Rocco's Pork and Potato Dumplings with Creamy Smoked Paprika Sauce

Okay, so I picked up a copy of  "Rocco's Get Real" Cookbook at a library book sale, and this recipe grabbed my attention.  I found the recipe is available at  Amazon,com, so that saved me from having to type it in. Yay! The link to the Amazon web page is here.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1-1/2 pounds boneless pork chops
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1-1/2 pounds fresh potato gnocchi
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large Vidalia onion, sliced thin
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika (also called pimentón)
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1/3 cup chopped fresh chives

Method
1. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat vegetable oil over high heat. Season pork chops with salt and pepper; add to the pan. Cook until golden brown and just cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Remove from pan; cover lightly with foil to keep warm. Turn heat to medium high.
2. While pork is cooking, bring a stockpot of salted water to a boil and cook gnocchi according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking water when gnocchi are done.
3. After pork chops are cooked, add butter to the pan over medium-high heat. When butter is hot, add onion. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are tender and caramelized, about 12 minutes.
4. Add the paprika, sour cream, gnocchi, and reserved gnocchi-cooking water to the pan; toss to coat. Stir in chives; season to taste with salt and pepper, if necessary.
5. Serve pork chops with gnocchi mixture.

Cheesy Potatoes

4 - 5 Lb new potatoes
1 medium onion, chopped

 Sauce
4 Tbsp butter
4 Tbsp flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 C milk
2 or more C shredded sharp cheese
1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce

Boil new potatoes until tender, drain and let cool. Peel and cube, and place in bottom of a 9" x 13" baking dish.

Dice onion, and scatter over potatoes.

In a separate pan, melt butter over a medium burner. Whisk in flour to make a roux.  Gradually stir in milk to make a smooth white sauce, then add shredded cheese (more is better) and the Worcestershire sauce.  Blanket the sauce over the potato - onion mixture in baking dish.

Bake at 350 to 375 degrees for 40 - 50 minutes until turning golden brown on top.

Cheese Blintzes - Vegetarian Epicure

I modified and used this recipe to make cheese blintzes in the late 1970s.  I remember substituting ricotta cheese for the hoop cheese, and believe I also only made a half-batch.  I may have used ground cardamom or no cardamom at all (can't remember either way, but I don't think I ground the seeds myself).

Crepe batter for blintzes:
3 eggs
1 C milk
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter or oil
1/4 C flour
butter for frying

Filling:
1 Lb (2 C) Hoop cheese, a soft baker's cheese (I substituted ricotta)
2 eggs
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
seeds from 4 cardamom pods, pounded in a morter

First make the crepes, using the recipe above (or your favorite French crepe recipe) - as listed above, the batter yields a slightly heavier pancake than typical French crepes.

Whip all the crepe batter ingredients together in a blender and set aside for at least an hour to rest. After batter has rested, heat a 6 inch crepe pan - add butter and let sizzle, then pour in about 2 to 3 Tbsp of batter. Tilt pan quickly to spread batter around evenly, and fry over medium flame for about a minute per side or just until it's golden. Continue until the batter is used up and all the crepes have been made, stacking the cooked crepes on a plate.

Prepare the filling - beat all the ingredients together thoroughly with a fork.

Take one crepe, place a good sized spoonful of the filling in the center, then carefully wrap one side over the filling, and begin to roll it.  Fold in the edges and continue rolling until it is rolled up.  You should end up with a short, plump cylinder with neatly tucked-in ends. Continue in this manner until all the blintzes are ready.

Now, either fry them lightly in butter (several minutes on either side so they are light brown and crisp) or bake them in a shallow, buttered baking dish. Brush the tops with some melted butter, then bake in preheated 425 degree (F) oven for about 15 to 20 minutes.  Whether fried or baked, serve piping hot.

Blintzes are traditionally accompanied with sour cream and various preserves.  You can serve them with yogurt and honey or other toppings as desired.

Recipe yields about 12 to 15 blintzes, enough for 4 to 5 hungry people.

The Black Eyed Peas Caper - Hoppin' John to Ensure a Prosperous New Year

Repost - Originally posted on November 28, 2011, 5:55 pm - original slow cooker notes lost, so will need to add those after I've cooked this again

The Black Eyed Peas Caper - 

Hoppin' John -  Hopping John to Ensure a Prosperous New Year

Some folks have a tradition of eating Black Eyed Peas -- they are supposed to bring good luck and prosperity if eaten in anticipation of New Year, but they're darned tasty at other times, too. Modified from original recipes in "The Occasional Vegetarian" by Karen Lee.

Made in two steps, the recipe may be made with meat (a couple slices of smoked ham shank, smoked pork neck bones, crumbled crisp bacon, etc all give special appeal, but this can be made vegetarian / Vegan style and still be delish.
.

Step One:

Basic Black-Eyed Peas

1 C Dried Black-Eyed Peas
3 C Vegetable Stock or Stock of your choice
1 Bay leaf
5 - 6 Parsley Stems
Branch of fresh sage with 3 - 4 leaves on it (or 1/2 tsp dried sage)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Although not necessary to soak black-eyed peas, it reduces the cooking time and gives a more even product if you are able to soak in advance - a minimum of 2 to 4 hours before you will boil the peas

If soaking peas, wash, drain and put in a container with water to cover by 4" for 2 to 4 hours. Drain the beans and combine with stock in a large pot over high heat.  Bring to a simmer, then add the bay leaf.  Lay the sprigs of parsley and sage across the top of the beans.  Partially cover and simmer until tender - about 45 minutes.  Increase cooking time to 1 hour or longer if beans were not pre-soaked.

Remove bay leaf, parsley, and sage.  Add salt and pepper if the peas are to be eaten without further preparation.  For Creole Black-Eyed Peas, continue to Step Two.

Step Two

Creole Black-Eyed Peas

2 1/2 C cooked Black-Eyed Peas (see above, or canned)
4 Shallots, chopped
2 Medium onions, chopped
3 Celery stocks, chopped
1 Tbsp olive oil
6 to 8 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 to 1 jalapeno pepper, minced
Vegetable stock or stock of your choosing, as needed (see note below)
1/2 tsp ground cumin, preferably roasted
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

- In a deep, heavy saucepan, saute the shallots, onions, and celery over medium heat n the olive oil until the onions begin to turn golden, 10 - 15 minutes.
Add garlic and jalapeno, and saute 2 - 3 minutes.

- Add previously cooked or canned black-eyed peas with some of its cooking liquid or stock to moisten the mixture. Bring to a simmer, then add the cumin, salt, and pepper, Partially cover and keep at a low simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Add additional bean liquid and stock as needed.  Serve hot.

Notes: If serving Creole Black-Eyed Peas as a soupy stew over rice (Hoppin' John) add most or all of the cooking liquid from the black eyed peas, and, if you like, additional stock.  If serving as part of a composed plate with other veggies, add only a few tablespoons of liquid to keep the beans from drying out while they cook.  Will add slow cooker / crockpot notes after I make these again.

Projects, Recipes and Recipe Recovery

Projects, Recipes and Recipe Recovery

I plan on keeping this page as an springboard, and possibly an Index   This may very well also be the "Project Page" where suggestions and variations may be gathered and discussed.  I keep considering the idea of making my project pages wiki-like so that others may also share in the projects.

My old cooking blog shut down, and I hadn't printed out all of the recipes I routinely used, as I knew I could get to them, update them, and use them from the web whenever I wanted. And then boom... gone.  I was able to recover some using the Wayback Machine's archive, but there was no predicting which recipes made it and which failed to be archived.  I've started the slow process of grabbing recipes from the archive, and many of them ended up as postings in my main blog here (Dancing Tomatoes). For those, I will put an entry on this site and point to the recovered <and perhaps updated:> post).

Current projects:

Recovery and replacement of recipes I'd been keeping on mycookingblog.com -- see second paragraph, above.  

Spice cake & penuche frosting
I'm still looking for recipes for spice cake (without raisins or other fruit in the batter) that can be made as a single layer and frosted with a penuche or caramel icing.  I discovered the combination of spice cake with penuche frosting when PCP made it for her own birthday cake sometime in the 80s in Pasadena.

Brown Beauty Cake with Fudge Frosting
a lovely single layer 8 x 8" chocolate cake with  rich fudge frosting.  Recipe is among the hand-written recipes in my binder, so this one will require typing in.

Crepes:
 for Palascintas (savory Hungarian stuffed crepes)
 for Ham and Brie crepes, similar to those at Art Cliff Diner in Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard
-for buckwheat galettes (similar to those at the garmer's market - with crab and a lemon sauce!)
for simple fruit or -

Recipe PDFs from friends, family, memories of excellent dishes and meals

New recipes, i.e., recipes "To-Try" - ones I've bookmarked and am interested in trying - or I've read online and am anxious to have a go with.
Indexing of recipes and project notes.

Indexing

Black-Eyed Peas Caper
Chile Verde - Green Chili Stew with Pork posted in Dancing Tomatoes
Eggplant - Kahrmus - Moroccan Eggplant and Garlic
Green Chili Stew  (same as Chile Verde post)
Plum and Pluot Cobbler posted in Dancing Tomatoes