quantity.servings@mennonite.cooking.ca

It's a treasure. The Mennonite Treasury of Recipes with its coil binding and tabbed sections. And with entries with bylines featuring the name of the contributor and their location, it is like reading an exchange of correspondence. The section on Quantity Servings (for 100 persons) has a recipe for Apple Pie that yields 15 pies. Did you know that Macaroni and Cheese for 100 takes 10 pounds of pasta?

The Treasury is a committee effort and was first published in 1961 and has gone through many printings — the sixteenth printing dates from November 1974.

vegetables@combo.ca

The Incredible Potato by Agnes Toews-Andrews offers up a simple recipe calling for small new potatoes, baby onions and peas. The new potatoes are boiled until tender. The peas and onions are done together. The vegetables are combined with butter and marjoram.

soy@scrapple.ca

Linda Haynes gives instructions in The Vegetarian Lunchbasket for the making of "Soy Scrapple". Begin with making a soy puree (2 1/2 cups of soybeans soaked overnight in 2 1/2 cups of water and then pureed in a blender or a food processor) and then add lots of ingredients to add taste including cornmeal (1 cup) and nutritional yeast (1 1/2 cups). Liquids added include 1/3 cup of tamari, 1 cup oil and 4 cups water. The mixture is packed into greased cans, steamed for 1 and 1/2 hours and unmolded when cool. Sliced and fried.

I have found similar recipes in a cookbook of the Seventh Day Adventists.

spinach@sesame.seeds.ca

Jean Hewitt's International Meatless Cookbook provides a recipe for spinach stir fried with with green onions, garlic and ginger. The dish is dressed with a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds. Instructions on toasting are given:

Sesame seeds can be toasted in a d small dry skillet over medium heat while shaking frequently to prevent burning.

The smell is glorious and the taste divine.

salade@marguerite.ca

In La Cuisinière [a cookbook from the makers of Five Roses flour] there is a salad that derives its name from the shape it takes. The yolks of hard boiled eggs are bound with a salad dressing or mayonnaise and placed in the centre of a bed of crisp lettuce. The halved eggs (the white portion of the hard boiled eggs) are then arranged in a circle to give the impression of petals.

soup@serving.suggestions.ca

The charm of the following suggestion by Majorie Winn Ford, Susan Hillyard and Mary Faulk Koock is in its flexibility.

Serve Malaysian lemon rice soup in demitasse cups in the living room before dinner. You will find it a delicate appetite teaser.

No living room? The small teaser can still be served at table. No demitasse cups? Small sherry glasses or shot glasses will do too.

Gleaned from The Deaf Smith Country Cookbook: Natural Foods for Family Kitchens

yeast@methods.ca

Michael Smith in The Afternoon Tea Book has some "Guidelines to Successful Bread Making" which contain these remarks on the various ways fresh yeast is incorporated into dough.

Fresh yeast can be added to the flour in any one of three ways: (a) blending it with the warm liquid, then adding it to the flour; (b) the batter method, in which one-third of the flour is mixed with the yeast liquid, left in a warm place for 20 minutes until frothy, then added to the rest of the flour; or (c) the yeast can be blended with part of the liquid, then added to the dry ingredients, and the remaining liquid.

The book goes on to describe the activation of dry yeast.

italian@potato.pie.ca

She provides more than just recipes with ingredients available via coupon saving or vouchers. There is in the Coupon Saver's Cookbook by Beryl M. Marton a number of useful tips. For example, after the instructions on how to assemble and bake a potato pie, one finds this good advice:

Most pies, pastries and tortes, like roasts, are easier to cut and serve if they are allowed to rest before being sliced. Pastries, pies and tortes settle somewhat, resulting in a firmer body.

The recipe for the potato pie calls for the layering of sliced potatoes in pastry laid out in a deep pie plate. The layers are seasoned with garlic and parsley. The top crust is draped over the top, the edges crimped and a slash made in the centre through which good, rich, heavy cream is poured (a half cup). The pie is brushed with an egg wash (to give the crust golden colour) and baked for an hour.

apple@savoury.bake.ca

Sonya Richmond's International Vegetarian Cookery provides as the cover indicates "Gourmet Recipes from Beirut to Brussels, Moscow to Montevideo, All Without Meat or Fish". There is for instance a recipe for "Apple Savoury Bake" which is a casserole of layers of onions, apples, nuts, liquid (4 tablespoons of flour stirred to a thin consistency with a quarter cup of water) topped with a generous layer of breadcrumbs, dotted with butter and baked until tender. Simple and scrumptious.

eggplant.red.pepper@terrine.ca

Vegetarian Gourmet in the Cole's Cooking Companion Series (1995) has a fine illustration of a dish of grilled eggplant layered with roast red pepper. Very attractive once unmolded and sliced. I don't know why but the Cole people call it a "Red Pepper Terrine" — I think the eggplant deserves mention in the name of the dish — perhaps under its other name "aubergine".

lentils@chestnuts.ca

Translated by Barbara Flower and Elisabeth Rosenbaum, The Art of cooking by Apicius is a treasure trove. In the chapter on pulses there is a recipe for lentils with chestnuts which are seasoned with a mixture, pounded in a mortar, of pepper, cumin, coriander-seed, mint, rue, asafoetida root, and pennyroyal moistened with vinegar, honey and fish sauce (liquamen). Unfortunately we are not given proportions. Trial and error will prove which is the best combination.

steep@macerations.ca

Dover reprint of M. Grieve Culinary Herbs and Condiments has a chapter devoted to herb liqueurs. The basic principle is simple. Although the method is not described in general terms it consists of the following: herb allowed to stand in sugar and grain alcohol anywhere from a number of days to months. The result is strained and delectable.

corn@contents.ca

The Totally Corn Cookbook by Helene Siegel and Karen Gillingham has the most suggestive table of contents:

Soothing Soups, Bright Salads & Party Foods
Corn Salsas, Relishes & Sides
Entrées
Glorious Corn Breads
Candied Corn & Other Grown-Up Sweets

milk.toast@child.recipes.ca

When Mother Lets Us Cook by Constance Johnson (1908 rpt. 1909) is a gem of a book for its instructions and for its illustrations. The subtitle is very explanatory: "A book of simple receipts for little folk with important cooking rules in rhyme together with handy lists of the materials and utensils needed for the preparation of each dish". For example, the recipe for "Milk Toast" instructions account for access to a toaster by giving instructions for toasting bread with a long fork ("Take off one of the stove covers and toast your bread over a hot fire until one side is brown, and then toast it on the other side") or using the oven ("If the fire is not hot the toast will be tough and hard. This is generally the trouble when toast is made in the oven, or when it is made before you want to use it."). The buttered toast is placed in a dish, salted and peppered and then hot milk is poured over the toast. A simple dish with elaborate instructions. Makes one long for a wood stove just so one could use a long fork ...

chamomile@cauliflower.ca

A piece of ephemera: printed inside the cover flap of the box of a package of Celestial Seasonings Perfectly Pear (Poirissime) White Tea copyrighted 2002 is a recipe from the Cooking With Tea cookbook by Jennifer and Mo Siegel. It basically calls for the cooking of cauliflower in chamomile tea and sauté some onions and celery in butter, blenderize. I suspect this is a soup that can be served hot or cold.

nut@soups.ca

Dorcas S. Miller The New Healthy Trail Food Book can be inspiring for the stay at home cook. There are two intriguing soup recipes that would be fabulous on or off the trail. "Cashew and Carrot" is one; the other, "Almond".

bulgar.gorgonzola@artichokes.ca

The California Artichoke Cookbook edited and compiled by Mary Comfort, Noreen Griffee and Charlene Walker has a recipe for "Stuffed Artichoke with Bulgur and Gorgonzola". The soaked bulgar is mixed with an herb dressing, garbanzo beans, walnuts, red pepper and the cheese. The walnuts by the way are toasted — lovely way to bring out their flavour.

persillade@parsley.shallots.ca

John Midgley invokes Elizabeth David's French Provincial Cooking in his entry on "persillade" in A Sprig of Parsley: Twenty-five Classic Recipes (Tabouli is not one of the twenty-five.) One of the dishes referenced is fried aubergines dressed with olive oil and persillade. And, of course, there are the instructions to take a small bunch of parsley, washed and shaken dry, 2 shallots or 3 cloves of garlic and a half teaspoon of salt. The herbs are chopped as finely as possible. Midgley suggests an Italian mezzaluna as a suitable chopping tool. The chopped herbs are mixed with the salt. "Stir the persillade into hot, cooked stews and braises, or serve it separately in a little dish."

paradigm@measures.ca

There are recipes that call for a "suspicion of cayenne" in Elizabeth David's French country cooking — a trace of the French "soupçon". In a piece by Mimi Sheraton in The New Yorker, "One Fish, Two Fish: in pursuit of an Adriatic specialty", one finds the whiff of a "whisper of garlic". And to the list let's add "hint", "pinch" and "dash".

new@word.ca

You can expand your vocabulary as well as your culinary repertoire. Julia Child The French Chef Cookbook has a section of photographs reproducing tips from the television show. Describing the icing of a traditional bûche is this memorable caption: "Spread on butter cream, scumbling it to give a bark effect."

milanese@style.ca

The entry in Auguste Escoffier Ma Cuisine for Florence fennel suggests that it be cooked in salt water and prepared like cardoons and celery. At the cardoon entry under "Cardons à la milanaise" one finds a reference to asparagus so prepared. And there one discovers that such a dish consists in sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese over the cooked vegetable and liberally drizzling brown butter and setting it to brown under the grill. The celery entries give one the idea of a purée...

tumeric@potatoes.ca

Jill Norman Spices: roots & fruits offers instructions for an "Indian dish that is very simple to make and can be served as part of a western meal." Small onions are cooked whole for about 20 minutes by frying over low heat. The heat is turned up and tumeric, asafetida and cubed parboiled potatoes are added to the pan. About 3 or 4 minutes later, a couple of tablespoons are added and the heat turned down. Cook for a further 5 minutes and then turn up the heat to evaporate any remaining liquid.

This strikes me as a type of recipe developed in a kitchen with a gas stove since it relies on turning the heat up and down. A gas stove would give the required control.

celery.seed@dressing.ca

Jill Norman Spices: seeds & barks provides a recipe for celery seed dressing which recommended as a "good dressing for a winter vegetable salad". It oil and vinegar are whisked into a mixture of celery seed, dry mustard and cayenne. The whisking continues until "the dressing thickens a little before using."

crepes@muffin.tins.ca

Mable Hoffman in Crepe Cookery in the "Shape Your Crepe" chapter illustrates many folds and roll ups. This one is particularly original:

CUPS — A real surprise shape, yet so easy to do! Use crepes as liners in muffin pans. Then there's no limit on what you can choose for fillings. Be sure to select crepes free from holes or cracks so egg-and-cheese mixtures won't leak out.

wheat.berries@thermos.ca

Edyth Young Cottrell The Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Cookbook at the end of the Breakfast Breads and Cereals section provides an easy method for cooking wheat berries overnight in a thermos. Soaked wheat is brought to a boil then placed in a heated thermos and left for at least 8 hours.

cookies@galore.ca

There is in The Milk-free and Milk/Egg-free Cookbook by Isobel S. Sainsbury, M.D. a whole chapter devoted to cookies (much of the book is dedicated to explorations of eggless and milk-free baking). I like how the brief introduction to the chapter champions a greater place for the cooking in daily nibbling.

THESE DELIGHTFUL SNACKS are the great treats of childhood. Most adults, too, enjoy a freshly baked cookie as a breakfast bit, a lunch supplement, a coffee or tea treat, a snack, or even for a dinner dessert.

And the first of the cookie recipes is one of my favourites, one that I learnt from my mother, we called them Chocolate Macaroons. Here they are called "Unbaked Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies" and they are made without milk (and include raisins which my childhood treats did not). And are just as easy. One basically creates a chocolate sauce, adds oatmeal, coconut (and raisins) and then spoons out the mixture on a tray to cool.

food.work.@comment.ca

Stewart Lee Allen author of In The Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food in the Chapter devoted to "Sloth" remarks "American workers now pay more money for worse food so they can hurry back to jobs they hate." Hyperbole from 2002. :)

soubise@bechamel.ca

It is Len Deighton's French Cook Book Où est le garlic that put me onto a different way of making sauce soubise i.e. without incorporating onions into a rice purée. The technique that Deighton offers is to incorporate the chopped onion cooked soft in 1/2 pint of dry white wine in a b&eactue;chamel sauce.

yogurt@cheese.ca

Thick and stabilized is not necessarily desired...

Yogurt cheese is very similar in taste and texture to cream cheese, but without the calories! Drain yogurt overnight, and in the morning you will find a ball of creamy cheese ready to be used for tasty appetizer spreads or sandwich fillings. this is an excellent way to use leftover or aging yogurt. The older the yogurt, the tangier the cheese. Some commercial yogurts are not satisfactory for making yogurt cheese. They are overly-stabilized, and the whey may not drain off fully. Best results will be achieved with homemade yogurt or a dairy yogurt not highly thickened.

from Susan Mintz. The Complete Yogurt Cookbook (Nitty Gritty, 1978)

frozen.egg@hard.boiled.ca

Gary Lee in The Wok (Nitty Gritty, 1970) mentioned the interesting texture that can be achieved by freezing hard boiled eggs along the same principles used to freeze dry tofu. He did this with boiled egg. The egg comes out spongy. Lee cooks the frozen then thawed egg in a sauce and calls the result "Eskimo Eggs".

soba@slurp.ca

Russ Rudzinski (Ryoichi Kokku) in Japanese Country Cookbook (Nitty Gritty 1969) under the rubric "Summer Soba" has a charming description of stands that sell buckwheat noodles

It seems that summer soba stands appear at every turn of a road in a small town. Soba in this fashion is very refreshing since it's served cold. The summer soba stands are particularly inviting in hot weather. They are roughly of simple gazebo construction with a clean, earth floor. In addtion to the setting, 4 people or so slurping soba (it isn't a delicate process) makes a joyous symphonette.

And after instructions on preparing the cold noodles and a dipping sauce, more about the slurping...

Eat by picking up a chopstickful of soba, lifting it high and dipping it into the sauce (keeping it on the chopsticks) and then begin to inhale. Usually served with cold wheat tea.