McCarra-Fitzpatrick Cookery

Tenderloin Deluxe

2009-06-09T10:19:00.002-04:00

1 beef tenderloin (two pounds)
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1/4 cup chopped green onion
3/4 cup dry sherry
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Dash of freshly ground black pepper

Spread meat with all but about one teaspoon of the butter. Place on a rack in a roasting pan. Roast, uncovered, in a preheated 400 degree oven for twenty minutes.

While tenderloin roasts, cook onion in remaining butter in a small saucepan. Stir in sherry, soy sauce, mustard, and pepper. Heat and pour over meat. Roast 20-25 minutes longer, basting frequently. Serve remaining sauce with the meat.

Serves 4-6

Fish Chowder

2009-06-09T10:13:00.002-04:00

2-3 pounds cleaned white fish
boiling water
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup chopped potatoes
1 cup butter
3-4 tablespoons flour
2 cups milk
salt and pepper
light cream or half and half
1-2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Cover fish with boiling water and simmer until flesh falls away from the bones. Remove fish and set aside. Reserve liquid. Discard bones and skin.

Saute the chopped vegetables in half the butter until tender. While vegetables are cooking, melt the remaining butter in a saucepan and stir the flour to make a roux. Blend in reserved fish broth and the milk. Stir over low heat until thickened.

Mix the fish and vegetables into the sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste. If desired, stir in a little cream and the Worcestershire sauce.

Serves 4

Stuffed Mushroom Caps

2009-06-09T10:07:00.002-04:00

24 fresh whole mushrooms
1/4 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
2 envelopes toasted onion dip mix
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
3 tablespoons sherry
1/2 pound cooked ground beef (optional)

Wash and drain mushrooms. Pluck out stems (reserve) leaving caps hollow. Dip caps in melted butter and place on a cookie sheet, hollow sides up. Chop stems and saute in a little butter. Add seasoned salt, onion dip mix, and bread crumbs. Toss lightly and moisten with sherry (add meat, if desired, at this point). Spoon stuffing into mushroom caps and bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for ten minutes.

Steak Tartare

2008-05-08T14:10:00.002-04:00

2 pounds lean round steak
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup capers
1/2 cup minced onion
2 teaspoons salt
freshly ground pepper
Worcestershire sauce
fresh parsley
capers for garnishing

Put meat through grinder only once (your butcher can do this for you). Mix eggs, one-half cup capers, the onion and seasonings with the freshly ground meat. Chill.

When you are ready to serve, mound the raw meat on a serving platter and garnish with fresh parsley and additional capers. Accompany with thinly sliced pumpernickel or Swedish rye bread.

Steak tartare can also be served as an entree; this recipe would yield about four servings.

Riveredge Sardine Canapes

2008-04-14T10:38:00.002-04:00

1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 can (4 ounces) boneless sardines
1/2 teaspoon onion juice
Mayonnaise
12 toasted, buttered bread rounds
1/4 pound good cheddar cheese, cut into small square slices

Sprinkle lemon juice over sardines and mash. Stir in onion juice and bind with a little mayonnaise.

Pile mixture on toasted bread rounds. Top each canape with a small square of cheese and heat unter low broiler flame until cheese is melted. Serve at once.

Makes one dozen.

Baked Beans Wisconsin Style

2008-04-14T10:32:00.002-04:00

3 cups cooked navy beans
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup sauteed onions (chopped or sliced)
1 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
6 slices bacon, crisply fried.
3/4 cup grated process sharp cheese

Mix beans, sour cream, tomato sauce, onions, sugar, salt, and pepper. Turn into a baking dish. Bake, uncovered, in a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.

Remove from oven. Top with bacon slices and sprinkle with cheese. Return to oven and bake 20 minutes longer. Serve from the baking dish.

Eggs and Caviar

2008-04-14T10:22:00.002-04:00

6 boiled eggs, chopped
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 to 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup chopped green onions
Lemon juice
Salt
1 cup sour cream
6 ounces Beluga caviar

Combine all ingredients except sour cream and caviar. Mix well. Line a small bowl with plastic wrap. Pack mixture firmly into bowl and chill overnight.

When ready to serve, unmold onto serving platter and peel off plastic wrap. Frost evenly with sour cream and top with caviar. Serve with party rye rounds.

New York State Flat Apple Pie

2008-04-14T10:12:00.002-04:00

Crust
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup margarine
2 cups flour
3-4 tablespoons ice water

Filling
11 or 12 New York State Apples (medium size)
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup New York State maple syrup
New York State Sharp cheese

To make the crust, cut butter and margarine into flour with knife and pastry blender until texture resembles cornmeal. Add ice water gradually, working in just enough to hold dough together. Roll out on lightly floured board or marble slab to one inch thickness. Place in refrigerator 20 minutes. Remove and roll out a flat sheet, 10 X 15 X 1/8 inch thick. Line a baking sheet, 10 X 15 inches, with the pastry.

To make the filling, pare, core, and cut each apple into 6 sections. Arrange in one layer on pastry. Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over apples. Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Bake in a preheated 450 degree oven for 20 minutes, then reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake 30 minutes longer. Remove from oven and sprinkle with maple syrup. Serve warm, with a generous slice of cheese.

Cabinet Pudding

2007-09-09T17:49:00.000-04:00

5 whole eggs
1/4 cup sugar
additional 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
2 cups whipping cream
2 teaspoons vanilla
ladyfingers
fruit (raspberries, strawberries, et cetera)

Heat, in a double boiler, until about 85 degrees, five eggs. Beat at a medium speed for about seven minutes then beat in 1/4 cup of sugar until a mayonnaise consistency is reached. Beat in the additional 1/4 cup sugar, but do not overbeat. The eggs should stand in stiff peaks.

Dissolve, over hot water, 1 1/2 tablespoons gelatin and 1/4 cup cold water. Fold the gelatin mixture very gently into the egg mixture. Chill the mixture while you beat the two cups of whipping cream over a bowl of ice until stiff. Do not overbeat the cream. Let it have a glistening finish when you combine it with the egg mixture. Dribble onto it 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Chill this mixture until it is like heavy cream.

Line a mold with ladyfingers. Layer in turns: ladyfinger crumbs, fruit, the egg/cream mixture. Repeat layers until mold is filled, with a topping of ladyfingers. Refrigerate for 12 hours before unmolding.

Creamed Spinach

2007-09-03T18:25:00.001-04:00

Prepare two cups of boiled spinach. Blend, rice, or chop it until it is a fine puree. Melt in a skillet which may be rubbed lightly with a clove of garlic. Add 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons butter. Cook for one minute, or, if preferred, until golden, one tablespoon or more very finely chopped onion. Set aside.

Stir in, until blended, two tablespoons of browned flour. Slowly stir in 1/2 cup hot cream and 1 teaspoon of sugar. When the sauce is smooth and hot, add the spinach. Stir and cook it for three minutes. Season it well with salt and pepper.

Serve garnished with slices of hard boiled egg.

Chicken and Rice Casserole

2007-09-02T17:32:00.000-04:00

3 cups chicken, cooked and cubed
4 cups rice, cooked
1 10 3/4 ounce can cream of chicken soup
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 1/2 cups grated cheddar cheese

Combine chicken, rice, soup, garlic powder, and one cup grated cheese. Mix well. Turn into a two quart casserole. Top with remaining cheese.

Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Serves six (or four, depending on appetites).

Bread Pudding

2005-04-02T11:59:00.000-05:00

A very tasty way to use up slightly stale white bread.

8 tablespoons golden raisins
10 tablespoons butter, plus extra for greasing pudding basin
16 ounces white bread, sliced
1 1/4 cup milk
1 1/4 cup cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Soak raisins in very hot water for 10 minutes, and then drain. Butter the bread. I would leave the crusts on, personally, but this is a matter of personal preference. Arrange in a pudding basin or casserole dish at with sides of at least 2 to 3 inches of height. Bring the cream, milk, vanilla, and sugar to a simmer. Add milk mixture to the eggs. Pour the egg-milk mixture onto the bread, leaving to soak for a bit. Cover with aluminium foil and cook for approximately one hour after reducing heat to 350 degrees. As the hour draws to a close remove the covering and allow the top to crisp a bit. This is very nice with brandy sauce, should you happen to have some left over from your Christmas festivities.

Colcannon

2005-04-02T11:49:00.000-05:00

For those who love the humble potato......

6 large all purpose potatoes
1/2 head of kale, chopped small
1 1/2 cups milk
5 scallions, minced
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 tablespoon parsley
9 tablespoons butter, divided

Peel, boil, and mash potatoes. Boil the kale until tender. Over low heat, heat the milk with parsley, thyme, and scallions. Strain the kale, add to milk mixture, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add mashed potatoes and 5 tablespoons of butter. Place into a warmed serving dish and place remaining pats of butter on the center.

Salmon Kedgeree

2005-04-02T11:38:00.000-05:00

This is very nice, even when reheated.

1 pound of salmon (poached and flaked)
1 box Uncle Ben's Wild Rice
3 hardboiled eggs
1 ounce butter
1/3 pint cream
pepper and salt to taste

Cook the rice and hardboil the eggs. Cut the eggs into smallish pieces. Heat the butter and cream, along with pepper and salt in a large saucepan until hot. Add the eggs, rice, and salmon to the butter and cream mixture, being careful not to bruise the eggs and salmon overmuch. Serve on a warmed plate with buttered whole wheat bread.

The Selkirk Grace

2005-01-15T16:58:00.000-05:00

Some hae meat and canna eat,
and some wad eat that want it,
but we hae meat and we can eat,
and sae the Lord be thankit.

Haggis

2005-01-15T16:51:00.000-05:00

1 sheep or lamb's stomach
2 pounds dry oatmeal
1 pound chopped mutton suet
1 pound lamb's or deer's liver, boiled and minced
1 pint (two cups) stock
the heart and lungs of the sheep, boiled and minced
1 large chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon of each: cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper

Toast the oatmeal slowly until it is crisp, then mix all the ingredients together and add the stock. Fill the bag just over half full, press out the air, and sew up securely. Have ready a large pot of boiling water, prick the haggis all over with a large needle so it does not burst and boil slowly for 4-5 hours. Serves twelve.

Cock-a-Leekie Soup

2005-01-15T16:45:00.000-05:00

3 pound boiling chicken, giblets removed
3 slices streaky bacon
1 pound shin of beef
2 pounds leeks
1 large onion
5 ounces Scotch whisky
4 pints water
1 tablespoon dried tarragon
salt and pepper
8 pre-soaked prunes

Mix the whisky and tarragon into the water. Chop of the bacon and place the chicken, bacon, and beef in a large bowl and pour over the whisky marinade. Leave to soak overnight. Place the chicken, et cetera, in a large soup pot. Chop up the leeks (reserve one) and onion and add to the pot. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for two hours, removing any scum as required. Remove the chicken from the pot, remove skin and bones. Chop the meat into small pieces and return to the pot. Cut up the shin of beef, if required. Add the prunes and the last chopped leek and simmer for 10-15 minutes. It will serve six to eight persons.

Bannocks

2005-01-15T16:38:00.000-05:00

4 ounces medium oatmeal
2 teaspoons melted bacon fat
2 pinches bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
3/4 tablespoons hot water
additional oatmeal for kneading

Mix the oatmeal, salt, and bicarbonate of soda and pour the melted fat into the center of the mixture. Stir well and add enough water to make a thick paste. Cover a surface in oatmeal and turn the mixture onto this. Work quickly, as the paste is difficult to work if it cools. Divide into two and roll one half into a ball and knead with hands covered in oatmeal to stop it sticking. Roll out to a quarter inch thick. Put a plate which is slightly smaller than the size of your pan over the flattened mixture and cut round to leave a circular oatcake. Cut into quarters and place in a heated pan which has been lightly greased. Cook for about 3 minutes until the edges curl slightly, turn and cook the other side. Get ready with another oatcake which the first is being cooked.

Cranachan

2005-01-15T16:35:00.000-05:00

3 ounces or a half cup pinhead or coarse oatmeal
half pint of double cream
1 tablespoon Drambuie (optional)

Toast the oatmeal in a frying pan on a high heat until lightly brown. Whisk the cream into a soft consistency and mix in the oatmeal and Drambuie. Serve in tall glasses. Popular variations are to mix in raspberries or use vanilla ice cream in place of double cream.

Ale Syllabub

2004-12-23T13:41:00.000-05:00

Place in a large bowl, a quart of strong ale or beer, grate into this a little nutmeg, and sweeten with sugar; milk the cow raidly into the bowl, forcing the milk as strongly as possible into the ale, and against the sides of the vessel, to raise a good froth. Let it stand an hour, and it will be fit for use. The proportion of milk or of sugar, will depend on the taste of the drinker, who will, after a trial or two, be able to make a delightful beverage. Cider may be used instead of malt liquor, or a bottle of wine.

Christmas Plum Pudding

2004-12-22T16:36:00.000-05:00

1 1/2 pounds of raisins
1/2 pounds currants
1/2 pound of mixed peel
3/4 pound of bread crumbs
3/4 pound of suet
8 eggs
1 wineglassful of brandy

Stone and cut the raisins in halves, but do not chop them; wash, pick, and dry the currants, and mince the suet finely; cut the candied peel into thin slices, and grate down the bread into fine crumbs. When all of these dry ingredients are prepared mix them well together; then moisten the mixture with the eggs, which should be well beaten, and the brandy; stir well that everything may be very thoroughly blended, and press the pudding into a buttered mould; tie it down tightly with a floured cloth and boil for five or six hours. It may be boiled in a cloth without a mold and will require the same time allowed for cooking. As Christmas puddings are usually made a few days before they are required for table, when the pudding is taken out of the pot, hang it up immediately, and place a plate or saucer underneath it to catch the water that may drain from it. The day it is to be eaten, plunge it into boiling water and keep it boiling for at least two hours, then turn it out of the mould, and serve with brandy sauce. On Christmas-day a sprig of holly is usually placed in the middle of the pudding, and about a wineglassful of brandy poured round it, which, at the moment of serving, is lighted, and the pudding thus brought to the table encircled in flame. Should serve eight persons.

Roasted Turkey

2004-12-22T16:26:00.000-05:00

The best way to roast a Turkey is to loosen the skin on the Breast of the Turkey, and fill it with Force Meat made thus: Take a Quarter of a Pound of Beef Sewet, as many Crumbs of Bread, a little Lemon peel, an Anchovy, some Nutmeg, Pepper, Parsley, and a little Thyme. Chop and beat them all well together, mix them with the Yolk of an Egg, and stuff up the Breast; then you have no Sewet, Butter will do; or you may make your Force Meat thus: spread Bread and Butter thin, and grate some Nutmeg over it; when you have enough roll it up, and stuff the Breast of the Turkey; then roast it of a fine Brown, but be sure to pin some white Paper on the Breast till it is near enough. You must have a good gravy in the Dish, and Bread Sauce, made thus: Take a good piece of Crumb, put it into a pint of Water, with a blade or two of Mace, two or three Cloves, and some Whole Pepper. Boil it up five or six times, then with a spoon take out the Spice you had before put in and then you must pour off the Water (you may boil an Onion if you please) then beat up the Bread with a good Piece of Butter and a little Salt.

1755

To Make Harts Horn Flummery

2004-12-22T16:23:00.000-05:00

Take half a pound of Harts horn and an ounce of Isinglass steeped in rose-water all night, and boyle them till you make a strong Jelly will not make a quart, then straine it and put a little lemon juice and Cinamon and blade of Mace to it, boyle well together and put it in a China cup. When you use it turne it out and set it with Creame or white Wine as you like.

XVIIth Century

To Make Buttered Oranges

2004-12-22T16:20:00.000-05:00

Take a pint of Creame, raspe the peels of two Oranges into half a pint of water of Orange juice, six eggs, two whites, as much suger as will sweeten it, so straine and set over a fire. When it is thick put in a piece of Butter as big as a Egg and keep it stirring till cold.

XVIIth Century

To Make Sillybubbs

2004-12-22T16:17:00.000-05:00

Take a quarte of Creame, and half a pound of suger and a pint of sack and Renish together, and about half a pint of strong Beer, and when it up to a froth save some of the Froth on a sieve to top ym, then fill the glass half full with that which is not whipt much, and fill it up with the whipt, and top them with that on ye sieve.

XVIIth Century