Ingredients

• 2 tbls olive oil
• 2 medium onions
• 2 tbls garlic, crushed
• 2 red bell peppers
• 1 can of corn (drained)
• 2 large cans red kidney beans
• 2 butternut squash
• 2 cans chopped plum tomatoes
• 2 tbls cumin
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 4 tbls chili powder
• 2 tbls red pepper flakes
• 2 tbls oregano
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup red wine

Directions

Cut the necks off the squash, then cut each piece in half length-wise. Scoop out the seeds. Slice the squash in to 1/2″ wide strips lengthwise.

Peel the skin from each slice and cut in to 1/2″ cubes.

Heat olive oil over medium heat in a large pot. Then, saute the onions and garlic. Add the red pepper and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the cumin, allspice, chili powder, red pepper flakes, and oregano. Stir well.

Add both cans of chopped tomatoes with juices and red wine.

Add the diced squash and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes until squash is tender.

Add kidney beans and cook 10 minutes longer.

Adjust seasonings and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with a hearty bread or cornbread.

Ingredients

• 2 packages of yellow cake mix
• 1 stick of softened or melted butter (unsalted is best)
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 4 cans of fruit pie filling (apple, peach, cherry, blueberry, pear)

Preparation

Some people line their Dutch Oven with aluminum foil to make cleanup easier, but I am a purist and prefer to cook directly in a well-seasoned oven.

Pour the cans of fruit into the oven. I like to mix 2 types of fruit – 2 cans of apple with 2 cans of cherry or 2 cans of peach with 2 cans of blueberry (my personal favorite!). I put 1 type of fruit in 1/2 the oven and the other type on the other half, keeping them unmixed.

Dry mix the 2 packages of yellow cake mix, vegetable oil, stick of butter (softened or melted) and egg in a bowl. The mixture will be crumbly and dry. Spread it evenly over the top of the fruit.

Bake in Dutch Oven – arrange a layer of coals the diameter of the oven. Place the oven on the coals. Add a layer of coals on the top of the oven. Bake for 45 minutes. You can start checking it at 35 minutes. It is finished when the cake has risen and the top of the cake is a nice golden toasty brown.

Makes me hungry thinking about it!

Prepare the pizza and cook like my previous post. It was delicious!

Chicken with Pine Nuts

Ingredients for 4

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1/2 cup pine nuts
• 1″ cube  of fresh ginger root
• 1 chile pepper (more or less to taste)
• 1 egg white
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon of rice wine
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt (less if on a sodium restricted diet)
• 4 tablespoons peanut oil
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon of water
• a dozen Iceberg lettuce leaves, washed and drained
• 1/2 cup Hoisin sauce 

Procedure

• Toast the pine nuts lightly in a toaster oven or carefully in a hot skillet. Set aside in a bowl.
• Remove skin and bones from chicken breasts. Cut meat in to very thin slices then in to thin shreds (1/8″ or so). Add the shreds to a glass bowl and toss in 1 tbls of cornstarch until coated. Add the egg white, rice wine, sugar, and salt and toss well.
• Seed and dice the chile pepper.
• Scrape the ginger root.
• Add 1 tablespoon of the peanut oil to a wok (or large skillet) and place on high heat. The secret to wok cooking  is the concentrated heat in a small area at the bottom of the wok. Heat until the oil is just about smoking. This is a little trickier to do with a large flat frying pan.
• Stir fry the chile peppers for about a minute. Don’t burn them though. Remove from wok into a bowl.
• Add the remaining peanut oil to the wok and bring to temperature. Stir fry the ginger briefly (just a few seconds should do it) and then add the chicken – s l o w l y. Stir fry the chicken until it is white and firm – usually 1 to 2 minutes.
• Stir in the chile peppers and add the teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in the water. Stir well.
• Remove mixture from wok to a serving platter.
• Sprinkle the pine nuts over the chicken mixture.

Serving

Serve the lettuce leaves on a clean plate, alongside the Chicken with Pine Nuts mixture and a dish of Hoisin sauce. 

Place a lettuce leaf on your plate and add a teaspoon of Hoisin sauce to the middle of the leaf (more or less to taste). Add a dollop of the chicken mixture – making sure to get some pine nuts! Don’t overdo it, you need to be able to roll the lettuce up tightly around the mixture. 

Fold opposite ends of the lettuce leaf over the mixture and then roll from one of the unfolded sides. The servers at the Plum Blossom would do all of this at your table using a pair of tablespoons!

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Borani

Adapted from Sadaf Shaghasi, Oasis Fusion Grille in Pleasanton.

• 1 small sugar pie pumpkin, seeds and strings removed, cut in 3/4 inch chunks (about 2 cups)
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons good olive oil
• 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
• Salt
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon Sambal Olek, (Thai chile paste) or red pepper flakes
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• Salt to taste

Combine the pumpkin, water, olive oil, 2 tablespoon minced garlic, sugar and salt in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, and cooking until almost all the liquid is gone, about 7 minutes. Cover and let rest over low heat for another 15 minutes until skin is soft. Taste for seasoning, adding more sugar or salt if necessary.

Meanwhile, combine yogurt with 1 teaspoon garlic and salt to taste. Transfer the pumpkin to a platter and drizzle with yogurt.

Serves 4 as an appetizer or side dish.

Missing from the above recipe is a little sprinkle of paprika over the dish – adds color and a subtle flavor that goes well with the pumpkin, yogurt and garlic!

I can’t wait to try this at home.

While very easy to make, the recipe does take some time to allow the dough to rise twice.

Ingredients

• 2 packages of yeast (or I use 2 tablespoons of bulk yeast)
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 2 cups of warm (90^o water)
• 1/2 cup of salad oil
• 5 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
• 4 1/2 cups bleached white flour
• 1 cup of whole wheat flour

When I lived in Boulder, CO back in the early 80s, there was a great pizza place on “The Hill” called Herbie’s Deli. It is called The Sink now. When they served their (delicious!) deep crust pizza, they always brought a squirt bottle of honey to the table. After you ate the pizza – saving the thick crust – you squirted honey on the thick bread-like crust and had it more a mini desert! Yum, yum! Try it!