Recipes for the Fourth of July

Recipes for the Fourth of July

Healthy version of Noah’s Ark Clam Chowder

For a long time motorist driving Interstate 70 through Missouri would know when they got to Saint Charles. On the bluff of the Missouri River stood a full scale replica of Noah's Ark! It was an excellent steak house and known for serving a steaming caldron of clam chowder on every table.

This was their basic recipe. Make it in the crock pot a day or two before, then add the final two ingredients and heat in microwave of stove top for serving.

Makes 8 - 12 servings

Cans of soup (use low sodium/ low fat types)

1 Can Cream of Potato

1 Can Cream of Mushroom

1 Can Cream of Celery

3 cans @ 6 ½ oz. caned minced clams (drain and save the juice)

2 slices bacon, fried crisp and broken-up

1 soup can of reserved clam juice

1 small onion minced (heat in skillet until starting to turn transparent but not brown)

1 Cup cut mushrooms (I prefer Shiitake to add a smoky flavor)

1 tsp chopped parsley

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (careful with this because it will add a salty taste)

Pepper to taste (I’m sure you will)

About 4:30PM Add:

1 ½ Cups fat-free milk

1 cup fat-free half-and-half

Directions:

(pre-heat the pot by turning on 30 mins before time to cook.)

1 Combine all ingredients except milk and half-and-half in a crock pot. You want this to start by 9 AM

2. Cover. Cook on low for 6 - 8 hours

3. twenty minutes before end of cooking time, stir in milk and half-and-half.

Continue cooking until heated through. 

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St. Louis German Bratwursts

Ingredients
3 medium Granny Smith apples, cored, peeled and sliced
1 yellow onion, sliced
3 cans beer, Budweiser (2 for the pot – 1 for Master)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
8 fresh bratwursts
8 fresh hot dog buns, toasted
Beer Cheese Sauce, recipe follows 2 cups sauerkraut, drained (optional)
Dijon mustard, for topping 1 to 2 tablespoons pickled jalapenos, chopped (optional)
Directions
Preheat a grill or grill pan to medium-high heat.

Add the apples, onions, beer, salt, and pepper in a medium pot or Dutch oven. Simmer until the apples and onions soften, just a few minutes. Add in the brats and simmer until cooked through, about 10 minutes, turning once. The brats will get fat from soaking up the beer, that's your sign that they are ready. Remove the brats from the liquid. Skim the apples and onions out to drain. Reserve the beer braising liquid in the pot.

Brown the brats on the grill, covering with a dome metal lid if using a grill pan, until you get nice Dark Brown grill marks on all sides, 5 to 6 minutes. Without this step, the brats will be all gray and not appetizing at all!

NOTE: Until you are ready to serve; you can hold your brats in that pot of liquid at 170 deg. for up to 5 hr. and they will stay moist.

Cover the dutch oven and set it in the 200 degree oven that you have been cooking the pork steaks in.

Place the brats on the buns and drizzle with tablespoons of the Beer Cheese Sauce. Top with the Apple-Onion mixture and/or sauerkraut, some mustard and the jalapenos.

Beer Cheese Sauce:
1 cup of a white sauce
1½ cups of Sharp Cheddar cheese cubed

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup reserved beer braising liquid, plus more as needed

Make your white sauce, then stir in cheese a few cubes at a time.

If you dump them in at once, you will get droplets of oil forming in your sauce. Stir the mustard. Then slowly add the beer braising liquid while stirring. The sauce should be pourable, if it is too thick, add more braising liquid. Remember you can always add but you can't take it out, so pay attention. Yield: 2-3 cups.

NOTE: If you have any left over sauce, use as a dip! Are you thinking salsa?

You can also use fresh (not smoked) kielbasa instead of brats
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Oven Roasted Corn on the Cob

Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Ingredients

4 ears fresh corn still in their husks
Directions

Note in directions for cooking the pork steaks, when you increase the oven temperature to 350 for the last hour and a half. For that last half hour, place corn husks directly on the oven rack and roast for 30 minutes or until the corn feels soft. Be sure that a lower rack has foil on it to catch corn syrup drips!

Peel down the husks and use as a handle when eating, the silk comes right off. Might need gloves or just stick a fork in each end. A few squirts of butter spray and some salt and pepper gives you corn the way it was intended to be eaten.

Back in 1964 one of my favorite authors: Rex Stout wrote a short story “Murder is Corny”. His detective, Nero Wolfe, divulges this method of cooking and stated that people who boil corn on the cob ought to be killed, because oven roasting corn creates ambrosia!
Directions:

1 Preheat oven to 350°F
2 Rinse ears.
3 Place corn cobs in middle rack in oven.
4 Bake for 30 minutes.
5 Remove corn cobs. Pull back husks and enjoy!

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Crepes Suzette Flambe

This is probably the queen of old French desserts. For this holiday meal slave has simplified it by using store bought crepes. It does not feel like a cop out in the least because they can be very tasty. They are done professionally on the right special equipment. You are welcome to buy it latter if you chose but first find a place to store it. Most of all by the time you bring this to the table, soaked in booze, and lit on fire, who cares where you got it?

Ingredients:
2 oranges, juiced
1 orange, zested
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter substitute (Smart Balance Baking sticks)
1/3 cup sugar
10 store-bought crepes
1/3 cup orange liqueur (recommended: Grand Marnier, Cointreau or Triple Sec )

Directions
Pour the orange juice into a saucepan, and add the zest, butter and sugar. Bring to the boil, and then turn the heat down to a simmer, cooking for a further 10 to 15 minutes until the sauce becomes syrupy.

Fold the crepes into quarters and then arrange them in a large pan, or any oven-proof dish, slightly overlapping in a circular pattern.

Pour the warm syrup over the folded crepes and then gently heat for about 1:30 in the microwave.

Warm the orange liqueur of your choice in the emptied but still syrupy saucepan. When the crepes are hot in the orange sauce, pour the liqueur over them and set a match to the pan to flambe them. Preferably do this close to the table so that the guests can see the flame. It will not be very bright at all. Serve immediately spooning crepes and sauce onto each plate. 

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