More a method than a recipe, these are my rough guidelines for ham salad.
Ingredients
Ham – two thin slices, or one thick slice, chopped
One hard-boiled egg, chopped
1 Tbsp mayo (yes, you can use Miracle Whip®, but it’s better with mayo)
1 tsp yellow mustard
Optional Ingredients
Add up to three of the following
4″ stalk of celery – chopped
quarter-pickle “spear” – chopped
three or four pickle slices – chopped
three or four olives, without pit, and optionally with pimento – chopped
one ring pineapple – chopped
small chunk green pepper – chopped
roasted green chile – chopped
tablespoon grated parmesan cheese
one slice american cheese – chopped
small chunk (tablespoon or so) cheddar cheese – chopped
one carrot – chopped finely
Directions
Chop the ingredients, if you haven’t already
Drain the vegetable matter – you don’t want things soggy
Put the chopped things in a bowl big enough to hold everything and then some
Squirt in the mayo, and mix (go ahead and use your hand if you want)
Add salt and pepper to taste
If making a sandwich, smear it on the bread
If you don’t have bread, add about ½ cup cooked and cooled macaroni
You can double, triple or whatever multiple you’d like with this, but I find that I most often make about 2 servings, use half the result on bread for lunch, and the other half with a little pasta for dinner, and I’ve managed to clean up a lot of little odds and ends from the kitchen, while still having a tasty meal or two.
If you don’t have any ham, use two or three eggs and call it egg salad.
I needed to rewrite this recipe for my own sanity. The one online at the Food Network has all the ingredients in one list, which is handy for shopping, but worthless for trying to make sure you haven’t forgotten something as you’re baking.
Ingredients (crust)
2C all-purpose flour
2Tbsp sugar
Zest from one lime
1tsp salt
4½oz butter (1 stick plus one Tbsp)
1½oz lard (3Tbsp)
1½oz ice water, in a spray bottle
Directions (crust)
Place the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix them with a fork.
Add butter and lard and cut into the flour mixture.
Spritz mixture with ice water and mix with a fork just until it comes together.
Place into gallon zip-top bag, roll flat, and place in fridge while you work on the filling.
Ingredients (filling)
1# rhubarb, chopped into 1cm pieces
1# peaches, cored, and sliced into 1cm slices, then chopped into 1cm pieces
2Tbsp corn starch
Juice from one lime
1C sugar
Directions (filling)
Chop rhubarb and place in large mixing bowl.
Cut peaches in half, removing pit, them slicing into 1cm slices, and chopping into 1cm cubes.
Add sugar, corn starch and lime juice to bowl, and mix things with a fork so all the fruit is coated.
Directions
Place a piece of aluminum foil on the bottom rack of the oven to catch any spills.
Preheat oven to 375F.
Grease a 9x9 inch glass baking dish with lard or butter.
Take about ⅓ of the crust mixture out of the zip-top bag and crumble into the bottom of the baking dish.
Dump the filling in on top of the crumbled crust
Roll the remainder of the crust out inside the zip-top bag so it’s about the same size as the baking dish, then carefully slice open the bag along the seams and place the top crust on top of the fruit, pushing it down into the edges of the baking dish. If it didn’t break up like mine always does, slice it a few times so steam and juice can escape.
Bake for an hour. Or 90 minutes if you used frozen fruit.
Before removing from oven, broil (at the hottest setting) for a couple minutes to brown the top if needed.
Let cool for 15-30 minutes before serving and enjoying. It’s hard to taste the deliciousness with a burned tongue.
Cut chicken into bit sized pieces and throw into the crock pot.
Season with salt and pepper.
Top with corn, cream corn, sweet potatoes, optional chiles, and bbq sauce.
Pour 1C water over everything.
If making this in one shot, pour in the muffin batter over the top of everything.
Turn crock pot on “high” and cook for a cuppa-tree (2-3) hours, or “low” for approximately 6 hours.
Spoon muffin batter over top of boiling liquid, making dumplings, if you didn’t put the batter in earlier. Continue to cook on low for another hour or so.
1T yeast (when I was homebrewing, I would use slurry from the bottom of the fermenter)
1tsp salt (you can go as low as ½tsp, but this is the amount that “tastes right” to me)
Other – an egg, some milk, cheese, ham, etc. they’ll all change the end product, and you’ll need to adjust the liquid to make it right, but you have to do that based on what kinds of flours you use, too.
1-2C water – enough to make the dough right but a little wetter generally works better than too dry. The dough should stick to your hands if you handle it without flouring them first.
Method
Put everything but the water into a stand mixer with a dough hook and add a cup of liquid.
Start the mixer on its lowest speed, and run it until the dough comes together. Add a little liquid if it looks too dry. Don’t panic if it looks too wet, because the flours absorb water, and you’ll almost certainly need to add a little more.
Turn the mixer speed up a notch. The dough should mostly pull clear of the sides of the bowl, forming a shiny ball. If none of it is sticking to the sides, add a bit (maybe a tablespoon) more water at a time.
Once you’ve got a good dough going, turn the mixer up to the third speed. This is where the mixer will start dancing around the counter. You want to go at this speed for maybe five minutes. You might need to add a little more water. I generally do.
Spray the dough (in the mixing bowl) with nonstick cooking spray and cover with a piece of plastic until it has doubled in size.
Prepare a pan or sheet with grease or flour to bake the bread on. Even a nonstick pan needs some flour or grease on it.
Put a little (maybe a tablespoon) of flour on a board or the counter and turn the dough out onto it. Fold the dough over a few times to knock some of the air out of it, then form a loaf. Sprinkle the top with any toppings, slice expansion marks in, and cover loosely with plastic wrap so it can rise again.
When the dough has doubled in size again, pop it in a hot oven. Generally 350-400 is the right temperature range, but I’ve baked in ovens as hot as 700F. Hotter gets done quicker.
Bake until the dough hits 190F internally. 20-40 minutes in a 350-400F oven, depending on the dough, loaf size, and shape. As little as 3 minutes in a blazing hot pizza oven if you’re making flatbread.
Cool on a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes, but 10 is better. Things need time to set and if you cut in too early, the bread can deflate and will look sad. Cut off a slice or six, and enjoy!
Serve with a green salad – we like mango vinaigrette dressing on ours
Prep: 15 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients:
6 Tbsp olive oil
½ tsp orange oil
Zest of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed gently
2 small dried chiles or ¼ tsp chimayo chile
12-18 olives, sliced (I use leftover ones that aren’t good for snacking anymore)
Salt & black pepper to season
10-12 oz dry angel-hair pasta
¾ lb white fish (cod works), cut into half-inch cubes
4 Tbsp lemon juice
1 heaping Tbsp dry parsley
Directions:
Bring a large pan of water to a boil for the pasta.
Cut the fish into half-inch cubes.
In a large deep pan, put olive oil, zests, garlic, chile, olives and a little black pepper. Turn the flame to the lowest you can for now.
When the water boils, add salt, and put in the pasta. Set the timer for 2 minutes less than the shortest time called for on the box.
When the timer rings, scoop out 1C of the pasta water and turn off the heat.
Turn up the heat (to your normal sauté setting) on the oil, and put in the fish.
Stir the fish for 30 seconds, trying to get a little color on all sides.
Using tongs, transfer the pasta into the pan with the oil and fish. As soon as you have finished transferring all the pasta, turn off the heat, but leave the pan on the burner.
Swish the fish, oil and pasta around for a minute or so, until the fish is cooked.
Add the cup of pasta water, parsley, and lemon juice and give one quick stir or toss.
Serve immediately with tongs. There will be some liquid in the pan, but any leftover pasta will absorb it. If there is no leftover pasta, feel free to spoon it over the plates. A little Parmesan grated over it wouldn’t be wrong, either.
4-6 spring onions, chopped finely, green bits and all
1C chicos
1 qt chicken stock (use vegetable stock if you want a vegan dish)
400ml can coconut milk
1 leek, trimmed, finely sliced, and rinsed
1 clove garlic
small handful small yellow potatoes, or one large white potato
⅓ bag roasted green chiles from the market, peeled, seeded and frozen, then chopped finely
1 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp corn flour
2 Tbsp potato flakes
1 can (15 oz) sweet corn, with juice
Directions
Sauté onions in a skillet with a little oil, 6-8 minutes, until they’ve gone a bit brown, past translucent
Put chicos, chicken stock, and coconut milk into crock pot and get it warming on high
Add onions to crock pot
Sauté leek and garlic in a little oil, until leek is translucent, and add to crock pot
Cut potatoes into 1cm cubes and sauté in a little oil until soft, then add to pot
Sauté chopped green chiles in a little oil in skillet, and add to pot
When pot comes to a boil (over 90 minutes with my crock pot), add corn flour and potato flakes, stirring well
After a few minutes, add corn and liquid from can and stir well
Taste and season with salt as needed
If you like your chowder thicker, put in a stick blender into the pot and blend some of the soup up
Serve and enjoy
Notes on ingredients
Chicos are corn, roasted on the cob in an horno, and then dried. They keep pretty much forever, and add a nice smoky flavor to food.
Green chiles are sold at farmers markets in New Mexico in the fall, roasted right there at the market. They’re typically sold in sandwich bags or quart ziploc bags. We buy the mildest ones available, bring them home and peel, seed, and freeze them into freezer bags (one per bag from the market). A third of one of those bags is enough in this recipe for us, but don’t let me tell you how spicy to make your food. If you must use canned, one of the small cans is probably a good starting place.
The simplest way I know of to get all the dirt out of leeks is to cut off the fine roots, thinly slice the leek, then put it in a bowl and rinse it with water. But if you’ve got a better suggestion, have at it! I didn’t use the green part of the leek in this recipe, as it was already plenty onion-y, but again, you’re welcome to use it all if you want.
If you want a little added protein in this, adding bacon would be a fine idea. I would use about a pound of bacon, chopped up and sautéed. Or a can of spam if that works for you.
Made these after all our stuff was packed for our move to Santa Fe. All you need is a knife & cutting board, a cast iron skillet, and one tin of spice. And the recipe cleaned up the food we had left in the fridge.
Ingredients
2 pork chops
1 Honeycrisp Apple
12 seedless grapes
½ tbsp Chinese five spice
½ tsp flour
Directions
Core apple, and chop it up. Leave the skin on if you’re lazy.
Chop the grapes into halves or quarters.
Simmer apples and grapes with a little water until they go mushy. About 15 minutes. You’re making a quick applesauce.
Add the Chinese five spice and continue to simmer until you have a nice sauce. Remove from heat and pour into a bowl (or ziploc bag)
Use the (warm) sauce to marinate the pork chops for about 15 minutes.
Put the sauce and chops into the skillet and cook about 7 minutes per side on low heat. Add a little water if the sauce looks to be drying up.
Remove the chops from the sauce and plate. Make a pan gravy using a little water and flour.
Pairs nicely with grits if you have them. Also takes about the same total amount of time to cook as quick grits.
