Borscht

Contributor: Josh Jasper

Author's Notes: This recipe made a total of 10 two-cup servings. It should freeze and reheat very well.

Borscht


1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 medium onion , chopped medium
2 medium carrots , chopped medium
2 medium garlic cloves , minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 quarts beef stock
2 lb stew beef or lamb
1/2 small head cabbage , green or red, shredded* (about 5 cups)
1 3/4 pounds beets, peeled, half grated and half cubed** (about 5 cups)
5 - 6 tablespoons red wine vinegar
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 bay leaf
3/4 pound small red potatoes (each 1 to 1 1/4 inches in diameter), scrubbed***
Ground black pepper
1/2 cup fresh dill , chopped

* How to shred cabbage: Cut the half-cabbage in half again, cut out the stem, cut each quarter-cabbage in half again, separate each eighth-cabbage into a front section and a back section, feed each section into a food processor equipped with a SLICING (not shredding) blade.

** Last time we made it, we agreed that there wasn't enough beet flavor. Cubing some of the beets instead of shredding them helps a lot with this.

*** We now make a point of having small boiled potatoes in the fridge at all times, so we skipped this bit.

1. Heat the butter in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not browned, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until aromatic, about 30 seconds.

2. Add the tomato paste and stir in 1/2 cup of the stock to dissolve the tomato paste. Add the remaining stock, cabbage, beets, 4 tablespoons vinegar, sugar, 2 teaspoons salt, and the bay leaf. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer. Brown the meat and add it to the soup, adjusting heat as necessary to keep at a simmer. Cook until the vegetables and meat are soft and tender, 40 to 45 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, place the potatoes in a medium saucepan, cover with cold water, and add the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover, and simmer, stirring once or twice to ensure even cooking. Cook until a thin-bladed paring knife or metal cake tester inserted into a potato can be removed with no resistance, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain the potatoes, cool slightly, and cut into quarters.

4. Remove the bay leaf. Taste and adjust the seasonings, adding the remaining 1 to 2 tablespoons of vinegar, pepper to taste, and 1/4 cup dill. Place 4 potato quarters in each individual soup bowl and ladle some soup over the potatoes. Top with 2 more pieces of potato, a generous dollop of sour cream, and a generous sprinkling of dill. Serve immediately. 

Homemade Hostess Cupcakes

Contributor: anibundel

Author's Notes: This is for 12 cupcakes, and is based on the recipe seen on America's test kitchen.

INGREDIENTS

CUPCAKES
1cup all purpose flour
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4tsp Salt

1/2cup boiling water
1/3cup cocoa powder
1/3cup semisweet chocolate chips
1tbsp instant espresso

3/4cup sugar
1/2cup sour cream
1/2cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla extract

FILLING
3tbsp water
3/4tsp unflavored gelatin
4tbsp (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1/8tsp salt
1tsp vanilla extract
1 1/4cups marshmallow creme (Be sure to use marshmallow creme, not marshmallow sauce!  Otherwise the filling won't set up correctly.)

GLAZE
1/2cup semisweet chocolate chips
3tbsp unsalted butter

INSTRUCTIONS

Cupcakes:

• Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees.
• Grease and flour 12-cup muffin tin.
• Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in bowl, set aside
• Whisk water, cocoa, chocolate chips, and espresso in large bowl until smooth. Add sugar, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla and mix until combined. Whisk in flour mixture until incorporated.
• Divide batter evenly among muffin cups. Bake until toothpick inserted into cupcake comes out with few dry crumbs attached, 18 to 22 minutes.
• Cool cupcakes in tin 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely, about one hour.

At the 30 minute mark on the cupcake cooling cycle, make the filling, and then the glaze.

Filling:

• Combine water and gelatin in large bowl and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes.
• Microwave until mixture is bubbling around edges and gelatin dissolves, about 30 seconds.
• Stir in butter, vanilla, and salt until combined. Let mixture cool until just warm to touch, about 5 minutes
• Whisk in marshmallow creme until smooth; refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.
• Transfer 1/3 cup marshmallow mixture to pastry bag fitted with small plain tip; reserve remaining mixture for filling cupcakes.

Glaze:

• Microwave chocolate and butter in small bowl, stirring occasionally, until smooth, about 30 seconds.
• Cool glaze to room temperature, about 10 minutes.

Assembly:

• Cut a cone out from the topside center of each cupcake. Cut the point off each cone to leave a cupcake "lid." (Be careful you keep each lid with it's proper cupcake, otherwise you'll have lumpy lids that don't fit right!)
• Fill cupcakes with 1 tablespoon filling each. Replace tops.
• Frost with 2 teaspoons cooled glaze, and let sit 10 minutes.
• Using pastry bag and reserved filling, pipe curlicues (or whatever design you want, really.  The curlicues are just to scream "hostess") across glazed cupcakes.
• Serve.

Peppermint Meringue Drops

Contributor: K_Commenter

Author's Notes: My mom's peppermint meringues -- famous among friends and family.  Dad likes 'em with the nuts in; I like to make variations and skip the nuts entirely.  Bonus: when you watch your add-ins, they're friendly desserts for the gluten-free eaters in your life.  Just be careful not to drop the box and shatter meringue all over your office.  Such as.  Um.  That might be really hard to clean up.  Just sayin'...

Peppermint Meringues

2 Egg whites at room temperature
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp salt (may be omitted)
1/2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
3 tbs crushed candy cane or starlight mints

• Beat egg whites on high speed until foamy
• Add cream of tartar and salt
• Beat until soft peaks form
• Add sugar a little at a time, beating in completely

• Remove beaters, fold in choc chips, nuts and candy
• Drop teaspoon fulls of mix 1.5" apart on lightly greased cookie sheet (or use parchment paper on cookie sheet)
• Bake at 250 for 40 minutes

Brown Sugar Cookies

Contributor: anibundel


Brown Sugar Cookies


14 tablespoons butter (unsalted)
2 cups dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cup+2 tbsp all purpose flour (10 2/3oz if you are a by-weight baker)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp table salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Melt 10 tbsp butter in skillet. Cook butter, stirring constantly until butter browns and has nutty aroma--about 1-3minutes. Transfer browned butter to bowl, add remaining four tbsp butter to it and stir until all is melted and let sit until roomish temperature, about 15 minutes or so.

Whisk the flour, baking soda and baking power in another bowl.  Set aside.

Meanwhile, set oven to 350 with rack in center position. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. In a shallow dish mix 1/4 cup brown sugar with 1/4 cup white, rubbing together until well combined. Set aside.

Add remaining 1 3/4 cup brown sugar and table salt to bowl with now-cooled butter and mix with wooden spoon until no sugar lumps remain.

Scrape down bowl, add egg, egg yolk and vanilla and mix until fully incorporated.

Scrape down bowl, add flour mixture, 1/3rd at a time. Give a final stir to make sure no flour pocket remain.

Turn out dough. Divide into 24 even pieces. Roll into balls and then roll balls in white/brown sugar mixture.

Set dough balls on baking sheets, 12 a piece.

Bake sheets *One At A Time.*  12 minutes per cookie sheet, turning sheet at 6 minute mark. Cookies will NOT look done when they come out. That's ok. Leave them sit on the baking sheet for five minutes while you start baking the second sheet.

After letting them "carry over bake" for five minutes on the sheet, carefully transfer to cooling rack using wide flat spatula. Repeat method with second cookie sheets worth of cookies. Cool to room temperature.

Eat Cookies.

Chickballs / Bacalao Balls

Contributor: Caleb Das

Author's Notes: Party appetizers!  The "chickball" version is vegetarian-friendly.  You can use these as meatball substitutes in pasta sauces if you so choose by adding tomato paste, water, stock and basil, but for parties, this makes a delicious appetizer. It's hearty but has a little kick to it from the onions not being sauteed beforehand.

Chickballs

Throw 2 cans of garbanzo beans into a pot with their water.

Add 2-3 cups more water, some sage, salt and a couple cloves of star anise.

When the garbanzos are mushy, drain and remove the anise. Mush them up into a paste. Add finely chopped onions, pepper/chili powder and turn the paste into little balls.

Roll around in beaten egg, then flour, then more egg, then more flour. Fry them up.


Bacalao Balls

You can substitute bacalao flakes (be sure to boil, drain, boil, drain the bacalao to get rid of the excess salt first though) in the above recipe to make bacalao balls.

I recommend having a Sriracha based dipping sauce on the side. My Sriracha sauce is whipped mayo, sour cream, gorgonzola cheese crumbles and a teaspoon of Sriracha sauce. You can substitute ricotta in place of sour cream if you so choose. 

Sweet Coconut Empanadas

Contributor: Caleb Das

Author's Notes: A good party appetizer


Sweet Coconut Empanadas

Fry up some finely diced peanuts. 

Add grated coconut. Wait for it to brown.  It'll smell delicious. That's how you know it's time.

Add honey, water and a splash of lemon juice to make a syrup with the coconut.

Stuff in empanadas or tamales or what have you. (My mom does a version where she steams the tamales in a banana leaf package.)

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Swiss Chard

Contributor: Mama_Z

Contributor Notes: I've made a bunch of different short ribs over the years and these are by far the most delicious. I followed the recipe to a T, except I omitted the parsley and I did not use bone-in short ribs. I also stopped at Step 9 and put the meat/veggies in one container and the strained sauce in another and refrigerated overnight. The next night I was easily able to remove the top layer of congealed fat from the sauce and reheat it on the stovetop (I let it cook down for a while so it would thicken -- whisking in flour is optional), brown the ribs, and make the Swiss chard. Short ribs are ALWAYS better the next day or even the day after that. Enjoy!

Braised Beef Short Ribs with Swiss Chard

6	flanken-style beef short ribs (14 to 16 ounces each)
1	tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
1	tablespoon black pepper, or to taste
1 1/2	tablespoons kosher salt, or to taste
3	dozen small pearl onions
8	tablespoons olive oil
1	medium onion, chopped
1	small carrot, chopped
1	small celery stalk, chopped
4	sprigs fresh thyme
2	bay leaves
2	tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 1/2	cups port
2 1/2	cups red wine
6	cups beef or veal stock
4	sprigs flat-leaf parsley
2	bunches Swiss chard, stemmed with leaves torn into large pieces

1. Sprinkle the short ribs with 1 tablespoon of thyme and 1 tablespoon pepper, rubbing them into the meat with your hands. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

2. Before cooking, let the ribs sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Set the oven at 425 degrees.

3. Sprinkle the ribs with 1 tablespoon of the salt.

4. Toss the onions with 2 tablespoons of the oil, 1 teaspoon thyme, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of pepper. Spread them on a rimmed baking sheet and roast them for 15 minutes or until they are very tender. When they are cool, slip off the skins with your fingers and set the onions aside. Turn the oven down to 325.

5. In a large skillet, heat 3 tablespoons of the oil over high heat until it is almost smoking. Sear the shortribs, meaty sides down, working in batches to avoid crowding, until they are browned on their meaty sides. Transfer to a roasting pan large enough to hold the ribs standing up in one layer.

6. Turn the heat down to medium, add the onion, carrot, celery, thyme sprigs, and bay leaves to the skillet. Cook, stirring to scrape the crusty bits in the pan, for 6 to 8 minutes, or until the vegetables begin to caramelize.

7. Add the vinegar, port, and wine. Turn the heat to high, and let the liquid bubble steadily until they reduce by half.

8. Pour in the stock and return the mixture to a boil. Pour the liquid over the short ribs; it should almost cover them. Tuck the parsley around the meat. Cover tightly with foil.

9. Braise for about 3 hours, or until the meat offers no resistance when pierced with a paring knife. Let the ribs rest for 10 minutes in their juices. Remove them from the oven and then transfer them to a rimmed baking sheet.

10. Turn the oven temperature to 400 degrees. Roast the ribs for 10 to 15 minutes, or until browned.

11. Meanwhile, strain the cooking juices into a saucepan, pressing the vegetables to extract all the liquid. Skim off and discard the fat. Bring to a boil and let the mixture simmer to reduce it so it thickens slightly. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and pepper, if you like.

12. In a large skillet, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of oil over high heat. Stir in the pearl onions, add half the Swiss chard, and cook 1 to 2 minutes, stirring constantly, or until wilted. Add a splash of water and the rest of the greens. Season with a large pinch of salt and pepper and cook for a few more minutes, stirring often, until they are tender.

13. On a large platter, set the Swiss chard mixture. Arrange the short ribs on top, and spoon the cooking juices over them. Serve with potato puree and horseradish cream.

© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.