Chocolate Souffle, Pg. 242

Best Charleston Receipt. Ever.

Let the pictures speak for themselves:

These are stiff peaks if I've ever seen them.

Pre-Bake - the ingredients made enough for four perfectly-sized ramekins.

Rising....You can do it! You can do it!

Post-Bake. Aren't they beautiful? I was so proud!

Spongy. Delicious. As good as it looks.

Buy this cookbook for this receipt. It was awesome! And it worked perfectly!

For some reason, I thought you were always supposed to cook souffles in water baths, so I put these in a makeshift one. I ended up cooking them about 15 minutes longer than the receipt suggested, but when I talked to my dad (the chef!) about it, he said I shouldn't have used the water bath because the souffles need the dry heat to rise.

Anyway, I'll definitely be making this one again. Thank you, Mrs. Mary Huguenin Bailey!

-Lauren

Baked Squash, pg. 179

yellow squash

It is fall up here in the big apple. Well sorta. The leaves are a beautiful golden, while the weather this week has been muggy, sticky, and feeling not quite like autumn. But the fall veggies at the grocery have been inspiring me. I decided to make Mrs. Gerald Thomas's (Lottie Johnson) baked squash. Now I honestly have never even eaten squash. Never appealed to me. But since I am trying to be more grown up and to eat more veggies (albeit veggies stuffed with butter, bread crumbs and bacon), I thought this oh so fall dish fit the bill.
   I was a bit worried that I did not get the right kind of squash. I saw some huge beautiful squash for sale at the Whole Foods in Chelsea and I started loading up on these beauties and a sugar pumpkin for a pie. But then I saw the express line snaking its way through the grocery and retreated quickly. Those squash would have to be gold coated for me to wait in that kind of line. Ok, maybe not since I am currently changing diapers for money and gold covered squash probably would be a financial boon. But you get my point. It was a terrible line. So off to gourmet garage for the smaller squash (I need an entire post on grocery shopping here. It is simply a huge ordeal that takes forever!).

squash guts

   The squash at Gourmet Garage were much smaller. I decided to google squash to make sure I was somewhat on the right track. Not sure if you knew this, but there are a ton of different kind of squash. The receipt asks for yellow squash. Not sure if they meant that variety literally, but that is what I ended up with. and I think it works best. The beautiful large squash at Whole Foods I believe would have been too big.

pork tenderloin, rice pilaf, and baked squash- easy weeknight fall meal

  The receipt is pretty straight forward. Andrew liked it with the addition of green peppers, and I liked the bacon in it. It was easy and is something that could be made ahead and baked right before dinner which is nice. Verdict on the squash: they are ok. I was not blown away by the dish so probably will not make again. But it was easy, and even when cut in half it made a lot.
   Hope everyone has a happy halloween! I don't even have a costume yet and it is my favorite holiday!! Off to figure that out!

French Dressing, Pg. 218

There are a few receipts for "French Dressing" in the cookbook, and I noticed for the first time tonight that I chose the only one not attributed to a League member. I'll never know who to credit for this tasty condiment - a mystery for the ages!

Full Disclosure: I make most of my salad dressings. Just chalk it up to the Martha in me. More than anything, though, it's the fact that I usually get sick of a full bottle before it runs out. (How many half-opened bottles of salad dressing do you have in your fridge???)

Not to mention that it's super-cheap to make on your own. Anyway, enough expostulating on the merits of homemade dressing and to the specific receipt at hand.

These were some of the veggies I used with the dressing.

This French Dressing isn't at all similar to the orange-colored one readily available in most grocery stores. This receipt, made with salt, sugar, mustard, black pepper, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, olive oil and vinegar, was a mellow yellow. I used extra virgin olive oil, which I'll switch out for regular olive oil next time because the olive-y taste was too strong in this batch. I also ended up adding more vinegar and mustard and a touch of honey. I generally like more vinegar in my dressing than most people.

I poured the dressing over steamed green beans, which I ate cold. I obviously ate it with lettuce. I went a little overboard with veggies at the farmer's market and made good use of the dressing all week. The receipt made a hefty batch. 

So hefty, in fact, that I predictably grew sick of it. I'll definitely make it again, I'll probably just halve the ingredients. 

On to the next culinary adventure!

-Lauren

Huguenot Torte....is it Really French? Or Even Southern?

This week I decided to tackle the Huguenot Torte. Apples are in season and looking so delicious I felt I needed to make something with them. The great thing about the Huguenot torte is other than the apples, I had everything already in the pantry. And pantry might even be an exaggeration as my apartment has one cabinet to store food. The torte is very easy to make. It is sorta like a cheater's apple pie. And last but not least, it was quite tasty.  I still prefer an apple pie, but this had a crispy top and sticky apple goodness to it. And the recipe suggest serving it with whipped cream, but I would suggest ice cream instead to counterbalance the stickyness, and nothing is better than warm sugary apples and vanilla ice cream. I would not serve it cold, because it must be hard as a rock this morning with the sugar in it. Also, I halved the receipt as I was only feeding 3 boys, and one of whom refused to even try my desserts (calling you out Andrew!).

Before the torte goes in the oven!

  When I made this dessert I figured it must be a very old receipt passed down from one of the numerous Huguenot families that made Charleston their home after fleeing France. I have always found huguenot history fascinating, and aren't we glad we have some streets with funny names to tell immediately when someone is from "off". But this my ladies is a huguenot imposter! Sit down for this crazy news, but the huguenot torte Mrs. Cornelius Huguenin (Evelyn Anderson) contributed is really the Ozark pudding. This interesting NY Times article features the Huguenot tort and traces its origins. Apparently French desserts do not contain baking soda, so that gave it away as a faux french. The culinary food historian John Tyler went so far as to track down Ms. Huguenin in a nursing home and inquired to the name. Apparently Ms. Huguenin had eaten Ozark pudding while on a trip to Texas, and decided to make it and submit it to Charleston Receipts under the name Huguenot Torte.
   I have to quote Amanda Hesser in the Times article, because she sums up the dessert very well:
 "When I tasted Huguenot torte, a recipe that ran in The Times in 1965, I had but one thought: Why isn't everyone making this weekly? The torte is easy to assemble, goes on a transformative journey as it cooks and pleases everyone who tastes it. The silky batter, which blends apples, pecans and vanilla, billows in the oven, then just when it seems as if it might spill over the sides of its pan, it begins retracting until it sinks down into itself like a crater. You and your guests will get past the slight appearance problem when you taste the warm finished cake: the brown crust is like the ideal macaroon, and the center has the gooey, custardlike texture of a proper pecan pie."

my finished project

The Time's Presentation of how it should look like

 I think this is one I will make again, but next time I will get to tell the guests it's unique history and remind any ladies submitting recipes to the local church bazaar cookbook or junior league cookbook that in 50 years someone might track them down to learn, now just why did you call it that?

-christine

Mrs. Ralph Izard's "Awendaw"

 miss emma gaillard witsell, this must feed a very very hungry 6-8 people!

Last week I decided to explore the chapter titled: Hominy & Rice, Cheese & Eggs. I loved the quote at the beginning that said- "Never call it 'Hominy Grits'/Or you will give Charlestonians fits!'

   I made this to accompany chicken saltimbocca  (by Virginia Willis from Bon Appetit Ya'll) with a blue cheese salad and parmesean cheese twists. It was a perfect mix of salty goodness and sweet salad. Nothing beats the combo of country ham and grits!

This was a dish I will definitely make again. It was really easy. It was super super filling and the 2 hungry boys I fed could not even go back for seconds, which was great because I ate it for breakfast the whole week. It keeps well for leftovers. It is thicker than a usual grits casserole due to the addition of cornmeal and eggs. I added some cheddar on top of mine (because I can never ever resist!). As usual, the receipt did not specify how long to cook the hominy, but I compared it to the baked hominy receipt, and decided about an hour should be good.

seriously, this is how much I had leftover after 3 people.

Ok, ya'll will have to endure my inner history dork for this receipt. When I saw the namesake for this receipt, Mrs. Ralph Izard, it had me thinking about if this was the Mrs. Ralph Izard I have seen frequently in portraits. One of my favorite coffee table books is In Pursuit of Refinement, Charlestonians Abroad, 1740-1860. I have a small obsession with portraits and this book has all the 18th century heavy hitter portrait artists. The cover of the book is this beautiful portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Izard by John Singleton Copley. I plan to have my portrait  like this in my living room one day. ha. Can you imagine?

Did this pretty lady invent this delish hominy recipe? hmmm

And here is another beautiful portrait of Mrs. Ralph Izard by Gainsborough that is at the Met.

  However, this Mrs. Ralph Izard (Alice Delancey) is from New York. Did a Yankee create our awendaw hominy? We do have other Mrs. Ralph Izards in the history books. Besides this senator's wife, we have his son. The other Mrs. Ralph Izard, (maiden name Eliza Lucas Middleton Pinckney) might be the creator of yummy dish. This is a mystery for the ages....
  Stay tuned, next week I think I am going to attempt Chicken Country Captain, or maybe even risk some grease burns and fry me up some chicken!

-christine