Plum Swedish Pie

The most treasured recipe I have inherited from Ben's family is Swedish Pie, a cobbler-like fruit desert. You can make it with any fruit, raw or frozen. When I make it with plums (=the best way), I like to substitute some cornmeal for some of the flour for a nice texture. I also like to add orange-blossom water or rosewater, like I do with most fruit deserts.

When I make it, this is not a tidy or attractive desert -- I find the topping to be difficult to pour and spread. My mother-in-law's are beautiful! Either way, it will be very tasty.

Plum Swedish Pie

~20 Italian prune plums
3/4 cup white flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup sugar (regular recipe uses 2/3)
1 stick butter
1 egg
orange juice, rosewater or orange-blossom water to taste
cinnamon to taste

Preheat the oven to 350.

Wash, pit, and quarter the plums. Put them into a pie pan and sprinkle with cinnamon and, if you like, with orange juice, rosewater or orange-blossom water. Put the butter in a large Pyrex bowl and microwave just until melted, about 1 minute. Add the sugar and mix well. Beat in the egg, followed by the flour and cornmeal. Carefully pour the batter over the fruit, covering as well as you can. Bake for 1 hour or until solid (if you bake more than one at a time it may take more than one hour).

Serves 8.

Variations: apples + apple cider; apples + bourbon; apple + cranberry; any combination of stone fruits; stone fruits + berries; mango; mango + cranberry; mixed berry or blackberry or blueberry. Thaw and drain frozen fruit before using. If using berries, consider adding some cornstarch with them.

Ben's North African-Spiced Lamb Shoulder Chops

Ben made this for two Shabbat dinner parties in a row. Yum. Let's hope lamb keeps being on sale!

No photo... we were in too much of a rush to eat.

Ben's North African-Spiced Lamb Shoulder Chops

1/2 to 3/4 cup dried Mission figs
1/3 cup hot water
4 shoulder lamb chops, trimmed of excess fat
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 + dashes cayenne (important!)
1 cup canned no-salt-added diced tomatoes and their juice
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp dried basil
Salt and pepper
2 tbsp red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar

Soak the figs in the hot water, 15-30 minutes. Remove figs from water; reserve water, and quarter the figs.

Salt and pepper the lamb to taste. Heat 1 tbsp oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet or Dutch oven (to prevent splattering). Brown the lamb on both sides, about 4-5 minutes, working in batches if necessary to keep the meat from being crowded. Open your windows and turn on the fan to avoid setting off the smoke detector. Remove the browned lamb from the pan and set aside on a plate.

Pour off the fat from the pan. Return the pan to the heat. Add 1 tbsp oil, and saute the onions until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and all spices except basil, and cook about 1 minute or until fragrant. Deglaze the pan with the reserved fig soaking water, and cook until reduced by half, about 2-3 minutes, stirring to loosen browned bits. Stir in the tomatoes, honey, and figs. Return the lamb to the pan. Simmer, covered, over low heat until the lamb is cooked through but still tender, 20-30 minutes.

Remove lamb from the pot and place on 4 plates. Stir in the basil, and simmer about 2-3 minutes until the suace has somewhat thickened. Spoon sauce over lamb. Serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Inspired by: http://www.valleyfig.com/c_recipes/maindishes/braised_lamb_a.htm

Ben's Slow Cooker Beef Stew

This is the stew to make when it's suddenly a blustery 40 degrees in early October.

Best if made the day before, so you can skim the fat more easily and the flavors can blend, but it works that day too.

Ben's Slow Cooker Beef Stew

3 lb pot roast or other beef that requires long cooking, cubed, trimmed of fat
2 large onions, chopped roughly
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 can diced tomatoes
1 mini can tomato paste
3-5 small red potatoes, diced (do not peel)
1/2 large bag frozen peas
1 bottle dark beer (in this case, Negra Modelo)
1 1/2 cups water
3 bay leaves
1 large pinch dried tarragon
1 pinch dried thyme
1 tbsp black pepper (no, that's not a typo)
1/2 to 1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp garlic salt
salt to taste
cornstarch as needed

Brown meat over high heat, in batches, using tongs to brown all sides. Sprinkle with black pepper during browning. Deposit meat in slow-cooker.

Saute onions in the same pan for several minutes, until beginning to color; add garlic in last couple minutes. Deposit onions and garlic in slow-cooker.

Add tomatoes, tomato paste, beer, potatoes, and spices to slow-cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours. Add peas; cook, uncovered, another five to ten minutes.

Remove solids. (Remove and discard bay leaves.) Transfer liquids to a large pot on the stove and boil, stirring frequently, about ten minutes, until reduced to desired thickness. Skim whatever fat you can. (If making the day before, refrigerate solids and liquids separately, and skim before recombining.) If necessary, make a slurry with some cold water and cornstarch to thicken sauce further. Recombine sauce, meat, and vegetables. Serve over egg noodles.

Serves 6-8. (Or two people for many, many meals.)

Oh, Pea Soup!

As a little girl, I absolutely hated split pea soup. But recently the bright green dried peas were so enticing we just had to buy them. And when I got home from work the other night at 11:40 pm, I found that my associate had a pot of the most delicious split pea soup ever simmering away on the stove for me. Aww. This is Ben's recipe.

Ben's Split Pea Soup

2 cups split peas, about 1 lb (washed and picked over)
6 cups water
2 onions, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 tsp salt
1 pinch dried thyme
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 pinch allspice
4 dashes cayenne pepper (add one at a time and taste, so as not to overdo)
black pepper to taste

Saute onions in the bottom of a soup pot a little oil over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the carrots, and continue to cook about another 5 minutes. Add peas, water, and spices. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer 2-3 hours, adding more water as necessary.

Serves about 4.

Pasta with Creamy Broccoli Sauce

Now I'd like to introduce a guest cooker to this blog, my associate Ben. He'll be making appearances now and then, sharing his tasty recipes. Take it away, Ben.

Thanks, Alison. It's great to be here on alisoncooks.blogspot.com. I'm a big fan of the show. Nice desk you've got there, very authoritative-looking. My, this chair is so comfy!

Anyway, a short foreword is required before I can tell you about the mystical inspirations and geopolitical context that conspired to create "my" Creamy Broccoli Sauce. It's a confession of sorts, and my agent is going to kill me for saying this on the air. But in the name of all that is noble and true and delicious, I feel I must unveil the source of my culinary extravagance. Truth be told, my success in the kitchen is due to a 6-letter G word: (genies, gamete, and ghetto are all good guesses, but sadly incorrect) Google. It's true. When I want to cook something, my first step is always to google it and compare a few different recipes. (In this case I googled "broccoli recipes" because we had broccoli in the fridge.) It's helpful to google "[the food you want] recipes" because otherwise you have to wade through all sorts of broccoli fan pages, broccoli youtube videos, and "CHEAP BROCCOLI ORDER NOW!!!" before you get to the recipes. The next step is you pick a recipe you like most of the ones you've found, and follow that one generally, though you can include bits from others, or adjust it depending on what ingredients you have available. In biblical scholarship, this is called redaction. I should also note that I don't measure stuff very much, especially spices. I mostly just dump some in (sometimes more than I intend) and taste. Sometimes I don't even taste, or know what I'm going for really. But it usually works out in the end, due either to my extensive experience and accomplishment as an eater, or to some absurd streak of luck which will abruptly end and leave me with very large gambling debts.

But anyway, this Creamy Broccoli Sauce is inspired by a recipe I encountered on southernfood.about.com. I don't have any idea what, if anything, is Southern about this, except for maybe the call for both butter and heavy cream (in the original; I redacted it.) But anyway, this is a fun thing to do if you've got broccoli lying around and lots
of time to experiment with food. Also, it's tasty and healthy and exciting. Here goes:

Pasta with Creamy Broccoli Sauce

12 ounces pasta
florets from 2 stalks of broccoli
5 medium fresh basil leaves (original; I used dried basil and it was still yummy)
1/2 tablespoon butter
3 heaping tablespoons plain yogurt
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
pepper to taste (perhaps 1 teaspoon--should be fairly peppery)


Cook pasta until tender; drain.
Boil broccoli in salted water 4-7 minutes.
In food processor with steel blade, combine 8-10 broccoli florets,basil, butter and yogurt. Pulse to purée. Add Parmesan cheese and pulse to blend.
Mix broccoli mixture and remaining boiled broccoli into drained pasta; stir.
Cook, stirring, over medium-low heat. Serve when heated through and well combined. (I forgot to do the whole second heating thing and it still worked out great, just a little colder.)

Serves 4.