Kidney Stew

From page 190. Makes 2–4 servings.

• 1 large or 2 small beef kidneys

• 1 onion, peeled and chopped

• 1 stalk of celery, chopped

• 1 sprig of parsley, chopped

• 3 tbsp butter

• 2 tbsp flour

• 2 eggs

• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

• 1 tbsp sherry

• salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste

• cornstarch, as needed

1. Cover the kidney with water in a pot, and simmer for 15 minutes over medium heat. Scum and fat will cloud the water. Wash off the kidney, so you’re left with a smaller, paler kidney.

2. Place the kidney in a slow cooker or dutch oven, along with the onion, celery, and parsley. Cover it all with water, and bring it to a simmer. Let it cook 6–8 hours.

3. Take it off the heat, and add a pinch of salt. Once reasonably cool, take the kidney out, and cut it into bite-sized pieces, discarding the center. Strain the fat from the water, and save the water in a separate bowl.

4. Hard-boil the eggs while you’re doing step 5.

5. In a saucepan, melt the butter, and slowly add in the flour, mixing as you go. Once that bubbles, slowly add in 3 cups of the kidney water. Simmer for 10 minutes.

6. Chop the hard-boiled eggs, and add them with the chopped kidneys to your gravy/broth. Simmer for another 10 minutes. If it’s not thick enough, add cornstarch. Add the Worcestershire and sherry, and then season to taste with salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper.

LIZ’S NOTES

• A slow cooker or dutch oven is ideal for this recipe.

YOUR NOTES

Fruitcake

From page 114. Fills 8 standard loaf pans.

• 3 lbs currants

• 1½ lbs raisins with seeds

• 1½ lbs raisins without seeds

• 1 lb dates, cut into small pieces

• 1 lb candied citron

• ¼ lb candied lemon peel

• ¼ lb candied orange peel

• ½ lb candied cherries (halve each cherry)

• ½ cup rum

• 1 lb butter

• 1 lb light brown sugar

• 12 eggs

• ¾ cup molasses

• ½ cup brandy or rye whiskey

• ½ tsp ground cloves

• ½ tsp allspice

• 8 tbsps rum, sherry, whiskey, or brandy

• oil or lard, for greasing pans

1. Mix the fruits and peels together and sprinkle the rum over them.

2. Using an electric mixer, cream the butter with the light brown sugar. Beat all 12 eggs until they’re light, and add to the butter and sugar, along with the molasses and brandy or rye whiskey, and beat again. Sift into this the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and allspice. Beat again. Pour the batter over the fruits and peels, and mix thoroughly until every piece is coated.

3. Grease the chosen pans or casseroles with oil or lard. Line the bottoms and sides with parchment paper and grease that, too.

4. Pat the completed cake batter gently into its pans up to the three-quarter mark. Bake smaller cakes for 3½ hours and the large bread-pan size for 4 hours—both in a 275° oven that has a pan filled with water on the bottom. Turn the cakes out of the pans and remove the paper when hot. Cool and dribble 1 tablespoon of liquor (rum, sherry, whiskey, or brandy) over each cake.

5. Stack the cakes for at least 2 months in a covered crock or a tin breadbox that has been lined with wax paper, turning them over every 2 weeks or so and dribbling more liquor on top.

6. Before eating or giving away, decorate the cakes with leaves and berries of sliced citron and candied cherries, gluing them on with a syrup of ½ cup sugar and ¼ cup of water that has been boiled until a few drops become brittle when dropped in ice water. Wrap each cake carefully in double layers of waxed paper or cellophane before tying up in holiday tissue.

LIZ’S NOTES

• Your cakes may be ready in 3 hours. You can tell it’s done when no crumbs stick to a toothpick or knife that you prod the cake with, and the cake appears to pull away from the sides of the pan.

YOUR NOTES

Chicken Livers with Red Wine

From page 52. Makes 8 servings.

• 1 tbsp chopped onion or chives

• 1 tsp parsley, chopped

• ½ lb mushrooms, sliced

• 3 tbsp butter

• 1 lb chicken livers

• 2 cup bouillon, consommé, or chicken broth

1. Sauté the onion/chives, parsley, and mushrooms in the butter until the onion/chives are soft.

2. Dust the chicken livers with flour, salt, and pepper. Add them to the pan. Let them cook for 5 minutes. Add the red wine and bouillon/consommé/ broth. Cook 10 minutes until thickened. Serve in a ring of cooked rice, and with fried eggplant.

LIZ’S NOTES

• 4 cups of cooked rice are the ideal quantity for this recipe.

YOUR NOTES

Pot Roast

From page 48. Makes 8 servings.

• 1 piece of 4- or 5-lb top round beef

• 1 pint red wine (claret or Burgundy)

• 2 onions, sliced

• 1 garlic clove, crushed

• ½ cup celery, finely chopped

• 1 pinch of thyme

• 1 bay leaf (if you like it)

• 1 tsp flour

• 4 oz suet, salt pork, or other fat, chopped

• 4 tomatoes, peeled

• 2 or more onions, peeled

• 2 or more whole carrots, peeled

• 3–4 turnips, peeled

• 2 packages of broad noodles

• 1 tsp salt (and more for step 4)

• A dash of pepper

• ½ cup sour cream

• Flour or cornstarch, as needed

1. Put the meat into a shallow bowl, pour the wine over, and add the onions, garlic, celery, a pinch of thyme, and a bay leaf if you like the taste. Let it soak for 24 hours at least, turning the meat every 8 hours or so. When you are ready to cook, drain the meat thoroughly, reserving the wine (sans bay leaf), and mop it as dry as possible, using a paper towel lightly.

2. Dust the meat with flour. Now fry the suet or salt pork in a heavy-bottomed pot. Put in the beef and brown it thoroughly on all sides, pour in the wine marinade, add the tomatoes, and let it simmer, tightly covered, for 1 hour.

3. Add the onions and carrots, as well as the turnips, salt, and pepper. Simmer for about another hour, or until the vegetables are done.

4. In the meantime, have ready 2 packages of broad noodles that have been boiled in plenty of salted water. Drain them and keep them hot in a colander over boiling water.

5. Put your roast on a large hot platter, and thicken the gravy with sour cream while bringing the juice to a low boil. Add a little cornstarch or flour mixed with cold water if it’s not thick enough. Place the vegetables around the roast, then decorate the edge of the dish with hot boiled noodles, each mound of which has a bit of butter on top. Serve the gravy separately.

LIZ’S NOTES

• The meat might take longer than an hour. It’s cooked when it yields easily to a fork. Don’t be alarmed if it takes 3 hours.

• In place of suet, try a solid and firm beef fat (kidney fat is good for this, and may come free if you’re making Kidney Stew).

• Gima recommends 2 peeled onions and 2 peeled carrots per person. As many as you can fit into the pot will work, too.

• Mixing the flour or cornstarch with the sour cream before adding it to the gravy will keep it from curdling.

YOUR NOTES

Chutney

From page 130. Makes about 3 pints.

• 4 cups apples (Granny Smith or similarly tart), sliced

• 6 cups green (not yet ripe) tomatoes, sliced

• 2 cups onion, chopped

• 1 clove garlic, minced

• 1 cup raisins

• 1 tbsp candied ginger, minced

• ½ tsp ground cloves

• ⅛ tsp cayenne pepper

1. Put everything in a pot in the order above.

2. Bring to a simmer, while stirring everything together. Simmer for 2 hours, or until the fruit breaks down and the liquid thickens to a syrupy consistency. Make sure to stir more frequently towards the end, to avoid burning the bottom.

3. Seal in sterilized jars.

LIZ’S NOTES

• It’s roughly 1 apple or tomato per cup, but varies depending on the size of the fruit.

• Gima’s recipe says it’s 6 pints, but as tested, it’s about half that.

YOUR NOTES

P.O.M. Pickles

From page 131. Makes about 6–8 quarts.

• 2 quarts green (not yet ripe) tomatoes, chopped

• 1 quart white onions, peeled and chopped

• 1 bunch celery, chopped

• 4 bell peppers (2 green, 2 red), seeded and chopped

• 2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped

• 1 pint sweet pickles

• 1 quart sour (or dill) pickles

• 1 large or 2 small heads of cauliflower

• ½ cup salt

For the paste in step 4

For the bundle in step 5

• 2 tbsp whole allspice

• 1 tbsp whole cloves

• 1 tbsp cinnamon

• 2 tbsp mustard seed

1. Chop the sweet and sour pickles. Pull off bits of the cauliflower, and chop the stems. Put everything in the biggest pot you have. Add the salt, and cover everything with water. Let it stand overnight.

2. Bring the vegetable mix to a boil, then drain the water, returning the vegetables to the pot.

3. Cover with vinegar, making sure to measure how much you’re pouring.

4. For every 3 pints of vinegar used in step 3, mix proportionally:

6 tbsp dry mustard
1 tbsp turmeric
3 cups brown sugar
½ cup flour
⅛ tsp cayenne pepper

Add vinegar to this mix in small amounts, stirring as you do, until it’s a thick paste. Mix this in with the vegetables.

5. Using cheesecloth and twine, bundle up the allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and mustard seed. Add it to the pot. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring as it heats.

6. Remove the cheesecloth packet, turn off the heat, and jar the pickle mix. Let the sealed jars sit for at least 2 weeks before eating.

LIZ’S NOTES

• 6–8 quarts is a lot of food. If you do not have a very large pot, you’ll have to cut the recipe down by half, or more.

• As Gima notes, you can add just about any vegetable to this.

YOUR NOTES

Oyster Bisque

From page 42. Makes 4 servings.

• 2 or 3 oysters, juice reserved

1. Add 2 or 3 chopped oysters to 1 pint of their strained juice and bring to a boil.

2. Make white sauce: In a saucepan, melt the butter over a medium flame and stir in the flour. When it starts to bubble take the pan from the fire and slowly stir 1 cup of milk, letting the flour absorb the liquid. Put the pan back over the heat and just as slowly add 1 cup more of milk, never ceasing the constant stirring.

3. Add the salt and black pepper, and keep it over a lower heat for at least 10 minutes longer, stirring occasionally. If you must neglect it after the last milk goes in, put the sauce into the top of a double boiler to finish cooking over hot water.

4. Mix the steaming oysters and juice into the white sauce, and serve.

LIZ’S NOTES

• If your oysters do not supply you the pint of liquid, bottled clam or oyster juice works, too.

• Use a heavy-bottomed saucepan and a whisk for the white sauce.

YOUR NOTES

Celery au Gratin

From page 91. Makes 4–6 servings.

• 2 cups celery stalks, cut crosswise in 1-inch lengths

• 2½ cups white sauce, as described in the Oyster Bisque

• ½ cup bread crumbs • ½ cup grated cheese (such as Gruyère or Parmigiano-Reggiano)

• 4 tbsp butter

• salt

1. Boil the celery in salted water until tender. Drain, and mix with white sauce and grated cheese.

2. Butter a dish with half of the butter. Add the celery/sauce/cheese mixture, cover it with bread crumbs, and dot it with the other half the butter. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until the crumbs are brown.

LIZ’S NOTES

• Gima does not specify what type of “grated cheese” to use, but Gruyère yields a particularly delicious gratin.

• Keep an eye on your bread crumbs to make sure they don’t burn. If they start to look too brown too early, cover the whole thing with foil and keep cooking.

YOUR NOTES

Quick Tea Cookies

From page 121. Makes 8–12 small cookies.

• 2 tbsp brown sugar (and a few more pinches for step 2)

• 2 tbsp butter, softened

• 1 egg, well-beaten

• ½ cup flour, sifted

• 1 pinch of salt

• 1 pinch cinnamon

• 2 pinches of nutmeg

• 1 tsp caraway seeds (optional)

1. Cream the brown sugar and butter. Add the egg, sifted flour, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg; beat well.

1a. This is when Gima says you can add 1 tsp of caraway seeds to the batter “if you like the old-fashioned flavor.”

2. Drop by small flattened spoonfuls, well apart, on a greased cookie (or “cooky”!) sheet. Put a pinch of brown sugar on the top of each cookie and bake 8 minutes in a 425° oven.

2a. You can also add a half-walnut or a sliced, blanched almond on top of each cookie before baking.

LIZ’S NOTES

• These aren’t what you’d typically think of as cookies today. They’re more like tiny cakes, best enjoyed immediately after they’re baked.

YOUR NOTES

Sour Milk Muffins

Kidney Stew

Fruitcake

Chicken Livers with Red Wine

Pot Roast

Chutney

P.O.M. Pickles

Oyster Bisque

Celery au Gratin

Quick Tea Cookies