Fare Exchange: Cranberries, curry and taco soup are on the menu

Jane Henegar

Good morning, New Year celebrants. A toast, perhaps? Mary Coffey is looking for a good old-fashioned spiced tea recipe, full of fruit juices, as well as a recipe for spiced cider.

This one is anonymous: "Do you have a local source for Gaba rice?"

And we continue to seek the best and most successful recipes, and menus, from the season just past.

RELISHING CRANBERRIES

We will be fruitful - or at least fruity - in the new year. The year's first recipe is for fresh cranberries, and the giver is Margaret McNeil. She recommended it for Easter, if one saved the leftover fresh cranberries from Christmas and stored them in the freezer.

"In response to Lucy Keller's request for recipes using fresh cranberries, I'm sending one of my favorite cranberry recipes, Cranberry Orange Relish. I buy an extra bag of cranberries at Christmas and store them in the freezer so I can make this relish at Easter. The recipe calls for a food processor, but I don't have one. Instead, I use a Ninja blender that I bought at Target several years ago. Regardless of what you use, make sure you don't overprocess the fruit or it will be too runny."

Cranberry Orange Relish for Christmas, Easter or In Between

1 (12-ounce) bag cranberries, rinsed and drained

1 orange, washed, cut into eighths and seeded (leave peel on)

1 apple, peeled, cored and cut into quarters

1 (8-ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained

1 to 2 cups sugar to taste (I use 1 1/4 cups)

Grind cranberries, orange and apple in a food processor. Be careful not to pulse it too much. Add pineapple and sugar, stirring to mix the ingredients. Store covered in the refrigerator.

Makes 6 servings.

CURRY FAVORS

Pat Pelfrey of Flintstone, Ga., teaches a curry lesson in the lines that follow. I am reminded that once, long ago, curries were THE dish to serve company. Shrimp and chicken, mostly. The Indian-style condiments were called "boys" and added greatly to the taste, as well as making the meal a collaborative celebration whereby each person could adapt the dish to personal tastes.

So let's have more curry recipes, please. It's time again. One of our children brought a carton of red curry paste for Thai food that never got cooked over the holidays. How about some Thai curries too?

Pelfrey's letter also answered the question for a favorite recipe. "I read your column every Wednesday and love the variety. I've been meaning to share one my favorite dinner recipes for a while. This one was shared with me about 40 years ago by a Colonel's wife at Fort Sill, Oklahoma."

Chicken Curry

1/2 cup chopped green peppers

6 tablespoons bacon grease

4 teaspoons curry powder

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

4 tablespoons flour

1/4 cup canned applesauce

2 cans Campbell's onion soup

2 cans chicken broth

1 tablespoon tomato paste

4 cups cooked chicken

1 small can mushrooms

Cooked rice

Condiments (see below)

Sauté peppers in bacon grease. Add curry, ginger and garlic powder. Cook, stirring, about 5 minutes. Add flour, and cook 5 minutes more, stirring frequently. Add applesauce, soups and broth. Simmer 20 minutes or longer. Add tomato paste, chicken and mushrooms. Simmer 10 minutes.

Fill small bowls with an assortment of condiments: Major Grey chutney, chopped cashews, toasted slivered almonds, coconut, bacon bits, chopped cucumber in sour cream, sieved hard-boiled eggs and chopped crystallized ginger.

Place a serving of rice in each plate or bowl, add chicken curry sauce, then top with a spoonful of your choice of condiment or some of each. Serve with salad and rolls or naan. Makes 8 servings.

FOR THE REINDEER FILE

Thought it's post-reindeer season, we can still store reindeer food recipes in the Christmas 2018 file. Marilyn J. Dammann of Hixson sent this one copied from the YMCA Christmas Market Favorite Recipes cookbook 2006. The author of the recipe, Connie Farrar, suggested, "Let children sprinkle some outside on Christmas Eve. They will find only crumbs left in the morning ..."

Reindeer Food

2 (24-ounce) packages vanilla candy coating

3 cups mini pretzels

1 (12-ounce) can cocktail peanuts

1 (14-ounce) package frosted or plain Cheerios

1 (12-ounce) package rice cereal squares

1 (16-ounce) package holiday M&M's

Green and red sugar

Place candy coating in glass container, and microwave until it melts (about 2 1/2 minutes). Stir once.

Combine pretzels and next 3 ingredients; add melted candy coating. Stir in chocolate M&M's. Spread onto wax paper. Sprinkle all with green and red sugar.

Let stand 30 minutes, and break into pieces. Makes about 25 cups.

TWO TACO SOUPS

Here's are variations on a theme: a top-of-the-line and an easy version of a wintertime staple, Taco Soup, from Barbara Smith's generous collection.

Very Best Taco Soup

1 pound ground beef

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove garlic, minced

1 envelope taco seasoning mix

1 (16-ounce) can pinto beans, undrained

1 (16-ounce) can kidney beans, undrained

1 (16-ounce) can golden hominy, undrained

1 (16-ounce) can cream-style corn

1 (14-ounce) can diced stewed tomatoes, undrained

1 cup salsa

1 envelope ranch dressing mix

Tortilla chips

1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

In a stockpot, cook ground beef, onion and garlic over medium-high heat until beef is browned and onion is tender. Drain well. Stir in taco seasoning. Add beans, hominy, corn, tomatoes and salsa, and stir to blend well. Stir in ranch dressing mix. Simmer over low heat about 10 minutes. Serve over tortilla chips, and sprinkle cheese over each serving.

Easy Taco Soup

1 pound ground beef

1 to 2 packages taco seasoning

1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained

1 (15-ounce) can whole-kernel corn, drained

1 (16-ounce) can tomato juice

Cook and drain ground beef. Add the remaining ingredients; simmer for 10 minutes on low heat.

The cupboard at our house is not exactly bare, but an appropriate dent has been made in the wildly excessive holiday supply. Here's what remains. There is a bunch of tired asparagus with tips crushed; might they become soup? There is a chunk of smoked Gouda and one of smoked Gruyere. Might they work in a cheese sauce for certain pastas? And there is of course a Honey-Baked Ham, as well as standing rib roast leftovers, beautifully smoked on a Big Green Egg-style cooker. What do you do with a Honey-Baked Ham carcass or bone-in rib roast leftovers? By such question marks at the beginning and end of this column, our first Exchange has primed the pump for questions worth answering. That's where you come in, so come on.