Mom’S Sweet & Savory Bean Soup
Triscuits
Honey Mustard Pasta Salad on Fresh Greens
Fried Onion Topping
Aioli Cornmeal Crusted Fried Tilapia
Aioli Sauce Lemon Wedges
Coriander Sautéed Pumpkin and Onion
Whole Wheat Bread Butter
Goose Mincemeat Pie with Whipped Cream
Triscuits
Honey Mustard Pasta Salad on Fresh Greens
Fried Onion Topping
Aioli Cornmeal Crusted Fried Tilapia
Aioli Sauce Lemon Wedges
Coriander Sautéed Pumpkin and Onion
Whole Wheat Bread Butter
Goose Mincemeat Pie with Whipped Cream
Tonight's dinner was a pleasant experience. Lots of different textures and many flavors.
We started with a rich hearty soup made from a bean casserole that David's mother brought to Thanksgiving Dinner. The beans were yummy in the original recipe. But I have this penchant for transforming a previously served dish to that it's not recognizable the next time it's served. This keeps the David happy with leftovers! To make the soup I sauteed 1 cup of diced onion in about a tablespoon of sunflower oil until just soft. Then I added 1 and 1/2 cup of the mixed bean casserole (it was a mix of four different beans, onions, sugar, vinegar and mild spices), 2 cups of water, 1 teaspoon of ham bouillion, 1/2 teaspoon of Dr. Paisley's Unreasonable Hot Chili Powder, and 1 teaspoon garlic. I simmered this all togeter for about 10 minutes will I did other things. The final touch was to puree the soup with my immersion blender. Great way to put a stop the the mean hungries.
I roasted a head of Elephant Garlic in my smallest crockpot about two weeks ago. David and I eat about half the head of garlic as a spread on fresh bread. I pureed the remaining roasted garlic with about 12 ounces of Hellman's Mayonnaise to create and aioli sauce. Tonight's Tilapia was the first opportunity that I had to use it. I spread a thin layer of the aioli on the fish and then coated the fish with popcorn meal. I then fried the Tilapia in sunflower oil until cooked through and browned on both sides. Serve with Ailoi Sauce and Lemon Wedges for the diner to squeeze over the fish. The two condiments compliment each other and were important to the experience.
The Tilapia is a good find. I may have said this before, but it's worth repeating. I bought a box of individual frozen and wrapped filets packed in a sturdy box at Walmart some months ago. I know those of you who live on the coast are going "Yuck, Frozen Fish!" but here in Kansas it's difficult to get good fresh fish. Frozen Fish is no longer the fish sticks of my youth. This fish has no freezer taste. It can dry pretty easily while cooking so I have taken to spreading the fish with a bit of mayonnaise and then coating with a variety of items from crushed flavored potato chips (salt and vinegar are awesome) to cornmeal. The mayonnaise does a very good job of keeping the fish moist.
Mincemeat pie is something that had gotten bad press. Most of the time when I mention it to people I get disgusted looks. I used to love my grandmothers' Mincement pies. They were rich, flavorful, filling, and homey. Both of them were good cooks, one used storebought mincemeat adn then augmented it. The other preserved her own mincement for real meat and fruits. Mincement appeared on the Isle of Britain after the First Crusades. Those returning from the holy lands returned with the spices that provide the signature notes of this pie. It soon became associated with Christmas. Mincemeat pies were often held for two to three months. While served at Christmas Celebrations, slices would be carried to the work site to eat for lunch as well. It's a hearty dish as true mincemeat does indeed have meat in it. During the Cromwell's rule mincemeat pies were outlawed as Cromwell believed that their sole purpose was to celebrate Christmas and he had banned the celebration of Christmas as unChristian! He even sent out the local constbulary to check households for mince pies. People were jailed for creating the dish!
My pie was created from leftovers. I had slow cooked some wild goose with onions, garlic, figs and cherry brandy. It was quite nice served over couscous. But we had quite a bit left over. It was a sweet dish, with the figs and the wine so I thought it would probably work just fine for mincement. I tossed the two cups of cooked cubed goose into my food process and pulsed until the meat was chopped smaller and finer. I tossed that into a saucepan with 1 cup of apple juice, 1 cup of golden raisins, 1 cup of dates, 5 peeled and chopped medium apples, 1/4 cup of brandy, the zest and juice of two lemons, and 3/4 cup of honey. I let that simmer for a while to soften the fruits. I added water occassionally to keep the mincement from scourching. About five minutes before putting the filling into the pie crust, I shut the heat off under the filling, and then I sprinkled 1/4 cup of minute tapioca over he filling followed up with mixing the filling throughly. While preparing the dough for the pan, I let the filling sit. I prepared a batch of standard pie crust ( I now make mine with lard!) for a double crust pie. I lined a nine inch pan with dough, poured in the filling, covered with a top crust, crimped the edges, sprinkled the top of the pie generously with granulated sugar, baked the pie at 340 degrees F for 45 minutes until uniformly browned.
We let the pie cool and then dug in.
I did not add the suet that most standard recipes call for as I find that adds a cloying flavor that distracts from the dish. And besides, we don't really need the extra fat calories in our diet.
