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.

Session 1: Chicken Cutlets with Sauce Espagnole, A Light and Tangy Potato Salad, and Apple Strudel

October 21st: First Session: Thad (baby wrangling), Julia (entree), Brooke (side), Rick (dessert)

~Entree (Julia)~
Chicken Cutlets with Sauce Espagnole
(The Great Victorian Cookbook by John Midgley)
R&B picked this up for 1$ at Half Price Books!

THE INGREDIENTS:
2 chicken breasts (I pounded these so they'd be a bit flat. I ended up only serving half a breast to each person- chicken breasts are HUGE these days!)
olive oil, for frying
some good bread, sliced into 4 medium thick pieces (I used olive oil bread from the store)
fresh breadcrumbs, to coat (a cup or so?)
salt and freshly milled black pepper
1/4 tsp. cayenne (I didn't use this- R&B don't even have it in the house, because B is a wimp!)
1/4 tsp. mace (I just used a bit of nutmeg)
4 egg yolks

to garnish:
chives
2 lemon quarters
some Sauce Espagnole (this is the most important part)

THE INSTRUCTIONS:
First, fry the slices of bread in your 4 tablespoons of fat (oil or butter). Set the bread off to the side- probably already on the plates you're going to serve the dish on. Make sure you don't pull too much butter off with them. After you're done, you should have soaked up all your delicious fat. Then, mix together your breadcrumbs and seasoning. Heat some more oil in the pan. Dredge the chicken in the egg yolks, and then the breadcrumbs.

When the oil just starts to smoke, add the chicken. Fry both sides for about a minute, then reduce the heat and fry gently for 15-20 minutes or so, turning several times. Serve the chicken atop the pieces of fried bread, with the nice hot Sauce Espagnole in a pool at the base of the bread (but not on the chicken! It'll make it soggy!)

Sauce Espagnole
2 T butter
1/2 carrot, peeled and diced
1/2 onion (or a decent sized shallot, which is what I used)
1/2 celery stick (I didn't have one, so I just skipped it)
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs parsley (I used dried)
some lemon peel (this is vital! strips of peel, mind- not zested)
1 sprig thyme
2 t. flour
1 cup beef stock
1 t. tomato puree
1 t. Worcestershire sauce
4 mushrooms, very finely chopped (again, I skipped this. I hate button mushrooms)
2 T dry sherry (I used red wine vinegar, and it was brilliant. In future, I might use apple juice instead)
salt and freshly milled pepper

Heat the butter in a small nonstick frying pan and, when foaming, add the vegetables, herbs and lemon peel; fry until golden brown, but do not burn. Off the heat, stir in the flour, then return to the heat and stir around until well browned. Add the stock, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, mushrooms and sherry. Season and bring to a boil. Partially cover the pan, reduce the heat to minimum and simmer for 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the volume has reduced and the sauce is very dark. Strain and serve.

Cook's comments:
The sauce was the big deal with this. It took most of an hour to make, between slow cooking and an assload of chopping. Still it was worth it. I cook because I really, really like eating, and this was So. Good.

Party Club's comments:
Rick: It was one of the best things I've ever put in my mouth. Ever.
Brooke: Spectacular. So amazing. A taste sensation! Seriously, this dish was so good that it nearly single-handedly demanded we have future Cookbook Parties.
Thad: Delightful and savory. A fine entree that I would have again at a moment's notice. Truly enjoyable. Fine Family Food.

~Side (Brooke)~
A Light and Tangy Potato Salad
(Also from The Great Victorian Cookbook by John Midgley)

THE INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 lb. baby new potatoes, well washed but left unpeeled
3 T. olive oil
2 T. white wine vinegar
1 t. prepared English mustard
salt and freshly milled black pepper
1/2 cup sour cream
small bunch of fresh chives, snipped
leaves from 3 sprigs of mint, chopped

THE INSTRUCTIONS:
Boil the potatoes until tender but do not overcook them. Drain well, then put them in a bowl. Beat the olive oil with the vinegar, mustard and seasoning. Pour it over the potatoes while they are still hot, turning them to coat. When they have cooled, fold in the sour cream. Add the chives and mint, season lightly, and mix thoroughly. Serve immediately or refrigerate until the salad is required.
Serves 4.

Cook's comments:
This is very different from any potato salad I've ever had before. Not saucy or goopy at all, with a wonderful, rich flavor. It even smelled tasty. The shopping run brought back baby potatoes, but even cut in half they were still a bit big for the recipe. I'm not sure that the proper tiny size of potato is easily available in the groceries around here. The smallest potatoes you can find are a requirement. The finished salad was extremely delicious, but the 3 sprigs of mint seem to have been too much; the taste was over-minty. I am definitely planning on making this again!

Party Club's comments:
Rick: Crap! I mean, I liked it. Naw, it was really good. It could have used more actual herbs, and smaller chunks of potato. But other than that, I really enjoyed it.
Julia: Good, but a bit heavy on the mint. I would have liked a bit more chive.
Thad: While I am not generally a large fan of potato salad, I did quite enjoy the dish. I thought the mint worked well. I could have used smaller potatoes and a little more seasoning.

~Dessert (Rick)~
Apple Strudel
(The Vegetarian Gourmet Cookbook by Paul Southey)
Also purchased by R&B for 1$ from Half Price Books

THE INGREDIENTS:
The Pastry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
10 T unsalted butter
2/3 cup warm water
a little confectioners sugar

The Filling:
2 cups fresh wholewheat breadcrumbs fried in 4 T. unsalted butter until just beginning to crisp
1 lb. cooking apples, peeled, cored, chopped and soaked in the juice of 2 lemons
1/3 cup raw brown sugar
1/4 cup slivered blanched almonds
1/3 cup seedless white raisins
1/4 t. freshly grated nutmeg
1 t. ground cinnamon

THE INSTRUCTIONS:
Sift the flour into a warmed bowl. Melt 4 T. of the butter in the water and pour it, little by little, into the flour, stirring all the time. Knead until you have a smooth dough. Take it out of the bowl and knead for 10 minutes - the dough should be soft and pliable, so add a little more warm water if it feels dry. Return to the warmed bowl, cover and leave it for 30 minutes.
Lay a clean cloth about 3 ft. square on a table which you can walk around. Sprinkle the cloth with flour and place the rested dough in the center. Gently roll it out to a square and the place your hands under the dough and carefully stretch it outwards. Melt the remaining butter and brush a little of it over the dough if it looks as though it is getting dry. Continue stretching until the dough is so thin you can almost read through it. Try to keep it the same thickness all over with slightly thicker edges to work on.
When all the dough is of a uniform thickness, brush it lightly all over with most of the melted butter and cut off the thick outer edges. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Straighten shape and sprinkle the breadcrumbs along one side, followed by the apples, the sugar, the almonds, the raisins and spices, keeping the filling neatly along one end of the strudel. Then, by lifting up the cloth, gently roll the strudel up so that the filling is trapped between layers of very thin buttery dough. Form the roll into a horseshoe and gently ease it onto a well-buttered baking sheet. Brush the top liberally with the remaining melted butter and bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown and crisp.
Remove from the baking sheet, sprinkle the top with confectioners sugar and serve hot or cold with lightly whipped cream.
While this recipe seems rather a performance, it is not nearly as difficult as it might appear at first sight. Practice the first time with half quantities; if holes appear in the dough, repair them by making a patch with a piece from the edge, otherwise the hole will grow. Some cooks work section by section; I work from the center outwards, and in Austria it is generally done by four people working around a square table. When you have mastered it, you will realize why the strudel is one of the most popular pastries in Europe.

Cook's Comments: Breadcrumbs really dried this recipe out, and I don't see the raisins helping that since they would have pulled more moisture from the apples. I ended up skipping the raisins for Brooke's sake, though we have since found out that she doesn't mind them when they rehydrate in a strudel. The crust was good though overcomplicated, since a basic pie crust works just as well, especially when brushed with a butter-sugar syrup. The instructions were also not the clearest.

Party Club's comments:
Brooke: The only great thing about this dish in my mind was the Breyer's Natural Vanilla ice cream I put on top of it. The crust was okay, but the entire filling of the strudel was just this awful dry powder. Essentially inedible, as far as I'm concerned. I blame the recipe tho, not the cook.
Julia: Dry. We served this with ice cream, and it was basically tasty (I mean- apples! cinnamon! hard to fuck that one up, right?) but it was kinda weird and crumby in the middle. Not a super awesome strudel. All props to Rick, but this was the clear loser of the first Cookbook Party.
Thad: Too dry. He should have left the raisins in, or found an adequate substitute. And my baby ate all the ice cream off of it.

Votes:
The entree was the clear voted winner- the Sauce Espagnole was delectable. Really, really good. The combination of the tangy sauce with the fried bread and the chicken was total Win.

The dessert was voted the loser. The Vegetarian Gourmets were declared to suck.

About Us

Brooke: can't cook. Not really. But she can feed herself perfectly adequately, which is alright by her. Her style of cooking involves careful reading and following of the directions on the box of mac n' cheese or can of soup. And oatmeal, and grilled cheese. Tasty wonderful grilled cheese. When feeling really ambitious, she'll painstakingly follow the directions for a box of cake mix or Quaker oatmeal cookies.


Julia: has been cooking since she was about 7 years old. She has a thing for pastry, and is a bit obsessed with food. Delicious, delicious food. Pigs are her favorite dead animal, but she tries not to make the other dead animals too jealous.




Rick: started to learn about cooking from a very young age and after some experimental years (yes, Tabasco DOES go with tuna!) has become quite a decent cook, specializing in solid, hearty dishes such as chili, stroganoff, home made pasta sauce, or homemade from scratch soups and pie.




Thad: was trained in the fine art of pizza making at his father's side and every now and then will actually try to cooking something other than pizza.
Nobody has died from his cooking so far and that's just aces!




Jeff: is a fair hand at the world of cooking. He enjoys grilling the most, though the cruel grasp of winter tends to put a damper on that. His breads, pies, grilled meats, and chili are enjoyed by all but the heathens who refuse to try them.

How it works

Everybody has cookbooks in their house. They never use them- they just gather dust on the shelf. Why keep them around? They cry out to be cooked with. We decided to form the Cookbook Party Club to answer that call.

This is how it works:

• When CPC gathers, we put courses in a hat, and draw randomly.
• We search through whatever cookbooks we have on hand. Everyone must cook something they've never cooked before, and try to follow (more or less) the recipe in the book.
• We make a store run for ingredients.
• The cooking begins!

With three people cooking, we have one entree, one side, and one dessert. With more, we add another side, and an appetizer. Three or more cooks in the kitchen gets a bit crowded, but it's fun to cook with friends.