Israeli Couscous Mediterranean Salad

 Our August weather is still holding up quite nicely and with the sun shinning and the out door temperatures still hovering up there a cool salad for supper seemed to be the answer for a quick supper meal.

 I had some cooked shrimp in the freezer, olives and feta are a staple in our house as are grape tomatoes,cucumbers and a bunch of dill...this was definitely becoming a Mediterranean salad.  I had some Israeli couscous which is actually a wheat pasta, but you could use whatever pasta or orzo you have at hand.Voila Done.

MUSTARD DILL DRESSING
1/4 cup fresh dill
3 T. Dijon mustard
1/4 c. good white wine vinegar
1/2 C olive oil
salt and pepper
Pulse first 3 ingredients in blender, then gradually pour in the olive oil, season to taste.

SALAD
Prepare 1 lb. Israeli couscous according to instruction.(Ratio 1cup to 4 cups of water.)
1large cucumber peeled and cubed
3 -4 green onions sliced
1 sl. package of grape tomatoes , halved
1/2 c.cup lalamata olives  halved
20 shrimp cooked

Note: The hubby loved the salad, but he did make a suggestion and that was to have grilled the shrimp or served them up in a garlic butter with bay spice. I had just defrosted the cooked shrimp and tossed them in the dressing along with the rest of the ingredients. Maybe a little bland. Your choice. 

PEROGIES Part II

It's the first of November and it is beautiful outside. The sun is shinning and Ron and I should have taken a drive in the country, but last night I boiled and got my potatoes ready for my annual perogie making session , so I stuck to my original plan and got on with the work.

This is actually my second post on making perogies, I posted last year on the 9th of December on a wintry snowy day, but I fear that I may have scared some of you off from attempting these delicious little dough filled pastas. Last year I roughly made 15 dozen, as I did today , mainly because they freeze so beautifully and it is great to have a bag of these that you can easily defrost and presto a great home-cooked meal. I know that you can just as easily go to your local supermarket and pick up a bag of machine made perogies, but trust me they don't even come close to the REAL thing. So today I took particular care about counting, and measuring and have figured out for you a one batch recipe that will easily yield 36 or more perogies depending on the size of your cut-out. I usually make a double batch times two and I can easily get over 150 of them. But working solo to make that amount takes at least 6 hours and I realize that many young moms work and would rather do other things on a Sunday morning with their families that make perogies!

So, to give you some encouragement, here is a recipe that will take just a fraction of the time, yield at least 3 dozen and you can probably even freeze some for another meal.

FILLING

I made a Potato, cheddar ,onion filling today, but fillings are endless so use your imagination. Cheeses can range from Quark, Ricotta , to Cheese Whiz or Kraft Singles. You can add onions, bacon bits, parsley or whatever spice, herb that you like in your potatoes. I make perogies with a mushroom filling and a sauerkraut filling and even a ground meat filling. Like i said use your imagination.

Boil around 6-8 potatoes of medium size.

Drain and Mash potatoes with 250 Gr. of grated cheddar cheese. I used medium cheddar.

Saute 1 diced onion in some butter until translucent and add to mashed potato.

Set aside and let cool.

Take a soup spoon and scoop the mixture and form into little balls , this will be your filling. I do these balls in stages as I fill the perogies

SOFT RICH DOUGH

You will need to boil 1 potato in some water before you start the dough. Take out the potato and mash it while it still warm, save the potato water as you will need it, let it cool to lukewarm.

IN YOUR FOOD PROCESSOR

Add 1/2 cup of mashed potato ( that you boiled and set aside, not the filling)

Add 1/2 cup of lukewarm potato water

2 egg yolks

2 T. of oil,or shortening

Add 2 cups of flour mixed with 1 tsp. cream of tarter

Pulse until a ball forms.

Remove from Processor and place in a bowl to knead lightly,add 2 T. of flour at a time just until dough does not stick to your hands. Roughly 1/4 cup rarely more. This is a lovely rich soft dough. Let rest for 10 minutes in the bowl covered with a cloth.

Split the dough in 3 sections and roll out on a lightly floured board . The dough will roll out easily use a round cookie cutter, glass rim or even an empty cleaned soup can as a cutter, as this is a good size for the rounds. Naturally the bigger your circle the more filling you will need and then you also end up with less than 3 dozen. But by all means if a bigger circle is easier to work with then use it till you get the hang of making smaller ones.

Take one of your circles , stretch it out a bit like a pizza, the dough is elastic and will stretch easily, fill it with the filling, wet half of the edge with some water fold it in half and pinch the dough together. Make sure you pinch it closed as otherwise it will open when you boil them.

Place pinched and filled perogies on a clean towel. When hey are all complete, Bring a big pot of salted water to a boil. Place around 8-10 of your perogies into the boiling salted water. When they rise to the top they are done. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in cold water if you are planning on freezing them. Them remove from cold water ,pat dry , freeze on an oiled tray for 20 minutes then bag them for later use.

OTHERWISE, continue boiling the batches, remove from boiling water, OMIT cold water bath , place on tray and when ALL perogies are boiled, in a clean frying pan melt some butter and saute about 1/2 a diced onion. When lightly browned add your boiled perogies to frying pan, just to reheat them and serve immediately with a dollop of sour cream.

I know it sounds long but it truly isn't if you make a batch. Get the kids to help pinch and your hubbie to do the boiling. It really is easy and delish..... and then again you can double the recipe and really go to town !

Roast Pepper pasta

So you've heard that saying when life hands you lemons, make juice? Well we've been busy here at home and sometimes even though the urge is there to make an elaborate meal, sometimes it's just easier to succumb to the fatigue and make something super simple.

For us that usually means a pasta dish. So just take whats hanging around , for us it was some tomatoes and peppers and make a sauce for the pasta. No recipe today as I'll let the pictures do the talking. Boiled some pasta, roasted some peppers added the tomatoes from the garden ,red ones that got made into sauce, yellow ones to garnish. A little parmigiano and a simple quick meal. Enjoy.

PEROGIES, PEREHE, VARENEKY.

We are having a snowstorm today and as I will be housebound it's a good day to make perogies. Let me warn you I know a few people that can single- handily polish a dozen of these off by themselves. Therefore, you might as well take the morning and make at least a hundred of these to eat and freeze. Yes you heard me correctly ...at least a hundred!
The picture above shows a few rows in progress. Once they are all filled and pinched , I head over to the stove and the boiling begins.

No pretty pictures today, perogie making is serious business in my house and I had already planned on making this an all day event, as I am going to freeze these guys and have packages on hand not just for the holidays but also for those other cold winter days when I don't particularly want to shop or cook.

The above photo is of the perogies as they come out of the boiling water. I place about a dozen in a large pot of salted water and when they are floating to the top they are ready to be pulled out. At this stage you can then either serve them with a little melted butter , some sauteed onions and a nice dollop of sour creme. Some people like to fry them up also in the butter and onion and this produces a firmer perogie with a crisp skin. You can even deep fry their perogies. I prefer mine just boiled with some sour creme.

As mentioned no pretty plated picture, as my main goal was to go into production to freeze them. I should have taken a picture of how I do that instead of just showing you them in the freezer bag. But what I do after I've drained them is I lay them out on a greased tray and place them in the freezer for about 15-20 minutes. When they are slightly frozen I them bang the tray to loosen them up and then place them in the freezer bag. To reheat them I either reboil them from the frozen state or I just fry them up.

A note of interest, you can go on any Internet site and find a pirogi dough recipe, but believe me it will not be this one and may I say that no pirogi that you buy in the store will measure up to the quality of this recipe.

My MIL was born in Winnipeg, to Ukrainian parents she was ,"Baba ", to my children and to this day I have to compete with her recipes. Baba passed away in 1990, and if I want to take shortcuts with her recipes, I hear about it!

In truth, if you are going to make these, you might as well go for the best dough recipe and the best ingredients.

Perogies can be filled with almost anything you can imagine. The originals were made with cottage cheese and potatoes, now a days most people like the cheddar /potato version, while others like them with velveta cheese/potatoes. Bacon and or onion can also be added to the filling. Other fillings are mushrooms, sauerkraut, meat and fruit.

I boiled a 5 lb. bag of russet potatoes, mashed them , added sauteed onions, butter and cheddar cheese.and added them to the hot mashed potatoes. Seasonings are just salt/pepper to taste, but remember you can "Do it your way."Let this cool before filling the Perogies.

I always like to double the recipe , mainly because I make a lot of them so what will follow is the single recipe.

Paulina's Rich Soft Dough for Perogies

1/2 cup mashed potatoes

2tsp. shortening softened

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup lukewarm water (left over from the boiled potatoes)

2 cups flour

1 tsp. cream of tartar

Combine the mashed potatoes, shortening egg yolks and potato water. (you can do this in the food processor) other wise, beat well.

Stir 1 3/4 cup of flour with the cream of tartar, then stir into the potato mixture to form a soft dough. Add the other1/4 cup of flour 2 T. at a time until dough no longer sticks to your hands. Knead lightly , cover and let stand to rest for about 15 minutes.

Break off a section, roll out and using a round cookie cutter, or an empty Campbell soup can makes a nice size, shape out your rounds. Take each round fill it with the filling fold in half and carefully pinch the dough firmly, otherwise they will open when you boil them.

I like to fill all my perogies, cover them with a tea towel, and when they are all done then I proceed with the boiling of the.

Either enjoy them immediately or prepare for freezing.

Squash Ravioli With Sage Butter Sauce

Another recipe from the Fall LCBO magazine. Actually this time I didn't plan on making this but was actually going to make a squash soup.However, my sister Heidi brought over Tupperwares filled with Yellow squash soup, cauliflower soup, onion soup and mushroom soup with a label that said to add cream! Let's not forget the Borscht that I made last week, do you blame me for not wanting to cut up the butternut squash and turn it onto soup!#? So instead it sat on the counter under the microwave and today after a week of sitting there it was finally "D" day or at least "R" day for Ravioli.
I made a quick trip to the grocers for some Chinese dumpling wrappers, I would have preferred round ones but alas they only had square ones. I started making the ravioli by using 2 wrappers and keeping them square, but after making a few of them this way I wanted to make them smaller and just used one sheet and folded them on the diagonal to form little triangles. You can choose to make them any way you want.

Squash Stuffing

5 T unsalted butter

1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes

2 C cooked and mashed butternut squash or Hubbard

1/4 C Amaretto cookie crumbs

Salt to taste

2 egg yolks (save whites for brushing the dumplings)

1/2 C Parmesan cheese grated

1/2 C fresh white bread crumbs

RAVIOLI

24 round or square wonton wrappers

egg whites

GARNISH

Melted butter about 1/2 C and sage leaves

2 T lemon juice

1/2 C grated Parmesan

Peel and boil squash.Melt butter with the red pepper flakes. Add squash, crumbs salt and mix well.Pure mixture and let cool. Add egg yolks, Parmesan,and bread crumbs and combine.

Lay out wrappers on tray. Spoon out mixture on centre of wrapper brush edges with the egg whites , sealing edges well. making sure to squeeze out any air bubbles. Repeat

Heat olive oil and add sage on medium heat .Don't burn, reserve as garnish.

Bring large pot of water to boil. add ravioli when they float to the top about 3 minutes take them out with a slotted spoon and lay on a oiled cookie sheet so that they don't stick.

To make sauce melt butter add more fresh sage leaves and cook for 2 minutes until butter is a golden brown color. add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Toss in ravioli and garnish with sage leaves and extra Parmesan cheese.