Requiescat in Pace -- Colleen McCullough

Colleen McCullough died on 29  January.   She was Australia's best selling author, a neurophysiologist, and for us, a cookbook author.  She was boisterous, witty, and more accomplished than most.  So it was quite shocking and in profoundly bad taste that The Australian began her obituary, not with her remarkable gifts, but by stating she was "plain" and "overweight."  Screw them!

Take a few moments to read our Famous Food Friday on Colleen McCullough from several years ago.

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The Great British Breakfast

There is a famous quote by Somerset Maugham about the British breakfast.  He said, "If you eat well in England, you must eat breakfast three time a day."  We are very fond of eating breakfast for dinner and while we do love pancakes at supper, the traditional British breakfast can top that.  While the actual items on the plate vary, breakfast usually consists of the following:

fried eggs

sausage

black or/and white pudding

bacon

mushrooms

baked beans

potatoes

toast 

tomato

A nice marmalade on the table for extra toast is a must.  In fact, this edition of The Great British Breakfast was published in association with Frank Cooper, who most probably made the marmalade on the table.

Jan Read and Maite Manjon have written a good bit about wine, food and history, but in The Great British Breakfast they take a historical view of the English breakfast.  If there was a prime period of breakfast, it was during the nineteenth century when country houses were flourishing.  During the end of the century and into the very beginnings of the twentieth century, many cookbooks were published specifically for preparing breakfast.  Some ideas for a proper breakfast for gentlemen included a menu of:

Kedgeree of Cod

Devilled Pheasant

Broiled Ham

Mutton Chops

Eggs aux Fine Herbs

While men might never pass on a breakfast option, women were much more particular and required a lighter fare such as:

Broiled Salmon

Roast Larks

Eggs

The Great British Breakfast is one of our favorite kinds of food books.  It has a bit of history, a bit of story, and some recipes all mixed together. While the English loved a scone, a slightly different version existed in Scotland.  While their potato scones featured boiled potatoes there was push for cooks to invest in a patented potato steamer.  Steamed or boiled, potatoes are the key.

Potato Scones
1 lb (450g) potatoes, peeled
1 teaspoon salt
1 oz (30g) butter or margarine
3-4 oz (80-110g) flour

Boil, drain and sieve the potatoes,  Add the salt and butter and knead into a stiff dough with as much flour as it will absorb.  Roll out to about 1/4-inch thick on a floured board, cut into triangles and prick with a fork.  Bake on a hot greased griddle for about five minutes each side until browned.

A far cry from the usual breakfast of  -- coffee!

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OVEN POACHED EGGS !!

A dear friend of mine, posted a video (from Foodstyle.com)about
poaching eggs in the oven and I was quite intrigued. Not only can poaching eggs, in the traditional method, be a disaster be challenging but you can only make 2-3 at a time!!

Here is what I found:

The video said to put about a tablespoon of water in each cup of a regular muffin pan, then crack an egg over the water and bake at 350° for 8 to 10 minutes.........well, that ALMOST worked.

I DID use the scant tablespoon of water, and I DID preheat my electric oven to 350°, but when I tried it using a standard cupcake (muffin) pan, the egg + water filled it to overflowing and took a full 20 minutes to cook, not 8 to 10.

On my second attempt, I had excellent luck using a jumbo size muffin pan (I think they call them Texas size?) and I gave it a light mist of vegetable spray, then put in the scant tablespoon of water and a large egg. I baked them at 350° for exactly 12 minutes (not 8 to 10)
and they lifted right out of the pan with a spoon.....YUM!!!

  A PERFECTLY POACHED EGG !!

 

Whether you are making one or 30, this method (with my tweaks) really does work and it couldn't be easier!!

 

The difference in cooking time (between my oven and the Foodstyle video) COULD be that their oven simply runs hotter than mine or maybe they were using smaller eggs (?)With so many variables, I suggest you do a "test egg" to see how long it takes in your oven before you make a whole pan of these.

 

One other note: When your eggs are done to your liking, take them OUT OF THE PAN right away or they will continue to cook.

 

Don't you just want to

dunk your toast in this one?

 

ENJOY !!!

 



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Food For The Greedy

An oldie goldie on this snowy day.  Not only is this book old, but it is a reprint of an even older version.  Why Nancy Shaw chose to title this cookbook Food for the Greedy is beyond me.  She states in her introduction:

The receipts which I have assembled in this small book are ones which I use regularly in my own home. I think that, at any rate, half of the receipts could not be met with elsewhere, as I have collected them for many years, from many people, in many lands.

They are indeed as strange mix of recipes culled from a lifetime of thinking about food.  The Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English posits that food writing or cookbooks, as one would think about them today, began in the 1920's.  During this period, society ladies began to organize their recipes into collections and they often wrote columns in local papers.  Cambridge is quick to point out that virtually none of these women could actually cook.  This was a trend that continued through the 1930's when Food for the Greedy was originally published.

The very first recipe in the book is for a dish called Potassium Soup.  This hardly sounds like a dish served for some greedy foodie. It also calls for canned okra.  I can honestly say that I have never seen canned okra, but, in my defense, I rarely spend time in the canned vegetable isle of the grocery.  I was so interested that I checked to see if there was still such a thing as canned okra.  To my surprise, there is indeed canned okra and now I feel obliged to buy a can for my own edification, but I digress...

Potassium Soup

Cut up small: 3 carrots, 2 onions, 1 large head of celery, 1/2 can of okra and one kernel of garlic, and place them in 2 quarts of water.  Boil for 17 minutes. Then add one handful of parsley and one green pepper, and boil again for 7 minutes.  Add a large tin of tomatoes and boil up again.  Strain through a sieve to the desired thickness.

American receipt, said to ensure longevity!

The "Okra" can be bought at good class grocers who stock less well known canned goods.

Well, it turns out that "Okra" can be bought at good class grocers who stock less well known canned goods or at Amazon.  Clearly, with the help of Amazon we can all be greedy!

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Death & Co

Death & Co is how I have been feeling lately, but I won't bore you with the details.  But I will try to start posting on a regular basis. 

So Death & Co was a Christmas gift.  Every year my friend, Ann, goes to my Amazon Wish List and buys me cookbooks.  But in the last few years, she has also gone a bit rogue by choosing an extra book she pick on her own.  This year, that book was Death & Co.

When I opened it, I told her that I was, indeed glad to get the book.  It had sold out at many bookstores shortly before Christmas and was quite a find.  Ann said proudly, "I know you like books about offal."   Now here was a dilemma.  Do I say but this is not a book about offal, it's a cocktail book?  Do I ignore the comment?  Does it matter?

Not really.  While Ann loves to eat, she is not a big cook, so it really didn't matter.  "It's a cocktail book," I said and Ann seemed pleased as she will drink cocktails but won't eat offal, so it was  kind of a "win/win" for both of us.

Death & Co is the cocktail book from the bar of the same name.  It has been that IT place to go in New York for grand chefs, hipster dudes, and other mere mortals.  The reason that there is so much respect for this bar is because they know their stuff.  David Kaplan, Alex Day, and Nick Fauchald have committed to paper the aesthetics of the bar. 

In the old days of cocktails, a gin and tonic was a gin and tonic.  Now days, there are hundreds of gins and more than a few different tonics.  (As the owner of over 15 gins and and a handful of tonic options, let me just say how happy I am about the proliferation of independent spirits, but I digress....) Today's world is filled with craft spirits, each having its own taste and flavor.  Add hundreds of new spirits to an equal number of new bitters and mixers and cocktails are exploding every where.

Death & Co like a good cocktail offers up a base of history, a bit of technique, a dash of science and mixes it together into a cocktail book that will stand the test of time.  Yes, fifty years from now, your grandchildren will be thumbing your old copy of Death & Co in their first apartment in Brooklyn...or probably Hoboken, as Brooklyn is already too expensive for you to live there!  The real question is how many of these specific "craft" spirits will still be here fifty years form now or even ten years from now?

My very favorite of all time gin, Veranda, had only a brief run over a decade ago in Vermont.  It was before every other disgruntled business owner opened a distillery.  It was before anyone ever mentioned craft spirits or cared that much about cocktails.  Still, it was sublime.  Then it was gone.  What makes Death & Co such a comprehensive work, its detail to specific ingredients, might just be the death of the book in the future.  So before we lose this wealth of glorious ingredients, get out there and have a drink.  While you may not be able to afford Brooklyn, you may be able to still drink one.

Brooklyn

2 ounces Rittenhouse 100 Rye
3/4 ounce Dolin Dry Vermouth
1/4 ounce Amaro Ciociaro
1 teaspoon Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur

Stir all the ingredients over ice, then strain into a coupe.  No garnish

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PEANUT BUTTER ECLAIR CAKE

The Éclair Cake idea has been around for years. It is a magical dessert that starts with pudding mix and graham crackers, and when it sits in the fridge overnight, something magical happens. The graham cracker layer "softens" and sort of turns into a "cake" layer (people are shocked when they find out its just graham crackers). The whole thing is delicious and I've made it a billion times.  But todays post is a new and simple twist to the Éclair Cake: peanut butter!!

Yes, peanut butter is mixed into the pudding and it takes this simple dessert in a whole different direction. The next time I make this variation, I will use chocolate graham crackers (I only had regular ones this time)....you've gotta give this one a try.  

(2) 3½ ounce instant vanilla pudding
1 cup creamy style peanut butter
8 ounce Cool Whip thawed
3 cups of milk
1 pound of graham crackers

CHOCOLATE FROSTING

6 tablespoons butter (melted)
6 tablespoons boiling water
6 tablespoons baking cocoa
2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place a single layer of graham crackers in the bottom of a 9x13 dish (breaking to fit if necessary). With an electric mixer, beat the instant pudding, peanut butter with 3 cups milk until very smooth (about 2 minutes) then fold in the Cool Whip. Immediately pour half of this mixture over the 1st layer of graham crackers, spreading it out evenly.

Put another layer of graham crackers on top of the pudding and then another layer of pudding mixture. Top second layer of pudding with a final layer of graham crackers.

Cover the dish tightly, with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about an hour before you frost it.

After an hour of chilling, whisk together the melted butter, boiling water, cocoa and vanilla until well blended. Add powdered sugar and whisk until smooth. Immediately pour the frosting over the chilled pudding dessert and gently smooth it out.

Place dessert (uncovered) in fridge for an hour or so (until the frosting feels dry to the touch),then stretch plastic wrap over the pan(stretching it tightly so that it doesn't sag and touch the frosting)or just snap a lid onto the dish.

 Refrigerate overnight (important).

NOTE: After this "cake" has been in the fridge, overnight, it is easy to cut into squares to serve because the graham crackers are soft.

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REDUCED CALORIE SWEET & SOUR PORK

We love sweet and sour pork and chicken (this recipe would work for either), but once you bread and DEEP FRY the meat, you are talking about A TON OF CALORIES. Well, this quick and easy little recipe does away with all of that breading AND all of that DEEP FRYING and it is STILL delicious !!!

MARINADE
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/8 teaspoon sugar
3 teaspoons corn starch
1 teaspoon sesame oil
black pepper to taste

Mix the above ingredients in a large bowl.  Cut  1 1/2 pounds of pork (or chicken) tenderloin into bite size pieces and put in the marinade. Stir to coat all of the pieces, then let sit for 20 minutes.

SAUCE
1 cup chicken broth (not bullion,it's too salty)
2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 SLIGHTLY rounded teaspoons of corn starch
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
pinch of black pepper

Cook all of the sauce ingredients together until it thickens, then turn the heat down to a VERY LOW SIMMER and let it barely bubble while you brown the meat.

In a large skillet (I use my electric fry pan), heat up a tablespoon of vegetable oil and a tablespoon of butter until HOT (I turn my electric skillet all the way up). Add the marinated meat and spread it out so that none of the pieces are on top of each other. Let the meat brown (about 3-4 minutes?), then stir and put a lid on the pan so that everything gets cooked through (you want to get some nice brown crusty color on the edges of the pieces).

Once the meat is 99% done (keep lifting the lid to check for doneness), add the cooked sauce to the meat and keep stirring until everything is well coated. Reduce the heat and cook it all together for about 2 more minutes (watch carefully so the sauce doesn't burn).

Serve over hot rice.  Couldn't be easier!!  

Picky-picky husband is VERY SHY of spicy food, so 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne is just perfect for him. If you like extra heat, just add a little more cayenne when you cook the sauce.

ENJOY !!! 

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Happy, happy...

Christmas, Holidays, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year, Birthday whatever else there is out there...

(Sorry in advance as no one cares about others illnesses but... )Woke up Christmas Eve morning with a bit of a cough.  Escalated from there.  Still a bit puny.  How puny one might ask?  Well pictured above is my Christmas haul of new cookbooks. (Thanks Ann, for checking the Wish List and to Catherine for a surprise.) I finally got around to looking at them today!  Yes, today.

Needless to say, there will be much to write about in the coming year...

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SWEET BACON-CHICKEN BUNDLES

We discovered these delicious little bundles over the holidays. They are quick to fix and are absolutely perfect for potlucks, buffets, or a quick supper. They are totally addicting, so make lots of them!!

SWEET BACON-CHICKEN BUNDLES
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast (we like thighs better)
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
bacon (regular, not thick)

 Preheat oven to 375° and bake the bacon for 10 minutes only. After 10 minutes, drain the bacon and set aside. You will need one half slice of bacon for each chicken bundle.

 Cut the raw chicken into 1" cubes, then wrap half of (a partially cooked) slice of bacon around each cube of raw chicken, and secure it with a toothpick. Next, mix the brown sugar, chili powder, cumin and salt together and roll the bacon-chicken in this mixture. Make sure you get it into all the folds of the bacon.

Place the bundles on a baking screen or cooling rack that you've liberally sprayed with vegetable spray. Set the sprayed rack on a rimmed baking sheet that you have lined with foil (important for easier clean up). If you have any sugar left over, spoon a teaspoon or so on top of each bundle.

Bake for 30-35 minutes. Delicious hot or room temperature. If you like a little heat along with your sweet, add some cayenne to the sugar mixture.

 

ENJOY !!!

 

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