French Baguets

 

Summer Session 1 has started for my fellow UCDers and it is BURNing hot!  To start off the summer I would like to introduce to everyone this incredibility simple to make sandwich  This is a excellent sandwich to make if you’re short on time or if you’re just plain too lazy to make something too complicated.

Ingredients:

• French Baguet (Good luck finding a French bakery in Davis…and avoid supermarket brand baguets they’re disgusting)
• Cheese (I usually use Baby Swiss)
• Salami (any other types of meat will also do)
• Butter

First, cut the baguet in half (not completely, just enough so that the top and bottom won’t be in two pieces).  Next spread the butter then add the cheese and salami and you’re done!  Now wasn’t that simple…

-Greg

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★★

Papaya Passion

  

This is a great drink to make whether you're relaxing on a Sunday morning or rushing out the door for work.  If you like papaya, you'll just adore this tasty treat.

Ingredients:

• A frozen Papaya (Make sure you skin and cut up the papaya)
• Milk
• Sugar (Granulated aka White Sugar)
• Strawberry (Optional)

Once the papaya pieces are frozen soild, put it all in the blender.  Once in the blender, pour milk.  I normally pour just enough milk to cover enough all the pieces of papaya.  You could add more milk if you want a more watery consistency or less mike for a more thick consistency.  Then blend until it's a smoothie like liquid.  Then add sugar and blend again.  If it isn't sweet enough just add more sugar and blend again.  To top it off use a couple of strawberries for dipping.

Thanks Uncle Philip for teaching me how to make this, my family and I love it!

-Greg

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★★

Mushrooms Wrapped with Bacon

If you havn’t tried this dish before you must try making it, it’s so simple.  The bacon and mushroom flavor combination is absolutely amazing.  This dish is a must for any BBQ.

Ingredients:

• Bacon
• Button Mushroom (the white colored mushrooms)

Before you start, you must soak your tooth picks in water.  This will prevent your tooth pick from burning while it’s on the grill.  There isn’t a certain amount of time you must soak it for, just start soaking the tooth picks as soon as you start preparing this dish.  Once that’s complete, start wrapping the bacon around mushroom.  Then just slide the tooth pick right through the bacon and mushroom in order to secure the two, while it is on the grill.  Once popped on the grill all you have to do now is jus flip it every now and then.  I prefer my bacon to be a bit crispy, so I like to cook mine a bit longer.  Enjoy!

-Greg

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★ (the bacon is quite pricy)

Ease ★★★★★

Ice Cream Spectacular

  

This is one of my favorite dessert recipes because it’s quick, easy, and best of all, DELICIOUS!!!  I was bored one night, and I decided to kick my boring ice cream up a notch.  This is GREAT!!!

 Ingredients:

• Ice cream (any flavor of your choice)
• Waffles (I prefer Eggo’s Cinnamon Toast Crunch but any type of waffle will do)

All you got to do is pop in the waffles into the toaster.  Once you’re done with that start scooping away.  The final step is digging in!  This receipe is as simple as it gets!

 -Greg

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★★

Fruity DLite

Here’s a very simple yet tasty treat for everyone.  This dish is also great for us college students, it’s so easy and fast to make, not to mention healthy.  I also made this dish for my girlfriend as a little breakfast treat and she loved it.  This is what you’ll need:

• 1 Store bought container of yogurt (I used Strawberry, but you may use which ever flavor you like)
• Banana
• Strawberries
• Grapes
• Kiwi
• And any other kinds of fruits you may like (I would avoid anything citrus, it doesn’t go too well with yogurt)

The great thing about this dish is that you can cut the pieces of fruit to any type of shape you may like and arrange it to which ever way you see fit.  As you can see from the picture, you can really make some wonderful designs.  Once you arranged everything, you can either put the yogurt in a seperate bowl or grab a spoon and splatter yogurt everywhere.  Enjoy!

-Greg

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★★

Jello Cheese Cake

   

Trust me, this is a absolutely delicious desert.  Make it for anyone and you'll have them asking for seconds!

Crust-

3/4 stick of butter

1/4 cup of brown sugar

3/4 cup of flour

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1.  Cream butter add flour, sugar, and walnuts

2.  Mix well and put into a greased 9×11 pan

3.  Bake in 375 degree oven for 10 minutes or until brown

Filling-

1 small box (3 oz) jello (you can use which ever type of jello flavor you want, in this case I used strawberry)

1 cup of hot water

3/4 cup of sugar

1 8 oz package of cream cheese

1/2 pt. whipping cream OR 1 8 oz container of cool whip

1.  Dissolve jello in hot water and set aside

2.  Cream together sugar and cream cheese

3.  Whip until stiff and add in whip cream or coolwhip

4.  Pour cooled jello into cream cheese mixture and pour onto crust

5.  Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours

Topping-

1 package of family size (6 oz) jello (any flavor)

3 cups of hot water

1. Dissolve jello in the hot water and let cool

2. Pour over filling and chill until set

-Greg

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★

Ease ★★★

Sweet potato-mash with quince reduction

Ingredients

Sweet potato
Milk
Butter
Mushrooms
Quince paste
Veg. stock
Basil
Garlic

So, I had a few vegetarians over the other night for a very spontaneous dinner. We had one hours time till they had to leave, this is what errupted from my fridge.

Boil water and add chopped, peeled sweet potato. Boil for 8 minutes or until you can easily stick a knife into one of the potatos. While this is taking place, you have heated the oven for the mushrooms. (see mushrooms with basil and garlic recipe).

The reduction sauce (sometimes called a jus but normally only when meat is involved) is easy. I used quince jam but you could use any jam/jelly you want, it's just that quince like cranberry is a little tarter than strawberry eg. SO heat a pot, chuck in 2 thumbs worth of jam, heat a little then add 300ml of stock a garlic clove, a bay leaf and bring to a boil while stiring/ whisking the jam so that it incorperates into the stock. Let this boil away for 5 minutes then add a dash of beer or wine and now boil for another 10 minutes until sauce starts to get a thicker consistancy, till it sticks to your finger. Once the sauce has reduced to your satisfaction i added a few pieces of pickled pepper, you could add what ever you like or nothing at all.

Once the potatos are boiled, strain off the water add a 60ml of milk and a thumbs worth of butter and a good pinch of salt and butter. Turn the heat right down and begin to mash the potatos. if they are to dry to get into a nice puree, add more milk but be carefull cause you don't want to serve up slop! I added a little nutmeg and fresh coriander leaves but parsely alone would be fine or any of the dried Italian herbs like oregano, thyme or Marjoram. Throw this all together like it is in the pic above and voila you got your self dinner for 5 vegetarians in less than an hour.

-James

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★

Lupe’s enchilada

Ingredients

Tortillas
Eggplant
Onion
Garlic
Coriander
Tomatoes
Mozarella cheese
Your favourite chilli-pepper
Lemon

So, this is a little platter that a friend (Lupe) cooked up for me and some other friends. She is from Mexico. If you want to know how to make the chilli-rillenos just email me and I'll pass on the age-old secrets…(maybe!).

Back to the enchilada. So first things first, get your salsa on the go. Take 5 tomatoes, half an onion, as many chillis as you like and a few cloves of garlic and throw this directly into the blender. Add a pinch or two of salt and pepper. Once blended add to a hot pot with a little oil and bring to a boil with and then turn back the heat till just a few, bubbles appear every now and then (simmer). While all this is going on roughly chop up half an eggplant per enchilada and throw these into a hot oven (400F, 220C) oven (pealed) for 25 minutes. Once they begin to brown, heat up a larage pan and fry off 1/4 of an onion in hot oil per enchilada. Once this has sweated (gets clear) and the eggplant that should be already nice and brown add the eggplant to the pan with a little chopped garlic (half a clove per enchilada) and fry at a medium heat until the onion takes on a little colour. Now add mozarella (about the same amount of mozarella as the onion you added), turn off the heat and stir until the mozarella melts. Next step – find a nice, baking dish. Now the tortilla prep. If you like your tortillas soft, don't brown them off first however, i like mine crispy so i heat them over a direct flame (if you have one, otherwise put them in the oven for a few minutes) until they get a little crispy but still meldable. Now fill the tortilla with the eggplant mix, roll and place this into you baking dish. Repeat this until you have all the tortillas you have prepared for filled, rolled and in the baking dish. Last step, cover them with the salsa you prepared earlier and a sprinkle of mozarella. Throw this into the oven at around that should still be at 400F and bake for 10 minutes or until the cheese starts to brown. Serve and swoon…..Thanks Lupe

-James

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★★

Ease ★★★

Cold shredded coconut and bean salad

Ingredients 

French beans
Shredded Coconut
Bean sprouts
Mint
Ginger
Limes
Your favourite chili pepper
Place some beans in boiling water for 4 minutes until they are soft but definately still crunchy. Cool them under running, cold water until they are cold.
While they are boiling, slice upyour favourite chilli pepper into very small chunks and add it to a bowl with a hand-full of shredded coconut. Peel half a thumb worth of fresh ginger and cut into very small chunks, then take a around 10 leaves of fresh mint and rip these with your hands and add these and the ginger to the coconut as well. Now take a handfull of bean sprouts and add them to the mix together with the squeezed juice of a lime. If the limes do not have a lot of juice, use two! Finally, add the cold, boiled beans to this mix, add a pinch of salt and stir. This dish should be served cold. Before serving taste that it is to your liking by adding more of any of the ingrediants you choose, e.g. I love a lot of lime and chili while my grandma wants a lot of ginger.

-James

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★

Lasagna la Cheez

     

Sauce:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
Pinch ground nutmeg

Lasagna:
1 (15-ounce) container whole milk ricotta cheese
1 (10-ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, squeezed dry
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
3 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped
1 large egg, beaten to blend
3/4 teaspoon salt, plus more for salting water
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
12 uncooked lasagna noodles
2 cups marinara sauce
1 cup shredded mozzarella (about 4 ounces)

To make the sauce: Melt the butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the flour and whisk for 3 minutes. Whisk in the milk. Increase the heat to medium-high. Whisk the sauce until it comes to a simmer and is thick and smooth, about 3 minutes. Whisk the salt, pepper, and nutmeg into the bechamel sauce. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Whisk the ricotta, spinach, 1 cup Parmesan, prosciutto, egg, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl to blend.

Add a tablespoon or 2 of oil to a large pot of boiling salted water. Boil the noodles until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain. Arrange the noodles in a single layer on a baking sheet to prevent them from sticking.

Butter a 13-by-9-by-2-inch glass baking dish. Pour the bechamel sauce over the bottom of the prepared dish. Lay out 4 lasagna noodles on a work surface, then spread about 3 tablespoons of ricotta mixture evenly over each noodle. Starting at 1 end, roll each noodle like a jelly roll. Lay the lasagna rolls seam side down, without touching, atop the bechamelsauce in the dish. Repeat with the remaining noodles and ricotta mixture. Spoon 1 cup of marinara sauce over the lasagna rolls. Sprinkle the mozzarella and remaining 2 tablespoons of Parmesan over the lasagna rolls. Cover tightly with foil. Bake until heated through and the sauce bubbles, about 20 minutes. Uncover and bake until the cheese on top becomes golden, about 15 minutes longer. Let stand for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the remaining marinara sauce in a heavy small saucepan over medium heat until hot, and serve alongside.

-Greg

Taste ★★★★★

Price ★★

Ease ★★★