Paprika Potatoes

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This is a kind of creamy potato stew, often served as a side dish to accompany roasted meats. It’s also an excellent “comfort food” for cold winter evenings.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) butter or lard

  • 1 large or 2 medium onions, chopped

  • 2 large garlic cloves, minced

  • 2 tablespoons Hungarian mild or medium-hot paprika

  • 1 teaspoon salt

  • 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds

  • 2 pounds new potatoes (or 6 to 8 medium-size boiling potatoes), peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

  • 1-1/2 to 2 cups warm chicken stock

  • 1 cup pure sour cream (containing no additives)

Instructions

Melt the butter or lard in a large saucepan. Add the onions and sauté over medium-high heat until they are translucent. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Reduce heat to very low and stir in paprika, salt, and caraway seeds. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add the potatoes and enough warm chicken stock to barely cover them. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low, cover the saucepan, and simmer for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender but not falling apart. Stir in the sour cream and serve immediately.

 

Green Beans with Paprika

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This sinfully rich dish is typical of the way that vegetables were prepared in the past, before anyone cared about cholesterol. Serve these creamy beans as an accompaniment to simple roasted meats.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) butter or lard

  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped

  • 2 teaspoons mild Hungarian paprika (or 1 teaspoon each mild and hot paprika)

  • 1 pound fresh green beans, cut diagonally into 1- 1/2-inch slices

  • 2/3 cup water

  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

  • 1/2 cup pure sour cream (containing no additives)

  • 1 tablespoon flour

Instructions

Heat the butter or lard in a large saucepan and sauté the onion until golden. Sprinkle paprika over the onion and stir to mix well. Add the green beans and stir until all the pieces are coated with paprika. Stir in water and salt. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low, cover the pan tightly, and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, until beans are tender. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream and flour until mixture is smooth. Stir the sour cream into beans and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes longer. Serve hot.

 

Grilled Lamb Chops with Mulberry Salsa

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Here’s a spicy treat and a good way to use up excess mulberries. Any number of commercial rubs work well for the lamb chops, or you can simply use red chile powder or hot paprika for the rub.

Ingredients

  • 4 thick lamb chops

  • Commercial rub of choice

  • 1 cup mulberries

  • 1 cup diced melon, such a cantaloupe

  • 2 serrano chiles, seeds and stems removed, minced

  • 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper

  • 1 medium onion, chopped fine

  • Juice of 1/2 lemon

  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

  • 1 tablespoon minced Italian parsley

  • 1 tablespoon minced cilantro

Instructions

Place the lamb chops on a plate and sprinkle with the rub. Press the rub into the meat and let stand for 1/2 hour.

In a bowl, combine the mulberries, melon, chiles, red bell pepper, onion, lemon juice, oil, parsley, and cilantro and mix well. Let stand for 15 minutes.

Grill the lamb over a medium hot fire until done; medium rare approximately will take 5 to 6 minutes per side, depending on the heat of the fire and the distance the meat is from it. The internal temperature should be 150°F.

Place the lamb on a plate and top with the salsa.

Yield: 4 servings

Heat Scale: Mild

 

Skewered Spiced Peruvian Beef and Chicken (Anticuchos)

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These are the famous Peruvian appetizers, sold by street vendors, and grilled to order. The customers just eat the beef right off the stick. Traditionally they are made with beef heart, but we like to use more tender and flavorful cuts of beef, plus chicken. With the highly acidic marinade, you can use tougher cuts if you marinate them longer. The chiles of choice here would be the native ají chiles, but virtually any small, hot fresh chiles can be used. Serve wrapped in a corn or flour tortilla. You can also serve the anticuchos as an entree with escalloped potatoes and green beans. Note: This recipe requires advance preparation.

Ingredients

Simmer the cumin seeds in the oil for 5 minutes. Strain the oil and discard the seeds.

Combine with all the remaining marinade ingredients in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. Toss the meat and chicken in the marinade, place in a nonreactive bowl, cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, and longer for tougher cuts of meat.

Thread the meat on skewers and bring to room temperature. Simmer the marinade for 20 minutes over low heat. Grill the beef over medium-hot fire, basting frequently with the marinade for about 4 minutes a side, until the beef is done. Cut a sample to check for doneness. Serve over greens with your favorite dipping sauces.

Instructions

Cured and Pecan-Smoked King Salmon with Hot Sauce

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The key to preparing salmon this way is to make certain that your smoke is rather cool, about 100 degrees. If it is warmer, decrease the smoking time. This recipe takes a fair amount of time, but most of that is spent waiting rather than working. The selection of sauces served is up to the cook, so feel free to experiment. A horseradish sauce will work also. The salmon can also be served on bagels, as pictured here. Note: This recipe requires advance preparation.

Ingredients

For the Cure:

  • 2.5 cups kosher salt

  • 3/4 cup brown sugar

  • 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper

  • 1 teaspoon ground oregano

  • 1 teaspoon crushed dill weed

For the Salmon:

  • 2 large salmon fillets, about 2 to 5 pounds each, or 5 small but thicker fillets

For the Sauce:

  • Commercial habanero hot sauce

  • Commercial sherry pepper hot sauce

  • Commercial spicy mustard

  • Commercial creamy horseradish sauce

Instructions

For the Cure:

Combine the ingredients for the cure in a bowl and mix well. Place a sheet of plastic wrap on an aluminum baking pan and spread about a 1/8-inch thick layer of the cure blend and place the fillets on the plastic wrap. Top the fillets with 1/8-inch of cure. Cover the fillets with plastic wrap and cure in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours; a 4-hour cure is preferable. Remove the fillets from the wrap and rinse the cure off each fillet. Allow the fillets to air dry for about 2 hours.

For the Salmon:

Prepare a fire in the smoker’s firebox with pecan wood or other fruit or nut hardwood of choice, such as apple, apricot, peach, or walnut. When the fire stabilizes and the smoke is no longer hot, place the fillets skin-side down on racks or on the aluminum baking pan.

Smoke the fillets for 4 to 5 hours, depending on their thickness. Regularly check the fire and fillets to make sure that the fish is smoking, not rapidly cooking.

Serve the salmon over crackers of choice topped with any of the three sauces as an appetizer. Refrigerate any leftovers, which will keep for weeks.