Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: 12/01/2016

Saturday, December 31, 2016

Rigatoni al Forno #Recipe @PegCochran

This recipe comes from an OLD Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cookbook that I've had for close to 40 years (it's dated 1979.) The back cover has fallen off along with the spine and large chunks are loose. But it still has some great, tasty and not terribly complicated recipes. I changed virtually nothing in the recipe--it's perfect as it is.

This sauce would be excellent simply served over plain pasta as well.

I made this for Christmas Eve and I think it would be perfect for New Year's Eve or New Year's Day.

Ingredients:

7 tablespoons butter (I used less)
2 cups chopped onion
1 pound mushrooms, sliced
1 pound ground pork or Italian sausage
1 tsp minced garlic
3/4 tsp fennel seeds
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil or 1 tsp dried
3/4 tsp crushed sage
3/4 tsp crushed oregano
1 dried pepper, chopped (optional--I didn't use)
6 cups peeled Italian plum tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup water
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound rigatoni or ziti
1/2 lb mozzarella cheese cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cups grated Parmesan

Heat 3 tablespoons butter and add onion. Cook until wilted. Add sliced mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms give up their liquid.

Continue to cook until liquid evaporates.

In a separate skillet cook pork or sausage meat (remove casing.) I used pork for a milder flavor. Add meat to the mushrooms and stir. Add garlic, fennel (if not using sausage), basil, sage, oregano and red pepper if using. Cook about three minutes, stirring.

Add the tomatoes (I wasn't sure if the recipe meant fresh or canned but I used two 28-ounce cans including juice.) Add salt, pepper, water, broth and simmer for one hour, stirring frequently.

Add parsley and simmer 15 minutes more. Stir in olive oil and set aside. (I did not add the olive oil feeling there was enough fat in the sauce already. I was also afraid the sauce would be too thin so I added about half a can of tomato paste. I had the pan on the barest simmer and forgot to turn the stove off so probably cooked it for two to three hours in the end. It thickened up nicely and was perfect!)

Cook pasta for eight minutes (it needs to be al dente since it will cook more in the oven.) Drain and run cold water to stop the cooking.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Spoon a thin layer of sauce into your casserole dish (13.5 x 8.75 is recommended--don't know what mine was.)

Add a single layer of pasta. Scatter half the mozzarella over it. Top with one tablespoon Parmesan.

Continue making layers of sauce, pasta, mozzarella and Parmesan ending with sauce and Parmesan. (Use about 1/2 cup Parmesan and save the rest for serving at the table.)

Dot with remaining butter (I omitted the extra butter because...well just because.)

Bake 30 minutes uncovered until hot and bubbling. Makes 8 to 12 servings. (We served six adults and one child with plenty of leftovers.)

Coming May 2017

Coming July 2017

Friday, December 30, 2016

Al's Wild Rice Stuffing

When I was growing up, there was only one stuffing for a turkey: Pepperidge Farm’s. Don’t get me wrong—I liked it then, and I still like it. But sometimes you want to change things up a bit, yanno? I made a few stabs at that years ago, when I volunteered to cook the turkey on quick trips home for Thanksgiving or Christmas, but everybody made polite noises and then we went back to the Old Faithful bag of crumbs.

But I never give up. This year the stars aligned in a peculiar way. I know we’re trying to forget the recent political mess, but I started contributing online to Al Franken (U.S. Senator from Minnesota), mainly because he asked so nicely. He wasn’t even running himself, but he was raising money for a variety of other candidates. His emails were short, funny, and to the point, and I thought the emails alone deserved my support (so did the candidates, but that’s something else entirely).

After the election, he sent out a thank-you email—and he included recipes. No ask, no begging, just simple tasty recipes. So I decided to try one, in his honor. I did a little tweaking of the ingredients, based on what I had on hand, and I have no clue where to find the brand of rice he originally mentioned, but I did track down some wild rice locally. (Please don’t buy the “mixes” in a box, which in addition to the two kinds of rice contains a lot of artificial gunk.)

Al’s Wild Rice Stuffing

Ingredients:

1 lb. wild rice (actually I cheated and used half a pound of wild rice and half a pound of white—wild rice is expensive!)

one stick butter
ten cloves of garlic
3 medium sized yellow onions
2 lbs. mushrooms (I swapped in some shitakes, and a package of dried porcini mushrooms I’d had for a long time)
salt to taste

Instructions:

In a colander, rinse the wild rice. Put the rice in a pot, and add 3 inches of water. Boil gently in a pot, uncovered, for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Weigh a half-pound of white rice (which comes out to about one cup) and make it as you normally would (I do mine in the microwave). Stir when done to fluff it up.

While the rice is cooking, slice (do not mince) the mushrooms, onions, and garlic. (If you’re using dried mushrooms, soak them according to the package instructions, then drain—save the liquid, which is tasty and could go into your gravy!).

Melt the butter in a skillet, and sauté the onions and garlic until they begin to bleed a little liquid (Al’s description, not mine!) into the butter. Then add the mushrooms. The onions should not be totally soft.

Once the wild rice has cooked, drain it and add along with the white rice to the sautéed vegetables (you’ll need a big bowl!), and mix.

Add salt to taste, and stuff into the turkey before roasting (I'll spare you the picture of the naked turkey). The rest can be eaten as a side dish at dinner or saved to go with the leftovers.

How much does this make? Well, I cooked a 12-pound turkey, which is not very large, and used less than half of the stuffing. At the very least you could fill a bigger turkey!

Next book up: Cruel Winter, coming in March from Crooked Lane Books. I'd better use the snowy cover as much as I can before the daffodils bloom in Ireland!

You can preorder it at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

www.sheilaconnolly.com

MAY 2017 BRING YOU EVERYTHING YOU HOPE FOR!

Thursday, December 29, 2016

Chicken and Wild Rice Crockpot soup #recipe @lucyburdette

LUCY BURDETTE: Have I mentioned that I’ve fallen in love with my crockpot since my oven died? Not every single thing I’ve tried has been amazing, but we’ve eaten well overall. I bought a cooker that has a browning option, so browning the chicken and onions before adding the other ingredients boosts the flavor.

This chicken and wild rice soup started as a recipe I found on Pinterest from Iowa Girl Eats.

And of course I made some adjustments for low-sodium eating. This means using low sodium broth, cutting out the salt, and increasing the most flavorful vegetables, such as onions, carrots, and celery. And then I added spinach for color and green goodies. Yummy! And it can be waiting for you when you get home from work or shopping or writing...

Ingredients

SERVES 4

1 lb chicken breasts (do not use frozen,) cut in half if large

1 large onion

3 carrots, thinly sliced

3 celery stalks, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

3 fresh sage leaves, chopped

leaves from about an inch of fresh rosemary

2 small bay leaves

2 Tablespoons butter

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth plus 2 cups water

3/4 cup Lundberg Farms wild rice-brown rice blend

Several handfuls of fresh spinach

Brown the chicken and onion for several minutes. Then switch the heat to low, and add all ingredients into a 6-quart crock pot.

Cook on low for 4 hours or until chicken breasts are cooked through. Rice should be done around the same time.

Shred chicken then stir back into soup and serve (soup will thicken as it cools.)

About a half hour before the soup is done, add the fresh spinach. Serve with a salad and enjoy!

Lucy writes the Key West food critic mysteries. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram!

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Welcome our guest Sofie Ryan plus book #giveaway

From Daryl: Although this is typically my day to post, I've ceded it to my darling friend Sofie Ryan. She has a new book coming out, and you shouldn't miss it! For those who don't know...

Sofie Ryan is the author of the New York Times bestselling Second Chance Cat Mystery series, featuring re-purpose store owner Sarah Grayson; Charlotte’s Angels, a group of senior sleuths; Mr. P, the world’s oldest computer hacker; and Elvis, a black cat with an uncanny ability to sniff out a lie.

FYI, Sofie is also Sofie Kelly who writes the bestselling Magical Cat Mysteries.

Giveaway below...keep reading...

About the Second Chance Cat Mystery series

When Sarah Grayson opened a secondhand shop in the quaint town of North Harbor, Maine, she was expecting peace and quiet. Then she was adopted by a rescue cat named Elvis and a kooky group of senior sleuths known as Charlotte’s Angels.

In Telling Tails, Sarah’s friend and employee Rose is delivering a customer’s purchase when the quick errand turns deadly. Rose arrives just in time to see the customer murdered by his wife, but before she can call the police, she is knocked out cold. When she wakes up, no one believes her, especially after the woman claims her husband is very much alive and has left her for someone else—and has a text message and empty bank account to prove it. Despite the woman’s convincing story, Sarah is sure something is fishy—and she, Elvis and and the Angels are soon on the case.

From Sofie:

At this point in the holidays I’ve overindulged in stuffing, gravy, and gingerbread cookies and I’m looking for something that’s a little lighter and a little healthier. So I make Apple Carrot Salad. Most of the time I have all the ingredients in the house.

Enjoy!

Apple Carrot Salad

Ingredients:

1 large firm flesh apple

2 medium carrots

½ celery rib*

2 T. lime juice

2 T. apple cider vinegar

1T. honey

½ t. sunflower or canola oil

Whisk the lime juice, vinegar, honey, and oil together in a small bowl.

Peel and quarter the apple. Remove the seeds and coarsely grate. Pour half the lime juice mixture over the apples and mix well. Peel and grate both carrots. Finely chop the celery. Add the carrots and celery to the apple mixture with the rest of the dressing. Mix well.

Makes 4 servings. (You could eat the entire bowl yourself for lunch. Or so I’ve heard.)

*I usually use the one or two left over celery sticks from our Boxing Day veggie plate.

This recipe is very flexible. If you like more apple or more carrot use more. You can even leave out the celery if you don’t have any.

GIVEAWAY

Sofie is going to give away 2 copies of A WHISKER OF TROUBLE,

so leave a comment below with your email address in case you win and

tell her if you or anyone you know has ever gotten a second chance.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Roasted Garlic and Herb Latkes (Potato Pancakes) from Cleo Coyle #Hanukkah

Latkes or potato pancakes are delicious Hanukkah food, and since tonight marks the 4th night of the 8-day festival (see our Blue Velvet Cupcake Menorah below), what better time to share this tasty spin on the traditional latke recipe?

Whether you are celebrating Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, or Yule, my husband and I send you our warmest wishes for these cold, dark months...

CLICK HERE or on the photo above
to get the recipe for our
Blue Velvet Cupcake Menorah!

For the latke recipe,

scroll down...

Cleo Coyle has a partner in

crime-writing—her husband.

Learn about their books

by clicking here and here.

Crispy on the outside with layers of flavor on the inside, these delicious latkes feature the sweet-savory taste of roasted garlic with aromatic notes of rosemary and scallion. Serve the pancakes plain or with sour cream on the side. Delicious!

This recipe was originally featured in our 8th Coffeehouse Mystery, Holiday Grind, which was also the first Coffeehouse entry that Marc and I wrote with a holiday theme. As a special gift to our readers, we included an extra-large recipe section with holiday treats, a glossary of coffeehouse terms, and instructions on making your own specialty coffee drinks at home. So you can eat and drink with joy!

~ Cleo

To download this recipe in a free PDF
that you can print, save, or share,

click here.

Click for Free Recipe PDF.

Cleo's Roasted Garlic and Herb Latkes

Makes 2 servings or about nine 3- to 4-inch latkes; for family-size meals,
you’ll want to double, triple, or quadruple this recipe and have two frying pans working at the same time.

Ingredients:

10 garlic cloves, roasted and smashed
(See How to Roast Garlic at the end of this recipe.)

3/4 cup finely grated onions (2 to 3 medium size onions)

2 tablespoons finely chopped scallions

1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary or ½ teaspoon dried rosemary

2 teaspoons salt

1½ pounds Idaho baking potatoes (about 3 medium russet potatoes)

1 large egg, beaten with a fork

Canola or light olive oil

Sour cream (optional topping)

Directions:

Step 1—Prepare aromatics: First, preheat the oven to 250°F. In a large bowl, combine the garlic with the onions, scallions, rosemary, and salt.

Step 2—Grate potatoes: Do not peel your potatoes. Grate by hand with a simple box grater, or use a food processor. Add the grated potatoes to the bowl of aromatics and stir well.

Step 3—Press out moisture: Place the potato mixture in a large sieve and press down to strain out moisture. Getting rid of excess moisture will help you create latkes that are crisp and golden brown.

Step 4—Add egg: Now return the mixture to the bowl and stir in the egg to finish your latke batter. Cook immediately.

Step 5—Fry pancakes: Place a heavy frying pan over medium heat and add oil, at least ½ inch deep. As our beloved barista character Esther says, “Don’t freak over the amount of oil. It’s the temperature of the oil that makes for greasy latkes, not the amount of oil. Besides, the mitzvah is the oil!” When the oil is hot enough, begin cooking. (See the note at the end of this recipe on judging when the oil is hot enough.)

Pack potato mixture into a ¼ cup measuring cup. Turn the mixture out onto a plate in a little mound. Do this four times. Place the four mounds in quick succession into the hot oil and immediately flatten each mound into a 3- to 4-inch pancake. (Flattening is important or you may have latkes that are cooked on the edges but raw in the middle!) Cook each pancake for about 3 minutes on the first side, until the bottom is golden brown.

Now flip and cook the other side 1–3 minutes until it’s golden brown, too. Do not flip more than once, but do press each pancake a few times with your spatula during the cooking process to make sure the centers cook. Drain in a single layer on paper towels. Keep finished latkes warm in the 250-degree F. oven while you’re cooking the rest of the batter. Serve warm with sour cream!

NOTE ON OIL TEMP: If your oil is too hot, you’ll burn the latkes. If your oil is too cool, your latkes will be greasy. Test the oil with a drop of water. When it dances or bounces on top of the oil, it’s ready. If the oil begins to smoke, it’s too hot! Also keep in mind that if you crowd the pan with too many latkes, the oil temperature will drop dramatically, so don’t fry too many at once—for big batches, have two pans going at the same time.

How to Roast Garlic

Using peeled cloves: Place your peeled cloves into a small ovenproof dish, drizzle with a bit of oil (olive oil is best), and add a splash of water. Cover with foil and bake at 350°F for

30–40 minutes or until the garlic is soft.

Using a whole head: Cut the top off the head (the pointed end), and wrap in aluminum foil and bake at 350°F for 30–40 minutes or until the garlic is soft. Remove from the oven. Let the foil-wrapped garlic cool down enough to handle. Pop the warm, roasted garlic pieces out of their skins and you’re good to go.

Roasted garlic is delicious and good for you! Try spreading it on slices of a French baguette or Italian bread or smashing it and mixing it with mashed potatoes. Now that’s how to eat with joy!

Click for Free Recipe PDF, and...

May your holidays be delicious!

Alice and Marc in Central Park.

Together we write as...

☕ ☕ ☕

~ Cleo Coyle

New York Times bestselling author of

The Coffeehouse Mysteries

Friend me on facebook here.

Follow me on twitter here.

Visit my online coffeehouse here.

☕ ☕ ☕ ☕ ☕

Coming from Penguin Random House...

The NEW Coffeehouse Mystery!

On sale January 10, 2017

Filled with wonderful twists
and surprises, this is one
Coffeehouse Mystery you
won't want to miss!

To pre-order now, click links for...