New dishes found among readers' recipe files

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The 146th Annual SEMO District Fair is just about ready to open, and area cooks are getting geared up for the Midwest Food and Poultry Recipe Contest.

The recipe contest will be take place at 2 p.m. Saturday in the R&R Tent. I will be helping to judge the entries of chicken appetizers or main dishes brought in for the contest. Prizes will be awarded to the top three winners with the first prize being $100. It promises to be a great time for all and tasty, too.

The contest guidelines are available from the fair board office, in the fair booklet or you can contact me.

I hope many of you will be able to participate. We have a great showing of great chicken foods and recipes.

This week we will clean up our files with some recipes that I have had for several weeks. Most of them are answers to recent responses from readers.

Jodi Thompson from Jackson, Mo., found a recipe in a magazine for coleslaw she just loves. She shared the recipe as well as a few of the comments the magazine had to offer.

The problem with many coleslaw recipes is that after sitting for a while, a sloppy puddle of liquid forms in the bottom of the bowl. According to the food scientists at Cook's Illustrated Magazine, this is the result of water leaching out of the sliced cabbage, and they devised the following method to eliminate the problem. This recipe is from "The Best Recipe" by the editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine.

The Best Creamy Coleslaw

1/2 medium head (about 1 pound) red or green cabbage, cored and thinly sliced

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 small onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

2 teaspoons caraway seeds, optional

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Toss the cabbage, carrot, and salt in a colander and let drain in the sink or 1 to 4 hours. Rinse thoroughly with water, press gently to drain, and pat dry with paper towels. Toss with the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve. Serves 4 to 6.

An anonymous reader from Cape Girardeau has this delicious carrot recipe for you.

Piccadilly Cafeteria's Carrot Soufflé

1 1/4-pounds peeled carrots

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 tablespoons flour

3 eggs, well-beaten with electric mixer

1/4 pound (1 stick) margarine, at room temperature

Powdered sugar, for garnish

Steam or boil carrots until very soft. Drain well. Transfer to a large mixer bowl. While carrots are warm, add sugar, baking powder and vanilla. Beat with mixer until smooth. Add flour and mix well. Add whipped eggs and beat well. Add margarine and blend well. Pour mixture into a 2-quart baking dish.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until top is light golden brown. Sprinkle lightly with powdered sugar over top before serving.

Betty of Cape Girardeau has made this next carrot recipe many times and instead of a casserole, she makes in a ring mold and fills the middle with baby peas. It is not only tasty but very pretty, too.

Golden Carrot Ring with Peas

2 pounds carrots

1 small onion, chopped

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) margarine

1/4 cup chopped parsley, optional

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 packages frozen peas, cooked

Scrape and quarter carrots. Cook in boiling water 20 minutes. Mash after draining. Sauté onion in butter until soft. Stir into carrots with parsley, salt, and pepper. Grease ring mold or casserole dish. Put in carrot mixture.

Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until carrots pull away from side.

Invert ring mold onto serving platter and spoon cooked peas into center.

Margie VanWinkle of Cape Girardeau has her own version of the famous KFC coleslaw we have talked about the past few weeks.

Colonial Sanders' Slaw

1 cup Miracle Whip

1/4 cup tarragon vinegar

1 cup oil

3/4 cup sugar

Pinch salt

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

Whip these ingredients until smooth. Pour over shredded medium head of cabbage and finely shredded small carrot. Chill until ready to serve.

My friend Joan wanted me to try this next recipe she saw on the Sara Molten Cooking Live show on the Food TV channel. It just sounds wonderful but Joan knew we didn't drink and I would not have wine or sherry at my house, so along with the recipe she gave me the sherry needed to make the recipe. Now that is really sharing.

Blueberry Onion Sauced Pork Tenderloin

3/4 to 1 pound pork tenderloin

2 tablespoons butter

2 medium onions, sliced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup port wine or sweet sherry

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup quartered cherry tomatoes

Preheat broiler. Broil pork turning occasionally, about 20 minutes. Remove to platter to keep warm. In a large skillet melt butter. Add onions, salt and pepper. Cook until golden, about 10 minutes. Add sugar and cook until caramelized, about 3 minutes. Add wine, vinegar, blueberries and tomatoes.

Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Thinly slice pork and serve with sauce.

Margie VanWinkle of Cape Girardeau makes a very refreshing summer dessert or salad that she would like to pass along to you. I made the recipe and had a hard time finding the big yellow butter mints. But I finally did find them in the gift shop area of Bob Evan's Restaurant in Cape. I used two packages and it was very good.

Lime Butter Mint Gelatin Salad

1 (20 ounce) can crushed pineapple, drained, reserving 1 cup liquid

2 cups miniature marshmallows

1 (3 ounce) package lime gelatin

Frozen whipped topping, thawed

1 package light yellow butter mints

Prepare gelatin as package directs using 1 cup pineapple juice in place of the 1 cup cool water. Put mixture in refrigerator until starting to set up.

Add drained pineapple and marshmallows. Return to refrigerator until slightly thickened. Place butter mints in a heavy plastic bag and crush being careful not to break the bag open. Mix the crushed butter mints in with the carton of whipped topping. Fold this mixture into the slightly thickened gelatin and pour into a pretty bowl and refrigerate until firm.

We have two requests this week for you to think about and try to help these readers find the recipes they are looking for.

The first is for a soup that Judy had while visiting Mexico and it was called Green Soup. She could not pick up on the ingredients but would love to be able to make it at home.

The second is for a dessert that a patron of the Cape Senior Center had recently at their Sunday Family Style dinner. It was a custard and had bananas and blueberries in it. She said it was just wonderful and would love to have the recipe. We are not sure who brought it, but we will keep trying.

Have a great time at the SEMO Fair and come and see us at the R&R Tent at 2 p.m. on Saturday. It should be a great time and happy cooking.

Susan McClanahan is administrator at the Cape Girardeau Senior Center. Send recipes or requests to her at smcclanahan@semissourian.com or by mail to Recipe Swap; P.O. Box 699; Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63702-0699.