The Obama Campaign Family Cookbook
SIDE DISHES
Table of Contents
OBAMA TO WIN CAMPAIGN FIESTA RICE
Submitted by Cheryl S from Boston, Massachusetts
My Story:
This is my original Charito’s Fiesta Rice dish that I renamed 'Obama To Win Campaign Fiesta Rice.' It has been a Good Luck rice dish for many a Harvard University Graduate Student Dissertation PhD Party! It is a healthy but filling dish with all the right hotness and sweetness and many surprises. It is colorfully celebratory especially for a Win! Barack Obama is the right man, the right candidate at the right time. He is the Fiesta we have been waiting to celebrate our lives with, for, and by, to reconnect with our country. Obama represents us and we are Obama and we are the ones we have been waiting for! Let’s celebrate our knowledge that we recognize ourselves, for the future to begin.
Served Room Temperature For a Party of Twelve or, it will feed 36 as an appetizer and keep the rest…
Ingredients:
3 cups of Rice (not instant!—but if not from a bag of rice, then use 3 boxes of
Far East Rice with one box of Spanish Rice and 2 boxes of Rice with Lentils or your favorite.)
6 cups of Water (or as per directions on a box of rice.)
1.5 cups of Raisins (Plump is key word--Dole is a good brand for plump)
1 cup of Blanched Slivered Almonds (or whole)
3 Bell Peppers: 1 each of red, orange and yellow or purple
1 Garlic Clove
1 Inch square slice of Ginger Root
1 Pinch of saffron—if you have it!
1 Dash of your favorite vinegar!
2 Pinches of Adobo Seasoning
To Taste Cracked Pepper
To Taste Salt when cooking rice only
1.5 Tablespoons Sesame Oil when cooking rice
1.5 Tablespoons Olive Oil when cooking rice
Begin Cooking Rice:
In two saucepans pour 1.5 cups of rice and add 3 cups of water to each saucepan (or per directions on boxed rice). Add sesame oil to one saucepan and the olive oil to the other for cooking. Add Salt to taste. Add pinch of saffron, add any boxed spiced ingredients at this time. (Hold off with cracked pepper.) Cover on high heat.
Bring cooking rice to Boil. Stir fully but not molesting…! Cover again and bring flame down to a simmer for 18-20 minutes—though check it at 17 minutes…Remember not to stir again until finished and then only fold it in on itself and let rest for a couple of minutes before pouring it hot onto the ingredients below.
While Rice is Boiling:
Cut 3 colorful Bell Peppers into small quarter inch pieces and place in a large serving bowl that will be used for the rice. Mixed it up with the 1.5 cups of Plump Raisins. Grate 1 Garlic Clove and grate cube of Peeled Ginger and mix into peppers and raisins. Set aside.
Once Rice is Ready:
Take Hot Rice—just rested for a couple of minutes and heap it onto the peppers and raisins. Just let the hot rice smother the ingredients in the steam. At this time BEFORE you mix up the rice with the peppers and raisins Add cracked pepper to taste, a pinch or two of your favorite vinegar, Adobo seasoning, any left over ginger, garlic or saffron. Season to taste! Add perhaps a nice hot chili pepper! Mix up all ingredients now with the rice. The important trick to making this work nicely is Not to Over-Manipulate the rice. It doesn’t like it! So be swift and gentle when applying your ingredients. Let it rest. Serve Rice at Room Temperature.
Also While Rice was Cooking Prepare the following:
Take Cup of blanched slivered or whole blanched or roasted Almonds and sauté in your favorite oil in a saucepan until desired browning—must keep an eye on this procedure. Cool on paper towels. Mix in your rice dish just BEFORE serving! Or serve on the side.
This is a 35 minute Prep & Cook meal that is great for parties and colorful! Follow Rice, Bell Pepper, and Raisin Directions well and then the rest of the ingredients are up to your imagination! But don’t forget the almonds! This is a simple treat that can become a demanding favorite with friends and family.
MICHIGAN AUTUMN HARVEST ROOT VEGETABLE ROAST
Submitted by Michele L from Rockford, Michigan
In Michigan, we enjoy a bounty of produce from May (asparagus) to November (squash). We know that we will be reaping a huge harvest from our hard work come this November when Obama wins! To celebrate, here is a Michigan Autumn Harvest Root Vegetable Roast:
2 lbs root vegetables (carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas--you could also use beets and/or potatoes, but I don't)
1 medium onion, peeled and cut into thirds (wedges)
1 Tablespoon (or more if needed) olive oil
Salt to taste (I use sea salt)
1 head garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
Chopped Fresh Herbs (your choice!)
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place the root vegetables and onion in a roasting pan. Toss the vegetables with the oil and salt to taste. Do not crowd the vegetables (if you do, it will just take longer to roast). Roast the mixture for a total of 50-60 minutes, stirring every fifteen minutes. After 30 minutes, add the garlic cloves in with the vegetables. Continue stirring every 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender, and evenly browned, and a little glazed looking. Test the garlic to make sure that they are roasted completely. Before serving, add a sprinkling of herbs. Serves 6.
QUICK GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE
Submitted by Thomas L from the Denver area, Colorado
I needed to make a fancy vegetable dish to go with Christmas dinner and came up with this on the spur of the moment. It is similar to the classic one with dried onions, but less expensive.
Ingredients:
1 can green beans
2 slices cooked, crumbled bacon
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/8 of a medium onion – grated
Drain green beans thoroughly then place them in a medium sized, oven safe bowl.
Grate onion onto green beans, mix together thoroughly.
Add crumbled bacon, mix thoroughly
Add half the cheese and mix in, use the rest of the cheese to form a layer across the top.
Cover bowl with aluminum foil (reflective side facing down)
Bake in 350 degree oven for 45 minutes. Serves 3-4.
NEW ORLEANS GREEN BEAN AND ARTICHOKE CASSEROLE
Submitted by Amy W from Missoula, Montana (originally from Louisiana)
1 onion, chopped
2-3 toes of garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 can green beans (or 1 package frozen green beans thawed and drained)
1 jar quartered artichoke hearts
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup Italian Style breadcrumbs
Tony Chachere’s New Orleans Seasoning
Cayenne Pepper
Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are clear. Add green beans and artichoke hearts. Cook until all ingredients are heated. Stir in parmesan, bread crumbs. Add Tony’s Seasoning and cayenne pepper to your liking.
Place mixture in casserole dish. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Heat covered in 350 degree oven until bubbly. Remove cover for last five minutes to brown the crumbs and cheese.
Submitted by Tom L from the Denver area, Colorado
This is a very expensive tasting dish that is relatively inexpensive to make.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup white rice
1 cup water
12 almonds (shelled, whole)
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon honey
Cook the rice according to the instructions on whatever variety you have.
While the rice cooks, take the almonds and chop them up, slivers are best (if you prefer to purchase them, prepared slivered almonds will do fine).
Melt the butter over low heat and stir in the honey. You should get a sauce that is thicker than melted butter alone but still thin enough to pour. If necessary you can add additional butter to the mixture.
Your rice should be taken off the heat just before it is done, to finish up. After fluffing with a fork, add the almond silvers on top of the rice, and place the cover back on it.
Serve on plates and drizzle the honey-butter sauce over the rice.
When I serve this dish I normally serve it with steamed carrots and potstickers.
The potstickers I buy frozen and prepare while the rice cooks.
Serves 2-4 depending on serving size of rice.
POTATO KUGEL
Submitted by Sykie T from Bainbridge Island in Washington State
My recipe is from my great-grandmother, Mollie Leuchtman. Her parents immigrated from Eastern Europe around the turn of the century.
6 potatoes
1 onion
6 eggs
1/2 cup matzoh meal
salt & pepper
Mollie's instructions verbatim:
“First you take as many potatoes as you can afford and you drain off all the water and a little matzoh naturally and don't use too much fat. I hate fat but you swizzle some flour around in the pan after you put the fat in it and use as many eggs as you can afford--I would use plenty. How long to bake it? Well, a long time--you see when you take a straw from the broom and stick it.”
This translates to:
Grate the potatoes and onion finely. Mix all ingredients together and put in a well-oiled casserole dish. Bake at 375 for 2 hours or until a toothpick test comes out clean. Enjoy with sour cream and apple sauce.
BLACK BEANS & RICE
Submitted by Randee H from Missoula, Montana
a proud Irish Catholic Democrat who supports Barack Obama!
Mix together:
3 cups cooked rice
1 can black beans - drained & rinsed
1/2 cup sliced green onions
1 can chopped green chillies
1 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup plain yogurt
Pour into a lightly greased 9x9 baking pan.
Top with:
1 cup coarsely shredded cheddar cheese
Bake @ 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
PA'S BAKED BEANS
Submitted by Maria S from Missoula, Montana
My dad was a child of the Depression and felt the gnawing hunger of those dark years during a time in his life (early teens) when most boys are growing by leaps and bounds and eating everything they can get their hands on. He always loved to cook for his five children and especially loved to watch us fill ourselves up. He was 2nd Lieutenant in the Signal Corps during World War II, in Italy and France. After the war, he took advantage of the GI Bill and graduated from Michigan State University. Here is his recipe for baked beans from his handwritten notes.
1-53 oz can of Van Camp's Pork and Beans
1-12 oz can Spam
1 cup chopped yellow onions
1 teaspoon DRY mustard
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
2/3 cup sorghum molasses (find in health food stores)
2 (or 3 or 6!) cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1 cup water
Cut Spam into 1/2 in. cubes. Fry in a skillet on medium heat to render off most of the fat (there isn't much), or microwave as you would bacon, but watch very carefully.
Place all ingredients into a bean or soup pot (cast iron is best, but use any sturdy larg pot that you have) and place in a 325 degree oven until the liquid level drops about an inch -that takes about 90 minutes or so. (The bean mixture may seem very watery when you first mix it, but the reduction process in the oven firms it up and much of that liquid evaporates.)
Chopped ham or bacon may be substituted for the Spam; Black molasses or brown sugar may be substituted for the Sorghum. But my Pa frowned on substitutions in
this recipe.
Serves 6-8.
BUTTERNUT SQUASH WITH BROWN RICE
Submitted by Scott G from Mount Blanchard, Ohio
1 butternut squash
2 1/2 cups of brown rice
1 large cup chopped onion
1 cup vegetable broth
1 lb tofu cubed
1 tablespoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1 cup fresh orange juice
Halve the squash and scoop out seeds and fibers
Place the squash cut side down on baking sheet. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes at 350 F., or until easily pierced with a knife but still firm.
In the meantime, prepare rice.
Heat 2 Tbs. oil in a skillet. Add the onion and tofu and sauté until golden.
When the squash is done, scoop out pieces and place in skillet with tofu & onion.
Add remaining ingredients and cook for 10 more minutes.
Serve on a bed of brown rice.
Funeral Potatoes, and such . . .
Submitted by: fMhLisa
I’ve had some requests for my funeral potato recipe, because my funeral potatoes rock! Just be warned, this is a traditional Utah Mormon dish, thus it is a difficult process requiring great skill and patience, only the freshest of ingredients, and yielding a highly nutritious and aesthetically pleasing result.
It is essential that you follow each of these complex steps to the letter!
First, lock your twelve kids in the backyard with a hose and some nerf balls.
Use a mixer to beat together a big tub of sour cream, two cans of cream of mushroom soup, and a brick of cream cheese.
Stir in several big hand-fulls of grated cheddar cheese and two bags of O’Brian Diced (not shredded–too mushy) Hashbrowns.
Dump into a large cake pan.
Sprinkle some more cheese then a bunch of crushed Corn Flakes for the top. (Special K will work in a pinch, it’s a proven fact.)
Bake at 350 until it starts to smell really good and the middle is hot.
Serve with watery ham, fluffy white rolls, green jello, and a big sack of salad with ranch dressing