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
================================
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!
===============================================
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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Cut and paste to your hearts content!
socialslave
