It's April's finale, and Joyce Stanbery began with a soupy question. "Many recipes call for cream of chicken soup, cream of mushroom soup, etc. These are mostly used as thickening and contain wheat. I am on a wheat-free diet. Do you have a recipe that can be used as a substitution for these soups, with or without the chicken bits, mushrooms, etc. that would taste and thicken basically the same as the soups?"
The next two requests are, well, breaded. Daisy LaNieve loves bread on her gluten-free diet, but a good loaf is hard to find. "The best loaf so far is easily made from Pamela's gluten-free bread mix, but now I cannot find it anywhere locally or online. I am hoping someone can tell me where to buy, or tell me another bread mix as good as Pamela's. If not, how about where a really good gluten-free loaf can be bought in or near Chattanooga?"
Bread is a most popular topic in a world where baker's yeast sales have jumped 647% in a year. Abigail S. couldn't find yeast to bake focaccia (we'll print her recipe next week), but she still wants your favorite easy bread recipes, "the yeast breads that don't take all day."
QUICHE, NO CRUST
Robbie Van Winkle provided the crustless quiche you asked for, noting that it is very good.
Crustless Quiche
8 ounces fresh or canned mushrooms
2 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 cup small curd cottage cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup chopped ham
Sauté mushrooms and butter together in a skillet, then in a bowl combine the next 6 ingredients. Mix in the sautéed mushrooms and the ham and cheese.
Bake in a greased dish at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
EASY SIDE DISH
It's helpful to get comments from you about what you approved from Fare Exchange, as well as any clarifications and questions. This week there were two commendations: One of you loved the generous batch of stewed and baked tomato recipes; another of you said you always love reading Mr. and Mrs. Sunday. So that calls for seconds, thirds and many more. Write on.
Kathleen Maxwell wrote, "I loved the tomato recipes especially in your Fare Exchange. This is a side-dish recipe, with only four ingredients, but I think you could make it into a full, one-pot meal too. I have been baking artisan bread since confinement, and I am starting to think a no-carb diet is in the near future."
So perhaps carbohydrates will be a future conversation topic here.
Green Chile Rice
3 cups rice, cooked
4 ounces green chilies, canned, diced
2 cups cheddar cheese
16 ounces sour cream
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Spread the mixture into a 2-quart casserole dish.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until the cheese begins to brown around the edges. Cool slightly before serving.
BANANA BREAD
The Nana had a practiced answer to the question about durability of frozen bananas.
She wrote, "My husband will only eat bananas if they are firm and almost green. When they are beginning to turn the least bit ripe he is through. Since I don't like to go to the store every other day, I play banana roulette and hope he can eat them before the dreaded brown spots. Alas, I lose almost every time. When this happens, I peel them and drop them in a freezer bag waiting for a baking day. They may not be pretty, but they bake just fine and I cannot tell the difference. I use Paula Deen's recipe for banana bread with a few additions of my own.
"I make it by hand instead of a mixer as she recommends. I think the tiny bits of butter make a denser loaf. I also top it with cinnamon sugar before baking for a crunchy top."
Paula Deen's Banana Bread With Variations
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon (see note)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (see note)
1/2 cup pecans (see note)
Cinnamon sugar for topping before baking (see note)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan. In a small mixing bowl, combine softened butter and sugar; mix well.
Add eggs, mixing after each addition. Then add vanilla and bananas, and mix well. Add dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg) and pecans. Mix and put into prepared pan, sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake for 50 minutes. You may need to cover the top to keep it from getting too dark.
Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
* Note: The spices, pecans and cinnamon sugar are my addition and not in the original recipe. I mix this all by hand since it is so very easy.
FISH SAFETY
Mr. and Mrs. Sunday addressed fish and food safety, and they are always worth hearing. And if preparing fish at home safely is an uneasy topic, here's another Sunday idea. "By the way, if you haven't tried ceviche and would like to before making your own, State of Confusion on Main Street had some excellent variations before the current mess. They're still open for takeout, but ceviche isn't on the menu. Buy something from them to keep them going, and try the ceviche when things get back to normal.
"Food Safety, Especially With Fish," from the Sundays:
"For commercial purposes, the FDA can't afford to make any assumptions about who will be consuming the food being prepared. For all they know, the ingredients may have been harvested from polluted waters and be bound for immuno-suppressed invalids.
"This is why the FDA wants all food cooked to 165 degrees; holding food at that temperature for just 1 second kills the overwhelming majority of pathogens (but not all). So does holding it at 145 degrees for a longer period (scientific paper misplaced at the moment), but that's too complicated to explain and be sure it's understood by the general public.
"For the record, the FDA has to paint medium-rare steaks (125 degrees) and sushi/sashimi (raw) as evil incarnate. Your local reputable fishmonger's fish in lime juice is sufficient unless you're at desperate risk; if that's the case, get your advice from a dietitian or doctor, not the newspaper."
JUST A DASH
The Nana weighed in with a great idea for our crazy season. "I am a Cook Once/Eat Twice gal, so I wrap and freeze individual slices (when baking banana bread) and I have it ready for drop-in guests and to take to people in our church who are shut-ins." Cook once and eat twice: There's a skill for any season, of course transferable to almost any menu item.
And I will watch for you in May.
Requests
* "Cream of" soup subs
* Gluten-free bread
* Easy yeast bread
To Reach Us:
Fare Exchange is a longtime meeting place for people who love to cook and love to eat. We welcome both your recipes and your requests. Be sure to include precise instructions for every recipe you send.
Mailing address: Jane Henegar, 913 Mount Olive Road, Lookout Mountain, GA 30750
E-mail: chattfare@gmail.com
Jane Henegar