Cooks' Corner

[Lesley Cox]

He whom the cap fits.......

On Christmas Day here there were several. As well as Cain and Teddy, there were JD, a cattle-working huntaway; Piper, a beautiful Vizla and Oz, a pit bull, staffie cross, a pussycat by nature but the ugliest dog I ever saw; he is dark brindle, squat and bow-legged, shaped generally like a tank and just one-eyed, the other having been removed in total by a cat.

As well, several men were present.

[Rodger Whitlock]

It's been a while since I last dropped in on the Cook's Corner thread, but as the desserts I prepared for Christmas dinner with quasi-family were a roaring success, I'm posting them here one at a time. Mincemeat made to this recipe was used to make an enormous pie, 10" across and 1½" deep, single crust.

Mincemeat

(for pies, tarts, etc)

this is "Mincemeat II", from the Fannie Farmer cookbook, 11th ed. (1965), p. 418


1 lb suet (uncooked beef fat)
1½ lbs (5 medium) apples (I like Braeburns, Galas, and Fujis)
1 lb dried currants
1 lb sultana raisins
1 lb seedless raisins
4 oz candied lemon peel
4 oz candied orange peel
4 oz candied citron
zest of 2 lemons
juice of 3 lemons
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground mace
1 tsp ground allspice

whiskey and/or brandy (I use Crown Royal blended Canadian whiskey and Remy Martin brandy)

Grind suet finely. Pare apples, core, and chop coarsely. Dice candied peels, if necessary. Grate zest from lemons. Squeeze lemons.

Mix all ingredients except alcoholic spirits thoroughly with your hands in a large glazed earthenware bowl. Add enough spirits to moisten well, cover with cling film and a heavy plate, and store in a cool place — an unheated room in winter is ideal. Check weekly and add more spirits if need be. As the spirits tend to pool at the bottom, from time to time turn the mincemeat over as you would a compost heap, then pack down again.

This recipe makes a very large quantity of mincemeat and is best prepared 2 to 6 weeks in advance of using it. Keeps for months in a cool place if covered.
Packed in clean canning jars with a spoonful of spirits on the top of each one, it will keep for up to a year.

Metric equivalents:

1 lb ~ 450 g
1½ lbs ~ 675 g
4 oz ~ 120 g
1 tsp ~ 5 ml
½ tsp ~ 2 or 3 ml

[Rodger Whitlock]

Charlotte Russe

[PS: This is my mother's recipe. She only made Charlotte russe at Christmas, and then only if my parents were having neighbors and friends in — not every year. And I adored charlotte russe, so never got as much of it as I would have liked. Even now I only make it at Christmas. The first time I made it for Christmas dinner with my quasi-family, there was the complaint "not traditional", meaning it wasn't a steamed pudding. My rebuttlal was that in my family it was traditional, so there!]

1 pkg (7 g) plain granulated gelatin
¼ cup (60 ml) cold water
1¼ cup (300 ml) scalded milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp (30 ml) granulated sugar
pinch salt
1 cup (250 ml) heavy (whipping) cream
3 tbsp (45 ml) powdered or confectioner's sugar
¾ tsp (4 ml) vanilla extract or spirits such as brandy or rum
Italian lady fingers (boudoir biscuits) or strips of sponge cake

Total volume of filling: abt 3 cups

Scald milk. Soak gelatin in cold water.

While milk is heating, separate eggs. Reserve whites; beat yolks with granulated sugar and salt until creamy.

Pour yolks into clean double boiler top, then slowly pour scalded milk over yolks while stirring steadily. Cook over hot water, stirring constantly, until mixture begins to thicken.

While custard is cooking, beat reserved egg whites until stiff.

When custard thickens enough to coat a spoon, remove from heat, mix in soaked gelatin, then fold in beaten egg whites. Chill mixture until it begins to set.

While custard mixture is chilling, whip heavy cream. Line charlotte bowl or mold or individual cups with lady fingers or strips of sponge cake. When custard mixture begins to set, fold in whipped cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract (or spirits), then fill lined container(s). Chill until filling is fully set.

Note #1: Free range eggs, in my experience, have too "eggy" a taste; store-bought or battery eggs have a less overpowering taste for this delicate dessert.

Note #2: I use a footed glass charlotte bowl that requires three times the stated quantities to fill adequately.

[Rodger Whitlock]

Pastel de la Reina (The Queen's Pastry)

Pastry (essentially shortbread)

scant 2 cups (500 ml) all-purpose flour
½ cup (125 ml) confectioner's sugar
6 oz (180 g) or ¾ cup butter
1 egg yolk

Filling

6 oz (180 g) blanched almonds
6 tbsp (3 oz, 90 g) butter
6 tbsp (90 ml) sugar
2 egg yolks
1 tsp (5 ml) grated orange zest
pinch ground cinnamon
¾ cup (190 ml) amontillado

¾ cup membrillo (Spanish or Portuguese quince paste)

a few whole blanched almonds for decoration

requires a 7"/18 cm tart pan (preferably with false bottom) or springform pan

Preheat oven to 300°F

Crust: Sift flour and confectioner's sugar together. Cut or rub in butter (food processor okay) to texture of fine breadcrumbs. Work in egg yolk with fingers to make a softish pastry. (Be sure kitchen isn't too cold!) Roll with short, firm strokes and line 7"/18 cm tart or springform pan.

Bake: Line unbaked crust with foil, shiny side down; prick holes in foil w. fork. Weight down and blind bake until pastry is dry and sandy — abt. 75 minutes. Remove weights and foil.

Filling: Put all filling ingredients in food processor and process until almonds are about the texture of coarse sand.

Assembly: Melt membrillo over hot water and spread over bottom of crust. Pour in filling mixture. Decorate top with a few whole almonds.

Bake filled pastry in 300°F oven for about 1½ hours, until custard filling is set and pastry is crisp and golden brown.

This is a very rich pastry, to be served in small slices. From The Food of Spain and Portugal by Elisabeth Luard (2004), pastry amounts reduced by about one quarter.

[Rodger Whitlock]

Meringues

Preheat oven to 225°F

1½ cups granulated sugar
7 egg whites
⅛ tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (or other flavoring: rose water, orange blossom water, other flavored extracts, cocoa, instant coffee)

¾ cup granulated sugar

Sift 1½ cups sugar. Using electric mixer with large bowl, beat egg whites and salt until very stiff, then add the sugar ½ tsp at a time while continuing to beat. When all sugar has been added, add vanilla extract (or other flavoring) and continue to beat for several more minutes.

Fold in ¾ cup sugar into beaten mixture.

Using pastry or icing bag and working quickly, pipe small mounds of the meringue mixture onto cookie sheet lined with baking parchment or a silicone baking mat. Bake at 225°F for 60 to 90 minutes, until meringues are dry. Turn off heat, open oven door partly, and allow meringues to finish drying for about 10 minutes more. Remove from baking surface while still slightly warm and allow to finish cooling on a rack.

Instead of making  a large number of small mouth size meringues, you can form large, 3" circular meringues.

These meringues are extremely sweet; one or two small ones on the side of the dessert plate is sufficient.

This quantity makes about 200 small meringues or 12 large 3" ones.

Recipe adapted from 4th ed. of The Joy of Cooking (1953).

PS: Making meringues was a way to use up the egg whites left over from making the "Pastel de la
Reina".

[Paddy Tobin]

My goodness, Rodger, you have been busy and with such lovely food.

Paddy

[Lesley Cox]

I can see why you didn't post these recipes BEFORE Christmas. We would all have been on your doorstep on Christmas morning.

Your mincemeat is essentially very like mine but for immediate use, I also add a couple of well mashed bananas. They somehow take away the extreme sharpness of the minced currants.

[Rodger Whitlock]

vis a vis
I can see why you didn't post these recipes BEFORE Christmas. We would all have been on your doorstep on Christmas morning.

Your mincemeat is essentially very like mine but for immediate use, I also add a couple of well mashed bananas. They somehow take away the extreme sharpness of the minced currants.

The morning of Boxing Day would have worked better; there were plenty of leftovers that I brought home and it would have been a delight to find a crowd of SRGC forumists staging a small riot. I enjoyed a big bowl of the charlotte russe for breakfast!

I should add that these are tried-and-true recipes and all very scrumptious. But it is also true that only the mincemeat can be called "simple". The others are all fairly complex recipes and time-consuming to make, though the end results justify the effort.

As for sharp currants, there's a recipe for "hobo bread" on the website of Hamilton's Barley Flour that has an interesting wrinkle: you mix baking soda in with the raisins, then pour boiling water over them and let them sit overnight. There's a lot of fizzing as the naturally occurring fruit acids in the raisins react with the baking soda. The end result is that the raisins have a very mild taste. A similar trick might be worth trying with currants too, if you find them too edgy in flavor.

PS: About that hobo bread: it's a very simple recipe, but is it ever sweet! Considerably sweeter than any other baked good I can think of. I gave a loaf or two to the hardworking lady who organizes tea and goodies at our local rock gardening club meetings and it disappeared very quickly when put out for the delectation of the ravenous hordes. Those of you racking your brains for something to provide a change of pace in the way of goodies at meetings, try it out. Freezes well, too.

[John Kitt]

Great recipes Rodger. They could well appear on my Christmas table next year.

Just thinking - I would obviously need to practice - just might start now!

[maggiepie]

Rodger, I am particularly interested in the Charlotte Russe.
Am a bit concerned at the idea of the beaten egg whites, have never used them since I have been in Canada.
I have a wonderful recipe somewhere for a strawberry chiffon pie that uses egg whites but am concerned by the thought of salmonella.
I don't think there is any salmonella in eggs in Australia.

[Kristl Walek]

Am a bit concerned at the idea of the beaten egg whites, have never used them since I have been in Canada.
I don't think there is any salmonella in eggs in Australia.

Helen,
Just a comment---never stopped making my dressings for German potato salad (always with raw whole eggs) and eaten immediately, since arriving in Canada over 30 years ago. It is eaten quite regularly---with not a single incident.

[maggiepie]

Helen,
Just a comment---never stopped making my dressings for German potato salad (always with raw whole eggs) and eaten immediately, since arriving in Canada over 30 years ago. It is eaten quite regularly---with not a single incident.

Kristl,

That's good to know.
Charlotte Russe is definitely going onto my must do list.

[Kristl Walek]

my daughter (who is somewhat of an expert in these matters) informed me of the following

(1) Eggs from healthy chickens are rarely contaminated with salmonella. And even commercial eggs (from chickens living in pretty abysmal conditions) actually have a fairly low rate of contamination. A 2002 study indicated the presence of it in .03% of 69 billion eggs produced. Salmonella only comes from sick birds and the risk decreases when animals aren't kept in dark, crowded conditions.

(2) If you are getting eggs from cage-free, organically fed chickens, the risk virtually disappears. I am lucky to be living in a place where almost everyone has chickens, and beautiful, fresh eggs from healthy chickens are available everywhere. In fact, I actually get HOME DELIVERY of my eggs, if you can believe that. My "egg guy" drops them off every week.

I LOVE eggs, and would give up many other "proteins" to keep them in my diet. To get the highest level of health benefit from them, they should actually be eaten as "uncooked" as possible. This means, if you have no preference, keeping the yolk, in particular, soft and intact, is best. So scrambled eggs are least healthy---soft boiled, poached or sunny side up best. BTW, there is absolutely no research indicating risk between yolks and heart attacks, etc. (Harvard). so this whole "egg white" madness is mostly that.

[maggiepie]

I love eggs but hate runny or undercooked eggs.
Really don't like the taste of soft yolks, you would probably be aghast if you saw how I fry eggs, crispy on both sides 
Love omelettes, frittatas, quiche scrambled and hard boiled.
Even have a little hard boiled egg cooker, one of my favourite gadgets 

Have thought about getting some hens but there are foxes, dogs and even coyotes in the area.
Not sure how I could winter them but have read hens can take quite a lot of cold as long as their combs and wattles don't get wet ( can lead to frostbite)

[Kristl Walek]

Even have a little hard boiled egg cooker, one of my favourite gadgets 

It was perhaps the first thing my mother (the chef) ever taught me at a young age---and decades later, it's still the method I use (although I rarely hard boil, except for egg-salad). Hard boiled is actually a misnomer---as it's best not to *boil* them at all.

Just cover eggs with water.
Put on lid.
Bring to full boil.
Immediately turn off heat and let stand.
For large eggs:
Soft: 1-4 minutes
Hard: 15-17