Tasty Recipes from Recipe Wizards

Searching for spicy sauce

Does anyone know how to make the spicy sauce served at the Japanese Kitchen Restaurant in Fresno? It is a colorful, bright, orange-red color and is a very thick sauce that they mix with teriyaki sauce. It makes a very tasty and appealing chicken or beef dish.

– Michelle Wilkinson, Modesto

Peanut butter popcorn

We are trying to revise our recipe for peanut butter popcorn (1 cup sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 cup Karo corn syrup) to make it low sugar. We think that if we had a recipe for sugar-free caramel candy, we could modify it with peanut butter to come close to the original taste. Can anyone help? Thank you very much.

– Don Weber, Citrus Heights

A well-dressed potato salad

I am looking for a recipe from the 1940s. It was in the Betty Crocker children’s cookbook, and it was for a potato salad that included Italian vinegar and oil dressing as an ingredient. I have had no luck in finding it. Thank you.

– Marion Butts, Los Banos

Lemon buttermilk cake

I am looking for a cake recipe from a cooking magazine that I made in July 1996. I think it was called lemon buttermilk cake or lemon butter cream cake. It had three layers, and between the layers was a cream cheese with lemon juice frosting. Fresh berries circled the cake. It was delicious.

Does anyone have this recipe?

– R. Voss, Grass Valley

Italian lemon-drop cookies

Prep time: 25 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Makes 36 to 40 small cookies

Sheila Beswick of Lincoln enjoyed the lemon-drop cookies sold at The Joy of Cookies on the K Street Mall. They were moist on the inside, slightly crunchy on the outside. Most of the recipes she found call for flattening the cookies and dipping them in sugar.

This is an adaptation of a recipe shared by Janice Thornton of Merced. These cookies are not too sweet and would be good with a cup of tea.

This recipe may fill the bill for Beswick.

Note: You may freeze these cookies, but freeze unfrosted. Frost after they are thawed.

INGREDIENTS

Cookies:

½ cup sugar

¼ cup butter

3 large eggs

1½ teaspoons lemon extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1½ teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon lemon peel

Frosting:

3 cups powdered sugar

¼ cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon lemon extract

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. For cookies, cream together the sugar and butter. Add eggs and lemon extract, and beat well. Add flour, baking powder, salt and lemon peel. The dough should be soft and sticky.

With a small cookie scoop, drop dough onto a slightly greased cookie sheet or baking stone, spacing them about 2 inches apart.

Bake for about 12 to 15 minutes or until firm and lightly browned. Remove cookies from cookie sheet. Cool completely on wire racks.

For frosting, combine powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon extract, and mix until smooth. Frost the tops of each cookie. Once frosting has dried, they can be stacked. Store in an airtight container.

Per cookie based on 36 cookies: 70 cal.; 1 g pro.; 12 g carb.; 2 g fat (1 sat., 1 monounsat., 0 polyunsat.); 21 mg chol.; 23 mg sod.; 0 g fiber; 7 g sugar; 23 percent calories from fat.

Sand tarts

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cook time: 20 minutes

Makes about 3 dozen

Linda Hennessy of Sacramento was looking for a cookie recipe that her mother used to make in the 1960s. They were balls, called sand tarts, that included walnuts and were rolled in powdered sugar after being baked.

Betsy Katz of Roseville shares her recipe, which her mother used to make and Katz now makes. Her family loves these cookies, so she doubles the recipe. She says they freeze well.

Note: Prep time does not include 4-hour chill time for the dough.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons water

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Powdered sugar

INSTRUCTIONS

Cream butter and granulated sugar. Add water and vanilla, and mix well. Blend in flour and walnuts or pecans. Chill dough for 4 hours. Shape into balls and bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 325 degrees for about 20 minutes. Remove from pan, cool slightly. Roll balls in powdered sugar.

Per cookie: 105 cal.; 2 g pro.; 9 g carb.; 7 g fat (3 sat., 2 monounsat., 2 polyunsat.); 14 mg chol.; 1 mg sod.; 0 g fiber; 3 g sugar; 60 percent calories from fat.

A joyous lemon drop

The Joy of Cookies in the K Street Mall sold a lemon- drop cookie that was moist on the inside and kind of crunchy on the outside. Most of the recipes that I can find call for you to flatten the cookie and dip it in sugar. Does anyone have a recipe that is more like those served at Joy of Cookies?

– Sheila Beswick, Lincoln

Broken glass torte, anyone?

In the early 1960s, I did a lot of entertaining and made a dessert called broken glass torte. It was made with several flavors of Jell-O, made with less water than called for. They were cut up and folded into a fluffy sauce made of whipping cream and pineapple juice. It was then chilled in a tube pan coated with vanilla wafer crumbs. When it was served, the slices were thin enough to let some light through the Jell-O. It was very pretty. Does anyone have this recipe? Thank you.

– Pat Ronten, Rancho Cordova

Grilled polenta

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 35 minutes

Serves 4

Though Lennie Nickels-Carlson moved from Sacramento to Honolulu about five years ago, she never misses an issue of The Bee’s Food & Wine section. She loved the grilled polenta topped with tomato ragu served at Ettore’s European Bakery & Restaurant in Sacramento and was hoping for its recipe or one similar.

Although we haven’t received Ettore’s recipe, Connie Lane of Penn Valley shares this recipe for the grilled polenta. She suggests using your favorite marinara recipe or jarred marinara sauce to top the polenta.

Note: The prep time does not include the 3- to 24-hour chill time for the cornmeal mix before it is grilled.

INGREDIENTS

1 2/3 cups water

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cornmeal (coarse-ground, package says “polenta” on it)

1 cup cold water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon olive oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Line a 9-inch round baking pan with foil, extending foil over edges. Grease foil and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, bring 1 2/3 cup water, butter, brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together cornmeal, 1 cup cold water and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Slowly add moistened cornmeal mix to boiling water, stirring constantly. Cook and stir just until mixture returns to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Cook uncovered about 10 minutes or until mixture is very thick, stirring occasionally.

Evenly spread the cornmeal mixture into prepared pan. Cool and refrigerate for 3 hours or up to 24 hours.

Using foil, lift cornmeal mix from pan and gently cut into eight wedges. Generously brush wedges with olive oil and grill directly over medium-hot coals for about 10 to 15 minutes or until golden, turning occasionally.

To serve, lay two grilled wedges on a plate and cover with your favorite marinara sauce.

Per serving without marinara sauce: 178 cal.; 2 g pro.; 27 g carb.; 6 g fat (2 sat., 3 monounsat., 1 polyunsat.); 8 mg chol.; 583 mg sod.; 1 g fiber; 3 g sugar; 32 percent calories from fat.

Garlic blue cheese soup

Prep time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 30 minutes

Serves 6

Gail Nelson of Sacramento cut out a soup recipe from The Bee some time ago that contained a lot of garlic and blue cheese, among other ingredients. She lost the recipe and was hoping we could track it down. We had another reader who was also looking for this recipe.

This is the recipe our readers were looking for. It comes from Cris McKone, a cooking instructor at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons olive oil

30 whole cloves of garlic (about 3 heads), peeled

3/4 cup dry sherry

1/2 cup brandy

5 Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced

1 quart chicken stock

2 teaspoons hot pepper sauce such as Tabasco

2 cups heavy whipping cream

6 ounces Gorgonzola or other blue cheese

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon chopped chives

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the whole garlic cloves to the pan, decrease the heat to low and cook until cloves are tender, about 10 to 15 minutes. Slowly and carefully add the sherry and brandy, slowly increase the heat to high and reduce the liquid by half, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the diced potatoes and chicken stock, and cook until the potatoes are tender.

Transfer the soup to a large bowl and purée in batches in a blender, then return the soup to the pan. Add the hot pepper sauce and cream, and cook over low heat until the cream almost comes to a boil. Whisk about 4 ounces of the cheese into the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Ladle the soup into soup bowls and garnish with the remaining blue cheese and chives. Serve hot.

Per serving: 577 cal.; 13 g pro.; 32 g carb.; 38 g fat (25 sat., 11 monounsat., 2 polyunsat.); 132 mg chol.; 862 mg sod.; 2 g fiber; 5 g sugar; 59 percent calories from fat.

HOW TO CONTACT THE MAILBOX

If you have recipes in reply to Mailbox reader requests, or questions or comments, write to: Mailbox, c/o Taste, The Sacramento Bee, P.O. Box 15779, Sacramento, CA 95852. You also can e-mail twatson@sacbee.com or fax (916-556-5625). Please include your full name, your city and phone number.