Rum Balls (aka Bourbon Balls)

These are simple and good.  And definitely alcoholic, in case that's an issue.

The original recipe is from my mother, from an old community cookbook she had.  The cookbook is called Cookie Cookery, by the Sisterhood of Congregation Brith Shalom (Houston, TX), published in 1971.  It's a small but very decent collection of recipes for cookies and other small goodies, of the sort that are served at receptions and other gatherings.

I remember my mother making batch after batch of sweets from this little booklet, wrapping and freezing them months before some Big Event was to take place.  She and her friends would defrost and then prepare everything shortly before said big event -- trays and trays of beautiful cookies from her and from her friends.  It was an interesting mix of baking traditions -- traditional Texas in all its multi-ethnic splendor and also the different waves of immigration, Jewish and non-Jewish, into the Houston area.

Anyway.

One of the recipes in there is for Bourbon Balls.  I grew up eating these, often for holidays.  My mother would use whatever booze she had on hand, whether bourbon or rum or something else, as long as the flavors are more or less compatible.  They always turned out well.  Most of the recipes I see online are a bit more complicated.  These are simple but good.

The original recipe uses somewhat vague quantities such as "a box of powdered sugar".  I have no idea what that means, so I make these to taste.  Also, vanilla wafers came in 13 ounce boxes back then.  These days the boxes are 11 ounces.  I suspect that the vanilla wafers didn't use to be such a miracle of modern food science (the modern boxes list lots of additives to give the cookies their characteristic taste and texture), but eh, who knows, and they're simple to use.

The original recipe:

13 oz. box of vanilla wafers

2 cups chopped pecans

1 box (unknown size) powdered sugar

1 cup bourbon

Crush the wafers, mix everything, then roll in powdered sugar. (In other words, basically the method I write out below, except that I'm not sure food processors were a Thing back then.)  Makes 80 bourbon balls.

My version of Bourbon Balls (or Rum Balls):

1 box Vanilla wafers (currently the boxes are 11 oz, which works fine. I used the Safeway generic brand because the ingredient list wasn't as horrifying as the Kroger generic brand or the actual Vanilla Wafer brand.  I'm pretty sure that any kind of cookie is going to work, honestly.  And precise quantities aren't important)

2 cups chopped pecans, give or take a bit

about 1 to 1.5 cups powdered sugar (to taste; I'm using somewhat more than 1 cup these days but the actual quantity is not too important)

about 3/4 cups rum or bourbon  (give or take a bit.  I used Bacardi gold because that's what I have on hand, its flavor is reasonable, and 3/4 cup was sufficient to give it a good scooping texture.)

Crush the vanilla wafers  (I used a food processor).  You should end up with roughly 3 cups of crushed cookies, give or take a bit.  Chop the pecans finer if you want them finer, and add them to the crushed cookies.  Mix the crushed cookies and pecans with the powdered sugar.  Then add enough booze to get the dry ingredients to hold together. It'll start out a bit wetter but will get a little drier as the booze soaks into the dry ingredients.

Take little blobs of the dough and roll them in powdered sugar.

That's it.  Eat them up, yum.

They store pretty well at room temp or in the refrigerator, and they can be frozen, too.  The number of rum balls you get from this obviously depends on the size of the balls you roll.  But it should be at least a few dozen.

I can think of variations with added cocoa/chocolate, spices, different types of booze, different nuts or maybe some dried fruit, and so on.  One of these days I'll make my own cookies for these instead of using store-bought vanilla wafers.  My guess is that a regular sugar cookie or shortbread would work great.  It's probably a good recipe for any kind of old/crisp/stale cookie.  The cookies lose all integrity and just become a nice flavorful mush to soak up the booze and sugar and hold the nuts in place.

Recipe Corner: Red Onion Pickles

We have a recipe for quick-pickled red onions that we like a lot.  I'm adding it here in case the website that hosts it goes poof.  Also, the website that hosts it is kind of annoying, with pop-ups and ads and huge walls of other stuff before you get to the actual recipe.  It does have interesting recommendations and variations and discussions and what-not, so it's not useless, but it's not what I need when I just wanna make a quick batch of red onion pickles.

Of course, there are zillions of recipes and websites with recipes for quick-pickled red onions!  But we know that we like this one, so it has become the House Recipe.  The website with the recipe is here: https://carlsbadcravings.com/pickled-red-onions/

And here it is, in my own words and with my own commentary:

Red Onion Pickles (aka quick pickled red onions)

1 red onion.  This should be thinly sliced crosswise (i.e. as if for use on hamburgers).  I usually cut it in half before slicing rings, to make half-moons instead of full rings.  But that's mostly for better control.  Thin means whatever you want it to mean.  The original recipe recommends 1/8" to 1/4", with the thicker ones taking longer to absorb the pickling liquid.  I don't really measure, but my guess is that we usually do 1/8" or thinner.

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar.  We use plain old grocery store cider vinegar.

1/4 cup red wine vinegar.  The cheap brand from the grocery store actually tastes better in this recipe than more expensive and higher-quality red wine vinegars.

1/4 cup water

1.5 tablespoons sugar

1.5 teaspoons salt.  We usually use table salt (i.e., not kosher salt or other salts that have very different weights per volume).  I don't think it matters if you're using iodized, non-iodized, fine sea salt, etc.

The red onions we usually find around here are very large, so I usually double the recipe amounts for the liquid.  In other words, the total pickling liquid is 2 cups rather than 1 cup.

Put the onion slices in a container (I usually separate out the rings).

Heat the liquid to a simmer, so that the sugar dissolves.  I don't know how important it is to bring the liquid to a high temperature or if the only purpose is to dissolve the sugar.  We usually do this on the stove, but a microwave ought to work, too.

Pour the liquid over the onions.  Let it cool to room temperature (or wait about 30 minutes or so), then cover and refrigerate.

You can eat it right away (after the 30 minutes of cooling) or wait.  The recipe website says it'll be better after a few hours, which is usually when we get to it.  It'll last in the refrigerator for quite a while, definitely on the order of several weeks to a few months.

The website suggests that you can reuse the pickling liquid if it's been less than 3 weeks since you mixed it.   The one time we tried, the stuff we added went bad.  Dunno if the liquid wasn't acid enough after the onions had soaked in it or if it had been longer than 3 weeks or what.  Perhaps it would have worked better if we had re-boiled the pickling liquid to kill any germs in the liquid and/or the new veggies.

Although I'm sure there are many fine variations, the above is so good that we've never had the desire to explore.  Friends tend to like it a lot, too.

Recipe corner: Crockpot shredded chicken

Wow, it's been a while since anyone has posted.  We don't post much about our lives these days.  But this is still a great place to post family recipes.

Lately we've been making this in the crockpot.  It is incredibly simple, quite versatile, and entirely delicious.

Crockpot Shredded Chicken

Take a pound or two of boneless skinless chicken thighs, frozen or unfrozen, anywhere from 1 to 3 lbs, give or take a little.  Put this in the crockpot.

Dump in some tomatoes.  We usually have roasted tomatoes in the freezer so that's what we use.  We'll dump in a baggie of them (pint size, usually, though it's fine to use more or less).  If not, probably a few regular tomatoes or cherry tomatoes would work, if their flavor was good.  Or a can of diced tomatoes, juice and all.  It's probably entire optional if you don't have any tomatoes around at all or if you don't like tomatoes.  There's enough liquid already in the chicken thighs.

Cover and cook on low for 6-12 hours -- towards the higher end for larger quantities and frozen thighs/tomatoes, towards the lower end for smaller quantities and non-frozen thighs/tomatoes.  An hour on high equals two hours on low, and we do sometimes start these on high if the thighs are frozen.  Or we use interludes on high if we're short on time.

When the chicken is tender and falls apart easily, it's done.  Then, put the chicken in a bowl and shred it (a fork or two forks are very helpful for this).  It doesn't have to be 100% shredded -- do it to your preferred texture.  Add enough juice from the crockpot to keep the shredded chicken moist but not soggy.  Season to taste.  We usually add salt and garlic powder, maybe some pepper and a bit of either lime juice or cider vinegar.  We keep it pretty simple so that it will pair well with different kinds of sauces.

If there's still liquid left in the crockpot, turn it into a sauce.  This can probably be done in the crockpot but we usually do it on the stove.  Mix a bit of the liquid with some flour to make a slurry.  Mix the slurry in with the rest of the liquid (that is now in a pot on the stove).  Add seasonings to taste.  We usually take this in a southwestern-ish direction, with salt, garlic powder, a small sploot of lime juice or cider vinegar, ground chiles or chili powder or both, and a pinch of cumin.  But it can go in any direction you prefer.  Bring the sauce to a boil so that it thickens to your liking.  (This means approximately 1 to 2 tablespoons of flour per cup of liquid, usually.)

If there's not enough liquid left to make a sauce, maybe add it to the shredded chicken anyway and hope the chicken doesn't absorb so much that it gets soggy.

We will usually serve the chicken (plus or minus any sauce) as part of a meal with flatbreads or tortillas or rice, or as sandwiches with added barbeque sauce.  Add other condiments and sides to make it as satisfying as you like.  We're fond of red onion pickles, for example.

Small amounts of leftovers that might not be enough for a full second meal make an excellent filling for empanadas or bourekas or turnovers.  Or use it as part of making fried rice or a pilaf or soup or anything else you do with small quantities of leftover meat.

Yes, I know that there are food safety concerns about starting frozen stuff in a crockpot, for fear that the internal temperatures will be in the danger zone for too long.  However, the meat cooks for a long while after the temperatures are hot enough to kill any germs (165F and above).  We don't trust raw chicken anyway, danger zone or not, given the vagaries of the modern food industry.    Also, if I'm going to be home, I run the crockpot on high for a few hours to increase the temps as quickly as possible, whether the chicken is frozen or not.  If I'm not home I don't worry about it, of course -- it'll do fine on low since I might not be home for 10-12 hours anyway.  Defrosting the chicken before cooking is yet another option for people who are sensitive to these things and/or worried.

Although chicken breasts can be used, they're more likely to dry out and get stringy with the long cooking.  Chicken with skin and bones can be used, but deboning would be a pain and you'd have to decide how to handle the soggy skin plus the extra fat in the pan.  I'm sure other types of poultry would work well, too.

This grew out of some of the family's existing recipes for things like pulled pork and shredded brisket.

Recipe corner: Sauces for Fish

 We use various different sauces when baking fish.  They all evolve and get tweaked over the years.  I'm listing a few of them so we don't lose them.  They can be used as marinades for a little while before cooking in addition to being dumped on the fish just before cooking.  I often reserve some of the sauce to use to baste the fish during the last few minutes of cooking so the sauce doesn't puddle up and get burned.

Honey-Mustard-Soy

I found the original recipe in one of those magazine-ish things that come in the mail and that have articles that are really elaborate advertisements for expensive kitchen remodels, combined with straight-up advertisements from kitchen-remodeling-related businesses.

The original recipe calls for 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons mustard, and 2 tablespoons maple syrup, to be mixed and poured over 2 salmon filets (I assume roughly 1.5 to 2 lbs fish total?) which are then grilled.

I switched the maple syrup to honey.  I use Grey Poupon Country Dijon Mustard because I like using dijon for this rather than hot-dog mustard and that's what I usually have lying around.  I use the Japanese-style soy sauces from the grocery store because I think its stronger flavor works well for this -- Kikkoman, for example.  And I use honey because I usually have it around, while I rarely have maple syrup as a pantry staple these days.

So... that means my personal version is a 1:1:1 ratio of soy sauce, mustard, and honey.

If you're eating less than a pound of salmon, it works fine to mix 1 tablespoon of each rather than 2 tablespoons.  I usually do that, in fact.

I spread it over the salmon and then bake as usual.  If I have way more sauce and it starts to puddle up, I reserve the excess sauce and spread it on the salmon during the last 3-5 minutes of baking.

I suspect that this sauce would work for many kinds of fish, not just salmon and steelhead.  It might also work pretty well on chicken though I haven't tried that yet.

"As usual" for salmon means anywhere from around 15-20 minutes at 325F to 10-12 minutes at 400-425F.  The lower temperature takes longer but is more forgiving if you're worried about over-cooking the fish or burning a sauce.

Teriyaki-ish

The above recipe led to this variation.  It has a somewhat Asian-ish flavor.  I usually use it on salmon though it might work well for other kinds of fish.

1 tablespoon each of honey and soy sauce, with a bit of sesame oil and some minced ginger (we've been using a tube of ginger puree that a family member found in the grocery store).  I don't really measure the sesame oil and ginger, sorry, but the two of them together are roughly 1 tablespoon, or I might even use 1 tablespoon sesame oil and then add a sploot of ginger.   Yes, the sesame oil is likely to lose some flavor if the oven is too hot for too long.  Make more sauce (with the same ratios) if making more than a pound or so of fish.

Spread/pour it over your fish and bake as usual.  Or marinate for a little while and then bake.  We usually use this with salmon or steelhead, but it would probably work well for all kinds of fish and maybe chicken.

I often save some sauce back to add to the fish during the last few minutes of cooking.

Adding a bit of minced garlic would only add to the yumminess.  Or add a bit of garlic powder to the sauce.

Ideas and Speculations

I wonder how this 1:1:1 concept could be extended.  Maybe shift it back towards the soy-honey-orange idea that's already a recipe on this blog?  If so, maybe use orange juice or orange juice concentrate for one of the ingredients.  Keep the soy sauce, and maybe add a bit of honey or sesame oil.  The ginger puree would probably be good.  I am going back and forth on whether mustard would work well.

The basic concept seems to be soy sauce (savory/salty), sweet stuff (honey or maple syrup or maybe a fruit juice), and something flavorful that may act as a binder (mustard, sesame oil + ginger).  You could probably substitute wine for the soy sauce (probably white or rose) and that alone would be pretty good (wine, honey, mustard).  What other ingredients might work as part of a triad? Jam or jelly? Ketchup or barbeque sauce or steak sauce? Horseradish sauce? Olive oil? Pesto? Flavored vinegars? Other fruit juices?  Hmmm...

Lemon cream sauce with mustard

This is from something I found online.  I posted about it here, but now, as requested, I'll put it on this blog so we can find it more easily.

It is based on this recipe, though a previous version of the website.  (When we first round the recipe, I'm pretty sure it was old-style, no blinking bits and random videos and zillions of silly photos before getting to the recipe.  And it was on the 'net WAY earlier than the 2019/2020 that the link claims for it.  I probably used a version from 2016 or early 2017.  The recipe seems to be the same, as does the person who posted it, but the surrounding stuff is a little different.)

This is a good recipe for using up small quantities of cream.  As usual, any kind of cream can be used, not just heavy cream.

It works great with tilapia and probably other mild fish.  It wasn't as good when we tried it with chicken.

This makes a lot of sauce as it cooks, which is great to mix with grains and starchy things such as rice or wild rice or freekeh or couscous, etc.

The basic recipe/technique:

Melt a half stick of butter (1/4 cup, 4 Tablespoons, 2 oz.) in the microwave.  It doesn't have to be all melted, just really soft and close to melting.  Add 1/4 cup cream, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, some minced garlic (or garlic powder), salt and pepper, and about 1.5 tablespoons of lemon juice.  (I usually use 1/2 of a lemon if I'm using fresh lemon juice, even if it ends up being a bit more than 1.5 tablespoons.  Canned lemon juice works, too.)  Mix it all up.

Put a few tilapia filets (or any kind of mild-flavored fish) in a greased pan.  Pour the sauce over the fish.  Add some diced scallions or shallots or bits of onion if desired.  The amount of fish isn't too important -- anywhere from about a half pound to two pounds, depending on the ratio of fish to sauce you want to generate.

Bake at 390F (give or take a bit) until it's done, about 10-15 minutes depending on how much fish and how thick the filets are.

The sauce can taste fairly sharp depending on how much lemon juice and mustard is added.  I usually use Dijon country mustard because I like the strong mustard flavor and the included mustard seeds.

The amounts again:

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup cream

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1.5 tablespoons lemon juice

salt, pepper, and garlic to taste

optional finely-diced onion or shallot or scallions

Recipe corner: Hummus

 Here is the recipe we usually use for hummus.  It's extremely similar to every other recipe out there.

Hummus

1 can chickpeas (the 15 ounce size -- see notes below)

3 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons tahini

1/2 teaspoon garlic (usually 1-2 cloves max)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon cumin

olive oil (garnish)

cayenne (garnish)

Ingredient Notes:

Chickpeas...  I usually make this with no advance planning.  Therefore, cans of already-cooked chickpeas are very convenient.  I use the 15-or-so ounce size can, which I think is about 1.5 cups of cooked chickpeas.  Checking online, I see that this is about equal to 3/4 to 1 cup of dried chickpeas if you want to start from that.  I'm sure this hummus is even better if you cook the chickpeas yourself.  You can use the ratios above to increase/decrease the other ingredients if you're starting with some other quantity besides 1/5 cups chickpeas

Garlic...  You can use fresh-minced garlic cloves, minced garlic in jars or pureed garlic from tubes, or garlic powder, etc.  If using raw garlic, beware of using too much.  It's pretty potent stuff.  I don't measure too precisely.  The 1/2 teaspoon measurement above is more of a guideline and reminder not to overwhelm the hummus with the harshness and heat of excessive raw garlic.

Lemon juice...  I usually don't have fresh lemons on hand, so canned lemon juice works perfectly well.  The flavor is slightly different.  Three tablespoons is roughly the amount of juice from one lemon, depending on the size and juiciness of the lemon.

Seasonings...  salt and pepper to taste.  Use a little more or less cumin as you prefer, but use the 1/2 teaspoon as a rough guideline.  I sometimes add a small sploot of olive oil to the hummus and sometimes only drizzle it on top.

Instructions:

If you are using a can of chickpeas, drain the can, saving the liquid.  Rinse the drained chickpeas.

Put the drained chickpeas into the food processor with the rest of the ingredients.  Whir it up, adding some of the reserved liquid, until it's pureed to your favorite consistency.  (the rest of the can's liquid will not be used, so do with it what you will)  If you don't have a food processor, you can puree it in a blender, smash it up with a fork or potato masher or ricer, push the chickpeas through a food mill, etc.

Scoop the hummus into a container.  Drizzle a little olive oil on top and sprinkle with cayenne.  Many recipes call for other things to be sprinkled on top, too, such as oregano or sesame seeds or za'atar.

Serve at room temperature or chilled.  Store it in the refrigerator, covered, where it will keep pretty well for up to a week or so.

This goes well with flatbreads and as part of a Mediterranean-influenced meal.  It's also good with vegetables, crackers, rolls, couscous, other pasta, or anything else you want to experiment with.

Sweet and Sour chicken

 Sweet and sour chicken. This recipe is based on the one from
The Thousand recipe Chinese cookbook by Gloria Blay Miller. ISBN 0-517-20160-7

This is the best sweet and sour that I have had -- significantly better than most restaurant sweet and sours.

 

Sauce:

1) 3/4ths cup water

2) 1/2 cup sugar

3) 1/2 cup vinegar (I use rice wine vinegar, can also use apple cider vinegar)

4)  1 tablespoon cornstarch

5) 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce

6) 1/4 cup water

7) (optional) either 1/2 teaspoon red food coloring or 2 tablespoons tomato sauce (for color)

Boil 3/4th cup water and add sugar. Stir until dissolved, then add vinegar and bring back to boil. 

While boiling, blend cornstarch, soy sauce, and 1/4 cup cold water.

Dump blended mixture into sugar/vinegar/water mixture and reduce temp to low. 

Main part of sweet and sour:

1) 1-2lbs chicken, cubed

2) other stir fry veggies

    a) pineapple

    b) pepper

    c) onion

    d) carrot

    e) garlic+ginger

3) 2 eggs

4) a bunch of corn starch 

5) lots of veg. oil

chop everything. Then, stir fry all vegetables, leaving the chicken until the end. Put veggies in a separate bowl (put in a warming oven if you have an oven safe bowl). 

Fill wok with a few inches of oil to deep fat fry the chicken and heat to aprox 350-400 degrees -- just prior to the smoke point.

Dunk chicken cube into egg, then corn starch, then the oil. Cook until it floats or is golden brown. Then remove from oil and put into bowl with other veggies. Repeat until all chicken is cooked. 

Bring sauce back to a broil and mix into the chicken and veggies.

Serve with rice. This goes quite well with beer. 

Enjoy!

Roasted Lamb Shanks and Flatbread

 This is a recipe that I've made several times. I completely made up the lamb, but the flatbread are the King Arthur's flatbreads, with some adaptations. (recipe here: https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/skillet-flatbreads-recipe ). I enjoy using hummus with the flatbread and making little sandwich things.

I tend to get around 1.5 pounds of lamb (one shank per person), and it is enough for some leftovers. You could probably get away with 4 shanks for 5 people.  I get the lamb from a local grocery store called Haggens, but any nice meat market should have it.

 

The lamb requires some sort of covered roasting pot. I use a shallow 10" cast iron with a lid. 

 

1) Preheat oven to 300

2) Put some olive oil in the pan.  

3) Cover lamb shanks with Salt, Pepper, Garlic, Thyme, and Rosemary. 

4) Cook for 2-3 hours and let it sit for 10-15 minutes after it is cooked. 

(The lamb releases lots of fat, so gravy is a good option!)

I start the flatbreads about 20 minutes before I pull the lamb out of the oven. I cook them in a 12" cast iron, but you can use any skillet. 

Flatbread recipe:

1) 3 cups flour

2) 1.5 teaspoons salt

3) 2 teaspoons baking powder

4) some garlic

5) Some thyme

6) 1 cup ice water

7) 2-3 tablespoons olive oil

Mix all dry ingredients. Then add oil. Then add water and mix. The dough should be moist but not sticky. 

Wrap it in plastic wrap and let it sit for 10 minutes.  

Add lots of oil to the pan. You want it to be about the same depth as the flatbread; not so it covers the flatbread, but so it just comes up to the top of the flatbread. The stove should be on a medium heat

Divide the dough into 12ish blobs and roll them out. I make them about 8" in diameter or about a quarter of an inch thick.  

Cook them one at a time until they smell done. They should be golden brown on both sides. Add oil to the pan as needed. (note, this can smoke a lot -- add oil when it starts smoking, or turn heat down a bit)

Dry on paper towels and transfer to serving platter. 

Serve this meal with roasted broccoli and a nice red wine. 

Enjoy!