Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (March 18, 2016)
8 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 2016 Local Internationally inspired food OTEC holds Homemade Goodness By Eileen Driver Having just celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with Irish dishes and looking forward to Easter with American dishes, I started thinking about what food I eat on a regular basis that originat- ed in other countries. I really like Mexican food, Italian food and Chi- nese food. There is some great French food out there as well, but there are still a lot of countries and cuisines out there I have not tried yet. So today we are going to expand our horizons and venture forth to our kitch- ens and explore whole new foods from other countries and see if we can find any new favorites. Let’s start out with some- thing easy. I really enjoy a good stew so since Goulash means stew will head to Hungary for our first trip to new and delicious taste sensations. Besides, it cooks in a crockpot, so how hard can that be? Hungarian Goulash 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 pounds stew meat, cut in 1-inch cubes 1 large onion, sliced 1 ¾ cup beef broth 1 (6 oz) tomato paste 1 clove garlic, minced ½ cup ketchup 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon brown sugar 2 teaspoons salt ¼ teaspoon caraway seed (optional) 2 teaspoons paprika ¼ teaspoon pepper ½ teaspoon dry mustard 1/4 cup cold water 3 tablespoons flour Heat oil in skillet over med-high heat. Cook stew meat in oil about 10 min- utes until browned. Place beef and onions in slow cooker. In medium bowl mix together rest of ingredients except water and flour. Pour mixture over beef and onions in crockpot and stir together. Cook on low 8-10 hours or high 4-5 hours until meat is tender. In small bowl mix flour and cold water together until well mixed. Slowly stir into beef mixture in crockpot. Turn crockpot to high for 30 minutes. Serve over warm egg noodles. I love slow cooked tender beef and this one was very tasty. Now on to Mongolia for a different way to fix beef. This one has oriental fla- vors and also cooks in the crockpot so still really easy to make and oh so tender. Mongolian Beef 2 pounds sirloin steak sliced very thin, 1 medium onion, sliced thin 1 red pepper, sliced ¾ cup soy sauce 1 cup water 1 tablespoon garlic ½ teaspoon ground ginger ½ cup hoisin sauce ½ cup apricot jam 3 tablespoons cornstarch 3 tablespoons cold water Place steak and onions in crockpot. In medium bowl mix soy sauce, water, garlic, ginger, hoisin sauce and apricot jam. Pour over steak and onions. Cook on low 68 hours. Half hour before dinner, mix cornstarch and cold water till well blended. Put crockpot on high, add red peppers and slowly stir in cornstarch mixture. Cook 30 minutes more. Serve over rice. Now my mother will tell you that I have been a picky eater all my life. I just like to know what’s in my food before I eat it. So when I saw this recipe I said Hoisin Sauce? What the heck is that? So I looked for an ingredients list and found this recipe to make it from scratch. Of course once I saw it had peanut butter in it I knew it had to be good. Homemade Hoisin Sauce Makes ½ cup 3 tablespoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon water 2 tablespoons molasses 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter 1 tablespoon rice or white wine vinegar ½ teaspoon garlic pow- der ¼ teaspoon hot sauce 2 tablespoons cornstarch In small sauce pan com- bine all ingredients except cornstarch. Heat over medium heat until peanut butter and molasses have dissolved. Increase heat to me- diumhigh and whisk in cornstarch until no lumps remain. Simmer 12 minutes until slightly thickened. Can be used as mari- nade, dip or stir fry sauce. Stores in refrigerator 12 weeks. As long as we have the apricot jam out let’s try this yummy chicken recipe from another part of the world. Russian Apricot Chicken 1 (12 oz) jar apricot jam 1 bottle Russian salad dressing 2 pounds boneless skin- less chicken breasts ½ onion, chopped Place chicken breasts in slow cooker. Mix apricot jam, Russian dressing and onions together until well blended. Pour over chicken. Cook on low 8 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes. Okay , Russian Dress- ing? Never had it so had to find out what was in it. Homemade Russian Dressing 1 tablespoon finely chopped onion 1 cup mayonnaise ¼ cup chili sauce or ketchup 4 teaspoons bottled horseradish 1 teaspoon hot sauce 1 teaspoon Worcester- shire sauce 1/4 teaspoon sweet paprika Fine sea salt Use a large heavy knife to mince and mash the onion into a paste. Transfer to a small bowl and whisk in the mayon- naise, chili sauce, horse- radish, hot sauce, Worces- tershire, and paprika. Season with salt. Dressing can be prepared ahead and refrigerated, in an airtight container, up to two weeks. Suspect in custody after double shooting at Warm Springs Reservation At approximately 8:45 a.m. on Wednesday, March 16th, the Warm Springs Police Department re- ceived a report of a double shooting at a residence on the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reserva- tion. Inside the residence, officers found two adults who had each been shot multiple times. A 34-year old woman was taken by AirLink helicopter to a hospital in Bend for treatment. She is currently in critical condi- tion. A 35-year old man who was taken by ambulance to Bend for treatment is listed in serious condition. The female victim is a tribal member; the male victim is not. There were two ad- ditional adults in the home who were not physically injured. Approximately 100 yards from the residence, responding officers also found a 24-year old wom- an lying on the ground next to a rifle. She is cur- rently in custody, and, after questioning by the FBI and Warm Springs Police, she will be lodged in the Warm Springs Correctional Facility later today. The suspect is related to at least some of those who were in the home at the time of the shooting. The suspect will likely be transported to Portland on Thursday to make an initial appearance before a federal magistrate. Until formal charges are filed, the FBI will not release the suspect's name. Assistant United States Attorney Scott Kerin will be prosecuting this case. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Do you buy this newspaper off the racks every week? Why not turn a habit into a subscription? See page 11 for how to subscribe. As low as $29.95/year. coffee klatch for members Sunny Werner/ The Baker County Press Robbie Fast of Chaves Consulting attended. BY SUNNY WERNER Sunny@TheBakerCountyPress.com On Tuesday, March 15, the members of Oregon Trail Electric Cooperatives’s (OTEC’s) Board of Directors hosted an open coffee klatch for member consumers at Mad Matilda’s Coffee in Baker City. Historically, Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative was begun by three local Baker residents in 1987. Dick Haynes along with Peggi and Glenn Timm col- laborated to form a cooperative to own and operate the utility locally. To prove community support for their plan, the Timms and Haynes collected one cent each from 700 Baker residents. They then secured a $33,000,000 loan from the Cooperative Finance Corporation. As one of the largest electric cooperatives in Oregon, OTEC serves consumers in Baker, Grant, Harney and Union counties. With over 30,000 meters in all four coun- ties, and a network of overhead and underground lines of nearly 3,000 miles, the current system represents an almost $150,000,000 investment. The OTEC Board of Directors has responsibility for overseeing this large system. Regular Board meetings are held at the OTEC Headquarters on 23rd Street in Baker on the fourth Tuesday of every month at 9:00 a.m. The Open House at Mad Matilda’s was held to offer community members and OTEC voters the opportunity to meet the Board in an informal setting. Board members and senior staff were present. Not many community members took advantage of the opportunity, possibly due to the inclement weather condi- tions on Tuesday. Kathleen Keifer, local photojournalist, was in atten- dance. Sandy Lewis, a member of Baker’s City Council, said she was there to find out more about OTEC, and was particularly interested because her husband had been employed in Portland at Portland General Electric. Roberta “Robbie” Fast made an appearance, explain- ing that, as she worked for Chaves Consulting, “We work closely with OTEC, and we run the voting for them dur- ing their elections.” The next Annual Membership meeting will be Saturday, April 30. The meeting will be held at the Baker County Events Center. Oregon to incentivize movies, TV filming in state Governor Kate Brown will sign Senate Bill 1507, ex- panding the Oregon Production Investment Fund (OPIF). The tax incentive program is designed to increase the capacity for more film, TV, and new media projects in Oregon and encourages productions to operate in rural parts of the state. "Promoting the creative industry Oregon is so well known for has a direct economic impact, generating more than $160 million per year," Governor Brown said. "Now that we are sharpening our tools to promote growth in Or- egon, I challenge the film, video, and new media industry to expand your projects to all corners of the state. Over the last decade, you all have set the bar very high and I look forward to you making an even greater impact here in Oregon for years to come." Since the introduction of the OPIF in 2005, Oregon Film tracked the economic activity directly attributed to the incentive programs as rising from just below $10 million per year, to now over $160 million per year. More than 100 individual projects and hundreds of local com- panies have benefitted from OPIF, generating more than $1 billion in tracked economic activity since its inception.
