Mrs. A. B. Marshall’s Larger Cookery Book of Extra Recipes

I have mentioned Mrs. A. B. Marshall several time recently, so I though I would feature her "larger" cookbook.
Her first book was on ices, a rather new phenomenon in the early 1900's. She went on to invent her own ice cream maker. She features heavily in the Queen Cookery Book on Ices.

Though not as well known as Mrs. Beeton, Agnes Marshall had a tremendous influence on the English culinary mind.



After her first large book, there was a request for more recipes and the Larger Cookbook came into being. At this point, Mrs. Marshall had begun a cooking school, training many of the cooks that filled English manor houses, including Mrs. Mander's.

Here is one of those lovely dishes one might include in their "cold service" at a large gathering. Notice the vast amounts of bombes one might require for such a dish.

Crayfish (Prawns) à la Gelée

Fill some little bombe moulds with aspic jelly; let this set, then dip the moulds into warm water, turn out and arrange some large prawns or the prepared crayfish bodies all over the bombes and serve in little square paper cases that are filled with a salad of lettuce; they can be garnished with picked chervil, parsley, or tarragon; serve for hors d’oeuvre or savoury or for any cold service.

Another of Mrs. Marshall's creations was an ice cream shaped like asparagus. To pull off such a dish one needs about 20 asparagus moulds. Today if you could possibly find those old asparagus moulds it would set you back thousands of dollars.



You will simply have to scoop that pistachio ice cream into a bowl and make do!

To see more cool kitchen gadgets check out Ivan Day's site Historic Food.

Annie Bell's Vegetable Book

Annie Bell is one of my favorite cooks. She wrote Living and Eating with architect John Pawson.


Annie Bell's Vegetable Book is one of her harder books to find. It is the kind of book that makes even the most ardent carnivore (like me) want to run out and be a big old vegetarian.

Here is a recipe that Bell got from Sirio Maccioni of Le Cirque. Ironically, she says this is recipe she would not have tried on her own.

Since it is summer, and I love ice cream, I thought you would enjoy this recipe. I am all for making interesting types of ice cream. While I do love chocolate and vanilla, there are just too many possibilities out there. Try our Pimm’s Cup Ice Cream on the Lucindaville Blog. And then try this. Make some Sweet Cornbread Madelines with Thyme to serve as a side.

This ice cream is not made with a custard, so remember to eat it right away – like that would be a problem.

Corn and Vanilla Ice-cream

10 oz raw corn kernels 91 1/2 –2 cobs)
8 fl oz milk
4 1/2 oz caster sugar
12 fl oz double cream
seeds of 1 vanilla pod
2 medium eggs, whisked
1 tablespoon Cointreau

The corn kernels should be freshly stripped from the cob, by holding the cob upright on the chopping board ans cutting down with a large, sharp knife. Place these in a small saucepan with the milk and sugar, bring to the boil, cover and simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes. Puree and pass through a sieve into a bowl.
Whisk the corn puree with the cream, vanilla seeds, eggs, and Cointreau and pass through a sieve. Freeze in your ice-cream maker according to the manufacture’s instructions. Remove to a bowl, cover and freeze.

Nothing says summer like ice cream and sweet corn. Mix them together and it's summer heaven.

Great Peasant Dishes of the World

In the early eighties, Howard Hillman wrote the book Great Peasant Dishes of the World. While some of the dishes may have been peasant dishes at one time, many of them are found in fine dining establishments. There is pesto, choucroute garni, moules marinière, and osso buco to name a few.

When asked to define “peasant,” Hillman says:

“In the context of this book, a peasant is a small-scale farmer, rancher, herder, hunter, or fisherman. Unlike the city dweller, the peasant is close to his food source.”

Today that would define every restaurateur to open a new bistro.

You can tell how far food has come in the last 30 years when looking at a book like this. For instance, Hillman says that some of the items in this book are now becoming staples like – carrots. Of course, now days one can find carrots at the 7-11.

Many of the mail-order products suggested in the book can now be found in any supermarket. This recipe for I’a Ota gives a mail order address for coconut cream, which I can find in my tiny local market.

I’t Ota

1/2 pound tuna steak
1/2 pound tilefish or sea bass
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup sliced scallions
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup diced firm tomatoes
1/4 cup coconut cream

1. skin and bone the fish and slice them into rectangular segments measuring approximately 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch by 1 1/2 inches.
2. Place the fish, lime juice, scallions, and salt in a glass or other noncossosible bowl. Mix the ingredients well but gently. Cover, and refrigerate the preparation for 3 hours.
3. Drain off the excess liquid from the bowl and add the tomatoes and coconut cream. Gently but thoroughly toss the ingredients. Serve the I’a ota immediately in chilled glass or porcelain bowls.

Now get out there and hunt for those carrots.

A Tale of 12 Kitchens

Jake Tilson was raised in a kind of arty/hippy household. His family loved to cook and he has made cooking and gastronomy his art. A Tale of 12 Kitchens is a visual, graphic explosion of recipes, stories, travel, art, and culinary history. A Tale of 12 Kitchens: Family Cooking in Four Countries is a diary of all things food.


Tilson loves cooking in big kitchens, small kitchens, over open fires and even in hotel bathrooms. He loves gadgets, finding unusual ones, making his own, and buying them used. He loves spices and chilies and even the way food is packages.


In his expansive endnotes he informs us:

“Every kitchenware buyer should have a potter with them who will happily insist on looking through a pile of forty Catalonian earthenware dishes for just the right one.”

I know the feeling!

Squash with Yellow Tomatoes

1 small white onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 yellow tomatoes, sliced
1 guero chile (or banana pepper), finely chopped
3 long thin yellow squash, sliced into rounds
Salt

In a large frying pan, sauté onion in oil until translucent. Add the tomatoes and cook until soft. Add the chile, squash, and a little salt. Cover. Simmer gently for 30 minutes.

Please, by all means, volunteer to help your foodie friend search for just the right pot.

Caviar and Corned Beef for the Live- Aloner

In 1936 Marjorie Hillis wrote the ever amusing Live Alone and Like It (re-issued in 2008). She wrote, “There may still be those in Alabama who look upon an unmarried state as an affliction, but in New York it is at most a very minor ailment.” Wow, it could be 2006.

The next year, having identified all those "extra girls" it was only natural that she offer some practical cooking advice. Alas, living alone means having to cook for just yourself and you know how a girl hates that. Of course, for many "Live-Aloners" in 1937, there was a maid to help with that pesky cooking. Caviar and Corned Beef for the Live- Aloner shows you what to do (or what your maid should do). If you are without a maid, here’s a menu you CAN do -- from soup to dessert it comes from cans!

Chicken gumbo soup
Triscuit Wafers
Baked Beans in Casserole
Vegetable Salad
Grapefruit

Your baked beans will stay warm in the oven while you eat your soup and Triscuits. Then your lovely baked beans with a bit of bacon on top. Followed by your vegetables salad. Make your salad of cut-up tomato with asparagus, lettuce and leftover vegetables mixed with mayo. And of course, finally, your canned grapefruit.

While you may be a "Live-Aloner", there is still hope, even Hillis traded her "Live-Aloner" status for a "Mrs." at the ripe old age of 49! Clearly she followed her own advice -- “there is something very flattering to any man about an initiation to dine à deux with a lady.”




If you are planning dinner à deux, follow these simple rules and you too, may just grab a hubby. (My notes)

Don’t invite him unless you can give him a meal he will enjoy. (Don’t serve the CAN menu.)

Never ask a man to balance his plate on his knees. (They are so clumsy!)

Do not judge a man’s appetite by his size. (Fat men are often on a diet.)

Don’t serve your guest his native dish. (No gumbo if he’s from New Orleans.)

Here is a recipe for grabbing that man.

Scalloped Sweet Potatoes

The scalloped sweet potatoes (which are not for reducers) are made by first putting a cupful of boiled sweet potatoes cut into quarter-inch slices in a buttered baking dish with three-quarters of a cupful of thinly-sliced apples. A quarter of a cupful of brown sugar is sprinkled over them, then two tablespoonfuls of butter are dotted here and there and a half teaspoonful of slat tossed into the mélange. The process is then repeated, with the same amount of potatoes, apples and what-have-you forming a second layer, and the whole thing should be baked for an hour in a moderate oven.

All right, you "Live-Aloners", run into that kitchen and start cooking.

Lenôtre Desserts and Pastries

Earlier this year Gaston Lenôtre died. He trained many chefs including one of our favorites, Michel Richard, who said of his mentor, “When you’ve been at Lenôtre, it’s like a drug. You’ve been injected with his recipes that you have to carry your whole life.”

In 1932, at age 12, Gaston Lenôtre made his first dessert. To use the old cliché, the rest is history….

The next four years, he apprenticed in his native Normandy. At 16, Lenôtre went to Paris and spent another 4 years honing his trade. He returned to Normandy and in 1957 he moved his family to Paris, opening one shop after another.

Books written by pastry chefs are often tedious affairs. The instructions bog down for even the most advanced cook. While many of Lenôtre’s recipes are for classic desserts, many of them quite advanced, he gives the cook enough information and instruction to pull them off. In fact, he gave the recipes to his daughter and asked her to try cooking them from his recipes. She seemed to get through.

I chose a simple cake recipe for you to try. It is Uncle Tom’s cake. I am pretty sure it is Lenôtre’s Uncle Tom and not Harriet Beecher Stowe’s.

Uncle Tom’s Cake

For two cakes:

3 1/2 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
5 eggs, separated
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar

for the decoration

Confectioners’ sugar


Preheat oven to 400 F

Butter the pans and place a paper disk at the bottom of each one. Dust the sides of the pans with flour so the cakes will turn out easily.
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture forms a pale ribbon; then, still beating, add the melted butter. Beat the egg whites until very stiff, adding 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar halfway through.
Pour the yolk-sugar mixture over the warm chocolate, stirring vigorously. Then gently fold the flour and cornstarch into the chocolate. Using the spatula, fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites, working quickly but carefully. The batter must be baked immediately.

Pour the batter into the pans; they should be no more than 3/4 full. Bake at 400 F oven for 1 minute, then lower the heat to 350 F and bake for 50 minutes more, keeping the door ajar with a spoon.
Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool. While still warm, turn out and place the paper doilies on top of them. Sprinkle the cakes with confectioners’ sugar, then remove the doilies and serve.

I like a recipe that makes 2 cakes, that way you can give one to your Uncle Tom and keep one for yourself.

Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It

We seem to have had several cookbooks extolling things that "Can't" and "Couldn't " get done. so here a book that boldly tells you what you can do.

Karen Solomon’s Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It fulfills her desire to produce a kind of Girl Scout manual for the kitchen. She features all the recipes you will need for a fine larder, and you can make them yourself. Truth be told, you probably have all these recipes tucked away somewhere, but gathered together they are the perfect companion for the home cook. Though it doesn’t say as much, this is a great book for ideas on homemade gift giving.

The photographs by Jennifer Martiné make you want to run out and paint the larder chocolate brown, heck they want to make you run out and build a brand new larder.

From beef jerky to marshmallows, crackers to lemon curd, sausage to limoncello, this book is a font of inspiration for every cook out there. I have several recipes for peanut butter cups, but frankly, I just bought Reese's. When I saw the picture of Karen Solomon’s cup’s I knew I had to make them.

Peanut Butter Cups

FILLING
1 1/3 cup fresh roasted and salted peanuts
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon neutral vegetable oil, like canola or sunflower
2 tablespoons confectioner's’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

COATING

2 cups chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

INSTRUCTIONS To make the peanut butter filling, place the liners in your cupcake pan, and have a holding dish standing by. In a food processor, puree the peanuts for 3 to 4 minutes, until very smooth. Add the honey, oil, sugar, vanilla, and salt and puree until completely combined, scraping down the sides as you work.
Tale about 2 teaspoons of the peanut butter mixture into your clean hands, roll into a ball, and flatten into a disk that will fit into the center of the cupcake liner but not touch the sides. Shape the remaining 11 centers. The peanut butter should be evenly distributed.
To prepare the coating, in a microwave safe bowl heat the chocolate on high for 1 minute, and stir well with a fork to distribute the heat. Heat for one minute more, and stir again. Heat for an additional 30 to 60 seconds, stirring thoroughly. The chocolate should be melted and quite satiny and you should be able to drop it in ribbons from the end of the fork.
To assemble the cups, working quickly, spoon about 2 teaspoons of melted chocolate into the bottom of each liner, being careful to coat the bottom in a complete, thin layer, and to coat the sides half way up. about Gently drop each of the peanut butter disks into the center of a cup, and give it a gentle tap to secure it in the chocolate (but don’t push it all the way through to the bottom). Cover each center with an additional teaspoon of chocolate covering the top completely and allowing it to surround the sides of the peanut butter, enclosing it completely. Gently smooth the tops with back of a spoon or by giving the pan a gentle shake. Let it sit undisturbed for at least 4 hours, until the cups harden completely.

First one to make these wins their merit badge.

I Couldn’t Cook Either

"Just as I would never have learned to drive a car if I had to become a mechanic first, so I should never have started to cook at all had I relied on cookery books. " So writes Kenyon Goode, who ended up writing a cookery book, I Couldn’t Cook Either for the person who likes to put food on the table, but has no real idea how to do it.

I don't know much about Kenyon Goode with the exception of the info in this book. Here it is. In the thirties and forties, Goode watched his mother or her cook scurrying about the kitchen and behold – food appeared on the table. When he was married in the forties, he found his wife possessed those same womanly skills. Alas, he ended up getting a divorce in the 1950’s and found himself in a bachelor abode with an empty cupboard. He set out to share the basics with others who might find themselves in a similar predicament.

He cooks eggs, a few sauces some chicken and fish and finally, the end all English dessert.

Fool

Another dish that usually appeals to children and grown-ups alike, is a fool. Why this dish is so called, I've never been able to discover. Perhaps the suggestion is that, being so easy to make, any fool can do it. A fool is merely a combination of any puree of fruit and an equal quantity of stiffly whipped cream. Gooseberry Fool s perhaps the best known, but I usually make mine of frozen raspberries or blackberries, which I first sieve, and then sugar, before mixing in with the cream. Being very rich, it requires to be served ice-cold.

The actual origin of the English "fool" may have originated from the French " fouler" which means to "crush" or "mash." The OED scoffs at this notion (but they are English and loath to credit the French with anything.) So we will go with the "any FOOL can make it" explanation.

Regardless of what Kenyon Goode says, we here at Cookbook Of The Day, we love to rely on our cookery books.

I Can’t Boil Water

Well, here's a back-to-back Corinne Griffith post. After we posted Eggs I Have Known, we found another Corinne Griffith cookbook, I Can’t Boil Water. Where Eggs I Have Know name dropped individual people, I Can’t Boil Water name drops restaurants. There’s La Pavillion, La Côte Basque, The Rive Gauche, Trader Vic’s and Perino’s.

Of course, her favorite recipe comes from her own personal cook, Ben Crow.

Candied Pork Chops

6 pork chops
3/4 cup honey
3 cups cranberries
1/2 teaspoon powdered cloves
Salt

Brown the chops in their own fat in a frying pan. Pour the honey into the cranberries, and add the powdered cloves and stir till you have a smooth paste. Place three of the pork chops in a casserole. Slat to taste. Cover with half the cranberry mixture. Lay the remaining pork chops on top of mixture and spread remaining cranberry mixture over all. Bake in a 350 F oven 1 1/4 hours.

I love the idea of Candied Pork Chops. The cranberries gives the dish a wonderful tang. Serve it over a plain rice.

Eggs I Have Know

Corinne Griffith was a silent film star affectionately known as “the Orchid of the Screen.” When the “talkies” came into vogue, she left the silver screen. After movies, Griffith turned her talent to writing. Her book, Papa’s Delicate Condition was a best-seller and became a movie. Along the way she married several times and became quite the cook and hostess.




Her most famous husband was George Marshall, owner of the Washington Redskins. Griffith once referred to him as “the Marshall without a plan.” She wrote a book about her life as a football wife, My Life With The Redskins. Her most significant contribution, however, was composing the "fight" song, Hail to the Redskins.
Today there is a slightly more politically correct version than this original version by Griffith:

Hail to the Redskins !
Hail to victory !
Braves on the war path !
Fight for old Dixie !
Scalp em, Swamp em,
We will take em big score !
Read em, Weep em Touchdown,
We want heaps more !
Fight on... Fight On...
Til you have won,
Sons of Washington !

In the 1950’s she wrote Eggs I Have Known. The book is one of those “famous food and friends” books that drops more names than recipes. There is J. Edgar Hoover, Richard Nixon, Elsie de Wolfe, and William Randolph Hearst to name just a few.

Here is a lovely dish with international flair.

Spanish Beans in Garlic Wine

2 cans red kidney beans
5 tablespoons brown sugar
6 strips bacon
1 larger (or 2 small) cloves of garlic
1/2 cup red wine

Chop garlic very fine. Mix beans, sugar, garlic, and red wine. Place in a casserole. Lay strips of bacon across and bake for about 1 hour or until sauce thickens. Serve in casserole.

Cook up a big old casserole full for your next Redskins' game.