Eastern European

 

Potato Pancakes with Jalapeno and Horseradish Creme

Ingredients:

A few large potatoes

Onion

A few jalapenos

egg yolk

sour cream

horseradish 

herbs

Matzo meal

Shred up the potato's chop the onions and jalapenos and mix up with egg yolk and matzo meal. Heat up some oil on medium and start spooning clumps onto the pan and cook on both sides until golden brown.  

For sauce mix sour cream with a bunch of horseradish and add some god damn herbs and maybe some hot spice.

Koreastern European Reuben

I know kimchee isn't Eastern European, but it is such a fantastic Korean substitute for sauerkraut!  Not that I don't like sauerkraut; I just love kimchee in a sandwich.

Corned Beef - 1 1/2lbs

Swiss cheese - 1/2 lb

Rye Bread - 1 loaf

Kimchee - 12oz

Thousand Island dressing

Butter

Take two slices of bread and butter one side of each slice.  Then put dressing on the opposite side of each slice.  Generously add corned beef to one slice, spread a layer of kimchee, and lay two slices of Swiss on top.  Add the top slice of bread and fry until the bread crisps up and the cheddar is melted.  I used a George Foreman for this.

Roasted Beets 'n Goat Cheese

They like beets in Eastern Europe, right? Everybody likes beets. And if you don't, get the fuck out of my kitchen.

This is a recipe I made up because City Market is boycotting Brussels Sprouts. Or they're out of season. Whatever. You know what's not out of season? Beets! Though evidence is inconclusive, I imagine this dish has been enjoyed by many an Eastern European on a cold August night.

A variety of beets (I used a few from our csa, and supplemented with some golden and purple beets)

walnuts, chopped (I think I used maple-glazed?)

goat cheese

a drizzle of honey

Slice beets (vary the thickness, ranging from thin larger slices, to halving or quartering the smaller beets). Toss lightly with oil in a baking pan, mixing up the colors and sizes of the beets, and roast @ 400 for 30 mins or more, depending on how roasted you like your beets. Cool a bit and toss with goat cheese and walnuts. Delicious @ any temp!

Indian

Saaaaaaag


This is a delicious way to use up all that spinach (or any other greens you have - "saag" literally just means "greens," so you can throw kale/chard/beet greens, or whatever you've got that's green right in there) you keep getting from your CSA. Use less green stuff/more water if you want a saucy saag, and load up on the greens if you prefer a thicker, heartier dish. Either way, it's great over rice, with naan or bread, or mixed up with your favorite foods (I had leftovers mixed in w/ pasta and it was delish). Popular variations include saag paneer (traditionally with a mild Indian cheese, but some prefer cheddar...) and channa saag (with cooked chick peas).

As much spinach/greens as you can handle
A whole buncha garlic
fresh ginger, chopped up
onion/shallot
coriander
cumin
curry
salt&peppa
whatever other spices you like (I used feve tanka, my favorite Ethiopian spice that you probably don't have)
lemon/lemon juice
yogurt
water

food processor/blender

Saute the chopped onion, garlic, ginger & spices 'til lightly browned. De-stem and chop up the spinach and throw it in a big ol' pot w/ the spices n' such.  Add just enough water so's it doesn't burn or stick to the pot. Let the spinach simmer down @ medium heat until the water boils. Then simmer low for 10-15. Turn it off & let cool for a few. Puree it all in a food processor or blender. Put back in the pot and add lemon&yogurt (until it's the consistency you want) and simmer on low until everybody else gets their shit together. It could be a while. Enjoy.

Mediterranean Culture

Greek Panzanella

First potluck culture of the year I really stepped my game up and put this dish on the table.  People were really impressed.

Ingredients:
slab of French bread
olive oil
large cucumber
red bell pepper
yellow bell pepper
1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes halved
red onion
1/2 pound feta
1 cup olives
dressing:
ton of garlic
dried oregano
dijon mustard
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
salt, pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

First slice up the bread into medium sized cubes drizzle with olive oil and salt and saute in pan until becomes golden brown. Set aside.  Chop up all the veggies into bite size pieces and put in large bowl.  Whisk together olive oil, vinegar, garlic, oregano and mustard in another bowl. Add salt and pepper. Pour dressing over veggies and mix thoroughly. Add bread and crumble in feta.  Mix more.  Let sit room temperature for half hour.

The longer you let this sit, the more everything gets soaked up and better it tastes.  Kent only eats panzanella if its a day old.


WAAAY TOO MUCH COUS COUS (or "cosktsi" as they say on the Med/wherever Arabic is spoken)

Make sure you make enough to feed everyone on the Mediterranean. What with the political turmoil & tough times& all, they could really use some extra cous cous...

A shit ton of cous cous
eggplant and/or squash/zucchini
chickpeas or fava beans
edamame
garlic
onion
peppers
mushrooms?
spinach/kale
just about any veggies you can think of
chili/cayenne 
harissa - a spicy North African paste made of crushed chilis and olive oil - you can find it @ natural food stores or many int'l food sections of grocery stores (tomato paste/sauce and any hot sauce you like works too, just spice it up)

Saute all your vegs first while the never-ending pot of cous cous is cooking up. Traditionally, the cous cous is cooked in a makful ("mock-fool"), a ceramic pot with the cous cous cooking in a level on top of the sauce, kind of like a double-boiler, so all the spices soak into the grains). If your makful is dirty, just cook whatever spices/sauces you want on the side & stir 'em in, but make sure it's not some bland plain boring cous cous with no sauce/spice mixed in or you'll be on potluck probation (ie. banned from the next potluck but required to make a dish that knocks our socks off or you'll never be invited back). 

I actually really don't remember what went into this particular cous cous as it was many moons ago (there may have been some master veggie sauce or carrot cayenne hot sauce in there?). Just throw whatever veggies are in season/in your fridge and sauce it up. Dry cous cous is bullshit. Remember to make enough so you'll be eating it for weeks. Leftover cous cous is great in tacos&burritos!

Southern Culture

Mashed sweet potatoes with brown sugar and pecans

Mama Higgins showed us this one a couple’a years back. This dang stuff is so sweet ya might not even want dessert! Grig always asks to lick the dish after, so make sure there’s enough left on the sides.

Ingredients:

Enough sweet potatoes so everyone has at least half a sweet potato

a couple handfuls of brown sugar (taste it)

about 3/4 a stick of butter

a handful of pecans broken up into small pieces

1 egg

Preheat the oven to 350.

Bake the potatoes till they done or cut ‘em up n boil ‘em! Either way, yer gonna mash ‘em!

add half the butter, most of the brown sugar, and the egg to the taters and mix it up real good. Put the mix in an oven pan. Sprinkle them pecans even on top and slice up the rest of the butter n do the same. Sprinkle with a little brown sugar and put ‘em in the oven for 10-15 minutes. Dang!


Cream Biscuits and Herb Sausage Gravy


This dish is just great yall.  Folks will gobble it up faster than a horny possum chasing a muskrat. 


Bread's Biscuits


1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 stick COLD butter
1/3 cup shortening
3/4 cups cream (can use milk or half and half)


Preheat oven to 400.  Mix up all of em dry ingredients in a bowl thoroughly.  Next, chop the butter in small cubes and work into flour also adding the shortening until pea size butter/shortening crumbs are formed.  Next mix in cream with fork until the batter comes together.   Either roll out and cut out circles, spoon out small clumps on to greased baking sheet or just fill a baking dish with batter.  Bake about 15 minutes or until starting to turn golden brown.


Sausage Herb Gravy


1 onion
1 green pepper
Red pepper flake
1 lb breakfast sausage
4 tbs butter
4 tbs flour
4 cups whole milk
Fresh Thyme
Fresh Sage
Salt + Pepper


Cook sausage, onions, peppers in pan until sausage is fully cooked.  Next add pepper flake, butter, flour, thyme and cook for 5 minutes.  Slowly add milk, stirring frequently and making sure it stays thick and delicious.  If at any point it becomes to milky, just add more flour.  Make sure you add salt and lots of pepper if you haven't already.  Add more thyme too.  It should be looking pretty amazing.


When serving you are going to want to grab a few biscuits and pour a hefty amount of gravy over the biscuits. Next pour gravy onto everything else on your plate since its flavor is surely superior.


Mess O' Greens


Hoooooweeeeeeeee!  I love me some mess o' greens. I remember mama Higgins doggin me for hoggin all the likker, but lord I cant help myself it tastes so good!


Ingredients:
Two bunches of collards
Butter
Garlic
Salt
Pepper


Remove the stems from the greens, and tear them in to pieces bout the size of a pig snout.  Boil um them greens, and cook in the water for a long time til they're soft as the skin on Greg's cheeks.  The waters gonna get all green and such, which means you got some good likker fit for dippin. Once its boiled down, which'll take about two hours, add the butter, salt, pepper, and enough garlic to make your chops tingle. Serve um up in the likker, and make sure all the folks know its good for dippin. 


How to get Dylan to slow cook a brisket for yeh....


First, offer your oven to slow cook the brisket in, because your at work, no one's at home, (it's July, don't want nobody uncomfortable at home, w/o a crockpot you's a fool like me), but this works brilliantly. Leave the front door unlocked, or at least a first floor window, to allow the Dylan to come in when he finally smells his way to the brisket. The Dylan will then add potatoes to the juices and laugh loudly and menacingly.

Ingredients...............brisket; big and beaten heavily

then marinated in oil, red wine vinegar, brown suga, dans spice, worcheshire, bbq sauce what else................garlic, onion, green pepper, pepper pepper, pepper pepper pepper, pepper dylan pepper dylan pepper

patience pays off

Recap: Marinate Brisket overnight in olive oil, red wine vinegar, bbq sauce, worchestershire, garlic, onions, kent's pepper mix, brown suga, red pepper flake and more garlic.

Next, slow cook brisket for about 8 hours at 200 degrees.

Corn Fritters
Fritterin' tasty. I ended up making a double batch cause just 1 is never enough.


1 c. flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/2 c. milk
butter (few tbsps)
corn (cut off the kernel, 4 or 5 cobs, or a bag of frozen corn)

dash o' sug

salt, pepper, spice mix

I topped it with spicy carrot cayenne sauce &sour cream. Hot dang!


Mix up yer flour, baking powder, sugar, spices. Melt the butter (just let a hot day down South do its thang). Beat the egg and mix in milk and melted butter. Mix it all together, but don't worry bout the chunks. Should be a pretty thick dough. Heat up some oil and drop in a big ol' spoonful. Fry 'er up. Let 'em cool for a sec, pat down with paper towels and gobble 'em up.

Mexican Culture

Chicken Enchiladas 

Bread, Elysia and I have cooked this dish several times-- it always comes out a little different, but you can’t go wrong if you follow all the basic steps and taste the chicken before you wrap it up. Remember: If you don’t take the time to shred the chicken, then we wont take the time inviting you the the next potluck.

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken breasts and thighs

El Kentero’s caliente spice mix

Hot Sauce (vinegar based)

Cumin 

Whole wheat tortillas

Onion

Milk

Crushed tomatoes (fire roasted if you can find them)

Garlic

Cheddar

A can of enchilada sauce

Sour Cream 

Pan fry the chicken on medium heat until it’s brown on both sides. Reduce the heat, then add the crushed tomatoes, cumin, hot spice, and hot sauce. Simmer until the tomatoes have reduced a little. Put the chicken and half of the tomato mixture in a bowl. Add the chopped onion. With two forks, pull apart the chicken. Mix the chicken up until it’s all smothered in the mix. 

Put some warmed milk in bowl and then soak all of the tortillas for a minute or so.  Wrap up the chicken with an equal amount of shredded cheese. Once they’re all wrapped up and packed in, pour the remaining tomato sauce over the top, then cover it in shredded cheese. Then, top it off with some enchilada sauce. Serve with sour cream and hot sauce.

Crispy Fish Tacos

Absolutely nothing can beat these fish tacos mang. Nada!

Ingredients:
1lb Tilapia, Haddock or Cod
Generous amount of El Kenteros caliente spice mix
Salt and Pepper
Bread Crumbs
Some Milk
jalepeno
Greens or cole slaw
Salsa
Avacado
Pepper jack cheese
Sour cream
Corn tortillas or gorditas 
Hot sauce(s!)

First pat the fish fillets dry and season. Next mix up bread crumbs with Kenteros spice and deposit onto plate. Dip the fillets in milk, then roll around in the bread crumbs until coated. Lay fillets on a buttered baking dish and top with slices of jalapeno.  Next baked the fish on very high heat for about ten to fifteen minutes or until the bread crumbs are getting crispy and lightly shred the fish into a size that you would like in a taco.  Arrange all the other ingredients on a table so everyone can make there own and warm up the tortillas in a oven or in some hot oil briefly. 

Be wary, this dish will make your legs shake like that time Dylan stuffed his pants with Mexican jumping beans.

French Culture

Coq au Vin

This is one of my favorite dishes to make, so I had to bust it out for French culture. Don’t fuck around and try to make this with white wine. Actually, don’t even bring white wine to French culture. 

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken breasts and thighs

Flour

Cab Sauv or Shiraz (mmm Bota Box)

Tons of Garlic

More Garlic

Bacon 

Butter

Onion

Brown Sugar

Salt and Pepper

Cook the bacon in a larger skillet until crispy. Set it aside, pour out maybe half of the fat.

Mix up some flour, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Rinse off the chicken and then cover it in the flour mix. Cook the chicken in the bacon fat for 10 minutes on each side, or until golden brown. After the chicken has been cooking for 10 minutes, toss the diced onion in there. Now comes the fun part: pour in a bunch of wine so the chicken is about a quarter or half submerged, then add the garlic, bacon, brown sugar (not too much), salt and pepper. Simmer until the sauce has reduced down to a nice consistency, and be sure to smell and taste it a bunch of times, adding more sugar, salt, or pepper depending on what your tongue tells you. Once its just right, have everyone around have a little taste of the sauce on its own before you serve it up.

Broccoli in white wine lemon garlic cream

Sorry Dan but there is one exception to no white wine at french culture.  

Lots of Broccoli

Dry White Wine 

Heavy cream

Onions

Garlic

The juice of lemons

White peppercorns (or just pepper)

Salt

Butter 

Steam broccoli to perfection.  Fry up onions in butter and once they are soft add garlic.  Add about a half cup of wine and bring to boil.  Add another cup of wine and cook for about 10 minutes. Reduce heat a bit and add about a cup of cream and cook down for another ten or so.  Add lemon juice and pepper. Pour over steamed broc before serving.  

Bacon wrapped dates stuffed with blue cheese

You will literally die when you eat these. Literally. I haven’t met a single person who has had these and hasn’t died.

Ingredients:

a bunch of dates

half as many bacon slices as dates

enough blue cheese to stuff the number of dates

Preheat the oven to 375.

Cook the bacon for a couple minutes to cook off most of the excess fat , remove the bacon from the pan and set the bacon aside.

Slice each date down the middle and stuff with a little blue cheese. Wrap each date with a half bacon slice and secure each one with a toothpick. 

Put the dates in an oven pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the bacon is browned (It’s best to check periodically).

Prepare to die.

Southeast Asian Culture

Asian Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

Sensai Kent’s hot spice mix

Chicken

Butter

Your favorite spicy Asian sauce (we used Buffalo Wild Wings Asian Zing, a hot chili sauce)

We served these wings as an appetizer while everyone was jamming to Yoshida Brothers, drinking, and finishing their dishes. Everyone pigged out on these wings-- Dylan’s lip was quivering he liked them so much. 

Boil some water, mix in a bunch of table spoons of hot spice mix (some cayenne, paprika, onion power, pepper, and other stuff). Boil the chicken wings in there for 10 to 15 minutes. 

Remove the chicken wings and place them on a baking sheet. Rub some butter all over them til both sides are nice and buttery. 

Broil the wings at 425, and flip them once they start looking all brown and crispy. Probably around 10 minutes on each side. 

Take the wings out of the oven and put them in a bowl. Then pour some sauce in there and flip the wings around til they’re covered. Let everyone eat them straight out of the bowl, and don’t pass out the napkins until they’re all gone.

Vegetable Lo Mein

Get down on this easy chinese inspired munch.  Make a shit load because its just as good a day old and cold.

Ingredients:

Dried Asian noodles or thin spaghetti 

Red bell pepper

Green bell pepper

Sweet Onion

Butter

Garlic

Mushrooms

Shallots

Water chestnuts

Hoisin Sauce

Soy Sauce

Sesame seeds 

Cook the noodles but DO NOT overcook them. Begin to fry up the peppers and onion in a pan with some butter (salt and pepper).  Add the mushrooms garlic shallots and water chestnuts and a little soy sauce once the onions are starting to look nice.  Once everything is cooked to perfection stop cooking. Mix in bowl with noodles and add hoisin sauce to taste and also sesame seeds. Here we go.

Garlic Tamari Broccoli with Almonds

This shit is TANGY! Always a favorite. Get ready...

Ingredients:

a whole lotta broccoli

a whole lotta garlic

about 1/4 cup of tamari (just taste it to make sure)

a couple handfuls of sliced almonds

1 onion cut how ya like it

olive oil or butter

Cut the broccoli into florets and steam it by putting it into a colander over boiling water. Check every couple minutes until you can stab a fork through.

Meanwhile, heat the oil or butter in a pan and fry up the onions and almonds on medium heat. 

Add the broccoli when it’s done, along with the garlic and tamari and bring the mix to a low heat (The later you add the garlic, the more flavorful it will be). Cook for only a few minutes. Turn the heat off and let everything meld together before serving!


Sesame Seitan
(Oft referred-to as "Buddha Sesame Beef ," which is confusing because it contains neither beef nor Buddhas.)


For your Asian-loving veggie friends. For extra fun, tell people it is beef then bask in their surprise&amazement when you reveal it's just wheat protein.


Seitan
sesame seeds
Soy sauce or Bragg's Amino Acids
Ginger
Garlic
salt&pepper
Somethin' spicy (I used chili powder, crushed red peppers, paprika, carrot cayenne sauce and probably some other spices I don't recall)


Roll seitan in sesame seeds. Add spices and saute seitan til brown & crispy, 5-10 mins. Instant enlightenment. 



Beef Fried Rice


First off, you will have to accept the fact that you will not make this a well as Dylan does.  Ever.  Once you have overcome this fact, will want to get some meat (I chose beef, but you could use any meat really) and some veggies--anything you have in the fridge would work, but this is Potluck Culture, so you have to really throw down with an Asian mix of fresh veggies.  


Beef - two pounds, cut into strips
Onion - one large onion, cut into strips
Bok choy - 3 or four stalks, cut into crescents
Carrot - 3 carrots, cut into toothpicks
Mushroom - about a pound (maybe), cut into slices
Garlic - a lot
Egg - 3 or 4, depending on how eggy you feel
Rice - three cups, uncooked
Soy sauce - a few splashes her and there
Oil - ennough to keeps things lubed
Fish sauce - the secret ingredient; only a few splashes here and there--this stuff's potent and stinky

So cute...


The first thing you do is start the rice.  This is a pretty critical part where a lot of people screw up.  Making rice is an art, not a science, but I guess some chumps just use rice makers.  Put 6 cups of water in a pot.  Add the rice and a splash of olive oil.  Cover, and bring to a boil.  Once boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer.  Once the rice gets softer, take the lid off.  When all the water is evaporated and the rice is no longer glistening with moisture, it is ready, and you can set it aside for later.


While the rice is cooking, you can start frying the beef, onion, bok choy, and carrot in a Wok or very large frying pan with some oil a few splashes of soy sauce, and a little fish sauce.  When the carrots and bok choy get softer, add the mushrooms and garlic (maybe a little more soy and/or fish sauce to taste).  When everything is tender, you can turn the heat down to egg-cooking temp and add the rice to the mix.  If your pan is small, you may want to do couple of batches.


Add more soy and fish sauce to taste to give it that nice brown color.  Once it is all mixed and fried a little bit, push the rice to the edges of the pan, clearing the middle space to fry up the eggs.  Add the eggs (or just half if you are doing two batches) and scramble them in the center.  Once they are mostly cooked, mix it all in there real good.


And there you have it, some of Dylan's amazing beef fried rice.  This ends up making a ton of food by the way, so prepare for leftovers.