Briami-a Greek Vegetable casserole

Briami

Warm oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients

21bs Zuccini
1 lb Potato  (some people use eggplant or Okra here)
1 lbs Sweet potato
2 Sweet Peppers
2 cloves of garlic crushed
28 ounces of chopped tomatoes (I use two 14 oz cans)
1/2 tsp Sugar
2 onions sliced
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp fresh parsley
2 tsp fresh dill
1/2 cup olive oil

Directions

 Cut zuccini and potatoes up to roughly the same size.
Remove membrane and seeds from peppers.

Combine together with all ingredients save the oil in a large bowl.

Oil oblong baking dish generously. 

Mixture into dish and bake covered for 75 minutes.

Uncover and continue baking for 15 more minutes.

Thanks to Tess Mallos

Tyropita (Cheese pie)

Preheat oven to 400.

Ingredients

2 cups milk

½ cup  Fine Semolina

2 TBSP butter

1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1 cup crumbled Feta cheese

1/3 cup grated Kefalotiri or parmesan cheese

3 eggs

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

2 TBSP finely chopped parsley (optional)

Salt

White pepper to taste

10 sheets filo pastry

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ cup melted butter

Directions

 Combine milk and semolina in heavy-based pan, add butter and stir constantly over heat until thickened and bubbling.  Reduce heat and let mixture boil gently for two minutes.

Add cheeses and stir well until fully blended.  Remove from heat and occasionally stir while cooling.

Beat Eggs well and stir into cheese sauce.  Add nutmeg, parsley, pepper and salt to taste.  Go easy on the salt as the Feta has plenty!

Butter a 10 by 12 baking dish and line with five of the filo sheets, brushing each sheet with the olive oil and melted butter mixture.

Spread cheese mixture over the five sheets evenly.  Then add the other five sheets of filo to the top of the mixture, tucking in the sheets to the sides of the pan as you go.  Don’t forget to butter each sheet!

Score the top of the pie as desired.  Large or small diamond shapes are traditional.

Sprinkle water on the top of the pie to prevent curling and then bake in hot oven for 30 minutes or until puffed and golden!  Don’t burn the top of the pie!

Cool in dish for ten minutes.  Cut along scored lines and serve hot or warm.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Eat too many of these and you will die!

 2 cups all-purpose flour

 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter, very cold from the freezer

1 cup cold buttermilk

Preheat your oven to 450.

 Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl, or in the bowl of a food processor.

 Grate the butter and toss with the flour until it resembles coarse meal.

 Make a well in the flour and add the buttermilk and mix just until combined. At this point if it appears on the dry side, add a bit more buttermilk. It should be very wet.

 Turn the dough out onto a floured board. Gently, gently PAT (do NOT roll with a rolling pin) the dough out until it's about 1/2" thick.

 Fold the dough about 5 times, gently press the dough down to a 1 inch thick.

 Use a round cutter to cut into rounds.

 Place the biscuits on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper touching each other.

 Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until they are a beautiful light golden brown on top and bottom.

 Do not over bake.

 Hints: You want your ingredients to stay cold so you want to handle it as little as possible or you will have tough biscuits. So work quickly. If you use a food processor the ingredients stay colder and there's less chance of over mixing. You also must pat the dough out with your hands, lightly. Don't roll these with a rolling pin or you will have tough biscuits. You can also make them up and freeze them on a cookie sheet. Once they are frozen, drop them into a Ziploc bag or container for up to one month. Then just bake frozen biscuits as you need them in the oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes

An alternative way to serve them is to melt four tablespoons of butter and two tablespoons of gorganzola and pour that over the finished biscuits.

Pecan Bars

(Cook’s magazine December 2010)

Crust

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/3 cup light brown sugar

¼ cup toasted and coarsely chopped pecans

1 tsp salt

¼ cup baking powder

6 Tbsp butter

Pecan Filling

½ cup light brown sugar

½ cup light corn syrup

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 Tbsp bourbon

2 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp salt

1 egg

2 cups pecan, toasted and coarsely chopped

For the crust

            Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350.  Line a 9 inch square baking pan with foil and spray the foil with cooking spray.

Process the flour, brown sugar. Pecans, salt and baking powder in a food processor until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, about five 1 second pulses.  Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles sand, about eight 1 second pulses.  Pat the mixture evenly into the prepared pan and bake until the crust is light brown and springs back when touched about 20 minutes.

For the Filling

            While the crust bakes, whisk the brown sugar, corn syrup, melted butter, bourbon, vanilla and salt together in a medium bowl.  Whisk in the egg until incorporated.

HOLIDAY BUTTER COOKIES

 by Anita Lewis Isom

24 Tbsp. (3 sticks) salted butter, softened

1 ¾ cups granulated sugar

2 egg yolks

2 tsp. vanilla

3 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Red, pink, orange, or multicolored decorating sugar

Preheat oven to 350.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add yolks and vanilla, beat again to combine, and then beat in flour.

Form dough into 1” balls and arrange on large, ungreased baking sheets, spacing cookies about 2” apart.  Transfer decorating sugar to wide, shallow dishes.  Press 1 ball of dough with the bottom of a decorative patterned glass (I used cookie stamps).  Then dip the glass in sugar and flatten a cookie with it, so the pattern and sugar transfer to the top of the dough.  Repeat with remaining cookies.

Bake until cookies are lightly golden around the edges, 10 to 12 minutes.  Let rest on baking sheets 2 minutes, and then gently transfer to baking racks to cool.

Makes 5 to 6 dozen cookies.

Quiche Lorraine

 (for Bryce and Rachel)

Ingredients

1  nine inch pastry dough

12 slices of bacon, lightly cooked and cut up

1 cup shredded Swiss Cheese (Gruyere or Comte’)

1/3 cup minced onion, lightly sautéed

1 TBSP flour

4 eggs

2 cups whipping cream

¾ tsp salt

¼ sugar

1/8 cayenne pepper

1/8 nutmeg

Directions

Heat oven to 450 degrees

Mix flour with bacon and onion at the last minute of sauté’

Sprinkle bacon, cheese and onions over bottom of the pie shell

Whisk eggs and add remaining ingredients.

Pour over bacon mixture.

Cook in hot oven for 15 minutes.

Turn oven down to 300 degrees and cook for 30 more minutes.

Quiche is done when knife comes out clean.

Let stand for ten minutes before cutting!

Voila’, you have a perfect Quiche!