Kate's Fabulously Awesome Layered Taco dip!

This dip is the best thing ever at a party. Everyone loves it (even those that claim they don't like refried beans, or avocado or etc.) and some just sit right in front of it stuffing heavily laden corn chips in their mouths.

Allegedly, this an old Tupperware recipe, designed for a special Tupperware container that is 22cm X 32cm - which may affect the proportions of the layers, but I have made it in other containers and it's still delicious so have at it.

It basically tastes like tacos - which are awesome - so what could be better than having a massive taco to share with all of your friends.



INGREDIENTS. -
530g tin refried beans (although I think this size is made up - I just get the largest one I can which I think is slightly smaller)
1/2 cup taco sauce
3/4 cup shredded cheese
1 250g block Philadelphia cream cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
3 tbs mayonnaise
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 large avocado (seeded and peeled)
1 medium onion (diced)
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tomato (seeded and diced)
1/2 cup sliced pitted olives
1/2 cup sliced shallotts


METHOD. - 
1. In a large bowl, stir refried beans, taco sauce and several dashes of tabasco (if desired).
2. Spread the refried bean mixture evenly on the bottom and sides of large rectangular container. Sprinkle half of the shredded cheese over the bean layer. (If you forget the cheese here, its fine.)
3. Combine the cream cheese, sour cream, mayo and garlic powder. Beat with electric mixer on med speed until smooth.
4. Spread the cream cheese mixture evenly over the bean/cheese layer.
5. Cut avocado into small pieces. Blend in blender/food processer with onion and lemon juice until combined.
6. Spread the avocado mixture evenly over the cream cheese layer.
7. Sprinkle avocado layer with chopped tomato, sliced olives, sliced shallotts and remaining cheese. If desired, drizzle with additional taco sauce. Cover and chill.
8. Serve with corn chips

My mouth is just drooling thinking about this dip - now I'm hungry!

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax-- Of cabbages--and kings--"

Tonight introducing the Eighth Wonder of the World...



the CABBAGE!!!!! (weee, roar, wooo)

Now, I'm sure some of you are going to tap me on the shoulder and say "Excuse me Miss... Cabbage is the most disgusting, evil, horrifying, appalling vegetable ever created, and if I were God, I would take it back." And I'm sure school lunches may have something to do with that.

But when cooked right, to just the right amount of crispness with a little salt, cabbage is delicious and juicy.



CABBAGE, BOILED.

INGREDIENTS. - Cabbages.
To each 1/2 gallon of water allow 1 heaped tablespoon of salt, a very small piece of soda.

METHOD. - Pick off all the dead outside leaves, cut off as much of the stalk as possible, and cut the cabagges across, tiwce at the stalk end; if very large, quarter them.
Wash them well in cold water, place them in a colander, and drain; then put them into fast-boiling water, to which has been added salt and sode in the above proportions.
Stir the cabbages once or twice in the water, keep the pan uncovered, and let them boil quickly until tender.
The instant they are done take the cabbages up into a colander, place a plate over them, let them drain thoroughly, dish, cutting them into squares.

TIME. - Small young cabbages, from 15 to 20 minutes; large cabbages and savoys, from 30 to 40 minutes. SUFFICIENT, allow 1 medium sized cabbage to 3 or 4 persons.

Note. - Cabbages are seasonable at any time

So that's how you cook cabbages. I like to slice mine up pretty fine. Nothing is worse than overcooked cabbage, so keep an eye on the times and you may want to reduce them accordingly.

Enjoy!

"...there are times when only mashed potato will do." - Nigella Lawson

Sometimes I agree with Nigella. Sometimes I think she's just a little too excited by food. But Nigella hits the nail on the head with mashed potato. Mashed potato is essential... and as if they read my mind - an article in the Times describes all different varieties of ways to produce the perfect mashed potato.

So here's how Mrs Beeton suggests you make them. How do you make yours?





POTATOES, MASHED.

INGREDIENTS. - 1 lb. of potatoes
1 oz. of butter
1 or 2 tablespoonfuls of milk
salt

METHOD. - Peel and steam the potatoes over a saucepan of boiling water, or boil them in their skins, and afterwards peel them.
In either case, pass the potatoes through a wire sieve, or mash them well with a fork.
Heat the butter in a stewpan, add the milk, stir in the potato, and season to tastes with salt.
Beat well with a wooden spoon, pile lightly in a hot dish, then serve.

TIME. - To steam, 30 to 40 minutes. SUFFICIENT for 3 persons

“It is easy to halve the potato where there is love.”

Or in this case, fluff them.

Potatoes are a wonderful super food. They are an excellent source of carbohydrates and the 4th largest food crop in the world. I love potatoes. Potatoes are a food for everyone.

"A diet that consists predominantly of rice leads to the use of opium, just as a diet that consists predominantly of potatoes leads to the use of liquor." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche clearly not a fan then. But have you ever seen potatoes like this?

It's a freakin' potato soufflé. Well, technically it's called POTATO OMELET, but whatever...



Yes, that is a potato. 

POTATO OMELET.

INGREDIENTS. - 1 large potato
2 or 3 eggs
1 oz. of white vegetable butter
leomn-juice
nutmeg
salt and pepper

METHOD. - Bake the potato in its skin, pass the mealy part through a fine sieve, and mix with it the yolks of the eggs, a few drops of lemon-juice, a pinch of nutmeg, and a little salt and pepper.
Whisk the egg whites stiffly, stir them lightly in, and fry the omelet in the hot butter. If preferrred, the omelet may be baked in the oven.

TIME. - To fry, about 4 or 5 minutes. SUFFICIENT for 2 persons.

Needs something else added to it. Parmesan cheese works well. Or maybe mustard. Otherwise is quite bland.

Peas, peas me, whoa yeah, Like I peas you...

Just because you can buy frozen peas and ping them in the microwave, doesn't mean you can't know how to cook them for real.



PEAS, GREEN, BOILED

INGREDIENTS. - 2 pints of green peas
mint
butter
salt and pepper

METHOD. - Shell the peas, put them into boiling water, add a little salt and a sprig of mint, and boil, with the saucepan uncovered, from 10 to 25 minutes, according to age and variety.
Drain well, put them into a hot vegetable dish, season with pepper, add a small piece of butter, and serve.

TIME. - From 10 to 25 minutes. SUFFICIENT for 6 or 7 persons

Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education. - Mark Twain

Cauliflower is pretty awesome. What can make it even awesomer is the addition of cheese sauce. Preferably lots of it. For some reason, I usually only make this at Christmas time, which is probably good for my cholesterol levels.



CAULIFLOWER, BAKED, WITH CHEESE.

INGREDIENTS. - 2 or 3 small cauliflowers
3/4 of a pint of white sauce
2 tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, preferably Parmesan
1 tablespoonful of brown breadcrumbs
about 1 oz. of butter

METHOD. - Boil the cauliflower as in the following recipe, (Put them into fast-boiling water and let them boil gently, keeping the saucepan uncovered.) drain well, and divide them into pieces convenient for serving.
Have ready a round gratin dish, or any fireproof dish, that may be sent to the table, grease it well, and in it arrange the pieces of cauliflower so as to appear as one large one.
Mix 2/3 of the cheese with the COLD white sauce, and the remainder with the breadcrumbs; pour the sauce over the cauliflower, and cover the surface with the mixed breadcrumbs and cheese.
Place small piece of butter on the top, and bake in a moderate over until well browned.

TIME. - About 40 minutes. SEASONABLE from June to November. SUFFICIENT for 5 persons.

I omitted the breadcrumbs. And I think I had a bit more white sauce. And lots more cheese. Lots and lots more cheese. I usually ping my cauliflower in the microwave rather than boiling it until tender, and add the white sauce while it is warm and all the cheese melts into it and then it seeps all around the cauliflower. But that could be just me...

Saucy Señoritas - wink, wink, nudge, nudge

The mystery that is SPANISH SAUCE.

I've had several readers inquire about this (well, 2...) so here it is. It is actually tastier than it appears in this photo. If you look at the photo in the Spinach Pudding post you can see it in the little jug.

Odd as it sounds, I would compare this to a vegetable gravy cross tomato sauce. But it's pretty good.



ESPAGNOLE OR SPANISH SAUCE

INGREDIENTS. -
1 quart of stock
1 oz. of raw lean ham or bacon (obviously omitted if you are vegetarian)
2 oz. of butter
2 oz. of flour
1 carrot
1 onion
1 clove
4 peppercorns
a bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, bay-leaf)
1/2 a gill of tomato pulp (I used instead some tomato paste)
1/2 a gill of sherry (optional)
2 mushrooms

METHOD. - Melt the butter in a stewpan, add the ham, cut into small pieces, fry for a few minutes, and then put in the vegetables slices, the herbs, and spices.
Stir these ingredients over a slow fire for about 5 minutes, then add the flour and brown it carefully.
Add the stock, tomato-pulp, and sherry (if used), stir the sauce until boiling, draw the saucepan to the side of the fire, let it boil slowly for about 1 hour, then skim off the fat, pass the sauce through a tammy-cloth, season, warm up, and serve quickly.

TIME. - About 1 1/2 hours. QUANTITY, about 1 pint.

I'm sure I didn't cook it for that long, and I just passed it through a sieve at the end. Pretty darn lickable though, and my sister ate some of the vegetables that were left in the strainer. She tells me they were good.

I'm strong to the finich 'cause I eats me spinach

Popeye ate his spinach and grew to be big and strong. Allegedly.

Early references to spinach in the Fleischer cartoons and subsequently in further stories of Popeye are attributed to the publication in 1870 of a study by Dr. E von Wolf which, because of a misprint, attributed to spinach ten times its actual iron content. The error was discovered in 1937 but not widely publicized until T.J. Hamblin wrote about it in the British Medical Journal in 1981.

The popularity of Popeye reportedly helped boost sales of the leafy vegetable. And speaking of which, spinach is delicious. But ever wondered what to do with your spinach to make it a meal? Spinach pudding is the way to go.



And so tasty that even Mr Fussy himself (my husband) ate it with no compunctions.

SPINACH PUDDING

INGREDIENTS. - 2 lbs. of spinach
6 oz. of veal forcemeat (as this is supposed to be a vegetarian recipe I'm not sure what this is doing here. I substituted just bread crumbs and butter - like the forcemeat balls I made for the MOCK HARE SOUP)
2 oz. of butter
1/2 pint of Béchamel
1/4 pint of stock
a few potatoes, turnips and carrots
3 eggs
salt and pepper

METHOD. - Pick, clean, and wash the spinach; then chiop, boil, drain, and cool it. (Or in these modern times, if you are short on time you can buy frozen spinach, just squeeze of the excess water, et voilà.)
Put it in a saucepan with the butter, sauce, and stock, and simmer for 5 minutes.
When cool add the focemeat, the yolks of the eggs, and the seasoning.
Put it in a mould and cook in a bain-marie. (I cooked mine in a water bath in the oven - worked fine for me.)
Turn out on to a dish and garnish with the cooked vegetables, cut into fanciful shapes.
Serve with Spanish sauce.

TIME. - altogether about 3/4 hour. Average cost, 1s. 9d. SUFFICIENT for 7 or 8 persons. SEASONABLE in winter and spring.

Hot Potato, hot potato....hot potato, hot potato

Those Wiggles sure know what they're talking about...I may not agree with the cold spaghetti or the mashed banana... but Hot potato certainly is the thing. Particularly in Autumn and Winter as it is here down under. While those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are complaining of heatwaves and hot days, down here (particularly right down here in Melbourne) we are getting chilblains.

So what better to warm up with than a hot potato...
or in this case POTATO SOUP.

INGREDIENTS. - 2 lbs. of potatoes
1 leek
1 stick of celery
1 1/2 pints of milk
2 oz. of butter
2 oz. of sago or tapioca
salt and pepper
2 quarts of water



MODE. - Cut up the vegetables, using only the white part of the leek, and put them in a lined saucepan with the butter.
Let them cook for about 10 minutes but not take colour; then add the milk and water and boil about 3/4 of an hour, or till it is soft enough to run through a fine sieve.
Boil it again, adding more milk if necessary, and the sago, which should simmer, till transparent.

TIME. 1 1/4 hours or rather more. Average Cost, 10d. SUFFICIENT for 6 persons. SEASONABLE in winter.

I thought this was quite tasty. My husband did not. Still, there's no accounting for taste. Requires some salt.

It's the Bland of Blandonia

So this is the Tomato and Onion Pie I have been talking about for a while. And it was a complete bust.

So I'll post the recipe and then give you comments on where I think she goes wrong and on where I think I went wrong...and we'll see if we can't improve on it somewhat.

TOMATO AND ONION PIE

INGREDIENTS. -

2 Spanish onions,

2 lb. of firm tomatoes,

breadcrumbs,

vegetable butter,

and seasoning.

METHOD. - Peel the onions, cover them with boiling water, let them remain for at least 2 hours, then drain and dry thoroughly, and cut them into slices.
Heat up 1 oz. of butter in a frying-pan and fry the onions until lightly browned. Slice the tomatoes, place them in alternate layers with the onion into a greased pie-dish, sprinkling each layer lightly with salt and pepper, and liberally with breadcrumbs.
Cover the whole with a good layer of breadcrumbs, add a few small pieces of butter, and bake in a moderately hot oven for about 1 hour.

TIME. - About 4 hours. SUFFICIENT for 4 to 5 persons.

Now, as you can see from the photos it's just a pile of bread crumbs - this may be my fault, I may have been too heavy handed with them, but it does say 'liberally' to sprinkle them.

Apart from that it was bland... even extra salt and pepper couldn't help it and I think I know why.

Could it be the lengthy soaking of the onion to begin with? Or the frying or the further cooking? All of which result in Spanish onions that are so limp and apologetic as to be almost indiscernible.

Spanish onions aren't the worst kind of onions, as onions go, so this treatment seems rather excessive and produces something definitely unimpressive.

My recommendations: Use brown onions, forgo the 2 hour onion bath, fry the onions if you want or for real bite, don't, and use less breadcrumbs or just sprinkle them on top. And then you would have a pleasant accompaniment to a roast or fish or just about anything.

A pie of potatoes (and tapioca)

I had my sisters over for dinner again...
but seeing as the temperatures were topping 46 oC last week and still in the 30s this week it was almost too hot for my planned meal of potato pie and tomato and onion pie...

Also I hadn't boiled my onions for 2 hours on Sunday like I planned so in the end I just went with Potato pie and a fresh salad.

The continuing challenge on making scrummy vegetarian cooking is keeping me occupied for when my sisters come over, and this did not fail to delight even though I thought it would be way too carbo-loaded.

It also contained tapioca because at our last dinner I threatened to cook and entire dinner with tapioca, so you know what we had for dessert then... and what kind of hostess would I be if I didn't fulfill my culinary promises.

POTATO PIE

INGREDIENTS - 2lb of potatoes,
1 onion
1 stick of celery

1 oz. of vegetable butter
1 oz of sago or tapioca
seasoning
short-crust paste to cover

water or milk

METHOD - Slice the potatoes and the celery, fry the onion in the butter, and fill a pie-dish with these, sprinkling in the sago or tapioca, and seasoning to taste. Fill up with water or milk, put on a cover of paste, and bake in a good oven for about 1 hour or more, according to size.

TIME - To bake, about 1 hour. SUFFICIENT for 3 or 4 persons

I went with the water option seeing as we were having milky pudding. The water and tapioca mix and end up as a kind of gravy. It's definitely one I would make again... also carrots or any other vegetable would be a good addition.

Are you now or have you ever been...

A vegetarian? If you are you may "lose their liking for preparation possessing much flavour and seasoning and usually prefer simple fare." You are in danger of becoming insipid and flavourless. Such a diet is "apt to be monotonous, but not necessarily so." Your diet will only be tasty and "nourishing, palatable and varied, if they will avail themselves of the many food-stuffs which nature has generously placed at their disposal."

So, on the whole, Mrs Beeton and her publishers do not come down on the side of vegetarianism.

Why am I posting this inflammatory post? To cover up the mess that was my dessert: COFFEE CUSTARD.

Whilst it was tasty, it looked appalling and I'm going to hold off posting the recipe until I work the kinks out of it... Let's just say that my custard needs work...a lot of it. Baked custard just doesn't seem to be my thing... yet.

So here it is, with a slice of Panaforte made by one of my brownies as a Christmas present

It's a mockery

well, a mock goose... Actually it's a Vegetable Goose, despite the lack of any real vegetables (onion is not really a vegetable).


But before we get there, let's have a look at what Mrs Beeton has to say about the origins of vegetarianism.


"From the earliest ages the doctrines and practice of vegetarinism have been observed, from necessity, as a religious duty or on grounds of health. In England the question has come to the front on the ground of dietetic reform, and a number of persons known as "Vegetarians" abstain from animal foods altogether, or take it only in such forms as milk, cheese, butter or eggs."


Interestingly, the concept of vegetarianism was so novel in 1923 that it didn't need delineations like vegan, or pescatarian, or pesca-pollo-tarian, or fruitarian. You either ate meat, or you didn't. And coming from a book that has 12 chapters exclusively about meat and only one on vegetarian cooking, I imagine that most people ate meat.


And now, VEGETABLE GOOSE (I served mine with roasted vegetables...Mrs Beeton left no serving suggestions)



INGREDIENTS - 1/2 lb of bread soaked in cold water
1 onion
1 tp chopped sage
30g vegetable butter
pepper and salt
60g chopped walnuts


METHOD - Squeeze the bread nearlydry, and mash it, mix in the other ingredients, chopped small. Grease a Yorkshire pudding-dish, put in the mixture, and bake in a good oven for about 3/4 of an hour.


TIME - About 1 1/2 hours. SUFFICIENT for 3 persons (actually about 5, depending on how much you like mushed bread)
My recommnedations: Actually quite tasty for a fauxst (faux roast), basically just a pile of stuffing. Needed a bit more salt. Maybe not a gold medal winner but certainly tasty...and a good way to use up any leftover stale bread.

I had the left over goose and potatoes for breakfast today, sort of fried into a fritter thing... it was also good.

Mrs Beeton vs. the Vegetarian

Last night I had my sisters over for dinner...and because of my new obsession, I wanted to cook something from Mrs Beeton. Trouble is, my sister is a vegetarian.

Now from a cookbook that recommend Calf's Feet Stew for invalids or Bullock's Heart stuffed with Veal forcemeat I thought my chances of devising a suitable menu may be slim. However, I should not have been so hasty. While I believe the original Mrs Beeton was probably not in favour of vegetarian ( I think somewhere she wrote that it would be quite bad to omit one entire food group, and meat at that!), my new and updated version desiring to "give useful information to all housekeepers" has a whole chapter(!12 pages!) added "for the benefit of those who do not eat animal food, or prefer an alternative diet."

And now with out any further ado, may I present MOCK HARE SOUP

INGREDIENTS - 1 litre Vegetable Stock
1 carrot (diced)
1 onion (diced)
1 stick of celery (diced)
1 tomato (diced)
2 cloves
1 bay leaf
1 tsp of chopped parsley
1 tbsp of flour
30 g of vegetable butter
salt
pepper

METHOD - Melt the butter in a casserole, cut up the vegetables into neat pieces, and cook them slowly in the butter for about 15 mins - with the lid on. Stir in the flour and brown it a little, then add the stock, cloves, bay leaf and seasoning, stir until it simmers; then cook gently for about 20 mins. Meanwhile make forcemeat balls about the size of a cherry, and fry them. Put them into the soup tureen, pour the soup on, scatter the chopped parsley over, and serve immediately. Hand the red currant jelly separately. When in season a few mushrooms added to the vegetables are an improvement.

TIME - About 45 minutes. SUFFICIENT for about 6 or 7 persons

My recommendations: Not much - this is a pretty good vegetable soup. BTW - these recipes have been converted to metric measurements.

FORCEMEAT BALLS (For serving in Soups, etc.)

INGREDIENTS - 120 g fresh bread crumbs
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp chopped pine kernels
1 tbsp chopped vegetable butter
1/2 tsp chopped parsley
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
1/2 tsp lemon peel
1 medium egg
pepper and salt
fat for frying

METHOD - Mix all the ingredients well together - using the egg to form a stiff paste. Roll into balls, fry a golden brown in either deep or shallow fat and serve as required.

TIME - About 15 minutes. SUFFICIENT for about 1 dozen balls.

My recommendations: Well, I had to add some extra water (actually quite a bit of extra water) to get the balls to stick. My paste was just too dry... although this may have been because I used dried breadcrumbs not fresh ones. And I made my balls too big, next time they'll be smaller.

Over all, I found the entree to be quite tasty, and everyone agreed that this is one you could make again...

Tomorrow...the main - Mock Goose