Sardines with Herbs and Preserved Lemon on Crackers

Try as I might to fancy the name up, people are still going to shy away from Sardines. Even though they're tasty and good for you. I guess its their look, or the fact that not many people grew up eating them. I remember my dad and I eating them on Saltine Crackers as a snack when I was younger, and I am always trying different additions to that combination. This is my latest experiment, and boy is it delicious.

Sardines with Herbs and Preserved Lemon on Crackers
Makes lunch for 1, or a snack for 2

• A can of Sardines in olive oil
• Saltine Crackers
• Fresh herbs to sprinkle on the snack, chopped (I used dill, parsley, and chives)
• 1/4 of a preserved lemon, rind only, diced into little pieces
• garlic salt
• pepper
• hot sauce

Lay out as many crackers as you want, and put a fish on each (If you're making lunch, you might want less crackers and split up the rest of the sardines between the others). I use a fork to get the fish out of the tin, and be careful because they crumble easy. Sprinkle the herbs evenly over the crackers. Follow with garlic salt and pepper to taste. Lastly, dash a couple of squirts of hot sauce on each to taste. Enjoy!

Fish with Preserved Lemons and Olives

A couple of weeks ago I posted a recipe for Preserved Lemons. Well, they're finally finished 'fermenting' and are ready to enjoy. Besides enjoying them cut up in salads and Bloody Marys', I tried them in the following recipe, which is adapted from "Tunisian Fish with Preserved Lemons and Olives" from the book The New Mediterranean Diet Cookbook by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. They add a slightly tangy, salty taste that is unlike anything else I've ever eaten. Enjoy!

Fish with Preserved Lemons and Olives
Makes 2 servings

• 1 lb of thick white firm-textured fish fillets; I used cod.
• sea salt and pepper
• approx. 1/2 tsp. of saffron threads
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 onion, minced
• 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
•  1 medium tomato, finely chopped
• a couple of dashes of hot sauce
• 2 tbsp drained and coarsely chopped capers
• 1/4 of a preserved lemon (rind only), rinsed, and cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup of pitted Kalamata olives, sliced
• 1 tbsp. white wine vinegar
• chopped parsley to top.

Rinse the fish fillets, pat dry with a paper towel, and dust salt, pepper, and crushed saffron onto both sides. leave on a plate while starting on the rest of the dish. In a skillet, combine olive oil, onion, and garlic. saute on medium low until just before it starts to brown. Add tomato, 1/4 cup of water, and hot sauce to pan; simmer until the sauce reduces by half. Add the pieces of fish to the pan, and cook about 5-7 minutes, or until cooked through. When fish is finished, remove from the pan to a warmed plate. To the pan, add the lemons, olives, and white wine vinegar. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Pour sauce over the fish, and sprinkle parsley on top to serve.

Corn on the Cob with Dill and Chives

I now have an herb garden at the new house. No longer do I miss my indoor herbs of ND; I now have healthy bountiful plants that I can leave outside. And because of the bountiful-ness of it, I have a need to come up with different ways of using the herbs. I have the following: Parsley, Chives, Dill, Cilantro, Mint, Thyme, Oregano, Basil, and a poor Rosemary plant that got sick (possibly mold when I had it inside) and is barely clinging to life. I also have a lemon tree and a lime tree, but those results won't be realized for quite a while.
Dill is a new flavor in my herb garden, and as such I don't really know what to do with it. I know it goes well with fish, and have had that meal come out beautifully. But the other day when I made corn on the cob, I thought, why not? It has a delicate enough flavor so that it won't overpower the sweetness of the corn, and it would pair well with chives. And so this recipe was made.

Corn on the Cob with Dill and Chives

• A head of corn for each person to be served. 
• 1 teaspoon of chopped dill per head of corn. (more or less depending on personal tastes)
• 1 teaspoon of chopped chives per head of corn. (same as above)
• butter or spread
• garlic salt
• pepper

Boil the corn until it is done, based on your preference. I like mine still crunchy. Remove it from the water onto a plate. Put sticks into both ends if you prefer. Butter them up, all the way around. Add salt and pepper to taste. Lastly mix the dill and chives together, and dust them all the way around the corn. Make sure to do all of the above when the corn is still hot, that way the herbs will wilt a little. Enjoy the corn!

Another way of doing it would be to butter, salt and pepper, and put the herbs on the corn before you cook it, wrap it in tin foil, and put it on the barbecue on low. I haven't tried it this way with herbs, but I'm sure it'll be good.

Preserved Lemons

I found this in a Mediterranean Cookbook that I have, and the first time I made it, I wasn't sure it would taste very good. I was expecting something super sour. Until, after a few weeks, I tried it. It was amazing! And had such an unusual taste. The weird thing is, you eat the rinds of the lemons. Moroccan dishes sometimes call for these, but once you've had them in a dish, I'm sure you'll find other recipes to include them in. They're really good as a compliment to Bloody Mary or Caesars.

Preserved Lemons

• A Canning or Preserving jar with a tight lid (big or small- your choice, you can even use an old pickle jar)

• Fresh Whole (Preferably Organic) Lemons. There isn't a hard fast number for them, because the number depends on how big your jar is. But I would get more than you think you need- you have to have enough for juice too.
• 1 or 2 cups of Pickling, Kosher, or Sea Salt. 

Clean the lemons well. Fill your jar with boiling water, and let sit.Put the lid into a bowl, and put hot water over that as well. While that's sitting, cut up the lemons long-wise into quarters. Dump out the hot water from the Jar, and put salt into the bottom. Start packing in the lemons, adding plenty of salt as you go. Don't be afraid to squish them- that helps get the juice. When you can't put any more lemons into the jar, add a couple of tablespoons of salt. Squeeze some of the lemons that are left, and add the juice to the jar, until it is full to the top. Put on the lid. Put the jar aside (no refrigeration required while its pickling). Every couple of days, turn the jar upside down and leave it for a couple of days to distribute the salt juice. After about 3 weeks of pickling, you can try them. You can eat the whole Lemon (seeds excluded). The lemons will last for several months at least. This batch I'm also going to try to make lemon salt; let the left over salt sit in the sun to dry. This is the basic recipe; you can also add different spices to the lemons for the next batch.

Pierogies!

Mmm Pierogies. I have fond memories of making millions of these little morsels at my families' deli, Valley Hungarian Sausage and Meat Co. Maybe not millions, but certainly a lot. The reason? People love 'em, but they take a looong time to make. So its usually just easier to buy them. But if you've got a free afternoon, and want to do a little baking . . . .

Potato and Cheese PierogiesIngredients for one batch (makes approx. 2 dozen)

• 3 cups of all purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup of sour cream
• 3 medium potatoes
• 1-2 cups of cheese (medium cheddar works, but use any cheese you enjoy)
• salt and pepper to taste.
• Pierogi maker- you can get it from a specialty kitchen supply store. If you can't get one, you can still make these by hand, it just takes longer. 

     Peel and dice the potatoes and put them in a pot of water to boil. As they're cooking, make your dough. In a large bowl or mixer, add the flour, eggs, and sour cream. Mix well. The dough will be a little 'thicker' than bread dough. After kneading for a couple of minutes, let it sit aside wrapped in plastic wrap.
     Grate your cheese, or buy pre-grated cheese from the store. When the potatoes are cooked and can be pierced very easily with a fork, drain and mash. Its so much easier if you have a potato ricer, but a fork will work as well. Sprinkle the cheese on the hot potatoes, and mix it all together until it is a nice orange (or whatever color your cheese is). If it doesn't mix easily, just heat the mixture in the microwave. Mix in salt and pepper to taste (my favorite part).Your filling is finished.
     Cut the dough in half- save the second in the plastic wrap. Roll out the remaining dough until it is about 1/4 inch thick. Using either a circular cookie cutter or the bottom of the pierogi maker, cut out little circles from the dough. Put a circle of dough onto the pierogi maker, and put about a tablespoon of filling on top. Using lukewarm water, wet a finger and moisten the outer edge of the dough (this makes it stick to the other side). Take the two handles and put them together. You have a pierogi!
     When you have used up all your dough and filling (or just a little before to be efficient), put a large pot of water up to boil. When it is at a rolling boil, add about 10 pierogies into the water. When they have all been floating at the top for about 3 minutes, they should be ready. Take them out of the water and onto a dry clean towel. Repeat, until all the pierogies have been boiled.
      Now you can either fry them up with a little bit of butter or margarine until they are golden brown on both sides, or put them into the freezer to fry at a later time (just make sure they defrost before you fry them). Enjoy!

Some tips; When you freeze them, put them onto a sheet of aluminum foil or wax paper, and make sure they don't touch each other. When they're frozen, take them out and put them into freezer bags. That way you can take out as many or little as you want. Not a fan of potato and cheese, or want some variety? You can stuff these things with just about anything. Some suggestions: Thick Jam, Polish Sausage Mushroom & Onion, and Sauerkraut.

Seashell Mosaic Picture Frames

I'm decorating the guest bathroom in the new house that we just moved into, and I wanted to go with a beachy-ocean theme. My mom had given me two wooden picture frames from Michael's craft store, and I thought they would go great in the bathroom with an ocean themed picture.

Seashell Mosaic Picture Frames
Materials

• 2 wooden picture frames, size and shape doesn't matter.
• 3 different colors of paint. (I used 3 types of blue)
• Paint brush
• Glue (all purpose works just fine)
• Crushed seashells (can be found at your local craft store).

Paint the picture frames how you would like. I used all 3 paints interchangeably; and blended them together where they met. When they are dry, glue pieces of the shell to the frame. It doesn't matter how you do it, close together or far apart, its up to you. This part takes a little bit of time. When you are finished, your project is done. You could spray gloss on the frame to finish, but I am going to leave them without gloss because the shells are shiny enough.

Kelbaposzta Fozelek, or "Hungarian Beef and Cabbage Soup"

Going on my theme of  using unusual meats, here's another recipe from my Grandmother. She made it for me the last time I went home, and I asked her for the recipe. Then I proceed to go home and try to make it myself. It is delicious, and very simple to make. And inexpensive, because it definitely uses a cut of meat that I can honestly say not very many people use. I'm sure it goes back to historical roots, where they didn't have supermarkets and choice cuts of meats that we can easily get today. But its these 'unusual' cuts that sometimes have the best flavor and the most nutrition.By the way, the way it sounds when my Grandmother says it is: cal-kop-posta furz-a-leek.

Kelbaposzta Fozelek
Ingredients for 2 people

• 1 medium head of green Savoy cabbage. (make sure its this kind- its the really wrinkled one at the grocery store).
• 1 beef neck bone, cut into quarters. I found mine at a local butcher, but my mom said that you could find it at the local supermarket, just ask.
• 1 small onion, peeled and diced.
• 1 large potato, peeled and diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced.
• 1 tbsp salt.
• 1 tsp marjoram.
• Flour and oil for thickener

Put the meat in a large pot, add water to cover. add onions, garlic and salt, bring to a boil and then simmer. Cook until the meat is falling off the bone, about 3-5 hours.
Add the potato and marjoram. While that is cooking, cut up the cabbage like you would for a salad (chunks, but not too large, remove the tough stem part). Add the cabbage to the pot.
Put 2 tbsp of oil into a frying pan, and add flour until it is not too thick. Cook it until it is a golden brown. Add a little bit of juice to the mixture, and then add it all to the soup. Stir, and the soup is finished.

Because the husband doesn't like bones ( I might make this for him sometime) I would take the bones out, remove the meat from them, and then stick it all back into the soup (that way he can easily scoop out the soup and not get any bones in his bowl). This soup is also great the next day; gives the flavors time to mix better. And lastly- be careful for little pieces of bone- if the butcher cut it up into smaller pieces.