Twists revive Crocker classics
A cookbook that takes readers down memory lane to recipes popular long-ago remembers the legendary cook Betty Crocker. Betty Crocker Lost Recipes: Beloved Vintage Recipes for Today’s Kitchens (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt/Raincoast, $35) is a good read as well as a collection of more than 120 recipes.
How about a cheese ball or hot crab dip with drinks? Or meatloaf, chicken tetrazzini, pigs in blankets, or a cheese sandwich loaf made with four colours of fillings? Waldorf salad, Welsh rarebit, baked alaska made cupcake style, and desserts you set alight at the table? The recipes have been modernized with more fresh ingredients than were customary years ago.
The modern touch for these meatballs is panko crumbs. Cranberry sauce and noodles are accompaniments.
SWEDISH MEATBALLS
Serves: 6
1 lb (500 g) lean ground beef
1/2 lb (250 g) lean ground pork
1 small onion, finely chopped (1/2 cup/125 mL)
3/4 cup (175 mL) plain panko bread crumbs
2 tbsp (30 mL) finely chopped fresh parsley
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1/8 tsp (0.5 mL) freshly ground pepper
1 tsp (5 mL) Worcestershire sauce 1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup (125 mL) milk Sour cream for garnish Gravy (see recipe)
1. In a large bowl, mix together the beef, pork, onion, crumbs, parsley, salt, pepper, Worcestershire, egg and milk. Shape into meatballs
1-1/2 inches (4 cm) in diameter. Heat a large, heavy, greased frying pan over medium-high heat and cook meatballs on all sides just until browned, eight to 10 minutes. Remove from pan and keep warm.
2. For the gravy: In the same pan over medium heat, melt 1/4 cup (60 mL), butter and use a wire whisk to stir in 1/4 cup (60 mL), all-purpose flour, 1 tsp (5 mL), paprika, 1/4 tsp (1 mL), salt and 1/8 tsp (0.5 mL), freshly ground pepper and cook until bubbling. Stir in 2 cups (500 mL), water, cooking until mixture boils, thickens.
3. Add meatballs to gravy and cook over mediumlow heat for eight to 10 minutes. Stir in 3/4 cup (175 mL) sour cream, heating just until hot, and serve.