3024 Hennepin Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55408-2614
(612) 822-5588

http://amazingthailandusa.com/menu.html

Amazing Thailand Restaurant has a beautiful décor and luscious food from Thailand with full bar service. The service is impeccable. The extensive menu has something for everyone. I am especially fond of curry. The Yellow curry with tofu sounded appealing. It was truly superb. If you don’t like hot curry, you can order “mild’ and be assured that it is mild. The rice that was served was better than any I have had in a restaurant. The flavor and consistency were well…heavenly. I tied the chicken sate appetizer and was rewarded with sweet flavored meat that was tender and memorable.
There are many Thai restaurants in the Twin Cities. This one stands out in my book.
Thanks to friends who gave me a restaurant gift card, I was “amazed” with the quality. (They have a lunch buffet that I would love to try soon.)

http://amazingthailandusa.com/PhotoAlbums/Foods/

In January last year it rained on top of the heavy snow and the streets were turned into slick ice sheets because the temperature dropped back to below freezing after the rain.

This January,  when the 40-degree temperatures arrived this week, there was a beautiful day to enjoy outside as there were no snow piles.

What I notice is that winter weather is coming later each year.  The upper Midwest relies on the snow for moisture.  Without the snow there is not enough moisture for the earth and the plants for spring.  The weather reporters are saying that it’s dry. There are three more months of winter and plenty of time for snow to come.

Although I am watching my cholesterol intake I splurged last night when I found Emeril Lagasse’s simple recipe for Fettucine Alfredo. (Heavy cream and butter required)  I added a half-cup of peas.  A recipe this simple and good has to be shared.  Alfredo di Lelio developed the recipe in Rome Italy at his restaurant Alfredo in 1914.  From Wikipedia: January 8, 2012.  (For more history click on the title.)

Fettucine Alfredo

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried fettucine
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Fresh parsley, for garnish, optional

Directions

Cook the fettucine in a pot of rapidly boiling salted water until al dente. Drain in a colander, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta cooking liquid.

While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add shallots and saute until tender. Add heavy cream and bring to a boil. Cook until sauce has reduced slightly, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Return the pasta to the pot it was cooked in, set over medium-high heat along with the reserved cooking liquid. Add the butter-cream mixture and half of the Parmesan and toss to combine thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan and garnish with parsley, if desired. Serve immediately.

Retrieved January 8, 2012. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/fettucine-alfredo-recipe2/index.html

No snow: enjoy Fettuccine/Fettucine/Fettucini Alfredo

One of the charms of Solstice gatherings is the food. To mark the dark of winter, serving special foods by candlelight helps folks up in the northland to bide through winter. Richard Lafortune is a man of tradition.  He faithfully recreates the many Christmas cookies from his childhood each year for friends at Winter Solstice and for family at Christmas.

Each year I have enjoyed the many offerings and good conversation at Richard’s solstice gatherings.  This year I asked to document his cookie making.  This is just a sampling of what is done to prepare the various dough that are used in each of his creations.  Richard puts planning in place. First, he sets out all the supplies to make sure he has everything for baking.  Richard makes a list of all the cookies and begins the magic of making these delights that have been handed down in his family for generations.

The plan takes hours. Seeing what work goes into this process, I present to you some photos of making shortbread cookies. These are no ordinary cookies. (Real Butter!)

The Ingredients

Viennese Shortbread

"Making a list and checking it twice"

A little bucket of flour - it's a go!

Shortbread Dough - Flour Butter Sugar Salt Egg, a splash of milk when it's too dry.

Mix and shape dough with your hands.

After dough rests in the fridge, get ready to roll the dough.

Ready, roll. Another dough was made with cocoa.

Squaring the Edges of the Dough

Dividing the Dough

The Checkerboard Divide

Four Stacks for the Checkerboard

Checkerboard ready to cut

Second Batch Roll out Spiral Cookies

Are we rolling?

The cookies on the left are pecan cups from Richard’s Nonnie’s recipe.  I took over 90 photos of the work involved.  This little essay is just a glimpse into the process. Richard made Christmas bread, fruitcake, and in total eight items for Solstice and Christmas – all to share.  Richard creates a memory for all his guests which he hands down from all the generations of women who perfected these cookies, breads, and love.

There is nothing like home made cookies!

Peace and Happy Holidays to all.

Since I was next in line, I said, “Oh really? What’s happened?”

“Someone in the government didn’t calculate correctly for the Norwegian butter supply.  People are being busted at the border for trying to import butter from Sweden.”

My purchase was Sparkling Sugar for the Chewy Chocolate Cookies I am going to make.

I was thinking, imagine Christmas time without butter for cookies!  That’s a Scandinavian tradition. So much so that you can go to these lovely homey places in the country where cookies are served. Guests pay a flat fee to enjoy coffee and a cookie smorgasbord. (I have enjoyed that myself in Sweden.) My second thought was they could go to Denmark to buy butter.  My curiosity peeked; I checked the news items for the facts.

From Monster news: By Lennart Simonsson Dec 16, 2011, 2:06 GMT

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1681122.php/Norway-struggles-to-overcome-butter-shortage

“Oslo/Stockholm – A shortage of butter in Norwegian shops in the run-up to the festive season has resulted in soaring prices, smuggling attempts and an apology from the main dairy cooperative.”

“’We are sorry that Norwegians have been unable to buy the amount of butter they have wanted to,’” said Stein Oiom, head of Tine SA, the Scandinavian country’s largest producer, distributor and exporter of dairy products.

In the statement Oiom said the cooperative, owned by over 15,000 dairy farmers, had ‘failed to secure a balance’ between milk production and demand for milk and other dairy products like butter.

With demand rising amid Christmas cookie baking and other recipes that include butter, some enterprising attempts to cash in on the shortage have emerged.

Customs officials last week stopped a Russian man who had loaded 90 kilos of butter into his car, tabloid VG reported.”

The article continues with tales of online auctions and trips to Denmark (I told you.) to obtain the precious commodity. The Norwegian cows having lived through a rainy summer produced less milk due to less feed. From the Guardian online I read that there is also a trend to use butter due to a Swedish Television chef, Leila Lindholm, who recommends using butter rather than margarine. It’s healthier.  As a result, it looks like there’s a scarcity of butter in Sweden too.

Imagine no Holiday cookies! Yikes. No Russian Tea cookies that melt in your mouth to savor. No Pecan Cups or Shortbread cookies.  Well, I just bought more butter to make my presents this year. Like so many people, I am giving something homemade.  Material goods are well, just that. Now a great chocolate cookie, that’s a gift of gold to chocolate lovers.

I made this recipe for practice over a couple of months ago and made a mistake with the ingredients. (Sigh) When I accidentally added the sugar twice the cookie became very hard and not chewy.  I was forced to eat all the cookies – not at one time – soaking them in milk to soften them. Such sacrifices have to be made.

Here is the Recipe.

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Chewy Chocolate Cookies

1/3 Cup granulated sugar plus 1/2 cup for coating

1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

3/4 Cup cocoa powder

1/2 Teaspoon baking soda

1/4 plus 1/8 Teaspoon table salt

1/2 Cup dark corn syrup

1 Large egg white

1 Teaspoon vanilla extract

12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
4 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 1/2 inch pieces

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.  Line two large baking sheets with parchment. Put 1/2 cup granulated sugar onto a plate and set aside.

Whisk flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking soda together in a small bowl and set aside.

In another small bowl whisk together the corn syrup, egg white and vanilla and set aside.

Beat the butter, brown sugar and remaining 1/3 cup of white sugar together until light and fluffy (2 minutes). Add the corn syrup mixture and beat until combined (20 seconds). Add the flour mixture and chopped chocolate and mix until just combined (30 seconds), making sure there isn’t any unmixed flour pockets.

Chill dough for 30 minutes (but no longer than 30 minutes, according to the recipe). Divide the dough into 16 equal portions (or use a 1.5″ ice cream scoop to create the cookies – this will yield more than 16 cookies), roll between your hands into a ball and then roll the balls in the sugar to coat. Put on baking sheets, 2 inches apart and bake 10-11 minutes.

Cookies are done when they have cracked and still look wet between the cracks. It’s important to not over bake the cookies. Allow the cookies to cool 5 minutes on the cookie sheets and then cool fully on a wire rack.

Yield:  16 – 24 cookies

http://stylishcuisine.com/?p=734

Retrieved 10/20/11

The advertised menu of “Dutch Food” had me on the phone to friends to arrange to go there to try the food.  It’s a Bar and Music Hall – all kinds of music.

Now the Dutch are not known for their cuisine, but that have very fine cooking schools and training for chefs in the making.  Advertising Dutch broodjes – small buns filled with fish, pork or eggplant prepared fresh and in house is fun food.  Also mighty tasty.  You can park in the Lawson Parking lot for 3 hours for free with validation.  All the food except the sardines are prepared in-house.  They have cheese plates and other appetizers.

I enjoyed a delicious crawfish broodje (sounds like Bro-cha), the salmon and some bitterballen. The bitterballen had a great crust but they were not the real Amsterdamse bar-type bitterballen that I devoured last June with Sabina Posthumus at a local cafe- bar in the heart of Amsterdam. (Those bitterballen were out of this world good.)

But as bar food goes this was much better than typical bar fair around here.  The have “frites”, which are french fries served with various combinations of sauces.  (Frites (sounds like “freets”) are really called patat in Dutch and are served with a heavy dollop of mayonnaise, the like of which you have never tasted in America – very good.) The best part was the brownie dessert – made with sage, rich chocolate, and a carmel filling topped with creme fraiche.  Say no more.  This is a treat to share with friends or maybe not.

This is the proof.  

Frites or French Fries

Bitterballen

Everyone enjoyed the food.  Eet Smaaklijk.

XXX Amsterdam's Brownie

French Bread for Stuffing

Here’s what I cooked for the big day: Mashed potatoes, stuffed butternut squash, and turkey stuffing

Results: 100% approval rating on these recipes from the consumers. (Yes. Smiling here.)

The potato recipe is really the easiest.  The stuffing or dressing recipe is really delicious, but labor intensive when you do it all by hand.  Buying the French bread fresh and making my own breadcrumbs was worth the trouble. (People loved it.)

The squash takes time, but most of that is the baking. When I followed the recipe for cooking it, I found that my stove runs hot  – old gas job – with the result that the skin was burned. I usually cook squash in a glass pan with a little water.  Then the squash is not dried out, which it was yesterday. I was unable to put the squash back into the shells because for one, they were burned and two, they were too thin.  Ideally this would be very attractive.  Browning the breadcrumbs at the end in the oven melded all the flavors of the squash, garlic, leeks and ginger together. This is not a difficult recipe.

Cooking the squash and the stuffing simultaneously was a challenge while flipping back and forth between the two recipes.  There was always the chance that I would confuse the ingredients.  (Hurrah! That did not happen. Relief. )

I think I passed my learner’s permit for part of Thanksgiving meal making.

Traditional Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes

Original Recipe Yield 6 servings

Ingredients

6 medium russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1/2 cup warm milk

1/4 cup butter or margarine

3/4 teaspoon salt

Dash pepper

Directions

Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water. Cover and bring to a boil; cook for 20-25 minutes or until very tender. Drain well. Add milk, butter, salt and pepper; mash until light and fluffy.  Retrieved November 24, 2011 from AllRecipes.com:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/traditional-mashed-potatoes/detail.aspx

Stuffed Butternut Squash

From Jacques Pepin’s Kitchen: Encore with Claudine, by Jacques Pepin.

“Prep time: 15 min

Cook time: About 1 hour 30 min

Total time: About 1 hour 45 min

Yield: Makes 4 servings

The very simple stuffing for this butternut squash is made primarily of the flesh of the squash itself. Garlic, a bit of ginger, and chopped scallions are added for flavor. If you are not fond of ginger, which gives this combination its unusual taste, you may want to use less of it, or eliminate it altogether. Breadcrumbs, tossed with a little oil and sprinkled on top of the filling, become brown and crisp in the oven, and their crunchy texture contrasts nicely with the creaminess of the filling.

Squash with Panko

Ingredients

1 large butternut squash, about 2-1/4 pounds

3-1/2 tablespoons canola oil

About 8 scallions, minced (1 cup)

3 cloves garlic, peeled, crushed, and finely chopped (2 teaspoons)

1/2 tablespoon chopped fresh ginger

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 small slices bread, processed in a food processor to make 1- cup fresh      bread crumbs (I used Ian’s panko bread crumbs.)

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

2. Split the squash in half lengthwise, and remove the seeds. Score the flesh of the squash, making 1/2-inch deep cuts through it one way and then the other (in a checker-board pattern). Arrange the squash halves cut side up on a cookie sheet, and place them in the 400-degree oven for about 60minutes, until the flesh is tender when pierced with a fork.

3. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil in a large skillet. When the oil is hot, add the scallions and sauté them for 1-1/2 minutes. Mix in the garlic and ginger, and set the pan aside off the heat.

4. When the squash is cool enough to handle, use a spoon to gently scoop the flesh from the shells (reserving the shells), and add it to the scallions along with the salt and pepper. Mix well, stirring until the squash flesh and scallions are well combined but the mixture is still chunky. Fill the reserved shells with the mixture.

5. In a small bowl, lightly mix the bread crumbs with the remaining 1-1/2 tablespoons of oil, and sprinkle the mixture over the stuffed squash. Arrange the squash halves on a cookie sheet, and place them in the 400-degree oven for about 20 minutes (a little longer if the stuffing is cool). The crumb mixture on top should be nicely browned, if it is not, place the squash under a hot broiler for a few minutes.

6. Cut each of the squash halves in half again, and serve one piece per person.

Note: The skin or shell of the squash is edible.”

The above recipe was retrieved from the Splendid Table November 24, 2011.

http://www.publicradio.org/columns/splendid-table/recipes/vegetable_squash.html

Mom’s Turkey Stuffing Recipe posted by Elise on Nov 24, 2008

“INGREDIENTS

1 loaf of day old French bread, cut into 3/4-inch cubes (about 10-12 cups)

1 cup walnuts

(I used pecans and raw pumpkin seeds.)

2 cups each, chopped onion and celery

6 Tbsp butter

1 green apple, peeled, cored, chopped

3/4 cup of currants or raisins

Several (5 to 10) chopped green olives (martini olives, the ones with the pimento)*

Stock from the turkey giblets (1 cup to 2 cups) (can substitute chicken stock)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley (I used fresh parsley that I had dried.)

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning or ground sage (to taste) (I substituted rosemary instead.)

Salt and freshly ground pepper (to taste)

*I added mushrooms in place of olives.

Apple Cored

METHOD

1 If you haven’t already made the stock, take the turkey giblets – heart and gizzard – and neck if you want, and put them in a small saucepan, cover with water and add a little salt. Bring to a simmer; simmer for about an hour, uncovered. Strain the stock into a container for use with the stuffing. Alternatively, you can use chicken stock or just plain water with this recipe.

2 Toast the walnuts by heating them in a frying pan on medium high heat for a few minutes, stirring until they are slightly browned (not burned) OR put them in the microwave on high until you can smell the aroma of them toasting, about a minute or two. Let them cool while you are toasting the bread*, then roughly chop them. *Note, if you aren’t working with somewhat dried-out day-old bread, lay the cubes of bread in a baking pan and put them in a hot oven for 10 minutes to dry them out first, before toasting them in butter on the stove top. The bread should be a little dry to begin with, or you’ll end up with mushy stuffing.

3 Heat a large sauté pan on medium heat. Melt 3 Tbsp butter in the pan, add the bread cubes, and stir to coat the bread pieces with the melted butter. Then let them toast; only turn them when they have become a little browned on a side.

4 In a large Dutch oven, sauté chopped onions and celery on medium high heat with the remaining 3 Tbsp butter until cooked through, about 5-10 minutes. Add the bread. Add cooked chopped walnuts. Add chopped green apple, currants, raisins, olives, parsley. Add one cup of the stock from cooking the turkey giblets or chicken stock (enough to keep the stuffing moist while you are cooking it). Add sage, poultry seasoning, salt & pepper.

5 Cover. Turn heat to low. Cook for an hour or until the apples are cooked through. Check every ten minutes or so and add water or stock as needed while cooking to keep the stuffing moist and keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Serves 8-10.”

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/moms_turkey_stuffing/ Retrieved November 24, 2011.

Bon Appetit!

Patel Groceries

1835 Central Avenue Northeast, Minneapolis, MN 55418-4542 (612) 789-8800

Going anywhere with Richard means there are stories about food and answers to my questions.  Richard is an endless source and he entertained me with a great story about a personal assistant he knows who works for a big wig in Texas.  He was talking with her on the phone and told her that he and I made rabbit.  There was stone silence on the other end of the phone for a moment and the gravelly voice of his friend came back with “I love rabbit.  I get mine from Heberts.” [Pronounced A Bears] (That’s Cajun, baby.)

Richard was very excited because he knows about Heberts in Texas (Of course.) and begins to tell me the Legend of the Turducken.  Remember Heberts specializes in deboned meats.

A customer came in one day and asked Heberts to take a chicken debone it and wrap in it in stuffing then put that inside a deboned duck which gets trussed up and stuffed inside a turkey.  (There’s more stuffing involved, but I need visual aids to be really specific.) Anyhow, the customer never returned and that’s how they got started with Turducken.

Richard finished the story off.  You cook the turducken and serve.  When you cut it you are cutting through the layers of turkey, duck and chicken.  He says it in such a way that makes my mouth water.  I can see the birds and am imagining the luscious flavor.

In the end of the phone conversation with Texas, his friend says she is going to send him something from Heberts.  Richard is very excited and I am curious.

If I get a picture, then I’ll add it to this post.  For all you cooks out there who may want to try something different this holiday, Heberts ships their meats on dry ice.  I am providing a link to the Heberts’ site.

http://www.hebertstexas.com/

Have a Happy Turducken Day!

I am excited to make Sukiyaki for the first time.  I was inspired at the grocery store when I saw some thinly cut beef.  Sukiyaki is made at the table in a Japanese restaurant. To my mind, it is a very special dish to order.  It turns out to be an easy meal to make that is typically made in one cast iron pot in Japan. My favorite kind of cooking –  a little chopping a little of this and a little of that and you have a hot delicious meal.

The wind has picked up and is running about 30 miles an hour.  Everybody seems to be in a hurry in Minneapolis.  Even though we have had a reprieve from our usual October and November weather – rain and snow – it feels like everyone is preparing for impassable roads and stocking up.

When I was stuck in my hunt for the ingredients of shiritaki, yam noodles and the shiitake mushrooms I hightailed it over to United Noodles and found what I was looking for. Don’t be shy to ask, if you can’t find an ingredient because the staff helps you find things. http://www.unitednoodles.com/store/

Japanese food is one of my favorites.  This recipe is not as complicated as Hung Lay Curry from Thailand.  (Different country and different flavors) In fact, once the cutting and assembly has been done, there you are, with a quick cooking meal.  I found all the ingredients locally.  By the way, serve this with a bowl of fluffy rice.  Bobby Flay doesn’t mention this but it is part of the traditional meal.  He did not mention when to add the noodles, which come in a package in water.  I opened it up, drained the water and added the noodles at the end, along with some bean sprouts and cooked for a few minutes more.  “When the sauce starts to boil add other ingredients. Simmer until all ingredients are softened.” http://japanesefood.about.com/od/beef/r/beefsukiyaki.htm Retrieved November 5, 2011

Note: Make sure you have thinly cut beef.  The beef I used was not thin enough.  You can buy a cut of meat. Freeze it and slice it thin while it is still frozen, as the reference below here suggests:

Recommended cut of beef = “1 lb Beef Strip Loin or Rib Eye, sliced 1/8″ thick *Note 1: You can always ask your butcher to slice the meat thinly for you, but for those DIY types, put the meat in the freezer for 2-3 hours to firm it up, then slice it using smooth, long strokes slicing across the end grain.” Retrieved November 5, 2011

Retrieved on November 5, 2011. http://whiteonricecouple.com/recipes/beef-sukiyaki-hot-pot-recipe/

Ingredients

Sauce:

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 cup soup stock
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 1 pound thinly sliced beef meat
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 4 ounces yam noodles (shirataki)
• 1 cup sliced bamboo shoots
• 2 stalks celery, sliced
• 1 cup soaked, rinsed and sliced shiitakes
• 1 cube tofu, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 bunch green onions, cut into 2-inch lengths
• 2 leaves Napa cabbage, sliced
• 2 tablespoons oil

Directions

Mix soy sauce, sugar, stock, and mirin together in a bowl. Arrange meat and vegetables on a large platter. Heat an electric skillet to 375 degrees F.

Add oil to the skillet and heat. Brown meat in the oil, adding sugar slowly. Move the meat to the corner of the skillet when well browned. Add other vegetables, keeping each separate. Add sauce and cover. Bring to a boil and cook for 2 minutes. Uncover and turn all ingredients while cooking 2 minutes more. Serve on small plates.

Sukiyaki Vegetables

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/sukiyaki-recipe/index.html

Bobby Flay Recipe courtesy Tomoko Moriguch

http://www.unitednoodles.com/store/

Shirataki - Yam Noodles

Total Time:

Sukiyaki

30 min

Prep

20 min

Cook

10 min

Yield:

3 to 4 servings

Level:

Easy

Floured Chicken

Ingredients:

12 chicken thighs drenched in seasoned flour

1 1/2 cups dry white wine

12 garlic cloves quartered

1 lemon, peeled, seeded and sliced

3 fennel bulbs sliced

Sugar to taste

Add the Lemon

Zest of one lemon, chopped

3 TBS chopped fennel tops

Preparation:

1. Brown chicken in olive oil and remove from pan.

2. Add wine, garlic and lemon slices & boil 5 minutes

3. Add fennel, cover and cook 10 minutes

Add Fennel

4. Return chicken to pan, cover and simmer 30 minutes

5. Taste sauce – if tart add sugar

6. Garnish with lemon zest and fennel tops.

"It's all good"

The End

This is enough for 8 people.  Mouth watering- good to serve with a salad. (I never get a chance to photograph the plate before the demolition happens.)

Dessert: finish with mixed fruit and pound cake slices and for those who can indulge this – top with whipped cream.

A note for all of us would-be excellent cooks, before Richard found the right recipe and combo of his imaginative cooking, many recipes are read before the preparation begins.

Recipe Research

(Warning! Rabbits have a lot of small bones. Eat after removing meat from the bones.)

Menu: Thyme and Juniper Rabbit served with Serbian yogurt carrots with blueberry sauce.

The rabbit was purchased at the Seward Co-op in Minneapolis. Since I have never had rabbit, I was a little reluctant to try it, but Richard convinced me.  (The price of the rabbit was ridiculous – $30.00.)

I was the photographer and Richard plied his talents as chef.

It all starts with the cleaver. Vegetarians and vegans, be warned, these photos may disturb you.

Rabbit

Based on the recipe from Tarragon Rabbit from “Classic American Cookery” by Pearl Byrd Foster; Simon and Schuster, Fireside Books 1983; Pages 116-117.

Richard prepared and cooked one 2-pound rabbit. 

3 rabbits, each weighing 2-3 lbs cleaned, cut in serving portions (giblets removed)

Flour for dusting

1 tsp dried tarragon leaves

(Here Richard used instead 4 fresh sprigs thyme)

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

12 ounces (Three sticks of butter)

(Richard used a ¼ cup of butter and ¼ cup olive combination instead of all butter)

3 cups of dry white wine or stock

2-4 Tbsp of all-purpose flour

Preparation/Method

Blend the flour, half of the tarragon (Thyme) and pepper together with Old bay seasoning

1. Toss the pieces of rabbit in the flour mixture to coat thoroughly.
2. Melt butter (And olive oil) in a sauté pan and brown rabbit on all sides.
3. Lower heat and add wine (or Stock) and simmer covered about 45 minutes [Here Richard used 1 cup apple cider plus1-2 cups of chicken stock instead of wine]. Add remaining tarragon (Thyme and 4 juniper berries) and cook 5 minutes more.
4. Remove the rabbit to a warm platter.
5. Strain the fat off the drippings, reserving 4 tablespoons of it and place in a saucepan. While fat is heating, blend in 2 to 4 tablespoons of flour and stir with a wire-wisk until mixture has thickened and is well combined.  Then add the pan drippings cook slowly, stirring constantly until smooth. Season to taste and pour over rabbit and serve very hot. [Richard added tsp of pepper to the flour and 1/1/2 tsp of salt.]

Begin browning rabbit pieces

Browned Rabbit - Stage 2

Cooked Rabbit - Stage 3

Serbian Carrots with Yogurt

Cleaned and washed small carrots (not baby carrots)

Suggestion: steam carrots first in water to soften

To the softened carrots sauce pan

Add brown sugar

Fleur de sel  (or salt)

Oil and butter

Ground black pepper

½ of a small onion finally chopped

Glazed Carrots

Stir the carrots to cover with the ingredients and to prevent sticking on a medium to low heat.

When carrots are browned remove from heat and place in a bowl. Then add ¾ cup of yogurt mixed with teaspoon of dried dill and serve.

Blueberry Sauce

Add frozen blueberries, about a cup and a half to a pan with ¼ cup of sugar.

To thicken Richard added a tsp of  “Bird’s Custard Powder” (If you have such a thing in your cupboard.)  Which he laughingly told me was his secret ingredient. Cause he knows I am such a purist. (A little cooking joke.)

Alternatively, I add a teaspoon of berry jam to thicken my fruit sauce.

Serbian Carrots, Gravy, Rabbit with Fresh Greens

Delicious!

A side story for your reading is attached about a Missouri Farmer who bought a pair of rabbits for his son to learn responsibility and wound up being fined millions of dollars by the USDA for selling rabbits.  It’s commentary on farming and the application of regulations. (Or Misapplication depending on your point of view)

http://www.hpj.com/archives/2011/aug11/aug15/0810LoosTalesMRsr.cfm