This coming Monday, November 11th, is Veterans Day. It used to be called Armistice Day, you know. We observe this day in honor of ALL U.S. military veterans. And we are cooking up a bunch of recipes with these fantastic Americans in mind.
Our first recipe is an Heirloom recipe titled the First World War Army Cake – 1918. We found this recipe in Paths of Sunshine Cookbook. Enjoy the cake as you dance around your military friends and family, and do a pirouette for yourself if you are a military veteran.
We have a couple of pilau recipes for you. I (probably wrongly) pronounce that word “pur-low.” It’s a Dravidian/ Sanskrit/ Persian/ Hindi word according to Oxford dictionary. I only mention that because, for years, I searched (obviously before the internet) for “purlow” recipes and never found any. There are all kinds of pilaus. Chicken, seafood, pork, beef, you name it. It is probably actually a loose descriptive term, much like the word “stew,” for a method of cooking almost any kind of meat dish you might want to prepare. Some pilau recipes call for cooking the rice in the pot with the meat and vegetables while others serve it over a separately cooked (usually in the broth of the meat) bed of rice.
The first recipe is Shrimp Pilau from Cooking with Foliage La Sertoma of Apopka.
Samuel Faber’s Chicken Pilau from Charleston Receipts calls for a 6-7 pound rooster, which he cooked slowly for a long time to make it tender and served on a bed of rice. You can use a couple of nice chickens from the grocery store if you don’t have a chicken yard with stringy old roosters running around. That’s what I do. And I don’t have to cook it as long as dear old Samuel did, either.
From Allrecipes.com, A. J. Rhodes gives us her mother-in-law’s recipe for Boston Baked Beans. The only part of her instructions I don’t follow is cooking in the soak water. I throw it out because I believe the acidic soak water detracts from the taste. And DO check the beans halfway through because mealy beans that have had the liquid cooked out are not good.
From Betty Crocker’s 1950 Cookbook, try the Apple Pie. What could be more American than this lovely dessert that is treasured by all? There are three variations: traditional, green apple, and deep dish.
FIRST WORLD WAR
ARMY CAKE – 1918
Recipe from Recipe from Florida Federation of Garden Clubs
Paths of Sunshine Cookbook
1 3-ounce box raisins
3 cups water
1/2 cup lard (no substitute for this, recipe says)
2 cups white sugar
5 cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 heaping teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped walnuts
Boil the box of raisins in 3 cups of water for 15 minutes and let cool. Drain and reserve water. Cream the lard and sugar. Add alternately the dry ingredients and two cups of reserved water from raisins. Add chopped walnuts. (Fruit may be added instead of nuts.) Add cooked raisins. Pour into greased and floured loaf pans and bake at 325 degrees for about 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Test for doneness.
SHRIMP PILAU
Recipe from Cooking with
Foliage La Sertoma of Apopka
1 pound raw, peeled, deveined shrimp, fresh or frozen
3 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
1 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 can (16 ounce) whole tomatoes
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup uncooked rice
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon thyme
Thaw shrimp if frozen. Cut large shrimp in half. In a 2-quart saucepan, cook bacon until crisp. Remove bacon. Cook green pepper and onion in bacon fat until tender. Break tomatoes into small pieces removing tough center. Add tomatoes and water and bring to a boil. Stir in rice and seasonings. Reduce heat. Cover and cook rice mixture over low heat for 18 to 20 minutes. Mix in shrimp, cover and continue cooking for 10 to 12 minutes or until shrimp are tender. Garnish with bacon. Makes 6 servings.
Variation: Substitute one 5-ounce package of yellow rice with seasonings for 3/4 cup uncooked rice.
SAMUEL FABER’S PILAU
Recipe from Charleston Receipts, America’s Oldest Junior League
Cookbook in Print,
a Cookbook by The Junior League of Charleston, Inc.
1 6- to 7-pound rooster
Neck
Giblets
Liver
1 large onion, chopped fine
2 tablespoons salt
2 No. 2 cans tomatoes (one No. 2 can equals 2-1/2 cups or 20 ounces)
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
2 or 3 twigs of thyme (1 twig of thyme equals about 2 teaspoons of fresh leaves or 1 teaspoon dried thyme)
1/4 pound of margarine
3 cups rice
3 tablespoons flour
Take a six- or seven-pound rooster, wash, put in roasting pan on top of stove. Cover two-thirds of rooster with hot water. Put neck, giblets and liver in water. Add onion, salt, thyme and tomatoes put through a colander. Cover and boil hard. After one hour, add whole black peppercorns, and margarine. Turn down to simmer. Baste and turn fowl occasionally.
After 2-1/2 hours of cooking, take out 2-1/2 cups of liquid. Put in separate pot and bring to a boil. Then into that liquid, put washed, unsalted rice and cook. After 3-1/2 hours of cooking, remove rooster from roasting pan. Thicken liquid in pan with flour. After thoroughly mixed, return rooster to roasting pan for thorough heating before serving. Serve with rice spread on big platter and rooster in nest of rice.
When using hens for this pilau, cut down cooking time and do not put in margarine if the hens are fat. Serves 10.
BOSTON BAKED BEANS
Recipe from A. J. RHODES
in Allrecipes.com
2 cups navy beans
1/2 pound bacon
1 onion, finely diced
3 tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
Soak beans overnight in cold water. Simmer the beans in the same water until tender, approximately 1 to 2 hours. Drain and reserve the liquid.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
Arrange the beans in a 2-quart bean pot or casserole dish by placing a portion of the beans in the bottom of dish and layering them with bacon and onion.
In a saucepan, combine molasses, salt, pepper, dry mustard, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil and pour over beans. Pour in just enough of the reserved bean water to cover the beans. Cover the dish with a lid or aluminum foil.
Bake for 3 to 4 hours in the preheated oven until beans are tender. Remove the lid about halfway through cooking and add more liquid if necessary to prevent the beans from getting too dry.
BETTY CROCKER’S APPLE PIE
Recipe from Betty Crocker’s
Picture Cook Book, Copyright 1950
Filling for 9-inch pie:
Mix together 3/4 to 1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon or nutmeg
Mix above sugar and spices lightly through 6 to 7 cups sliced apples
Heap the apple mixture in pastry-lined pan
1 tablespoon lemon juice (if needed)
Dot (distribute tiny bits of butter over top of filling) with 1-1/3 tablespoons butter
Select tart, juicy apples. Peel apples, quarter them, take out cores, and slice them thin (1/4-inch thick). Sprinkle with a little water if apples are dry. Use the smaller or larger amount of sugar according to sweetness of apples and desired taste. If the apples you are using are not tart, you can sprinkle one tablespoon of lemon juice evenly over the fruit.
Cover fruit with top crust. Bake at 425 degrees (hot oven) for 50 to 60 minutes until crust is nicely browned and apples are cooked through (test with fork). Serve warm or cold. Pie may be topped with cream, whipped cream, or ice cream.
Green Apple Pie: Follow apple pie recipe above except use about 1/2 cup MORE sugar for tart green apples and only 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon. If apples are extra juicy, mix about 2 tablespoons flour with the sugar to thicken the juice.
Deep Dish Apple Pie: Follow apple pie recipe above except use about double the amount of filling. Bake in individual casseroles 2 inches deep or an 8-inch or 9-inch edge round baking dish 2 inches deep. Line sides but not bottom with pastry, having it come up over top of pan to seal to top crust. Add filling, sprinkle with 1 to 2 tablespoons water, and cover with top crust. Bake at 425 degrees (hot oven) 45 to 50 minutes.
