Low Salt "Soup-er" Pot Roast

There's nothing better than pot roast fresh from the oven . . . unless it is smelling the pot roast cooking all afternoon knowing there will be a wonderful dinner without much effort. OR wait. .. wait... the thought of the amazing leftovers you'll have for a couple more meals--maybe another dinner, or a couple of great hot roast beef sandwiches for lunch. That's why we always buy a five or six pound roast to cook here in Potluck Paradise headquarters. Sure you can make this with a two or three pounder, but it doesn't take that much longer to cook for delicious extras.  Potluck perfection!

Years ago we made this classic pot roast simply seasoned with canned and dry soup and wrapped up in foil a couple of times a month here at Potluck Paradise headquarters. But then we got concerned about too much salt in our food, so we just stopped. Every once in a while, we'd think about making it, but the idea of close to a day's worth of salt in a single serving made us shove the recipe back in the box.

But food makers have gotten hep. It is now possible to buy low and no salt soups. And if you can't find them where you live, we've found a couple of tricks.

Souper Pot Roast

1 4 to 5-pound chuck roast
2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup -- low sodium
2 envelopes dry onion soup mix -- low sodium
 OR if you can't find low sodium sift the soup mix through a sieve
        capturing the dry onions and saving the salty seasoning part
        in a small bowl.   And have an envelope of non-sodium beef broth
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup red wine

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  Line a baking pan with heavy duty aluminum foil allowing enough to wrap totally around the meat. Put the meat on the foil. Sprinkle evenly with the low sodium onion soup mix (OR the onions only from the full sodium version and a pinch or two of the sifted out seasoning and one envelope of the non-sodium beef broth mix) Spoon the mushroom soup over the top of the meat. Pour water and wine around the edges.  Seal the foil tightly.  Bake until done, about 3 to 4 hours depending on the size of the roast.
To serve: put the meat on a platter and stir the juices remaining in the pan to make a rich gravy.

Egg and Rice Omelet--A Potluck Paradise Vegetarian Favorite for Lent

From time to time our attention shifts to options for meatless meals here at Potluck Paradise headquarters.  And as Lent starts during this National Month of Potluck celebrating, we thought we'd share this recipe that deliciously combines leftover rice and stretches just 2, count 'em TWO eggs and topped with a bit of cheese sauce to make a very filling and delicious dish for two 

We found the original recipe in the March 1911 edition of the Boston Cooking School Magazine. It looked tempting, but it looked even more tempting when we realized that we had a cup of so of cooked rice in the fridge that we didn't quite know what we were going to do with it. 

Presto! a solution.... and lunch. 

Rice Omelet with Cheese Sauce 

2 eggs, separated

1 cup cooked brown rice, at room temperature

1 tablespoon water

a couple of grinds black pepper

dash salt, optional

1 tablespoon butter

About the pan and cooking method. I used my calphalon 8-inch omelet pan and it worked very well. The sides on the pan slope from a 5 1/2-inch base to a 7 1/2-inch inside diameter top. The original 1911 recipe says to finish cooking the omelet in the oven. I opted for a simpler method and just put a lid over it until it set.  The trick of stovetop cooking is to make sure the heat is low enough at this point that the bottom doesn't urn while you are waiting for the center to finish cooking. 

Instructions 

In a small mixing bowl beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks and set aside. In a medium mixing bowl lightly beat the egg yolks with salt, pepper, and water. Stir in the rice and mix well until all the grains are separated and coated with the yolk mixture. Gently fold the egg whites into the rice mixture. Melt the butter in omelet pan and swirl it up around the sides. Spoon the mixture into the pan and cook first over medium heat and then, once the bottom has set, continue on low heat, covering the pan with a lid, or putting it into a pre-heated 350 degree oven until the middle is set. 

To serve

Make a shallow cut through the omelet, cutting at the one-third mark. Pour cheese sauce over the larger area and then carefully fold the remaining third over the top. And then, with another carefully, remove to the plate. 

This is simple and elegant, in a homespun way. The crust is crispy and the filling surprisingly light. I made the cheese sauce with cheddar cheese. Swiss would be nice with some sauted mushrooms on the side. 

Cheese Sauce

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup milk

1/2 cup grated cheese -- more or less to taste

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and then stir in the flour. Cook over medium heat for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently, so that the flour begins to cook, but doesn't brown. Gradually add the milk and continue cooking and stirring until the sauce thickens. Stir in the cheese.  Leftover sauce can be refrigerated for a week, or stored in the freezer for a month.  

Enjoy Chinese New Year on Throwback Thursday With Chow Mein 1950s Style

We remember the 1950s--just barely--here at Potluck Paradise headquarters. In the midwestern small towns where we spent most of our young lives, the exciting, exotic foods of big city international cuisine were a dream from the pages of Gourmet magazine, or the ads in Life and Look.

But that didn't mean our mothers stopped trying for the exotic. Back before there was a pizza parlor on every corner and refrigerators had a freezer inside the main compartment that was the size of a shoebox, our clever mothers enlisted help from Chef Boyardee and La Choy to bring something different and tasty to the table.

Not for them just the simple opening of a can--magic and wonderful though its ingredients might be! No they did more than that. This Chow Mein recipe was refined over many versions. In the end it is the perfect fusion of Midwest with Far East. We hope you enjoy this throwback to the 50s flavor.  For a true taste contrast, pick up some modern frozen egg rolls as an appetizer. It is quite an experience.

1950s Chow Mein

1 tablespoon butter
1 1/2 cups celery, decoratively sliced on the diagonal
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, caps cut in half or quarters depending on the size
1 1/4 cups low salt chicken broth ( a 10.5 ounce can)
1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
1 1/2 cups diced cooked chicken breast
1 can chop suey vegetables, drained
1 can fancy Chinese vegetables, drained
1 can chow mein noodles
soy sauce, to taste

No one in the Midwestern small towns we lived in had a wok.  So it is the frying pan that steps in to create the magic.

Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add the celery, mushrooms and 1/4 cup of the chicken broth. Cover and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the celery is just tender. While this is cooking, stir the corn starch into the remaining chicken broth and set aside. Add the cooked chicken to the frying pan and heat through. Add the broth and corn starch mixture and cook over medium heat until the pan juices are thickened. Add the vegetables and heat through. Add soy sauce, if desired. To serve, put the cooked Chow Mein on a large plate and surround with the crispy noodles.

Serves 4 to 6.

May the Year of the Goat find your path lined with primroses, carnations, and good luck.

Potluck Perfect and a Salvation for a Snowy Day -- Ice Cream for Breakfast Day

George Washington Ice Cream -- Cherry Delicious

What could be more perfect -- tomorrow is Ice Cream for Breakfast Day?

According to the Ice Cream for Breakfast Day official website, the "best holiday you just discovered" started Florence J. Rappaport's Rochester, New York, kitchen in 1966. Florence decided to distract the youngest two of her six children on a day when there was "nothing to do" because of the snow and cold by declaring it was.... you guessed ... a day when you could eat ice cream for breakfast.

The children and other relatives introduced people all around the world to this delicious notion. 

Here at Potluck Paradise headquarters we're taking a page from our sister blog on soda fountains and Prohibition--Soda Shop Salvation and sharing one of our favorite homemade ice cream recipes.  It is perfect for this holiday-crammed month of February as it celebrates George Washington whose actual birthday in February 22. 

You'll find recipes for tasty sodas, wonderful sundaes and a great, rich ice cream topping along with other soda fountain favorites at http://sodashopsalvation.blogspot.com/

But before you toodle over there, spend some time with this great recipe.  Better than pie, which, of course, we often eat for breakfast, too. 

George Washington Ice Cream

1 1/2 teaspoons powdered unflavored gelatin (Knox brand)
1/4 cup cold water
1 (10-ounce) jar maraschino cherries, including the juice
1 1/2 cups milk, approximately
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cups cherry juice, bottled or frozen
1 1/2 cups half-and-half

In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let it stand until softened. Drain the maraschino cherries, putting the juice into a glass 2-cup measuring cup. Coarsely chop the cherries and set aside. Add milk to the maraschino cherry juice to make 2 cups. Place the juice and milk mixture into a medium saucepan and add the sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring from time to time, until the sugar has dissolved. remove from heat and stir in the softened gelatin. add the remaining cherry juice and half-and-half, and then stir in the chopped cherries. Chill the mixture and then freeze following the directions of your ice cream mixer. It will come out of the machine as as "soft serve" mixture. Spoon into containers with tight-fitting lids and store in the freezer for an hour or two until it fully hardens.

In a Pickle? Relish your Dinner!

We've all been there.  The end of dinner and we're stuck with the last half cup of vegetables...served, but uneaten. Most can just be bagged up and put into the freezer "soup store."  After all there's hardly a meat or vegetable soup that wouldn't benefit from some extra corn, green beans, peas or even asparagus.  Some would go nicely in a pureed cream soup--again, asparagus and peas, but also spinach, kale, or brussels sprouts.

But then there are beets!

Here at Potluck Paradise headquarters we love beets. We frequently buy a dozen or more, trim off the tops and put them in a foil-lined large baking pan. Add about 1/2 cup of water and seal the foil around them.  Depending on the size, an hour or two in a 350 oven and the skins come right off the fully-flavored red or golden globes.

Leftover beets present their own delicious opportunities!

One of our favorites is the Quick No-Salt Pickle.  We've done this pickling technique for years in the summer Mixed Canned Vegetable Salad--you know the one--a can each of corn, peas, French-cut green beans, kidney beans, and any other kind of bean you like. Drain and rinse and then pour over the boiling hot liquid made from equal parts sugar and white vinegar! Let stand until cool. Refrigerate overnight if you want to make ahead. Keeps for a week. Yum!

So the technique is the same

Picked Leftover Vegetable Relish

For each cup of leftover cooked vegetables such as:
Beets
Carrots
Peas
Green Beans
Asparagus
Corn
Brussels Sprouts
maybe even Turnips and Parsnips

1/3 cup white vinegar, you could use cider if you prefer
1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon dried seasonings such as: cumin, dill seed, dill weed, mustard seed, celery seed
More of fresh seasonings such as dill weed

Rinse the cooked vegetable to remove any butter or other sauce you may have put on them when you served them for dinner. Cut them into uniform small size, if necessary. Put the vegetables into a heat-proof bowl and add seasonings if you wish.  Combine the vinegar and sugar in a small pot and gradually bring to a boil, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Pour this pickle over the vegetables and stir from time to time as they cool.  Store in the refrigerator for three or four days.

So tasty, no one would even think they were leftovers!

Celebrate with the Delicious Mardi Gras Drinks --Non-Alcoholic, Too

Prohibition Sour  "A Drink for Men"

Celebrate Mardi Gras in style with these throw-back drinks from the Prohibition Era. Tasty and easy-to-make, they are a far cry from what we call in the Midwest "pop" and everyone else calls "soda."

During the thirteen years of Prohibition from the sales, manufacture, and transport of alcoholic beverages some folks turned to boot-leg beverages made in bathtub or basement stills. Some folks gave the "high sign" and slouched into dark speakeasys.  Others discovered the joys of tasty beverages and super ice cream sodas and sundaes made before their eyes in sparkling bright soda fountains--some even occupying remodeled saloons.

Keep a bottle of homemade flavor concentrate in your refrigerator or freezer and mix with purchased carbonated water or in one of those new-fangled "Soda Stream" machines. You and your guests will be refreshed before you can say "Al Capone."

Simple Syrup Based Flavor Concentrates

Let's start with the flavor concentrates -- and they all start with Simple Syrup.. Which is as simple as it's name suggests.

Simple Syrup

1 cup water
1 cup white granulated sugar

Put the water into a medium pot. Gradually add the sugar. Warm over low heat, stirring gently until the sugar dissolved. Do not even bring to a simmer. Just heat it enough to encourage the sugar to dissolve.  That's it!  Simple syrup keeps for days in the refrigerator.

Lemon, Lime, Orange Flavored Syrup

1/4 cup simple syrup
1 tablespoon frozen concentrated juice mix, such as lemonade, limeade, or orange juice

Stir the concentrate into the syrup. Use immediately, or store in the refrigerator for two or three days, or in the freezer for longer.  NOTE: you can use any frozen concentrate.  You can also make flavor concentrates by mixing actual fruit juices with the simple syrup or infusing the syrup with fruit peels, ginger root, and other ingredients. This is just faster and easier. And that's what we like here at Potluck Paradise -- tasty, easy, and fast.

Minnehaha Maid -- invented in Minnesota 

Minnehaha Maid

Makes enough to flavor about 2 liters of carbonated water 

or 16 5-ounce servings

1/2 cup cranberry juice

1/2 cup white grape juice 

1/2 cup lemon syrup

1/2 cup simple syrup (recipe above)

Combine the syrups. Use one ounce to a 7-ounce glass. Add a small scoop of crushed ice and about 4 ounces of carbonated water. Finish with a twist of lemon.

Prohibition Sour

Enough for three liters of carbonated water

Or 12 7-ounce servings

1 1/2 cups lemon syrup

3/4 cup orange syrup

juice from 6 limes

Mix the syrups and lime juice together. Use 1 1/2 ounces syrup to an 8-ounce glass. Add small scoop of crushed ice and 6 ounces of carbonated water. Finish with a slice of lime

Stop Browning Beef !-- A Culinary Confession

I must confess.  It is a heresy here at Potluck Paradise headquarters, but I hate browning ground beef. Worse yet, ground beef and onions. I just have no patience for standing over the stove  for ten or fifteen minutes and mashing the bits of beef into smaller bits, shuffling them around the pan until they are all browned and ready for the next step in casserole, hot dish, or sauce making. And then there is the grease to get rid of.

There I've said it!

But I'm not going to hang up my apron.  I've discovered a better way to manage beef for even tastier dishes.  I make extra hamburgers every time I fire up the grill.  It doesn't take that much extra time. The cooked burgers fit nicely into the freezer and when I'm ready to make a browned beef dish, I just crumble the burger into it and off we go. They add a nice grilled flavor to the dishes. And I usually mix chunky-style salsa into the beef before I form the patties, so I get that nice cooked onion in there, too. I usually add about 8 ounces of salsa to 5 pounds of beef and get about four burgers to the pound. Very handy to have on hand for a quick version of the Midwestern favorite

Hamburger Goulash

1 8-ounce package elbow macaroni, cooked and drained

8 ounces ground beef
1 medium onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced

OR instead of the beef, onion, and pepper use
3 grilled hamburger and salsa patties, crumbled

1 24-ounce can tomato juice
6 ounces cheddar or American cheese, cubed

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease a 12 x 9-inch baking dish. If using the ground beef, onion and pepper--begin by browning the beef in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and pepper and cooke, stirring until the beef is brown, the onion is transparent and the pepper is slightly cooked. Follow directions below.

If using my ever-so-sensible method of grilled beef just put all the ingredients into the baking dish and stir gently to make sure the ingredients are evenly distributed. Cover with foil and bake until the tomato juice is mostly absorbed by the macaroni and the cheese is melted, about 30 minutes. Stir once during cooking.

Serves 4 to 6 or 2 famished teen-aged boys

Copyright 2015 Rae Katherine Eighmey. All rights reserved.