Tag Archives: salt

Secret Slaw Dressing Recipe

Posted on July 18, 2011 | 18 comments

I grew up in the Village of Manchester, just outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan.  We take great honor in being the home of the FAMOUS (yes, really) Chicken Broil, a 600+ volunteer driven event that raises funds for community projects and organizations from band uniforms to Boy Scout equipment and just about anything in between.  Chances are if you were a kid and grew up in Manchester, or have kids and currently live in Manchester, you have received some benefit from the cash raised by this mostly-male driven event which serves this amount of food in 4 hours:

  • 19,000 lbs chicken
  • 9,600 lbs charcoal
  • 256 lbs butter plus 14,000 butter pats
  • 48 22-oz containers of salt for chicken and dressing
  • 1,100 lbs radishes
  • 14,000 dinner rolls
  • 40 gallons of vegetable oil for dressing
  • 84 crates of cabbage
  • 14,000 1-oz. potato chip bags
  • 500 aprons and gloves

In honor of the 58th Manchester Chicken Broil  serving over 12,000 meals this Thursday, I give you…. the secret recipe for the only vegetarian component of the meal, besides the roll. Which, let’s be honest, that’s not really part of the meal, it’s the afterthought/filler.

MANCHESTER CHICKEN BROIL FAMOUS COLE SLAW DRESSING

  • 10 T sugar (or sugar substitute, I’ve used as little as 3 T sugar with great results)
  • 1/2 C vinegar (white preferred, but I usually use rice vinegar)
  • 1 C canola or veg oil
  • 1 1/2 tsp Coleman’s dry mustard (no subs here)
  • 1 T dried minced onions (I’ve used onion powder before, no probs)
  • 1 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 T celery seeds

Add ingredients to a glass canning jar, shake well until all sweetener dissolves and serve over shredded cabbage.

18 Comments

Posted in BBQ, Fridge Finds, Make Ahead, Recipes, Salad, Vegetarian

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Rummaged Flatbread

Posted on May 26, 2011 | 1 comment

Some nights I just don’t feel like cooking.  Really.  Yes, even me.  Which is why I’m thankful that I am competitive enough to make a game out of what I can scavenge from the fridge to pull dinner off.  Mr. Wonderful loves anything in the family of pizza.  So naan is a great quick pizza crust and Costco has the best deal on naan in the free world.  Enter naan from freezer and let the creative juices flow.  The most difficult part about this recipe is the patience it takes to caramelize the onions…chop them up and toss into a fry pan over very, very low, for a very long time.  You can vacuum, do dishes, watch some YouTube videos in the mean time.  Hell, get crazy and read a real book.

Here’s a quick flatbread recipe as rummaged from the fridge/freezer/pantry:

Grilled Asparagus, White Bean and Caramelized Onion Flatbread

  • 1 very large onion, any type, chopped finely into half circles (approx 2 C raw)
  • 1 bunch asparagus trimmed and washed
  • 1 C Provolone cheese, grated (goat or gorgonzola cheese would be better here, but none in the fridge, alas)
  • 4 C white beans, cooked or 2 cans, drained-reserve this liquid in case your hummus is too thick and you can drizzle some in (I pulled these from my freezer-reserve 3/4 C to sprinkle on TOP of flatbread, the rest will be used for “hummus” for the sauce on the flatbread)
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled
  • 2-3 T Tahini (or just use a little of the juice from the beans if you don’t have this in your cupboard)
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano or a handful fresh
  • 1/2 tsp dried cumin
  • 1/2 tsp dried chipotle or red pepper flakes, omit if you are not pro-heat
  • 2 T lemon juice, fresh squeezed preferred, but that little plastic lemon kind won’t kill you here
  • salt to taste, this will take more than you think…white beans have little flavor
  • EVOO
  • 2 pieces commercial naan bread

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Cut up onion, toss in hot frying pan with a swig of EVOO, then turn way, way down to low.  Here is where the patience comes in…now, wait.  Stirring every 15 minutes or so.  Caramelized onions take TIME.  Like, an hour or so.  Good news, you don’t have to do anything to them except poke around at them every quarter hour….seriously quit your complaining.
Take the following ingredients and zap them in the food processor until smooth:
tahini
white beans (minus 3/4 C for topping of flatbread)
lemon juice
garlic cloves
spices
pinch of salt
You just made white bean hummus which is the “sauce” for the flatbread.
Asparagus should be washed, trimmed and tossed with a splash of EVOO, then turned out onto a hot grill, or in a grill pan until just warm, they should be crispy, semi-raw still, they will be cooked again in a hot second.
Fire the naan for a few minutes in a 400 degree oven to crisp it up just a little.
Now assemble:
Apply “sauce” to naan bread, then onions, reserved white beans, asparagus and top with provolone cheese.  Toss back into hot oven until cheese melts.   Season with a bit of black pepper.
Devour.

1 Comment

Posted in Bread, Leftovers, Less is more, Quick Cooking, Recipes

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Salt + Chocolate = YUM

Posted on February 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

I was doing some housekeeping of  my Google Reader, getting rid of stuff I don’t actually read, feeds I don’t care about and more importantly setting up my RSS feeds for Craigslist items I need around the house, when I happened upon a delicious blog I have neglected for 49 posts (sorry!) called Bake or Break.  Zipping through the posts, the first thing that caught my eye was Salted Fudge Brownies and the first thought I had was Must. Make. Now.  And so I did.

Keeping true to my inability to actually just make a recipe without changing stuff, I made them a little spicy.  I am sure the delicious factor was increased and not sacrificed.  🙂  Enjoy.

  • 1 & 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
  • 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
  • 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
  • 2 cups granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon chili sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
 Preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9-inch square baking pan with aluminum foil, letting the excess hang over the edges. Lightly butter the foil. 

Melt butter and chocolate on low heat on the stovetop in a saucepan or in the microwave in a microwave-safe bowl. Remove from heat or microwave. One at a time, whisk in cocoa, chipotle powder, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and flour. Pour into prepared pan. Smooth the top of the batter. Sprinkle salt over top of batter. Using a butter knife, swirl salt into brownie batter.

Bake for 30-35 minutes, until edges are set and center is a bit soft. A toothpick inserted in the center should come out with a little batter coating it.

Cool at room temperature for an hour. Then, cool in refrigerator for an hour or until firm. Remove from pan and foil. Serve at room temperature.

Brownies can be refrigerated for 3 days or frozen for a month.

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Fresh bread, 45 minutes, no yeast. Really. It’s yummy too!

Posted on November 8, 2010 | 122 comments

Turns out you can make bread that tastes good, without much time, yeast or overloading your very busy napping, I mean working, schedule on a Sunday afternoon.  I forget that I own this cookbook until I see that someone else has dug out a keeper of a recipe from it.  I made more potato soup this afternoon in the crock pot from basically what we had in the fridge, 6 baking potatoes, 2 small yellow onions, a handful of baby carrots, 4 dried chiles, fresh thyme, a little half and half, and some skim milk while we were busy with grading, laundry, cleaning, etc and this quick savory bread was the perfect compliment to that delish dish.

Olive Oil and Salt Quick Bread
Adapted from Mark Bittman’s How To Cook Everything Vegetarian

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat flour)
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1/2 – 1 teaspoon salt, preferably sea salt
  • 1 cup of warm water

To Do:

  1. Heat the oven to 375 and grease an oven proof dish or skillet – 8-9″ is probably best.
  2. Put the flour, baking powder, and salt in a food processor. Turn on the machine and slowly add the olive oil and most of the water.
  3. Process for 30 seconds. The dough should roll into a ball and barely sticky.  If it hasn’t come together yet, add remaining water a tablespoon at a time, processing for 5 seconds each time.  If you want to add herbs, cheese, whatever, to the dough, do it now.
  4. Put the dough into the pan and flatten it until the dough fits to the edges.  Flip and press again. Cover tightly with foil and bake.
  5. After 20 minutes, remove the foil and sprinkle the top with coarse seat salt and herbs (if you like). Bake for another 20 minutes. The top will be golden and it will spring back when touched.

122 Comments

Posted in Fall Food, Less is more, Make Ahead, Recipes, Soup

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