Welcome to Regina's Recipe Page
I have included some of my favorite recipes from my new book "Regina's Table at Twin Oaks"
I start you off with my list of ingredients I always keep on hand. This would be a great time to clean out those kitchen cabinets and have less but more to really cook with.
Cast Iron Vegetables with Smoked Tomato Coulis
Regina's Butter Biscuits
Seared Salmon Salad with Bacon-Molasses Vinaigrette
Blackberry Creme Brulee Trifle
|
Spontaneous cooking takes having the right ingredients at your finger tips to allow you artistic freedom. This is a list of items to keep on hand in your kitchen to help you be more spontaneous in your cooking. With the right items on hand you will be able to take whatever is in season and create a menu when you get home from your local farmers market. Even without fresh produce you can create a few meals from this list with a quick run into the market for meat or fish and a few salad greens.
These items have a long shelf life and will not go bad. Most of these dairy items last for two weeks or more.
DAIRY
BUTTER
EGGS
AGED CHEESE? PARMEASEAN, ROMANO
SHARP CHEDDAR OR GOAT CHEESE
ANY OTHER CHEESE YOU MAY LIKE
CREAM CHEESE
HEAVY CREAM (always have a half pint on hand - it will keep for 7-10 days)
DRY GOODS
SUNDRIED TOMATOES
CANNED DICED TOMATOES
OLIVES
ROASTED PEPPERS
LIQUID SMOKE
SEA SALT
CRACKED BLACK PEPPER
DRY PASTA
PENNE OR SMALL SHELL
LINGUINE OR SPAGHETTI
FLAVORED PASTAS ARE A GOOD ITEM TO PICK UP FROM GOURMET SHOPS-
(BLACK PEPER, SUNDRIED TOMATO ARE JUST A FEW OF THE FLAVORS ON THE MARKET)
RICE
LONG GRAIN OR BASMATI
RISOTTO
OLIVE OIL
CANOLA OR VEGETABLE OIL
VINEGAR - RED WINE OR CIDIER AND BALSALMIC
MISC. ITEMS
SMOKED BACON
CHICKEN STOCK
VEAL OR BEEF STOCK
CHOPPED ROASTED GARLIC
IN YOUR FREEZER
VANILLA ICE CREAM
TWO LOAVES OF GOOD BREAD (HERB BREAD, ROSEMARY BREAD OR OLIVE BREAD AND A FRENCH BREAD)
FROZEN GREEN PEAS (pasta or risotto carbonara)
FROZEN CHOPPED SPINACH (to make a Florentine pasta or risotto or to make creamed spinach for a quick omelet with farm fresh eggs)
|
Here are a few recipes. If you have a food question or recipe request go to "contact" on my web site.
I will reply...sometimes it take a day or two...but I do reply to all requests.
The Cast Iron Vegetables with Smoked Tomato Coulis has been requested
by several of you. I hope you enjoy it. Regina
|
CAST IRON VEGETABLES WITH SMOKED TOMATO COULIS
|
I smoked Tomatoes with Olive Oil, Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper- I put the tomatoes in a pan and use Hickory Chips and Smoke for about an hour for a deep smoked flavor. But, when weather or time does not permit…I take this short cut. It works quite well for the smoked tomato coulis.
Oven Smoked Tomatoes
1 dozen Roma Tomatoes - cut in quarters
Lay on Baking Sheet (with sides- not a flat sheet)
Mix ½ cup of Olive Oil with 3 Tbls. Of Liquid Hickory Smoke
Drizzle over cut Roma Tomatoes then sprinkle with
1 Tbls. Sea Salt
1 Tbls. Cracked Black Pepper
Bake at 300 degrees for 45 Minutes
Ingredients for Tomato Coulis
2 tbls. Olive Oil
1 medium Onion
3 medium Carrots
3 cups Canned, Diced Tomatoes in juice
1 dozen Smoked Roma Tomatoes
2 tbls. Pickled Jalapeno
8 each Fresh Basil Leaves
5 cloves Garlic
2 each Bay Leaves
MAKES 2 qts. Of Smoked Tomato Coulis (this freezes well and is great to have on hand)
1– Place large pot over medium heat Olive Oil.
2– Cut Onion into 8 pieces and Carrots into 4 pieces and Sautee for 5 minutes.
3– In same pot add Tomatoes, Jalapenos, Basil, Garlic
and Bay Leaves. Cook over medium heat for 35-40 minutes.
4– Remove Bay Leaves and pour into food processor.
5– Use the pulse button of the processor. This sauce should be a course puree– not soupy.
Variations and other uses for Tomato Coulis-
This makes a wonderful Base for Cream of Tomato Soup. Just add one part Chicken Stock, one part Tomato Coulis and one part Cream.
You can add one part Cream, one part Tomato Coulis and use as a Pasta Sauce.
The Smoked Tomato Coulis is an excellent base for a Gazpacho. Add diced
Cucumber, Red Onion and Tomato Juice to get the proper consistency.
Cast Iron Vegetables
Spray 4 individual Springform pans or one 1 qt. Springform pan with spray oil.
Heat Cast Iron Skillet until it is “white hot” You can not have your skillet too hot. The idea is to quickly cook your vegetables- it sears and is similar to “blackened fish”.
1 Eggplant – slice into ¼ inch rounds
4 Zuchinni or Yellow Squash- slice into ¼ inch rounds
In large metal bowl- mix
1/2 cup Olive Oil
½ teas. Garlic Powder
1 teas. Dry Basil
½ teas. Dry Thyme
½ teas. Salt
½ teas. Black Pepper
Toss sliced Eggplant and Zuchinni in large bowl with Olive Oil and herb mixture-
Sear Vegetable until cooked on both sides- this does not take long- about 35-40 seconds on each side.
Skillet will cool off a bit as you cook so it may take a bit longer. You want the vegetables to be tender when you bite into them.
Let sit for half an hour then unmold and serve with Smoked Tomato Coulis.
|
|
Recipe from Regina Charboneau Twin Oaks Bed & Breakfast Natchez Mississippi.
Charboneau is specific about ingredients. "They don't taste quite like my biscuits if you change the ingredients," she says.
She prefers Calumet Baking Powder and Land O' Lakes salted butter and salted margarine. She says to use regular buttermilk, not low fat (yes, I know the photo has low fat…but it was all they had at the store that day).
4 cups flour
¼ cup baking powder
¼ cup sugar
¾ pound margarine (salted)
¼ pound butter (salted)
1¾ cups buttermilk
In a metal mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder and sugar. Blend well.
Cut margarine and butter into small cubes (½ inch)
Mix with dry ingredients and coat the margarine and butter well with the flour mixture.
Add buttermilk and mix into a dough. Do not overmix, there should be visible pieces of butter and margarine, that is what makes these biscuits flaky.
Flour a work space and roll out ¾ inch thick, fold and roll again. Repeat this process two to three times until you have a smooth dough. The dough will be layered with butter and margarine. Cut into rounds, whichever size you prefer. I prefer 2 inches.
Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. You may bake in muffin tins to brown evenly.
Makes 2 dozen large or 3 dozen small.
Per Serving: 296 Calories; 23g Fat; 3g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 32mg Cholesterol; 514mg Sodium.
________________________________________
Regina shares her secrets step-by-step
1. Regina Charboneau starts with flour, baking powder and sugar and blends it well (on low speed unless you want to be covered in it!) — about 10 seconds with an electric mixer or about 20 strokes by hand.
________________________________________
2. Cut chilled margarine and butter into small cubes. "The butter is harder than the margarine so I cut it into smaller pieces — about half an inch," she says. "The margarine I cut slightly bigger." Charboneau says butter gives the biscuits richness and margarine makes them flaky. "Most everyone uses Crisco or lard, but I use margarine and butter because I like the flavor and texture," she adds.
________________________________________
3. Add the butter and margarine to the dry ingredients and blend it quickly to coat the pieces in the flour mixture. "Never blend it into tiny pieces," Charboneau warns. "Big pieces make the biscuits flaky."
________________________________________
4. Once the butter and margarine pieces are coated gently, pour the buttermilk into the bowl and blend for about 10 seconds with a mixer or until a sticky dough forms. Be careful not to overmix.
An over-mixed biscuit isn't flaky," she says with a hint of good-natured disdain. "It becomes like a regular biscuit, like somebody else's biscuit."
________________________________________
5. Liberally flour the work surface and turn the dough out onto it, patting it gently into a ball. "You should see big pieces of butter and margarine in the dough," says Charboneau. "The marbling is very important."
________________________________________
6. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a rectangle about ¾-inch thick. Fold the dough in half, bringing the two short ends together, turn it a half turn, and roll it again. Repeat the fold, turn and roll a total of four times. "With baking versus cooking, it's a science, not a feeling," says Charboneau in reference to her very specific technique. "There's a huge difference whether you turn the dough three or four times." On the fourth (and final) roll, use the pin to roll the dough to a thickness of approximately ½-inch.
________________________________________
7. Cut the biscuits using a 2- or 3-inch round biscuit cutter (Charboneau prefers 2-inch). The dough should be layered with butter and margarine, Extremely large pieces of butter and margarine (anything about one-inch square) should be pulled out, cut or broken into smaller pieces, and pressed back into the dough. After the biscuits have been cut, any remnants of dough should not be rerolled to make more biscuits, says Charboneau, because that will compromise the flakiness of the final product. "I take leftover biscuit dough — I'm such a perfectionist about layering — and put it into a Ziploc (and freeze it for later)," she says. "I roll it in sugar and use it for shortbread and cobbler."
________________________________________
8. Bake the biscuits at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown. "You can bake them in muffin tins for perfect, round biscuits," she says. "But I actually prefer a little irregularity." Charboneau says the dough freezes well. Just cut the dough and wrap the un-baked biscuits in two layers of plastic wrap. Defrost for 15 minutes before baking.
________________________________________
9. Serve hot biscuits with everything from jam to fried chicken. Charboneau likes to top creamy crab and artichoke bake with tiny biscuits, and says biscuits and gravy are always a hit. In fact, there's only one thing she says she won't serve with them. "I just don't think I'd ever put chocolate on a biscuit," she says with a smile. "The baking powder with the bitterness of the chocolate — ugh."
________________________________________
|
|
|