Paper Thin

“Whereas Joseph Baker, an adopted son, about fourteen months old, bound
to me by indenture and deed of gift, was taken from me by unlawful
means on 5th November, all persons are hereby forbidden to harbor or
keep said child. Timothy Moss, Wells.” Vermont Gazette, 25 December 1794

“Lansingburgh,
February 24: On 15th inst., the dead body of unknown man was found in
small piece of woods in Half Moon, near Stillwater road. Inquest found
willful murder by persons or person unknown.”

“On 10th ult., the
house of Mr. Roger Smith of Grafton, Vermont, was set on fire by three
small children, the oldest being only nine years of age, when the
parents were both from home, by means of carrying a candle into the
chambers where there was a large quantity of undressed flax. All the
children died in the fire.” -both February 20 1795.

…for some reason, I am wildly curious just what the hell was going on there. From Vermont Newspaper Abstracts 1783-1816.
There’s all manner of odd and interesting little things in there -
marriages, deaths, requests for divorces, ‘my wife ran off and I won’t
be held responsible for her/her child’s debts’ (all of those phrased in
exactly the same way), unexpected dead bodies. Fascinating.

ETA:
“Whereas John Moon, my late acknowledged husband, has used me
exceedingly ill in various instances and neglecting to provide for me,
has, ever since our unfortunate marriage, lived by the Fruit of my
industry principally and to complete his ill usage has lately
advertised me repeatedly as having eloped from his bed and board; this
is to certify that he never provided for me either bed or board since
our marriage. Lucy Martin, alias Lucy Moon.”

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Rhubarb Bread

1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar*
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour**
1 cup buttermilk
1 ts salt
1 ts baking soda
2 ts Ceylon/true cinnamon***
1 - 1 1/2 ts allspice
generous dash - 1 ts cassia cinnamon***
2 ts vanilla
3-4 cups coarsely chopped rhubarb ****

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two large loaf pans.

Thoroughly
combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Mix oil, sugar and eggs in a
large bowl until smooth. Add dry ingredients and buttermilk, mix well,
and break up any large lumps. Stir in rhubarb until well-mixed. Divide
evenly between prepared pans, and bake for 60-70 minutes, until a
skewer in the center comes out clean. Let cool for a while before
trying to slice.

Lots of rhubarb flavor this time, surrounded by a well-flavored, just-sweet-enough bread.

*Regular sugar would probably work, but I’d recommend using less, since it’s much less coarse than turbinado.
**Using all all-purpose flour should work fine, just change the texture a bit.
***Using all cassia cinnamon would be fine.
****Last
time I chopped it fairly small, and it overcooked into almost
flavor-less mush. This time it was still tart and soft, not mushy.

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3 tb butter
2lb boneless chuck roast, cut into reasonably bite-size pieces
Worcestershire sauce
generous amount Penzey’s Beef Roast Seasoning
generous amount onions (…all I can find here are sweet onions, so I used frozen)
generous amount garlic (6-9 cloves. Okay, some of them were tiny.)
pinch rosemary
salt and pepper
2 tb flour
2 cups red wine (I used GatoNegro Chilean Shiraz)
2 14.5oz cans chicken broth
2 whole cloves
4 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped
generous amount baby carrots

Melt
butter in large Dutch oven. Shake generous amount of Beef Roast
Seasoning and Worcestershire sauce into melted butter, stir until
fragrant. Brown meat in batches, turning once or twice, until all
well-browned. Add onions, garlic, rosemary, a little more Beef Roast
Seasoning if you want, salt and pepper, cook until softened, then work
in the flour until it’s been absorbed. Add red wine, stirring to scrape
the browned bits from the bottom of the pot, and chicken broth, then
add the vegetables, return the meat to the pot, and bring to a boil.
Lower heat and simmer until the meat and potatoes are done, about an
hour and a half; I left the lid off for part of the time to thicken it
up and let the alcohol vapors from the wine evaporate. Taste a little
while before it’s done and adjust seasonings.

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Braised Lamb Shanks

2 lamb shanks
1 cup or so red wine (I used what was left of a bottle of Shiraz after making beef stew last weekend)
up to 4 cups chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 medium sweet potato, peeled and chopped
2 shallots, chopped
half a medium or large red onion, chopped
baby carrots or peeled sliced carrots
salt and freshly ground pepper
6 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
pinch cayenne
dash rosemary
ETA: dash ground coriander
generous shake or two of marjoram and thyme
2 bay leaves
2 ts cornstarch, mixed with 2 ts cold water.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mix
wine, 2 cups chicken broth, and balsamic vinegar in oven-safe dutch
oven, add the spices and stir thoroughly. Add vegetables and stir to
mix, then add lamb shanks on top. Add chicken broth until the lamb
shanks are around one third to halfway submerged; if necessary, shift
the vegetables around a bit until the lamb sinks down. Cover and bake 2
1/2 to three hours, until lamb is tender and falling off the bone;
check occasionally to see that the lamb isn’t completely submerged.

Remove
the bay leaves, and skim most of the fat from the surface, then strip
the meat from the bones and stir it back in. Taste and adjust
seasonings as necessary, then place over low heat and stir in
cornstarch mixture; stir constantly until thickened. Serve hot.

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Wine reduction:

1 cup dry red wine
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 mushroom (button or cremini), finely chopped
1 bay leaf

Marinara:

2 28oz cans whole peeled plum tomatoes in juice
2 14oz or 1 28oz can diced tomatoes
1/2-3/4 lbs mushrooms (button or cremini), sliced
2 small onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped or pushed through a press
oregano, basil, salt and pepper to taste
4 tb olive oil, divided, or to taste

Make the wine reduction:

Mix all ingredients in a fairly wide, shallow pan. Heat gently over low heat until reduced to around 3/4 cup. Strain and set aside. This can be made the night before and refrigerated.

Make the marinara:

Drain the whole tomatoes in a colander over a bowl; break them open, removing the cores if you want (I didn’t bother), and leave to drain of excess liquid. Reserve the juice. Take about a third or so of the tomatoes, crush them with a potato masher, and set aside.

Heat 2 tb olive oil in a large pan until shimmering. Add onions and saute until softened, then add garlic and spices, stirring for thirty seconds or so, until fragrant. Add crushed tomatoes, stir thoroughly and cook until mostly dry. Add about a 1/4 cup of the wine reduction, the remaining whole tomatoes, and enough of the reserved juice to almost but not quite cover the tomatoes. Simmer gently, uncovered, until the tomatoes have softened a bit, but not lost their shape.

While the sauce is simmering, saute the mushrooms in the remaining 2 tb olive oil with salt and pepper in a skillet. Drain the diced tomatoes and let sit to drain excess liquid.

When the tomatoes have softened, puree the mixture in a food processor in batches, and return to the pan. Add the mushrooms, diced tomatoes, and remaining wine reduction, and simmer another ten to fifteen minutes, until the flavors blend.

Serves probably 6-8.

ETA: I wouldn’t use a really bold wine like a Cabernet in this; it’d be too overpowering.

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Savory Berry Coulis

1/4 c chicken broth
pinch dried rosemary
pinch red pepper flakes
pinch salt
5 whole black peppercorns
roughly 12 oz frozen, unsweetened mixed berries
1 to 1 1/2 ts sugar

Bring
everything but the berries to a boil in a large saucepan;  let boil for
a minute or two to bring out the flavors.  Add berries, toss to coat,
and cover pan until the berries are thawed;  uncover pan and let cook
until berries have mostly fallen apart.

Puree berries and press
through a fine strainer, stirring and pressing vigorously until the
residue is mostly dry.  Reheat sauce, check for seasoning, and add
sugar to taste.

Serve over fish or chicken.

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Cinnamon Pumpkin Bars

Bars:

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 lg egg
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
1/4 ts salt
1-2 ts cinnamon

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 ts to 1 tb vanilla paste or extract*
1 tb sour cream
1 tb butter, softened (opt)**

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 13×9 baking pan.

In
a large bowl, stir together the pumpkin, egg, sugar, oil and sour
cream.  Ad the dry ingredients and mix until well-blended.  Pour the
mixture into the prepared pan and bake 25-30 minutes, or until the top
springs back when lightly touched.  place the pan on a wire rack to
cool.

For the frosting:

In a small bowl, beat all
ingredients together until smooth.  When the bars are cooled, spread
with the frosting and cut into bars.

*I misread the recipe and
put in a full tablespoon of vanilla paste.  I thought it was a little
too much, one of my co-workers thought it was great.  Add to your own
taste.

**I added this, but I’m not sure it really added much, and is probably unneccessary.

Bars
recipe from Light and Easy Baking, Beatrice Oyakankas, which originally
specified nonfat sour cream.  Frosting recipe adapted from the Cook’s
Illustrated website.

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Split Pea Soup

Split Pea Soup with Ham

16oz dry green split peas
1 bone-in ham steak, around 1lb
1 tb butter or so
Penzey’s Bavarian Pork Seasoning (crushed brown mustard, rosemary, garlic, thyme, bay leaf and sage) to taste
6 cups or so chicken broth
salt & pepper to taste
2-3 bay leaves
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tb or so butter
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
3-5 ribs celery, sliced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced/put through a press

Soak,
rinse and drain the peas according to package directions (I find it
easiest to put them to soak before I leave for work/running errands).
Cut the ham steak into bite-size pieces, removing as much meat as
possible from the bone; keep the bone with the meat.

Melt 1tb
butter in a large pot. Add the Bavarian Pork seasoning, saute until
fragrant. Deeply brown the ham steak (this will likely have to be done
in batches); toss the bone into the pot with the last batch. Remove the
meat to a bowl, leave the bone in the pot, and refrigerate the meat for
the time being.

Add the chicken broth, peas, salt & pepper,
bay leaves and peeled garlic cloves to the pot. Bring to a boil, then
reduce to a simmer, and let cook until the peas haven’t quite
disintegrated. Stir in the meat.

In a skillet, melt the
remaining 1tb butter. Saute the onion, celery and garlic until just
softened, and lightly golden. Stir into the soup, and cook until the
meat is hot through. Serve hot.

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Venison Pie:

Frozen puff pastry for crusts (I used an approximately 1lb box with 2 sheets, that worked out to the right proportions)
1 lb ground venison
4 cloves garlic, put through a press
salt and pepper
sage
thyme
cayenne (just a dash or so for subtle flavoring)
2 bay leaves
Worcestershire sauce
tablespoon or so of butter
2 sm onions
2 med carrots, sliced into rounds, larger rounds halved
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2
red/mostly red anaheim chiles or similar mild chiles,
chopped/seeded/pith removed (if you like it spicier, leave seeds or
pith)
2 lg portabello caps, chopped
8 oz sliced mushrooms
2 Winesap apples, peeled and chopped, separated

Eggs and dijon mustard for pastry egg wash.

9″ deep dish pie pan required.

Preheat oven to 375.  Thaw puff pastry as directed.

Melt
butter in large skillet.  (I actually let it start browning, mostly by
accident, but it didn’t hurt the flavor any)  Add dry spices to taste; 
add onions, carrots and peppers.  Cook until onions are softened, or
until you’ve finished dealing with the mushrooms and apples, whichever
comes first.  Add garlic, mushrooms and one apple, cook at least until
mushrooms start releasing liquid.  Taste for seasoning.  Let cook some
more if necessary.  Remove bay leaves before adding meat (it’s much
easier at that point).

Add meat and worcestershire sauce. 
(swearing vehemently on discovering that the venison did not thaw
completely is optional)  Stir frequently while the meat cooks.  Add the
remaining apple around this time. (The first apple had cooked down and
started getting a bit mushy, so I added a second for texture.)

Grease
pan if needed.  Press one sheet of puff pastry into the bottom of the
pie pan.  Mix eggs and mustard (3 was entirely too many eggs.  Two
would probably be plenty), and brush generously over bottom crust.

Pack
filling into pie crust.  Arrange remaining sheet of puff pastry over
top of pie, tucking around filling as much as possible.  Press into
bottom crust if possible. Cut vents in top crust.  Brush generously
with egg wash.

Bake 15-20 minutes, until crust is puffed and golden.

Notes: 
Winesaps are a small, heirloom apple with a rich sweet/tart flavor; 
any well-flavored apple with a good balance of sweet and tart would
probably work.  The carrots and the second apple came out al dente,
which was a great contrast to the textures of the other vegetables. 
Since venison is generally very low-fat, it should be almost entirely
cooked on the stovetop, so that it just finishes up in the oven as the
crust bakes;  otherwise it tends to dry out.

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Moroccan Chicken Pie with Cinnamon and Saffron

1 cup minced onion
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1/2 cup minced fresh cilantro
1 bay leaf
a 3 lb chicken, cut up
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tb granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
8 eggs
1/4 tsp saffron
1 1/4 cups whole blanched almonds
4 sheets phyllo/filo dough
2 tb butter, melted

In
a heavy casserole or dutch oven, put onion, parsley, cilantro and bay
leaf. Place chicken on top of mixture. Sprinkle with salt, pepper,
cinnamon and 1 tb sugar. Heat over medium high heat until sizzling.
Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook 30 minutes. Turn chicken over, add
water to pan, cover & cook about 30 minutes or until tender. Remove
cooked chicken and let cool; reserve broth. Discard bay leaf.

Discard chicken skin & bones. Pull meat into small thin pieces and set aside.

Beat
eggs lightly. Return casserole to low heat and heat broth, chicken
pieces and saffron until sizzling. Add beaten eggs and cook over low
heat, stirring, until set, like dry scrambled eggs. Taste and adjust
seasoning. Filling can be kept, covered, overnight in refrigerator.

Preheat
oven to 350F. Toast almonds in oven for 10 minutes until golden brown.
Transfer to a plate. Cool completely. Finely chop almonds in a food
processor/nut chopper with remaining 2 tb sugar, leaving a few chunks.

About
30 minutes before assembling pie, remove phyllo dough from
refrigerator. Leave it wrapped until ready to use. Handle dough gently,
it tears easily.

Preheat oven to 375F. Brush bottom and sides
of two 9″ pie pans lightly with butter. For each pie, lay 2 phyllo
sheets in pan, overlapping and allowing about half of each sheet to
hand over the edge, so there is about 6-8″ of pastry around outside of
pan. Sprinkle about 1/3 cup chopped almonds in each pan, and add half
the chicken filling to each, crumbling it with your fingers. Sprinkle
remaining almonds on top. Fold overhanging pastry over the filling,
lifting with both hands, and gathering it lightly in center. Brush with
remaining melted butter.

Bake pies 20-25 minutes or until tops
are golden brown. If tops brown after 15 minutes, lower heat to 350F
and bake 10 more minutes, to be sure filling is thoroughly heated.

Notes:
This is from Faye Levy’s International Chicken Cookbook. The phyllo
sheets available here are too small to gather over the top, so we
covered it with more phyllo instead, and also added a dash of cinnamon
to the almonds.

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