In addition to cooking classes here at the Candlelight Inn, I am going to give a few Community Education Courses.  If you areinterested, please sign up.

Thanksgiving 2012

As we prepare for the great Thanksgiving feast, take a look backover our dining history. If, as Brillat-Savarin has said so famously, “You are what you eat,” the history of the American people can be revealed by the history of the foods they have and are eating. From the inception of the Jamestown colony in Virginia through the end of the first decade of the 21st century, we have shown profoundly how we have changed and what we’ve become, step by step, by the foods that we eat and even more by the style in which we eat.


From the beginning of colonization by Europeans in the new world, the character of the men and women who came to these shores was the defining characteristic that made America the greatest and most powerful country in the world. The great majority were men of morality and vision; a sturdy breed with a natural inventiveness, independence and courage. Above all, they were people of faith who depended on and credited God with their destiny. With all the natural resources: fertile soil, lush grasses, thick forests, coal and iron; the bison, bears, wildcats, foxes, elk, deer, beavers, birds and water fowl of every description, and the fish that teemed in its great clear and uncontaminated rivers, it wasn’t long before a bounteous American cuisine came into being.

That does not mean, of course, that the earliest white men who came to America’s shores were well-fed and prosperous from the start. As we have all learned in grade school, the pilgrims and other first settlers almost starved to death the first winter they were here. Only because of the Indians showing them how to plant corn and how to hunt wild fowl, such as turkeys, did they survive. It is not only a true story, but a deeply symbolic one as well that they shared their provisions with each other at the feast of Thanksgiving, that first harvest year.

A great deal of our food tradition emanating from these early settlers is English in nature, as it would necessarily be. Although the earliest settlers, both in New England and in Virginia had sparse provisions after crossing the Atlantic (none of the sea vessels were adequately stocked with food), it was not long before the provisions started coming. Rev. Francis Higginson, the first minister at Salem wrote,

Before you come, be careful to be strongly instructed what things are fittest to bring with you for your more comfortable passage at sea, as also for your husbandry occasions when you come to the land. For when you are once parted with England you shall meete neither markets nor fayres to buy what you want. Therefore be sure to furnish yourselves with things fitting to be had before you come: as meale for bread, malt for drinke, woolen and linnen cloath, and leather for shoes, and all manner of carpenters tools, and a great deal of iron and steele to make nails, and locks for houses, and furniture for ploughs and carts, and glasse for windows, and many other things which were better for you to think of there than to want them here.” He next set down a catalog of necessary victuals per person for the first year, viz.: “8 Bushels of meale, 2 Bushels of pease, 2 Bushels of Otemeale, 1 Gallon of Aquavitae, 1 Gallon of Oyle, 2 Gallons of, Vinegar, 1 Firkin of Butter; also Cheese, Bacon, Sugar, Pepper, Cloves, Mace, Cinnamon, Nutmegs and Fruit.”

The English were not the only people to come, however. Throughout the colonies there was a mixture of people from Western Europe. There were the Dutch along the Hudson, the French in the Carolinas and the Swedes on the Delaware. Danes, Germans, Portuguese, Italians and Jews mingled with the Dutch along the Hudson Valley even in the early days of the colony of New Amsterdam. All of these ethnic groups contributed their cuisines to early America but it was the English that set the foundation of the new “American” cuisine and we still see that influence in many of our national dishes.

The New Englanders were an industrious group. They were extremely independent in nature, as is illustrated by the huge risk they took coming to this country in the first place. After a very few years of hardship and lack, they learned the pattern of the seasons and began to produce recipes we use today. Foods which spring from the Indian “corn” or maize, the exclusively new world poultry—the turkey—as well as shellfish, cod, mackerel, lobster and crabs formed their daily diet.

Cooking as we know it was, of course, unknown. Recipes or “receipts” were vague—most people learned to cook by watching their mothers. Terms like “butter as big as a walnut” or “a piece of fresh butter” were used and everyone presumably knew how much that was. Most of the colonial recipes were word of mouth or hand-written slips of paper; we don’t find actual printed cookbooks until the 18th century and these are very rare. Some cookbooks from the 18th century were published in England such as Hanna Glaffe’s, The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, 7th ed. (London, 1760) from which this Ginger-Bread Cake recipe comes:

Take three pounds of flour, one pound of sugar, one pound of butter rubbed in very fine, two ounces of ginger beat fine, a large nutmeg grated; then take a pound of treacle, a quarter of a pint of cream, make them warm together, and make up the bread stiff; roll it out, and make it up into thin cakes, cut them out with a tea-cup, or small glass, or roll them round like nuts, and bake them on tin plates in a slack oven.

After a shaky start, New England colonies had recipes that are still made and are delicious. They raised orchards of apples and pears, used the wild grape and cranberries to make preserves and made wonderful cheeses from their dairy herds. They adapted to the more plentiful wild game before their herds of domestic cattle grew large enough to slaughter for beef and made old English dishes to suit their native tastes.

Even in winter, the sea provided an abundance of fish and shellfish for their suppers. This abundant seafood was often made into chowders. As soon as the ships were commonly making their runs around the Horn to China, exotic spices were brought home, adding flair to many dishes; among them, turmeric, ginger, peppercorns, cinnamon and cloves.

Molasses from the West Indies (sometimes referred to as treacle), maple syrup and wild bee’s honey were used to make the many sweets that Americans have loved right from the beginning.

They also learned to make notable dishes from native foods which were indigenous to the new world such as elderberries, dandelions, wild turkey, quail, pumpkins, cranberries, and, of course, corn. There were some “new” foods, too that became popular. All of them originated in the new world, but the colonists didn’t use them until they had crossed the Atlantic and come back again.

After much trial and error the colonists of New England grew accustomed to corn, squash, pumpkins, some seafood, wild turkey, maple sugar, cider vinegar, an abundance of game such as ducks, geese, passenger pigeons and wild swans. Many of the wild game birds and meats were tough and every region of early colonists had its one-pot cooking recipe to tenderize them: New England boiled dinner; New Amsterdam (later New York) Hutspot; Pennsylvania Dutch Sauerbraten; and Southern Brunswick stew or burgoo.

Some (still) very popular recipes from the New England Colonists follow:

Indian Pudding

3 cups milk
½ cup molasses
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
½ tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. butter

In saucepan mix milk and molasses; stir in cornmeal, ginger, cinnamon and salt. Cook and stir till thick, about 10 minutes. Stir in butter. Turn into a 1-quart casserole. Bake, uncovered, at 300 degrees about 1 hour. Serves 6.

Baked Beans with Maple Syrup

1 ½ pounds dry navy beans (3 ¾ cups)
4 ounces salt pork, cubed
½ cup chopped onion
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup maple syrup
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dry mustard

In kettle rinse beans; add 12 cups cold water. Bring to boiling; simmer 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Cover; let stand 1 hour. (Or, add beans to water and let stand overnight.) Bring beans and water to boiling; simmer till beans are tender, about 40 minutes. Drain, reserving liquid. In 3-quart casserole or bean pot, mix beans, pork, onion, sugar, maple syrup, salt, mustard, and 1 ½ cups reserved bean liquid. Cover; bake at 300 degrees for 4 ½ to 5 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more reserved liquid, if needed. Serves 8.

Shrubs

My mother’s cousin was almost the exact opposite of my mother and thus fascinating to me as a child.  My mother never wore any make-up other than lipstick, Aunt (that’s what I called her) Lois always had lots of make-up and beautiful, long fingernails that looked like they were just manicured.  We didn’t have fake nails then—so it was representative of the type of life she led.  She had a husband, but she also had a wealthy “uncle” who lived with her and her family and loved to lavish things on her.  She didn’t do dishes every day or break her nails doing housework—she had help for that.

She was great at giving parties, though, and I think she did her own cooking.  I know that I loved to be invited to her house—it was always something really special; beautiful dishes, hand-embroidered table linens, crystal goblets—even for lunch.  Once when I was a very young newlywed (I married at 19) my mother and I were invited to her house for a luncheon honoring my recent wedding.  Her daughter, my cousins, my grandmother and a couple of family friends were also guests.

The table was exquisite; mostly pink—even to the crystal water goblets.  I don’t remember much of the menu but one dish stood out—a scoop of lemon sherbet served in a stemmed dessert dish with apple juice poured over it.  She called it a shrub. It was served between the first course and the entrée to “cleanse the palate” she said.  It was delightfully cool and refreshing.  The flavors really complemented each other and the apple juice poured over the sherbet made it just slightly icy which gave it a lovely texture.  Such a simple dish and I have never forgotten how good it was.

Fast forward to 1999 when Zig and I bought the Candlelight Inn Bed and Breakfast in Red Wing, MN.  I was putting together breakfast menus for a three-course breakfast: starter, entrée and dessert.  I wanted some unusual first courses that were delicious, fruity and unexpected.  Suddenly I remembered Aunt Lois’ shrub.  I really wanted some whole fruit in this course so I put together lemon sherbet, fresh pineapple tidbits and sparkling apple cider.  It was a big hit.  Actually, I have been asked for the recipe repeatedly—although it is such a simple dish that you can hardly classify it as a “recipe”.  Whenever I serve it, I explain it like this, “ A shrub is like a float except instead of soda and ice cream, it is sherbet and fruit juice at its simplest—with added whole fruit for a more complex dish.” 

People often show an interest in the origin of the shrub and since I have such an extensive cookbook collection, many of which are very old, I decided to research.  Many very old cookbooks describe a shrub as a type of homemade cordial—a fruity alcoholic drink.  From Mary Randolph’s The Virginia House-Wife, first published in 1824:

CHERRY SHRUB

Gather ripe morello cherries, pick them from the stalk, and put them in an earthen pot, which must be set into an iron pot of water; make the water boil, but take care that none of it gets into the cherries; when the juice is extracted, pour it into a bag made of tolerably thick cloth, which will permit the juice to pass, but not the pulp of your cherries; sweeten it to your taste, and when it becomes perfectly clear, bottle it—put a gill of brandy into each bottle, before you pour in the juice—cover the corks with rosin.  It will keep all summer, in a dry cool place, and is delicious mixed with water.

I couldn’t find another reference to shrubs until my Betty Crocker’s Dinner For Two, 1958 edition where on page 112 a Fruit Shrub is described as follows:

Mix equal parts of chilled pineapple and orange juice.  Top with lime sherbet and serve in individual sherbet cups.  This makes a colorful appetizer for a holiday dinner.

 

This may well be where Aunt Lois found the idea for the shrub she served us.

I have found a great many combinations for shrubs since I started with the pineapple sherbet/pineapple/sparkling cider one.  Trader Joe’s carries a variety of sparkling fruit juices:  blueberry, mandarin orange, cranberry and pomegranate.  Now I like to add blueberries to lemon sherbet and pour on sparkling apple or raspberries on raspberry sherbet with the sparkling pomegranate juice.  Tiny Clementine sections or canned mandarins are great with orange sherbet and the orange sparkler.  Wild strawberry sherbet, sweetened strawberries and either apple or cranberry juice works well; only your own imagination can limit you.  One caveat:  I don’t care for the appearance of rainbow sherbet with any juice as the liquid tends to muddy the colors.  To add to the lovely appearance of this dish, add a piece of whole fruit with a stem or a sprig of mint to the side of the stemmed dish.   

Comfort Foods Make a Comeback

Comfort foods are being featured everywhere and it’s no wonder—they are good, they are usually hearty, and most are nutritious! Comfort foods are classic foods. The definition of classic: serving as a standard of excellence; traditional. Not all comfort foods are excellent, however.

Take tuna casserole; a lot of us grew up eating it on Fridays as a stand-in for a meat dish. It seems to me that people either love it or hate it. In my family we were divided on the “classic” version i.e., canned tuna, noodles, cream of mushroom soup, canned peas—all mixed in a casserole dish and topped with crushed potato chips, then baked until hot and bubbly and topping nicely browned.

I searched until I found a version that all of us could love—after all, it is really a filling, thrifty dish worth salvaging. In the 1953 version of the famous red-plaid Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook, I found a version of tuna casserole or “hot dish” that my whole family could enjoy.

But when I unearthed this old recipe the other day, I thought it needed a face-lift to bring it up-to-date. I slimmed it down, cut out the canned varieties of foods and cooked it for a hearty lunch. Delicious! Here is the revised version:

Tuna with Cheese Swirls

1 ½ cups diced pared potatoes
1 cup diced celery
3 Tbsp. chopped onion
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp whole wheat flour
½ cup instant dry milk
1 ½ cups water
¼ cup water from vegetables
1 to 1-1/2 tsp. Lawry’s seasoned salt (or to taste)
1 small can tuna in water, drained
1 cup frozen peas
1 recipe Cheese Swirls (follows)

Cook potatoes, celery and onion in 1 cup water until almost tender, about 10 minutes; drain, reserving ¼ cup water. Heat 2 T. butter in small saucepan until melted; add flour and whisk until smooth. Add milk dissolved in 1 ½ cups water, whisking all the time. Add seasoned salt. Cook until smooth and bubbly and thickened. Pour into 10x 6 x 1 ½-inch casserole dish; add tuna, peas and vegetables. Mix well and keep warm while making cheese swirls.

Cheese Swirls

1 cup flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp. sugar
¼ cup butter
1/3 cup reconstituted dry milk
½ cup sharp cheese

Combine dry ingredients with milk. Stir just till dough follows fork around bowl. Turn out on lightly floured surface. Knead gently for 30 seconds. Roll in 6 x 10 rectangle, ¼-inch thick. Sprinkle with cheese; roll as for jelly roll, starting at narrow end. Seal edge. Cut in ½-inch slices. Place atop hot casserole. Bake in hot oven (425) for 15-20 minutes or until biscuits are done. Makes 6 servings.

Cooking Class II: Novelty Breads

The second class in bread making will focus on Novelty breads (yeast doughs for English Muffins, bagels, foccacia and much, much more.

Monday, February 27, 2012, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.  Please call 800-254-9194 or email me at lgudrais@charter.net.  We are again limiting the class to six and the price will be $35 peer person.

Leap Year

Well, ladies, here it is—the day when the tables are turned and we females can pop the question or at least do the inviting to romance the men. This calls for great celebration and drastic action. If you were disappointed with Valentine’s Day—and your sweetie didn’t come through exactly—why not show him how it’s done? Our grub club group met in February and the theme was love. The dinner was perfect and could easily be the exact prescription for a positively romantic evening for two.


The menu:

Oysters on the half-shell

Asparagus wrapped in prosciutto

An array of olives

Hearts of romaine salad with love apples (tomatoes),

Artichoke hearts and a dressing with just a hint of sweetness

Love knot rolls

Beef Wellington for two

Hazelnut topped Asparagus

Heart-shaped red velvet cake with butter cream frosting

A delicious meal and bound to set a romantic scene. It may be a little fussy, but it might be worth it. When he finishes off the last crumb of the red velvet cake, you can drop on one knee (or not) and pop the question. He won’t be able to say no.

Hearts of Romaine Salad with Sweetness dressing

Arrange the inner leaves of crisp Romaine lettuce on a chilled salad plate. Cut tomatoes through the stem into wedges that look like hearts. Arrange them on the romaine. Arrange drained marinated artichoke hearts on plates and drizzle with sweetness dressing

Sweetness dressing

1/3 cup cider vinegar
2/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
½ chopped onion
1 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper.
1 cup salad oil

Blend in a blender until well chopped. With blender running, pour oil through opening in blender cover very gradually until dressing is well emulsified.

Love Knot Rolls

1 cup regular oats
½ cup honey
2 Tbsp. butter
1 ½ tsp. salt
2 cups boiling water
1 pkg dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
¼ cup flaxseed meal
3 cups white whole wheat flour
1 ½ cups white flour
Cooking spray
1 tsp. water
1 large egg
1 Tbsp. regular oats
1 Tbsp poppy seeds
1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl and add 2 cups boiling water, stirring until well blended. Cool. Dissolve yeast in 1/3 cup warm water in small bowl; let stand 5 minutes. Add yeast mixture to oats mixture; stir well. Stir in flaxseed meal. Measure flours and add all the whole wheat flour and 1 cup of the white flour to oats mixture; stir until a soft dough forms. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes); add enough of remaining flour to prevent dough from sticking to hands. Place dough in large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise until double. Divide dough in half; cut each half into 12 equal portions. Shape each portion into an 8-inch rope. Tie each rope into a single knot; tuck top end of rope under bottom edge of roll. Place each roll on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Cover with plastic wrap coated with cooking spray; let rise for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Preheat oven to 400. Combine 1 tsp. water and egg in small bowl; brush egg mixture over rolls. Combine oats, poppy seeds and sesame seeds; sprinkle evenly over rolls. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes until golden. (Adapted from Cooking Light January/February 2008.)

Beef Wellington for Two:

1 lb fillet of beef
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
1 med. shallot peeled and chopped
2 oz. Champignon cheese, rind removed
1 sheet puff pastry

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Season beef with salt and pepper, melt butter in med-high skillet, and add the beef to brown all sides. Remove beef from skillet, add shallots, cook 6 min or until golden, stirring often. Cool slightly, then add cheese. Stir until melted, then cool.

Lightly flour a flat surface, and using a floured rolling pin, roll out the puff pastry to thin rectangle. Spread the cheese mixture on the pastry, set the beef in the middle, and wrap the beef totally within the pastry, cutting off any extra wrapping.

Place seam side down on foil covered baking sheet and brush with melted butter. Bake in oven until thermometer inserted into the beef reads at least 140 degrees (rare,) or 150 (med.) let sit 5-10 min.

For a romantic touch, cut heart shapes out of remaining pastry and place on top of the wrapped beef before it goes into the oven.

Hazelnut topped Asparagus

1 lb asparagus, trimmed
one third cups chopped hazelnuts, toasted in oven
one half cup sliced roasted red peppers
one half tsp dried thyme
2 Tbsp butter

Bring lightly salted water to a boil in a sauce pan. Add the asparagus and cook about 2 or 3 min. drain. In skillet, melt butter, add asparagus and remaining ingredients. Toss until heated through and arrange on a serving platter.

Cooking Class II: Novelty Breads

The first class went really well last Monday.  We had six participants and everyone had an enjoyable and edifying experience.

The second class in bread making will focus on Novelty breads (yeast doughs for English Muffins, bagels, foccacia and much, much more.

Monday, February 27, 2012, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.  Please call 800-254-9194 or email me at lgudrais@charter.net.  We are again limiting the class to six and the price will be $35 peer person.