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| Posted: Wed Mar 30th, 2011 11:40 pm |
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1st Post |
boojum
boojum
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Ok, we have a cooking challenge for here! If you want to take part, post an OLD recipe.. one you've been curious about. Then we all work on the recipes to see how they come out and how they can be improved. The idea is everyone cook each dish at least once and then post the results!
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| Posted: Wed Mar 30th, 2011 11:47 pm |
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2nd Post |
boojum
boojum
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Jeff's Challenge: Special Beef Stew
Ok, I admit that I like a good beef stew. I got this recipe from the "Todays Woman BBQ Cook Book" from the 1950's.
2 lb beef stew meet
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/4 cup Fat
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp dried basil
1 cup burgundy wine
1 1/2 cup Water
1 8oz can Tomato sauce
6 Carrots, cleaned and halved lengthwise
12 small onions, peeled
6 medium potatoes
1/4 bl whole green beanes, cleaned.
Wipe meat with a damp cloth and cut in 2-inch cubes. Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a paper bag. Add beef cubes and shake well. Heat fat in a heavy dutch oven. Brown meat slowly on all sides. Add garlic, basil, wine, water and tomato sauce. Cover tightly and simmer about 1 1/4 hours. Add carrots cut in half lengthwide, whole onions, potatoes cut in half and the green beens. Cover tightly and simmer about 35 - 40 minutes. Makes about 6 servings.
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| Posted: Thu Mar 31st, 2011 12:08 am |
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3rd Post |
Vargr
Vargr
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Count this wuffy in!
Vargr will add a recipe here from his mom's "Searchlight Recipe Book" (C) 1931. And wuff will "play fair", which means no recipes that involve chasing down the chicken in the back yard, and how to tell a good young one from an older roasting bird (yes, that's in this book), nor such popular dishes as "fried squirrel", "squirrel stew", "creamed brains", or "mutton loaf". (Sounds rather like the menu from a tavern in one of Melchar's games, doesn't it?)
Wuffy will try to stick with something more readily available in today's markets, and one Vargr is actually interested in tasting (though wuff DOES wonder what squirrel tastes like now!).
[Edit]
Allrighty! Whittled down the list of recipe candidates, and the "winner" is:
(Note: The following recipe is copied directly from the cook book. READ IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH BEFORE STARTING! There are some "surprises" in the instructions. Unlike most of this wuff's recipes, this one presumes you have done some prep steps they don't include until time to actually use the ingredient (like steaming the 3/4 C of rice!). If you wait until reading that line to do it, the rest of the dish is going to get cold!)
Yorkshire Country Captain
1 Three-pound chicken
2 Cups Chicken stock, or 2 Cups Water and 2 Bouillon Cubes
3 Onions, thinly sliced
3/4 Cup Rice
1/4 Cup Finely Minced Onion
3/4 Cup Finely Minced Salt Pork
2 Tablespoons Butter (or Butter Substitute)
24 Almonds
2 Cups Canned Peas
Salt, Pepper, Curry Powder
Flour
Cut chicken in pieces. Dredge with salt, pepper, curry powder and flour. Fry minced onion and pork until golden brown. Add chicken. Brown slowly. Add stock or water and bouillon cubes. Cover. Simmer slowly until chicken is tender. Remove chicken. Combine butter or butter substitute and 2 Tablespoons flour. Add to chicken broth. Cook, stirring constantly, until smooth. Arrange chicken on a platter. Cover with gravy. Garnish with sliced onions which have been fried until golden brown, shredded almonds which have been toasted in melted butter, peas, and steamed rice. Serve at once.
Last edited on Thu Mar 31st, 2011 07:09 pm by Vargr
____________________
We grow not old, so long as we continue to chase our dreams.
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| Posted: Fri Apr 1st, 2011 04:39 pm |
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4th Post |
Melchar
Administrator
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Okay - for the 'old' part, this is a medieval stew [called 'rota'] that dates from at -least- the 1200's in France. Research shows that it originates in a middle eastern recipe from even earlier [called 'hubaishiyya']. I have made this stew before [for extra credit in a medieval studies class I took -> and fed the whole class & teacher].
ingrediants:
1 chicken, cut into pieces for stewing
1 medium onion - diced into 1-inch sections
carrots, [I prefer them peeled] & cut into thumb-sized sections, 1-2 bunches
2 tsp salt
½ tsp each of = ground cinnamon, cumin, coriander, and crushed pepper corns
1 cup walnuts
2 cups of [any kind of] raisins
2 T vinegar
Put in pot and cover with water, bring to boil, stir and lower heat and cook together for roughly 90 minutes - stir occasionally.
<<Increase cook time to 2 hours if you add 1 cup of optional barley>>
When dishing up stew, sprinkle each serving with 1 tsp of dried mint
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| Posted: Mon Apr 25th, 2011 12:13 am |
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5th Post |
Vargr
Vargr
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Captain, my Captain!
Wuffy tried out that Country Captain chicken tonight. Here's the details and the result!
~~~~~~
The prep:
The original recipe left quite a few things to the imagination, and omitted some crucial sequences for the steps. Wuffy had to bring in his own measurements for the flour, curry powder, salt, pepper, and some other items.
It also omitted a few steps wuff will be adding next time, such as draining the salt pork (bacon) and minced onion. Finally, next time Vargr will know how soon to start the various steps to make sure everything comes out hot at the same time, and plates together without waiting on something or other.
For instance, cooking down that much onions to "golden brown" takes about 20-30 minutes and a BIG skillet! There's no way to rush them, or they'll char in places and the flavor profile chances. Wuff already had some extra rice in the fridge, but making that from scratch (not "minute" type) would also be a timing factor.
Also, Vargr was out of canned peas, so made some frozen peas on the stove to take their place (were VERY good, actually!). Wuffy will add those steps to the "revised" version.
Finally, wuffy started this far too late in the evening, so Vargr altered things to make the chicken part in the pressure cooker. MAJOR success there! Cut the over-all time enormously, and the result was superb!
Wuff also replaced the salt pork with thick-cut bacon (was out of salt pork), and the minced onions with minced shallots (ran out of onion). Vargr thinks that actually improved the results.
For the "choose your own" spices, wuff used 1.5 heaping teaspoons of Garam Masala, 3 teaspoons of red curry powder, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and about 4-5 tablespoons of flour. This made up the flour dredge.
However, the Garam Masala was rather prominent in the result, and the curry flavor barely noticeable. Next time, wuff will reduce the Garam to about 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon, and increase the red curry powder by another heaping teaspoon.
Lastly, Vargr added 1/2 C of white wine instead of using entirely chicken stock for the liquid. The hope was to "cute" the fat a little with the acid and lightness of the wine. It worked! But could be taken a little farther (was still very rich). A bit more "brightness" might help with all the butter and fat, so next time wuff will use a slightly dryer wine, and go with a whole cup.
~~~~~
The Verdict:
Yum! Yummy yum yum yum!
Lots of flavor! Great mixture of tastes and texture. Will definitely be making this again, with some (minor) alterations. The Pressure Cooker version was a huge success too - cut the total cooking time for the chicken by more than half (20 minutes from 'working pressure' to 'done').
The result was sweeter than wuff expected; because of the very large amount of well-cooked, golden brown onions and the peas. And it is very, VERY rich! Wuff was full after only one helping.
The pros: Tender, juicy, rich, flavorful! The curry adds some excellent complexity, but it's a background note - not prominent. Between all the onions, fried bacon (salt pork) and other elements, this has more flavor than many recipes of its age. (A lot just relied on salt and pepper, and were served along side other elements.) The browned onions are great! And the gravy is superb, though definitely "rustic" with lots of lumpy bits from the minced onions, chicken bits, and bacon. This isn't your silky, smooth, elegant gravy, by any means. But the flavor is WOW!
The cons: This recipe is a great example of why "modern" cooks tend to revise older recipes to make them lighter, and cut some of the fat! Between the salt pork (bacon), chicken fat, and butter in this recipe, there's enough fat there to grease a Buick! *grins* The last step in the recipe was to add yet another 2 tablespoons of butter with flour to the broth and juices to make the gravy. But even after using a gravy separator to skim a lot of the fat off the top, there was so much left that wuffy just made a flour/water slurry and used that instead of adding yet more butter.
Next time wuffy does this, he'll employ some modern cooking techniques to cut the fat further, and to re-use some of the flavorful fat instead of adding additional.
Also, cooking the bacon (salt pork) and minced onion first, then adding the chicken to brown in that, was about to cause the onion and browned bits in the bottom of the pan to burn. Wuff will definitely be revising the order of those steps somewhat.
Finally, this is NOT a "one pan" dish! This will use up all the burners and multiple pots and pans to finish the dish. It's certainly worth it! But not a dish casually entered into with expectations of simple prep and quick clean up. This is a dish that needs some attention and a little multi-tasking to finish properly. But you will be well rewarded by it.
Finally the presentation would be great for a big "family around the table" event. It makes a huge platter full of food! Served with some dinner rolls and a salad, wuff could just visualize this heaping lovely platter near the head of the table, surrounded by 3-4 kids, Mom and Dad, all ready to dig in! In wuffy's household, with each person serving themselves from the different items, this presentation is a bit overwhelming. Still, it looks lovely, smells great, and tastes wonderful! So the serving style isn't bad if you have the right setting to do that. Just make sure you have a BIG platter, as even the largest "normal" place setting is going to have peas rolling off the sides and across the table with every vibration.
~~~~~
Vargr will be posting the "modernized", pressure-cooker version of this recipe soon, with more easily-followed flows and some technique and ingredient alterations. Give it a try for a big family event or gathering, and you'll be glad you did! It makes a wonderful "centerpiece" for a family-style supper.
____________________
We grow not old, so long as we continue to chase our dreams.
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