Old Fashion Potato Bread

This is a great tasting bread that I tried from one of my grandmother's cooking skills.

Ingredients: 

• 1 serving instant potatoes made according to directions (my grandmother used to run potatoes through a hand grounding machine - like grounding meat!)
• 1 pkg active dry yeast
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp spoon sugar
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1/4 cup butter (margarine) softened + 1 tbsp melted
• 3 3/4 cups bread flour + 1/4 cup in case dough is too wet

You can put everything in a bread machine according to the machine instructions and choose "dough" setting. Remove dough and place it in a large greased bowl and cover with a towel and let it rise until double in size at 85F (about 1 hour). Roll dough into a 16 x 8 in rectangle and then roll up from one end pinching the ends and tucking under loaf. Place loaf in a greased or Pam sprayed loaf pan. Brush surface with melted butter and let it rise until top of loaf is higher that loaf pan and rounded. Meanwhile preheat oven to 400F. Bake for 30 - 40 min until deep golden brown and bottom of loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Let it cool on a wire rack and enjoy it. Makes one loaf.  

Romania: Rolled Burgers -- "Mititei"

Almost every party have hamburgers and hot dogs because is easy and fun to do. Be different next time and amaze your guests with some thing new they never had before. It is cheap, easy and fun to make!


The rolled burgers is a traditional dish in Romania and if you ever visit this beautiful country you owe to yourself to try it. Ask locals where you can find the best "mititei" in town. You never know, you might get invited to their house for some home made!
Here is what you need:

• about two punds (1 kg.) of grounded lean beef
• 100g of beef tallow
• about 15g of thyme and allspice
• some baking powder (bicarbonat), salt, pepper (to your taste)
• 1 medium garlic peeled 
• 1/2 cup of beef broth or water

Here is how to make it:

•  Mix the ground beef with beef tallow and salt (how much salt is up to your taste), set the mixture in a air tight container and refrigerate for 6 - 7 hours;
• After refrigeration add to the mixture the thyme, allspice and baking powder (bicarbonat);
• Using a wooden mortar and pestle crush the garlic and mix it with the beef broth (or cold water) and then strained and add it to the mixture
• If you have a meat grinder with sausage attachment you can use it to bring out this mixture in the sausage form about 8cm long each piece
• Don't have a meat grinder you can shape the mixture with your wet hands in the form of a bratwurst sausage about 8cm long each
• Heat up your grill and grill at high heat turning as it cooks on all sides. Use cold water or beef broth if you have any leftover to baste the rolled burgers as they cooking

This dish is traditionally served with french fries and a fresh garden salad. Enjoy!

Hint: You may replace the lean beef with lamb or equal amount of lamb and beef for an event tastier "mititei"

Rice Cooker: Chicken and Rice

The Chicken and Rice dish has millions of recipes (maybe I am exaggerating) but anyway has many recipes. Mine is different, of course, and I am asking you to try it. This recipes does not require a rice cooker if you are an expert cooking rice without the modern age rice cooker that makes everything so easy. I make my chicken and rice dish using a rice cooker, otherwise I would not be able to eat rice at all. I added some vegetables together with rice and chicken and came out delicious every time. Even my teenage daughter likes it!

Ingredients: 

• 2 chicken breast cut into 1' squares (cubes)
• 1 cup Mahatma white enriched long grain rice
• 2 medium size carrots coarsely chopped
• 2-3 stalks celery coarsely chopped
• 1 small can sweet peas
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 1/2 cups chicken broth (I like my rice moist -- you use as much as normally use for cooking rice)

Preparation: I brown the chicken pieces before I put them into the rice. You don't have to. Now this is the hard part with the rice cooker: drop everything in the rice cooker, close the lid and choose cooking level for white rice. Immediately start watching a movie or something on TV or even go to the movies. The rice cooker will take care of the rest. If you don't have a rice cooker ... good luck! I don't know how to cook rice. But I guess that you start cooking the rice, then cook the chicken pieces and then at some point mix everything together and keep simmering till is all done. Enjoy!

Chinese Sweet-and-Sour Fish

For this dish you need to use fresh fish. I guess you have to go fishing! Fresh fish is better than the one sold in the grocery store, but if you can't get any fresh, ask your local grocery store to sell you the freshest one. The fish could be a sea bass, porgies or any other salt water fish in this category (not Mahi Mahi or any bill fish or tuna). This dish will be good for four servings.

Ingredients: To cook the fish:

• 4 sea bass about 3/4 lbs each cleaned 
• 1 tsp salt
• Flour
• Vegetable oil

Ingredients for the sauce:

• 1 cup pineapple juice
• 2 tbls tomato ketchup
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 4 1/4 tsp cornstarch 

Cooking the fish: After washing and drying the fish with a paper towel, sprinkle evenly with salt and dust with the flour. Shake of any excess of flour. Pour vegetable oil about 1"  deep in a frying pan and heat the oil to about 350 F. Deep the fish in the hot oil and cook about 5 min on each side or until golden brown. Transfer the cooked fish in a oven safe bowl or plate lined with paper towel to absorb the grease. Place the plate in the oven set to keep warm.

Prepare the sauce: Mix the 3/4 cup pineapple juice with ketchup, sugar, vinegar and soy sauce in a heat resistan bowl. Bring to a boil over high heat. In a small bowl dissolve the cornstarch in the remaining pineapple juice and stir in the boiling sauce. Stirring constantly keep boiling the sauce until it is clear and thick enough to coat a spoon heavily.

Place the fish on a serving plate and pour the sauce over them. Enjoy!
 

Romania: Oriental Salad

The Oriental Salad is a very refreshing dish especially during hot summer months. Makes an excellent lunch or just a snack. Very easy to prepare. You may replace the radishes with a vegetable you like or experiment with different kind of vegetables.

Ingredients: Boiling potatoes (1 1/2 lbs.), olive oil (6 tbs.), ground black pepper (1/4 tsp), salt (4 1/2 tsp), one regular can of green beans, 1 tsp finely chopped garlic, 4 tbs finely chopped fresh parsley, 1/2 cup thin sliced radishes, 1/2 cup thin sliced scallions, 1/4 red wind vinegar (or cider).

Preparation: Boil potatoes in slightly salted water till potatoes are cooked but tender so they can be cut in slices. Drain the potatoes and let them cool, then peel and slice into 1/4 inch thick round slices. Place the sliced potatoes into a large bowl. Add the olive oil, 1 1/2 tsp salt, pepper and vinegar (cider) and gently toss together till potatoes are evenly coated with the mixture. Cook the green beans as directed by the package together with the remaining salt (if you are sensitive to salt, you may skip it). After cooking, drain the green beans and keep them under running cold water to cool them. Dry the beans with a paper towel, cut them in half crosswise and place them over the potatoes. Add the garlic, parsley, radishes and scallions and gently toss together. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours before serving. Enjoy!

South Pacific: Marinated Pork Kabob

Again, with this dish feel free to use your own imagination in adding some vegetables, mix with other kind of meat, serve over rice or whatever you would like. The marinade I took it from an old South Pacific recipe that required some kind of meat we do not normally eat or buy. But the marinade is excellent on the spicy side.

Ingredients: One fresh hot chili, small onion, ginger root, fresh lime juice, salt, vegetable oil, about 2 lbs boneless pork butt.

Hot chili should be washed, stemmed and seeded and chopped coarsely. Same with the onion. Fine grate the ginger root about 2 teaspoons. The pork butt should be trimmed of excess fat, cut into 1" thick slices and then into 1/2" squares.

Preparation: Put the coarsely chopped chili and onion together with ginger, 2 tbs lime juice, 2 tbs salt and 2 tbs of water in a blender and blend at high speed until the mixture becomes smooth. You have to turn the blender off a couple of times and scrape the sides with a flexible (rubber) spatula. Pour the smooth mixture into a mixing bowl and add the pork meat. Mix so the meat is all covered with the marinade. Cover and let sit for at least one hour or refrigerate for 2-3 hours. Remove the pieces of pork and thread them on wooden or bamboo skewers. If you would like you can add some vegetables like mushrooms, green pepper, tomatoes, squash, onion, garlic or whatever you prefer. Brush with vegetable oil and cook them in your favorite way: hibachi, grill, stove broiler, camp fire. Cook for about 8-10 min or until the pork is crisp and brown and there is no read meat showing when poked with a sharp knife.

You can serve as an appetizer or as a main course with rice and green salad.

Bon Apetite!

Romania: Garlic Dip for Roasted or Grilled Chicken

Romanian cuisine uses a lot of garlic and onion in most recipes. Garlic is well known for its properties in lowering and controlling somewhat the blood pressure. Nevertheless, prepared properly can enhance the food and makes it even tastier, believed or not. This particular dip however uses garlic in its natural state, uncooked, and it is most useful with roasted, baked or grilled chicken. Just try it at least once.

Ingredients: One whole garlic, 2 tsp salt. 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, mayo (optional)

Procedure: Peel the garlic in the method you will find best. Also you might wand to purchase peeled garlic at your local grocery store. Fill a wooden mortar about halfway with garlic cloves and add the salt. Press the garlic with a wooden pestle (I use wooden utensils as much as I can) until becomes like a paste. Add the olive oil and mix well. Add water and mix well again without spilling. Pour everything in a small bowl, add more water and mix well. Water will cut down the "strength" of the garlic so you need to add as much or as less water as you feel. That's it. Dip pieces of cooked chicken and enjoy.

You might want to do another batch and coat the chicken with it before it is cooked and also for basting while the chicken is cooking on the grill or in the oven. Discard leftover, do not use the same batch for dipping. 

You might want to add a little mayo to make it cling to the chicken but that will be your option. Try it and find the best way to fit your taste.