Session 2: Meat Pies in Butter Sauce, Spinach and Nettle Souffle, and Pumpkin Chiffon Tarts

November 18th: Tonight's Cookbook Party started a little late- and it ran late, as these things are wont to do. Still, dinner was great.

Attending: Thad (Baby wrangling), Brooke (entree), Rick (side), Julia (dessert)

~Entree (Brooke)~
Meat Pies with Butter Sauce
(Celtic Folklore Cooking by Joanne Asala)
Julia got this book as a gift, years back.

THE INGREDIENTS:
4 eggs, beaten
2-1/2 cups water (WARNING: this is totally wrong)
1-1/2 cups mashed potatoes
3 cups flour
2 pounds ground round steak
1/2 pound ground kidney suet (I instead used some ham in our freezer which I ground up!)
2 slices of bread, softened in milk, and squeezed dry
1/2 cup water
salt, pepper, thyme to taste
1 medium onion, chopped fine (I used a shallot instead, worked excellently)
1 stick of butter

THE INSTRUCTIONS:
Mix together eggs, water and mashed potatoes. Add enough flour to make a smooth dough. Roll out dough and cut into 3-inch rounds. With your hands, mix the beef, suet, bread, water, and spices until sticky but firm. Place 1 T of the mixture in the center of each pastry round; fold over and pinch to seal. Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil on the stove and drop the meat pies in. Cook until they swell and gloat, about 12 to 15 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon to the platter. Sautee onions in the butter and pour over the meat pies.
Serves 8.

Cook's Comments:
The meat portion of this recipe was absurdly easy, even with having to grind up some leftover ham to replace the kidney suet. The food processor made that bit a breeze. The dough was simply... a disaster. There's really no other word. Firstly, I was outvoted by the group and told to mash my own potatoes, rather than use instant. This added time to the prep, although largely that was because I didn't cook them in the most efficient way. The first few potatoes I added I had forgotten to peel, which made the 'dough' lumpy, and later ones I peeled before cooking (rather than scooping later), lengthening the process. After mixing, the dough was hideously hideously over-watery, and not able to form a proper doughy consistency. This necessitated some emergency intervention from Julia, who helped me add greater and greater amounts of flour and potatoes. After considerable time and effort, it was judged that the dough was never going to be usable as purposed. Julia came up with idea to re-work the recipe into meat cupcakes, rather than pies. The perfectly wonderful meat mixture was placed filling the bottom of a dozen and a half buttered cupcake cups. A small amount of dough was spread ontop of each meat cup. They were then baked at XXX for XXX. When they were done, they were pulled out and each person poured some shallot-butter overtop. The sauce was my absolute favorite part of the dish and the meal. I would have voted the entree as winner based on the spectacular-tasting meat-cups and sauce, but the still-only-moderately-good dough caps and the incapable recipe lost the entree my vote for best dish.

Party Club's Comments:
Rick: Good. A little bit much like meatloaf for my personal taste.
Julia: Well, Brooke can tell you. This turned out weird. The meat was tasty. I'm unimpressed by this recipe. Joanne Asala confused my poor Brooke with her unclear and/or messed up instructions!
Thad: It's hard to go wrong with meat, pastry and shallot-infused butter. Sufficiently filling. I went back for seconds.

~Side (Rick)~
Spinach and Nettle Souffle
(Redux of the Great Victorian Cookbook by John Midgley)

THE INGREDIENTS:
bunch of tender nettle shoots, sorrel or spinach to fill a 2 pint measuring jug
4 T butter, plus a little for wiping
4 T flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup cream
salt and freshly milled black pepper
6 T freshly grated Parmesan cheese
6 eggs, yolks and whites separated
1 oz. aged cheddar, grated

THE INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Wash the vegetables very thoroughly; remove the thick stalk. Throw the leaves into a pan with only a little additional water. Cook until thoroughly wilted, then drain, squeezing out as much moisture as possible. Chop finely. Butter generously a steep-sided casserole dish or cake pan approximately 9 inches in diameter.

Mix together the flour, butter, milk, cream and seasoning, and stir over a medium-low heat until thoroughly blended and bubbling. Off the heat, mix in the Parmesan cheese, egg yolks, and chopped greens. Whip the egg whites until they form peaks, then fold into the mixture, a tablespoon at a time. Pour into the container, sprinkle the cheddar on top, and bake for 25 minutes or until well risen and golden brown.
Serves 4.

Cook's Comments: Chose to use Spinach instead of nettles, mostly cause I had spinach in my fridge and not nettles. Sadly, it fell, mostly because the cheese on the top sealed in all the steam. so next time, once done, pierce top and leave in oven to let the steam leave. Other than that the only thing I would change would be to up the amount of Parmesan by another couple of tbs., the cheese flavor was just a tad too light. Alternately, add a tbs or two of Bleu to bring out the cheese flavor. Course, I was using a weaker Parm than my usual Stravecchio from Whole Foods, a truly godlike Parmesan in my mind, so a stronger Parm may help this dish. Also, whip the egg whites to stiff peaks I think to give it just that little bit more structure.

One other note on the butter-cream-flour mix: ratios are fine, but stir constantly with a fork as this mix does not "bubble" really but rather becomes pastelike as it blends and the flour thickens the milk. Once it is thickened (think like very thick paint) and slightly steaming, remove from heat and proceed. Add the spinach with the cheese here, since the recipe lacks any placement of where you add the greens. Be careful while folding in the egg whites, using minimum turns of the spoon since they will be providing your loft.

Party Club's Comments:
Brooke: Perfectly acceptable and edible. It lacked much strong flavor, so I didn't take more. Nothing wrong with this dish, just nothing stand-out in my mind, either.
Julia: Delicious! This was my vote for the Win of the evening. The souffle fell, but I didn't care. If I were to criticize, I would say that it could use maybe a pinch of salt and/or a bit more cheese. Yum.
Thad: Uh, gross. I seriously didn't like it. Probably because of the spinach. But I'm not sure I'm actually fond of what amounts to egg cake, either. (That's because he's a heathen, who hates spinach and also adorable kittens- J)

~Dessert (Julia)~
Pumpkin Chiffon Tarts
(Farm Journal's Country Cookbook ed. by Nell B. Nichols)
Julia's mom gave her this a long time ago. It's a new copy of a book her mom had around the house when J was a kid.

THE INGREDIENTS:
Tart shells (pastry for 2-crust pie)
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
3/4 c. light brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
3 eggs, separated
3/4 c. milk
1 1/4 c. canned pumpkin
1/3 c. sugar
Whipped cream
Amber Caramel Sauce

THE INSTRUCTIONS:
Combine gelatin, brown sugar, salt and spice in saucepan. Combine egg yolks and milk; stir into gelatin mixture. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from heat; add pumpkin. Chill mixture until it mounds slightly when dropped from spoon. Test frequently for mounding stage.

Beat egg whites until frothy; add 1/2 c. sugar and beat until glossy, stiff peaks form.

Fold pumpkin mixture into egg whites. Spoon into tart shells. Chill until firm. Serve topped with whipped cream; pass Amber Caramel Sauce to pour over. Makes about 12 (3") tarts.

Amber Caramel Sauce:
Combine 1 c. brown sugar, firmly packed, 1/2 c. light corn syrup and 1/2 c. water in small saucepan and bring to a boil. Cook, uncovered, 5 minutes.

Remove from heat; stir in 1 tsp. vanilla. Serve warm or col. Makes about 1 1/3 cups.

Cook's Comments:
I told the "Amber Caramel Sauce" to go to hell. I didn't have any corn syrup, and to be fair, I think it would have been a bit much. I should have folded my egg whites in a bit more smoothly- I ended up with chunks. Also, I used dark brown sugar, and I could definitely tell the difference in taste. All in all, though, it was quite tasty. I like punkins. Oh, and I used pate sucree instead of pie crust, and made sort of a ginormous tart instead of little ones

Party Club's Comments:
Brooke: Tasty yet light. And seasonally timely. :)
Rick: Superb! Very, very light. Excellent texture. Crust was a bit thick.
Thad: Delightful and effervescent. Perhaps even preferable to the good old standard of Ye Olde Pumpkine Pye.

Votes:
The dessert was declared to be the winner. Pumpkin chiffon- so good, you'd wear it to prom. Whatever the hell chiffon is.

Meat pies are the majority loser, mostly because the recipe turned out really strange. Way to go, weird Celtic Pagan woman.