 c. oil

1/2 c. cider vinegar

1 T. Italian seasoning

salt and pepper to taste

Cook vegetables in boiling water until tender. Drain. Combine with remaining ingredients in a bowl and stir well. Chill until ready to serve. You can eat it just the way it is or serve it over lettuce with toasted pita chips.

Thousand Island Dressing

With all the corned beef being eaten I thought it might be a good time to post the recipe for Thousand Island Dressing. There are variations. Some people like to add capers and if you have them, add them. I stick to the basic, classic recipe. So simple and so good. Equal parts ketchup, mayo and sweet pickle relish. Yup, that’s it. Just mix those three ingredients together and you can have fresh Thousand Island Dressing when ever you like.

Equal parts ketchup, mayo and sweet pickle relish

Stir to combine