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[size:17pt]SNAPPER LASAGNA [/size]

Contibuted by:

Joe Wrabek
_________________________
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NOTE: What is sold in most of the U.S. as “red snapper” really isn’t; real red snapper is a Caribbean fish that happens to be poisonous. The stuff marketed as “red snapper” is actually a Pacific Northwest saltwater bottom feeder called the Pacific rockfish, and they come in all sorts of colors—red, black, white, and so on. Really, any relatively tasteless flat fish will work for this.

I.
1 onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 cups (at least) celery, chopped
½ cube butter
basil & garlic salt

II.
2 big carrots, sliced, microwaved on high 4 minutes
2 big mushrooms (or equivalent), sliced
2 cans stewed tomatoes, any style
1 can (maybe 2) tomato puree
¼-tsp. Chili powder
½ tsp. Salt
¼-tsp. Ground black pepper
1 Tbsp. Ketchup (really)
2 large or 3 small bay leaves

III.
1-1/2 lbs. Pacific rockfish, or similar tasteless flat fish
1 egg—mix with fork in separate bowl
flour seasoned with basil and garlic salt, in a bread pan (this is where you’ll dump the fish to be breaded)
8 lasagna noodles
cooking oil & salt for the noodles
grated Parmesan or other hard cheese to sprinkle on top

IN CROCK POT, melt the butter, add the onion, pepper, and celery (plus basil and garlic salt) in GROUP I, cook until the celery starts to get tender. Add the microwaved carrots (plus any leftover water they were nuked in), plus the other ingredients in GROUP II. Cook for a while—I don’t know how long, but crockpots are slow. Another hour, maybe?

Boil water with oil and salt for the lasagna noodles; put the noodles in once water boils. Cook 10 minutes.

Butter bottom and sides of 9x13 glass baking dish. 4 of the cooked lasagna noodles should completely cover the bottom.

Rinse the fish in cold water, dredge each piece in the egg, then cover both sides in the flour mixture. The fish is the second layer in the baking dish.

Ladle the glop in the crockpot over the fish, completely covering the fish and then some. DO NOT use all of it—you will need the rest for the last layer—but it’s good to get most of the chunky vegetables and all the bay leaves in this layer.

Lay last 4 lasagna noodles on top of all this. Cover with the remainder of the glop—make sure the noodles are completely covered, or they’ll get hard. Sprinkle the cheese on top.

BAKE at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let cool. Total prep time for this monster is a good 4 hours, and you will probably use every cooking utensil in the house unless you have a lot of them.

TIPS: If there’s just a couple of you, this will last a couple of days. The leftovers make a good quickie meal—you can nuke individual portions with a slice of cheddar (or other) chees on top for 1 to 1-1/2 minutes.

FAMILY TRADITION has been that whoever finds a bay leaf gets to make a wish. There is no guarantee the wish will be granted—just that you get to make one.

[size:17pt]Dunbar's Chicken for Dummies.[/size]

Contributed by:

Mike Dunbar

Mike Dunbar Music

Get a chicken kill it, clean it, defeather it, field strip it, but leave the skin on. If you bought it dead at a store, take out the bag, put the bag contents in a pot and boil it for the dogs. You might save the livers for breakfast.

Wash out the chicken real well.

Get some potatoes, knock the dirt off, cut them in quarters.

Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Yes, that's right, 500 degrees. Make sure the oven is clean or at least have a fire extinguisher close at hand. You might line the oven with tinfoil, or you might just make a tinfoil hat in case of aliens.

Put the chicken in a roasting pan, put the potatoes around the sides. Put them in the preheated oven. In five minutes, slide the pan out and move the chicken and potatoes around with a wooden spoon so they don't stick to the pan. Every 15 minutes after that, do the same only pierce the chicken with a fork. When the juices are clear and the fork slides in and out easily, the chicken is done and you're finished. The potatoes are also done.

This will be, if not the best, one of the best chicken and potato meals you've ever eaten. One taste of this and you'll slap your granny.

[size:17pt]MODIFIED MOORS & CHRISTIANS[/size]

Contributed by:

Joe Wrabek

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/7/joewrabek_music.htm
http://www.myspace.com/joewrabek
The Writer's Blog: http://nakedspacehamsters.blogspot.com


Another one... This actually has no meat and no seafood in it, but if you're feeling protein-deprived, you can add some when you're boiling everything in the Big Pot (last step of the recipe). Shrimp, crab, bits of fish, &c.



A Cuban dish. The “Moors” are black beans, and the “Christians” are rice, and the message for little Cuban children apparently was that Moors and Christians can coexist. (The corollary—not mentioned—was it worked IF you soaked the Moors overnight and cooked them four times as long, but presumably the Cuban children learned that later, from experience or something.)

Original recipe called only for onion, green pepper, and tomato, and a lot more black pepper. Mine is about half veggies.

GROUP I:
1-1/2 cups dried black beans

GROUP II:
1 cup diced green (or any other color) peppers
1 onion, diced
a whole mess (2 cups?) chopped celery
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. Thyme
3 humongous sprinklings garlic salt
2 Tbsp. Olive oil

GROUP III:
2 large carrots, french cut
enough broccoli & cauliflower to fill a 2-quart saucepan (along with the carrots)
basil & garlic salt to taste

GROUP IV:
1 cup uncooked brown rice
2 cups water
1 15-oz. can stewed tomatoes (I used “Mexican style,” which has little pieces of green chile pepper)
¼-tsp. Chili pepper (I used ½-tsp., and shouldna)
¼-tsp. Black pepper (I used ½-tsp., and shouldna)
½ tsp. Salt
1 more Tbsp. Olive oil

And hiwigo…

Soak the beans (GROUP I) overnight; drain, rinse—all that good stuff—then cook in big pot (you will need the big pot) for an hour. You can record a song in an hour, right? Have all the veggies (GROUP II & GROUP III) ready. The rest of this moves pretty fast.

Timer went off? Remove beans from heat; drain off the water. Put the beans in something else. You’re going to need the pot again.

SIMULTANEOUSLY steam the veggies in GROUP III in water dosed with basil and garlic salt, AND saute the stuff in GROUP II (bay leaf included) in the big wokky frying pan in 2 Tbsp. Oil. When the onion starts to turn transparent, remove BOTH from heat.

Now, everything goes in the big soup pot—first, the remaining 1 Tbsp. Olive oil, then the stuff in GROUP II, then GROUP III, then the beans from GROUP I, then the things in GROUP IV. Stir it up good, bring to a boil, cook covered just barely boiling for 20 minutes.. This cooks the rice, and finishes cooking the veggies (which were not done when originally removed from heat).

And now you may not have to cook for a couple of days, depending on the size of your family.

Southern Fried Chicken With Gravy



Contributed by:

Ben Willis

The secret to perfect fried chicken isn't necessarily in the breading or the "Eleven herbs and spices". The secret to great fried chicken is in the method and skill of the person cooking the chicken.
There are four ways to cook fried chicken. Pan fry, deep fry, pressure fry and oven fry. I will explain how I pan fry chicken in a cast iron skillet. There are plenty of fancy recipes out there using egg wash, milk, honey and other ingredients that make the crust easy to burn if you don't know what you're doing. I use plain flour and some breadcrumbs.
You must keep an eye on the temperature of the oil at all times. This is where people screw up and burn the coating. The chicken has to cook slow at a moderate temperature. Find the Right setting on the stove and leave it there. After adding the oil to the pan, I set the temp to medium high. After the oil begins to heat up I turn it down to medium. If the oil splatters, it is too hot.

About two cups plain flour
1 cup bread crumbs
3 Tbsp salt
1 Tbsp pepper
1 Tbsp granulated garlic
1 whole chicken/ 8 pieces

Put all of the dry ingredients in a plastic bag and shake well to mix.
Prepare cast iron skillet and oil as described above. Wash the chicken pieces. Shake off excess water and place four pieces into bag with breading. Shake well. Remove breaded chicken and shake off excess breading. Repeat with the other four pieces. Put used breading aside. Check the oil again for med to med high temp. When oil is ready, place four pieces into pan. Some people cover the pan but I don't. After about fifteen to twenty minutes, the blood coming from the chicken should be changing in color from red to brown. Turn the chicken over. Fry about another fifteen minutes until you notice "splitting" in the chicken particularly the drumsticks. The chicken is done. If the chicken breast pieces are large, you may have to let them fry a little longer than the other pieces. Be careful not to burn the crust.

Chicken Gravy:
Pour the hot oil out of the skillet leaving about 1/2 cup and breading particles in the bottom of the pan. Add 1 chicken bullion cube to remaining oil in the pan. Add about three to four Tbsp of the breading that you put aside earlier. Using a wire whisk or large spoon return to high heat and stir until breading and bullion are melted. Immediately add one to two cups of water. Stir constantly until thickened. Serve with your favorite mashed potatoes recipe.

[color:#CC0000]Aussie BBQ Rare Roast Beef[/color]


Contributed by:

Niteshift
niteshift at Independent Artists Company
niteshift music at blogspot
niteshift at Taxi
niteshift at mi7

Ingredients/Utensils

1 chunk of beef >2 kg
1 jar vegemite ( do not try to replace with New Zealand marmite )
1 jar whole grain seeded mustard ( do not try to replace with American/English/French mustard )
1 BBQ with hood
1 meat thermometer

Place equal portions of vegemite and mustard into a small bowl to make a thick paste. Smear the paste over the beef, and allow to stand at room temperature for > 1 hr.

Light the BBQ and turn the grill to high. Sear the beef on all sides, turn the temperature to low and close the hood. Cook for >45 minutes, and check the internal temperature of the meat with the thermometer. When the internal temperature hits 80'c , cook for another 5 minutes. Remove, wrap in foil, and allow to rest for 8 minutes. Unwrap, slice and serve.

If the meat appears too dry during cooking, add a little water to the left over maranade, and baste while cooking.

Ummmmmm...... rare with a light crunchy crust....

cheers, niteshift
_________________________

Fried Mullet: Cheese Grits: Pork And Beans, And Hush Puppies


Contributed by:

Ben Willis

http://benwillismusic.com
http://lefthandedguitarplayer.blogspot.com/
http://acousticguitaraccessories.blogspot.com

Often called "poor peoples food" down in southern Florida, this fish fry recipe dates from the great depression and further back. The only modification that I made was to add cheese to the grits, but who knows, they may have put cheese in their grits if they could find it or afford it.
The mullet are plentiful on the Gulf Coast of Florida so all you have to do is catch them. Grits, corn meal and flour are staples that even the poorest people could get. And a can of pork & Beans don't cost so much. Hence "poor peoples food".
For you folks who think that Mullet is a bait fish or some kind of throw away inedible fish then you're fooling yourself because you have never tried it. They can grow as large as one and a half feet long. Their roe is shipped to Asia as a Caviar. They are often smoked. If you can't find any Mullet, Catfish fillets will do.

Preparation: Cut a medium onion in half. Dice one half and chop the other half as fine as possible. Keep them separate and set aside.
Get a small pot of grits started on the stove, four or five servings worth maybe. Add a couple of Tbsps. of butter and a little salt. When done, cover and set aside.
Empty a can of pork & beans into a pot and start heating on low. Add the "diced" half of the onion to the beans. Stir and let them cook.

Hush Puppy mix:
1 1/2 cups corn meal
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
1/2 finely chopped onion (the other half, see above)
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Warm water
Put all of the ingredients into a bowl and stir in warm water a little at a time. Try not to make the batter too thin. Mix by hand until thick enough to pick up a wet ball with a tablespoon. Set aside.

Cheese Grits:
After the grits are done, add a raw egg to the hot grits and stir briskly. Add a cup of shredded cheddar cheese to the hot grits and egg. Continue stirring until the grits change from white in color to yellow. Add more cheese if needed.

Fried Mullet:
Preheat some oil in a cast iron skillet. Just warm it up (not too hot).
Six skinless Mullet fillets
1 cup corn meal
1/2 cup flour
salt and pepper
1 cup milk
Pour the milk into a shallow pan and place the fish into the milk (enough to coat them). Mix together the corn meal, flour, salt and pepper on a flat surface. Check the pork & beans, they should be done by now. Bread the fillets one at a time in the cornmeal mixture and set aside. Turn the stove up under the heating oil to about medium high. Place the fillets in the hot oil and fry. You can probably do the rest own your own. Once the fish are all cooked, re-stir the bowl of hush puppy mix. Drop gobs of hush puppies into the hot oil with a table spoon. Fry until done. Serve the mullet with tarter sauce or squeezed lemon juice.

These are the kinds of meals that my father had as a child during the depression. Food was plentiful in Florida. I still love fish and grits cooked any style today.

[size:17pt]VIETNAMESE FAST FOOD[/size]

Contributed by:

Joe Wrabek

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/7/joewrabek_music.htm
http://www.myspace.com/joewrabek
The Writer's Blog: http://nakedspacehamsters.blogspot.com

I ran across this on a PBS cooking show called “Yann CAN Cook!” I don’t know if it’s still on the air. I’ve used this recipe so long I don’t have any idea how much it resembles what the fellow did. What got my attention was him yelling (I think he always yelled) “I cook you dinner in 15 minutes!” You can do it in less.

“Vietnamese fast food” is FISH, of course, cooked Lao-Tse style—high temperature for a short time. You can use any tasteless flat fish—sole, cod, rockfish (I’ve even used catfish, which does have some taste to it). All the taste is in the batter.

You can do this in the big wokky frying pan if you like; I use an electric skillet. Crank the temperature up to somewhere between 350 and 400 degrees, add any kind of oil (it does not need to be made from virgins), and then (this goes REAL fast):

I. MAKE THE BATTER. One egg, around 2 Tbsp. Cornstarch, some humongous sprinklings of basil and garlic salt and whatever else you like (grated Parmesan cheese is good). Mix it thoroughly with a fork, till it looks like… well, if your dog did something like this, you’d be taking him/her to the vet.

II. CHOP UP 1 whole onion, toss it into the skillet (oil’s hot now).

III. CUT UP 1 POUND OF THE FISH into roughly two-bite sized pieces, mush them around in the batter, and toss them into the skillet.

IV. NUKE 3 BIG CARROTS, french cut, 4 minutes on high in the microwave. Soon as they’re done, toss them into the skillet. (It’s probably time to turn the fish, anyway. They’ll be getting brown on the bottom.)

V. NUKE 2 MEDIUM OR 3 MEDIUM-SMALL POTATOES, any kind, 4 minutes on high in the microwave. Soon as they’re done, slice the potatoes—3 or 4 slices apiece—and dump them in the skillet. Rearrange the fish so it don’t stick. Make sure at least one of the potato pieces is in contact with the bottom of the skillet.

VI. As soon as the abovementioned piece of potato starts to get brown on the side that’s in contact with the bottom of the skillet—less than 2 minutes, believe me—it’s done. Serve it up. You’ll have enough for 3 people, or 2 plus lunch for one the next day.

So… Next time you’re tempted to pop something into the microwave because you don’t have time to prepare dinner, do this instead. Lots healthier, and tastes lots better.

Barbecued Pork Ribs


Contributed by:

Tricia Baker

1 slab pork ribs

Sprinkle with paprika, pepper, garlic powder and a touch of cumin, then rub into the meat. Brush with your favorite barbecue sauce and place on a long metal pan that has been lined with heavy duty aluminum foil. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F, then once up to temp place ribs on uppermost rack. Bake uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes, then cover with heavy duty aluminum foil and bake at 325 degrees F for about 2 hours. Uncover and allow to "rest" before cutting. Once meat has rested for about 30 minutes cut into sections of 2, 3 or 4 ribs and serve with additional barbecue sauce. One slab feeds 2-3 people.

[color:#CC0000][size:17pt]Broiled Salmon Daub[/color]ert
[/size]
Contributed by:

John Daubert

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Wild Salmon, (when possible), broiled in 1/2 inch Olive Oil, (Glass dish) with Thin Sliced Garlic pushed slightly in, with think Lemon Pepper, Sea Salt and Butter. Cindy keeps me around for this! The following are two of the three reasons:

Side dishes, (a MUST):

1. Bush's Baked Beans with Onions. YEP! You read right.

2. Acme's Supreme Seafood Salad. *If not Acme, then I guess some other supermarkets might have a decent mixture. (a 1/4 pound for two people). Adjust from there.

The baked beans really make this meal, as the sweetness of the sauce compliments Salmon as nothing I have tasted. (You can't get this out). That sauce also blends in great with the fish sauce. (Found all that out by not having anything else interesting enough, so I thought to try the Bush's Beans. Everyone loves it and asks for it regularly.

Instructions:


1. Pour in 1/4 inch Olive Oil of choice in glass broiling pan

2. Soak both sides of Salmon. Place as usual.

3. Add eight thinly sliced Fresh Garlic pieces for each piece in zig zag form.

4. Moderately sprinkle Sea Salt

5. Heavily sprinkle Lemon Pepper. Hide the color of thre fish, (mostly). This helps to make a nice crust.

6. Add moderate amount of butter starting in the middle and making sure there will be enough to have the ends cripsy brown from it.

7. Place in the Broiler Section of a regular oven and set on HI for 18 minutes. (The tops should be somewhat chard and crispy). I once had it cooking on LO for 22 minutes. So, see what best for you for your broiler. (Have the pan about 8 inches from the upper flame).

8. When done, carefully move the pan to the top of the stove, (USE OVEN MITS or THICK Hand Towels)! Use the sauce in that glass dish to generously pour over the Salmon on the plates with a ladle, letting it go all over the plate starting on the Salmon. Add on the baked Beans to one side of the Salmon and on the Salmon Sauce. Add the Seafood salad over the sauce on the other side of the Salmon. Add Sea Salt to taste if needed. You might have put enough in before cooking.

9. Eat and go Hmmmmmm (Best to blend any of the three at one time, (two or all three at once on the fork = Extra HMMMM!

Your better half will have sparkly eyes during and after wards.

Enjoy!