Cranberry sauce

I've made this cranberry sauce for years and encourage you to try it even if you haven't had success with the dish in the past.

What you'll need:
2 cups cranberry juice
1/4 cup of apple cider
1 cup of sugar
1 orange, cut into half and sliced with peel on
1 tablespoon of grated ginger
2 bay leaves
1 cup of toasted hazelnuts (optional)
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1 pound of fresh cranberries

In a medium saucepan, combine cranberry juice, apple cider, sugar, oranges, ginger and bay leaves. Simmer until the mixture is reduced by half, roughly 20 minutes. Add the vinegar, cranberries and nuts. Cook until cranberries burst, about 20 minutes.

Russian-style crab meat salad

A proper Russian table should always have a crab meat salad, at least that's what my grandmother used to say. Here is my recipe for a crab meat salad that's always a hit.

What you'll need:
1 cup of celery root, finely chopped
2 teaspoons of Dijon Mustard
2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
salt
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 pound of lump crab meat (real or imitation, I usually use imitation)
1 tablespoon of finely chopped parsley
2-3 tablespoons of mayonnaise, depending on your taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste

Combine ingredients in a bowl. Serve! If the salad tastes too salty to you, boil another egg and add to the mixture. If you are allergic to eggs you can use potatoes instead.

Galician Style Octopus

This tasty dish is easy to prepare if you don't mind cleaning octopus. The meal was also inexpensive. I spent $3.29 on the baby octopus and 98-cents on a bag of potatoes (but only used four).

The octopus tastes very fishy, so if you prefer milder seafood this may not be the dish for you.

Also, the baby octopus cooks very quickly, only about 15 minutes. The recipe calls for a bigger octopus, hence the longer cooking time, so keep that in mind when you're purchasing the food.

Here is what you'll need for meal:

3/4 to 1 lb. of frozen octopus, thawed and cleaned *

Extra virgin olive oil

Coarse salt

paprika

cilantro

* For directions on cleaning octopus check out this site: http://tiny.cc/4T9Ds

1. Clean the octopus and wash it under cold water.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Submerge octopus in water; remove immediately. Repeat this process two more times, bringing water to a boil and submerging octopus each time. This process is important for tenderizing the meat.

3. Return water to a boil. Add octopus to the pot, reduce heat and simmer 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on the size, or until tender. Drain and cool. (if you use baby octopus cooking time will be much shorter, about 15 minutes)

4. Rinse octopus to remove any loose skin. Cut body and tentacles into bite-size pieces and place on a serving platter. Drizzle with oil. Sprinkle salt, paprika and cilantro on top and stir.

Serve with potatoes.

Cent-saving Squid

If you enjoy grilled calamari this is the meal for you. This simple squid can be served over rice, pasta or on toasted bread. My Chief Tasting Officer (aka husband) wished out loud the dinner plate was piled high with the squid. "I could eat this all night long," he said.

This meal is also inexpensive. The squid cost $3.99 at Ha Tien Grocery (353 University Ave. St. Paul). This is a simple and fast meal you can make any day of the week.

What you'll need:

1 package of frozen squid, thawed

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1/4 tablespoon of sweet paprika (you can buy it at Penzeys Spices)

2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar (or regular wine)

1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons of lemon juice

3 tablespoons of fish sauce *

1/8 teaspoon of pepper

2 teaspoons fresh parsley, chopped

2 teaspoons fresh cilantro, chopped

*You can use the juice that the squid comes in for this dish

Heat oil in a saute pan on medium high heat. Add garlic, paprika, and salt to the mixture and reduce heat. Cook on low heat until the garlic is tender and the olive oil becomes a darker color. Add fish sauce, lemon juice and white wine vinegar. Cook for two minutes. Add squid, parsley and cilantro. Stir and saute for 6 minutes or until the squid is opaque and cooked well. Serve over pasta, rice or on bread.

Lazy Chicken Satay

I got this recipe during a class at Cooks of Crocus Hill. It is easy and delicious.

What you need:
1 lb chicken tenderloins or boneless skinless breasts ($1.43 on sale at Rainbow)
2 T sugar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno pepper (or 1T of chili powder)
1 ½ t ground coriander
½ t ground turmeric
½ t black pepper
½ cup heavy cream (I substituted two eggs here, you can also use yogurt)
3 T fish sauce
2 T lime juice
3 T cilantro

For the peanut sauce:
¾ cup of water
1 clove of garlic, crushed
2 T brown sugar
1 T lemon juice
½ t chili powder
1 T soy sauce
1 teaspoon of salt
4 T peanut butter

For the chicken:
Cut the chicken into small strips. Place in a bowl and top with all the ingredients. Mix and let sit for 20 minutes. You can put the chicken on skewers, but I chose not to. What you can do instead is place the skewers next to the dish and let the guests grab the chicken with them themselves. It is up to you. If you choose to use the skewers be sure to soak them in water for about a half hour so they don't burn. You can cook the chicken on skewers in a skillet, griddle or a grill.
Drizzle olive oil in a skillet on medium-high heat. Cook the chicken roughly 3 minutes on each side and put on a plate.

For the sauce:
In a heavy-bottom sauce pan bring water and peanut butter to a boil. Remove from heat and transfer to a bowl. Mix in remaining ingredients. Serve with chicken or spring rolls.

Bao's Simple Spring Rolls

My friend Bao, who is attending culinary school in New York, served this dish at his going away party in St. Paul. He made it look so easy, of course. It took me a few tries before I finally mastered this dish.

Spring Rolls

What you need for the spring rolls:
Shrimp ($1.80 for ½ lb on sale at Cub), peeled and cooked
½ pound of cooked BBQ Pork from an Asian store ($5.52), cut into small pieces
4 oz Cilantro (.69), washed and taken off stem
Spring Roll Wrappers ($1.99), one package (but you won’t use the whole thing)*
Vermicelli ($1.29), ¼ of the package
Lettuce ($1.29 at Cub), cut into small pieces
Cucumber (.69 cents), cut into small long pieces
5 oz Basil, washed and separated from stem
Spring roll sauce ($1.39, or you can use the peanut sauce I made for the chicken instead)

*Buy spring roll wrappers that come in a plastic container, not bag. They will not break that way. I really like the “Banh Trang” brand, which is sold at Cub.

Bring water to a boil in a pot. Place vermicelli in the water and cook for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside. Make sure the shrimp is peeled and vain removed. Sauté with a little olive oil until done, set aside.
Spread the ingredients on a cutting board or big plate for easy access, but keep the vermicelli in the strainer, but also close by. Now you’ll need three dinner plates. Take a spring roll wrapper and carefully wet it. Once it is damp, but still stiff, place it on the dinner plate. Give it a minute to dry. Transfer it to the second plate. Give it another minute to settle. Make sure you wipe water off the first plate. This helps make sure the wrappers are not soggy. Now, place pork (or shrimp or combination), lettuce, vermicelli, cilantro, cucumber and basil in the middle. Fold like a burrito and place on a serving plate. Repeat until all the meat is gone. Serve with sauce on the side.
A note about making the spring rolls the first time: you'll probably break a few of the wrappers or rip them while folding. Don't worry, this happens! Just keep at it will get easy.

Gourmet grilled cheese on a budget

NICK AND EDDIE, Minneapolis
Don’t let the portrait of a white skull inside Nick and Eddie’s fool you. The home style cooking here is fabulous. Just try the grilled asparagus, mushroom polenta or linguine and you’ll be hooked.
But I didn’t come there for items on their menu.
Would one of the chefs be kind enough to share a favorite grilled cheese recipe for the blog?
“We don’t have grilled cheese on our menu,” I was informed by Joe Smith, a sous-chef at the Minneapolis eatery.
But he was happy to share an interesting take on the American Favorite.
I call it the “Gourmet Grilled Cheese with Brie and Apples.”

Here is what you’ll need:
Two slices of Rustic Italian Bread
Honey
Four slices of thinly sliced pieces of apple such as honeycrisp, gala or pink lady (cored and peeled)
Four small pieces of Brie cheese (with rind on)
Two pieces of ham

Butter the bread. Place bread in a thin skillet or on griddle and toast on one side. Flip to toast the other side.
Place honey on the bread. Place one slice of ham, two pieces of Brie and two pieces of apple on each piece of bread. Put the sandwich together, cook until cheese is warm and melted and enjoy.
Smith said this is a nice fall sandwich that is popular in France.

Keys Café and Bakery, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Roseville, Woodbury

The owner of this well-known eatery, Jeannie Hunn-Collyard provided two recipes that are great.
The first is Keys Grilled Cheese Special

You’ll need:

Pumpernickel bread, buttered
Cheddar Cheese, two slices
Thinly sliced tomatoes
Raw thinly sliced onion
Small amount Italian dressing

Grill the pumpernickel bread. Place Italian dressing on the bread and top with cheese, tomatoes and onion. Cook until cheese is melted.

The second recipe is Keys Regular (on the menu) Grilled Cheese
What you’ll need:

Keys homemade white bread Buttered on both sides (obviously, you’ll need to substitute your own bread here)
Piece of Cheddar cheese
Piece pf American cheese
Piece of Provolone cheese
Sliced tomatoes, optional

Place bread on grill (or in a skillet) top with Cheddar, American and Provolone, sliced tomatoes optional. Cook until cheese in melted.

TOWN TALK DINER, Minneapolis

Sitting at this diner’s counter for dinner makes for a social evening because you can chat with bartenders as they mix drinks and observe people waiting to be seated.
But the food is what keeps people coming back.
This restaurant has a signature-grilled cheese and I called the chef for the recipe (so you don’t have to!)
“You want to know the secret to our grilled cheese?” I heard head chef Tony Callies say on the other line.
Yes.
Well, the secret is in the bread and tomatoes. You have to butter and toast both sides of the bread and sprinkle salt on the tomatoes.

Here’s what you’ll need for this grilled cheese:

Two pieces of bread, buttered on both sides
Two pieces of cheddar cheese
Two pieces of jack cheese
Two pieces of thinly sliced tomatoes
Salt

In a skillet or on a griddle cook the bread. Flip and place a piece of cheddar and jack cheese on each piece of bread. Place tomato on top of the cheese (just on one side) and sprinkle with salt. Cover with the other piece of bread and cook until cheese is warm and melted.

Eel with Garlic and Peppers

This was a flavorful dish, but the amount of work it takes to clean the eel is not for everyone. If you don't think you want to remove its guts and bones I suggest looking for a store that sells it cleaned and ready to cook. My husband and I agreed that while the meal was great we weren't sure it is a dish that can be cooked on a weeknight unless you don't work. In his words: "If you are going to spend an hour cooking something for me, this is probably not the dish I would choose." Oh well.

I found this recipe in my Spanish Home Cooking book.

Here is what you need to prepare this:

2-3 dried chilies (such as Spanish Noras or New Mexico style)*

1 lb of eel (1 large or two small)**

2 tablespoons of olive oil

6 garlic cloves, chopped

1 medium red bell pepper, chopped

salt and ground pepper, to taste

1/2 cup of dry white wine

1. Soak dried chilies in hot water for 45 minutes or until you can scrape the fish out with a spoon. Drain, remove seeds and scrape flesh into a container. Set aside.

2. Meanwhile, cut off the eel's head. Then, with a fillet knife cut into the underbelly of the eel (be ready for a bit of blood to ooze out). Take a paring knife (or fillet knife) and remove the intestine and stomach out. Cut around the bone and remove. Cut eel into 2-3 inch-wide pieces. Rinse and set aside.***

3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat until hot. Add garlic, bell pepper and flesh from dried chilies. Saute until softened.

4. Add eel, saute for about two minutes until opaque. Season with salt and pepper. Add wine. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes. Serve immediately.

* I used New Mexico peppers, which cost $1.99 for a bag at Cub

** I used two eel. I also soaked it in some water for a 1/2 hour to ensure it was clean before I gutted it.

*** If you get a live eel you'll need to kill it. This can be done by placing it into a box and sprinkling salt on it. Wash it well by soaking for about a half hour after it is dead.

Great Garlicky Red Sauce

Between chopping red pepper and garlic for an eel dish I cooked tonight I came across a recipe, for Mojo Colorado (Garlicky red sauce) in my cookbook. (The cookbook, in case you're wondering, is Spanish Home Cooking by Miriam Kelen). I loved the sauce and it is very versatile. You can put it in a jar and it will keep in the fridge for about a week. It goes well on chicken, fish, potatoes or pasta. I used it instead of pasta sauce and thought it worked very well.

What you'll need:
8-10 cloves of garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
1/4 of a cup of bread crumbs
1 tablespoon of paprika
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of cumin
3/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup of water
1/4 cup of red wine vinegar.

In food processor or with mortar and pestle process garlic, bread crumbs, paprika, salt and cumin. Add oil water and vinegar, blend until smooth.

Chump Change Chutney

These two recipes were provided to me during a class at Cooks of Crocus Hill (www.cooksofcrocushill.com)

Apple and Apricot Chutney
Makes five cups
5 Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
1 cup of dried apricots, diced
1/2 cup of black currants
1/2 cup of white raisins
1 1/2 cup of white vinegar
1 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of ginger, peeled and grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tablespoon of black mustard seeds
1 clove
1 tablespoon of ground cumin

Place everything in a saucepan. Simmer for an hour, stirring a few times while cooking. Add a little water if it becomes too dry.
Can be served with curries and potato dishes, fish, on toast with cheese and as a salad topping.

Bell Pepper Relish
Makes 2 1/2 cups

1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 cup of chopped tomato
1 cup of distilled white vinegar
3/4 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of celery seeds
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon of dried tarragon, crumbled

Combine all ingredients in a heavy large saucepan. Boil over medium-high heat until mixture thickens slightly, stirring occasionally, about 35 minutes. Cool, cover and refrigerate.

Spicy Lamb Masala

Making lamb masala is easy with the right tools! I go to Holyland Bakery in Minneapolis and buy a masala kit to help me. It tastes fresh and is always a hit with guests.

What you'll need:

1. Package of Laziza International Quarma Masala (79 cents) *

2. Two pounds of lamb ** ($6.58)

3. 1 onion, medium sliced

4. Olive oil

5. Two green onions, chopped in thick slices

6. 1.5 cup of plain yogurt (beaten slightly)

7. 1 tablespoon of flour, if needed

* You can follow the directions right on the box. I've modified the directions a bit after experimenting with the recipe. Also, a note on spiciness level: the spice mix is extremely spicy! I use half a packet each time I make the meal. If you prefer mild food, use a quarter or less of the package. You can always add a bit more in, but you can't take away!

** You can substitute any meat such as beef, goat or chicken.

Heat oil in a wok and add the onion. Cook until tender, but not cooked all the way. Remove from the wok. Turn off the heat to avoid splattering oil all over your stove. Add meat to the wok and then turn the heat back to medium. Brown meat on all sides. Add yogurt and half of a Laziza spice mix. Stir well. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until meat is tender (about 20 minutes).

Add the already cooked onions to the mixture during the last 5 minutes. Add the green onion during the last minute. If the sauce looks too watery stir in the flour to thicken the mixture.

Serve with pita bread or spongy African bread (which is sold at Holyland). For dessert I suggest mango ice cream.

Tasty Spaghetti and Meatballs

When I was at Cub last week I got a free pound of ground beef, which I never buy. So here is the question, what can you do with ground beef?

I decided to make meatballs, which turned out wonderful.

Here is my recipe for the meatballs and spaghetti sauce I cooked.

For meatballs:

1 lb of ground beef (you can also do 1/2 ground beef 1/2 veal, or 1/3 of ground beef, veal and pork)

1/2 onion, grated

2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (I used mozzarella cheese and it works fine)

1/3 cup of bread crumbs

1 large egg

1 tablespoon of garlic powder

1 tablespoon of parsley

1 tablespoon basil

2 tablespoons of ketchup

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

1 teaspoon of pepper

For Sauce:

1 bell pepper (yellow or red), chopped

2 tomatoes, pureed

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, chopped

1 cup of spaghetti sauce of your choice

1 teaspoon of nutmeg

1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper

salt and pepper to taste

For the meatballs:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine ingredients in a bowl. Shape the meat into 1-1/2 inch diameter meatballs and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15 minutes, until cooked through.

For the sauce:

Place a small amount of olive oil in a saute pan and add onion. Cook until tender and add bell pepper. Cook until tender. Add spaghetti sauce, tomato puree, nutmeg, crushed red pepper and garlic. Bring it up to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

While sauce is simmering cook a pasta of your choice, drain and add to the sauce. Stir well.

Serve with bread sticks.

Authentic $2 Hummus

Authentic hummus is easy to make and is a wonderful dip for veggies, apples and pita.
The word hummus means chickpeas in Arabic and the dish's origins are unknown. The spread is very popular in the Middle East and in America. Here is how you can make your own.

What you'll need

1 can of chick peas ($1 at Cub Foods)
1 tablespoon of plain yogurt (not flavored)
1 tablespoon of Tahini *
2 teaspoons of paprika
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
dash of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 onion, chopped (you can also use scallions if you prefer)

* Tahini can be bought in any store these days and can usually be found in the ethnic or organic sections. It is expensive, usually around $6. But the container is large and keeps forever in the fridge, so you'll get lots of use out of it.

Place all ingredients in a mixer and blend until smooth. You may want to add a bit more olive oil or yogurt to get the right consistency.
Transfer in a serving dish. Sprinkle with paprika and drizzle with olive oil for presentation.
If you want to create a flavored hummus just add the desired ingredient to the mixture. For example, if you like roasted red pepper hummus, then roast a red pepper and add it to the blender. Chive hummus is also great. Just sprinkle 2 tablespoons of dried chives into the mixture. I like Sesame Seed flavored hummus, so I add a teaspoon or two of sesame seed oil to the mix.
Enjoy!