Curried Brown Rice Chicken Salad

Oh, this salad is so good! It was served at a luncheon for the staff at my former school during my recent "re-employment". One of the student's mothers in my classroom brought this salad in and everyone raved about it.

She kindly gave me the recipe and I have made it several times since. In fact I am eating a small bowl of it as I write this.

So hear it is. You MUST try it. So simple and there are lots of options for how to prepare it. I have included a few possibilities at the end of the recipe.

2 cups of cooked long grain brown rice, cooled and tossed in a little oil
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup each celery, carrots, red pepper
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped roasted nuts

Dressing: whisk together

2-3 t sweet curry powder
1-2 T sweet or hot mango chutney (chopped if lumpy)
4 T (1/4 cup) mayonnaise
1-2 T vegetable oil
1/4 t salt
1/2 t black pepper

Toss all ingredients in a medium bowl with the rice. Pour dressing over mixture and toss until well blended.

Now for the options!

Add in 1 cup of cooked, chopped chicken. OR, 1 cup of cooked salad shrimp. OR, leave the meat out for a wonderful vegetarian salad. Try different veggies like cucumber, radish, cilantro instead of the parsley, etc. Try chopped, dried apricot pieces or dried cranberries instead of or with the raisins.

Try different types of nuts. Hazelenuts, almonds, cashews, walnuts. Get the idea? It all works with this salad. And did I mention it is SO good!

Bon appetit

New Year's Eve Dinner Bash

Welcome to a new year of The Fork in the Road blogs. I hope your new year has started off on the right foot--healthy and happy!

Our New Year's Eve Dinner Bash theme this year was American Rustic. Meaning pretty much whatever our participants interpreted it to mean but basically foods from the past, and our mains, at least, were to center around foods we caught or hunted ourselves. We have two hunters in our circle of friends and I am a fisherman of sorts and so we had what we needed.

Our menu:

Appetizers: Salmon spread

Mains: Salmon en Croute (Salmon in pastry), Elk Stew, Pheasant

Sides: Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Root Vegetables, Curly Kale Greens and Ham Hocks, Spinach Salad and Brown Rice Salad

Desserts: Indian Pudding and Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

Beverages: Champagne, Wines, Hard Cider, Tea and Coffee +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My recipes were the Salmon in Pastry and the Brown Rice Salad. The salmon sounds a bit pretentious and French and its official title would make that a correct observation. However, meat wrapped in pastry is an American recipe often made in our early history so in my mind it qualifies. Salmon en Croute is basically, salmon wrapped in a pie crust. It is actually pretty simple to create yet it presents like it took hours of trouble and that its creator must be a chef of amazing ability. I must admit it did have me worried since I had never made it before (something I do not advocate) and so I was very nervous about how it would come out.

2 salmon filets
pie crust (store bought or made ahead)
zest from one lemon
fresh dill
fresh basil
1/4 pound of butter, softened
course ground mustard
salt and pepper
eggs, one beaten whole, the other separated using only the white

Remove the skin from the salmon. Dry the filets well. salt and pepper filets.

Spread the butter mixture over one of the filets and the mustard over the other. Place one filet on top of the other so the tail end is on top of the head end. This ensures the thickness is more uniform helping make the salmon cook more evenly. Also, be sure the butter and mustard sides of the filet face each other so they can melt into each other.

Butter Recipe:

In a mixer soften the butter. Blend in bits of the fresh dill and course cut (with scissors) the basil leaves into the mixing bowl. Add in the lemon zest and salt and pepper to mix with spatula blade on the mixer. Spread mixture over the top of one filet.

Mustard: Squeeze the mustard right from the bottle over the other filet and spread.

Place the two filets on top of each other with the sauces facing each other and so the ends of the filets are roughly the same thickness. Place the filets in the center of the pie crust. Brush egg over the exposed pie crust and fold the crust over the fish making a neat package. Roll the package onto a baking sheet.

Brush egg white over the top of the package. Salt and pepper. Using the back of a knife, gently make cross hatching lines diagonally across the top of the package. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 400 degrees until the pie crust is golden brown, about 30-40 minutes.

Bon appetit

Out With The Old

The end is near! 2011 is on its way out and the events of an as yet untried 2012 looms large. What will it bring? The end, as the Mayan's calendar suggests? Or maybe our little planetoid out here on the edge of the Milky Way will be struck by an undetected piece of space debris and sent into a permanent winter. Well, nothing to be done about that, so let's get on with it.

Welcome 2012! Cue the hats and noise makers!

Our family plans at least two marvelous trips overseas in the weeks and months ahead. First, off to Thailand for a a two week, first-time visit to that southeast Asian country. Then a longer trip to Spain and Portugal. I'll be blogging on those two adventures after we arrive back home.

Too, I plan to continue blogging on food matters. My first recipe find of the year will appear in the very next blog. Recipes used to create some of the dishes at tonight's New Year's dinner bash, with the Usual Suspects, will be posted with photos so stay tuned.

Our cruising adventures aboard my beloved Key of Sea will no doubt find their way into the blog. I'm looking forward to the new direction my life will take as a retired member of society. Volunteering, substitute teaching, gardening, photography, books I'm reading, will all be fodder for A Fork in the Road over the next year. So whether the world all comes crashing down, or not, stay with me. Let me know what you think. And whatever you do, do have a very Happy New Year!

Ah, Geez, Not Again!

Do I really have to go through this again? Tidying up once more? Turning in my keys? Saying goodbye once more? I already did this last June. It was heart wrenching and bittersweet that time. Now here I am staring it in the face again.

On Friday, December 16th at 3:10, the school bell will ring and I will stand at the door to the classroom and accept the hugs and goodbyes and the "we'll miss you Mr. Gs" from my class. Then I will take one last look around the room making sure it is straightened for when their teacher returns in January. I'll turn off my computer after turning on the "out of office" feature on my school e-mail, again. I'll pick up my coffee cup, lock the door and sign out at the office one last time.

This class of students are among the very best, if not THE best class I have had in 0ver 33 years of teaching. They are also just really nice people. I'll miss that. A lot!

So as the last few days come and go, I am trying to let the day switch into slow motion, enjoying every moment as if it will be the last. Because the likelyhood is that it will be the last. Oh, I'll sub for a day here and there, but long-term gigs don't come along very often and to have it include a class like this one. . .well, that happens once in a lifetime.

I know they'll be in very good hands when I leave. My teaching partner of 16 years will be back and she'll make math come alive in ways I can't. She'll teach them to play the ukuleles in the room, to love poetry and she'll be there to come back and see next year.

I move on to enjoy a 9 month sabbatical my wife has earned from the University and we'll travel across the planet to places we've never been and that will be so much fun! But I am going to miss this class, terribly! If I am lucky, maybe Ms. Vaughn will need to take another day or two off as the year progresses and I will be available to come back even if only for a day. I will look forward to that.

Thanksgiving Leftover Idea!

With six Thanksgiving weekend visitors in our house, our daughter and her husband plus 2 couples friends of theirs, we needed to stretch the leftovers to the max.

By this morning, we had gone through the turkey and ham leftovers. We were down to the last few bits and pieces of this and that.

I stared into the fridge wondering what I could do with what was left to make a tasty breakfast this morning before the crowd headed off on the long drive back to their homes and our home returned to its quiet normalcy.

A hefty bowl of mashed potatoes, another of dressing sat staring back at me. Hmmm. Potato pancakes with a twist?

The dressing had chunks of sourdough bread, onions, celery, sausage, Granny Smith apples, raisins and dried cranberries.

I dumped the potatoes and dressing into a larger bowl, added 3 eggs and folded the ingredients together.

A large skillet with a few ounces of olive oil rolled around in it over a medium heat and we were ready to go.

I formed 6 inch patties (or rather my daughter did this cooking part) and placed them into the hot oil. A few minutes on each side and the pancakes were ready. They were creamy and chunky at the same time. When you think about it, it was a complete breakfast in a single patty. Meat, potatoes, fruit, eggs and veg.

They were all eaten with lots of yummy sounds coming from all corners of the table.

Options:

Sprinkle the tops with a bit of grated cheddar cheese or hot sauce or, as some did, some English Daddies sauce.

It could also be dumped into a greased 8 1/2 by 11 casserole and baked topped with grated cheddar cheese.

Just another way to use up those leftovers.

Bon appetit!

Thanksgiving 2011 Menu Announced

Our family and friends will gather on Thursday of next week and fill our home with laughter, music, games and I am sure plenty of lively conversation. Everyone will contribute to the feast. All twenty-two of them at last count. Empty nesters, single folks, young couples far from their own family, friends or friends.

Every bed will be filled and the couches and the inflatible beds. Folks will gather around the fireplaces and in the hot tub. When the dinner is over and cleared up, folks will wander off in different directions. Some will take a hike or take a nap. Later on, someone's head will surely be searching the fridge for a midnight snack and some will return from their hikes looking for hot cider or cocoa. It is sure to be a great weekend!

So, here it is folks! A drum roll, please!!!

The Thanksgiving menu for 2011 at the Guelker-Cone family and friends annual feed will be:

Appetizers

Cheese and Pate Plate

Rotel Dip with Fritos

Smoked Salmon with Cream Cheese, Capers and Red Onions

Dinner

Smoked Slow Roasted Turkey, smoked inmy own smoker

Smoked Slow Roasted Spiral Ham, also smoked in my smoker

Mashed potatoes

Apple Cider Gravy

Cornbread and Sausage Dressing

Cranberry Fluff Salad

Corn Casserole

Pan Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Hazelnuts

Green Bean Casserole

Pineapple Casserole

Fresh Vegetable Platter

Rolls and Butter

Assorted Desserts:

Pies and Cookies

Beverages

Wines
Cider

Coffee and Tea

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pork Vindaloo a Hit!

Thanks to Sunset Magazine, our first foray into Indian cuisine came out a complete success. The Pork Vindaloo recipe in their latest issue was attempted in our kitchen over the past two days with the goal of serving it to our group of Usual Suspects! A rich combination of fire and spice, this vindaloo was a big hit at our recent dinner and provided us with days of leftovers. Do be cautious with the chiles as the Arbols are a spicy beast. I tasted the stew after I browned the meat to check for the heat level and wound up adding more chilies but still only about 3/4 of what the recipe asks for. Proceed at your own risk!

Ingredients

2 pounds of pork butt or shoulder or lamb, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
2-inch piece of cinnamon stick, shattered
6-8 dried red Thai or Arbol chiles, divided
1 1/2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
3 tablespoons cider vinegar, divided
1 tablespoon tamarind pulp or 1 tablespoon of tamarind concentrate
1 tablespoon minced ginger
10 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons coconut or peanut oil, divided
3 white onions, cut into half moons
1 tablespoon packed dark brown sugar
3 Roma tomatoes, cut into big chunks or 1can small can of whole tomatoes
4 green cardamom pods, split
1/2 to 1 teaspoon cayenne (optional)
1/4 cup toasted chopped cashews
chopped cilantro (optional)

Preparation

1. Rub pork all over with 1 teaspoon of salt. In a spice grinder combine peppercorns, cumin, cloves, cinnamon, half the chiles and paprika. Grind to powder and turn into a bowl with a mixture of 2 tablespoons of vinegar, the tamarind, ginger, garlic and 1 teaspoon oil. Place cubed meat into a gallon zip lock bag and pour spice mixture in with the meat. Seal the bag and squish the contents together until well mixed. Chill overnight.

2. Heat 1 teaspoon of oil in a large dutch oven over medium heat. Fry onions until browned. Scoop out and set aside. Add remaining oil and add meat. Cook until browned.

3. Return the onions to the pot along with brown sugar, tomatoes, cardamom pods, remaining whole chiles (split them before adding), 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, and 1 cup of water. Bring to a boil, then simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours or until meat is very tender. If stew is very liquidy after an hour, continue simmering with the lid off. Season to taste with salt, vinegar and cayenne if using. Top with cahews and cilantro.

Serves about 4-6

Serve the Vindaloo over a saffroned Basmati rice. We doubled the recipe and cut down a bit on the chiles. Be careful, they are hot!

Bon Appetit!