Recipes

My friend Amy has made this appetizer for a number of years. The nice things about it is it’s quick and easy to prepare. It can be made ahead of time and looks great on the plate. And don’t be put off by the word caviar. Red caviar is cheap and can be found on most better supermarket shelves.

Caviar Mousse

6 oz. red caviar
¼ cup chopped parsley
1 tablespoon grated onion
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 pint sour cream
¼ cup heavy cream
1 envelope gelatin
cup water
freshly ground pepper to taste

In a large bowl combine caviar, parsley, onion, lemon rind. Stir the sour cream into this mixture. In a separate bowl whip the heavy cream. Sprinkle gelatin over the water in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the gelatin is completely dissolved. This takes only a minute or two. Stir gelatin into the caviar and sour cream mixture. Fold in whipped cream and add pepper to taste. Spoon into individual molds or one large soufflé dish. Chill until set. Unmold onto platter and serve surrounded by crackers.

The recipes that follow are from my friend Linda Nielsen, who is a great instinctive cook, as her grateful friends will attest to. She’s one of those people who can take odds and ends and combine them into something wonderful.

All these recipes are designed to serve eight. Have fun with them and don’t feel you have to follow them exactly, except for the devil’s food cake and the finger bone cookies, that is. Here not following the recipes as they are written is a bad idea because unlike cooking, baking is an exact art.

 

 

This is a nice old-fashioned recipe, something your mother might have made, that works well in the summer as an appetizer and looks pretty on a buffet table. It’s a great potluck dish because you can make it in the morning in ten minutes, stick it in the fridge, and bring it to the party later in the day.

Tomato Aspic

4 cups tomato juice, either canned or homemade
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons plain gelatin
½ cup cold water

Soak 2 tablespoons gelatin in cold water.

Add lemon juice to tomato juice.

Heat juice but do not allow it to boil.

Stir in gelatin. Stir until it dissolves.

Pour into heart- or ring-shaped mold.

Put into refrigerator and chill until firm.

Unmold and serve on white platter decorated with lettuce leaves.

If so moved you can add ½ cup sour cream and/or chopped green olives or finely chopped celery to the mixture after the gelatin dissolves.

This salad fits nicely into any meal scheme. It works as part of a dinner or, if served with fruit and bread, as a light lunch. You can use regular navel oranges, but the blood oranges have a red color and slightly tarter taste that make them worth looking for.

Mesclun Salad with Goat Cheese, Blood Oranges, and Toasted Almonds in a Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

½ to ¾ cup blanched slivered or halved almonds
8 cups mesclun lettuce
5 blood oranges
1 log domestic or imported goat cheese, chilled

Toast half a cup (or more if you want) of slivered or halved almonds in a pan with a little bit of olive oil, being careful not to burn them. When they are a nice brown, put them on a paper towel or brown paper bag to drain and put aside.

 

Next wash two bags of mixed baby greens or, preferably, get eight cups worth of mixed baby lettuces (mesclun) at a supermarket with a good produce section, pat dry, tear into bite-sized pieces, and put aside.

 

Chill log of goat cheese (either domestic or foreign) to make it easier to slice and cut into eight rounds and put aside.

 

Section five oranges, either regular or blood, and put aside.

 

Make dressing:

In a cup or a bottle put in one teaspoon Dijon mustard, one peeled garlic clove, whisk in four parts good olive oil, then slowly add in three parts balsamic vinegar.

 

Arrange lettuce on plates, put goat cheese on top, arrange orange slices next to them, drizzle dressing over all, scatter with almonds, and enjoy.

A meat thermometer really helps with this one. If you don’t already have one, buy it now. It’s a good investment.

Midnight Beef (Black Pepper-coated Beef Tenderloin)

3 lbs beef tenderloin
½ to ¾ cup black peppercorns
1½ tablespoons rosemary
preferably fresh oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard.

For this recipe count on pound meat per serving per person.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Form the meat into a roll and tie with string or have your butcher do this for you.

Crush peppercorns with a bottle or rolling pin or bottom of a heavy pot.

Finely chop up rosemary.

Mix with peppercorns.

Paint or rub oil into meat.

Coat with Dijon mustard.

Roll meat in pepper and herb mixture.

Place on rack in roasting pan and put in the oven.

Reduce heat to 350 degrees and roast until desired level of doneness.

Test with meat thermometer. For rare the thermometer will read 125 degrees, for medium 130, and for well done 145 degrees.

Let rest for ten minutes, then carve into slices.

Au Gratin Potatoes

About 5 lbs thinly sliced potatoes
2 large thinly sliced onions
1½-2 cups grated sharp cheddar or imported Swiss
1 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper
A 9- by 13-inch baking dish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter baking dish.

Put in layer of thinly sliced potatoes, then the thinly sliced onions.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then sprinkle on cheese. Continue this way until you have three more layers ending with cheese.

Pour in one cup of chicken stock.

Cover pan with foil, bake one hour.

Uncover pan bake another ½ hour.

Finger Bone Cookies (Kranserkaker)

2 hardboiled cooked egg yolks mashed
2 raw egg yolks
½ lb (2 sticks) butter at room temperature
½ cup sugar
3½ cups flour
Powdered sugar
Maraschino cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine mashed egg yolks and raw egg yolks in a large mixing bowl. Add butter and sugar and mix well. Add flour and mix using your hands. (The mixture will be quite firm.)

Take a tablespoon of dough and roll it in your hands to form a narrow roll (the finger). If you want you can put a small piece of maraschino cherry on one end to make the fingernail.

Place on buttered cookie sheet. When finished forming cookies bake them in oven for fifteen minutes or until they are light brown.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Store in covered container when cool.

Sprinkle with fresh powdered sugar just before serving (if you want to).

Devil’s Food Cake

1½sticks butter
2½ cups sugar
1½ teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
3 cups cake flour
1½teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1½ cups ice water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter three 8-inch layer pans or a 9- by 13-inch pan.

 

Cream butter, sugar, and vanilla together.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until light and fluffy.

Stir in cooled chocolate. (If it isn’t cooled, the cake will be heavy.)

Sift together cake flour, baking soda and salt.

Add above to batter alternately with ice water (i.e., one cup flour, stir, cup ice water, stir, etc.) until everything is combined. Do not overmix.

Put batter in pan or pans, place in oven, bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the cake has pulled away from the sides and your finger doesn’t leave a dent in the center of the cake. Cool.

Chocolate Mocha Frosting

½ cup soft butter
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled
1 egg yolk
½ teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cognac
1 teaspoon instant espresso or coffee powder

Cream butter until fluffy.

Beat in cooled melted chocolate, egg yolk, vanilla, cognac and coffee powder.

 

This can be used immediately or refrigerated, in which case it will need to be brought back to room temperature.

 

To compose: spread icing on cake and place in fridge until serving time. Enjoy!