Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Jamestown1630]

I've been wanting to do a thread on favorite dishes of the American States, so I'll start us off with Maryland where, despite being born in Washington, D.C., I've lived all the rest of my life.

Since 2008, the official dessert of Maryland has been the Smith Island cake:

http://msa.maryland.gov/msa/mdmanual/01glance/symbols/html/dessert.html

(It's a little difficult to parse the sentence on the website which declares Smith as "Maryland's last inhabited island, reachable only by boat". What it really means is that Smith is the last inhabited Maryland island with no land-bridge to it - one can only get there by boat. We have quite a few other inhabited islands, and perhaps too many commas ;-)

And here's the recipe (you need at least 8, and ideally 10, cake layer pans for this - no cheating, by slicing thick layers into thinner ones ;-)

http://www.smithisland.org/cakerecipe.html

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The Maryland State Crustacean is the Blue Crab - our 'Beautiful Swimmers', as the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by William Warner was entitled. And, if 'Virginia is for Lovers', then 'Maryland is for Crabs' ; though our claim to these beauties has been met with some contention lately:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crabbing-the-truth-mcauliffe-hogan-spar-over-blue-crab-origins/2015/07/29/b262d3f6-35f4-11e5-9739-170df8af8eb9_story.html

I've already admitted that I have yet to really master the Crab Cake; but I've made Crab Imperial successfully, and Bea Tom's recipe is a good one. Mrs. Toms is a beloved Maryland caterer and writer, and here is her website:

http://beatoms.com/

This recipe is adapted slightly from the Crab Imperial recipe in her book, 'Recipes from a Country Cook', which is available for sale on her website.

Be sure to pick over your crab meat very carefully, to get out every tiny bit of shell - this recipe is ruined by shoddy 'picking', as one of my restaurant experiences has proven.

Crab Imperial Bea Toms

1/4 Cup Butter

1/4 Cup Flour

2 Cups Milk

1/4 tsp. Salt

1/4 tsp. Pepper

a dash of Tabasco

1 egg yolk

2 Tb. Cream Sherry

1 Cup soft Bread Crumbs

2 tsps. finely minced Onion

2 tsps. finely minced Green Pepper

3/4 Cup Mayonnaise

1 pound back fin Crab Meat

2/3 Cup buttered Bread Crumbs

1/8 tsp. Paprika

Melt the butter and saute the onions and green peppers. Slowly add the Flour, Milk, Salt, Pepper and Egg Yolk, in that order.

Continue to stir over low heat until all is blended well.

Add Paprika, 1/4 C. of the Mayonnaise, and the soft bread crumbs.

Mix well and check the seasoning. Adjust if necessary. Remove from heat, and add Sherry. Then fold in the Crab Meat gently.

Spoon into a buttered 1-1/2 to 2 qt. casserole, and glaze the top with the remaining Mayonnaise.

Top with the buttered Bread Crumbs, and sprinkle lightly with the Paprika.

Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 30 minutes, or until things are bubbling, and the top is golden and a little crusty.

The recipe says that it should serve 6; but I would say 4 :-) For a dinner party, it's also very nice baked in individual gratin dishes, with a starch side and a wonderful salad.

-JT

[kalee]

North Carolina Atlantic Beach Pie Atlantic Beach Pie For the crust: •1 ½ sleeves of saltine crackers •⅓ to ½ cup softened unsalted butter •3 tablespoons sugar For the filling: •1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk •4 egg yolks •½ cup lemon or lime juice, or a mix of the two •Fresh whipped cream and coarse sea salt for garnish Preheat oven to 350˚. Crush the crackers finely, but not to dust. You can use a food processor or your hands. Add the sugar, then knead in the butter until the crumbs hold together like dough. Press into an 8-inch pie pan. Chill for 15 minutes, then bake for 18 minutes or until the crust colors a little. While the crust is cooling (it doesn’t need to be cold), beat the egg yolks into the milk, then beat in the citrus juice. It is important to completely combine these ingredients. Pour into the shell and bake for 16 minutes until the filling has set. The pie needs to be completely cold to be sliced. Serve with fresh whipped cream and a sprinkling of sea salt. Yields one pie.

[kalee]

North Carolina Sweet Potato Sonker Serves 12 SONKER •2 (15-ounce) boxes Pillsbury Just Unroll! Pie Crust •1 large egg, beaten •2 cups apple cider •4 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled, quartered lengthwise, and sliced ¼ inch thick •1 cup (7 ounces) packed light brown sugar •4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened •2½ tablespoons all-purpose flour •2 tablespoons lemon juice •1 teaspoon vanilla extract •¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon •½ teaspoon ground allspice •¼ teaspoon salt •1 tablespoon granulated sugar CUSTARD DIP • 2 cups whole milk •¼ cup (1¾ ounces) sugar •2 teaspoons cornstarch •¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon •1/8 teaspoon salt •1½ teaspoons vanilla extract 1. For the sonker: Working on lightly floured counter, unroll 2 dough rounds. Brush half of 1 round with egg and overlap with second round. Roll out dough to 17 by 13-inch rectangle and fit into 13 by 9-inch baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Repeat shaping and rolling with remaining 2 dough rounds; reserve beaten egg. Trim dough into rectangle and cut into ten 1-inch strips. Transfer dough strips to parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet, cover with plastic, and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 2. Meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. Bring cider to boil in Dutch oven. Place steamer basket in Dutch oven and fill with sweet potatoes. Reduce heat to medium and cook, covered, until potatoes are nearly tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Remove and reserve sweet potatoes, leaving cider in pot. 3. Cook cider over high heat until reduced to ½ cup, about 5 minutes. Combine drained sweet potatoes, brown sugar, reduced cider, butter, flour, lemon juice, vanilla, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, allspice, and salt in large bowl. Spread out sweet potato mixture on rimmed baking sheet and let cool to room temperature, about 20 minutes. 4. Scrape cooled sweet potato mixture into dough-lined dish and press into even layer. Brush edges of dough with reserved egg. With long side of dish facing you, lay 4 dough strips lengthwise over sweet potato mixture. Weave remaining 6 strips into lattice pattern. Press dough strips into bottom crust and trim excess. Fold dough sides inward under lip of baking dish and crimp with fork. 5. Combine granulated sugar and remaining ¼ teaspoon cinnamon in bowl. Brush dough with reserved egg and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake until deep golden brown, 55 to 60 minutes, rotating dish halfway through baking. Let sonker cool on wire rack for at least 1½ hours before serving. (Sonker can be refrigerated, covered, for up to 1 day. Bring to room temperature before serving.) 6. For the custard dip: Meanwhile, bring milk, sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, and salt to simmer in medium saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, whisking frequently, until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Off heat, add vanilla. Transfer to bowl and let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Serve with sonker.

[kalee]

Sorry about the formatting. I typed it with paragraphs, but they disappeared.

[Carthego delenda est]

“Cornbread, buttered, with maple syrup. With beef stew on top.”

Wow! Talk about ‘comfort food’! That sounds Sooooo good! My mouth is watering! (I haven’t had any dinner yet) That’s going to be in my head now until I make some, when I get a chance.

[Jamestown1630]

LOL!

Yes, after your explanation, I ‘get it’.

-JT

[jocon307]

“After copious amounts of alcohol”

Of course!

[Jamestown1630]

No Worries! After the first few lines, folks will wade through it happily!

I love anything N.C. - my happiest memories of Holidays come from the Outer Banks of N.C. (even though I nearly drowned there, on my first trip: I wasn’t used to that back-rush after a big storm!)

By the way: if you’re near Chapel Hill, ‘Mama Dip’s’ is a great place:

http://www.mamadips.com/

If you read this, it will give you pause and inspiration:

http://www.uncpress.unc.edu/browse/page/266

-JT

[OftheOhio]

Thanks, kalee. I spent a couple years there in my young Marine days. I miss the place greatly. Pier fishing was the cat’s meow. I had a young girlfriend, didn’t think she liked me much until she stuck her tongue down my throat at the drive-in. Yipee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm4QnobdPeQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WVMsJF5F94
haunting violin player.

[kalee]

We have eaten there. :)

[pugmama]

I live in SC and here is a version that we really like re Shrimp and Grits:

https://food52.com/recipes/17134-edna-lewis-scott-peacock-s-shrimp-grits

[pugmama]

We love this restaurant and this recipe from The Olde Pink House in Savannah Georgia. It is from Chef Vincent Burns

BLT Salad

“It’s all about Savannah — fried green tomatoes and bacon. It has that Southern twist.”

Salad

Ingredients:

2 fried green tomatoes - Soak tomatoes in buttermilk, coat in flour mixture (1/2 flour, 1/2 cornmeal, salt and pepper) and fry to golden brown.

2 pieces of applewood smoked bacon - cook with brown sugar, fold into a circle

Mixed field greens

Buttermilk thyme dressing (2 oz.)

Ingredients:

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup mayonnaise

4 ounces sour cream

1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 clove chopped garlic

1/2 teaspoon honey

salt to taste

Mixed greens in dressing

Stack salad by layering greens with tomato and bacon

Garnish last tomato with a small amount of dressing, chopped red pepper and green onion.

[ken5050]

Some really good recipes today..thanks..especially the crabcakes.

I want to turn to something very basic..yet it can make a HUGE difference in every dish..and that is MAYONNAISE

Anyone who's every made it at home, from scratch..knows that you only use egg YOLKS. That's what gives it the rich, creamy texture. All commercial brands (i.e. KRAFT) use the whole egg...yolk and white...for three reasons.

1. It keeps the price down..uses less eggs
2. this way they don't have to bother to separate the two...it's not a process that readily works on a commercial application..AND
3. they'd have to figure out what the heck to do with a gazillion eggs whites

There is ONE company.. BLUE PLATE that ONLY uses the yolks, and you can really taste the difference.

It's only available in the south (why, I have no idea). I hope everyone down here is using it. You can buy it online..it's a rip-off at Amazon..the prices are pretty decent at the Reily Foods website on the Blue Plate link..if you make a lot of salads..it's worth while buying in bulk.

So, for the first 5 people here, that want to try it....Freepmail me your address, and I'll mail you a jar...my treat..

BTW..just to repeat myself from last week..my herb stripper is AWESOME..can't thank you all enough...

[mschalock]

Here is one for Oregon. We grow 98% of the hazelnuts (known as filberts around here) in the United States.

CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT TORTE
The texture is more fudgy if you bake it a day ahead and let it rest, tightly covered, in the refrigerator.

Cake:
11/2 cups whole hazelnuts (about 7 1/2 ounces; divided)
1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
10 ounces fine-quality dark chocolate
2 tablespoons cornstarch
Kosher salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar (divided)
4 eggs, separated, at room temperature for 30 minutes
1 teaspoon vanilla
Glaze:
6 ounces fine-quality dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar

Put oven rack in middle position. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter bottom and side of 9-inch springform pan. Line the bottom with a round of parchment paper, and then butter the parchment paper.

Toast hazelnuts in the oven in a shallow baking pan, shaking pan once or twice, until golden, about 12 minutes. Place nuts in a kitchen towel and rub off any loose skins while nuts are still warm; cool nuts completely. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. While nuts cool, melt butter and chocolate together in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water.

Reserve 1/2 cup of nuts to use for decoration. Pulse the rest in a food processor with cornstarch, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 cup sugar until finely ground. (Be careful not to grind so much that the mixture becomes pasty.)

Whisk together yolks and 2 tablespoons of the sugar in a large bowl. Whisk in chocolate mixture, then add nut mixture and vanilla and whisk until combined (mixture will be slightly grainy).

Beat whites with a pinch of salt in another bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until they hold soft peaks. Add remaining 2 tablespoons sugar a little at a time, beating continuously, just until whites hold firm peaks. Fold one-fourth of whites into chocolate mixture to lighten, and then fold in remaining whites gently but thoroughly.

Pour batter into prepared springform pan and bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs adhering, 45 to 50 minutes. Transfer to a rack and cool completely in pan. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours. Run a knife around edge of torte to loosen, and then remove side of pan.

To make glaze: Place chocolate in top of a double boiler, heat over hot water until melted and whisk in cream. Let cool to room temperature. Once cool, spread over top of torte and allow to set before serving. Crush the reserved whole toasted hazelnuts by sealing them in a plastic bag and gently crushing with a small pan or rolling pin. Dust the torte with powdered sugar and crushed hazelnuts.

[bgill]

I don’t get the chicken and waffles thing, either.

Don’t know any State recipes but am enjoying cucumber salad these days since that’s all the garden is producing in 106 degree temps. But even the shaded cukes are looking sad.

Cucumber salad - sliced cucumbers, sliced onion, a dash of vinegar, a spoon of sugar, salt and pepper. Add some dill if you have it.

[Texas Fossil]

Compose it with a text editor instead of a word processor, or use .txt format in word processor.

Word processor carriage returns are not text carriage returns. And word processors have special hidden formatting that makes the html converter ignore them.

Or you can use a html editor to compose the formatted recipes.

It may work if you save as .html from MS word or whatever word processor you use.

Then “Preview” to be sure it formats right.

[Jamestown1630]

Thank You, Oregon! Hazelnuts are my husband’s favorites, and I didn’t know that most of the ones in the U.S. are grown in your state.

-JT

[Calvin Locke]

RE: Chicken n’ Waffles.

Came across an article that pointed, among a couple of other places, to Amish Country as the source of the dish.

It wasn’t unusual to kill a chicken for breakfast, and since Ma’s already stoking the cast iron stove to fry chicken, why not waffles as the accompaniment, since Pa’s just brought in fresh milk from the cows...

How it got associated with the South, particular Black cuisine, wasn’t covered, iirc.

[Jamestown1630]

Absolutely lovely.

I’ve never been further than Hatteras, but in my not-so-well-travelled life, I’ve never seen a place in the US more beautiful than the Barrier Islands of NC.

Now that I’m old, I’ve become interested in Mountains, and will probably wind up in them. But those rolling islands, dunes, water, sky, will always be in my heart.

I remember swimming at Nag’s Head, and feeling the pounding of the Alpha Dolphin vibrating through the water into my body; and the sight of pelicans flying so close to the water as to almost scrape my head.

A magical and unforgettable place.

-JT

[jocon307]

That is interesting, thanks for sharing it.

[Jamestown1630]

We are getting ready to try fermented dill pickles. Will let the thread know how it goes.

(One of my husband’s favorite things is a cucumber salad very like yours.)

-JT