Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Pioneer Woman

A woman returns to her roots after years of living in one of the United State’s major regions. She meets the man of her dreams, falls in love, and lives a life that is both unexpected and full of joy. Then she decides to blog about it.

It happened to Ree Drummond, too.

I discovered The Pioneer Woman about the time I made my move from almost two decades in New England back to the Midwest. I identified with her transition from a metropolitan life in Los Angeles to her family home in Oklahoma. Her love story of how she met her husband, a rancher she calls The Marlboro Man, and her new life among the cattle gave me hope that my new life would bring happiness, adventure, and, perhaps, love.

It did. (Does that make me The Prairie Woman?)

So I was excited when Ree’s turn came on Gourmet Live list of 50 Women Game-Changers in the food world that I and a number of fellow food bloggers are paying tribute to by posting a recipe from each on Fridays. My sweetheart, Michael, and I enjoy a number of her recipes. Like her Marlboro Man, my love likes simple, straight-forward food that isn’t fussy or exotic. We are fans of her chicken fried steak, and her pot roast recipe is a Sunday staple.

For this week’s post, I decided to try one of her sweet recipes—Citrus Butter Cookies. I changed it a little. First, I was short on the zest—I ran out of fruit! My grater didn’t seem to get as much zest from each lemon, lime and orange as I expected. (A microplane is on my Christmas list.) That meant I didn’t sprinkle any zest on the top. And I didn’t use the egg white in the glaze frosting. I forgot. It happens. I was having one of “those days.”

The cookies taste wonderful—dense, moist, and buttery, with just a hint of citrus flavor. I think these will be this year’s Christmas cookie-of-choice, perhaps topped with red and green sugar crystals.

Another Pioneer Woman recipe to add to my list of favorites!

Citrus Butter Cookies

From Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman

2 cups (4 sticks) salted butter, softened

1-1/2 cup sugar
2 whole large eggs, separated
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons orange, lemon, and lime zest (approx 1 tablespoon each)
2 tablespoons orange, lemon, and/or lime juice (2 tablespoons total)

Icing
3 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
2 tablespoons orange, lemon, and lime zest
Juice of 1/2 lime
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Dash of salt
Extra zest, for decorating

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar until combined. Add egg yolks and mix until combined (set whites aside for the icing.) Add the zest and the flour and mix until just combined, then add juice and mix until combined.

Scoop out heaping teaspoons of dough, then roll them into balls between your hands. Place on a cookie sheet and bake for 13 minutes. Remove from the oven and keep on the cookie sheet for 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the pan with a spatula and allow to cool completely before icing.

To make the icing, combine 1 egg white with the rest of the icing ingredients. Whisk thoroughly until combined, adding either more powdered sugar or more juice until it reaches a pourable but still thick consistency.

Drizzle the icing across the cookies in several lines, then do it again in the other direction. Sprinkle with extra zest before the icing sets.

Here are my fellow food bloggers. Be sure to check them out!

Val - More Than Burnt Toast
Joanne - Eats Well With Others
Taryn - Have Kitchen Will Feed
Susan - The Spice Garden
Claudia - A Seasonal Cook in Turkey
Heather - girlichef
Miranda - Mangoes and Chutney
Jeanette - Healthy Living
April - Abby Sweets
Katie - Making Michael Pollan Proud
Mary - One Perfect Bite
Kathleen -Bake Away with Me
Viola - The Life is Good Kitchen
Sue - The View from Great Island
Barbara - Movable Feasts
Kathleen - Gonna Want Seconds
Amy - Beloved Green
Jeanette - Healthy Living
Linda - Ciao Chow Linda

Nancy - Picadillo
Veronica - My Catholic Kitchen
Mireya - My Healthy Eating Habits

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Mamaw’s Recipe Box #3: Apple Crisp

I hate being sick! Especially when the illness is caused by an annoying cold virus that hangs on and on and on…zapping all my energy and creating coughing spasms in the middle of the night. For more than a week now I have done only the minimum amount required to make it through the day. Thank goodness I have a sweet and loving fiancé who watches out for me and makes sure I rest even when I try to force myself not to. (Thank you, Michael. I love you!)

Yesterday I finally felt like heading into the kitchen to cook something more than a pot of tea or a heated-up can of soup. I was in the mood for something simple and comforting, so I turned to my grandmother’s recipe box once again.

This apple crisp recipe is one I remember both Mamaw and Mom making throughout my childhood. It does not contain some of the ingredients most people associate with a crisp, such as brown sugar and/or oatmeal in the topping. Instead it has just the basics—apples, butter, white sugar, cinnamon and flour. That’s it!

Mamaw’s directions included “bake slowly, uncovered, until apples are tender.” No oven temperature and no time limit! I looked up some other crisp recipes and settled on 350 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes.

The crisp is warm and bubbly. I like it with vanilla ice cream, but I remember my dad eating it with a splash of milk on top. Cream (both whipped and un-whipped) would be nice, too. (Note: If the apples you are using are very sweet, you might want to decrease the amount of sugar in the topping by 1/4 cup so the whole crisp isn’t too sweet.)

Apple Crisp

4 cups sliced apples

7 tablespoons cold butter
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup flour

Cut apples into 1/4-inch slices. Butter a baking dish, put in apples and pour over the water and cinnamon.

Work together the sugar, flour and butter until crumbly and spread over the apples.

Bake slowly, uncovered, until apples are tender. [350 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes.] Serve while warm with whipped cream [or ice cream, milk, or un-whipped cream.]

Friday, October 14, 2011

How to Be a Foodie

I so wanted to create a recipe from this week’s selection from the Gourmet Live list of 50 Women Game-Changers in the food world that I and a number of fellow food bloggers are paying tribute to by posting a recipe from each on Fridays. Today’s spotlight is on Pim Techamuanvivit, author of The Foodie Handbook and her blog, Chez Pim.

Unfortunately article deadlines and a virus I caught from the preschoolers I teach in my non-writing life got in the way.

I did read Pim’s book. I almost didn’t. In the first chapter, How to Eat Like a Foodie, she comes across as a food snob by slamming fast food, and then making it sound like three-star restaurants are the only ones worth trying. (She gives tips on how to not be intimidated when you go into one.)

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m a food snob about a lot of things, too. I think every foodie is in one way or another. We love exceptional food! I will only eat real maple syrup that actually came out of a sugar maple tree, and I will only drink coffee from bags, not cans—fair trade and organic, if possible. I believe that local food is better than stuff shipped from across the country, and organic produce and dairy are better than conventional.

But, on the flip side, I do enjoy fast food. I prefer buying it from a local restaurant, but I will eat a McDonald’s quarter pounder or a Wendy’s spicy chicken sandwich when the craving strikes. Perhaps it’s because I’m old enough to remember when going to a fast food restaurant was a treat and adventure instead of an everyday event. A trip to McDonald’s was a special occasion, which made my little cheeseburger and bag of fries taste gourmet. And this was in the days before the Happy Meal hit the market. And while I enjoy three-star restauants, I think local diners and cafes are just as wonderful.

However, I’m glad I kept reading Pim’s book, because there is a lot in it with which I agree. Especially in her section where she lists 50 things every foodie should do or try once in their lifetime: Find your signature dish. Learn to make perfect pie crust (stay tuned for a future blog on that topic.) Eat a perfect peach. Try stinky cheese. Go native (food, that is!) Spend a week in New Orleans (a dream of mine.) Learn how to cook your mom’s or dad’s best dish. And on and on. The list was both inspiring and brought back some lovely memories.

So I changed my mind about Pim and her Foodie Handbook, and I’m looking forward to giving her recipes a try sometime. Read her book and decided for yourself. In the meantime, here is a list of my fellow food bloggers so you can check out their experiences with Pim’s recipes.

Nancy - Picadillo

Before I got sick, I did post a cookbook review and a terrific pumpkin muffin recipe on my food-travel blog, Midwest Life and Cuisine. You can check it out here.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Because It's Sunday

Because it’s Sunday…

And because my sweetheart and I never eat bananas fast enough…

I made Banana Nut muffins.

Joy of Cooking Banana Nut Muffins

Makes 12 muffins

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a standard 12-muffin pan or line with paper liners.
Whisk together thoroughly:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat flour or wheat bran

2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Stir in:

2/3 cup chopped walnuts

Whisk together in a large bowl:

1 large egg
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/3 cups mashed ripe bananas (2 to 3)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Add the flour mixture and fold just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not overmix; the batter shouldn't be smooth. Divide the batter equally among the muffin cups.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in 1 or 2 of the muffins comes out clean, 14 to 16 minutes. Let cool for 2 to 3 minutes before removing from the pan. If not serving hot, let cool on a rack. Serve preferably the day they are baked.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Clotilde Dusoulier's Honey Spice Loaf

In the beginning, there was Clotilde Dusoulier.

The beginning of food blogging, that is. And no, she was not the first, but she’s considered one of the best. Her blog, Chocolate & Zucchini, has been around since 2003, and since then she has authored a number of cookbooks, including one named after her blog.

I first heard about Clotilde a number of years ago, but I never got around to investigating her blog. What a mistake! Thank goodness she was this week's selection from the Gourmet Live list of 50 Women Game-Changers in the food world that I and a number of fellow food bloggers are paying tribute to by posting a recipe from each on Fridays. (See the list below.) I enjoyed getting to know this young Parisian who discovered her love of food while living in the San Francisco Bay area for two years after college. She returned to France and continued to pursue her food passion. And then she started to share it with all of us.

The recipe I chose for this week was Clotilde’s Pain D’Epice—Honey Spice Loaf. It is a cake common to the honey producing areas of France that is full of warm spices. It reminds me a lot of gingerbread, but with a delicate sweetness and very moist crumb from the honey. Some friends who tried the cake thought it would taste even better with some fruit included—apple or raisins. Clotilde suggests candied ginger or orange peel. I liked it just the way it is, but I do think raisins would be nice. (As you can see, it got a little too dark on top--I'm off to buy an oven thermometer this weekend!)

Since honey takes center stage in this recipe, it is important to use a good one. This is not the time for the one in the plastic bear-shaped squirt bottle. I used a local honey I purchased at last Saturday’s farmer’s market.

Clotilde recommends making the cake a day ahead to give the honey and spices “time to bloom.” She also says the taste varies depending on how thin or thick you slice the cake. Test it out to discover your favorite slice. She likes to eat it toasted alongside a pear, but she said many people eat it with butter. I enjoyed it all by itself as well as toasted with butter.

Pain D’Epice
(Honey Spice Loaf)

Serves 10

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil to grease the pan
1 1/2 cups milk
2/3 cup honey
1/3 cup mild-flavored dark molasses
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 teaspoons French four-spice mix (or 1/2 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, and ground ginger)
Optional: 1/4 cup finely diced candied ginger or 1/4 cup finely diced candied orange peel, or a mix of the two.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with oil, and line the bottom with parchment paper.

Combine the milk, honey and molasses in a small saucepan. Set over medium heat and heat the mixture without boiling, stirring with a spatula until dissolved. Set aside and let cool as you go on with the recipe.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. In a small bowl, combine the ginger and/or orange peel, if using, with 2 teaspoons of the flour mixture and set aside.

Form a well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour in the milk mixture slowly and whisk in a circular motion, starting from the center, until all the flour has been incorporated—the batter will be thin. Fold in the ginger and/or orange peel, if using. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the surface is brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Transfer to a rack to cook for 20 minutes. Run a knife along the sides of the pan to loosen the loaf, and unmold. Let cool completely, wrap in foil, and let rest at room temperature until the next day.

Here are my fellow food bloggers. Be sure to check them out!

Nancy - Picadillo

Friday, September 30, 2011

French Soda Bread?

So what does soda bread have to do with Dorothy Hamilton, the founder of The French Culinary Institute and this week’s selection from the Gourmet Live list of 50 Women Game-Changers in the food world? Stick with me and I’ll explain, though this is the first week since I joined the group of food bloggers who are paying tribute to the list by posting a recipe from each woman on Fridays that the person we are acknowledging doesn’t have a lot of recipes from which to select.

It seems that Ms. Hamilton was so busy establishing one of the world’s most premier culinary schools, which has evolved from The French Culinary Institute she stared in 1984 to the current International Culinary Center, that she didn’t have time to write a cookbook! I guess building culinary programs in New York, San Francisco, and Italy tends to keep a person busy, not to mention winning awards such as a Silver Spoon award from Food Arts magazine; the 2006 and 2010 IACP Award of Excellence for Vocational Cooking School; Chevalier du Mérite Agricole (Agricultural Merit Knighthood) from the French government; a knighting by the Association Internationale de Maîtres Conseil dans la Gastronomie Française; the Outstanding American Educator Award from Madrid Fusion, the Diplôme d’Honneur of the Vatel Club des Etats-Unis, and Dame de l’Anée of the Académie Culinaire de France in 2006.

What’s a food blogger to do when her subject was too busy training exceptional chefs to write down some recipes? (There are a few out there, but not many.) Well, this food blogger turned to a member of the FCI’s faculty.

I first heard about FCI as a fan of chef Jacques Pepin. He is the Dean of Special Programs and considered one of the best known culinary teachers in the world.

And so, that is how soda bread became today’s recipe. I first saw Chef Pepin make this with his daughter, Claudine, on a television cooking show they did together, and I have used it ever since. When you want fresh bread with a meal but don’t have the time to go through the kneed, rise, kneed, rise process, this bread comes together in minutes, though it does take a while to bake. Ironically, it's not a true soda bread. Chef Pepin replaced the buttermilk and baking soda with regular milk and baking powder. No matter…the results are delicious. (And it makes great toast the next morning! I like it with orange marmalade.)

Soda Bread

From Cooking with Claudine by Jacques Pepin

Serves 6 to 8

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cups milk

1/2 teaspoon canola oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Reserve 1 teaspoon of the flour, and combine the remaining flour with the salt and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Add the milk, and mix gently and quickly with a wooden spatula until the mixture forms into a solid mass.

Oil an aluminum nonstick baking sheet with the canola oil, and place the dough on the sheet. Using a piece of plastic wrap, press and mold the dough to create a round loaf about 7 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick. Sprinkle the reserved teaspoon of flour on top of the load and, using a serrated knife, make two intersecting 1/4-inch-deep cuts across the top surface of the loaf to create a cross.

Place a stainless steel bowl upside down over the bread, and place it in the 425-degree oven for 30 minutes. Uncover, and cook at the same temperature for another 30 minutes. [In my oven it only took another 20 minutes, so keep an eye on the bread.]

Using a hamburger spatula, remove the bread from the baking sheet, and set it aside to cool on a rack for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving. [I only waited about 10 minutes—I was in a hurry!]

Here are my fellow food bloggers. Be sure to check them out!

Nancy - Picadillo

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Cowboy Cookies

Ever since I joined a group of food bloggers (see their links below) to pay tribute to the Gourmet Live list of 50Women Game-Changers in the food world by posting a recipe from each on Fridays, I seem to learn something new about the food world every week.

This week I discovered dessert queen Maida Heatter—and the best oatmeal cookies I’ve ever tasted!

Maida went from jewelry designer to restaurateur (with her husband, Ralph), to cookbook author. Her culinary training came from her mother, reading cookbooks, and her own kitchen trials. Perhaps that’s why her recipes are detailed and easy to follow. And if you need a dessert recipe, chances are Maida has the perfect one in the pages of her numerous cookbooks.

I love these Colorado Cowboy Cookies. According to Maida, in Colorado, any oatmeal cookie that contains chocolate chips is called a cowboy cookie. She also said these crispy cookies will keep well in a cookie jar. (If mine every make it to the cookie jar!)

Colorado Cowboy Cookies

From Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Chocolate Desserts
Makes 36 cookies

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 pound (1 stick) sweet butter [I used unsalted butter and it worked fine.]
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1 cup quick-cooking or regular rolled oats [I used the regular.]
3 ounces (1/2 cup) semisweet chocolate morsels
2 ounces (generous 1/2 cup) walnuts or pecans, cut or broken into medium-size pieces (I used walnuts.)

Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with aluminum foil.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and set aside. In the large bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter. Add the vanilla and then both sugars and beat well. Add the egg and beat well. On low speed gradually add the sifted dry ingredients and beat, scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula, until incorporated.

Remove the bowl from the mixer. Stir in the oats and then the chocolate morsels and nuts. Transfer to small bowl for ease in handling. (The dough will be rather stiff.) [I did not do this—wasn’t necessary.]

Use a well-rounded (slightly less than heaping) teaspoonful of the dough to make each cookie. Place the mounds 2 inches apart on the aluminum foil. Bake for about 18 minutes until the cookies are golden-colored and completely dry. [Note: The cookies only took 12 minutes to bake in my oven, so be sure to check on the first batch often to determine how long to leave them in!] During baking reverse the sheets top to bottom and front to back to insure even browning.

If you bake only one sheet at a time, bake on the upper rack.

With a wide metal spatula transfer the cookies to racks to cool. When completely cool, store them airtight.

Here are my fellow food bloggers. Be sure to check them out!

Nancy - Picadillo

Friday, September 16, 2011

Discovering The Silver Palate Cookbook

Ever since I began food writing more than a decade ago, I’ve heard of The Silver Palate Cookbook. Fellow foodies would talk in hushed, reverent tones about the treasures to be found inside. I would pretend to agree with them, all the while hiding my secret—I didn’t own a copy of the book.

Then I joined the group of food bloggers (see their links below) who are paying tribute to the Gourmet Live list of 50 Women Game-Changers in the food world. Each Friday we post a recipe from a woman on the list, and this week’s selection was Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, the authors of The Silver Palate Cookbook and owners of the well-known gourmet food shop by the same name that closed in the 1990s.

So off I went to my wonderful local library (any library that also has a coffee shop has to be wonderful!) for a copy of the cookbook. And I’m glad I did. The book is beautiful to look at with vivid color images and an easy-to-read recipe layout. In fact, there were so many recipes I wanted to try, my very own copy of the cookbook is on its way from Amazon.com.

Last weekend I went to Missouri to visit my family. Since I wanted to take a dessert for dinner, I chose Bishop’s Cake from the cookbook. The cake is made in a bundt pan and has a pound cake consistency. I just dusted the top with confectioner’s sugar. It tastes lovely as is, but would also be good with a raspberry sauce or as the base for strawberry shortcake. Chocolate sauce would also be a nice addition.

Bishop’s Cake

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the pan

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus extra for flouring the pan
2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
5 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.

Cream the butter in a mixing bowl and add the sugar gradually; beat until light and fluffy.

Sift the flour and add to the butter mixture. Stir just enough to blend. Add the lemon juice and vanilla; stir well. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 1 hour. (After 30 minutes, cover the cake closely with aluminum foil.)

When the cake is done, cool in its pan on a cake rack for 20 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely.

Here are my fellow food bloggers. Be sure to check them out!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Family Recipe File Banana Bread

Yesterday my sweetheart, Michael, and I went to visit my parents at the family farm in Hughesville, Missouri. The farm has been in my family since 1909. Mom and Dad have lived there for the past 20 or so years, but when I was growing up, my grandparents called it home.

I loved visiting Mamaw and Papaw on the farm. While Papaw spent his days out in the fields, I would spend my time with Mamaw, usually in the kitchen. As I mentioned in a past blog, Mamaw was a great cook, but she hated it! Since part of the farmwife's job description includes cooking meals, she took on the challenge and did it well.

All the meals took place at the kitchen table. Mamaw woke up early to fix Papaw breakfast before he went out for the day. The meal usually included a small bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice (or Tang) to start, then eggs, bacon, and toast. (Farming requires a lot of fuel for the body!) She would fill up an insulated jug with ice water for Papaw to take with him out into the hot summer fields to keep him hydrated while he plowed, harvested, or fixed fences to keep in the cows.

The main meal of the day was dinner at noontime, so the preparations began early. The menu always included meat (chicken fried steak, roast beef, and hamburger patties are the ones I remember most--they ate a lot of beef since they raised the animals), a starch (either potatoes, bread, or elbow macaroni cooked in broth) and a vegetable or two from Mamaw’s stash of home-canned vegetables from the garden, which she kept on shelves in a corner of the basement. The meal also include some of her homemade pickles or pickled beets. Dessert was often a dish of ice cream, a piece of banana bread or spice cake, or a piece of pie (usually for Sunday dinner.) Iced tea was the beverage.

Supper was usually a simple meal of sandwiches (peanut butter and tomato, anyone!) or hamburgers. The real treat about supper was getting to eat potato chips and drink pop (soda for your east coasters.)

Mamaw died last December. She was 96 years old and had left the farm long ago—in the early 1980s when Papaw’s health made living so far outside of town a bad idea. After Papaw passed away in 1986, she moved into an assisted living facility that provided meals. No more cooking! She was glad to leave the food preparations to someone else.

Mamaw gave me what is one of my most prized possessions—her recipe box. It is full of her best-known dishes, and some I don’t remember ever trying. They are written in her neat a flowing handwriting, of which she took great pride. Most of them include short notations on what she thought of the dish (good, very good, excellent, etc) and usually the source of the recipe, such as a friend, relative, newspaper, or product packaging.

The box also contains other interesting tidbits, such as a list of all the fruits and vegetables she and her friend Velma Drake canned and froze in 1971. The list includes 114 pints of green beans, 42 pints of strawberry preserves, 40 pints of dill pickles, 32 pints of applesauce, and 19 pints of tomato juice.

I’ve decided to work my way through the recipe box and try them all—and share her and the results with you.

I started with this Banana Bread recipe, which I use all of the time. Mamaw notes it came from Mrs. L. F. Raabe, who I don’t remember meeting but probably did. She also wrote that the recipe was “good” and underlined the word—a sign she really liked it! Michael was happy I made it since banana bread is one of his favorite things.

Yield: 1 loaf

Author: Linda Ditch

Banana Bread

Old-fashioned goodness from my grandmother's recipe file.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Crisco [I used unsalted butter]
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 ripe bananas
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup nuts

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray and set aside. (325 degrees for a glass loaf pan.)
Cream sugar and shortening with a mixer or by hand. Beat eggs and add to sugar and shortening. Dissolve soda in a little warm water and add, followed by flour and salt.
Mash the banana until light and fluffy and add to batter. Add nuts.
Bake 1 hour You can cover the pan with foil if the bread begins to get too dark.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Just Who Was Elizabeth David?

When I joined the group of food bloggers (see their links below) who are paying tribute to the Gourmet Live list of 50 Women Game-Changers in the food world, the names on the list for each week were familiar to me.

Until this week.

I had never heard of Elizabeth David, much less own one of her cookbooks. (Thank goodness the local library had copies.) And then, as Fate often works in these situations, I saw Julia Child hold up this cookbook on a show about homemade English muffins. So if Julia liked her work, I was interested.

Elizabeth David brought Mediterranean cooking to the British kitchen in much the same way Julia introduced Americans to French cuisine. She was both adventurous and aristocratic, as well as not being very concerned about the morals of the time. I read a number of British newspaper accounts of her scathing comments on bad recipes and her steamy love life. Wikipedia describes her this way, “Born to an upper-class family, David rebelled against social norms of the day. She studied art in Paris, became an actress, and ran off with a married man with whom she sailed in a small boat to Greece. They were nearly trapped by the German invasion of Greece in 1940 but escaped to Egypt where they parted. She then worked for the British government, running a library in Cairo. While there she married, but the marriage was not long lived.”

After looking through two of her cookbooks, I choose to make Omelette aux Pommes de Terre, which first requires me to make Galette de Pommes de Terre and then add eggs. I’ve made my own versions of this dish many times, which is very much like an Italian frittata. So I decided to give hers a try.

I thought it was a little bland, though my fiancé, Michael, loved it! Next time I plan to add a little onion, green pepper, and cheese to give it more flavor. (Michael is on board with my plan.) I also finished the dish off under the broiler to make sure the eggs were well cooked. (I don’t think Michael would go for wiggly eggs.)

Try the recipe out and let me know what you think. It is very easy, especially if you use a food processor to slice the potatoes. And if you think of any other ways to change it around, I’d love to hear them!

Omelette aux Pommes de Terre

From Elizabeth David Classics

The best potato omelette is made with potatoes cooked as for Galette de Pommes de Terre:

Peel about 1 1/2 lbs. of potatoes [I used Russets] and slice them very thinly and evenly. [I used a food processor.] Wash them in plenty of cold water. In a thick frying-pan heat a tablespoon of butter and one of oil (the mixture of butter and oil give a good flavour, and the oil prevents the butter from burning).

Put the potatoes into the pan and spread them evenly; season with nutmeg, salt and ground black pepper; turn the heat down as soon as they start to cook, cover the pan and leave them cooking gently for 15 minutes; by this time the under surface will be browned and the potatoes coagulated in such a way as to form a pancake [this didn’t happen for me]; turn the galette over and leave the other side to brown for 3 or 4 minutes.

For the Omelette:

When the galette is ready add a little butter to the pan and let it run round the edges; pour in 4 or 5 beaten eggs and shake the pan so that the eggs cook; turn the omelette out flat, like a Spanish tortilla. [I finished it under the broiler and served it in the pan. Ms. David would probably be horrified!]

Here are my fellow food bloggers. Be sure to check them out!