‘Fried’ baked chicken a family favorite
Good morning, welcome readers. Direct your attention first to today’s requests: Becky Nisbet has a meal’s worth of requests. “I want to know how to prepare a butterflied leg of lamb and also please send a recipe for mint jelly and for mint sauce for serving the lamb. Our family likes the options of both when lamb is served. Finally, who has the best recipe for potatoes that would go well with lamb?
COOKIE NOSTALGIA
In the butterscotch cookie conversation, here’s another version, sent anonymously, one that was printed in a long-ago Fare Exchange. The seasoned original sender wrote, “This icebox cookie was our childhood favorite in the ’30s.” Now, those were the days of iceboxes. Our first home, on the side of Missionary Ridge, had a small door in the outside kitchen wall, just the size for a chunk of ice delivered by the iceman.
Butterscotch Icebox Cookies
1 cup shortening (you may substitute butter)
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
3 1⁄2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1⁄2 cup nuts, chopped (optional)
Cream shortening with brown sugar. Then add the eggs. In a separate bowl, sift together soda, cream of tartar, salt and flour. Mix creamed mixture with flour mixture, and add vanilla. Add nuts if desired. Shape into 2-inch roll or rolls, and wrap in wax paper. Store in the refrigerator to keep firm. Slice as needed, then bake on a greased cookie sheet 8 minutes at 400 degrees.
GROUND NUT STEW
Sandra Oliver continued her investigation of ground nut stew and sent detailed instructions.
West African Ground Nut Stew
6 boiled and chopped potatoes
1 cooked, deboned chicken
6 hard-boiled eggs chopped
Gravy (recipe follows)
Gently combine potatoes, chicken and hardboiled eggs with gravy. Add your choice of accompaniments (list follows).
Gravy
3 tablespoons peanut oil
3 tablespoons flour
1⁄2 cup peanut butter Milk and chicken broth to make a full skillet Salt to taste
Heat peanut oil, then stir in flour. Cook a few minutes to remove raw flour taste. Add peanut butter. Then add milk and chicken broth till gravy is the right consistency. Season with salt.
Accompaniments
3 cups cooked rice
3 cups tomatoes, diced
2 cans pineapple chunks
4 bananas, diced
1 package coconut
1 can salted peanuts Pickled or hot peppers
Each serving begins with rice, which is topped with gravy. Guests can then choose from the remaining items.
Plan for 1⁄2 cup fruit per person and 1⁄2 cup rice per person. This recipe makes 6 servings.
BAKED CHICKEN
Another well-loved recipe, this one for “fried” baked chicken, came from Carli Snyder, who is home in Chattanooga between mission assignments in Spain and Wales. She doesn’t have all her recipes here for this furlough, but she made sure some of their family treasures came along in the recipe box.
“Fried” Baked Chicken With Lemon Aioli
4 (6-ounce) skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 cup plain non-fat yogurt
3⁄4 cup full-fat sour cream 1 large egg
1⁄2 teaspoon cayenne
1⁄2 teaspoon paprika
1⁄4 teaspoon garlic salt
1⁄2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon celery salt
2 tablespoons canola oil
Place chicken in a zip-top plastic bag. In a bowl, combine yogurt, sour cream, egg, cayenne, paprika and garlic salt. Pour in bag over chicken, and seal. Marinate in refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 4 hours.
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Remove chicken from bag, and discard marinade. Sprinkle kosher salt evenly over both sides of chicken. Combine flour, pepper and celery salt in a shallow dish. Dredge chicken in the seasoned flour. Shake excess flour off. Place chicken on a wire rack, and allow to sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes.
Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil. When oil gets hot, carefully add chicken. Cook, without moving, for 3 minutes. Turn chicken over and bake chicken for 10 minutes.
This recipe is very good on its own, but even better when served with lemon basil aioli.
Lemon Basil Aioli
1⁄3 cup Duke’s mayonnaise Juice of half a lemon (or more to get desired consistency)
5 to 6 big leaves of fresh basil (maybe about
2 tablespoons), finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1⁄2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Stir all, and set aside at room temperature until ready to use, or refrigerate if making ahead.
PARTY PASTA
Becky Nisbet served this dish to raves at a Fourth of July event and wanted to share it.
She serves the pine nuts on the side, just in case there is somebody with allergies.
Orzo Salad
1 pound orzo, cooked and tossed with 1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup basil leaves, julienned
1⁄2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1 cup toasted pine nuts
1 bunch green onions, sliced
1 bunch fresh spinach, trimmed and julienned (Use a lot of spinach)
1 1⁄2 lemons, juiced
1⁄2 cup olive oil
Mix together orzo, basil, feta, pine nuts, green onions and spinach. (Julienning the basil and the spinach is the most time-consuming part/ the biggest pain of making this salad.)
In a separate bowl combine lemon juice and olive oil, drizzle over salad and chill.
FANCY CORN ON THE COB
In this lovely season of corn on the cob, here’s another from the collection of E. of Henagar, Alabama. This corn is a Rachael Ray recipe, designed to be served with a dish called Boilermaker Buffalo Shrimp.
Corn on the Cob With Blue Cheese Butter
4 large ears corn, husked and rinsed
6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 cup smoked blue cheese (see note)
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives or scallions
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
2 cloves garlic, grated or pasted
Salt and pepper
Heat a grill, grill pan or cast-iron griddle over high. Grill the corn until charred in spots, 8 to 10 minutes. In a small bowl, mix the butter, blue cheese, herbs and garlic; season with salt and pepper. Slather the corn with the blue cheese butter.
Note: You may order smoked blue cheese from Oscar’s Smokehouse at oscarsadksmokehouse.com.
There is a niece in our home as I write, 22 years my junior. She brought her whole family and food too, and that was wonderful. But she brought another gift: She quietly and competently cleared the table, filled the dishwasher and handwashed everything else, and was kind enough NOT to put the dishes away in all the wrong places. Every meal.
These are the blessings of being the elder generation: the next generation takes over and does this for you, and better than you ever did.
And the next step? Won’t be long before the teenagers and twenty-somethings assume their place in the order of things … bringing order as has been brought to them. That will also be a wonderful thing to behold.
You come back next week now, OK?