This is the January 2013 issue edition of Looking for a Recipe.
Email us at lookingforarecipe@americastestkitchen.com and tell us what recipe you’re looking for. (Make sure to include your name and mailing address.) Ever so often, we’ll share your submissions here, and we’ll feature some in a future issue of Cook’s Country magazine.
And if you happen to have one of the sought-after recipes in your recipe Rolodex, please leave us a comment. May many more lost recipes be found!
Hungarian Bean Soup
From Mike C.
Recently I took a trip to Hungary where, in all of the most unlikely places, I found myself in a bowling alley that boasted “great food”. Having my doubts I ordered a bowl of “Bean Soup”. The waitress set down a 0.5-liter bowl of the most wonderful aromatic liquid along with a loaf of freshly baked bread. It was the most delicious soup I’ve ever had. There was some type of black beans (huge beans, bigger than I’ve ever seen), white beans, red beans, onions, carrots, celery, and some sort of sausage. All of this surrounded by a dark brown broth that was better than the German beer I had at the beginning of my trip. Is it possible that you might have a recipe for this liquid gold? If so, where can I find it? How can I get it? Please don’t tell me I have to go all the way back to Europe!
Baked Orange-Ginger Chicken
From Becky Sorenson, Concord, Mass.
Back in the early 1980s, I used to shop at Goodies to Go, a gourmet food shop in Lexington, Massachusetts, that sold prepared foods and bakery items. My favorite thing was the orange-ginger chicken. An employee told me that the chicken was marinated for a couple of days in a puree of fresh oranges, brown sugar, soy sauce, and fresh ginger. The chicken was fall-off-the-bone tender. If anyone else remembers this chicken and has a recipe, please share.
Matrimonial Cake
From Gilles Marchand, Halifax, Nova Scotia
I’d love to learn how to make a treat popular in Western Canada called matrimonial cake. It’s actually a date-and-oat bar (not sure why it’s called “cake” or what the matrimonial part is). Anyway, the bars are great for an afternoon snack with coffee. Does anyone have a good recipe?
Avocado Pie
From Ronnie Fishman, New York, N.Y.
A college roommate of mine from California used to make a wonderful pie out of avocado and sweetened condensed milk. It was rich, creamy, and just sweet enough. We all thought it was weird back then, but it really is an ingenious way to eat a healthy dessert. I’m hoping a fellow reader will have a recipe.
Pineapple Cream Pie
From Toni Marino, Minneapolis, Minn.
When I was younger, my mom would take us to the Woolworth store in downtown Minneapolis, where we’d have lunch in the cafeteria. I always ordered the pineapple cream pie. It was so good and so refreshing. I haven’t seen or heard of it since. Thank you in advance for anything you can find out for me about this pie.
Curried Fruit Bake
From Andrea Mooney, Quincy, Mass.
Back in the 1950s, my mom used to make a delicious dish she called curried fruit bake. It had canned peaches, pineapple, and maraschino cherries and was baked with brown sugar, butter, maple syrup, and curry powder. It was considered quite exotic at the time. She always served it with ham steaks. Does anyone have a recipe?
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Here’s a link to a recipe for the Matrimonial Cake:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,176,152173-228201,00.html
Hungarian soup is probably Jókai bableves.
ingrediences:
water
mix of beans
smoked pork knees or ham
debrecen style of paprika sausages
hungarian paprika powder
pork lard or butter
flour
carrot, parsley root, celeriac
tomatoes
garlic, onion
bay leaf, peppercon, hungarian paprika
sour cream
chives
soak mix of beans. Sear mirepoix. Add meat, spices, tomatoes and water and make a nice, long time cooked pork broth. Strain it and keep the meat. Make a roux, for a second let sear paprika powder in the roux, than add broth, sausages and strained beans. Cook till beans are soft. Ad smoked meat and you can add fresh mirepoix (seared carrots, parsley root, celeriac, garlic and onions). Finnish cooking and add some saur creme and fresh chives.
Here’s an old Matrimonial Cakes (they’re date cakes.
)
Matrimonial Cake
2 C rolled oats
2 C pastry flour
2 C brown sugar
1 tsp soda
1 C butter or oil
1 C butter or oil
For the filling, you will need
1 lb. stoned dates (means you take the pits out)
1/4 C brown sugar
juice of 1-2 lemons
1 ½ cups boiling water.
For Filling: Cook slowly on low. You want this to get soft. Go slow and let it cool if you need to prevent burning.
Mix all dry ingredients with butter. Grease shallow cake pan well. Use up your butter wrappers.
Cover with 1/2 of ingredients and then cover with date filling. Now spread the rest of the dry over that.
Bake in oven at 325 degrees F. for about 45 minutes or until golden brown. When cold serve with whipped cream. Serves about 15.
Curried Fruit Bake is probably this!
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/baked-curried-fruit-10000000544468/ Sounds yummy!
Does this pie look like the pineapple cream pie?
Million Dollar Pie
Cream together:
1 large Cool Whip
8 ounce crushed pineapple (drained)
In another bowl combine:
1 can Eagle Brand milk
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
Mix all ingredients together and pour into 2 graham cracker crusts. Top with chopped pecans and coconut if desired.
I have a copy of the original curried fruit bake recipe. It was on the back of a brown sugar box.
“Indian Curried Fruit Bake”
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 cup light brown sugar
4 teaspoons curry powder
1 number 2 can pear halves
1 number 2 can peach halves
1 can pineapple chunks or half slices
2 cups plums or prunes
maraschino cherries
Drain and dry fruit. In flat casserole place butter or margarine, brown sugar and curry powder and arrange fruit over it. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour at 350 degrees F.
I found this recipe, entitled Mother’s Matrimony Bars, in an old-fashioned cookbook. It sounds exactly like Matrimonial Cake.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
For the oat mixture, cream together well:
-3/4 cup shortening
-1 cup brown sugar, tightly packed
-1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
-1 1/2 cups oats
Press half of this mixture into the bottom of a 9×13 baking pan to form the bottom crust. Set the other half aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine the following:
-3 cups dates, pitted and chopped, or raisins
-1/4 cup sugar
-1 1/2 cups water
Simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool slightly and pour over the crust. Sprinkle the remaning oat mixture on top of the filling and pat gently to form the top crust.
Bake for 20 minutes. Slice into bars while warm. Enjoy!
Betty C. Johnson’s – Granny’s Pineapple Pie
3/4 c sugar
3 T flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin
3/4 c Carnation Milk or Half & Half cream
1 large can undrained crushed pineapple (usually sweetened)
(reserve 2 T for topping)
2 T lemon juice
Mix all 7 ingredients in large sauce pan and bring to boil over low heat for 1 minute.
Beat three large egg yolks in a large bowl.
Pour hot pineapple over yolks.
Put mixture back in sauce pan and cook until it comes to boiling point.
Beat three egg whites until stiff.
Pour hot mixture over whites and fold in
Put in 9-inch baked pie shell and let cool.
Put in refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours or overnight
Before serving, top with Cool Whip and 2 T of pineapple.
I finally wrote down, with my comments, the recipe for curried fruit that I got from my mother-in-law. This version does not have maple syrup.
Curried Fruit a la Doris
(With notes and variations)
Classic recipe I learned to make from my mother-in-law:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Baking time: 30-40 minutes
Sauce:
1/3 cup unsalted butter
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tsp. bottled curry powder
Fruit base:
1 20-oz. can pineapple slices
1 large can peach halves
1 large can pear halves
1 small jar maraschino cherries
Drain the pineapple, peaches and pears in a colander; gently rinse away all the juice with water, let drain again, then pat as dry as possible with paper towels. (Ideally, use fruits packed in water or juice vs. heavy syrup. If all you can find is varieties packed in heavy syrup, though, it’s not a deal-breaker, since you rinse off the juices.
Also, I have noticed that you can now buy some fruits in jars; these might taste a bit better than canned, but I haven’t priced this variety to see if it’s comparable or if you pay a high premium for it.)
Layer the fruit in a 13x9x2 casserole dish, glass preferred: Pineapple first, followed by peaches and then pears. Give the fruit one more good pat with paper towels to soak up more moisture. Scoop out cherries from jar with slotted spoon and let juice fall back into the jar; scatter as many as you like (up to entire jar) over top of fruit. Set casserole dish aside while you prepare the sauce.
For the sauce:
Melt butter in small saucepan over medium-low to medium heat; use a wooden spoon to stir it a bit once melted, then stir in the brown sugar followed by the curry powder; stir with spoon until sugar and curry are absorbed.
Now, at this point, I have seen recipes that say you are done with the sauce and ready to pour it over the fruit. Not so, according to Doris, and I learned from her that the best result comes from continuing to cook the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring quite often, for about five minutes or so, until the combined ingredients no longer have a “grainy” texture, the sugar and butter are fully absorbed into each other and the sauce almost has a gloss to it. This is one of those things that you will just “know,” by look and texture, when it is at the right stage. It will be thick, and just pourable (in fact, it will be almost “blobby.”)
Pour/spread evenly over top of prepared fruit. Place in oven, bake for 10 minutes, then, depending on how liquid the sauce has become at this point, either baste it over the fruit, or, if it hasn’t really liquefied yet, kind of “mess it around” with a big spoon.
Return dish to oven; bake 10 minutes more and then repeat the basting/messing process. Repeat one more time.
You will know that the fruit is “done” and ready to come out of the oven when the sauce has totally liquefied and sort of seeped into the fruit, and the fruit looks a bit dry around the edges. This might take another 10-20 minutes. Just be sure to baste/mess/stir the sauce every little while until you are satisfied. (This obviously is not a precise process!)
Let cool slightly before serving; give the dish one more stirring to make sure all elements are smoothly combined.
Dish reheats well, either in the microwave or in the oven, covered.
Variations and Tips:
The great thing about curried fruit is how you can vary it to suit your family’s taste. If you want it spicier, add more curry powder, up to one tablespoon total. Try using dark brown sugar for a tad more caramel undertone to the dish.
After making this for 20 years now, I have settled on using dark brown sugar and two teaspoons curry powder.
You can also add canned apricots to the fruit layer; I just never remember to think about it, because it’s not in the recipe I got from Doris.
Avocado Pie
With less than a handful of ingredients Avocado Pie is very simple to make
In a blender put
2 Avocado’s (med size)
1 Can Sweetened Condensed Milk
Juice of 1 lime
Blend until smooth and creamy
Taste and adjust. Add more lime if desired. For a change of taste use lemon or a combo of citrus juices.
Once blended the mixture will be thick and will start to set up
Pour into a 9” graham cracker crust.
Refrigerate until set about 1 hour
Top with sprinkled graham cracker crumbs or chopped walnuts or pecans
To Ronnie looking for the Avocado Pie recipe. This one (originally published in Woman’s Day Encylopedia of Cookery in 1966) is similar to that shared by another reader but a little more savory than sweet since it uses a regular pie crust. Enjoy!
AVOCADO LIME PIE
A large ripe avocado
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
Grated rind of one lime
2 egg yolks
Dash of salt
1 baked 9-inch pie shell
Another avocado for garnish
Chopped nuts
Mash avocado well (there should be about 1 1/4 cups). Combine sweetened condensed milk, lime juice, lime rind and well beaten egg yolks and salt. Stir until mixture is thickened. Fold in avocado. Turn into baked pastry shell and chill for several hours. Garnish with avocado balls. (Cut avocado in half and scoop out balls with melon cutter. Cover with fresh lemon juice.) Sprinkle with chopped nuts. Makes 6 – 8 servings.
BTW, lightly toasted macadamia nuts are my nut of choice for this recipe.
This is in response to the January 2013 appeal for a Goetta recipe.
This is on the back of the Dorsel Pinhead Oat Meal bag; its the best one I’ve found.
Goetta
1lb ground beef
1lb pork ground mix together
( I use a pork sausage for the ground pork, Bob Evans etc.)
8 cups water
2 1/2 cups Pinhead Oatmeal
*1 large onion sliced (I chop it fine)
*1 to 4 bay leaves
3 teaspoons salt
Pinch of pepper (I use at least 1 1/2 teaspoons instead)
Regular Method
1. Put water into pan, when boiling, add salt, pepper and oatmeal.
2. Cook 2 hours, stirring often, keep lid on while cooking over low heat.
3. Add meat, onion, bay leaves, mix well.
4. Let cook 1 hour, stirring often.
5. Pour into bread pans. When cool,place in refrigerator.
Will keep for days.
6. When ready to use, slice the loaf of goetta and put into a pan in which there is a little hot bacon fat. Fry until well browned.
For Dylan Friedman, Feb. 2013 Poppyseed Chicken Casserole
My mother in law used to make this for years-here is how we make it in Alabama.
Poppy Seed Chicken Casserole
6-8 chicken breasts 1 sleeve Ritz crackers
2 cans Cream of Chicken Soup 2 t. poppy seeds
1 c. sour cream 1 1/2 sick butter/margarine
Cook chicken in water until tender. Remove meat from bones and cut/shred into bite size pieces. Line a buttered casserole dish with chicken. Mix soup and sour cream and pour over chicken. Crush crackers and mix with poppy seeds and butter. Sprinkle cracker mixture over chicken. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes till bubbly and brown. Enjoy.
Here is the recipe for Breakfast Cookies that has been in my recipe box for years:
Breakfast Cookies
1 1/2 c. flour
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 c. frosted flakes
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. butter
1/4 c. cooked bacon(crumbled)
1 egg
2 T. orange juice conc.
1/4 c. raisins
Blend ingredients together and drop by tablespoonsful on cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven @ 350 degrees about 12 min.
Yield 30 cookies
This was given to me by a friend back in the 60s. She said it was part of their traditional New Years Day meal.
Curried Fruit Bake
Drain #2 1/2 cans (29 oz) of peaches, pears, apricots, pineapple chunks, and black cherries. Spread fruit in baking dish. Mix 2 tsp curry and 3/4 cup brown sugar. Put over fruit. Add 1/3 c butter, sliced into thin slices on top. Do not cover. Bake at 350 til hot.