Julia Child’s Chicken Fricasse with Wine-Flavored Cream Sauce (Fricassee De Poulet A L’Ancienne)

Tags

chicken, chicken fricassee, chicken with vegetables, French cooking, french dinners, Julia Child

I was craving a Julia recipe. I haven’t done in one in ages-for good reason. For one, they’re terribly unhealthy. Secondly, they take forever and leave your kitchen a complete mess.

But oh my gosh, they’re good and I crave them, like I crave McDonald’s Filet O’Fish sandwiches and Oreo cookies. Don’t judge!

Doing a Julie recipe may seem painstaking, even to the most patient cook. In this age of crock pot and one-skilled dinners, the number of steps, pots, and preparation needed to pull off a French dish is overwhelming. But it is so worth it. So don’t be intimidated by this or any other Julia Child recipe. I’ll give you some advice.

First, have all your side dishes ready and waiting on the stove. I made rice and veggies to accompany this dish and had both in saucepans waiting by the stove so I could just turn on the burners at the right time.

Second, read through her recipes 3-4 times before you do them. Make sure you understand all the steps. Get out all your pans and ingredients. Cut up your veggies. Have a sink of soapy water for the dirty dishes.

Third, pour a glass of wine because it makes it more fun-and it’s more French. Then, get started!

This delicious chicken dinner is great for a Sunday supper. It’s tender chicken, stewed in broth, wine and vegetables and finished with a cream sauce. Is your mouth watering yet?

Ingredients
• 4 chicken leg quarters, skinned
• ½ pound fresh mushrooms
• 1/3 cup water
• ½ tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced
• 1 stalk of celery, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot (or 6 baby carrots), thinly sliced
• 5 tablespoons of butter, divided
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons of flour
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup dry white wine
• Herbs to taste
• 2 egg yolks
• ½ cup whipping cream
• Pinch of nutmeg

Instructions

Wash the mushrooms and cut them into quarters.

So pretty!

Bring to a boil the water, lemon juice, a tablespoon of the butter and a dash of salt. Add the mushrooms and toss them to cover with liquid. Cover the pot and boil on medium high heat for five minutes, tossing frequently. Take off the heat and set aside.

Stewing the mushrooms ahead of time in lemon juice keeps them firm and white.

Place the rest of the butter in a fireproof dutch oven on the stove on medium hit. Once it’s melted, add the carrots, celery and onions and cook for five minutes or until they are almost tender but not browned. Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside until later.

I love cooked carrots, celery and onions. So tasty!

Place the chicken stock in a saucepan and bring it to boil, then let it simmer. You’ll need it boiling or near boiling in a few minutes.

Meanwhile, place the chicken in the casserole. Cook on medium heat for 3-4 minutes, turning the pieces every minute until the meat has stiffened slighting, without coloring to more than a light color.

Just a slight color change-you want to cook it slowly to maintain its flavor.

Lower the heat, cover, and cook the chicken slowly for 10 minutes, turning it once. It should swell slightly, stiffen more, but not deepen in color.
Sprinkle the chicken with salt, pepper and flour and turn the pieces so all the sides are coated with flour and cooking butter. Add the veggies back in, cover, and cook slowly for another four minutes, turning the chicken pieces halfway through.

Chicken, dredged in flour and reunited with the veggies!

Now, add the boiling stock, the wine, and herbs to taste. (It really starts smelling delicious at this point!).

Stewing the chicken in butter, wine and stock. Holy goodness.

Bring the whole thing to a light boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer slowly for 25 to 30 minutes or until the chicken is done and the juices run clear. Remove the chicken with a slotted spoon and set into a covered dish to keep it warm.

Bring the mixture left after the chicken is removed to a boil, stirring frequently, until the sauce reduces and thickens enough to coat a spoon. This took me about 10-12 minutes of heavy boiling and constant stirring. Turn off heat for now.

In a mixer, beat egg yolks and cream. Ladle out one cup of the boiling liquid and slowly add it to the egg yolk and cream mixture. You don’t want to add it too quickly and cook the eggs. Whip it all on medium high. Once you’d got a whole cup in with the cream and eggs, ladle out a second cup and add that to the cream and eggs.

Then, take your creamed sauce and pour it back into the dutch oven. Set it over medium high heat against and boil it for one minute, stirring constantly. Take it off the heat for the final time and add the pinch of nutmeg and stewed mushrooms.

That’s your cream sauce!

Serve your chicken pieces with ladles of the cream and veggies and mushrooms over the top. Enjoy!

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Mrs. E’s Apple Pie, ca. 1879

Tags

apple pie, apples, dessert, pie, virigina housewife

My middle-school daughter is selling pies to raise money for band camp. Everywhere we go, we’re hawking pie in a variety of flavors. All that talk about pie made my whole family hungry for one. So I decided to make an apple pie.

Shiny and red!

There are about as many ways to make an apple pie as there are apples varieties. I found three recipes in one beautiful book given to me by my friend Jane Masters. They were all quite different-so I decided to make all three and go in the order of printing. This is the first recipe, from “Housekeeping in Old Virginia,” published in 1879. The book’s title page says it contains “Contributions from 250 of Virgina’s noted housewives, distinguished for their skill in the culinary art and other branches of domestic economy.” Good enough for me!

This recipe is attributed to Mrs. E. It’s super easy. I like that it was the first one that I tried.

It was also quite delicious. Admittedly, I was a little weirded out by the use of whole cloves. They look like bugs to me (!), and I never want to actually eat one-so I picked them out as I sliced the pie. But the flavor they infused into the apples was divine… and makes this pie anything but ordinary.

It’s also funny to me that this pie calls for powdered sugar. But with a little research, I learned that technological advances in the latter half of the 1800’s made the use of powdered sugar more common. So maybe Mrs. E. was trendy for her time!

I know that pie purists may believe that certain types of apples make for a better pie. In my experience, the addition of other ingredients like sugar, lemon juice, and whole cloves is more of a factor in determining the final taste. So I say, use whatever apples are on sale. For this recipe, I used store-bought red delicious-which I really don’t like to eat out of the bag. I think they taste like plastic. But in this pie, they were transformed into something magical!

I must also apologize for the appearance of my top crust. I hate weaving pie crust strips, so I decided to cut out four hearts and just put the decorative crust on top. It didn’t turn out as pretty as I had hoped-it looks a little warped. But it tasted so good!

Ingredients
• 2 batches of Pie Crust for Dummies (or a pkg of two refrigerated pie crusts)
• 4-5 medium apples, cored, peeled and sliced thinly
• 1 ¼ cup powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon whole cloves

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place one crust in your pie plate.

Place a layer of apples onto the crust. Using a spoon, sprinkle some of the powdered sugar over the apples.

This is the first layer with sugar.

Repeat this step until the whole crust is filled to the brim with apples dusted with sugar.

I fit four layers of apples and sugar into my pie plate.

Add the lemon juice and the cloves.

The cloves look weird but they add a wonderful, rich and spicy flavor.

Place the top crust on and seal it. Bake it for 50 minutes.
Enjoy!

The delicious finished product

Look for the other two recipes from the same cookbook, coming soon!

City Tavern’s Chocolate Mousse Cake

Tags

cake, chocolate, City Tavern, dessert, George Washington, historical food

I made one promise to Eric, the husband of the host of my recent dinner party-I would include some type of chocolate dessert in the menu.

I admit I was seduced into making this recipe from the City Tavern cookbook because of the gorgeous photos of the perfectly glazed cake with its yellow berry and currant garnishments.

This is the photo from the City Tavern cookbook. So beautiful!

My cake did not turn out looking ANYTHING like the photo in the book. No matter, it was superbly good… a death-by-chocolate kind of dessert, though it is a rather time consuming cake to make. Also, it’s really fattening so be sure to do your workout before you eat it!

The cookbook notes that like Eric, George Washington apparently had a fondness for chocolate. It reads, “Records at Mount Vernon reveal that he first ordered chocolate from England in 1757 and that he received twenty pounds one year later (Holy cow, that’s a long time to wait!). Correspondences between the general and his guests reflect that he served chocolate as a special beverage to them during his presidency.”

Ingredients
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 sticks butter
• 5 cups flour
• ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 28 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 8 large eggs, 4 of which are separated
• 1 pint plus ½ cup heavy cream

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9 inch round cake pans with butter and flour or line with parchment paper circles. Place the bowl and whip attachment of an electric mixer in the freezer to chill for later use.

In a second bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium to high speed, beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.

Sugar and butter, light and fluffy

Add four whole eggs one at a time.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.

The dry ingredients

With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture, alternation with the milk, until the ingredients are well combined.

Cake batter! Who wants to lick the paddle?

Divide the batter between the two pans. Bake 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool the cakes on wire racks. Remove the cakes from the pans, making sure it’s completely cool before continuing.

To make chocolate mousse filling: Melt four ounces of chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave, zapping at 30 second intervals set at 50% power and stirring between intervals. Let chocolate cool for a minute, then add four egg yolks and beat well with a whisk. Set aside to cool.

Egg yolks and chocolate

Using the pre-chilled mixer and whip attachment, beat ½ cup of heavy cream on medium speed until soft peaks form. Refrigerate until well chilled, covered in plastic wrap.

Wash the mixer bowl and whip attachment. Whip the four egg whites on medium speed until soft peaks form. Set aside.

Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the chilled whipped cream into the chocolate mixture until it is just combined-do not overfold.

You have to be patient when you’re gently folding.

Gently fold the whipped egg whites into the chocolate until just combined. This creates a light and fluffy chocolate mousse.

Finished chocolate mousse

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.

To make chocolate ganache: In a heavy saucepan, bring the pint of heavy cream just to a boil over low heat, stirring nearly constantly. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Place 24 ounces of semisweet chocolate in a large bowl. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it stand for one minute to give the chocolate a chance to melt. Whisk to combine ingredients. Let cool. When the mixture is room temperature, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate but remember to remove it one hour *before* you are going to assemble the cake.

When the cake has cooled completely, use a serrated knife to cut each layer in half horizontally, so you have a total of four layers.

Cutting the layers in half horizontally

To assemble, place the first cake layer on a serving plate. Top with ganache, then the mouse and then another layer of cake, repeating until all four layers are assembled. Then, spread the chocolate ganache on the top and sides, if you can (I only used ganache on the top of my cake). Refrigerate until ready to serve. Garnish and enjoy… and try not to go into a sugar coma.

Is that enough chocolate for you?

City Tavern’s Chocolate Mousse Cake

Note: This recipe calls for partially cooked eggs, which can be a health concern for the young, the elderly, or those with compromised immune systems.

Colonial Williamsburg’s Tipsy Squire

Tags

cake, colonial williamsburg, dessert, heritage recipes, historical food, vintage recipes

Confession: I sometimes choose a recipe based on it’s name/title alone. That’s what led to me add this dessert to the menu of my recent dinner party. I thought it would be a good conversation piece! Turns out, it was also rather yummy.

This recipe comes from the Colonial Williamsburg cookbook and is a version of the trifle-except instead of layering the elements in a giant glass bowl, you do so in individual servings. I thought it was rather elegant and unique.

Ingredients

• ½ cup shortening
• 1 3/4 cup sugar, divided
• 3 whole eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 ¼ cup flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 quart milk
• 1 teaspoon rum flavoring
• ½ cup sherry (cream sherry is best)
• Whipped cream
• Slivered almonds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a square baking pan (9x9x2 or 7 ½ x 11 ½ x 2 inches).
Cream shortening and one cup of sugar.

Creamed sugar and shortening

Add 2 whole eggs and beat until lemon-colored and fluffy.

Fluffiness achieved!

Sift flour, baking powder, and ½ teaspoon of salt together and add to the beaten mixture alternately with the milk, beating after each addition.
Add vanilla and combine.
Pour into baking pan and bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick stuck into middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool.

Meanwhile, combine milk, ¾ cup sugar, cornstarch, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until slightly thickened.

Slightly thickened means it should be about the consistency of canned mushroom soup.

Beat the egg yolks and the remaining whole egg.
Add 1 cup of the hot milk mixture to the beaten eggs. Stir and then pour back into the hot milk mixture.

Egg yolks and the egg with the cup of hot milk mixture

Continue cooking, stirring constantly, but do not boil, until you reach custard consistency.
Add rum flavoring and sherry. Allow to cool. (I set mine in a bowl on the counter for about half an hour, and then refrigerated it until dinner).

Finished custard is now cooling

To serve, cut a square of cake and place on plate or pretty dessert bowl. Pour custard over top, then top with whip cream and almonds. Enjoy!

Finished Tipsy Squire-don’t worry, it won’t actually make you tipsy.