My developing cookbook

Shrimp cocktail with Mary-Jean Sauce

Baby-back spare rips
Barbecued pork tenderloin
Roma’s bouillabaisse
Seafood casserole
Spinach-avocado-garlic soup
Persian chicken kebobs
Cucumber dill salad
Middle Eastern roasted lamb
Crab-stuffed salmon with hollandaise
Seafood curry
Fish chowder
Beer-baked chicken
Muslim burgers
Grandma’s vegetable soup
Mexican chicken soup “xochitl”
Mustard roasted fish
Romiebutz chicken
Seared Ahi tuna AC/DC
Grandma’s city chicken
Roma’s bizarre chicken Kiev
Easy & delicious chili
Paella
Thai Satay chicken
Gazpacho
Chicken Tangine
Buffalo Wings
Garlic-parmesan oysters & shrimp
Stuffed mushrooms
World famous Detroit Coney Island hotdog
Turkey Lula Kebabs
The best soup of my life
Char-broiled rack of lamb
Coq au vin made with white wine
Michigan “almost perfect” fried chicken
Roma-Rockefeller oysters
Middle Eastern festival: shashlik & afghan chicken
Braised lamb shanks
 Shephard’s pie
My father’s beef stroganoff
Mediterranean salad
Turkish chicken kebab
Lucille’s pineapple ice box pie
Traditional coq au vin
Roma’s borscht
Achiote-Jerk chicken wings
Chicken cacciatore
Bacon topped shrimp
KFC wings
Polish bigos
Prime Rib
My mother’s sauerbraten
Indian buttered chicken
Moussaka
Perfect lamb gravy
1792 pub pork chops

SHRIMP COCKTAIL WITH MARY-JEAN SAUCE

This is a shrimp cocktail recipe with an intoxicating sauce, which I

got from our friend, Mary Jean, and then I kicked it up a notch on
my own.

Ingredients:

1 pound peeled fresh

shrimp
Dill
Ketchup
Creamed horseradish
Lemon
Mayonnaise

Cooking the shrimp involves just a bit of art. You get boiling
water, but on the side you have a pot of ice water (with ice cubes)
standing by. You dump the peeled shrimp into the boiling water
for 30-45 seconds. Just when you see they are no longer opaque in
the center but are starting to appear just-barely-cooked, remove
them immediately and dump them into ice cold water. This stops
the cooking process and the shrimp become incredibly juicy and
tender (but cooked!).

Now for the sauce. You take Ketchup, creamed horseradish and
mix it together. Add some mayo to make it creamier and then the a
little lemon juice. You need to taste this as you are making it. Add
more mayo, or more lemon, or more horseradish or more ketchup
until you find the taste a perfect blend. It has to knock your socks
off.

Now I would season the shrimp too with perhaps a bit of salt,
pepper, sprinkles of dill and perhaps chives. Decorate your plate,
refrigerate, and serve when you are ready.

GRANDMA’S VEGETABLE SOUP

My mother was a great cook. She lived til she was 99.5 years of
age. I have tried to recreate at least one recipe, her incredibly
delicious vegetable soup (served with boiled beef and
horseradish). Here it is:

Ingredients
3/4 lb Stewing beef ( with bone
containing marrow)
1/3 cup barley
beef bouillion
onions (one, white)
garlic (4 cloves)
celery (3 stalks
carrot (2)
tomatoes (2)
Salt & pepper

Brown the stewing beef in olive oil and remove from pan. Add
celery, carrots (chopped), onion and garlic and sauté in the beef fat.
Put the beef back into the pot. Add enough water to cover the beef
and mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then
simmer for 1 hour. Then add chopped tomatoes and simmer
another 1 hour. Add water or beef bouillon occasionally. Taste
your broth as you near the end of cooking. Add salt & pepper. In
the last half hour add washed barley. Keep simmering, tasting and
seasoning. When finished, remove some of the beef and serve
with creamed horseradish. Or , alternatively, let your guests have
their soup and remove the cubes of beef themselves to add with
horseradish. A meal in itself.

BABY-BACK SPARE RIBS

I got this incredibly simple recipe from a chef in Puerto Vallarta.

Always a favorite.

Ingredients:

One slab (or two) of baby back pork spareribs

One jar of “Bone suckin” barbecue sauce (a bit more
expensive than most, but worth it. They have hotter varieties,
but just stick with the original recipe).
Salt, pepper
White onion
6 cloves of garlic
 Olive oil

Preparation: First you must remove the membrane from the back
of the ribs. Take a knife and try to get under the white membrane.
Pull it up a bit and then get some paper towels. You want to grab
the membrane and then pull across the ribs. Sometimes it will peel
off easily; at other times
you have to keep
pulling, using your
knife and try to get it all
off the back of the ribs.
If you don’t the ribs will
not be as tender as
you’d like.

Next you cut your ribs

into say five or six rib
sections and drop them
in boiling water. You season the water with half a chopped white
onion, pepper (or pepper corns), and 6 cloves of chopped garlic.
Boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 1.5-2 hours. You want to
check on these ribs for tenderness. The purpose of the boiling is to
make them tender. Too tender, and they will fall off the bone. Not
yet fork-tender, then keep simmering.

When ready, pull them out, let them cool.

Later, when you are ready to have dinner, rub the ribs with olive
oil, season with salt and cracked pepper, and then put on a
barbecue grill. They will start to sizzle, and when they do, turn
them over. You are not cooking them. They have already been
cooked. This should not take more than a couple minutes. After
you see them sizzling, then add the Bone Suckin sauce generously.
Don’t let it burn too much. Just coat the ribs with it, flip them
while still on the barbecue, and coat the other side.
Then serve and enjoy. You’ll be surprised!

BARBECUED PORK TENDERLOIN

As long as we are into meat here, let us do incredibly succulent

barbecued pork tenderloin. Simple by anyone’s standards!

1-2 pork tenderloins depending on how many people you have for
dinner. (Trader Joes : $6.50)
olive oil
garlic slivers
special mixture (kosher salt 2 parts, ground black pepper 1 part,
garlic salt or power 1
part).

You rub the pork

tenderloin with olive oil,
slit it and insert garlic
slivers, and then put on
your “special mixture”.
Let it sit for 15 minutes
to get happy.

You put it on your coals and turn it so that it doesn’t burn. Sear it,
and cover it. Open up the cover, check on it, turn it, put the cover
down and keep doing this until you feel the pork is done. It can be
a tiny bit pink. DO NOT OVERCOOK. You can use a
thermometer, or cut into it while cooking to see its doneness. Very
lightly pink, pull it out. You will be surprised how incredible this
is.

(Serve with something!) I liked garlic mashed cauliflower a lot as

a substitute for mashed potatoes. You do the cauliflower as you
would mashed potatoes. Boil it, drain, add salt, butter, a tiny bit of
half and half, some parmesan cheese, and then mash it with your
wand mixer & serve).

I also like to serve it with barbecued sliced tomatoes like you see
in this picture. (Add olive oil to the tomatoes, salt, pepper, Italian
seasoning and barbecue with your tenderloin).

BOUILLIBASE

My name is Jerome, and my wife got in the habit of calling me

“Roma,” so now many of our friends know me as Roma rather
than Jerry or Jerome. So here is Roma’s bouillabaisse.

Ingredients

12 shrimp
10-20 scallops (20 if small,
10 if medium to large in size)
12 mussels
1 cod filet
10 champignon mushrooms
4 cloves of garlic
12 miniature carrots
4 scallions
green onions, chives, basil,
marjoram, oregano
1 lemon
1 cup white wine, Chenin Blanc
12-15 snow peas
4 cups of fish stock
3-4 tablespoons half and half (or Soy Creamer)
This is a delightful recipe, which takes about an hour to prepare. It
is easy to mess up, so this recipe is the more conservative approach
to this soup so you’ll have a good result. It begins with fish stock.
I’m no expert on making fish stock, so if you can’t buy any, this
recipe isn’t really for you. Sometime it is called “Seafood stock”
or “fish stock” and you need to have it either in a can or, less
frequently, in a package. Whatever the case, it cannot smell or
taste fishy, otherwise you’re lost. Sometimes better markets like
Whole Foods carry fish stock. This is your major beginning
ingredient. If you can’t get it, don’t proceed.

You will be cooking some things separately and then adding them
to the soup. First, let us put 4 cups of stock and 1 cup of white
wine in a pot. Set aside.

Cut up 3-4 scallions, chopped, 1 clove of garlic, and all your

mushrooms. First sauté the mushrooms in butter and olive oil until
they start wilting, then add shallots, and finally garlic. Don’t
overcook. Don’t brown. Add these ingredients to the pot, and then
add a bit of water (3-4 tablespoons) to the sauté pan, turn up the
heat, scrape the pan and dump this liquid into the soup stock.
(Deglaze).

Take your carrots and cook them in a small separate pot, bring to a
boil and boil for a few minutes. They should come out not
overdone or soggy, nor too underdone and crunch. Add these
carrots (not the water) to your soup stock.

To cook the mussels, clean them, then put them in a pan, add some
butter, enough white wine to cover the bottom of the pan, 1 clove
of chopped garlic and cover. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 3-4
minutes. When mussels are done, they will be open. Discard those
that haven’t opened. Toss the mussel into the soup stock. Taste the
butter/garlic/wine mixture at the bottom of the mussel pan. If it
tastes good, add it to the soup stock.
Gently sauté shrimp in butter, a bit of lemon, and 1 clove of
chopped garlic. Do not overcook. Then add the shrimp and its
residue sauce to the soup stock.

Toss the scallops into the soup stock near the end. They cook
quickly and you don’t want them to be overdone.

Slice the cod filet into bite size pieces (perhaps 1 cubic inch in
size?)

Toss them into the soup stock.

Add freshly ground pepper to taste.

Now you’re ready. Bring soup and all its elements to a boil, then
immediately reduce to simmer for about 3-4 minutes. You don’t
want to overcook the cod nor the scallops. Taste the soup stock. If
it needs salt, pepper, lemon juice, add them until you get the taste
just right.

When all that is completed, it is time to add the last dash of spices:
chopped green onions, chives, 3 finely chopped cloves of garlic,
oregano-basil-marjoram (to suit you), add to the mixture and taste.
Keep tasting until you like it,

Serve with fresh sweet French bread.

A meal in itself.

THAI SEAFOOD CURRY or SEAFOOD CASSEROLE

A delightful seafood-shellfish dish made with Thai Red Curry

Sauce. This is a very tasty and very quick dish you can make in 20-
30 minutes.
Ingredients

Thai Red Curry Sauce (Trader Joes?)

1 pound scallops
1 pound large shrimp
1 bag of saffron rice
box of champignon mushrooms
1 bunch of green onions
coconut milk

Cook the scallops lightly in olive oil

Now you are going to make a

really easy and groovy sauce.
Get a large soup bowl and put
in 3-4 tablespoons of Thai Red
Curry Sauce. Then mix in 3-4
tablespoons of coconut milk.
The mixture should turn a pale
orange or a creamy orange.
Taste it cold. See if you like it.
If not, add more spice (the
sauce) or add more coconut
milk.

Now add your sauce to your fish mixture and gently simmer til the
flavors unite (a minute or two).

Next you have to make your rice, so make some rice. To make it
look pretty, add in a teaspoon or two of Turmeric. It will make
your rice turn yellowish. Do the rice the way you do any rice.

Sauté mushrooms in olive oil, and add chopped green onions when
complete. Add mushrooms to the shrimp and scallop mixture.
Now what you do is this. You take your seafood-mushroom-
concoction and put it hot in the bottom of a large soup bowl filling
it up about half way. Then you take your rice and put it on top of
the seafood mixture and pat it down so that it is level with the top
of the soup bowl. Then you get your serving plates and TURN
THE SOUP BOWL UPSIDE DOWN. This puts the seafood on
top and the rice on the bottom.

Serve and enjoy. [See the photo too].

AVOCADO SPINACH SOUP WITH GARLIC

This is a recipe from the Gilroy garlic festival

Ingredients:

Half and Half 1 cup

Chicken bouillon 1 cup
2 avocados
2 bunches of spinach
5 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of butter
1 tsp of salt

Also called Avocado

bisque, this recipe
appeared at the Gilroy
Garlic Festival. Take two
bunches of fresh spinach and cut off the stems. Put the leaves in a
pan and gently warm until wilted. Do not cook the spinach, just
wilt it. Put the leaves in a blender. Add 1 can of good quality
chicken bouillon (or vegetable bouillon if you are a vegetarian).
Add 1 cup of half and half, two sliced avocados and 5 cloves of
garlic chopped very finely. Puree all the ingredients in the blender
until you have a smooth mixture. Then cook ever so gently so that
it does not boil but merely shows a few bubbles popping up. Try
cooking it like this for a minute maybe two so that the garlic gets
absorbed a bit more. If you boil, it will change color and the
avocado will ruin it. Serve hot. A knock-your-socks-off recipe.
Add the butter while cooking. It is important to get the salt right as
well. Too little and it tastes flat. Too much and you ruin it. Add
salt gently until you achieve the proper intoxicating flavor. Serve
with a sprinkle of chopped chives and paprika if you like. [P.S.
The food is a lot better than my photos!]

PERSIAN CHICKEN KEBOBS

Ingredients
1 cup of yogurt
Juice of one lemon
4 cloves of garlic
Half of a white onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
Saffron
1-2 lbs of chicken thighs and a
few chicken drummets.

Slice up the chicken thighs into

smaller pieces, about an inch-and-
a-half square and set aside.
Photo not too great, but this was totally
delicious. Barbecued asparagus: boil
The marinade makes the chicken till almost tender, dry, then season with
juicy, tender, plump and flavorful. olive oil, salt, pepper &Italian spices.
So to make the marinade, take the Barbecue just to give it a little char.
yogurt, add chopped garlic, chop
up half an onion, add the olive oil,
and put into a food processor. Now take some ground saffron and
add a teaspoon of water to it to make a reddish juice. Add that to
the marinade. Put it into the food processor until it comes out like
a sauce. Pour the sauce over the Slice the chicken into cubes and
then make the marinade. Yogurt, lime juice, onion, olive oil and
saffron . Take the saffron threads and put them into two
tablespoons of hot water. Let it turn yellow and then add to the
ingredients, and put all in a food processor.

Marinate the chicken for 48 hours (refrigerated).

Cook the chicken on your barbecue (coals). Don’t let them burn.
You could make some saffron butter while it is cooking (to make
the butter, dissolve some ground saffron into melted butter and
baste the chicken while it is cooking).

Serve with a sprinkle of lemon juice on the chicken with some

basmati rice.

An equally delightful variant is to make the marinade, then wash it

off and sprinkle with Sadaf Chicken kebob seasoning mix and no
other spices.

CUCUMBER-DILL SALAD

Peel cucumbers and slice

thinly. Coat with a couple
teaspoons of rice vinegar and
serve with chopped dill. Add
salt to taste if needed.
 MIDDLE EASTERN LAMB

This is probably the best lamb I ever ate in my life. I have been
working on lamb for years, but this recipe is totally awesome. I
hope it works for you. Not that difficult.

Basically, you marinate the lamb for two days, then barbecue. That
simple.

Ingredients
Olive oil
Yogurt
Lemon juice
Chopped white onion
Italian seasoning
Garlic
Special mixture of kosher salt, cracked pepper, & garlic salt.
4 lbs of boneless leg of lamb

Mix one cup of yogurt with two or three tablespoons of olive oil, 5
cloves of garlic, half a chopped white onion, and the juice of one
lemon. Put into a food processor and smash together until it is like
a sauce.

Take your lamb. Add sliced garlic into the lamb (slivers). Pour the
marinade over the lamb and refrigerate for 2 days.

When you are ready to eat, wash off the lamb. Pat dry. Rub in
some olive oil. Season with Italian spices and THEN add the
magic ingredient. In this case the magic ingredient is the kosher
salt-pepper-garlic salt mixture. It should be roughly 3/5ths salt,
1/5th pepper and 1/5th garlic salt. Taste it to make sure it is not too
salty.
Now rub some of that mixture over the lamb. Not too much. Not
too little.

Now prepare your coals. You want to barbecue the lamb so it

sears the juices in but does not burn. Perhaps 2 minutes per side
until you have browned it, but not burned it. Close the hatch on
the barbecue and have your thermometer in the meat. Come back
and keep checking your meat to see that it is getting close to being
done, but that it is not burning. This requires care and attention,
turning and fussing for 10-15 minutes. The fire can’t be too hot or
too old. Your lamb is done at about 140 degrees. It continues to
cook after you remove it from the grill. Cut off a slice to see what
it looks like inside.

If done right it comes out tender, juicy, medium rare, and

mysteriously succulent.

CRAB-STUFFED SALMON WITH HOLLANDAISE

This is a delightful and tasty recipe. We start with crab cakes

purchased from Trader Joes. Next we get salmon fillets (no skin)
and cut them. Thaw the crab cakes and put portions into the
salmon fillets. Season both
with salt and pepper and Italian
seasoning. Then bake for 20-
25 minutes at 350. Check to
see it is not too rare or
overcooked. In the meantime
make a wonderful and easy
hollandaise sauce from Knorrs
(make with butter, milk, lemon
juice). You can buy this in
most markets. It comes in a
bag not a jar. When the salmon
is done, pour the hollandaise over the salmon-crab fillets, and you
will delight at what you have discovered. Make sure you taste the
hollandaise to make sure it is has enough lemon juice to a just a
kick.

SEAFOOD CURRY

A delicate and tasty curry with coconut seafood dish.

Ingredients
3/4 chopped white onion
8 button mushrooms sliced
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
6 large shrimp
5 medium sized
scallops
2 small chicken legs
1 filet of sole
1-2 cups diced canned
chopped tomatoes
drained
1 cup frozen peas
1 carrot sliced and
steamed until tender
1 box of flavorful rice

Take two tablespoons of vegetable oil and add the chopped onion
and sauté. Add the curry powder salt and pepper stirring, then add
half a cup of coconut milk and cook stirring for about 2 minutes
until mixture thickens. Add half a cup of tomatoes and stew this
mixture. At this time, taste it. You may want to add more coconut
milk or more tomatoes, or both. Taste, season, taste, season add,
taste, season until this sauce becomes just exactly what you want.
This is what makes this dish mysteriously delicious.

In a separate cooking pan, fry the scallops until done and season
with salt and pepper, set aside. Cook your fish filet, seasoned, then
cut in slices (bite sized pieces) and set aside. Now, peas and
carrots and heat vegetables through, add all seafood including
shrimp. You might add sliced green, red, or orange peppers for
color. When shrimp are fully cooked, serve over rice. Sprinkle
chopped chives over the dish.

Serves 4-6

GREAT NEW FIVE MINUTE SOUP: “FISH CHOWDER”

Ingredients
1 can Wolfgang Pucks “thick country vegetable” soup
1-2 tablespoons of Blue cheese dressing
Half and half
Trader Joes ‘Thai red curry sauce” (perhaps 1-2 tablespoons)
Peas
Six shrimp
One filet of fish

Cook fish and shrimp

separately and gently in
Italian spices and 3 cloves of
chopped garlic. Add to soup.
When using soup, fill up the
empty can with 1/3rd half and
half, 2 tablespoons of blue
cheese dressing, and 1.5
tablespoons of red curry sauce. Bring to boil. When finished
simmering and fish is entirely cooked, add chopped chives, &
peas. Could add clams in shells if you wish. Surprisingly
delicious.

BEER-BAKED CHICKEN

This recipe is so easy and so delicious, I can’t tell you.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken
1 can of beer
seasoning (Italian/garlic powder, salt, pepper, perhaps lemon
pepper).

You take half a can of been. The can should be a normal 8 oz can.
Or if you don’t want to buy a six-pack, buy a can of sparkling
water, dump it out and Chicken standing up on a can of beer before cooking
fill it up half full with
beer. Then stand the
entire chicken over the
beer can. That’s right.
The chicken is upright,
vertical, and the beer
can goes inside the
cavity. You have to
balance the chicken
carefully on the beer.
You don’t want it to
spill. Place the legs in
a place so you can get
the chicken standing up in the baking pan over the can of beer.

Before you do all this, wash the chicken, pat dry, rub olive oil on
the entire outside and season well with salt, pepper, Italian spices,
or lemon pepper, or whatever chicken rub you wish .
Bake until it is done (check Google for when you should remove
the chicken and at what temperature you should bake it. I did my
3.5 lb chicken at 350 for 1.5 hours. Double check the temperature
you need to achieve to remove it from the oven. Respect that temp!

Make sure you baste it with the juices at the bottom of the pan
once or twice while baking. This will
give the skin a very nice crusty texture
and flavor.

The chicken does not taste of beer at

all. The beer simply provides a
constant supply of steam internally
during baking and the chicken comes
out tender, incredibly juicy, and
delightful. If you spill the chicken or
it turns over, then you will have a beer
taste.

MUSLIM BURGERS

I got this from a New York Times cookbook and was amazed at
how delightful it was.

Ingredients
Yogurt
Ground lamb
Chopped white onion
Lemon juice
3 cloves of finely
chopped garlic
Fresh curry powder.
Salt and pepper
Take 1 pound of ground lamb and mix finely chopped onions,
garlic, salt and pepper (not too much) into it. Then add 2
tablespoons of yogurt and 1 tablespoon of curry powder into the
mixture. Smush together and mix. Let stand for about 15 minutes,
then form into meatballs or kebab-like formations. Broil on coals.
You might try to sprinkle some lemon juice on them after cooking.
You’ll be surprised! [Note: too much or too little curry can make
this a dud].

Another variant on this which is just as incredible, is to take finely

chopped onions, garlic plus either Gorchin ‘ground meat kebab
seasoning or Sadaf ground meat seasoning. You use the seasoning
mixed with a few teaspoons of water, then mix into the ground
lamb, let sit for 15 minutes, then form into meat balls and broil on
coals. You can buy these seasonings in Middle Eastern or Hallal
markets.

MEXICAN CHICKEN SOUP: XOCHITL

Chicken “xochitl” pronounced

(sochil) is basic chicken soup with
rice. Add pieces of sautéed chicken
and shrimp. Then add chopped
avocado, chopped cilantro, chopped
white onion, lemon juice (1 tsp), and
a good Mexican salsa. Great soup.

MUSTARD ROASTED FISH

This is a totally simple and delicious recipe of baked fish covered

with a mustard sauce.
Ingredients:

1 cup of crème fraiche

1.5 tablespoons of finely chopped shallots
1.5 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon capers

Take the ingredients above

and mix them into a paste.
You might consider
adding half a teaspoon of
regular mustart to the
above mix. Then take any
old fish filet (cod, red
snapper, etc), and season
with salt and pepper. Then
coat one side of the fish
with the mustard (slather it
on), and bake for 10-15
minutes at 350 degrees. Make sure you baking pan is oiled before
you put the fish on it. When done you might consider sprinkling
this with chopped chives. Delicious with white wine.

Romiebutz chicken

Ingredients:
Assorted cut pieces of chicken (skins on)
Flour
Emeril’s original essence seasoning or cayenne seasoning
Baking powder
Buttermilk
Vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
This is a cool and easy recipe which is like fried chicken except
that it is baked. Here is how it goes.
Take your pieces of chicken and
marinate them in buttermilk for a few
years. Prepare flour mixture. Take
two cups of flour, 1.5 teaspoons of
baking powder (it makes the crust
crustier), salt and pepper (couple
teaspoons each) and an ample supply
of Emeril’s seasoning (or, alternately, poultry seasoning and an
ample supply of cayenne pepper). Take out the chicken from the
buttermilk, dip and roll in your flour mixture, and then deep fry in
vegetable oil. Make sure the oil is at a high temperature.

Now the secret is not to let the chicken completely cook in the oil.
No, as soon as you see the chicken is a pretty golden brown (just
looking the way you like it), remove it and set it aside. Fry all the
chicken this way and then put it all on a baking sheet and bake the
chicken at 350 in the oven until your thermometer says its done. So
this way by frying it you get the crisp crunchiness, but by baking it
you get the juicy inside! Best of both worlds! Probably takes no
more than 30-40 minutes. Make sure your chicken is actually done
when you are ready to serve.

SEARED AHI TUNA AC/DC

This is a very simple recipe that goes two ways. Seared Ahi tuna in a salad
or seared Ahi tuna as an appetizer with creamed horseradish.

First you buy fresh tuna ($10/pound) and have it cut into steaks a bit thicker
than 1 inch.
You are going to cook this the same way you might cook filet mignon. Rub
olive oil over the tuna steaks. Crack some pepper with a tad of salt and
spread it on a plate. Thinly!!! Then roll the tuna steaks in this cracked
pepper so that the sides of the tuna steaks
are peppered, but the rest of the tuna steak
isn’t. Then cover your tuna steaks (top and
bottoms) with sesame seeds. Now if you
roll your tuna steaks in very dense cracked
pepper, it is going to be too peppery. Role
your tuna steaks in less densely laid out
cracked pepper.

Start your charcoal grill. When the coals are white hot, add some chipped
hickory wood chips to it. When they start to flame, put your tuna steaks on
the grill. Let your tuna steaks hit the flames but watch carefully. After all,
you are searing. However, you only want the outsides to sear and you want
the insides to be red and rare. Take them off the grill.

Now don’t eat them hot. Put slices of your tuna on a salad (AC) or put slices
of your tuna on a plate and serve with creamed horseradish (DC)…..COLD!

Unforgettable!

GRANDMA’S CITY CHICKEN

This is a traditional favorite in the

family. My mother never taught it to
me, but one can get it off the net. Cut
veal and pork into about 1 inch cubes.
Season with salt, pepper, perhaps
garlic powder. Roll in bread crumbs,
and then roll in beaten egg, then roll in
the bread crumbs again (on skewers of
course). The fry for a short time in oil
to make them brown (not too brown).
Once they look good, bake for an hour
at 350.
 ROMA’S BIZARRE CHICKEN KIEV

This is a very strange and unconventional recipe which will knock

your socks off.

Take a single, skinless

plump chicken breast and
try to cut it almost in half.
Be careful. You want to
cut it so that it will fold
back over itself.

Now that you have

flattened your chicken
breast, season it with salt
(very little ) and pepper on both sides.

Prepare a special butter. This butter is made from butter (wow!)

which is at room temperature. Then to this butter you add very
finely chopped garlic (one clove), chives, green onions, very finely
chopped rosemary, and basil. Mix together into a prepared butter.

Okay, now coat the entire chicken breast ( on one side only) with
this seasoned butter. Then sprinkle Asiago cheese (shredded) on
the breast as well. Now fold the breast up and fasten with skewers.

Next, take an egg, beat it, then soak the breasts in the egg and then
cover with any kind of breading. I used flour. Try flour.

Fry the chicken breast in butter only just so it browns on all sides.

Then bake this baby at 400 degrees for 24 minutes.

Remove from the oven.
Prepare some butter and parmesan cheese, melted, and pour it over
the breast and then serve. You will be more than delighted.
 EASY AND DELICIOUS CHILI

Ingredients

1lb of ground beef

1 lb sweet Italian sausage (taken out of its casing)
1-2 cans of whole peeled tomatoes
1 small can of tomato sauce
Chili seasoning to taste
1 large Spanish onion chopped
1 medium red pepper chopped
1 medium green pepper chopped
1 jalapeno pepper chopped fine
(remove all insides and seeds first)
1 can of red kidney beans (do not
use the fluid)
1 can of dark red kidney beans (do
not use the fluid)
1/4 cup of red wine
Oregano, chopped garlic (two
cloves),
Cumin to taste
Basil to taste
Two teaspoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard

Lots of ingredients, but quite easy. Saute the beef and sausage until done.
Spoon off the fat. Then add all the ingredients and cook on medium heat for
30 minutes. Stir, taste, add a few more spices.

Then cook on very low heat for 2-3 hrs, tasting as you go and adding this
and that as you go. When you serve, I think sprinkling it with shredded
Assiago cheese adds a lot.

Great taste!
(This recipe is a combination from Cooks.com and Sid Goodman’s unique
chili).
 PAELLA

This is a delightful dish which only takes 1-1.5 hours to prepare. It

is done differently from most Paellas: my own style!

Ingredients:

1 box of rice
1 dozen scallops
2 chicken sausages
3 chicken thighs
1 dozen peeled shrimp
12 mussels
1 bag frozen peas
2 sweet peppers (orange
and red)
1 bottle of clam juice
1 can of chicken stock

So what we do in making
this Paella is to cook all
the ingredients separately
and then add them in at the last moment. This is NOT how most
Paella is prepared. I just noticed when I did it that way, things did
not get mushy, and I liked it that way.

I make the rice differently, so let us start with that. Make the rice
not with water but with clam juice and chicken stock (same
proportions as you would with water, but use these ingredients
instead). Season chicken thigh pieces with your favorite
seasonings, sauté and set aside (save the juice; deglaze the pan and
set aside with the chicken). Cook the shrimp in garlic and butter,
salt and pepper, deglaze pan, and set aside the shrimp with its
juice). Same with sliced filets of fish. Now cook sliced chicken
sausage and set that aside. After all is said and done, add frozen
peas to your rice, pieces of sliced red, yellow and green peppers,
and then add all your ingredients back into the mix. Don’t cook for
two long. Let the flavors unite for a few minutes of slow cooking,
but don’t let the effort turn mushy or soggy. Taste, season, then
sprinkle with chopped chives or green onions and paprika. Serve.

THAI CHICKEN SATAY

I’ve been trying to find a great peanut sauce for Thai Satay
chicken, but everything was unsuccessful. I tried making it myself
from two recipes….total failure. I
bought it already prepared; same
story. Then I found a “vegan peanut
sauce” at Nob Hill. It can be
purchased online at chefjerrawan.com
It’s incredible.

I took three tablespoons of the

mixture and added one tablespoon of
half and half. Then I barbecued sliced chicken thighs and then
simply coated it (after removing from the BBQ) and served.
Incredible! In this recipe (pictured) I served it with mashed
broccoli & cauliflower (made the same way one makes mashed
potatoes).

GAZPACHO
This is a delightful soup served cold. Took a few times to get it
right.

Ingredients:

3 lg. tomatoes, chopped

1 cucumber, peeled, chopped
1 green pepper, cored, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 green onions, chopped
1 Zuchini peeled and chopped
1.5 avocados, chopped (optional)
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
2 tbsp. vegetable oil (or olive oil)
2 Tablespoons malt vinegar
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Cayenne pepper to taste
1 cans Clamato Juice (about 10 oz) or V8
Two table spoons. sour cream or yogurt for garnish
Chopped chives for garnish

Before you follow these directions, take all your vegetables, sliced
and chopped, plus all the ingredients, but go lightly on spices
(Worcester, cayenne, and malt vinegar). Put everything in a food
processor and then taste. Gradually build up the cayenne,
Worcestershire and vinegar until it tickles your taste buds.

Serve cold with a garnish of chives and maybe chopped basil.

CHICKEN TAGINE
This is a lovely recipe, easy to make, and really quite delicious. I
made it three times, and this last time was just perfect. It does not
taste Indian, or Pakistani, but genuinely Moroccan.

Ingredients
2 tablespoons of ground cumin
1.5 tablespoons of smoked
paprika (or regular)
8 skinless, boneless chicken
thighs
3/4 of a chopped medium red
onion
3 sliced tomatoes
6 garlic cloves chopped
1/3rd cup of pitted black olives
1/2 cup of chicken stock
2 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of chopped
tarragon
salt and pepper

First you mix your cumin and paprika together, wash and pat dry
your chicken, cut the chicken pieces in half, and then roll the
chicken in this mixture coating both sides. Heat 1 tablespoon of
olive oil and brown the chicken (not too much or the paprika will
turn black). Just make it look juicy red and remove to a plate.

Add the chopped onions and sear until browned. Remove the
onions.

Then lower the heat and add 2 tablespoons more of oil, garlic and
olives, stock and vinegar. Bring to a simmer.

In another fry pan, add olive oil (small amount) and place the
chopped and browned onions on the bottom. Place the chicken
pieces on top of that. Place the sliced tomatoes on top of the
chicken, and then pour the mixture of oil, garlic, and stock over the
whole thing. Season with salt and pepper and then sprinkle
tarragon on top and cook on medium low heat for 40 minutes (or
bake like I did at 350). Superb. Serve with rice, couscous or
whatever.

BUFFALO WINGS

I tried making Buffalo wings following the Barefoot Contessa and

it was a disaster. After 4 tries, I found the secret. Here it is:

Ingredients
Wings enough for 2-3 people
Wing Sauce called “Wing Time” (medium) from Whole Foods
Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing

So you have Ranch or Blue Cheese dressing

set aside for dipping and then you take your
wings.

Cut up the wings into three parts: the

drumettes, the wing, and the tip of the wing. Discard the tips. Wash
and dry the wings, then season with kosher salt and pepper. Now
you FRY the wings very slowly in olive oil and butter probably
close to 30 minutes until you are sure they are done and you are
sure they have a golden brown covering to them. They should not
burn. Take about 30% of your bottle of medium hot wing sauce
and add 1/3 of a cube of butter and 3 cloves of finely chopped
garlic. Heat the sauce. When the wings have been fried, then pour
the sauce into the wings and keep turning them and heating them
until they are exactly the color you want. And then serve with your
Ranch dressing. Incredible!
GARLIC –PARMESAN BREADED OYSTERS AND
SHRIMP
This is either an entre or an appetizer. The idea is to deep fat fry
oysters and breaded shrimp and serve.

Ingredients:
Oysters (two glass jars)
Shrimp (eight)
Flour
Italian seasoning
Red pepper seasoning
Egg
Finely shredded parmesan
cheese
Finely chopped garlic
Chopped green onions

Take the oysters and

slowly boil them in white wine until they are 3/4th cooked. Perhaps
4 minutes. Let them cool. Season the oysters and shrimp with salt
and cracked pepper.

Put the flour in a separate bowl, take an egg or two and whisk it in
a second bowl, and then mix the Italian seasoning and parmesan in
a third bowl (about equal parts of Italian seasoning and parmesan,
plus a hint of red pepper seasoning then add the finely chopped
garlic).

Take the oyster and dip it in the flour, then dip it in the egg, and
finally in the Italian seasoning mixture and set aside. Do the same
with the shrimp. Heat olive oil, or any kind of oil, and then add
oysters. Let them turn golden brown and remove. Do the same for
all the remaining oysters and shrimp, a little at a time. Cool and
serve. Fantastic!
Stuffed Mushrooms
I worked on these for some time. Inspired by our friend Devora,
these are small white mushrooms. Well, here are the ingredients:

White mushrooms
Chives
Cream Cheese
Mascarpone
Bacon

Fry up some bacon,

remove the fat, dry it,
then chop it up into fine
fine pieces.

Remove the center

stems gently from the mushrooms, then oil the mushrooms (olive
oil), and use pepper and a slight bit of garlic powder on them.

The the chives, cream cheese (one tablespoon) mascarpone,(two

tablespoons), and bacon bits and mash them into a paste. Stuff the
paste in the mushrooms, and bake for 25 minutes at 300 degrees.
Try adding one clove of very fine minced garlic to the paste too.
Wonderful appetizer.

Detroit’s world famous Lafayette Island hotdog.

The Food Network said this was the best hot dog in the country.
The program “The best thing I ever ate,” also featured the
Lafeyette Coney Island hotdog. Every Detroiter knows it. I have
driven 4 hours just to have one, or two, or three. Never thought I’d
find the secret recipe, but I found it on the internet. Tried it three
times, and finally got it
right. The secret is in the
chili sauce which takes 3
hours to make. So here it
is.

Ingredients:

Saags Classic German

Franks (half pork half
veal)
Ingredients:Saags Classic GermanFranks (half pork half veal)
Regular hot dog buns
Diluted yellow mustard
Chopped white onions
1 red pepper

The Chili Sauce1 pound of extra lean beef 1/2 quart of water 2

small onions (minced)2.5 teaspoons of chili powder 1 small red
pepper minced1/2 teaspoon salt1/2 teaspoon of pepper 3/4
teaspoon of ground allspice1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce3
cloves of garlic minced

 
3/4/ teaspoons of cinnamon 2 teaspoons of cumin 3 bayleaves 3/4
teaspoon of vinegar 8 ounce can of tomato sauce

To make the chili sauce add the hamburger to the boiling water and
gently separate it. Then mince your ingredients (onions,
red peppers, garlic) in a food processor and add all the
other ingredients. Simmer for about 3 hours. If you simmer too
long, itwill get too thick. If you simmer to little, it will be too
soupy. So get the consistency right, and taste it. Add more
cinnamon,allspice or vinegar.You are not done.Gently fry the
sausages.Take the buns and steam them so they are ultra softChop
some white onions quite fine (see the picture above) Now take
some yellow mustard and add a bit of water to it to makeit less
thick. The mustard in Detroit’s Lafayette St. Coney place isquite
liquid, so try it. Not too soupy. Not too thick.
Enjoy! Incredible! Can’t stop!

TURKEY LULA KEBABS

This is an accidental recipe that turned out great and takes very
little time.

Ingredients:

1 lb ground turkey (dark

meat if possible)
1 egg
poultry seasoning
jerk seasoning
panko bread crumbs
white onion,
5 garlic cloves
5 green onions
goat cheese (prefer “Chevre”)

Mince the onion and garlic glovs along with the green onions
(green parts only). Add to the turkey, add seasoning, salt, pepper,
and perhaps a bit of “jerk” seasoning. Add a whole egg, perhaps
1/2 cup of panko bread crumbs and about 6 tablespoons of goat
cheese. Mix with your hands until well mixed. Let stand 20
minutes. Form into balls, and slowly fry until done.

I like to make a turkey, mushroom, garlic gravy to serve on these

babies and all on a plate of mashed cauliflower.

THE BEST SOUP OF MY LIFE

In 1971 Anya and I went to Malaga. We wanted to see the Rock of

Gibraltar, and they told us “you have to climb this mountain.” Well
there were stairs going left, then right, then left, then right, until
finally we got to the top of the mountain. We couldn’t see the Rock
of Gibraltar, and we were exhausted. There was a five star hotel
there, and we didn’t have much money, so we went out on their
balcony, exhausted, and ordered a bowl of soup and a glass of
white wine.

It was the best tasting soup of my life, but I didn’t know if that was
because I was exhausted, or that the soup was so good. It was a
cream, sherry, shellfish soup.

42 years later, my daughter, Maya went to Malaga on a Fullbright.

She called and said “where was that hotel with the fabulous soup?”
I said I didn’t know, just that there were stairs going left, then
right, then left.She found the hotel. It is still there. And so is the
soup. It has a special name, but she got me the recipe. I had it
translated from Google Translate.

Here is is

Ingredients:
White onion
One large carrot
One potato
Good mayonnaise
Fish filets
Clams
Shrimp
Garlic
Paprika

First you are going to make a stock. Take half a pot full of water
and add the chopped carrots, half an onion, three tablespoons of
peas, and a potato cut into 1.5 inch cubes. Let it come to a boil
until the carrots are half done.
Then add fish (cut into chunks), and clams. Let that boil for a few
minutes. Add one full glass of nice sherry.

Strain out all of the ingredients and put the stock into a separate
pot. Let the stock cool.

Get a bowl full of mayonaisse…probably half a jar. Add the

cooled stock to the mayonaisse. Don’t let it curdle. Once the stock
and mayonaisse are proper, add in the fish, shrimp, potato, clams,
peas, and a bit of pepper. Also add in about 2 tablespoons of finely
chopped prosciutto. I also decided to add some finely chopped
parmesan cheese too. Sprinkle with paprika

Stir and heat at low heat.

Serve and blow your mind.

Char-broiled rack of lamb

This is the best lamb I have ever
cooked in my life, so get ready for
this simple recipe.

Ingredients:
Yogurt
Garlic 4 cloves
White onion
Lemon juice
Olive oil
Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning
Hollandaise sauce (Knorr)

Marinate the lamb for 24 hours in 1 cup of yogurt, 3 cloves of

garlic, 3/4ths of a white onion, lemon juice, & olive oil. Keep
refrigerated.

Remove rack of lamb from marinade; wash off. Season it with

light salt, much more pepper, Italian seasoning, and then rub olive
oil on both sides.

Prepare your grill by getting the coals in a pile at one section of the
barbecue. When cooking your rack, pay close attention. Here is
where your skill is involved. Sear it so that it looks like this picture
on both sides (or is even a little less black). Then move the rack to
the other side of the grill, cover it, and let it cook. [Alternatively,
you could even take it out and then bake it til done]. If on the grill,
cut a chop open and see how red it is. When it is a darker pink
color, its done.

Make some Knorr hollandaise sauce according to directions. Serve

the chops with a dribble of hollandaise around the bottom of the
plate. Totally incredible!

Coq au vin made with white wine

I saw a recipe in Bon Appetite called “Chicken with mushrooms

and dumplings.” I tried it without the dumplings and loved it. I
served it again last night to 6 people and they all raved about it
(and much more importantly, their plates had nothing left on
them.)

Ingredients

Chicken thighs and legs (about 4 each)

White wine 1/3rd cup
Crimini mushrooms (about 1 pound)
Chicken stock (8 oz)
White onion (medium size chopped finely)
6 cloves of garlic
6 oz of bacon
Thyme (to season)

Fry the bacon in a large pan until crispy. Remove and pour off
Most of the grease. Take the chicken, add salt and pepper, then
dredge in flower and fry in the bacon fat. You can add some olive
oil and remove some of the bacon fat to make this less of a fatty
dish. Remove the chicken when it is golden brown. Only fry it one
one side for 5-10
minutes until it is
golden brown and
then remove.

Throw in the
mushrooms and fry
until done and nicely
brown. Set aside for
later. Then toss in
the chopped onions
and garlic and sauté
until transparent.
Then add the wine and reduce to about half. Then add the chicken
again plus the bacon, plus thmye for seasoning. Also add salt and
pepper (not too much thyme). You could also experiment with a bit
of rosemary.

Simmer for 2.5 hours covered but not entirely covered. You
should have a nice gravy with this chicken. Add in the mushrooms
and let it simmer another 10 minutes then serve. I tried putting
chopped green onions on it as a garnish. The recipe recommends
you serve it with dumplings, but I used cous cous and the gravy
went over it very nicely. Very easy and very fancy recipe.

MICHIGAN ‘ALMOST PERFECT’ FRIED CHICKEN

I saw this recipe on a TV program called “Diners, Drive-ins, and
Dives,” and I was intrigued. The chef of this little diner in the
upper peninsula of Michigan boiled his chicken, then dredged it in
spicy flour and deep fried it. The advantage was that boiling it got
rid of the fat. Also, if you have
ever deep-fried chicken,
you want it to be cooked
through, but when you try
to make sure it is cooked
through, it gets dark in
your deep fryer, and when
it is finally done, it
doesn’t look so good Not
so here.

Ingredients:

4-6 chicken thighs and legs with skins on

Vegetable oil
Seasonings (Cajun spice, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder
paprika)

Take your chicken thighs and legs and simply boil them in water
that has a bit of garlic, chopped onion and a bit of lemon juice.
Boil untiil they are like 98% done! Remove. Salt and pepper them
generously, especially with salt BEFORE you dredge them with
flour.

Then dredge them in the flour mixture where you have added all
your spices. Prepare your hot hot hot vegetable oil, and then add
one or two pieces of chicken. If it doesn’t bubble up, the oil is not
hot enough. Important! So cook your chicken until it is just the
right color for you (1-2 minute maybe more. Be careful. Watch.
Choose the chicken when it is just the right color for you.
Remember, it is already cooked. No worries!).
Remove and eat with salad or whatever else you are serving. Less
fatty than KFC. Experiment with spices. A true discovery! And
you can use the water you boiled the chicken in for soup. I tried
this about 4 times until I got it right. The secret is seasoning the
chicken with salt and pepper after it has been boiled, but before
you dredge it with flour. Cool recipe.

ROMA ROCKEFELLER OYSTERS

This is a delightful dish served either as an appetizer or a full

dinner entry.

Ingredients:
Oysters
White wine
Chopped white onion
Knorr’s hollandaise sauce mix
Butter
Chopped Spinach
Parmesan cheese
Worchestershire sauce.
Oyster shells or regular seafood shells for cooking

Take the oysters and boil them in their own juice with some white
wine. They should be 95% cooked and puffed up. Remove and let
Cool.

Slice up the oysters and season them with salt, pepper, garlic
powder.Make Knorr hollandaise sauce exactly as it say on the mix,
including using lemon
juice.
Saute some garlic and chopped white onion. Then add the oyster
pieces and sprinkle with a bit of worchestershire sauce.

Make chopped spinach from a bag and season with salt, butter and
perhaps a bit of ranch or blue cheese dressing. Make sure you taste
the spinach to see that it is not too salty or too bland.

First put the spinach into the shell (not too much, not too little).
Then put the oyster mixture on top. Then put a tablespoon or two
of hollandaise sauce. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top, and then
put in broiler until the parmesan cheese becomes bubbly and
brown.

Serve and enjoy.

Middle Eastern Festival: Shashlik & Afghan chicken

Ingredients:
leg of lamb,
chicken thighs
saffron
rice
yogurt
white onion
lemons
olive oil
6 cloves of garlic
Italian seasoning
Salt/ cracked pepper/
soy sauce
Yellow & Red peppers & small tomatoes

Create the marinade: cup of yogurt, garlic, chopped white onion,

Lemon juice (two lemons), & olive oil (1/4 cup), add saffron too.
Put in food processor and blend.

Chop up lamb into 1. 5 inch cubes. Try to remove grisle and sinew
when you can. Marinate lamb chunks in marinade for 2 days.
Do the same with the chicken (only in a separate container) using
the same marinade.

Remove meat from marinade. Wash off marinade and dry meat.
Add olive oil and all spices (Italian seasoning, soy sauce (not
much), salt and pepper. Mix meat thoroughly in spices.

Cook over hot coals. Serve over rice. Add peas, chopped chives
and green onions. Grill chopped yellow and red peppers and small
tomatoes over coals too and add to your rice.

BRAISED LAMB SHANKS

Ingredients
Lamb shanks with bone in
Miripois
Bottle of red wine (good)
Garlic
Salt, pepper, bay leaves
Tomato paste
Rosemary, thyme, Italian seasoning
Beef bouillon

This recipe blew me away. Incredible.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Coat a large Dutch oven generously with olive oil and bring to a
high heat. Season the shanks generously with salt and add them to
the pan. Brown well on all sides. This is an incredibly important
step; do not rush it.

Remove the shanks from the pan to a sheet tray. Discard the excess
fat from the pan. Add a little more oil to coat the bottom of the pan
and add the miripoix. Season with salt, to taste. Saute until they
are translucent and aromatic, about 10 minutes.

Add the tomato paste and

brown for 5 minutes. Stir in
the wine, chopped rosemary
and thyme Stir frequently
and cook until the wine has
reduced by about a third.

Add the shanks back to the

pot and pour in 3 to 4 cups of
beef bouillion The shanks
should be submersed, if they
are not, add more water. Add
the bay leaves to the pan, cover and put in the preheated oven. The
cooking time will be about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Turn the shanks over
about halfway through the cooking time. Check the shanks every
45 minutes or so. If the liquid has reduced too much add more
water. Defat as you go.

Remove the lid during the last 30 minutes of cooking time for
maximum browning. When the shanks are done the meat should be
incredibly tender and flavorful. Transfer to serving plates and serve
over mashed potatoes flavored with a bit of horseradish
 Shepherd’s Pie
When we lived in England, I developed a taste for Shepherd’s Pie.
Recently I went to the old Stage Delicatessen in NYC (regrettably
closed) and it became an Irish Pub. I ordered Shepherd’s pie, and
loved it, so I learned to cook it; did it twice, and here is the recipe

Ingredients

1 lb of ground lamb
White onion
Crimini mushrooms
Beef bouillon
Cheddar cheese
shredded
4 cloves of garlic
chopped
4 potatoes
milk, butter,
Frozen peas and carrot
mix
half of a chopped tomato
thyme, basil black pepper, salt

Saute white onion; then add mushrooms, and garlic. Toss in the 1
lb of lamb, and chop it up while it is cooking. Add in spices (salt,
pepper, thyme, basil,). Cook 10 minutes and keep chopping it all
up into separated pieces. If it looks greasy, pour off some of the
grease.

Then add in 2 tablespoons of flour and keep mixing until it is

stirred into the meat mixture. Then pour in probably a cup of
Beef bouillion, bring to a boil. This kind of makes your gravy. The
lamb should be in a bit of gravy (not too much, not too dry).

Add in probably a cup of frozen peas and carrots. Now you have
what kind of looks like lamb stew.

Okay, now make your mashed potatoes (you know how to do that),
and mix in quite a bit of cheddar cheese shreds.

Get a ramiken (if you want to serve this individually) or a baking

pan and first put the lamb on the bottom and pat so it is nice and
flat sitting in its nice gravy. Now spoon the mashed potatoes on
top. Bake for 20-25 minutes. If the mashed potato crust doesn’t
Brown up or become crispy, add some shredded cheddar cheese or
shredded parmesan to give it that crusty look.

Before you bake, taste your lamb and taste you mashed potatoes to
make sure all is done and the dish will be a completed work of
comfort food art.

My father’s stroganoff

My father died in 1967, and when I came home to his funeral, in

the freezer was his beef stroganoff wrapped in aluminum foil. I
cooked it and ate it, and while I was eating it, I realized this will be
the last time in my life I will ever taste this dish. His stroganoff
was fantastic. I tried 7 times to duplicate it. Here is the closest I
ever got.

Ingredients

Rib eye stead

Crimini mushrooms, Porcini Mushrooms, Morel mushroom, and
white cap mushrooms.
Beef stock
Garlic
Sour cream
chopped chives and green onions

Take the rib eye steaks and slice them very thinly. I mean very
thinkly. Season with salt, pepper, a little garlic powder, and then
toss these slices in some white
flour.

Saute in oil until brown. Remove.

Add all the mushrooms and saute
the garlic at the last moment. If
you have used dried porcini
mushrooms, soak in half cup of
water first. Then add beef stock
(not much, use your eyes), and
scrape up all the stuff on the
bottom of pan. Add the beef
back in and bring to a boil. Let this all simmer for 20 minutes so
flavors will spread. Then add lots of sour cream, probably 3 large
table spoons. Check for taste and consider adding thyme, basil or
more chopped garlic. At the end add the chopped chives and green
onions. Serve over egg noodles (preferred) or mashed potatotes.
Keep adding more sour cream to get the flavor just the way you
want it.

You might consider experimenting (in the future) with white wine
or brandy to this mix.
 Mediterranean salad

Ingredients

Persian cucumbers
Garlic
Tomato
White onion
Salt, pepper,
thyme, garlic,
vinegar, oil, dill.

Peel 1 cucumbers,
dice the tomato,
chop the garlic
finely, chop the
white onion
finely, then
combie. Add, salt, pepper, thyme, basil, vinegar, oil, and serve
chilled with chopped dill.
 Turkish chicken kebab
Ingredients

Chicken thighs
Yogurt
Garlic
Lemon
Kosher salt
Salcicca
Paprika
Cumin
Cinnamin
Olive Oil
Lemon juice

Take chicken
thighs and cut in
half. Marinate in
mixture of 1 cup
of yogurt, 1 tablespoons of oil, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2
tablespoons of Siracchi red pepper sauce (Mexican), 1 tsp of
pepper, 1 tsp of paprika, 2.5 tsp of cumin, 1/8th tsp cinammon.
Marinate 4 hours or more.
Cook over coals. Serve with Mediterranean salad. Incredible!
 Lucille’s pineapple ice box pie

My mother used to make this pie and I went nuts over how delicious it was.
I tried to make it, and it is so easy it came out wonderful the first time I did
it.

Ingredients;

Pie crust made our of graham crackers (you can buy it this way). If you can’t
get some graham crackers and put them in a food processor. Spread across
pie plate.)

Cream cheese 8 oz
1/3 cup lemon juice
14 ounce can of Eagle
brand condensed milk
8 oz of cool whip or
whipped cream
15 oz of crushed and
drained pineapple
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Combine cream cheese

(at room temp) with
condensed milk and
lemon juice. Combine
until smooth. Stir in
pineapple and pecan snd
fold in the whipped
cream. Pour mixture
into baking pan crust;
chill in refrigerator for
at least 4 hours before
serving. Top with a little left over graham crackers and pecans if you have
them. Serve cold.
(By the way, you can take a beaten egg and brush your pie crust first. Then
bake if at 375 for 5 minutes. This gives the crust a glossier more resilient
finish. Then add the ingredients and chill)

Traditional coq
au vin

Ingredients

Chicken thighs (4) with skins, bone in

Bacon
Shallots
garlic
Crimini mushrooms
Butter, flur
Red wine
Thyme
Chicken stock

Fry chicken skin side

down to make it crispy.
Fry bacon til crispy, then pour off fat. Add shallots and crimini
mushrooms, sute. Add butter, flour, make roux, garlic then add
1/3rd bottle of wine; add bacon, chiken stock, thyme. Return
chicken to mixture and bake at 375 for 1 hour. Baste once during
cooking.
 Roma’s borscht

My Russian wife inspired this dish, and on our 48th anniversary I

decided to try making it. This was the second time, and it was
fantastic, although one important shorcut is in evidence

Ingredients
2 beets
1 cut of beef with marrow bone inside (about 1 lb)
chopped white onions and carrot
1 quart jar of Gold or Jewish Borscht which you can buy
in the kosher section of your supermarket
mushrooms
garlic
sour cream
dill
beef stock
italian seasoning

Fry the beef in hot oil to

brown (seasoning with salt
and pepper). Remove.
Then fry the onions and
mushrooms in that oil and
its drippings. Then add
chopped carrot, 3 cloves of
chopped garlic, Italian
seasoning, one can of beef stock, and the jar of Jewish borsht. Peel
two small beets, chop them up, and add them to the soup. Bring to
boil. Simmer for 2-3 hours until the beef is fork tender. Serve with
a topping of chopped dill and sour cream. Simple and incredible. A
meal in itself.
 Achiote-Jerk chicken wings

This recipe came by accident. I ran out of achiote spice so I added

some Jamaican jerk spice, and it turned out fantastic. Probably the
best buffulo wings I’ve made to date.

Ingredients:

Jamaican jerk rub

Achiote dry rub
2 limes
1.5 cups of orange juice
5 cloves of garlic
white vinegar (1
tblsp)
salt, pepper
1 lb of chicken
wings

Wash and cut

wings. Make
marinade (2
tablespoons of
jerk rub, 2 tablespoons of achiote dry rub, 1.5 cups of orange juice,
the juice of 2 limes, 5 cloves of chopped garlic, 1 tbls of vinegar.
Marinate for 4 hours, turning half way through. Take out the
wings and dry. Liberally season with salt and pepper and put on an
over rack
Sitting on aluminum foil. Bake the wings at a high temp, 475 for
about 20 minutes. Then turn and bake another 15-20 minutes.
Watch out for burning. Serve with blue cheese dressing.

I also experimented with spooning on some of the marinade on the

wings when they were done and it was good too.
 Chicken Cacciatore

Saw this on Youtube. Tried it. First time it was fantastic.

Ingredients
4-6 skinless chicken thighs
red, yellow and orange peppers
onion
garlic
mushroooms
oregano, thyme, & basil
chicken stock
red wine
flour

Wash chicken thoroughly and

dry. Salt and pepper chicken
thighs and then dip in flour
with a little red pepper
seasoning. Fry the thighs
until slightly browned.
Remove from pan. Add the
mushrooms to the pan and
cook til brown. Remove. Add
in chopped onions (bite size)
and garlic until translucent. Remove. Toss in the peppers and cook
until slightly carmelized. Add in all the ingredients, and add ¾ cup
of stock and ¾ cup of red wine. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 45
minutes. Add more flour if the sauce is too thin. Serve over pasta,
mashed potatoes or mashed cauliflower. Consider adding some
pitted black olives to the dish as well.
 Bacon topped shrimp

I’ve always had trouble wrapping bacon around shrimp. Never

seems to hold. So I recently discovered how to find this taste
without all the hasle: deep frying.

So take medium to large sized shrimp and dry, then season with
salt, pepper, and some cayenne. Deep fry the shrimp until done
(probaby a minute in hot oil, enough hot oil to sink the whole
shrimp). When done, let
dry and then before
serving, heat up butter
and chopped garlic and
lemon juice and dab the
shrimp in that.

The bacon part is easy.

To get that wonderful
crispy bacon flavor
(without laboring on the
grill), just deep fry the
whole piece of bacon. It
cooks up perfectly in
about 1-2 minutes. Pull it out when it is that perfect crispiness.
Now let it dry and get all the grease off.

Final step is to take a half or a third of a piece of bacon and simply

place it on top of your shrimp with a tooth pick holding it all
together. Makes a great appetizer, and even a great dinner entry.
Pardon the photo, but my camera is not the best. In this case I used
smaller shrimp to I attached a slice of bacon to two shrimp on the
bottom. Very tasty.
 KFC wings

The very first time I tried Kentucky Fried Chicken I was totally
blown away, but as the
years progressed it
became fatty,
commercial, and
unappetizing.

In 2016, the nephew of

Col. Sanders published
the secret recipe of 11
herbs and spices and I
thought I’d cook that
on my 75th birthday.

It was unbelievable!

The secret recipe is this: two cups of flour mixed with

What I did was to cook my wings

unseasoned in hot oil for about 10 minutes
so they were 60% done. Then I took them
and dipped them in an egg wash and then
into the seasoned flour. I cooked them for
another 5 minutes until they floated to the
top, and then I ate them. They were
TOTALLY FANTASTIC!
 Polish Bigos

When I was a boy we had bigos at Christmas and Easter. I always

loved it, but never knew how to make it. Beginners luck. I made it
for our ‘gourmet club’ and it was great.

Ingredients

dried prunes (6)

beef stock
allspice
pocini mushrooms
1 red oinion
1 head of cabbage
500 grams of saukerat
(drained)
250 grams of backon
250 grams of polish
kielbasa
1 cup of red wine
cup and a half of crushed
tomatoes
3 bayleaves
marjoram & caraway seeds
carrots small

Fry the onions, then add cabbage and sauerkrat and cook down.
Cook meat separately, and then add into the mixture. Add in 1 cup
of beef stock and 1 cup of red wine and all seasonings. The porcini
mushrooms are usually dried so they must be soaked in warm
water for an hour; then pour the mushrooms and broth into the
mixture. Stir and cook covered for a few hours on low head, and
then uncovered for a few hours. They say bigos gets better the next
day, so try to make it the day before, and then reheat it on low for a
few more hours. Stunning!(6) Some say you should serve it with
Russian rye bread and butter as well.

Prime Rib

For my birthday I did my first prime rib dinner for 11 people. A

great adventure and actually very simple

Ingredients

Bone in Prime Rib roast (5 ribs) about $90

Salt/ Pepper/ garlic

First generously salt and

pepper the roast and keep
it covered in the
refrigerator for 3-4 days.
Also have garlic slices
inserted into the meat
durign this time. On the
day of roasting, roast it at
450 for 20 minutes and
then reduce it to 350
(find out how many
pounds you have to determine the roasting time). Roast it so the
bones are on the bottom; they are there in place of a rack. Roast in
a smaller pan so that the juices do not evaporate and you can have
a great au jus gravey. Quite simple. Let it rest for 20 minutes so it
will still cook. Check the done time temperature for medium rare.
The crispy fat on the outside is created by the high roasting temp in
the beginning. Phenomenal.
 Kentucky Fried Oysters

You’re not going to believe this, but a few months ago the New York Times
published the secret KFC recipe of 11 herbs and spices. I remembered the
very first time I tried Kentuck Fried Chicken, and, I confess, I loved it, but
over the years it became, fatty, greasy, and ugly.

So I tried to make wings using the

secret recipe, and they were out of
this world. Then I thought more
creatively and said “what if we
made Kentucky fried oysters.”

Same 11 herbs and spices, egg

wash, flower, deep fried in
vegetable oil with a sprinkle of
lime juice.

Well, I did it, twice, and it was again, out of this world. Here’s Roma’s
Kentucky Fried Oysters.

Ingredients: 2 jars of oysters

Egg
Plus the 11 herbs and spices
Take the oysters and boil them for a couple of
minutes in their own nectar. That makes them
somewhat smaller and plump.

Then drop the oyster in whisked eggs and then

into the flour. Deep fry until done.

I forgot to mention that all those 11 herbs and

spices go into 2 cups of flour.

Sprinkle with lime or lemon juice.

You’ll be surprised how good this is!!

 My Mother’s Sauerbraten

I found my mother’s recipe file and discovered “Mader’s

Sauerbraten” I wondered if that is what she did when she cooked
her sauerbraten, so I tried it; it wasn’t exact, but it was the closest
I’ve had so here it is:

Ingredients
4 lbs of chuck
1.5 tbls salt
1 chopped onion
10 peppercords
3 bayleaves
3 cloves
1 cup vinegar
Water
1/8 lb of cooked bacon
2.5 tbasp of flour
2 tbls oil
1 crushed gingersnap (a cookie)
2 tbsp sugar
salt & peppper
½ cup of red wine

Rub meat wiht salt and place in glass bowl with brine made of
onion, spices, vegar and enough water to cover the meat. Marinate
at least 48 hours turning at least twice. Fry bacon; pour off grease;
take chuck out of marinade and wipe dry. Fry bacon in just a bit
of bacon grease (throw the rest away). Then remove meat. Stir in
bflour and add sugar, gingernsnaps, salt and pepper plus 2 cups of
the brine. Boil until smooth and creamy. Pour over the meat and
roast at 400 degrees 20 minutes per pound. Pour in the red wine 30
minutes before theend of the roasting time. Strain gravy. Add sour
cream to gravy. Serve over potato dumplings or mashed potatoes
or mashed cauliflower. Deligious. If it is not sour enough, add
vinegar; if it is too sour add water.

Indian Buttered Chicken

This is one of those recipes that turned out to be fantastic the very
first time I made it. It is embarrassingly simple.

Ingredients

Mr. Kook’s buttered

chicken sauce
Heavy cream
Chicken thighs (4-6)
frozen peas
mushrooms

Slowly cook cup up bite-size pieces of chicken thighs properly

salted and peppered. Once done remove, add a bit of butter, and
fry some mushrooms
and onions in the same pan. Then toss in the entire jar of Mr.
Kook’s butter chicken sauce and simmer it all for 10 minutes or so.
Add in frozen peas and then add more cream so it is the right taste
for you and not so spicy. You might try sour cream, yogurt, or
creme fraiche instead of the heavy cream. I think I’ll try it next
with yogurt. I am on the Atkins diet so instead of serving it on rice,
I bought a new product called “cauliflower rice” which is really
cauliflower ground up to look like rice. Instead of boiling it, you
fry it in oil for a few minutes. Serve chicken dish on the
cauliflower rice.” Wonderful!
 Moussaka

My daughter, Maya, and I made this twice and the second time was
worthy of mention in this cookbook.

Ingredients

4 tbs olie oil

3 medium egg plants
sliced thinly
1 large white onion
6 cloves of garlice
finely chopped
1.5 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp dried oregano
1 lb of ground lamb
2 tbsp of tomato puree or tomato saue
1/3 glass of red wine
chopped Italian parsley
1 large potato

for the Behamel sauce :butter, milk, flour, grated parmesan, pinch
of nutmeg: to make it, melt the butter, add flour (1 – 2 tbsp), then
milk added slowly constantly stirring, then grated parmesan (1/2-
3/4 cup) until the sauce is sort of pasty

Slice the egg plant thinkly and fry til half done. Same with the
potato; par boil the potato til it is half done, then slice thinly (1/4 of
an inch in both cases). Chop the onion and cook the lamb til
almost dry then add oregano, onion, spices, puree, and cook for 3
minutes. Then take your baking pan and butter the bottom. Put
down a layer of potatoes, then a layer of egg plant, then a layer of
lamb mixture, then a layer of egg plant, then a layer of lamb
mixture and then top with the Bechamel sauce. Bake for 35-45
minutes at 350 until the top is browned. Remove, let cool 10
minutes and eat.

Lovely!

PERFECT LAMB GRAVY

I’ve always had difficulty serving lamb gravy. Never enough for a
large crowd and all the lamb buillon cubes were just horrible.
Finally an answer: Purchase lamb necks (about a pound to two
pounds) and put them in a slow cooker for 8 hours. I added
rosemary, garlic, salt,
pepper, and a half a cup
of beef stock. After 8
hours it has turned into a
wonderful ‘mush’ so just
strain it and you will
have at huge amount of
liquid with tiny pieces of
meat in it. Strain through
a regular strainer with
wider openings. Once
done, freeze it and then the fat rises to the top. Scrape off the fat
and you have fantastic gravy bouillon.

When you cook or bake your lamb, make a gravy the way you
would normally make the gravy, but then add that to your
previously prepared gravy stock. I served 9 people for
Thanksgiving and still had 2 cups of gravy left over.
 1792 Pork Chop Recipe

I saw a video on Youtube about a pub which served pork chops,

and I was intrigued. I tried it and it was easy to make and really
really good. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
1-2 pork chops, bone in, normal
sized
butter
dried thyme
Italian parsley
Bread crumbs
Vinegar
Mustard
Beef bouillion
Scallions
White flour

First, season your pork chops

with salt, pepper, dried thyme,
chopped parsley, and a small amount of bread crumbs. This is not a
breaded pork chop, so just rub all these spices in both sides of the
pork chop. Step two is to fry the pork chops in butter under
relatively high heat so they develop a bit of a char. When done,
remove to rest and keep
warm.
To make the sauce add
a bit of butter and finely
chopped scallions to
deglaze the pan. Then
add ½ cup of bouillion
until it starts to bubble
and you have deglazed well. Next add about ¼ teaspoon of muster
and ¼ teaspoon of white vinegar. Next (I thought this was cool)
take a tablespoon of room temperature butter and rub it into white
flour so you can make a “ball” of butter and white flour. Toss that
into the gravy. It makes it a bit thicker. Bring to a bubble and then
serve as a gravy over the porkchops. I served it with mashed
cauliflower and the gravy covered the pork chops and the
cauliflower, but you could as easily do mashed potatoes.