Fish Soup

From: "365 Easy Mexican Recipes" by Marge Poore p. 40. Recipe with changes below.

Heat in soup pot

• 3 T. oil

Add and cook until begin to soften about 3-5 minutes. (I usually add one at a time while chopping the next.)

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 celery ribs with leaves, thinly sliced
• 1/2 green pepper, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, smashed in garlic press

Add and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, partially cover, and simmer until potato is barely tender, 6-8 minutes.

• 1 t. dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves (optional)
• 2 small potatoes, 1/2" dice
• 2 medium tomatoes, peeled and dice (or 1 small can whole tomatoes, diced with juice.)
• pinch crushed hot red pepper
• 2/3 c. white wine
• 4 c. chicken broth, water, or fish stock....

Meanwhile cut into 1" pieces, then add to soup

• 1 pound firm thawed, white fish fillets such as cod, snapper, or halibut. (I've even used shrimp)

Add and cook 5-7 minutes until fish is opaque throughout.

• 1/4 c. chopped cilantro (previously frozen is fine.)

Remove and discard bay leaves if you used them. 

Stir in

• 1 T lime juice (I just use the juice and scrapings from 1 lime. It's probably more than 1 T.)

Taste and season with

• 3/4 t. salt (might not need if canned broth used.)
• 1/8 t. pepper (I usually just grind pepper on top till it tastes right.)

Serve hot.

Easy Empanada Dough

This is tasty but we prefer the croissant type dough.

From: https://lasaucykitchen.com/how-to-make-empanada-dough/

Cream together

• 1 c. softened butter
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened

Add and mix until well combined.

• 3 c. flour

She has 3 methods of making the circles

1. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick and cut out with 4" circle cutter
2. Make dough balls about the size of your palm and press in tortilla press between 2 sheets of plastic.
3. Make dough balls about the size of your palm and roll out into 4" circles about 1/8" thick

Empanada Pork, green pepper, and onion filling

Combine

• 4 t. paprika
• 8 T. olive oil
• 1 T. minced parsley (dried is fine.)
• 1 large garlic clove (minced)
• Salt

Add and mix well, making sure each strip of meat is well coated on all sides. (Just squishing in ziplock bag doesn't work. Need to work well with hand. Marinate several hours or overnight.

• 3/4 pound pork shoulder or loin cut in strips less than 1/8" thick and 2.5" wide.

Next day

1. Heat in skillet

• 2 T. oil

2. Add and stir fry 1 minute

• 2  green peppers cut in strips

3. Add, then lower heat, cover and cook until the peppers are tender, about 15 minutes. Then remove from skillet.

• 1 T water

4. Heat in skillet

• 2 T. oil

5. Add and saute over low heat, covered, until tender but not brown. Then remove from skillet

• 2 medium- large onions, thinly sliced

6. Turn heat up to high and quickly cook a couple strips of meat at a time like you are doing a stir fry. Remove from skillet as they are cooked so they don't overcook.

• Marinated meat.

7. Add and scrape up tasty brown bits from bottom of skillet

• 2 T. white wine

8. Return meat, onions, green pepper to skillet. Mix well. Cook about 1 minute. 

9. Add to taste

• about 1 t. salt

Empanada Croissant type dough

This is based on a recipe from "Tapas, the little dishes of Spain" by Penelope Casas, pp. 105-106. I thought that I had lost the recipe and the book it was in but I am so glad that I found it again.

I've made some changes to the recipe which I'm recording here. I only make these in cool weather. This year I had trouble with getting the butter soft enough to spread as this kitchen is rather chilly.

Makes about 30-40 empanandas depending on size. I usually use a 5-6" straight sided bowl to cut out the circles.

350F about 30 minutes or until crust is nicely browned and smells good.

I usually make this dough twice in order to have enough for the meat filling. Doing that works better than doubling the recipe. 

Turnover Dough

1. Mix together in large bowl

• 3 c. flour
• 1.5 tsp salt

2. Then incorporate in

• 3/4 c. cold water
• 4.5 t. vinegar
• 2 egg yolks

3. Work with your hands until the dough forms a smooth ball. Wrap with plastic wrap and let sit 30 minutes.

4. Roll the dough into a 10 x 15 inch rectangle.

5. Spread 1/3 of the 1 cup of butter over the dough with rubber spatula

• 1/3 c. butter

6. Fold one side over the top, then fold over the other side business-letter? fashion. I do not understand this direction so I fold one third over from left side, then fold one third over from right side to end up with 3 layers.

7. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 15 minutes

8. Repeat steps 5-7

9. Repeat steps 5-6 and refrigerate for 1 hour

Now it's ready to roll out and cut out 5-6" circles for filling.

10. Roll out to approximately 1/8", cut out 5-6" circles. Put on parchment paper (works best but can use foil) lined pan. 

11. Brush along circle edge with some beaten egg to help empanada seal.

12. Put a generous tablespoon of filling on 1 side of circle. Fold dough in half to make half circle. Press with fork to seal edge.

13. Once pan is full, brush top of empanada dough with beaten egg to help brown.

14. Bake at 350F until done.

Lazy 3 ingredient raw brownies

Process in food processor as fine as everything will go. May still have bits of walnuts but it still tastes fine. 

• 6 T. unsweetened cocoa
• 2.5 c. dates
• 1.5 c. walnuts

Then press in 8x8 pan. Then I usually cut into squares and freeze so I can have little bits here and there so it doesn't go stale.

Optional Date Frosting 

Put

• 16 dates

into 

• about 1/2 c. nut milk

Microwave about 30 seconds to 1 minute to get hot. Let sit for about 10' to soften

Process softened dates in food processor with

• 1 t. vanilla
• 1/4 t salt
• milk from soaking if needed

Then put processed date mixture back in microwave and heat in 30 second intervals till it thickens.

Apply to brownies while hot and let cool.

Note: To be more efficient can soak the dates in hot milk while making brownies. Don't really need to clean the food processor between brownies and date frosting unless little brownie bits in the frosting bother you.

I think the original recipe came from https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/the-ultimate-unbaked-brownies-raw-vegan/

My previous recipes:

• https://katsrecipes.blogspot.com/2020/03/raw-brownies-with-date-frosting.html
• https://katsrecipes.blogspot.com/2018/01/chocolate-brownies.html

Irish Soda Bread made with buttermilk

 I was inspired to make this after watching the Hillbilly Kitchen on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fx9mjh0Tigs

It was easy to make. I made 1/2 recipe. It was a very dense bread, sliced and kept well. It didn't seem to rise much if at all. Next time I will put into 4x8 loaf pan and use parchment paper.  (This bread tastes sweeter than GF version.)

(See GF soda bread notes http://glutenfreekat.blogspot.com/2022/05/gluten-free-irish-soda-bread-with.html )

Combine dry ingredients

• 2 c. flour
• 3/4 t. baking soda (original was 1/2 t. I think it rises a little more with 3/4 t.*)
• 1/4 t. salt (original was 1/2 t.)

Make well and add

• 1 c buttermilk
• 1/2 egg (Optional. Supposed to lighten bread.**)
• 1 T butter (Optional. Supposed to moisten bread. I didn't do. Bread was fine.)
• sugar (Optional. Not needed. Bread was sweet.)
• raisins, currants (Optional)

Stir, don't overmix, should be crumbly. Squeeze together with hands until stuck together. Not perfectly smooth is OK. OK to leave crumbs behind in bowl.

Shape into round shape. Put in floured cast iron skillet without touching sides. Cut cross to bless bread and slits to let the fairies out. Cross and slits are supposed to help bread rise. Use your fingers to brush buttermilk left in measuring cup on top of bread. Can also brush on beaten egg if you want to. I didn't.

Let bread rest while you preheat oven to 425F.

Bake 15' at 425F. Then turn oven down to 350F and

Bake 30-60 minutes at 350F until bread is cooked in middle and sounds hollow when tapped.

Brush top with a piece of butter. Supposed to keep the crust from being too hard. (Definitely works)

• *5/6/22 Increased baking soda to 3/4 t while decreasing salt to 1/2 t. Maybe slightly better rise. Bread might be a tad more crumbly? but still sliced well and tasted good. I wonder what would happen if I slightly kneaded the bread instead of pushing it together.
• **5/7/22 Added egg. Rose higher. Made a cake like bread with yellow inside. Both versions still taste good.