Peanut-Ginger Carrots

This recipe comes from family friend Kitty, who has made it many years as a side dish for our Thanksgiving feast. It's a surprisingly hearty creamed carrot dish, with peanuts and ginger giving a southeast Asian flavor. Great for the late fall and early winter in the Pacific Northwest when there's very little produce in season.

This definitely requires a food processor -- I tried it once at a friend's house without it, and while you can chop the peanuts and mash the carrots by hand, the texture will be completely different.

5 cups carrots, sliced (around 2 or 3 lbs, I think)
1 cup salted peanuts
1/2 cup sour cream
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp ginger (powdered, or fresh ginger minced)



Cook carrots (recipe doesn't specify how, I boiled them in water as potatoes for mashed potatoes).

In the food processor, grind peanuts, then add carrots and butter and blend until smooth. Add sour cream and ginger. Salt & pepper to taste.

Alice's Stroganoff

After making this, I can report it is the Best Stroganoff Ever.

This is the beef stroganoff recipe from Alice's Restaurant of Arlo Guthrie fame. My mother ate there in 1973 and managed to convince someone there to give up the recipe. The key is cooking the beef lightly so it's still rare and juicy.

2 lg onions, finely chopped
1 pint sour cream (use fancy stuff for this, it makes a difference. You could probably replace part with low fat yogurt. But don't use fat free sour cream. Just don't)
1 handful pine nuts (about 1 oz, get in bulk if possible, in packages they are ridiculously expensive)
1 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 lb very lean beef, trimmed and if possible frozen for 1-2 hr before cutting
1/10th of a whole nutmeg, or 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
A few tbsp butter or oil for cooking
Paprika, salt, and fresh ground pepper to taste

Finely chop onions and saute at least 20 minutes until clear. Add sliced mushrooms and saute till barely soft. Remove from pan.

Slice meat very thin (1/4" or less), in 1" by 2" pieces. Partially freezing before cutting helps get good thin slices.

Add more butter or oil to pan. Recipe says add paprika here, but I added it with the sour cream because I was afraid of burning. Sear both sides of meat quickly, on a high flame. Use tongs (not fork) to turn pieces of meat individually; try not to let them touch one another (fork piercing or touching make juices run out...). Do 8 or 10 slices at a time: put slices in pan with one hand, turn and remove with other... set aside in a dish. Goal is that they still be rare.

Return mushrooms and onions to pan. Add meat, sour cream, and pine nuts. Use medium-low heat; don't let it boil.

Add fresh grated or ground nutmeg, paprika if you didn't already, salt, and "lots" of freshly ground pepper. Stir until combined, and cook only until everything is heated through.

Serves 4-6. Serve over egg noodles, rice, orzo, or fresh dumplings (recipe I posted last week).

Variations: add red wine to mushrooms & onions before meat goes in. Tomato paste, garlic or dill can be added. Poppy seeds instead of pine nuts is another option.

Lebanese Cauliflower

My mom says: "This recipe came to me when Gene [her boyfriend at the time] and I were living in Seward, Alaska. One of our friends, of Lebanese descent, made it for us when we came to dinner in their cozy log cabin. I love how the combined tartness of the lemon juice and sweetness of the onions transform the cauliflower!"

This is a delicious, simple way of cooking cauliflower. I don't remember eating it as a child, but I hated broccoli and would only eat it under duress with lots of cheese sauce, so maybe cauliflower came under the same category of "icky" to my brain at the time.

Her copy of the recipe is a little water-stained and worse for wear, written in beautiful calligraphy, and contains no measurements, so take mine with a grain of salt. You can use any kind of cauliflower; I used Romanesco, which is why mine turned out green after cooking.

1 lb cauliflower
1 small onion
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp minced garlic
Mint, parsley, salt, and pepper to taste
Olive oil

Saute onions in olive oil until clear. Add cauliflower and cook for a few minutes, until not quite soft. Add other ingredients to taste. Simmer to blend flavors.