What's the difference between Baking Soda and Baking Powder?
Baking Powder contains an acidifying agent (cream of tartar) and a drying agent (usually starch)
Baking Soda is stronger, but needs an acid agent to start acting. Baking Powder has the stuff in it, all it needs is water to act.
You can substitute Baking Powder for BSoda, but you CANNOT sub soda for powder.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Grandma's Stuffed Cabbage (by taste)
I was trying to recreate Grandma's Stuffed Cabbage recipe and I think I almost did it. After doing research online, I found two recipes which seemed close to her. I blended them together and took out a few ingredients and added my own and it turned out really well.
I don't follow amounts too strictly. I'm not going to use 2/3 a lemon, as prescribed in the Holishkes recipe, so most things are do are by eyeball. I like how there are always some variations in my preparations. Also, I am always conscious of not wasting time so I try to be as efficient with my time as possible.
It seems like 1 lb yields 10 stuffed cabbages.
Ingredients:
Wrap
1 Green Cabbage
Stuffing
1 1/2 pounds chopmeat
3/4 cup uncooked white rice
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon finely chopped or crushed fresh garlic
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
cayenne pepper
Sauce
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1 onion, chopped
3 cups canned tomatoes, with juice
1 ½ tsps. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 orange, chopped with peel into 1/2-inch pieces; remove pits
1 lemon, chopped with peel into 1/2-inch pieces; remove pits
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 cups water
optional: white and brown sugar, cinnamon
Topper:
one lemon
3 tbsp honey
Sauce:
Pour the tomatoes in a pan and begin simmering.
Cut the rind completely off the lemon and orange. Don't bother peeling it, just cut it with a knife to expose the innards. Put on a plate and remove all pits. Try to save the juices on the plate because when removing the pits, the fruit will start to basically disintegrate and turn into water. You will need all this for flavoring.
Mix the rest of the sauce ingredients (and optionally some chopped inner cabbage) into a pan and simmer for about 30 minutes, or about how long it takes you to prepare everything else.
Cabbage softening:
Place your cabbage in an empty large stockpot and fill with water until the water comes a couple of inches from the top (this takes out the guesswork for filling the pot). Take cabbage out and place stockpot on the fire. Smash and throw in half a bulb's worth of garlic.
Cut out stem from cabbage using a long, thin knife. You don't have to go all the way through to the bottom (or top) to remove the stem - just take out the dense part.
When the water is boiling rapidly, place (do not drop) the cabbage into the boiling water.
The leaves will start to go limp after at least 5 minutes. Now we need to remove the leaves. You can remove them in the stockpot or take the cabbage our onto the counter and remove them there (do not dump the water yet). Try to keep their integrity as much as possible.
When removing, use two plates to separate big strong leaves from smaller irregular leaves which may serve the purpose of structural reinforcement later.
Now, pour the boiling water from the stockpot onto the leaves. Then rinse each leaf with cold water to stiffen and remove any impurities from the leaf edges.
The leafs are ready to fill and roll.
Stuffing:
In a large bowl, combine all the stuffing ingredients and mix well.
Form:
Place your nicest leaf on the counter, with the spine pointing to your right. Reinforce this shell with 1 or 2 other leaves that may not be as nice as the outer layer (have holes, are smaller) until you think it's strong enough. Place a small handful (about the size of an egg) of the meat mixture into the wrapper, not in the middle, but closer to you.
Roll the meat once over with the leaf, then fold in the sides and then continue folding until it's all wrapped up and put to the side. Does it look like it's supposed to? If not, then reevaluate yourself.
Neatly arrange the formed stuffed cabbages into a pot or even the stockpot which you boiled the cabbage in. Pour in the simmered sauce and it should at least rise to the top of the cabbages. All the work is done!
Let simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes
Every 15 minutes or so, go to the pot and listen to hear it simmer subtly. Give it a whiff and take in the memories of grandma.
Now as a last step, add a big glop of honey to the mixture and squeeze out a lemon in there. Try to mix it in slightly without disturbing the cabbage rolls and let simmer for 15 minutes more.
Notes:
Cooking for an hour and forty-five minutes leaves a lot of room for error. cooking for 1:30 or 2 hours probably won't make a huge difference.
I ground my own meat for this experiment. Used sirloin and rib steak. I don't think grandma grinded her own meat, she probably used the supermarket's chopped meat.
I used both of these recipes to make my own based on what I thought my grandmother would make and what seemed doable for me.
I don't follow amounts too strictly. I'm not going to use 2/3 a lemon, as prescribed in the Holishkes recipe, so most things are do are by eyeball. I like how there are always some variations in my preparations. Also, I am always conscious of not wasting time so I try to be as efficient with my time as possible.
It seems like 1 lb yields 10 stuffed cabbages.
Ingredients:
Wrap
1 Green Cabbage
Stuffing
1 1/2 pounds chopmeat
3/4 cup uncooked white rice
1 cup finely chopped onion
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon finely chopped or crushed fresh garlic
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
cayenne pepper
Sauce
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1 onion, chopped
3 cups canned tomatoes, with juice
1 ½ tsps. salt
½ tsp. pepper
1 orange, chopped with peel into 1/2-inch pieces; remove pits
1 lemon, chopped with peel into 1/2-inch pieces; remove pits
1/2 cup white vinegar
2 cups water
optional: white and brown sugar, cinnamon
Topper:
one lemon
3 tbsp honey
Sauce:
Pour the tomatoes in a pan and begin simmering.
Cut the rind completely off the lemon and orange. Don't bother peeling it, just cut it with a knife to expose the innards. Put on a plate and remove all pits. Try to save the juices on the plate because when removing the pits, the fruit will start to basically disintegrate and turn into water. You will need all this for flavoring.
Mix the rest of the sauce ingredients (and optionally some chopped inner cabbage) into a pan and simmer for about 30 minutes, or about how long it takes you to prepare everything else.
Cabbage softening:
Place your cabbage in an empty large stockpot and fill with water until the water comes a couple of inches from the top (this takes out the guesswork for filling the pot). Take cabbage out and place stockpot on the fire. Smash and throw in half a bulb's worth of garlic.
Cut out stem from cabbage using a long, thin knife. You don't have to go all the way through to the bottom (or top) to remove the stem - just take out the dense part.
When the water is boiling rapidly, place (do not drop) the cabbage into the boiling water.
The leaves will start to go limp after at least 5 minutes. Now we need to remove the leaves. You can remove them in the stockpot or take the cabbage our onto the counter and remove them there (do not dump the water yet). Try to keep their integrity as much as possible.
When removing, use two plates to separate big strong leaves from smaller irregular leaves which may serve the purpose of structural reinforcement later.
Now, pour the boiling water from the stockpot onto the leaves. Then rinse each leaf with cold water to stiffen and remove any impurities from the leaf edges.
The leafs are ready to fill and roll.
Stuffing:
In a large bowl, combine all the stuffing ingredients and mix well.
Form:
Place your nicest leaf on the counter, with the spine pointing to your right. Reinforce this shell with 1 or 2 other leaves that may not be as nice as the outer layer (have holes, are smaller) until you think it's strong enough. Place a small handful (about the size of an egg) of the meat mixture into the wrapper, not in the middle, but closer to you.
Roll the meat once over with the leaf, then fold in the sides and then continue folding until it's all wrapped up and put to the side. Does it look like it's supposed to? If not, then reevaluate yourself.
Neatly arrange the formed stuffed cabbages into a pot or even the stockpot which you boiled the cabbage in. Pour in the simmered sauce and it should at least rise to the top of the cabbages. All the work is done!
Let simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes
Every 15 minutes or so, go to the pot and listen to hear it simmer subtly. Give it a whiff and take in the memories of grandma.
Now as a last step, add a big glop of honey to the mixture and squeeze out a lemon in there. Try to mix it in slightly without disturbing the cabbage rolls and let simmer for 15 minutes more.
Notes:
Cooking for an hour and forty-five minutes leaves a lot of room for error. cooking for 1:30 or 2 hours probably won't make a huge difference.
I ground my own meat for this experiment. Used sirloin and rib steak. I don't think grandma grinded her own meat, she probably used the supermarket's chopped meat.
I used both of these recipes to make my own based on what I thought my grandmother would make and what seemed doable for me.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Banana Bread
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup Crisco
2 eggs unbeaten
3 mashed bananas
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts
temp 350
bake 50 minutes
Cream Crisco and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Add bananas and beat. Sift flour, salt and soda. Add to mixture
From Hazel Traver, The Baptist Home
published in "From Our Home to Your House Cookbook"
1/2 cup Crisco
2 eggs unbeaten
3 mashed bananas
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts
temp 350
bake 50 minutes
Cream Crisco and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Add bananas and beat. Sift flour, salt and soda. Add to mixture
From Hazel Traver, The Baptist Home
published in "From Our Home to Your House Cookbook"
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Macaroni and Cheese Custard Recipe
Macaroni and Cheese Custard
1/4 lb macaroni, boiled in generous amount of water, add 1/2 lb of grated cheese, 1 cup canned cream, 1 tsp salt, 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, 1 tbsp butter, little white or hot pepper, lastly, stir in 2 well beaten eggs. Cook all together to consistency of custard.
Pour in greased Pyrex dish, bake to light brown. - Mrs. JFW Turtle
This is from the Bahamian Cook Book - Recipes by Ladies of Nassau
collected by Mrs. Leslie Higgs
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