Tag Archives: recipe

Crab Rangoons – Baked!!

Posted on

May 19, 2014 by author

Crab Rangoons

I love crab rangoons but I don’t always feel like frying them. You don’t have to. You can bake them and still end up with crispy wontons filled with creamy, crabby goodness. Easier than frying if you have a lot of people or just aren’t in the mood for frying.

Crab Rangoons

1 clove garlic, minced
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
1 (6 ounce) can crabmeat, drained and flaked
2 green onions with tops, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon soy sauce
48 wonton wrappers
Directions
Preheat an oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Lightly spray baking sheet with cooking spray. Combine garlic, cream cheese, crab, green onions, Worcestershire sauce, and soy sauce in a bowl. To prevent wonton skins from drying, prepare only 1 or 2 rangoon at a time. Place 1 teaspoon of filling onto the center of each wonton skin. Moisten the edges with water and fold the wonton skin diagonally to form a triangle, pressing edges to seal. Arrange the rangoon on the baking sheet and lightly spray with cooking spray.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

Pot Stickers

Posted on

May 15, 2014 by author

Judi

Pot Stickers

We went down to the Asian market recently. I always have so much fun there- and buy so much. Stocked up on won ton wrappers. OK, I had a class on cooking with wontons but I bought a LOT more wontons than we would need for class. I’ve been having fun playing around with them. I’ll be posting pictures and recipes. Some of these are recipes from class, some are new.

Pot Stickers are called that because when the steaming liquid evaporates and they start to brown on the bottom they tend to stick to the pot. Doing them in an un- seasoned pan that does not have a non-stick coating can result in the pot stickers leaving their bottoms behind them in the pan.

Feel free to play around with fillings. I could easily have left out the meat and added chopped, cooked mushrooms for a vegetarian version.

Traditional Pot Stickers

1/2 pound ground pork- I used ground chicken
1/2 medium head cabbage, finely chopped- I used Chinese cabbage, or nappa
1 green onion, finely chopped
2 slices fresh ginger root, finely chopped
2 water chestnuts, drained and finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 (14 ounce) package wonton wrappers
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup water- or stock

Dipping Sauce:
1 tablespoon chili oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon rice vinegar

Crumble pork into a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain and set aside. In a medium bowl, mix together the pork, cabbage, green onion, ginger, water chestnuts, salt, sugar and sesame oil. Chill in the refrigerator 6 to 8 hours, or overnight. Place a tablespoon of the pork mixture into each of the wonton wrappers. Fold the wrappers, and seal the edges with a moistened fork. In a large, deep skillet, heat 3 tablespoons vegetable oil over medium high heat. Place the pot stickers into the oil seam sides up. Heat 30 seconds to a minute. Pour water into the skillet. Gently boil 7 to 8 minutes, until oil and water begins to sizzle, and then add remaining oil. When the bottoms begin to brown, remove pot stickers from heat. In a small serving bowl, mix together the chili oil, soy sauce, and vinegar, adjusting proportions to taste.

Start browning in a pan.

Steam in liquid

Pot stickers should be brown on the bottom

Posted in Cooking | Tagged asian recipe, dim sum recipe, pork pot stickers, pot stickers, pot stickers recipe, potstickers, potstickers recipe, recipe, steamed dumpling recipe, steamed dumplings, won ton recipe, wonton, wontons recipe |

Easy Vegetable Soup Stock

Updated on

March 18, 2014 by author

Judi

Homemade Vegetable Soup Base

I make a lot of soup and soup stock. I confess I sometimes use paste-type soup bases to stretch home made stock or to boost flavor. Some are better than others. They are also fast and very convenient. Still, I have made a lot of stuff from scratch- could I make my own soup base? I could- and I did. I made a vegetable soup base that is a mixture of vegetables, both fresh and dried, herbs, mushrooms, nutritional yeast, spices and salt. Now there is pretty good amount of salt but I wanted to be able to keep it in the fridge and be safe. Figured out that every teaspoonful of the mix has about 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Not great,but a lot less than bullion cubes. If you want to make yours with less salt- you’ll have to freeze the mixture in ice cube trays and take it out of the freezer as needed. The nice part is I can now make a vegetable soup easily and I know exactly what is in it. It can also be added to chicken or other meat based stocks in place of the salt to add extra flavor.

Homemade Vegetable Soup Base

4 carrots, peeled and cubed

3 celery ribs, washed and cubed

1 large sweet onion, peeled and cubed

3 green onions, washed and cut up

1 c. sun- dried tomatoes

1 c. dried mushrooms, I use shitakes. Soaked in water 10 minutes and drained

1 c. chopped cabbage

1 c. parsley, chopped

1/2 c. chopped sweet pepper

1/4 c. nutritional yeast, optional

2 T. turmeric

8 oz. salt- I used sea salt and used a scale to weigh it. Its around a cup but will differ if you are using a coarse salt

Combine all ingredients, except the salt, in a food processor and blend until smooth. I have a decent size Cuisinart and still had to do this in batches. Combine in a bowl with the salt and stir well to blend. Store in a clean jar in the fridge until ready to use. I ended up with about 4 cups of soup base. To use add about 1 teaspoonful to a cup of hot water for vegetable broth. Use lessor more according to your taste. Use in place of salt in other soups, stews and sauces.

Some of the ingredients I used

Vegetable broth made from my mix.

Freshly made soup base

Posted in Cooking | Tagged easy soup base recipe, easy vegetable soup base recipe, homemade base recipe, homemade soup base, homemade vegetable soup base recipe, recipe, soup base, soup base recipe, soup stock, soup stock recipe, vegetable soup base, vegetable soup recipe, vegetable soup stock, vegetable soup stock recipe |

Baking Pita Bread

Updated on

March 17, 2014 by author

Judi

Pita dough rising

After tasting fresh homemade pita bread it’s nearly impossible for me to eat the stuff I find in stores here. It is fun to make and pretty easy. Although the recipe calls for placing the rolled out dough directly on the oven rack I place mine on baking sheets in the oven. Just a little easier and neater. I also used about half whole wheat flour in this batch.

Pita Bread

4 ½- 4 ¾ c. flour

1 pkt. Active dry yeast

1 ½ t. sugar

1 ½ t. salt

1 ¾ c. water

2 T. oil

In large bowl combine 2 cups of the flour with other dry ingredients. Heat water and oil to 120-130 degrees (warm) and add to flour mixture in bowl beating until smooth. Beat three minutes then begin stirring in enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead on floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Cover dough with plastic wrap and then a towel and let rest on board 20 minutes. Punch dough down and divide into 12 pieces. Shape each into a smooth ball and place on board, allowing space in between. Cover and let rise 30 minutes. Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees. Roll dough balls into circles. Place 3 circles at a time directly on oven rack. They will puff up and brown in about three minutes. Remove to rack to cool and repeat with remaining dough. Makes 12.

Roll dough out into circles right before baking

Fresh baked pita bread

Posted in Cooking | Tagged baking, baking bread, bread, bread recipe, bread recipes, homemade bread recipe, homemade pita bread, making pita, making pita bread, pita, pita bread, pita bread recipe, pita recipe, recipe |

Applesauce Fruit and Nut Muffins-Vegan

Updated on

February 24, 2014 by author

Judi

Applesauce Fruit and Nut Muffins

I had a request from a friend recently for more vegan baked goods. Came up with this recipe today and they came out moist and light. I also have a LOT of applesauce that I canned so looking for things to do with it other than just eating it.

Applesauce Fruit and Nut Muffins

2 c. applesauce- I used unsweetened

1/2 c. oil

1 c. sugar

1 t. vanilla

2 c. flour Note: You can use all purpose, I used whole wheat pastry flour.

1 c. rolled oats

2 t. baking soda

2 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. baking powder

1 c. dried cranberries or raisins

1 c. chopped nuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners or grease lightly. Set aside. Combine applesauce with the oil and stir in sugar and vanilla. Add flour, oats, soda, cinnamon and baking powder. Stir to mix well. Stir in fruit and nuts. Spoon batter in to muffin cups filling just over half-full. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Makes 24.

Posted in Cooking | Tagged applesauce, Applesauce muffins, muffins, muffins recipe, recipe, recipe applesauce, recipe applesauce muffins, vegan, vegans |

Cocoa Mint Hearts

Updated on

February 24, 2014 by author

Judi

Cocoa Mint Hearts

If you want an easy chocolate treat to make these may just be what you are looking for. They are a simple candy that require little time and no cooking. Easy enough for kids to help, too.

Cocoa Mint Hearts

9 c. powdered sugar

1 c. cocoa

1/2 c. butter, softened

1/2 c. water

2 t. peppermint extract

In large bowl combine ingredients until well blended. You can add more water, if needed, 1 teaspoon at a time. Divide mixture into 2 pieces and shape in balls. Place each between sheets of wax paper and roll out to 1/4 -inch thickness. Cut out with tiny cutters and place on foil-lined tray. Chill several hours, then wrap up in colored foil or place in tiny candy bags. Makes 80 1-inch candies.

Roll out between wax paper

Cut out with heart-shaped cookie cutters

Posted in Cooking | Tagged candy recipe, chocolate candy recipe, cocoa hearts, cocoa recipe, easy candy recipe, mint hearts, recipe |