10-minute Low-Stress Start-to-Finish Fish Dinner

With long work days and short evenings, a low-stress quick dinner was in order. Stew and fish are the two staples for such things - stew when there are 15 extra minutes in the morning; fish when you want to spend no more than 15 minutes at night. The fish dinner shown (with wax beans to round things out) was fried on the griddle in Mangalitsa rib fat 3 minutes on the first side and two on the second and served with a sauce made of yogurt, jerk seasoning, and a bit of extra garlic. From start to finish, including plating, it took just under 10 minutes.

1966 WDEC - Ohio

Through the "N" states finally and at Ohio in the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery "American Cookery" chapter. Of the now-customary hyperbolic introductory phrases, my favorite is "spawner of Presidents." But let's not dwell on that image (image above of Clear Fork Gorge). To the line-up:

Liederkranz Appetizer Cheese Balls - I couldn't make this correctly if I wanted to, because Liederkranz is an extinct cheese (originally developed by the inventor of Velveeta). Maybe I'll try it using close-cousin cheese Limburger as a sort of memorial.
Koenigsberger Klops - A Germanic specialty I'd never heard of before, meatballs with caper sauce. I'll try it.
Pork, Applesauce, and Kraut Casserole - nothing particularly special, but a bit unusual with tomatoes and horseradish also added, and it seems like a nice weeknight dinner.
Summer-Squash Casserole - Summer squash baked with tomato and basil. Good, but not for February.
Squash Pancakes - Summer squash grated, mixed with egg and seasonings, and fried. Ditto.
Brandied Apple Fritters - Apples marinated in brandy, battered, and fried. I should have leftover fat from making the Bismarks (below); if so, why not?
Black-Walnut Meringue - A walnut meringue pie. Sounds interesting
Buckeye Maple-Syrup Cake - White cake sweetened with maple syrup and with a maple syrup frosting. If it was a spice cake, or if there weren't other sweets to try, I might give it a go, but as it is I'll probably pass.
Bismarks - One more German loan, these are filled jelly donuts more famously known by the name that supposedly embarrassed Kennedy - Berliners. I've never made filled donuts and I have a lot of Mangalitsa lard, so I think I'll try it, although it may have to wait until my schedule clears a bit because the recipe looks like it takes some time and is rather involved.

So! A lot to offer from the state I will always have a fondness for if only because in addition to Presidents, it spawned Devo.

Fabrique Delices Cured Duck Sausage

Duck sausage is another one of those things one thinks would be a natural for the Whole Foods, but they don't have any at mine. So I mail ordered this and was glad I did.

UPDATE:  Got a nice note from Jean-Baptiste at Fabrique Delices:

As far as I know, the reason why you will not see it at Whole Foods is because it has nitrates. The funny thing is that nitrates have been around for centuries; the Romans/Greeks/Egyptians used it as a "natural" preservative! :-)

Just a couple of weeks ago, Lane passed on Whole Foods' somewhat astonishing "Unacceptable Ingredients for Food" list. I've been meaning to ask him to post a little rant about it, but I'll just pass the link along for individuals' enjoyment.

Cooking Notes: None required, although it would be great diced and browned and thrown on top of a salad as a garnish or used as a topping for pizza. Recommend slicing it fairly thin, almost like pepperoni.

Eating Notes: Big chunks of fat alternating with the duck meat give this a great texture, especially when sliced thin so that the little pockets of fat are noticeable on your tongue. The fat melts a bit as you chew the fairly dense sausage, giving textural interest as well.

Availability: Widely available on the Internet. I got mine with my order from Baldor Specialty Foods. Their prices are competitive if you're doing a big order; if you're just ordering a little, you may do better looking around for someone with deals on shipping.

1966 WDEC - North Dakota - Wild Rice Stuffing

Made it as a side for the leftover braised rabbit.

Wild Rice Stuffing
(to make about 7 cups)
Butter
2 cups wild rice
1 lg onion, minced
1 cup finely diced celery
4 cups chicken broth
1/4 tsp monosodium glutamate (MSG)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 3-oz can chopped mushrooms, drained
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp poultry seasoning

Put 1/3 cup butter in saucepan with rice. Brown rice lightly; add onion and celery and cook 2  - 3 minutes. Stir in broth and MSG. Cover; simmer 30 minutes. Saute walnuts and mushrooms lightly in 1 tablespoon of butter. Add with remiaining ingredients to first mixture.

Cooking Notes: Cut the recipe to one quarter. Substitutes included 1/2 tsp celery seed plus a dash of salt in the place of both the celery salt and celery; 1 oz fresh mushrooms instead of canned; Jamaican pork seasoning instead of poultry seasoning. The rice was still hard after 30 minutes so I cooked it for 45; it was still al dente and could have gone another 15 minutes easily. All else to spec.

And a minor rant - how you're supposed to tell that you've "lightly browned" dark brown wild rice is beyond me; I just sauteed it until it was popping nicely and added the onion then.

Eating Notes: A nice example of the genre, with a balanced, smooth flavor highlighted by the nutty taste and slight crunch of both the walnuts and the rice. Although letting it go another 10 or 15 minutes wouldn't have hurt it any.

Next Up: I do want to make the Finnish Barley Pudding but don't know when I'll have the time, so it's onward to Ohio.

Shh....don't tell our Paleo pals, but....

After making the lackluster sweet potato biscuits from the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, I had a craving for real biscuits, done right. Used the Joy of Cooking white (1980s) edition basic buttermilk biscuit recipe using Mangalitsa lard. Then, rather than baking the biscuits, I fried them in a ton of bacon grease on the griddle - five minutes on each side. The result was so decadent they tasted more like unsweetened doughnuts than biscuits. If I'm going to stress my system with a bit of gluten, this is the way to go.

1966 WDEC - South Dakota - Braised Rabbit

Braised Rabbit
(to serve 6)
1-1/2 cups cider vinegar
1 onion, sliced
1 Tbsp dry mustard
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 rabbits, disjointed
1-1/2 cups flour
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp sugar
clear bacon fat

This dish can be cooked on the stove or in the oven.

Mix vinegar, onion, mustard, salt and pepper. Pour over pieces of rabbit in large bowl. Let stand for 1 hour, turning rabbit occasionally. Refrigerate for serveral hours. Drain (reserving onions for another use).  

If planning to use the oven, preheat to 250F. Put 3 cups water on stove to boil. Mix 1 cup flour with nutmeg and sugar in a paper bag. Add rabbit, a few pieces at a time. Shake well to coat rabbit with flour. Brown rabbit in batches in hot bacon fat in a large iron skillet. (Picture shows it cooking in about 1 cup fat)
Remove rabbit; pour off all but 1/2 cup fat. Stir in 1/2 cup flour. Gradually stir in 3 cups boiling water. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Arrange pieces of rabbit in gravy; cover and simmer on top of range or in oven until tender, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. (Picture shows it just out of the oven)

Cooking Notes: Aside from using a zipper bag to marinate the rabbit and to coat it, using masa instead of wheat flour, using only one rabbit, and doubling the nutmeg, I followed the directions as written. Also, iron skillets in 1966 must have been much bigger than what we now use - there was no way I could put even one rabbit's pieces into a single skillet, so I used a second casserole. Having extra gravy meant there was still plenty.

Eating Notes: Wonderful comfort food. The rabbit was tender and had just a hint of game-y flavor to it, which was balanced by the richness of the fatty gravy. Doubling the nutmeg was the right thing to do, as the spice added just a hint of upper palate nose for an additional (and pleasant) dimension.

1966 WDEC - North Dakota - Baked Spareribs

This was too odd not to try.

Baked Spareribs
(serves 2)
2 racks of fresh spareribs
2 tart apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1/2 cup pitted prunes
1 cup water
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350F. Leave spareribs in one piece. Cover 1 rack of spareribs with apples and prunes. Cover with the second rack of spareribs. Skewer or sew ribs together. Put filled ribs in shallow baking pan. Add water. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for 1-1/2 hours. Remove skewer or thread and cut ribs into pieces. Serve 1 pound of spareribs for each portion.

Cooking Notes: I didn't have any fresh apples, so used all dried fruit and put in extra water. But the real challenge was with the "skewer or sew" part of the recipe. Not having a meat needle, I tried the "Skewer" option. The result was a contorted piece of modern art that would not lie flat in the pan for love or money and barely contained the fruit. Out came the skewers. I reassembled the sandwich and ended up lashing it together as shown.

The ribs were small (each was just under 3/4 lb) and cooked completely in an hour. Despite using more water, it had completely evaporated by then. Picture shows them just out of the oven.

Eating Notes: The ribs themselves were fine, but nothing to write home about - and maybe that was the whole point. Cooking ribs at 350F for an hour and a half is a pretty crappy way to treat them by modern standards, and doing that without drying them out is a challenge. But many of the cookbooks I have from that era call for similar harsh cooking measures and incorporate all kinds of tricks to keep the food palatable. In this case, the fruit and (before it evaporated) water did keep the ribs reasonably moist while imparting a very faint fruit taste. With fresh apples I imagine the fruit taste would have been more pronounced. We also liked the taste of the dried fruit after having been baked with the ribs.

While this recipe doesn't really bear repeating, the dried fruit cooked in fat concept is intriguing. Chopped dried fruit stuffed under the skin of a fowl of some type might be very good.

1966 WDEC - North Dakota

After quickly passing through North Carolina I'm finally in the last "N" state in the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, North Dakota. A couple of oddities from the place where "the 13-striped flickertail squirrel scampers and wild birds sing" that I'll be trying (picture is of the Theodore Roosevelt Wilderness). The line-up:

Baked Spareribs: Spareribs used to make a sandwich around fruit and then baked. So weird I'll try it.
Squaw Dish: Scrambled eggs with bacon and corn. Pass.
Braised Rabbit: Before you braise it, you cook it in so much lard you "pour off all but 1/2 cup." I cannot resist.
Wild-Rice Stuffing: Not intended for the rabbit; this seems like a perfectly reasonable Rice-a-Roni type dish. Nothing I haven't had before, but if I'm in the mood for wild rice I may try it.
Whole Glazed Squash: Baked squash covered in a brown sugar syrup and served with ham. While I'm sure a lot of people would like it, it's too sweet for me.
Trapper's Sweet Bannock: A simple raisin quick bread designed for cook-outs. I'll pass.
Finnish Barley Pudding: What it says. Nothing extraordinary, but I haven't had barley in a while and I like baked puddings, so I'll put it on the list.
Baked Honey Custard: A simple custard with honey and nutmeg. Nothing new and I'll pass.
Wild Chokeberry Jam: If I had wild chokeberries, I'd try it for sure. But I don't, so...

...it's off to try the stuff I can do.

1966 WDEC - North Carolina - Sweet-Potato Biscuits

Potentially good use for a leftover baked sweet potato that ended up looking better than it tasted.

Sweet-Potato Biscuits
(makes about 10 2" biscuits)
1 small baked sweet potato
2 Tbsp shortening lard
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 - 3 Tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 400F. Peel and dice sweet potato. Cut potato and shortening into flour sifted with baking powder and salt; add milk and stir until mixed. Turn onto floured board and knead gently. Roll to 1/2" thickness and cut. Bake on greased cookie sheet about 12 minutes.

Cooking Notes: Made everything to spec, but I wonder if the instruction to cut the potato into the flour means they are thinking your sweet potato will be so well cooked it will just mash into the batter. This seems to conflict with the instruction to dice it, though. In any event, my sweet potato was dense enough to go into the biscuits as diced inclusions rather than mash.

Eating Notes: Decidedly meh. The biscuits were so-so and the sweet potato really didn't add anything to it beyond cosmetics. Oh, well, a fail every now and again makes the successes seem better.

1966 WDEC - North Carolina

Next state in the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery is North Carolina, home of "Hatteras and Fear, capes of dread on sands of joy." Picture of the view from Fisher Peak is from the western side of the state, "alive in ballads and fingertip arts." Not too much in terms of cooking for me, though, as the line-up shows.

Steamed Oysters: Instructions, not really a recipe, and when I do have oysters I prefer them raw.
Rockfish Muddle: Five pounds rockfish, a pound of salt pork, a can of tomatoes and a dozen eggs to serve 10. There's something perversely interesting about it, but it doesn't look like it would scale down well. I may come back to it some time, though.
Pine-Bark Stew: Another fish stew, this time with half the fish and twice the tomatoes and serving six. The recipe doesn't look terribly interesting and especially as I'm semi-avoiding tomatoes because of my rosacea, I'll pass.
Miss Mollie's Boiled Pot: No idea who Miss Mollie is, but she is boiling some ham with cabbage and corn and adding dumplings to serve 8. It looks like a perfectly reasonable ham and cabbage soup, and the idea of serving whole ears of corn (which is what is called for) in a soup is amusing, but again I'll pass.
Sweet Potato Biscuits: A small batch of biscuits using a leftover baked sweet potato. I happen to have a leftover baked sweet potato, so I'll try it.
Carolina Fruitcake: I do want to make a fruitcake some time, but this isn't the one for me, with everything being candied it would be too much of a sugar overload. It also makes four 9" x 15" x 3" "loaves." Yikes.

So it looks like I'll be through this state in no time. Now, to the kitchen.

1966 WDEC - New Jersey - Broiled Flounder Fillets with Puffed Cheese Sauce

Working long hours and needing something fast; remembered that this Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery fish was still to be tried.

Broiled Flounder Fillets with Puffy Cheese Sauce
(to serve 4)
1-1/2 lb flounder fillets
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Dash of cayenne
2 Tbsp chopped pickle
1 Tbsp chopped parsley
1/3 cup grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1 egg white
Pimientos

Wipe fish with damp cloth and put on greased broiler rack. Broil under medium heat 8 to 12 minutes or until just barely done. Remove. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Mix mayonnaise, cayenne, pickle, parsley and cheese. Beat egg white until stiff and fold into dressing. Spread on the fish; broil 5 minutes or until sauce is puffed. Garnish with strips of pimiento. Picture shows it puffed just before coming out of the oven.

Cooking Notes: I substituted whitefish fillets, so I broiled them a scant 4 minutes for the first broil. My broiler only has High and Low settings, so I used Low. I used capers instead of chopped pickle, and made my mayonnaise with half ghee and half olive oil. Because it was a bit thin, I used only 1/3 cup for the sauce.

Eating Notes: Earlier I'd been wary of pairing this with whitefish, on the theory that it would be too delicate for the cheddar cheese. The worry was unwarranted, as the cheese, while adding flavor, was kept at a modest enough level that it was well balanced texturally by the egg whites and in flavor by the mayonnaise sauce. Using half ghee/half olive oil, while creating a thinner sauce (my fault because I didn't bother to melt the ghee first) made a reasonably neutral tasting mayonnaise that was not too olive-y. Everyone in the family approved, including Kitchen God Alex, who usually shows zero interest in our food.

1966 WDEC - New York - Thousand Island Dressing

Making a salad, and salads need dressing, so why not?

Thousand-Island Dressing
(To make about 2 cups)
1 cup mayonnaise
Juice of 1/2 orange
Juice of 1/2 lemonn
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1 pimiento, chopped
2 tsp chopped parsley
1/4 cup chili sauce
1 hard-cooked egg, peeled and chopped

Combine all ingredients and blend well. Chill thoroughly before serving.

Cooking Notes: The mayonnaise was made with extra-virgin olive oil, which really was quite strong for the dressing but was ok when on the salad. One-half teaspoon of orange extract stood in for the orange juice, and as I had no spring onions on hand, I used a white onion. The inclusion-to-mayonnaise ratio was a little skewed because I used only 3/4 cup of mayonnaise and kept the rest of the ingredients as called for.

Eating Notes: While in the future I would use a milder oil, this was quite good. I was pleasantly surprised there was no sugar in the recipe, as the Thousand Island dressing of my youth was a sweet ketchup-y affair. This, with the chili sauce (I used my own) and fresh mayonnaise, was much more savory and interesting. The tomato additions were obvious but didn't mask the taste of the greens or salad inclusions. Made with a milder oil, I think this would go quite well on fish as well as on almost any summer veggies or greens.

Next up: North Carolina

1966 WDEC - New York - Sherry Jelly

I've been meaning to make wine jelly forever, so it seemed like a good time

Sherry Jelly
(to make 6 to 8 servings)
2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water
1 cup boiling water
2/3 cups sugar
Dash of salt

Juice of 1 orange
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cups sherry wine

Soften gelatin in cold water for 5 minutes. Add boiling water to gelatin and stir until dissolved. Add sugar and salt; stir and cool. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour into a 5 - 6 cup mold. Chill until firm.

Cooking Notes: As usual, I cut the recipe itself in half and further cut back the sugar (to 1/4 cup). Not having any oranges on hand, I used a teaspoon of orange extract as a substitute. The recipe didn't specify, so I used dry sherry. I was very happy to find I had a grape-pattern mold on hand. Unfortunately it was a bit big, which wasn't really a problem except that the jelly fell far enough when I unmolded it that it split, as shown in the picture. Our half batch made plenty for two nights of desserts for us both (nice to have someone to eat with again).

Eating Notes: The aroma from this was incredible - a heady mix of orange and sherry. I think the extract may have been responsible and don't know if it would have smelled so good if I had used the orange juice called for. The sweet/wine balance was very nice, and dry sherry also seemed to have been the right call. But the real surprise was the texture. It was perfect jelly, cutting like glass and quivering just like it should, but melting in the mouth with only the gentlest pressure from the tongue. Not at all like the gelatin desserts I'm used to that are so firmly set you need to squish it through your teeth for it to liquefy. Update: when we had leftovers 2 days later, the jelly was much firmer, even though it had been stored in an airtight container. Never new freshness mattered so much.

Courtney's Easy Grits-cakes

With leftover grits and an urge for pancakes, the result was natural.

Courtney's Easy Grits-cakes
(to make 6; may be scaled)
1 cup cooked grits
1 egg
1/8 tsp (approx) fresh-ground nutmeg
2 Tbsp buttermilk

Combine all ingredients, mixing well to combine. Cook, keeping pancake size small. Flip when bubbles break and stay open. Cook lightly on other side. Keep warm until ready to serve. Serve with syrup if desired.

Cooking Notes: Since the grits were already made with salt and butter, no additional was needed. The egg gave it body and made a batter with the consistency shown below.

Grits are naturally savory - almost cheesy - so I had to think a bit to get the pancake recipe to where they would work with syrup over them. The nutmeg was the answer - almost enough to balance the cheesy taste without eliminating it. It still needed a bit more acid, so I put in the buttermilk. Two tablespoons was enough to adjust the flavor without substantially changing the consistency of the batter.

I tried different sizes on the griddle - as can be seen in the picture above, smaller is better. The larger ones broke when flipped and became more of a grits-y mess than anything else. I shoved them in the middle when plating the stack.

Eating Notes: A success. Despite being without either flour or leavening agents, they had a satisfying heft and mouth feel. The nutmeg/buttermilk additions held up to the cooking, giving the resulting pancakes a neutral flavor that went well with maple syrup and would have been fine with a savory sauce. So, another gluten-free pancake option for those weekday mornings.

1966 WDEC - New York - Baked Apple Tapioca

An inviting recipe for a cold, rainy winter's day.

Baked Apple Tapioca
(to serve 4 - 6)
1/2 cup minute tapioca
1-1/4 cups boiling water
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp groun d cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup lemon juice
4 cups sliced peeled tart apples

Preheat oven to 350F. Add tapioca to boiling water. Stir in sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is clear and thick. Stir in cinnamon, salt, and lemon juice. Put apples in greased shallow baking dish. Pour tapioca mixture over. Bake 30 minutes or until top is slightly browned and apples are tender. Serve hot or cold with cream, if desired.

Cooking Notes: I used 1/2 a Rome apple, which was what was on hand, and cut the sauce down by 1/2.. Because the Rome sweeter than a true tart apple, I cut the sugar down to a tablespoon and a half and used san on tou (Japanese light brown sugar) instead of white sugar. I didn't peel the apple, just as a personal preference, because having the skin seemed like a good idea. My cupboard had only had pearl tapioca, and it seemed silly to buy a whole package of instant tapioca just to use 1/6 of a cup. So I measured the tapioca needed into my spice grinder (coffeee grinder) to see if I could pulverize it into minute tapioca. Results, as shown below, were mixed.

After a good amount of grinding there was powder, but still a lot of granules. That led to the finished product having little "bubbles" of tapioca, as shown in the picture below.

I ate a half hot at breakfast and saved the rest, chilling it in the fridge. After having been chilled for a while, the tapioca had a much more uniform consistency, except for the "bubbles," which had turned into unappealing white pustules. In the future, I'll either keep on grinding or just go out and buy some instant.

Eating Notes: Hot this was meh, but with possibilities. The lemon and cinnamon both were one-dimensional and loud, crowding out all the other flavors. Using a more complex spice blend and maybe an orange/lemon combination or simply cutting back the lemon would have helped, I think.

Served cold the next day, it was much better. When cold the lemon especially was more muted, and having sat overnight allowed the apple taste to meld through the tapioca liquid. The consistency of the tapioca was smooth and silky - and aside from looking awful, the little tapioca beads didn't detract.

DC Haiti Benefit Friday Evening

This Friday, January 22, one of the U Street area’s popular restaurant/bars, Local 16, and Do Good, Feel Good DC (DGFG), a charity formed by young people hoping to help out in Haiti (and maybe beyond?), will host “Friday for Haiti” to benefit Oxfam America’s Haitian Earthquake Response Fund. A $25 donation gets you free beer (until it runs out) and an appetizer buffet, with all proceeds going to Oxfam America. The promoters report that the cause is especially personal to DGFG because one of the group's members is Haitian and has family there. The DGFG website has more information and registration instructions.

I don't personally know any of the members of this group, but they look legit, and I applaud them for organizing to do this. I have been to Local 16; it's got a nice space to mingle and is easy to get to by Metro. Consider it if you're in the DC area and looking for something to do on Friday night. The event runs from 6:30 - 10:30.

Food Porn Fix - Pickled Sashimi Mackerel

There are many poorer excuses for an easy bachelor's meal. I thought the green sheet on the top was decorative until I went to pull it up. No. It's a single sheet of some sort of amazing seaweed. It is just as beautiful sliced.

Shown here served with some cooked dressing made from a Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery recipe. The rich slightly sweet/spicy sauce was a surprisingly nice foil for the pickled fish.

1966 WDEC - New York - Waldorf Salad

Made this more because of the "boiled dressing" called for than anything else. Since I'm cooking for one, it also let me use half an apple and save the other half for the baked tapioca apple dish later.

Waldorf Salad
4 unpeeled red eating apples, cored and diced
1 cup diced celery
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Small amount boiled dressing or mayonnaise

Sprinkle apples with lemon juice to prevent darkening. Mix with celery and walnuts and a little boiled dressing or mayonnaise (just enough to barely coat). Chill. Serve in lettuce cups.

Cooking Notes: Half a Rome apple, in keeping with the New York theme, 1/4 cup celery and 1/8 cup chopped walnuts made the single serving shown at the top of the post. About a tablespoon of cooked dressing was enough to coat it. I didn't have any lettuce so it was served simply on a plate.

Eating Notes: The dish was surprisingly light and fresh, and a lot less heavy than the mayonnaise-dressed Waldorf salads I've had before. I'm blogging the dressing separately because it was really good and worthy of its own entry, but it definitely made the difference. The Rome apple was a good choice; firm and with a lot of snap, and very well balanced between tart and sweet.

1966 WDEC - Cooked Dressing

The 1966 Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery "American Cookery" New York recipe for Waldorf salad called for "boiled dressing," with no explanation. It also said mayonnaise could be used as a substitute. In the WDEC index there is no mention of boiled dressing, but there are two "cooked dressing" options - one with saccharine and one with sugar. I opted for the one with sugar, which is in the "Dressings" section in Volume 4. Makes me feel like I'm making progress, jumping that far ahead!

Cooked Dressing
(to make about 1-1/2 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
2-1/2 tsp flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp powdered mustard
dash cayenne
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cider vinegar

In top part of double boiler mix sugar, flour, and seasonings. Add remaining ingredients. Cook over boiling water until thickened, stirring constantly. Cool; then chill until ready to use. This dressing is good on potato salad, vegetable salads, or greens [WDEC note]

Cooking Notes: This makes what is essentially a custard dressing. I cut most of the ingredients by 1/4, except for using one very small egg instead of measuring out half an egg, using a heavy hand with the spices, and further reducing the sweetness by using only 1 Tbsp sugar and using san on tou (Japanese light brown sugar) instead of regular granulated sugar. I cooked it directly over very low heat, being extremely careful and whisking continuously so the egg wouldn't cook before the custard formed. First post picture shows it made; a close look shows its thickness.

Eating Notes: An excellent dressing and suitable for more than veggies. I put some into my Waldorf salad and had a little more than half, which ended up doing duty at the same meal as a sauce for pickled mackerel sashimi. It was incredibly good on both. The cayenne/pepper/mustard balances the sugar, and the acidity from the vinegar similarly complements the richness of the custard.

Aleia's Gluten-Free Almond Cookies

Knowing we're restricting gluten intake, Lane's wife kindly passed along a package of Aleia's gluten-free almond cookies for the holidays. The gluten-free cookies and cupcakes I've tried before have been eminently forgettable, but these were good enough to recommend. Picture below shows them; each cookie is about 3" long.

Eating Notes: My tastes lean toward things that are less sweet and a bit nuanced, so to me the Almond Horn cookies were a bit heavy on the sugar and a tad too strongly almond-flavored. That said, I had a second one without regret and think for most people the sweetness would be well within the norm and that similarly most people would like the assertive almond flavor. The crunch and texture was indistinguishable, to me, from a wheat-based cookie, and they looked great; every one came out of the package in one piece.

Recommendations: These are good enough that they're worth trying if you like strongly flavored almond cookies, period - there is no taste trade-off because they are gluten free. The final seal of approval was that they disappeared from my client's common room table in less than an hour, while the donuts and fruit were still holding out.

1966 WDEC - New York - Cheddar Cheese Soup

Hungry for something that one person could either scarf down at one sitting or save half for another day, and soup seemed nice, comfortable and warm.

(Logistics note: I've decided to intersperse clarifications and "what I did" as part of the process within the recipe itself, and to use the Cooking Notes for other deviations such as whether I made a half batch, what substitutions I used, etc. My additions will be in a different color.)

Cheddar Cheese Soup
(to make about 6 cups)
1 onion, sliced (about 1/4" thick; cut slices to smaller lengths if desired)
1 cup diced celery (about 1/4" dice)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp Worcestershire (Lee & Perrins type)
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp monosodium glutamate
2 bouillon cubes
2 cups water
1 carrot, diced (about 1/4")
4 cups milk
8 oz sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt and pepper

In large saucepan, cook onion and celery in butter for about 5 minutes. Blend in next 5 ingredients. Add bouillon cubes, water, and carrot. Bring to boil and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Add milk and heat almost to boiling. Add cheese; stir until cheese is melted. Season to taste.

Cooking Notes: A half batch was plenty for one person; keeping the spices at the whole batch level kept things from getting too bland. Concentrated vegetable stock (commercial) took the place of bouillon. Reflecting 50 years of vegetable bloat, a half onion, quartered to avoid having long limp rings in the soup and sliced 1/4" thick, was sufficient. Garlic granules (similar to garlic powder only a bit more coarse) gave a more intense flavor, and the cheese itself added plenty of salt.

Eating Notes: I scarfed it down in one sitting. Lots of umami taste carefully balanced by the slightly citrus acidity of Worcestershire. The vegetables provided enough textural contrast to the smooth cream soup to make it work as a meal instead of just a side.

1966 WDEC - New Mexico - Eggs, Ranch Style

A desire to do something a bit different but not too involved for breakfast led to a brief delay in the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery before starting New York.

Eggs, Ranch Style
(to make enough for 4 eggs)
8 oz canned tomato sauce
2 onions, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
1/2 cup grated American cheese
Dash of cayenne
1/2 tsp salt
4 tortillas
1/3 cup olive oil
4 fried eggs
2 pork sausages, fried and sliced

Combine tomato sauce, onions, peppers, cheese, cayenne, and salt. Mix and refrigerate. Fry tortillas in olive oil; place a fried egg on top of each tortilla. Pour sauce over all; garnish with sausages. Sauce can be heated, if desired.

Cooking Notes: One of the first things I do when I look at these older recipes is try to figure out what they want in terms of both size of fruits and vegetables and meaning of words like "chopped." I was cutting the sauce in half because I was cooking for one, and I knew I'd be heating the sauce - with the temperature outside hovering just above 20F (cold for DC) my body wasn't going to be happy with a refrigerated breakfast. So, as shown below, I first measured out 4 oz of tomato sauce into a saucepan.

The finished sauce was going to have a consistency of salsa. So that would guide the size of the chopped onion and pepper (with no green pepper on hand, I substituted sweet red bell pepper and a bit of celery seed to stand in for the chlorophyll taste the green pepper would have added). The picture below shows the chopped pieces and the whole vegetables they came from.

For quantity, reducing the number of vegetables was a given, since size of grocery store onions and peppers has grown over the past half decade. Half an onion and half a red pepper gave the sauce the right consistency. A whole onion or a whole red pepper would have made a nice vegetable dish, but not a sauce.

I omitted the tortillas; used smoked Gouda instead of American cheese, and substituted bacon for the sausage. Everything else was to spec.

Eating Notes: A nice combination, especially warmed. The sauce kept the eggs warm a bit longer and the cheese was not too strong. Chilled easy-over eggs doesn't sound very appetizing.

Food Relief for Haiti

No pictures for this one.

I try to keep this blog apolitical and completely food-focused, but I've literally been crying over my breakfast these past few days, reading the accounts coming out of Haiti. The absolutely horrific comments made by Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, and their ilk has turned some of that sadness into fury and I do feel that it's incumbent on me to do what I can to help. So I am using my small Food for Real pulpit to preach some giving right now.

Of course the first priority is finding and saving the people who are alive; doing the best for those who are injured and vulnerable; and preventing the outbreak of disease. Many reputable charities, including Doctors without Borders/Medecins sans Frontieres and the Red Cross are on the ground addressing these concerns. As the crisis evolves, food aid will become a high priority as well. An established international organization focusing exclusively on food aid is the World Food Programme of the U.N.

If you have the ability and have not yet donated to help with Haitian relief, I strongly urge you to do so through one of these or another NGO. Consumer Reports has a guide to telling the good from the bad.

1966 WDEC - New York

I'm now approaching New York, another of my "home" states, I spent from Grade 1 through half of Grade 9 in Manlius, a small town outside Syracuse. Picture above shows Chittenango Falls, a common family destination for day trips and picnics.
As I slowly work my way through the "American Cookery" section of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery I'm starting to see more repetition and less that is catching my eye. While this will help speed my journey, it's a little disappointing.The New York recipes, though, look like a largely decent bunch, and most even have a connection to the state. The line-up:

Cheddar-Cheese Soup: One of the names for New York is The Dairy State, and I suppose this recipe makes sense. The recipe includes carrot, a decent spice mix, and even some msg, so I will probably try it.
Hollansche Biefstuk (Dutch Steak): New Amsterdam was one of the early names for New York City, so why not. A vinegared steak cooked rare with boiled sauce poured over at the end. Looks interesting.
Roast Long Island Duckling: Simple recipe for duck stuffed with orange, rubbed with seasonings, and roasted in the oven. I'll probably pass because the next fresh duck I get I want to smoke on Mechazawa-san.
Waldorf Salad: Classic salad dating from New York City's Waldorf Hotel in the late 1800s. I've both had and made it numerous times, but this calls for using an otherwise unspecified "boiled dressing" instead of mayonnaise, and I may attempt it for that reason.
Thousand-Island Dressing: The Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence River is one of my favorite places. Thousand Island Dressing leaves me feeling not quite so enamored, but maybe made from scratch it would be ok, and the recipe is more interesting than I'd expected. I may try this with some Maine shrimp.
Sherry Jelly: New York also has a long-standing wine-growing region, so there's a connection here as well, although the kind of sherry I remember coming from the state in the mid-60s would have been barely fit even  for cooking. But I've been wanting an excuse to try making wine jelly for ages, and here it is.
Baked Apple Tapioca: If I can figure out how to substitute the pearl tapioca I have in the pantry for the minute tapioca called for, I'll try this as a breakfast dish (using Cortland or Rome apples, of course...)

Lots to do! Now for the cooking.

WDEC - New Mexico - Tamale Pie

A classic casserole substituting cornmeal mush for the mashed potatoes I remember in the similar dish from my childhood.

Tamale Pie
(to serve 6)
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 green pepper, chopped
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 lb round steak, ground
3-1/2 cups (1 lb, 12-oz can) tomatoes
Salt
1 dozen ripe [black] olives, puitted
1 tsp ground coriander
1-2 Tbsp chili powder
1 cup yellow cornmeal [or masa]
1 cup cold water
1 quart well-seasoned beef or chicken broth
Butter

Heat skillet and add olive oil. Saute onion, garlic and pepper for a minute or two. Add beef and saute until meat loses red color, stirring with a fork to crumble meat. Add tomatoes, 1 tsp salt, olives, coriander, and chili powder. Cook slowly for 20 min.

Meanwhile, mix cornmeal and cold water in top part of double boiler. Add hot broth slowly and cook over boiling water until thickened, stirring occasionally. Line an oiled 2-quart casserole with half the mush mixture. Add meat mixture and top with remaining mush. Let cool slightly and crisscross top with knife. Dot generousely with butter. Bake 45 minutes.

Cooking Notes: I made the mush the night before in the rice cooker so it was all ready to go and warm before I started cooking. For that reason and because I made this after work and wanted to eat at a reasonable time, I only cooked the tomato mixture for 15 minutes. No black olives were on hand, so I used some capers. It's a different brine and more acidic, so I only used about a tablespoon for the whole casserole (as usual, I made a half batch, although I kept the meat at 1 lb and used the seasonings full strength (i.e. doubled). Somehow, I forgot to add the butter at the end, so the crust didn't brown up the way it should have. Also, where the cornmeal was thinner the sauce bubbled through. First post picture shows it.

Eating Notes: You would hardly know by taste that this wasn't the ground beef and potato casserole I had as a kid. Because the masa I used was white, it even looked like mashed potatoes. There was absolutely nothing wrong with this dish. The flavors were well balanced, with nothing overwhelming the taste, and even with the butter left off the exposed cornmeal had developed a decent crust. If I had a fussy family, I might turn to this recipe frequently. But it was fairly labor intensive, and for me, the return wasn't interesting enough to justify the work.

Next up: Another one of my home states - New York. I'll be coming back to the avocado cream later.

Soft-boiled Eggs

To further reduce our grain consumption, I've started swapping out eggs for waffles/rice/grits/etc. in some of our weekday breakfasts. Phil got me some nice little egg cups from Sur la Table for Christmas that makes it a less messy/more pleasant affair. I've tried both the boiling water method and the cold water method and decided I prefer the boiling water method because it allows me to time things better so the eggs don't end up sitting and overcooking. For soft-boiled eggs, 2 minutes makes them drinkably soft, the way I like them; 3-4 minutes gives them a little more substance. None of this would be blog-worthy except for the photographic evidence that this change has been definitively approved by Kitchen Goddess Nadja.

Cooking for One and Posting Uncertainties

Phil's mom is reaching the end of her life and he's gone to Minnesota to help his brother transition her to hospice care. So for the past couple and next several days at least I'll be cooking and eating for one.

I'm usually the traveling one in the household - the last time I was the sole human holding down the fort was four years ago when Phil's dad died. Thanks to the diet change and the blog, my solo cooking and eating habits are worlds better. Previously, I would revert to how I ate as a single person in college, living off of boiled eggs, hunks of cheese and salami, and whatever was in the fridge and pantry straight out of the containers or cans, supplemented by chips and Doritos. I had at least grown up to where we had Home Bistro frozen meals; they were certainly an improvement, but hardly home cooking.

This time, I'm trying to maintain my good eating ritual because now with all this mental stress I certainly don't need to punish my physical self. And with the blog as a sort of goad, I'm still working my way through the Woman's Day project and thinking more about how I can cook for one without too many leftovers. So the cooking at Food for Real carries on, and I'm not feeling all bloated and sick from OD-ing on crisps and crackers.

Also, while we don't know how long she'll be with us, his mom really could go at any time. We are focusing a lot on family right now, and when we are both in Minnesota blogging isn't going to be the first order of business. So  apologies if emails and/or comments get answered sporadically and if posting drops off or seems oddly timed. Maintaining consistency at Food for Real is very important to me, though, and I'm doing my best to blog ahead now so that things will post regularly even if I need to go away for a while.

1966 WDEC - New Mexico - Hot Bean Pot

Like most of these recipes, I'm not getting the New Mexico connection, but so be it...

Hot Bean Pot
(to serve 6-8)
About 5 cups (2 20 oz cans) canned kidney beans
2 tsp dried mustard
Dash cayenne
Piece of bay leaf
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, diced
1/4 cup bacon fat
1/2 cup sweet pickle juice
2 Tbsp vinegar
1/4 cup strong [brewed] coffee
6 slices of bacon

Preheat oven to 350F. Pour beans into a 2-quart casserole. Mix mustard, seasonings, and onion with bacon fat, pickle juice, vinegar, and coffee; pour over beans. Bake 45 minutes. Garnish with bacon slices.

Cooking Notes: From the picture, the most obvious substitution I made was to swap out some bratwurst (the incredibly good stuff we buy from Evensong Farm - thanks, Julie!) for the bacon. I let it cook in the beans and sauce for the full 45 minutes. Picture shows it just out of the oven.

Other substitutions - I don't have any sweet pickles and thus, no sweet pickle juice. I used juice from some capers instead. All the vinegar; none of the pickling spice and sugars. So I added a bit of pickling spice to the mix (but no sugar). My hot pepper was one of the last in the fridge kept fresh from my garden haul this autumn. I cut it in half to let more of the heat work into the sauce. It worked and the sauce was quite spicy even though I followed their directions and included only a dash of cayenne.

I didn't drain the beans because they didn't tell me to. The resulting bean pot, as the first picture shows, was more like a soup. I liked it that way, but I'm not sure that was how it was intended and whether I should have drained the beans. I think without the bean "juice" it would have had more the consistency of a thick stew.

Eating Notes: Easy weekday comfort food. I could definitely taste the balancing influence of the acid in the pickle juice and I'm pretty sure I could sense a mid-palate complexity from the coffee, but Phil said he didn't taste the coffee at all so I may just be fooling myself. Using sausage instead of bacon increased the fat content, since the fat that leached from the sausage during cooking was captured in the sauce. This added a lot of depth in both texture and flavor. The sausage also made it a more satisfying leftover lunch.

Beef Tongue with Mustard and Horseradish Sauce

I'd forgotten about the beautiful beef tongue from Groff's Content Farm that I had in my freezer (note to self: need another inventory) until I almost pushed it aside pulling something else out. The nice thing about tongue is that while it takes a long time to cook, most of that is just spent with it boiling. And while it is boiling, the house fills with a wonderful smell. So it's a great thing to make when you know you'll be busy, but you want to feel like you're really cooking.

This recipe is an amalgam of a couple of Epicurious recipes, some remembered techniques, and some spur-of-the-moment throwing together of stuff. I don't quite call it my own. It's more of a Frankenrecipe--a working creature pulled together from others' body parts.

For The Tongue
1 beef tongue
1 onion, coarsely chopped into 1" pieces
2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped into 1" slices
2 carrots, coarsely chopped into 1" pieces
1 bay leaf, broken
1 head garlic, skinned and broken (see instructions)
2 tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp juniper berries
2 tsp anise seeds
2 Tbsp salt

To break the garlic, put a clove or two at a time under the flat side of a chef's knife or cleaver and give the blade a sharp rap or two with the side of your fist. The garlic cloves should be cracked and a bit flat, but not completely smashed. (I forgot to have Phil take a picture but I will next time).

Put all ingredients in a large stock pot and add enough water to cover the tongue by 3" - 4" (picture above shows the tongue in the pot). Bring the water to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer, covered but with the lid vented, until the tongue is fork-tender (this means that if you stab it with a fork in the pot of water, the fork goes into the tongue without too much resistance). Figure about 45 minutes per pound of tongue - e.g. a 2 lb tongue will take about an hour and a half to reach this stage).

Remove the tongue from the hot water and set aside until it is cool enough to handle (While it is cooling, start the sauce; see below). Skin the tongue. I do this by cutting a single slash on the underside and then grabbing and peeling it with my hand. Rubber gloves are a help, or you can use a kitchen towel or paper towel to get a better grip. This works for most of the skin. If some bits just don't want to pull off by themselves I use a boning/fillet knife to help lift and peel the skin. The picture above shows me pulling off some of the skin with a knife; you also can see my starter cut. Picture below shows the skinned tongue.

Once you've skinned the tongue, cut off any gristle, fat, glands and other things that just don't look like tongue. For the tongue in the picture, this was essentially the fringy stuff you can see wrapping around it. Slice the tongue. You can slice it as thin as you want; I recommend not going any thicker than shown below, about 5mm or 1/4", because tongue is a fairly bland meat and you want it to have a lot of surface area to pick up the sauce.

It is now ready to be served hot or cold with the sauce poured over. Again, because of the blandness of the meat I recommend that if you do serve it cold, you slice it very thin and use a generous hand with the sauce.

For the Sauce
2 Tbsp fat (butter, ghee, or bacon fat recommended)
1/4 c finely chopped onion or shallot

2 Tbsp flour (gluten-free is ok)
1-1/2 cups strained broth from the cooked tongue 1/2 c heavy cream
1/4 c prepared mustard (Dijon, stone-ground, or a mix of the two is good)
2 Tbsp prepared horseradish
1 tsp dried dill (or 1 Tbsp fresh, finely chopped)
1/4 tsp tarragon
juice of one lemon

Saute the onion in the fat until soft. Whisk in the flour and cook until it is bubbly but not browned. Slowly add the broth, stirring constantly to prevent lumps from forming. Stir in the cream. Cook until it has a thick gravy-like consistency. Stir in the remaining ingredients. If necessary, cook down some more until it reaches a consistency you like. Keep in mind that the more you cook it, the less pungent the horseradish will be. If you want your sauce heavy on the horseradish, I recommend that you add more rather than adding it later, because the cooking takes the vinegar edge off the taste and makes it blend more harmoniously with the other flavors.

Pour the warm sauce over the tongue slices or, if serving cold, cover and chill until ready to plate.

Cooking Notes: You can see in the picture of me slicing that laziness is not paying off in terms of presentation. I have a perfectly excellent slicing knife, but rather than dirty two tools I took advantage of the boning knife I already had used to skin and trim the tongue. The slices are not even because I'm pressing a little biton the tongue as I slice to compensate for the curve and flexibility of the knife and this, in turn, causes the slices to deform as I'm working. Really, I do deserve better.

The sauce is quite versatile and is good over seafood and even root vegetables.

Eating Notes: As noted, tongue is bland. That said, it's good, and its blandness might make it more acceptable than other offal choices for some audiences. This tongue/sauce combination made a nice dinner and good lunch leftovers the next day.

1966 WDEC - New Mexico - Sopa de Albondigas (Meatball Soup)

I strayed so much from the recipe on this one that I'm almost hesitant to post it. But I kept the fundamentals, so I think it's ok. Recipe as written; my changes in "Cooking Notes."

Sopa de Albondigs (Meatball Soup)
(Serves 4 - 6 as a side soup)
4 cups (2 1-lb cans) tomatoes
2 cups beef bouillon
1-1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp salt
2-1/2 cups boiling water
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb lean pork, ground
1 slice dry bread
1 egg, beaten
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp crumbled dry mint
1/4 tsp ground sage
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 md onion, chopped
2 Tbsp cooking fat (I used bacon fat)

Force tomatoes through a sieve. Add bouillon, chili powder, 1 tsp salt, and the water. Bring to boil and boil until about 1/4 of the liquid has evaporated. Combine meats. Dip bread into cold water, squeeze dry, and add to meat. Add remaining salt and other ingredients except onion and cooking fat.

Brown onion in fat; discard onion. Shape meat mixture into 3/4" balls and brown in hot fat. Add to soup mixture, cover and simmer for one hour. Serve hot.

Cooking Notes: Ingredients subs first, since they constituted most of the changes. I cut the tomatoes in half; rather than cutting both broth and water in half, I omitted the water and used only broth - but did it with homemade pork stock, not beef bouillon. Used my own cayenne-heavy mix for the chili powder. Omitted the bread. Substituted 1 lb ground goat meat for the 1.5 lb mixed beef and pork. Cut the salt in half. Used three garlic cloves. Didn't have mint so used a couple of drops of peppermint spirits. Kept the other ingredients at full recipe measure.

For the process, I couldn't bring myself to throw away the browned onions. They just looked too good. So I kept them warm and served them on the side. Other than that, followed the directions as written.

Eating Notes: I was very surprised that even with the garlic and the cayenne/chili powder, I could taste the distinct flavor of caramelized onions in the meatballs. The thick, smooth soup contrasted well with the sharp cayenne/garlic taste, which was smoothed a bit by the aforementioned caramelized onion flavor. All in all, much better than I'd expected.