cooking

[azulai]

Thank you, Andy for giving the Cooking Thread a new home! mile:

So, Jay here's the stuffed peppers, fish and biscuits recipes. It does take a little work and maybe about 30 minutes prep time.

Again, I'm really sorry it took me so long to post these. I hope you enjoy them! I have a new one for spinach dip that I want to try. :biggrin:

As I explained, I’m really bad with seasoning so I put what I did in parentheses so you can use your judgment.

This is my grandmother's recipe that she fixes for our celebration of Sukkot. Stuffed food is the tradition for that festival. She also does the same thing with cabbage leaves. Her stuff isn't written down and she doesn't really measure stuff but, she helped me downsize her recipe for two people when I asked her to teach how to fix this.

Stuffed Peppers
4 sweet red bell peppers (or any bell peppers, green, yellow, see video)
About a ½ cup onion, chopped/diced (1 small onion)
About a ½ cup red pepper, chopped/diced
2 stalks of celery, chopped/diced

½ pound of very lean ground meat (I used ground sirloin)
season to taste (1 tsp Worcestershire sauce, ½ tsp salt, a little garlic powder, some black pepper)

½ cup rice ( = 1 cup cooked rice)
¼ to ½ cup seasoned bread crumbs

Wash peppers, cut top off and reserve for seasoning. Clean out seeds and any core. I use a small spoon to get the inside clean. Set aside.


Chop onion, celery and using the pepper part of the tops, chop that for seasoning.
Season and brown the ground meat until no pink. Add the onions, red peppers and celery and cook covered on low heat but don’t over cook.



Cook rice until it’s almost done.

Add the cooked rice to the meat mixture. Mix well.


Remove from heat, I just put it on a cool unused stove burner. Add ¼ cup of the seasoned bread crumbs, mix well. You don’t want it too dry, maybe taste it and then add a little more but no more than a half cup.


Bring a pot of water to boil, and blanch the red peppers maybe 30 seconds or so. Put them on a plate and using a spoon fill the peppers. Place them in a bowl sprayed with cooking spray. Add a little water to the bowl (not the peppers!). Sprinkle the top of each pepper with a little extra bread crumbs. Cover with foil and bake in oven at 375 degrees F for 30 minutes, uncover and bake an additional 5 minutes or until lightly brown on top.

In this picture I compared the raw pepper to the blanched one. Blanched one is one the left.




Out the oven:


I'm also linking a video that we liked and watched before we made them but we don’t use the marinara sauce (my grandmother uses the water to steam them instead). Also, I like this lady's use of the different colored peppers. I want to do that when we finally have my parents over for dinner. I think it looks festive with the different colors and the tops! mile:
Screencaps from the video:






Oven Baked Fish
In small bowl mix:
½ cup yellow corn meal
¼ cup white flour
¼ cup seasoned matzo meal or seasoned bread crumbs
Salt and pepper/seasonings (1/4 tsp garlic powder, ½ tsp salt, ½ tsp black pepper)



Fish fillets (tilapia or if you prefer catfish)
1 egg
¼ cup water

Rinse fillets and pat dry with a paper towel.

Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Spray a lot.


Beat water and egg in a shallow bowl. Put half of the corn meal mix into a shallow bowl.
Dip the fillets in the beaten egg, then dredge in the corn meal mixture; transfer to the baking sheet.


Spray the tops with the cooking spray. Cook 375 degrees F for 35 minutes or until brown.



NOTE: If we use trout, we don't use the corn meal.

Buttermilk Biscuits
– from my local newspaper. Lol
So, we cut this recipe in half. And, my bf’s oven cannot be set any higher than 400 degrees without the smoke detector going off. We also used spread margarine the first time we made them and I called my mom in panic because it was pretty sticky and she laughed because apparently you're not suppose to use SPREAD margarine! :redface: She suggested we add more flour but it was still a sticky mess so she told me to just get a spoon and make drop biscuits! So, that's what we did and now it's how we like them because it's fast and easy. :biggrin: They have a really good flavor.

So, lesson learned use STICK margarine or they spreadddddddddddddd! :tongue:
We bake them at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes, watching they don't burn.



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Buttermilk Biscuits:
Makes about 12.

Note: You can substitute additional butter for the shortening, if desired. The biscuits may not be quite as flaky if you do, but will taste just as good. The recipe also can be halved.

• 3 ½ c. all-purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 ½ tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 8 tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-in. pieces and chilled
• 4 tbsp. vegetable shortening, chilled and cut into 1/2-in. pieces
• 1 ½ c. buttermilk

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place the rack in the middle position.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk together.

Add pieces of butter and shortening and, using a pastry blender or fork, cut into the dry ingredients until the pieces are about the size of small peas and evenly distributed. If using a food processor, pulse about 15 times, until the mixture resembles coarse meal.

Stir in the buttermilk, mixing with a spatula until the dough comes together in a rough ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently and briefly, no longer than 30 seconds, until the dough appears uniform. With a rolling pin, roll out the dough to about 1 inch thick.

Dip a 2 ½ -inch biscuit cutter in flour, then press straight down through the dough, without twisting. Place the dough round upside-down on an ungreased baking sheet. Gather the scraps into another inch-thick piece and cut more rounds until all the dough is used.

Bake for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 400 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes, until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Nutrition information for biscuits per serving:
Calories 260 Fat 13 g Sodium 600 mg
Carbohydrates 32 g Saturated fat 6 g Calcium 134 mg
Protein 5 g Cholesterol 22 mg Dietary fiber 1 g
Diabetic exchanges per serving: 2 bread/starch, 2 ½ fat.

The meal: mile: