Make Ahead Appetizers for New Years Eve & A Birthday Ramble Tuesday, Dec 28 2010

I’m taking a break for the first time in a while and it feels wonderful. We’ve spent some time with Mama and my sister, Jona at Christmas. It was fantastic. Mama was a bit sick (please send healing thoughts and prayers), but we had a great time – watching movies, sleeping, cooking, sleeping, eating, and, yes, more sleeping.

We may have a new Christmas Eve tradition with a very untraditional Chicken and Matzoh Ball Soup. It was delicious, healing, and made with love. It warmed my not only my belly, but also my heart and soul. And, I know it did for Mama, too.

This time is so crazy for everyone, but I have an added bonus. My birthday is tomorrow! People are always so apologetic about the timing of my birthday. I don’t know any different, so it’s fine. (I established at a very early age that doubling up on Christmas/Birthday presents wasn’t acceptable.) Frankly, I’m excited about beginning a new year and beginning the New Year.

And, even though I am “on break” I wanted to share some recipes for some easy make ahead appetizers. I felt kind of slack in a way, thinking I “needed” to do this. Folks ask me for recipes all the time and during the holidays, my friends email, call, twitter, and Facebook me for easy make ahead hors d’oeuvres so I figured I should blog about it, too. Sometimes the “muse” strikes me more than others. Sometimes it just comes flowing out easy breezy, and sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes I want to share my words and stories — and sometimes I just want to share recipes.

You know, it occurs to me I don’t take the prettiest photographs of my food. There are blogs out there with truly award-winning photography. Sometimes I use one that was taken by a “Real Photographer”. (By the way – speaking of – I am thrilled to announce Helene Dujardin aka Sweet Tartelette is the photographer for my next cookbook!!)

Sometimes I get lucky and take a good one myself, like the with the gougères below, and sometimes? Sometimes I post with a shot from my iPhone, like the picture of the shrimp I shot while shooting my TV pilot.

I can’t get hung up on everything not being perfect all the time. Wow. That was a big statement for me. It’s easy to get so lost in the proverbial forest it’s absolutely impossible to see the trees.

You know what I can promise? Something I believe in as strong as I believe in anything? I can cook. That in an of itself defines my existence. Pretty heavy stuff, but it’s true. No, it’s not just work defining me as a person. It’s all the little pieces that come together. It’s the cast iron skillet I inherited from my grandmother. It’s the pecan tassies I made over the holidays with my mama. It’s the smell of grating fresh coconut on Christmas Eve that reminded me of my grandfather. It’s the recipe for cheese puffs below I go to again and again that remind me of working with Anne Willan in France or the shrimp rillettes, using wild American shrimp, a result in my passion for Sustainable Seafood. It’s Matzoh Ball soup on Christmas Eve.

It seems to me as I reflect on where I am and where I want to go on the eve of my next birthday that almost everything that has meaning to me has meaning to me in relation to food.

I am more thankful than I could ever express that I get to do what I love. I work hard and I work a lot, but it’s what I love so I don’t really mind it at all. Sometimes lately, I’ve had an embarrassment of riches. And, if everything in terms of the writing, and TV, and all that “other” fell apart tomorrow? You know what? I can cook.

I’m okay with that. I’m better than okay with that, I am very, very thankful.

Thank you to all of you for your love and support.

Bon Appétit, Y’all!
VA

 

 

Coca-Cola Glazed Chicken Wings

Serves 4 to 6

1 cup Coca-Cola Classic

Juice of 2 limes

11/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar

3 jalapeño chiles, finely chopped, plus 2 jalapeño chiles, sliced, for garnish

3 pounds chicken wings (12 to 14 whole wings)

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Position an oven rack 4 inches below the broiler element. Preheat the broiler. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and place an ovenproof rack on the lined baking sheet.

To make the glaze, in a small saucepan, bring the soda, lime juice, brown sugar, and the chopped jalapeño chiles to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to medium-low and simmer until syrupy, about 30 minutes; keep warm over low heat.

To prepare the chicken wings, cut off the wing tips (reserve the tips to make stock), and halve the wings at the joint. Place the wing pieces in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Pour about half the glaze over the wings and toss to coat. Keep the remaining sauce warm over low heat.

To broil the wings, place the glazed wings on the rack set on the baking sheet. Broil for 10 minutes per side, brushing twice on each side with the reserved glaze.

Transfer to a warm platter, garnish with the sliced jalapeño chiles, and serve immediately.

making ahead: The glaze can be made ahead, cooled, and refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature before cooking the wings. The wings can be completely prepared ahead and reheated in a 350°F oven until warmed through, about 10 minutes.

La Varenne Gougères

Makes 20 medium puffs

This is a savory version of the classic French pastry dough pâte à choux used to make profiteroles and éclairs. Gougères are a classic Burgundian treat commonly served with apéritifs at parties, bistros, and wine bars. You can increase the recipe (see Variation, following), but do not double it, as it does not multiply well.

A note of encouragement: don’t panic when you are adding the eggs and the dough starts to look awful. Just keep stirring and it will come together.

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup unsalted butter

3/4 teaspoon coarse salt

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

5 large eggs, at room temperature

3/4 cup grated Gruyère cheese (about 21/2 ounces)

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with a silicone baking sheet or parchment paper.

To make the dough, in a medium saucepan, bring the water, butter, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt to a boil over high heat. Immediately remove the pan from the heat, add the flour all at once, and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and pulls away from the sides of the pan to form a ball, 30 to
60 seconds. (This mixture is called the panade.) Beat the mixture over low heat for an additional 30 to 60 seconds to dry the mixture.

To make the egg wash, whisk 1 of the eggs in a small bowl with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt until well mixed; set aside. With a wooden spoon, beat the remaining 4 eggs into the dough, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. (It will come together, I promise.) Beat until the dough is shiny and slides from the spoon. Add the grated cheese.

If using parchment paper to line the baking sheet, “glue” down the paper at this point with a few dabs of the dough.

To form the gougères, use either a tablespoon for a rustic look, or for a more finished appearance, a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch
round tip. Spoon or pipe 12 mounds of dough about 2 inches in diameter onto the baking sheet, spacing them at least 2 inches apart. Brush the puffs with the reserved egg wash.

Bake until puffed and golden, 25 to 30 minutes. To test for doneness, remove one puff from the baking sheet and let it cool for 45 to 60 seconds. If it remains crisp and doesn’t deflate, it is done. If not, return it to the oven and continue baking 5 to 10 minutes more. Remove to a rack to cool. Let the puffs cool slightly on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

making ahead: These are brilliantly resilient and freeze beautifully. Once cooled, store them in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 4 weeks. Warm and re-crisp in a 350°F oven, 5 to 7 minutes.

variation: To make 30 to 35 medium puffs, adjust the ingredient amounts as follows: 11/4 cups flour, 1 cup water, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 61/2 tablespoons butter, 6 eggs (5 for the dough and 1 for the wash), and 1 cup cheese.

Shrimp Rillettes

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

Rillettes are found throughout France, but they are a specialty of the Loire Valley, traditionally made with pork or duck, and are essentially pulverized confit. It’s shredded meat smashed with fat to produce a rich, rustic paste for spreading on bread. The meat is cooked slowly over low heat until very tender – this is the confit – then raked into small shreds and blended with the warm cooking fat to form a rustic paste. Rillettes, like confit were originally a means of preservation. The meat could be stored in crocks under a layer of fat in a cool place. The thing to remember is that pâtés and rillettes aren’t considered upscale delicacies in France; they are simple everyday food.

One afternoon I made this for a demonstration in a grocery store. There was a stampede. You could offer cotton balls on toothpicks in the grocery store and people would devour every last fluffy bite.

1 tablespoon canola oil

2 shallots, chopped

1 bay leaf, preferably fresh

1/2 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

1/4 cup white wine

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 ounces Neufchatel or cream cheese softened

Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives

Belgian Endive, crackers, or croutons, for serving

Coarse salt and freshly ground white pepper

Heat the oil in a large skillet over moderate heat. Add shallot and bay leaf. Cook until the shallots are clear and translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the shrimp and wine. Season with salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until shrimp are pink and cooked through, about 3 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Place the mixture in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment.

Add the butter and cheese. Puree until smooth. Add lemon juice, chives, and salt and pepper to taste and transfer to a 1 1/2-cup crock, or to 3 small jars and cover with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic wrap directly onto surface of shrimp mixture. Refrigerate at least 8 hours to blend flavors or up to 3 days. Let stand 30 minutes at room temperature before serving. Serve with Belgian Endive, crackers, or croutons.

 

Please be nice. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without permission is prohibited. Feel free to excerpt and link, just give credit where credit is due and send folks to my website, virginiawillis.com. Thanks so much.

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My Feisty Sister, Green Beans, and The Best Birthday, Ever. Thursday, Jul 22 2010

It’s my younger sister’s birthday this weekend and I am going home to see her and mama. Some of y’all may remember about mama moving and selling our family home last Christmas. It’s hard to imagine, but I’ve only been home one time since the holidays. I’ve had a block about it – I can be exceptionally good at putting emotions in boxes and putting them on the shelf. I actually really didn’t realize it until the last time I went home, and driving there I realized I hadn’t been to Mama’s but once. I knew exactly what my crafty mind had been up to…. Of course, I have seen Mama and Jona, but with all the travel, it’s been fairly easy to avoid.

This weekend though? This weekend I am going home to see my sister. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

I love my sister. She means the absolute world to me. She is my heart, my shoulder to cry on, and my biggest cheerleader.

Now, I love her, but we are like night and day. Two more different women could hardly exist. Mama is going to kill me, but I’ve always said that she must have a medical abnormality and have two wombs, because there is no way that my sister and I came out of the same one. And, low and behold this week, a woman in Utah was diagnosed with the condition. Not kidding. Check it out.

We are really different. We used to fight like cats and dogs. She was a biter when she was a little girl and damn, she was feisty. When she was in junior high she was one of the popular girls. I was very much a social outcast nerd and member of the drama club, debate team, and always had my head in a book. She would pass me on the school campus and not speak to me. She was that cool. That, of course, infuriated me, but she ran track and I could never catch her.

She is smart, wicked smart, with math. I have to use my iPhone or count on my fingers for pretty much anything over 2 digits. She balances her checkbook to the dime. I, um, don’t. She sees that I am book smart, but doesn’t think I have a lick of common sense. (We argue of course, on that, too.) I love to travel and essentially left home at the age of 16. She’s a homebody and hates to fly. Clearly, I am an adventurous eater and love to go out to dinner, She’s a meat and potatoes kind of girl. She can’t stand to go out to eat and grumbles at me when I put herbs in the food, suspiciously eyes herbed potatoes and asks, “Did you mess that up by putting any pine needles (aka rosemary) in there?”

This is the look I get when I’ve done something stupid. She’s really going to love I shared this one. You may think that wasn’t very fair of me, but honestly, she makes me so mad sometimes I can’t breathe. You know how it is with sisters.

A couple of years ago Mama called in the middle of the night. She was crying, I think. Honestly, I can’t really remember. She called to tell me Jona had been burned in a house fire. She was at the hospital in the burn unit. I needed to come home first thing in the morning. She was alive, but had 3rd degree burns over 20% of her body. I remember going back to bed and of course, poorly doing the math, “Ok, she’s 5’8” so 20% is a little more than a foot.” I just couldn’t wrap my head around it. (I would have gotten That Look.)

We drove home the next day, straight to the hospital, no, the burn unit. There’s a mighty big difference, believe me. It’s ICU to the nth degree. I remember sobbing, shaking, leaning against the wall outside the door trying to get the booties over my shoes, the mask over my face, the surgical gown over my clothes to enter her room. All the protective covering was necessary to protect her from germs. It became rapidly crystal clear that my math was very, very wrong. I couldn’t see for crying.

I couldn’t breathe.

Over the next few days she underwent a series of debridements, an incredibly painful surgical procedure in which the damaged skin and tissue is removed. Once cleaned, her wounds were covered and protected by cadaver skin. The donor skin helps prevent infection, reduce pain, and would maintain her body temperature until she was well enough for skin grafts from her own skin. She was unconscious and on morphine. There were tubes and machines, and more tubes and machines to help her breathe.

We were fortunate in that her burns were on her leg and arm, her face and head were not injured. Mama and I were only allowed to see her twice a day. We were always waiting at the door as soon as door would open with all the other families.

You know when things are so absurd, life is so topsy turvy that everyone goes into survival mode? I remember one afternoon, she and I laughed so hard we were crying because I had looked in the mirror and I had been crying so much that the bags below my eyes were actually hanging over my face mask. My feisty sister was still practically at death’s door and she was laughing at my puffy eyes.

Only sisters could laugh at a time such as that.

One morning early on, when our grief and worry were still overriding any desire to eat, a group of ladies came to the hospital and set up lunch. The volunteer explained that several of the local churches provided lunch and supper for the families of patients. Pimento cheese sandwiches and individual slices of pound cake were hand-wrapped in waxed paper and homemade yeast rolls were delivered while still warm, shiny with butter. There were hunks of meaty pot roast bathed in dark brown gravy and a comforting combination of tender chicken and dumplings. The food was amazing. Not the first bite of fast food. Not the first bucket of chicken or box of burgers. It was real and restorative, as much for the delicious taste as the real caring and kindness. It was without a doubt the most rewarding, healing love I have ever felt from absolute strangers.

Jona, however, wouldn’t eat. The doctors wouldn’t perform skin grafts until she was consuming a certain amount of calories. The burn unit was so full, they needed the bed, so they sent her home. Yes, you read that right. They bandaged her up, gave us instructions on wound care and sent her home.

I went into high gear cooking, trying to feed her. I cook in a crisis. She couldn’t die, she just couldn’t die. She had to eat. Every day without the skin grafts was dangerous. She was practically comatose from the heavy-duty narcotics and medication. I tried to feed her. She fought me, of course, feisty and mad as hell. She was nauseous and didn’t want to eat. I shoved green beans in her mouth, furious at her, crying. I was so mad I could hardly breathe. We yelled and screamed at each other. She was nauseous and got sick. She hated me. It was an awful, messy scene.

Two days later she’d eaten enough so we took her back to the hospital for her skin grafts. Skin grafting is a procedure where they remove healthy skin from another part of the body to attach to the wounded area, essentially creating additional third degree burns. These surgeries lasted for several days and then eventually we took her home again, for good.

She had to undergo months and months of physical therapy and wear special burn garments for over a year. Now, you can hardly tell. She generally wears long sleeves and a suntan is out of the question. She says sometimes the scars hurt and ache, but for the most part you’d never know. A couple of years ago she helped arrange for supplies for the families and victims of the Imperial Sugar fire and explosion. I don’t think I’ve ever been so proud, humbled, and amazed in my whole life.

We still argue and fight. Always will, I imagine. But, now, when my feisty sister makes me so mad I can’t breathe. I do breathe. I take a full breath as I thank G*d she is here on this earth to make me mad. And, you know why I am going home for her birthday? Because she’s having one and as long as she has one, that’s the best birthday ever.

Here are a couple of recipes, Mama’s Macaroni Salad is one of her favorites. We both love it, and, of course, fight over the last bowl. Then, just because I can, and I can’t wait to hear her complain about it, I am also including a recipe for Green Beans.

I love you, Jona.

VA

And, if you would like, please click on the links to tearn more about and donate to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center and Southeastern Firefighter’s Burn Foundation.

Mama’s Macaroni Salad
Serves 4 to 6

1 (16-ounce) box elbow macaroni
3 stalks celery, very finely chopped
3 carrots, peeled and shredded
1 Vidalia onion, very finely chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise, or to taste, preferably Duke’s
1 cup mild cheddar cheese, shredded, for serving
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Season with salt and add macaroni. Cook macaroni until tender, about 10 minutes or according to package instructions. Drain well, then transfer to a large bowl to cool.

Once the macaroni is cooled, add the celery, carrots, onion and mayonnaise. Season with salt and pepper. Cover with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator until cold, at least 2 hours. Tastes and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Add cheese just before serving.

Green Beans with Buttery Peaches
Serves 4 to 6

1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespooon canola or grapeseed oil
4 peaches, pitted and sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed to a paste
1 teaspoon fennel seed
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Make an ice-water bath by filling a large bowl with ice and water. Line a plate with paper towels.

To cook the beans, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil over high heat. Add the beans and cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Drain well in a colander, then set the colander with beans in the ice-water bath (to set the color and stop the cooking), making sure the beans are submerged. Once chilled, remove the beans to the prepared plate.

In the same pot, heat the butter and oil over medium heat until shimmering and foamy. Add the sliced peaches and season with salt and pepper. Cook, until browned on both sides, turning once, about 4 minutes, depending on the tenderness of the peaches. Add the garlic and fennel seeds; cook until fragrant, 45 to 60 seconds. Add the reserved green beans and toss to coat. Taste and adjust for seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve hot, warm, or room temperature.

Copyright © Virginia Willis Culinary Productions, LLC 2010

Please be nice. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission is prohibited. Feel free to excerpt and link, just give credit where credit is due and send folks to my website, http://www.virginiawillis.com

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