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Breast of Chicken Perigourdine

June 6, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

I don’t know about you, but cooking isn’t high on my list right now. With end of the school year activities and the unpredictable heat, cooking is more assembling something for dinner with as little heat as possible.

If you happen to run the air conditioner and need a company dish–this one from my great-grandmother’s files works as a lovely fancy dish. Use fresh truffles and mushrooms if your farmer’s market is in season and has them. (Our farmer’s market woefully doesn’t start until the LAST Sunday in June.) The recipe truly does forgive all types of mushrooms. The result: a rich and delicious dish to feed your guests.

Breast of Chicken Perigourdine

8 whole chicken breasts
1 can condensed chicken broth, undiluted
1/4 cup dried mushrooms
1/2 cup water
2 canned truffles, cut up
3 tablespoons dry sherry
butter or margarine
8 large mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablesp0on light cream
2 egg yolks
Dash cayenne
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Bone the chicken bones (or have your butcher do it.) Simmer bones in chicken broth, covered, about 1 hour. (or substitute your rich chicken stock of choice) Discard bones. Let dried mushrooms stand in water 1 hour and the truffles in sherry for an hour. In a small amount of butter in your large oven safe skillet, brown chicken breasts on both sides, adding butter as needed. Remove. Add more butter to skillet and saute sliced mushrooms until golden, remove.

Into drippings in same skillet, stir flour, 1/4 teaspoon of salt, dried mushrooms plus liquid, 1 cup chicken broth (add water if necessary, to make 1 cup), light cream. Cook, stirring, over medium heat till thickened and smooth.

Place chicken breasts in sauce and simmer gently, covered, about 2o min or until chicken is tender. Add truffles with sherry and drained, sauteed mushrooms.

Meanwhile preheat broiler 1o min. Make hollandaise sauce; beat egg yolks in small bowl till thick; add 1/4 teaspoon salt and cayenne. Add 1/4 cup melted butter, about 1 teaspoon at a time, beating constantly. Combine remaining 1/4 cup melted butter and lemon juice. Slowly add, about 2 teaspoons at a time to yolk mixture, beating constantly. Spread over chicken. Run under the broiler a few minutes to brown. Makes 8 servings.

Category Poultry, Recipes, retro food | Tags: | No Comments
Dauphin Island Crab Gumbo

May 11, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

Some places hold on to your memories and you tell tale after tale about them. Dauphin Island is one of those places for my mother. When we were young, she spoke of summers there. I pictured my summer vacations at Virginia Beach–but somehow Mama’s vacations were better. In my head, she stayed right on the beach and ran wild in the summer heat and swam all day. As I got older, the stories changed a bit and she would have a dreamy look in her eye as she spoke of dates with my father where they went to Dauphin Island.

I wish I could recall those stories better. I should pay attention when she shares them with my children. They sound different though. Is it her age and memory loss or is it my perspective as an adult that makes them sound different? I don’t know.

I do know that whenever Dauphin Island is hit by a hurricane, a flood or is otherwise in the news, Mama fusses. Some part of the landscape of her youth is wiped away with disaster, since she hasn’t been there in probably forty years or more. It stays frozen in her mind like the times she spent there.

This recipe makes fine use of the culture and the seafood of Dauphin Island. My mother and great-grandmother have several versions of it in their collection of recipe cards. I suspect this one was clipped from the Mobile paper.

Dauphin Island Crab Gumbo

2 cups finely chopped celery
2 cups finely chopped onion
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
Minced parsley
3 tablespoons bacon drippings
3/4 cup sifted flour
2 cups raw crab meat
2 cups canned tomatoes (or fresh peeled tomatoes)
1 cup cut okra
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
Paprika (optional)
hot sauce (optional)
1 tablespoon gumbo file (find it in the spice section of your store or at your local spice house or favorite mail order)

Saute celery, onions, peppers and parsley in drippings in covered skillet until soft. Remove from pan. Brown flour in drippings, (I hate that part!I have no patience but it really is worth it and the only way to make gumbo) add to vegetables. Add three quarts water and crab, then cook for 30 minutes. Add tomatoes, okra and seasonings; simmer for one hour. Remove from heat; stir in file.

Serve over rice.

Note: If cooked crab meat is used, add 10 minutes before removing from heat. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Category Recipes, Soups | Tags: | No Comments
Shrimp Newburg in Popovers

March 23, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

My mother makes fabulous Seafood Newburg. I remember the first time I ran across it was when my sister had a party of some sort when living in Cape St. Clair. I can picture the crockpot on the table still. I have no idea what the party was for…perhaps my niece’s birthday? A housewarming? No idea.

I had an allergy to some seafood as a child–most notably crab which would turn me a strange shade of purple–mostly my chin. This wasn’t necessarily a problem growing up in my house–my father wouldn’t touch seafood. It was a problem growing up in Maryland. Hello. Maryland Blue Crabs. (which I still dream of from time to time)

I would venture a cup of cream of crab soup with sherry at The Oxbow from time to time. I had more than my share of Maryland Steamed Crabs every so often. So what if I wheezed and turned purple? (ah the indestructibility of youth)

This recipe is certainly NOT my mother’s recipe and it has shrimp which never seemed to trouble my allergies. It also has something I adore…popovers. In my mind the Treaty of Paris restaurant is notable for one thing: popovers. I could have eaten baskets and baskets of them. I still probably could.

All that said–this recipe won’t help you much if you want to make a good shrimp Newburg. It calls for you to have made the popovers. Of course, you can find a popover recipe. It calls for canned Newburg sauce which is surely an atrocity, if it is even still available. It calls for canned shrimp. So, it is a quick recipe but not one that is going to make you realize the wonder that is Shrimp Newburg. It definitely won’t be my mother’s recipe.

Category Fish, Recipes, retro food | Tags: | No Comments
Baked Artichoke-Tomato Delight

March 22, 2011 by Tarrant Figlio

I am not an artichoke fan. They are ok, but still go in that category of “weird foods I didn’t eat as a child.” The rest of my family however loves them.

I do indulge them from time to time. This one uses canned artichokes so is super easy. We will have to wait for summer to have it here, but I know those of you in the south will have lovely tomatoes soon.

Baked Artichoke-Tomato Delight

12 large tomatoes
7 cups day-old bread cubes
3 sticks butter
2 cups chopped onion (this is a bit much–unless you love onion)
2 cans artichoke bottoms
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Remove seeds from tomatoes. Scoop out pulp and drain tomatoes on paper towels. Saute the dry bread cubes and onions in butter. Cut artichoke bottoms in 1/2 inch cubes and add to pan. Season with salt and pepper, adding more melted butter if necessary. Fill hollow tomatoes with mixture, being careful not to pack it too firmly. Bake 30 minutes.

Category Recipes, Vegetables | Tags: | 2 Comments