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September 30, 2001


from: Spike's and Jamie's Recipe Collection

Many of these recipes have not yet been added to the recipe web site, so you are getting a "sneak peak" of future additions. We hope you enjoy  these recipes. Spike's comments are in []Brackets[].

Jamie has built a wonderful website of memorials focused on the attack of September 11, 2001. The first page opens at our website, and the bottom link directing the reader to the next page will take you to the site where all the pages are located. 

God bless us all.

Shalom, from 

Spike the Grate & Jamie the Webmistress

The Newsletters are Archived Here:
http://archive.freerecipecollection.com


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ATOLE DE FRESAS

2 pounds strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced
2-1/2 cups water
3/4 cup cornstarch
4 cups milk
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon vanilla

In a blender, combine the strawberries and 1/2 cup of the water, and process thoroughly. Set aside. 

In a large sauce pan, dissolve the cornstarch in the remaining 2 cups of the water and bring to a boil. When the mixture starts to thicken, add the milk and sugar. Continue cooking until the mixture thickens again.

Remove from the heat, add the strawberry puree, cream, and vanilla. Reheat the atole until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Serve hot.


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BREAKFAST FRUIT CHIMICHANGAS

Apricot Basting Sauce
8 oz Cream Cheese Softened
1/2 cup Ricotta Cheese
1/4 cup Sugar
1 tsp Orange Peel, Grated
6 Flour Tortillas
1/4 cup Apricot Preserves
1 large Egg, Beaten
2 tbsp Butter, Softened
1 cup Apricots, Sliced

Flour Tortillas should be 8-inches in diameter and be warm. Prepare apricot basting sauce; set aside. Heat oven to 500'F. Mix cream cheese, ricotta cheese, sugar, and orange peel thoroughly. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the mixture into the center of each tortilla; top with 1 Tbsp of preserves. Fold one end of the tortilla up about 1-inch over mixture; fold in the right and left sides over the folded end and then fold the remaining side to overlap the others. Brush the edges with egg to seal. Brush each with butter. Place seam sides down on an un-greased jelly roll pan, 15 1/2 X 10 1/2 X 1-inch. Bake until chimichangas begin to brown and the filling is hot, 8 to 10 minutes. Serve with apricots and Apricot Basting Sauce.


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SAMBUCA POACHED FIGS 
WITH RICOTTA AND PINE NUTS 
Serve this dish at the end of a meal — it's a fruit and cheese course in one. 

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
3/4 cup Sambuca (An Italian liqueur made from elderberries and flavored with licorice.)
2 tablespoons sugar
12 firm-ripe fresh purple figs
3/4 cup whole-milk ricotta (preferably fresh) 

Heat oil in a small skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook pine nuts, stirring, until golden, about 2 minutes. Transfer to paper towels and season with salt. 

Simmer Sambuca with sugar in a saucepan (pan should be just large enough to hold figs upright), stirring until sugar is dissolved. Cut a very thin slice from bottom of each fig and stand figs in liquid in saucepan (figs will not be covered by liquid). Poach figs at a bare simmer, covered, 5 minutes. Cool slightly in liquid. Season ricotta with salt and pepper. Divide figs among 4 plates alongside mounds of ricotta and drizzle figs with some of poaching liquid, then sprinkle with pine nuts and serve. Makes 4 servings.

[]Interestingly, sambuca is also the name of an ancient stringed instrument! []


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ANCIENT GREEKS MADE STARCH
(FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE STARCH) 
CHARLES PERRY, Portland Oregonian 

The Greeks discovered how to separate starch for cooking. Or to be more specific, the people of the Greek island of Khios, off the coast of present-day Turkey. That formula was followed with scarcely any change throughout the Middle Ages: Cover whole wheat with water for a week and a half, changing it regularly, and when it has softened, crush it, strain it and dry the starch for later use. 

What impressed the Greeks about starch was that it didn't need grinding the way flour does; the Greek word for it is "amylon," which literally means "not milled." They probably thought of starch as a sort of pudding, because a related word, "amylos," means wheat slowly simmered 
until the hulls soften. (Amylos might sound like a simple-minded dish, but it was honored in the Middle Ages under the name "frumenty," and clear into the 19th century frumenty was a regular side dish at European banquets.) 

The Romans had a more modern attitude toward starch. They used amulum for thickening sauces, as medieval European cooks continued to do. Cooks also have thickened pie fillings with starch since the Renaissance. 

In the Middle East, there was a quite different approach. The Persians had devised a way of separating starch from flour, rather than from whole wheat. You kneaded dough, then kneaded it again under water until the starch washed out and there was nothing left but the chewy gluten, which you threw away. Middle Eastern cooks used the starch either in 
this liquid form ("malban") or dried ("nishasta," literally, "what settles"). They valued it for making puddings and sweetmeats similar to Turkish delight. 

The Chinese prefer New World sources of starch such as corn, manioc and arrowroot for thickening sauces, but earlier they probably used wheat starch made by the Persian method. They know all about kneading dough under water, only they don't throw away the gluten. They call it "mianjin" ("the muscles of the wheat") and make vegetarian "pork" and "chicken" products out of it. 

We've picked up on mianjin in this country, too. If you ever see the words "textured vegetable protein" on a food label, that's what it is. 

[]Vegetarians and vegans know that substance as “TVP.”[]

[]I wonder if this is also how laundry starch was made. I can remember my mother cooking starch that came in a cardboard box; looked like rock salt only it didn’t shine. I think it was called “Linit.” I would have called it something else. Anyway, she would boil it in a huge pot, permit it to cool, and then would dipmy father’s shirt collars and cuffs in it – also some other clothing items – never underclothes (!) – and would sprinkle the rest of the clothes with plain water, roll them up tightly, wrap them in a pillowcase, place them in a dishpan, put a towel over them, and in the afternoon, iron them. It took all day to do the ironing. There was another brand of starch called “LaFrance” and it was sold along with a wax-like substance called “Satina,” which helped one’s iron glide more smoothly over the fabric that was being ironed.

[]I further remember that poor women living in the Eastern United States,primarily New York City and Washington D.C., especially during pregnancy, would eat laundry starch. It was cheap, had a comforting mouth-feel, and was filling. Of course, since that was the mainstay of their diets, many of them developed severe malnutrition, and died. Their babies, having extracted all the nutrition they needed from their moms’ bodies, were in good condition. 

[]Since the advent of permanent press fabrics, few people iron nowadays, and there is spray starch for the purist who likes really neat collars and cuffs.[]


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OLD-FASHIONED SOUR CREAM COOKIES

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp lemon extract
Grated rind of two lemons

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder, and add alternately with the sour cream to the batter. Stir in the lemon extract and lemon rind.

Drop by teaspoonfuls, two inches apart, into greased baking sheets. Bake fifteen minutes, or until lightly browned at the edges. Tops will be pale. Makes 4 dozen.


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CHARTRES STREET TROUT

6 trout, filleted
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup butter (approximately)
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup capers
1/4 cup freshly chopped parsley
Buttered toast

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and butter it well. Arrange the fish fillets on the foil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dot fillets liberally with the butter and cover with another sheet of aluminum foil. Bake eight to ten minutes or just until the fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Transfer the fish to hot dinner plates and sprinkle with lemon juice, capers, and parsley. Serve with buttered toast. Serves 6


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PEACH MELON CONSERVE

6 cups diced peeled peaches
2 cups diced cantaloupe
6 cups sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp syrup from preserved ginger
1/4 cup chopped preserved ginger
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Place the peaches and cantaloupe in a kettle and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking. Add the sugar, lemon juice and syrup and boil rapidly until mixture is thick. Stir to prevent sticking. Stir in the ginger and pecans and pour into hot sterilized jars. Pour two thin layers of paraffin wax over. Cool, cover, and store in a cool, dry, dark place. Makes about 10 jelly jars.


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See ya next time!

SHALOM FROM SPIKE & JAMIE

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