From Cooking with Foliage La Sertoma of Apopka, we have Mary Demetree’s Chicken Cacciatora, which (according to Wikipedia) refers to a meal prepared “hunter-style” with onions, herbs, usually tomatoes, often bell peppers, and sometimes wine.
Marvin Woods shares his recipe for Spicy Pulled Pork Shoulder in his book titled The New Low-Country Cooking. He adds in a note, “Ask the butcher to bone the shoulder. Basically, you want to tie the pork several (five to seven) rings around to ensure that it doesn’t fall apart during the cooking process. Leave 1 to 2 inches between the rings.”
Marv adds, “I created this all-purpose flavoring mixture (Marv’s Chili Paste, below) using three different types of chiles. The ancho is a smoked chile that registers around 6 or 7 on a heat scale of 1 to 10. Jalapenos rank about 5 or 6, and habaneros (or Scotch bonnets) are at 10. This paste has two purposes. One, of course, is to provide heat. The other is to add complexity to whatever you use it in because of the smoky flavor of the ancho chiles. I strongly suggest that you use this paste a little at a time and then taste the dish. Remember, you can always add more, but can’t take it away!”
We found in this Southern Living’s 1997 Annual Recipes, Potato Latkes from Julie Benson of Louisville, Kentucky.
Mark Sohn says, “I can’t guarantee that this recipe for Country Biscuits will yield a biscuit like those you grew up with, but I hope it will get you started down the right path – the path of homemade biscuits. Use this master recipe for your special biscuits and modify it with variations. He rates this recipe as Easy, with only six ingredients. And he adds, “You may be surprised how fast you can make these biscuits.”
From The Original Country Cookbook published by Paragon Products, Inc., in Pompano Beach in 1976, here is Maple Layer Cake, a very simple and easy dessert or for your anytime coffee break.
MARY DEMETREE’S CHICKEN CACCIATORA
Recipe from Cooking with Foliage La Sertoma of Apopka
3-1/2 pound broiler/fryer cut into serving pieces
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 carrot, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 bay leaf, crushed
3 cans canned Italian tomatoes
Pepper
3 anchovies, mashed
1 cup Chianti wine
Dredge chicken in flour and brown in olive oil in a skillet. Remove the chicken and, in the remaining oil, sauté onion, garlic, carrot, parsley, and bay leaf until the onion is golden. Strain the tomatoes and add the tomato pulp to the skillet. Add pepper and anchovies. Bring the sauce to a boil. Add the chicken and Chianti and simmer for 45 minutes, or until the chicken is tender. Serves 4.
SPICY PULLED PORK SHOULDER
The New Low-Country Cooking
by Marvin Woods
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves, or 1 tablespoon dried
1 tablespoon Chili Paste (see recipe below), or 1 tablespoon Tabasco sauce plus 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
One 6- to 8-pound boneless pork shoulder
1/2 celery rib, coarsely chopped
2 onions, coarsely chopped
3 carrots, coarsely chopped
2 cups water
1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 2) In a small bowl, stir together the garlic, herbs, Chili Paste, salt, and both (cayenne and black) peppers. Rub the pork all over with the mixture. Tie the pork before cooking (see note). 3) Place the vegetables in the bottom of a roasting pan, and cover with the water. Place the pork on top of the vegetables and cook for 40 minutes. Turn the pork. Continue cooking for about 40 minutes per pound, or until the pork is tender enough to be shredded with a fork. 4) When the pork is done, remove it from the pan. Let the meat cool down to the point where you can work with it without burning yourself. Using a fork, pull pieces off until you have shredded all the meat. (There may be some big pieces that you have to cut with a knife.) 5) Transfer the vegetables and juices in the bottom of the pan to a blender or a food processor fitted with the metal chopping blade. Process until almost smooth. Strain through a medium sieve. Serve this as a sauce, a spread, or add chicken or vegetable stock and use to reheat the pork in.
MARV’s CHILI PASTE
The New Low-Country Cooking
by Marvin Woods
1 cup dried ancho chiles
1/2 cup warm water
4 to 5 fresh jalapeno peppers, stemmed
1-1/2 to 2 cups fresh habanero or Scotch bonnet peppers, stemmed
1/4 to 1/2 cup vegetable oil
First and most important, use gloves when you are working with the chiles.
Place the ancho chiles in the warm water and let stand for 15 minutes. Remove the chiles and drain off the excess water. Place the ancho chiles, jalapenos, and habaneros in the container of a blender. While adding the oil in a slow steady stream, process the peppers until a puree is formed. Store in a covered glass container in the refrigerator for up to one week.
JULIE BENSON’S POTATO LATKES
Recipe from Recipe from Southern Living’s 1997 All-Time Favorites
4 medium baking potatoes, peeled
1 small onion
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
3/4 cup vegetable oil
Shred potatoes and onion in a food processor; transfer to a bowl. Stir in flour and next 3 ingredients until blended.
Drop mixture by 2 tablespoonfuls into hot oil in a large skillet; fry over medium-high heat, turning once, until browned. Drain on paper towels.
Yield: 12 servings.
MASTER RECIPE: BISCUITS
From: Mark F. Sohn’s Hearty Country Cooking
Ingredients:
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 tablespoons butter or lard, softened
1-1/2 tablespoons butter or lard, chilled
1/2 cup milk
Steps:
1) Place the oven rack in its lowest position, and preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large bowl, combine 1-1/2 cups of the flour, baking powder, and salt. Using a pastry blender, cut the chilled butter and the softened butter into the flour until the mixture forms crumbles the side of rice grains. Make a well in the center of the mixture and add the milk. Stir lightly until mixed. Turn out onto a cold, floured surface, and knead five times. Do not over-knead. 2) Sprinkle some of the remaining 1/4-cup flour over the dough and pat out the dough to a 1/2-inch thickness, using the extra flour to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. Fold the dough in half and pat it out to a 3/4-inch thick thickness. 3) Using a 2- to 3-inch biscuit cutter, cut out the biscuits and place them 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Press the scraps of dough together, pat out the dough, and cut until all the dough is used. 4) Bake for 10 minutes. When the biscuits are cooked and the bottoms are brown and crusty, broil the tops to brown them.
Yield: 8 biscuits or 6 servings
Alternatives:
Buttermilk Biscuits: Replace the milk with 1/2-cup plus 2 tablespoons fat-free cultured buttermilk.
Ham Biscuits: Also called Filled Biscuits. Cut 8 slices of country ham or Canadian bacon and put 1 slice inside each biscuit after baking.
Sausage Biscuits: Fry 8 patties of pork sausage; fill each baked biscuit with 1 sausage patty. Serve with Fried Apples, or add several slices of Fried Apples to make a fried apple-and-sausage biscuit sandwich.
Ginger Sorghum Biscuits: To the Master Recipe, add 1/2-teaspoon ground ginger and 1/4-cup 100-percent pure sweet sorghum syrup. Reduce the milk by 3 tablespoons. Baste the biscuits with melted butter. This biscuit does not rise very high, and the top breaks like a sugar cookie. Serve with Sorghum Butter or Hot Sorghum.
Cheese Biscuits: In one variation of this biscuit, we roll the dough out as if we were making a cinnamon roll or jelly roll, spread cheese over the dough, roll, cut, and bake. In another variation, we cream butter and cheese, use an equal volume of flour and cheese, and add no liquid. No liquid! This dough melts together, and it comes from the oven rich and cheesy. More often we add cheese to the biscuit dough. To the Master Recipe, as you stir in the milk, add 1 cup (4 ounces) coarsely shredded or diced sharp Cheddar cheese or a mixture of Cheddar and Swiss cheese.
MAPLE LAYER CAKE
Recipe from Paragon Products, Inc., The Original Country Cookbook
3 eggs
1 cup soft maple sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup cream
1/4 cup grated maple sugar
Beat egg yolks till light. Add the soft maple sugar and flour sifted with the salt and baking powder. Fold in whites of the eggs beaten very stiff, last. Bake for 30 minutes in two greased and floured layer cake pans at 320 degrees. Put together with the cream, whipped and sweetened with the grated maple sugar. Sprinkle top layer with powdered sugar.
