Radio Kitchen

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2009-2010 Baltimore Speaker Series
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December 8
#822
Mincemeat Pie

The holiday entertainment season is upon us, which means a lot of you will be having folks over for dinner. At this time of year we tend to relax our diet discipline a little bit, which means we are more inclined to eat desserts. One of the most honored desserts for Christmas is the Mincemeat Pie.
Now, this is a very interesting pie. It goes back to the time of the Crusades, and the introduction of spices to England. Minced pies were originally lamb or beef, cut up fine and mixed with spices, suet and dried fruits, often soaked in brandy. They were originally intended as a main course, but the inclusion of the rare spices made them suitable for celebratory occasions. The pies kept well, and became a fixture during Christmas season.
As time went by, and trade improved, the proportion of spices, primarily cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, grew and the meat content diminished. They were frequently made as small individual pies, which endeared them to children.
During Cromwell's era, all things related to Christmas were banned, and high on the list were roast goose and mincemeat pies! This carried over to the New World, particularly in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. But with the restoration of Charles II, the mincemeat pie was welcomed back with rejoicing, and it became an unshakable fixture in Christmas traditions.
Some modern recipes still do call for meat and suet in the mixture, which is usually made up well in advance and given a chance to macerate in spirits. While the meat adds richness and savory flavor, the suet melts during cooking adding moistness and its own flavor. But the spices and the spirits should dominate.
Most of the recipes you encounter will be meatless and free of suet, so vegetarians can enjoy them. Raisins and apples dominate the fruit, but there still is a multitude of spices that make an appearance.

Traditional Mincemeat Filling

1 1/4 pounds ground round steak
1 cup apple cider
4 winesap apples, peeled, cored and diced
1 1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 cups dired currants
2 cups dark raisins
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 mixed candied fruit
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 tbs ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 cup calvados or brandy
recipe for a 9 inch pie crust

1. Simmer beef and apple cider in a pot until beef is tender. Process in a food processor just enough to make a coarse grind.
2. Return beef to the pot and add the other ingredients and simmer over low heat for 90 minutes. Let it cool, stir in the brandy, and refrigerate for at least a week in a tight fitting container.
3. Make the pie dough, fill it as usual, and bake.

December 15
#823
Gingerbread

No other dessert is more associated with Christmastime than gingerbread. This is a really old confection and it is tied into a lot of history. Today we have three notions of gingerbread: the dark spicy cake; the flat spicy cookie; and the architectural form of the cookie that is suitable for making little Christmas cottages and whatnot.
The cake form, called "gingerbread" is not a bread at all. The oldest version of the dish is "gingerbras", derived from an old French word for preserved ginger. The notion evolved into a recipe with crumbled stale bread, honey and ginger as the main ingredients. Eventually treacle or molasses replaced honey, and the cake darkened in color.
During the 15th century, it didn't take long for gingerbread to make its way into festive molds. These could be pretty large affairs, and resulted in a dish that, unmolded, could take a central place at table.
The idea of shaped gingerbread cookies goes back at least to the court of Queen Elizabeth, where gingerbread was fashioned into portraits. With a small effort, the idea of the generic gingerbread man and woman took root. And given the wide availability of the ingredients, gingerbread cookies were found all over Europe.
In America two distinct cookie traditions emerged. The German immigrants traditionally used honey in their recipes, and the cookies were lighter in color. The English colonists put their trust in molasses and the darker cookie emerged. In both cases, much to the delight of children, the cookies were cut with metal cookie cutters into a multitude of seasonal shapes. Both batters, honey and molasses, were simple and cheap to make, and stood up well under the rough cooking techniques that prevailed on the frontier.
The spin-off concept of the gingerbread house can be traced directly to: The Brothers Grimm and their tale of "Hansel and Gretel". The witch's house was described as being enticingly made of gingerbread, pointed out in white piped frosting. It didn't take long for bakers to cash in on the idea, and a new tradition for Christmas was born.
The three recipes differ in the proportion of flour to liquid ingredients. The cake form is the moistest, the cookie form is drier, and the architectural form is the driest. If you're building a gingerbread house, you should let the sheets of uncut gingerbread get thoroughly dry, almost stale, so they won't crumble during construction.
There is an ancient recipe for the icing, and it's called Royal Icing (it appears in 15th century recipes). It can be made with egg white, lemon juice and powdered sugar, and it can be piped or applied with a spatula or knife.
Modern recipes still call for basic ingredients: flour, butter, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and black pepper. Black pepper? Good gingerbread should have the mildest little burn to it, or it's not the treat it should be.

December 22
#824
Holiday Drinks

There's more than one holiday song with references to a jolly old glass of something or other. We think one of the charms of late December is having a chance to sample a few beverages that would not ordinarily come your way
There are several traditional drinks: wassail, mead, and hot buttered rum and punch. And by and large, these are reflections of the very strong influence the traditions of English Christmas have had on us. (These traditions are both direct, and indirect, via the literature of Charles Dickens and Sir Walter Scott, which were enormously popular and influential in 19th century America.
Wassail, is a very traditional English Christmas drink. It is a concoction based on dark beer or cider, which has been "mulled." Now, mulling over something indicates slow, ponderous thought, but mulling an ale means, the slow simmering of the drink with the addition of spices and fruit. A wassail is ordinarily sweetened, so you would expect sugar or honey to appear in the recipes.
Here in Maryland, Boordy Vineyards makes a very popular Wassail for this time of the year, basing it on a hearty sweet red wine. They suggest gently warming it, which sounds absolutely perfect.
Mead, so very popular at Renaissance Festivals, is probably the oldest of all alcoholic drinks. It is nothing more than fermented honey, cut with water. It is entirely possible that naturally occurring money fermentation pre-dates mankind's ability to enjoy it. Today, meads are commercially made, and are often flavored with various spices, herbs and fruit. Mead can theoretically be made at home, but nobody really tries it very often. It's more reliable to buy it at a wine shop. Here in Maryland we have our very own quality mead producer: Orchid, which makes three varieties. Their Archer blend won a silver medal at the Governor's Cup this year, and was a favorite with the judges.
Punch is an ancient beverage. As long as there have been water, spirits, spices and fruit, there has been the concept of "punch". Traditionally, punch was a heated beverage. Many recipes call for the use of a red-hot poker as the means of heating the bowl of punch; a potentially catastrophic technique if you should carelessly touch the side of a crystal punch bowl with the poker. As Europeans colonized warmer climates, a chilled version became popular, and when one such English colony, Jamaica, contributed rum to the recipe, the drink really took off. A classic recipe would involve tart fruit, sugar, rum and a little water to blend it all.
Finally, we reach hot buttered rum, a tasty but troublesome drink if taken in excess. Al has had it once and only once. Years ago, he visited friends at Duke University in mid-autumn. One of them mixed up a batch of hot buttered rum, which ias pretty much what you think it is. It was delicious...so delicious that Al had more than a few cups of it. The next morning was one of the worst he has ever experienced, and so he urges caution and restraint in enjoying this double-edged drink.

December 29
#825
New Year's Morning Ideas

In three days we'll all be waking up to the dawn of a new year, and a new decade. At that time we will have to answer an important question: what would be suitable for this momentous breakfast, particularly considering how I'm feeling this morning. This is really one of the few mornings when breakfast really matters.
Here are some ideas we've gleaned from our cookbooks.
1.Toasted poppy seed bagel, with scrambled eggs and a sausage/pepper saut�.
2. Taking advantage of Canadian bacon's tendency to curl up into a shallow bowl; mount it on a buttery English muffin, and top with a poached egg and melted gruyere cheese.
3. One Latino recipe that is much appreciated is huevos rancheros. Start with a crisp flat tortilla, then lay down a bed of refried beans, cheesy eggs, some fresh veggies like tomato and avocado, a little sour cream and a very flavorful rancheros sauce.
4. You may want to go all-out Southern with grits laced with cheese, bacon and shrimp, along side a healthy serving of black-eyed peas, and a thick slice of buttery cornbread drizzled with molasses.
5. And you may want to dabble in crepes or their near cousin the blintz Both involve thin batters and sweet fillings. The rolling and folding of each is a little different, but the end product is nearly the same. The blintz batter is a little thinner, and is a bit softer than a crepe. Also, you often will roll it and fold the ends under.

January 5
#826
Bread Pudding

If we can all agree that it's just a little bit nippy out there, it might be appropriate to think of ways we can use food to increase our personal comfort. At such times it pays to think back to the classics, and consider reviving a dish from an earlier, simpler time. One such dish that we would argue is as satisfying as it is simple. And that would be bread pudding.
The basic recipe calls for shredded bread (usually white bread) to be blended with melted butter, raisins and baking spices, then pouring on a sweet egg mixture that soaks into the bread. then you bake it. Here's where the variations start. First, the bread. Should it be fresh or day-old, i.e., slightly stale? And can you veer away from white bread? Al personally likes to buy a big solid loaf, like a French "batard", and pull apart the bread pieces. Also, top quality dinner rolls, with a fluffy texture work really well too. And don't overlook rasin bread, which arrives with its own fruit.
About those raisins: are they the only fruit you could use? How about cut up peaches, dried cherries, or cranberries? Maybe you can soak them in sherry before using them.
And what about that egg mixture? We don't have to play it straight, since we can add flavorings, like caramel, chocolate, or maple. We can even take it slightly savory with a carefully chosen cheese, say a little ricotta. And what about substituting egg nog for the milk? Not a bad idea.
And finally, is baking it in a baking dish in a 350 degree oven the only option. Try baking the pudding in a watery bain marie.

January 12
#827
Cooking Duck

Al was down in St. Michaels on the Easter Shore for Christmas, and he encountered one of the true classic dishes of the Chesapeake, roast duck. So at a recent dinner party a few weeks later, he tried his hand at working with duck breasts.
After two tries, he did get it right. Here are some observations.
Duck breast is commonly available, but try to get fresh if possible. D'Artagnan is a superb product. Will sell for about $12 a pound, so it's affordable. You can easily serve 4 people (3 slices each) with one pound.
Thoroughly wash the duck breast and then pat it dry. The prime feature will be the heavy layer of fat. (and here, you may want to alert any of your culinary-minded chums who will kill to get a hold of some rendered duck fat). To hasten the rendering and to allow for quick, thorough cooking, score the fat all the way down to the meat. Create a cross-hatch of cuts, about 3/4" apart.
A big old cast iron skillet is really wonderful for pan-frying your duck breasts. You don't need olive oil since the duck will self-lubricate. After you salt and pepper the meat side, pre-heat the skillet over medium high, but not the highest heat. You don't want to cook it too quickly. Cook the breast FAT SIDE FIRST, occasionally moving it around the pan to avoid sticking.
Cook it for between 8-10 minutes...you have to play it by ear a little...until the fat is mostly rendered, and is crispy gold in color. It should cook down to abut 1/8 to 1/4 inch in thickness. Remove the entire breast, pour off most of the hot fat, and then return the skillet to the stove. Now you cook it meat side down for about 4-5 minutes. Look closely at the scoring cuts. Hopefully, you nicked the meat a little bit. Keep you eye open for red juice being forced out. When you see that, count to 30 and then remove the breast. NOTE: I FOUND A MEAT THERMOMETER TO BE VERY UNRELIABLE. BY TRYING TO BRING THE BREAST TO 130 I OVERCOOKED IT, THE FIRST TIME.
Place the breast on a warming plate and hold it in a 150 degree oven for about 10 minutes. This will allow the meat to rest, and regain its juices. On a cutting board, trim the ends, and then cut thin slices on a diagonal. You should get 12 slices per one pound breast.
You could also have drained the remaining fat, and deglazed the skillet with red wine. Stir up the browned bits, and add the liquid of chicken broth simmered on a rich bed of mirepoix (heavy on the carrots). Add a bouquet garni featuring thyme sprigs, and reduce the sauce furiously. You may want to thicken a little bit with corn starch. Adjust the seasoning (don't be afraid of adding the merest touch of sweetness) and serve with the duck.

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