Category: Recipes

Posted on

rolling grape leaves for Greek dolmades

00GrapeRoll

I’ve been blogging a while on a few of the items I have been making that have a Greek accent. I have enjoyed rolling grape leaves with a favorite stuffing of rice, onions, garlic, various seasonings and beef or lamb. Delicious!

However, one blogger told me that he didn’t know how to roll grape leaves and asked for help, and he wasn’t alone. Here’s how to do it:

1) Lay out your grape leaves as shown above starting from left to right with each leaf overlapping the one slightly vertically… and horizontally.

2) place your filling as shown… it doesn’t take very much as you will see

3) lift the far left edges of the leaves and roll firmly

4) when you reach the far right… tuck both the top edge and bottom edge under.

There is a process for treating the leaves if you use fresh that isn’t too difficult and you should be able to find it on-line. The real challenge for many is if you buy the kind that comes in a jar. The interesting thing is that typically, each jar has two rolls and each can be removed if you take out the last roll placed in the jar…first. Look carefully and you will clearly see that one was placed in last. Gently separate the leaves and place in a large bowl and pour boiling water over them ( to reduce the saltiness) and rinse careful a couple of times.

Hope this helps. Greek Dolmades Recipe

Roger

Posted on

Madame Wu and the art of chinese cooking

Madame Wu's Cookbook -- buy it if you can find it!
Madame Wu's Cookbook -- buy it if you can find it!

Whenever Laura and I could save enough, we would make the journey to Madame Wu’s for a very special dinner. Considering dinner for us struggling students meant coming up with a weeks pay for dinner for two, we valued the times we were able to come and dine.

I have wanted a copy of Madame Wu’s cookbook for quite some time, but I have had a bit of a wait. Her cookbook I love was printed in 1973 ( the year after Laura and I were married) and her recipes are simple, yet wonderful. Her specialty at the time was Wu’s Beef, one of my many favorites. She speaks — as some of us sometimes do — that the culinary world is as important to a culture as art and science… and I agree.

“The first condition on learning how to eat is how to talk about it. Only in a society wherein people of culture and refinement inquire after a cook’s health, instead of talking about the weather, can the art of cuisine be developed. No food is really enjoyed unless it is keenly anticipated, discussed, eaten and then commented on….. as the poets of yore praised good Chinese food, so will you!”

I hope Laura doesn’t find the recipe for “Cashew Shrimp” or I’ll never get her out of the kitchen. In the meantime, I plan to prepare and enjoy every recipe in her lovely and simple book.

Roger

PS. Madame Wu has returned to Los Angeles near their farmer’s market under the name MADAME WU’S ASIAN BISTRO & SUSHI. It won’t take a week’s salary anymore as it is most affordable… and I hope to try it the next time we’re in town.

(323) 965-8150

Posted on

fun with apple flap recipes

Dad's Apple Flaps
Dad's Apple Flaps

If ‘nothin says lovin like somethin from the oven‘ then Apple Flaps are near the top of my list! There are a few different ways to make this treat as they are sometimes fried or baked, I prefer baking. Sometimes the apples are mixed into the dough and sometimes they are a filling, I prefer a filling.

I use my standard  apple pie filling recipe  in this pocket dessert and you can use a puff pastry or a standard pie crust. After a little trial, I like a little of the syrup in the flap, but too much will ooze everywhere. Painting with an egg mixed with water over the top is a nice way to hold some natural raw crystalline sugar on top! And yes, it is as good as it looks!  😉

Karen was the inspiration for this with her trip to Amsterdam and Dutch friends Jacques and Kitty helped when I asked for recipes… along with cookbooks from Karen…

So these two are awaiting Karen when she comes home shortly !

Dad

Posted on

what is making America fatter? you may be surprised

one will probably make you fatter faster!
one will probably make you fatter faster!

Do you ever wonder why you eat the same things as you have always eaten, but somehow you are getting fatter? At first you might be thinking,”I am getting older and the old metabolism is slowing down, so the calories are just sticking around.” Although this may be true to some point, the latest research points to something that may be far more disturbing.

Interestingly enough, if you compare when America started going into the ‘plus sizes’ and the advent of high fructose corn syrup becoming universally accepted in the food industry, there is a correlation. Although correlations do not prove causality, this is far and away an ‘early warning sign’ that can’t be ignored. Check your pantry and see what doesn’t have HFCS in it and you will be surprised! It was even in my prized RICE KRISPIES!

Laura wrote a post a while ago with a link to a site that demonstrates that in two sets of animals given identical calorie diets, those fed high fructose corn syrup got obese and those with plain sugar did not. Here’s part of Laura’s enlightening blog:

American Like Their SweetsAmerican Like Their Sweets

In 2005, the average American consumed nearly 30 kg (66 pounds) of HFCS, as corn is heavily subsidized by the federal government, making corn products unusually cheap. In addition to being suspected of  contributing to America’s obesity epidemic, products containing HFCS also have high levels of reactive carbonyls not found in table sugar. Carbonyls have been implicated in tissue damage, such as nerve damage and foot ulcers, in diabetes.

Thank you , Laura… as someone struggling with diabetes and ‘drug free’… staying away from HFCS is more than a choice, it is a necessity.

Fortunately food marketers are starting to get the message, in part, and as the comparison between two popular maple syrups attests… one contains HFCS and the other does not. Guess which one I am buying now and they were both on my shelf!

Good luck and good dieting to all! Oh yeah, let me plug  Jenny Craig... it worked for me!

Roger Freberg