Friday, February 24, 2017
Foamy Sauce
1 egg
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c hot water
1 Tbs lemon juice or 1 tsp lemon extract
Beat the egg vigorously. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the hot water and stir vigorously. Add the lemon juice. Serve. This sauce may be reheated if desired.
Makes four portions.
Bettina's Steamed Fig Pudding
1 c flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp ginger
2/3 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 c molasses
1/2 c milk
1/2 c suet, chopped fine
1/3 c chopped figs
1/3 c stoned raisins
1/3 tsp lemon extract
Mix the flour, soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and suet. Add the figs, raisins, molasses and milk. Stir well. Add the lemon extract. Fill a well buttered pudding mould two-thirds full. Steam an hour and a half, with the water boiling. Serve hot with foamy sauce.
Makes four portions.
Browned Gravy
1 Tbs butter
2 Tbs flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c water
1/4 c milk
Remove the breaded veal from the pan, and place on a hot platter. (Keep in a warm place.) Loosen all the small pieces of crackers and meat (if there are any) from the bottom of the pan. If there is no fat left, add butter. Allow the fat to get hot, and add flour and salt. Mix well with the heated fat, and allow to brown. Stir constantly and add the water. Mix well, and add 1/4 c milk. Allow to cook one minute, stirring constantly. If a thinner sauce is desired, add another 1/4 c of milk. If a thicker sauce is desired, allow to cook for two mins.
Makes four portions.
Breaded Veal
1 # veal round steak, cut 1/2" thick
1 Tbs egg (either the white or the yolk)
1 Tbs water
2/3 c cracker crumbs or dry bread crumbs
2 Tbs lard
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbs butter
1/8 tsp paprika
Wipe the meat with a damp cloth, and cut into four pieces. Mix the egg, water, salt and paprika, and dip each piece of meat into the egg mixture. Roll in the crumbs and pat the crumbs into the meat. Place the lard in the frying pan, and when hot, add the meat. Brown well on one side, and then turn, allowing the other side to become the same even color. Lower the flame under the meat, and cook 30 mins, keeping the pan covered. When the meat has cooked 25 mins, add the butter to lend flavor to the lard.
Makes four portions.
Second February Menu
So after the success of the first Feb menu (on Feb 3), I made the next menu on Feb 6th from Chapter CX. The menu consists of:
Breaded Veal
Creamed Potatoes
Browned Sauce
Spinach with Hard Cooked Eggs
Bread & Butter
Spiced Peaches
Fig Pudding
Foamy Sauce
The breaded veal was delicious. I was so happy that my butcher had veal and I didn't have to do a meat substitute again. So tasty.
The creamed potatoes were delicious as always. I have made these several times since that first menu in January, as they're so easy to make (and I'd cooked extra potatoes with the first menu so as to have the pre cooked potatoes needed for THIS meal).
The browned sauce was pretty straight forward and oh so tasty. As mentioned, I love gravy. Sadly, it's still in my fridge and that's a long time... I've not been as good at utilizing the full kitchen for menus and remembering to use up things this month.
And now we come to the trouble makers. Let's start with the Spinach with Hard Cooked Eggs. The book doesn't give a recipe for this. At all. And I looked. So to the internet I go! Turns out it's a pretty straight forward and common dish. Hard boil eggs, peel and slice in half lengthwise. Blanche spinach, mix with a cream sauce, settle the eggs into the spinach and top with buttered bread crumbs and bake. I made a little extra cream sauce for the potatoes and used it here. Easy peasy. But I wish the recipe had actually been given.
Spiced peaches are something I made years ago when I got 40 pounds of peaches for free. Mine are cooked a little more than Bettina's but that's fine by me.
And for our last bit of annoyance, the fig pudding. This is one of those recipes that was designed for the fireless. Well, Bettina's fireless had ceramic heated stones at the bottom. She also had a tin pudding mold. I used a mason jar and tried to heat up a iron weight. Suffice it to say, the pudding was not cooked. Or rather, the outer 1/2" of the entire thing was cooked. So then I popped it on the stove and tried to do the boil thing. It STILL was being recalcitrant at being cooked! But eventually it was heated into submission. But it was an annoying process to say the least.
The foamy sauce was underwhelming. Can you see it on the pudding in the picture below? Nope! But it added a lemony zing to the otherwise not impressive-tasting pudding.
The breaded veal was delicious. I was so happy that my butcher had veal and I didn't have to do a meat substitute again. So tasty.
The creamed potatoes were delicious as always. I have made these several times since that first menu in January, as they're so easy to make (and I'd cooked extra potatoes with the first menu so as to have the pre cooked potatoes needed for THIS meal).
The browned sauce was pretty straight forward and oh so tasty. As mentioned, I love gravy. Sadly, it's still in my fridge and that's a long time... I've not been as good at utilizing the full kitchen for menus and remembering to use up things this month.
And now we come to the trouble makers. Let's start with the Spinach with Hard Cooked Eggs. The book doesn't give a recipe for this. At all. And I looked. So to the internet I go! Turns out it's a pretty straight forward and common dish. Hard boil eggs, peel and slice in half lengthwise. Blanche spinach, mix with a cream sauce, settle the eggs into the spinach and top with buttered bread crumbs and bake. I made a little extra cream sauce for the potatoes and used it here. Easy peasy. But I wish the recipe had actually been given.
Spiced peaches are something I made years ago when I got 40 pounds of peaches for free. Mine are cooked a little more than Bettina's but that's fine by me.
And for our last bit of annoyance, the fig pudding. This is one of those recipes that was designed for the fireless. Well, Bettina's fireless had ceramic heated stones at the bottom. She also had a tin pudding mold. I used a mason jar and tried to heat up a iron weight. Suffice it to say, the pudding was not cooked. Or rather, the outer 1/2" of the entire thing was cooked. So then I popped it on the stove and tried to do the boil thing. It STILL was being recalcitrant at being cooked! But eventually it was heated into submission. But it was an annoying process to say the least.
The foamy sauce was underwhelming. Can you see it on the pudding in the picture below? Nope! But it added a lemony zing to the otherwise not impressive-tasting pudding.
First February Menu
I realize that posting this late in the month makes it look like I've been slacking on the cooking front. Not true! I've just been slacking on the blogging front. The first menu that I made for February was Bettina's Valentine's meal for her and Bob (Chapter CXI). It contains:
Broiled Steak
Baked Potatoes
Macaroni with Tomatoes and Green Peppers
Bread & Butter
Cornstarch Fruit Pudding
Cherry Sauce
The steak tasted delicious, as steak so often does. The baked potato similarly.
But the macaroni dish! There was definitely some confusion in my mind regarding this one. Firstly, it calls for 1/3 c macaroni. Just think about how much pasta that is. It's like nothing. The directions call for layering the food stuffs, and there is no way that one could make layers out of such a small amount of pasta. So I used about a cup of macaroni. I suppose it's possible that this is more of a custard that has pasta in it, but I figured I wanted to eat pasta (even though it was odd having it in addition to a baked potato AND bread and butter).
The cornstarch fruit pudding also gave me trouble. It didn't thicken. At least, not well. I wound up freezing it to get a better consistency, which worked fine. However, then we had the actual flavor to deal with. It tasted like cornstarch mixed with fruit juice, which coincidentally is exactly what it was. C- in flavor, IMO. And the cherry sauce should have cooked for a lot longer than they recommended. Note: I used actual cherry juice rather than the syrup that came with canned cherries and perhaps therein lies some of my problems?
Posting this makes me crave that steak and potato deliciousness, even though I just ate. :)
The steak tasted delicious, as steak so often does. The baked potato similarly.
But the macaroni dish! There was definitely some confusion in my mind regarding this one. Firstly, it calls for 1/3 c macaroni. Just think about how much pasta that is. It's like nothing. The directions call for layering the food stuffs, and there is no way that one could make layers out of such a small amount of pasta. So I used about a cup of macaroni. I suppose it's possible that this is more of a custard that has pasta in it, but I figured I wanted to eat pasta (even though it was odd having it in addition to a baked potato AND bread and butter).
The cornstarch fruit pudding also gave me trouble. It didn't thicken. At least, not well. I wound up freezing it to get a better consistency, which worked fine. However, then we had the actual flavor to deal with. It tasted like cornstarch mixed with fruit juice, which coincidentally is exactly what it was. C- in flavor, IMO. And the cherry sauce should have cooked for a lot longer than they recommended. Note: I used actual cherry juice rather than the syrup that came with canned cherries and perhaps therein lies some of my problems?
Posting this makes me crave that steak and potato deliciousness, even though I just ate. :)
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Final January Menu
One whole month is done! I barely squeaked by, using the last day of the month for this. But this was a reasonably successful meal,for all that my husband was nervous. :)Menu:Roast BeefBrowned PotatoesGravyBettina's Jelly PickleBreadGrapefruit MarmaladeDate Loaf CakeSliced OrangesI had intended on making this menu Friday, but then we had friends over and I didn't want to have to buy a large enough roast. But I did use some of the supplies, meaning that another grocery run had to happen in addition to the butcher visit. Side note, my butcher will let me know the next time they get mutton, and there will be veal by the end of the week! I won't have to buy grocery store meat next time I have a veal menu! This is very exciting.
Anyway, I made the cake when I got home from Y's house and before my afternoon students. Be prepared for a lot of sticky chopping, for it takes a lot of minced dates to make a full cup. Also, I realized while making it, that a liquid was needed. It's very difficult to have vanilla be your only liquid... I added milk, and just poured until it was a quick bread batter consistency. Maybe 2/3rds of a cup?< Everything else was cooked back to back.
I started by making the gelatin. Easy enough, although I misjudged when to add in the pickles, and it didn't gel smoothly. (Also didn't unmould well.)
Next I started the roast andd the veg. I used the broiler for the first section of the cooking, and then fluctuated between 350F and 450F as it cooked, eventually needing around 1.75 hrs to cook. 
I had potatoes (with some carrots for good measure) cooking with the meat the whole time.
We almost didn't get gravy because someone wheedled Yorkshire Pudding out of me, and that takes drippings. (Recipe from Fanny Farmer, courtesy of my Aunt C.)
Luckily, we had the "chicken carcass turning into stock" on the back burner, so I made chicken gravy to go with our roast beef. (My college experience taught me to never avoid free calories.)
Which leaves us at our bread and marmalade. I bought marmalade rather than make it (although recipe was given), but had to settle for orange as no one sells grapefruit marmalade.Verdict? Pretty damn tasty. Roast took an hour longer than expected, the jelly is fine but way more than anyone could eat, ditto potato portion size, and I opted not to do the sliced oranges, even though I have them. It was just a little much. But the cake! Glorious cake. Soft, moist, sweet, just the right amount of texture. And I didn't need to use the mixer for it. I will be making this again.
Anyway, I made the cake when I got home from Y's house and before my afternoon students. Be prepared for a lot of sticky chopping, for it takes a lot of minced dates to make a full cup. Also, I realized while making it, that a liquid was needed. It's very difficult to have vanilla be your only liquid... I added milk, and just poured until it was a quick bread batter consistency. Maybe 2/3rds of a cup?< Everything else was cooked back to back.
I started by making the gelatin. Easy enough, although I misjudged when to add in the pickles, and it didn't gel smoothly. (Also didn't unmould well.)
Next I started the roast andd the veg. I used the broiler for the first section of the cooking, and then fluctuated between 350F and 450F as it cooked, eventually needing around 1.75 hrs to cook. 
I had potatoes (with some carrots for good measure) cooking with the meat the whole time.
We almost didn't get gravy because someone wheedled Yorkshire Pudding out of me, and that takes drippings. (Recipe from Fanny Farmer, courtesy of my Aunt C.)
Luckily, we had the "chicken carcass turning into stock" on the back burner, so I made chicken gravy to go with our roast beef. (My college experience taught me to never avoid free calories.)
Which leaves us at our bread and marmalade. I bought marmalade rather than make it (although recipe was given), but had to settle for orange as no one sells grapefruit marmalade.Verdict? Pretty damn tasty. Roast took an hour longer than expected, the jelly is fine but way more than anyone could eat, ditto potato portion size, and I opted not to do the sliced oranges, even though I have them. It was just a little much. But the cake! Glorious cake. Soft, moist, sweet, just the right amount of texture. And I didn't need to use the mixer for it. I will be making this again.
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