charisstoma: (Default)
2021-10-26 09:51 pm

Slow Cooker French Onion Soup

** Slow Cooker French Onion Soup **
Serves 8

Ingredients-
• 4 pounds* yellow Onions, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted Butter
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 8 cups Beef broth
• 1 large Bay leaf (or 2)
•. 1/2 tsp dry Thyme
• kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup all-purpose Flour
• 2 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tbsp Chinese Shaoxing cooking wine
* 4 pounds of onions =s abt 6 to 7 large onions

TO SERVE-
• 1 baguette, sliced 3/4” diagonally to fit serving bowls, and toasted
• 1 1/2 cups Gruyere or swiss cheese, grated
DIRECTIONS-
• Place butter and olive oil in slow cooker, add onions and season generously with pepper. (Go easy on any salt because the beef broth can be very salty.
• Cover and cook on HIGH for 30-45 minutes, STIRRING occasionally, cooking until onions have caramelized, lightly browned.
• In a small bowl, whisk flour into balsamic vinegar, wine and Worcestershire sauce and mix until smooth.
• Uncover onions and pour in beef broth, flour mixture and bay leaf. Stir everything together and recover.
• Reduce heat to LOW and cook for 6 hours, (or on HIGH for 4 hours).
• Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.
• Ladle soup into oven proof bowls, top each with 1 slice of bread and a healthy dose of grated cheese.
• Place on top rack of oven and broil for 3-5 minutes, or until cheese is melted.

charisstoma: (Default)
2021-09-21 09:18 pm

Polish Pasta with Cottage Cheese

Can you imagine... with Green Chile in?
Or cooked Chorizo, and seasoned with more Red Chile powder?



Polish Pasta with Cottage Cheese
(Makes 6 servings)

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup butter (2 sticks)
1/3 cup small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (16 ounce) package egg noodles (Any pasta/noodle works.)
1 (16 ounce) package cottage cheese
1/2 cup sour cream (sub- cream cheese)
1/3 cup milk, optional (but helps for creamier sauce.)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (for boiling water)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
(I didn’t add any additional salt to the combined ingredients. TASTE first.)

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook noodles/pasta in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, 1 minute less than package direction's minutes. Drain and return to the pot. OR, place in bowl and cover to keep warm. Use the same pot to continue...

2. Stir to melt butter in pot on medium heat, add onion cooked until translucent, add garlic last. Then add cottage cheese, sour cream, and black pepper into the pot and stir to partially meld, blend together. Put pasta/noodles in, and stir over medium/low heat; cook and stir until heated through and warm, 5 to 8 minutes.


(Add any ingredients as in cooked meats, spinach, tomatoes here now also.)

Added meat, like cooked, shredded chicken, cooked Polish sausage is great, or use as a side dish for pork chops, etc. Other add ins like fresh baby spinach, diced tomato work well. Sprinkle with a dash of Paprika or Chile powder, maybe chopped parsley or cilantro to serve.
charisstoma: (Default)
2021-03-22 09:10 pm

Spinach Cheese Manicotti

I've been working on this all day off and on.
I added some home mixed Italian sausage, just a 1/2 lb. and used fresh spinach, blanched. And I made a half recipe of 7 manicotti tubes.
I've stuffed the huge pasta shells before, but this my first manicotti bake.

Spinach Cheese Manicotti

Ingredients-
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
½ cup minced onion
1 egg
8 med Mushrooms, chopped and sauteed
2 teaspoons minced fresh parsley
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
1 ½ cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
2 (26 ounce) jars spaghetti sauce (I "doctor" mine)
1 ½ cups water
1 (8 ounce) package manicotti shells (that's 14)

Directions-
1- Preheat oven to 350° F

2- In a large bowl, combine ricotta, spinach, onion and egg. Season with parsley, pepper and garlic powder. Mix in 1 cup mozzarella and 1/4 cup Parmesan. In a separate bowl, stir together spaghetti sauce and water.

3- Spread 1 cup sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Stuff uncooked manicotti shells with ricotta mixture, and arrange in a single layer in the dish. Cover with remaining sauce. Sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.

4- Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until noodles are soft.
Notes: If refrigerating overnight, do so after step 3. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before baking.
Spinach Cheese Manicotti

Manicotti Stuffed with Ricotta, Spinach and Italian Sausage