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Chicken Pot Pies and many memories

May the 7th, snow is still on the ground and Mother’s Day is fast approaching. As I think of this day thoughts of my Mother in law come to mind. I remember with the fondness the dinner party she hosted for her son and roommate in Winnipeg while they were visiting from the Mari times. Bill and Peter his Australian friend were renting a fully furnished apartment from a couple on leave for a year. The apartment was Winnipeg’s newest high rise apartment tower. http://www.55nassau.ca/ . Alice, Peter’s girlfriend and I were their invited guests. Mom K had set the table using the owner’s fine chine, glassware and linens. The Dining Room sparkled in the candle light and crystal.
Lately Kitchen Blogs are revisiting the beauty of a perfectly set table with flowers and bringing out the fine chine, crystal and linens. For example; Setting a Beautiful Mother’s Day Table http://www.pauladeen.com/index.php/tier_2/view/savannah_style_setting_a_beautiful_mothers_day_table/
Mixing and matching vintage chine and glassware adds to the nostalgia, yet brings a newest to the dinner table. The guests truly feel special when the host not only serves delicious tasting food but takes that extra time to set the perfect table
http://willows95988.typepad.com/tongue_cheek/2010/05/sipping-pink-happiness.html
The meal began with freshly scooped red grapefruit that had been replaced into half of the grapefruit shell that had been cut out in a decorative manner. This simple yet elegant dish sparkled in the crystal sherbet glass and was served with a sprinkle of granulated sugar and a maraschino cheery on top
The star of this dinner was Chicken Pot Pie that was proudly served and baked in a clear rectangular shaped Pyrex dish. Pastry cut ornamentally floated on top of the chicken filling. Freshly baked buns accompanied this savoury hot pie. Mom K always took great pride in serving this delicious work of art.
Although I do have her recipe, I have never attempted making this recipe mainly because of all the steps involved in her original recipe. I did see her preparing the dish while visiting in New Brunswick.
Chicken breasts were first steamed in a pressure cooker. A Kitchen pot that has always terrified me as did watching her remove the lid from the hot pot. The chicken was cooled, skinned and cut into small cubes.
Carrots and potatoes were diced into small cubes and also steamed. Later in her life, she added frozen diced carrots and peas to the pies.
A white sauce using a flour and butter as the thickening agent for milk was made. Although I do not remember the seasoning, I would think that a small onion would have finely diced and added to the sauce. Salt and pepper to taste and chopped parsley would have been added. Seasoning in the seventies was added with a light hand.
The Chicken Pie was assembled by mixing up cooked chicken and carrots along with green peas into the white sauce and poured into an oven proof dish. Decorative pieces of pastry were added to finish the pie.
The pie was baked just before serving at 325 degrees until hot and bubbly with the pastry a golden brown color.
The meal ended with another of her specialties, Lemon Chiffon Pie, a shimmering light fluffy lemon dessert!
Although both of these recipes used pastry, the chicken pie only used a small amount of pastry. In making her pastry, Mom K used a pastry cloth on her rolling pin to roll out the pastry dough. Left over pastry was also used up by adding sharp cheddar to the pastry and making bread stick out of this mixture.
To me, Chicken Pot Pie is not just a delicious comfort food with it come all the beautiful memories of meeting this fine lady, being welcomed into her family and feeling oh so special! My only hope is that my two daughter in laws feel the same love!

Nellie's awesome Butter tarts for Mother's Day!

Mother Day is around the corner! Reading an email from Paula Dean reflecting on her Mom! http://www.pauladeen.com/index.php/tier_2/view/my_mommas_gift/ left me thinking about my Mom and her impact on my life.
To me my thoughts were of the home she had made during and after the death of her husband at an early age. Home revolved around the kitchen, memories of good conversation, and food. The door was always opened to friends and relatives!

What was her specialty? She did everything so well! Jonathan her grandson talked of her soups in his eulogy. A birthday treat for me was her delicious walnut or lemon poppy seed chiffon which froze so well and were such a treat when slices were cut and eaten frozen!! Yet as I sit at my kitchen table and look at the snow covered yard, pastry, in particular Butter Tats come to mind!

Flaky, tender golden brown crust filled with oozy buttery filling as you bit into this delicious treat! How could one resist this butter tart! Coming home from work and being greeted by the sweet buttery vanilla smell of freshly baked tarts especially when I was able to take them to work knowing that Mom would easily make another batch without asking!

Yes, I have made butter tarts but somehow have never perfected the flakiness or the gooey goodness of the perfect butter tart!.

Here is a recipe close to Mom’s recipe, although I doute she ever measured anything that accurately!
As far as the pastry working in a hot kitchen during harvest season along with canning and making pies for the workers during threshing season and then working in kitchens at restaurants, she did not follow any of suggested rules in making pastry. Rules such as icy cold surface for rolling out the pastry, careful handling and so on. Her butter tarts were legendary in a northern Manitoba town when she worked at a Bus Depot, where her baking such as tarts, pies, buns and muffins were shipped daily further north in Manitoba to The Pas and Thompson on Grey Hound. In fact, my husband heard about Mom’s culinary skills in Winnipeg from a co worker while working in this Northern town was proudly taken by Manitoba Hydro to their regular soup and sandwich spot for lunch followed by coffee and a butter tart! My husband was proud to tell him that the cook was his mother in law!
I had previously scanned a hand written recipe by my Aunt that she had from my Mom.

The recipe I use comes from Blue Ribbon cookbook, 13th edition-1970. My Mom had looked over this recipe and felt it closely followed her recipe as the recipe used corn syrup which has a rich buttery taste.

¼ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup Corn syrup
2 eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract
Raisins.

Cream butter and sugar add corn syrup, eggs, extract and vinegar. Beat with a whisk or hand mixer until fluffy and lemon color. Mom would drop raisins into the bottom of the tart shells Spoon butter filling into tart shells. This mixture rises when cooked so only fill 2/3 full. Mom used the medium sized muffin tins. Her pastry over lapped slightly and then she would pinch it in three places. Her pastry was flaky and tender using lard, flour and water. . The closet I’ve come to her pastry recipe is using 2/3 cup of lard, 2 cups flour and 7 – 8 tablespoon of ice cold water. Yes, it is lard! My rationale is how often does one eat pastry and lard makes it most flaky! Mom use to say rendered duck fat made the best pastry! She always baked her baking at 325, thus at a lower oven temperature but longer!

CBC has archived an interesting show on what makes a great Canadian Butter tart!
http://archives.cbc.ca/lifestyle/food/topics/1371-8373/

I believe that my mom had perfected the Butter Tarts and truly made it her own. This she did by finding a sense of pride in what she did no matter where she was. Happy Mother Day Mom!

Traditional Egyptian food

Yesterday as I drove down International Street in Forest Lawn, I was again curious in the Egyptian restaurant in that area.  I have seen the restaurant next to the Pyramid Halal store, but it always looked empty and dark, so uninviting.  I asked again in the Dollar store if anyone had eating there, this time the clerk assured me that the food was great, that it was open and worth a visit. 

This small restaurant with 4 – 5 provincial style cream colour tables and glassed covered tops has an open kitchen.  In front of the kitchen was a deli style counter, with stainless steel covered containers from which you could order your food, but the meat would be grilled in the kitchen.  Since they do not have a menu written down, the assistant chef ran through their menu which included beef, chicken and lamb.  In the separate containers, he had rice, fried onions, lentils and spaghetti broken into pieces.  These were all cooked and ready to assemble into what he called Kushnari.  There were also dishes of spicy tomato sauce and a dish that was in a batter, beef and eggplant and thinly sliced beef, he called beef doner.  He did have chicken doner, which means "turning:" Although there was a small amount of chicken on a vertical spit, it was not turning and looked cold. 

He had lamb chops that he could grill for me, along with falafals, shawarma and beef kofta.  I asked him to put together a traditional meal for two people.  

The Chef of the restaurant was sitting at one of the tables and since no one else was in the restaurant, I asked if I could join her. Although her response was yes, I had to initiate the conversation.  Although they had been open for over 2 years, they were not happy as to the number of patrons that they had.  They are planning a grand opening in warmer weather when they can set up a patio in the front.  The Chef was very proud of the new mural on the wall.  Although the eating area was bright and inviting, my thoughts were that they should focus on making the kitchen look less cluttered and brighter as being an open concept kitchen, it should sparkle!

Her husband who runs the store was interested in my opinion on fresh juices, such as strawberries, mango and showed me the juice display he was thinking of ordering.  Since this is a Muslim establishment, they are looking at other beverage alternatives than wine. 

The drive home was a delight as the car filled with cumin and fried onions and garlic smells, although the wisp of fatty lamb was not as delightful!  

  

I eagerly opened the two parcels of food. What the chef had package was Kushnari, which is a popular Egyptian dish, historically preferred by low income people, made of lentils, rice, pasta, onions, tomato paste and hot paste (red peppers).  Although the Chef mentioned that Egyptians love their food hot, although spicy tomato sauce added was not spicy.  I had  noticed that there was a bottle of Franks Hot sauce on the each table. 

The Kushnari was tasty but bland and did need the spicy tomato sauce added to it.  The other parcels contained 2 shoulder lamb chops which although moist had been baked earlier and were very gamey and greasy.  There were 2 large irregular shaped Beef Kofta which is ground beef seasoned with garlic, onion and parsley and rolled into sausage like pieces.  Although the appearance was not the most appetizing, it was tasty although dry.  Chicken pieces were in the mix but since the parcel had shifted in the car, I’m not sure just how this was presented. There was salad with this but the amount of mayo added was way too much.  Tasty orange color rice was also served which I though had grated carrots in it but must have been seasoned with cumin. 

Overall the meal was tasty and I would think the dryness of some of the dishes was due to the fact that it was 4pm when I picked up the food, although it did take a far amount of time to ready the food for me as I waited.  

Dill Pickles

Over the February holiday, I was in northern Manitoba and visited Mom’s friend who is 95 years old this year and looks fabulous. We had a delightful visit as Emily reminisced about Nellie.  I love those wonderful feel good reminisces of my Mom with her as they are always filed with great stories and laughter!  Although she is a picture of health, her eye sight is falling and after her home remedy treatment of a bruise resulting from a nasty fall, she is  convince that her home remedies are mproving her eyesight.. Her rational can not be agreed with as she questions how pioneer survived without medical treatment, if not for home remedies!  

Her daughter Hope filled me in with local news and also gossip and most sadly of the funeral that day of a two month infant who died of SIDS.  As I left  their place, Hope gave me a parcel of home made cheese and potatoes peroghies, butter tarts and a pint sized jar of pickles..

Hope preserves her dill pickles in pints as she loves opening a fresh jar of pickles for a meal.  She feels that opening a larger jar and then storing the pickles in the refrig that the pickles are not as nice and also become stronger in taste.  

Here is her recipe which others use in the village and are great to take to a BBQ.

Scrub and wash the fresh young cucumbers.

Fill the jars tightly with the cukes and fresh dill

Garlic cloves to taste.  Hope puts a lot of garlic cloves into each pint!

Brine solution

21 cups of water

1 cup of sugar

1 salt- Hope says she uses a bit less than a cup full of salt  

Bring brine to a full boil then pour over the cukes. The heat of the brine will seal the pickles but she keeps the jars in a refrigerator.

The well water that they used to use to make pickles has been legendary as to the quality of great pickles! Sadly this well is not being used any more! Jonathan was pleased to receive the jar of pickle.. I wonder if they tasted as good as they looked!

Saint Valentine

Valentine is known to be the patron saint of love, however, on the web, I also found that he is the Patron Saint of bee keepers, engaged couples, epilepsy, fainting, greetings, happy marriages, love, lovers, plague, travellers and young people.  Valentine, a Roman Priest, was martyred for refusing to give up Christianity.  I am not too sure when Valentines become so commercial i.e. our papers this week are filled with ads for red roses, champagne, red meat, boxes of chocolate and sexy lingerie?  I did see Valentine products in the store as the Christmas decorations came down

When I was in Puerto Rico last year on Valentines Day, old San Jose burst in colors of red and pink as all the stores and street corners were decorated in flowers and balloons.  Old San Jose was the place to be in the evening, one could not move on the crowded streets. The restaurants were packed and lines of people waiting for taxis for hours were jovial as they chatted to one another.  Everyone greeted you with “Happy Valentines!”

In the old Cathedral in San Jose at mass, a special blessing was offered to young and old couples. Yet families were very much present in the church and on the streets of San Jose.  The spirit of togetherness and love was in the air!

This Monday, I read with great sadness of an elderly woman found frozen to death in her shanty that she heated with a wood stove, her face to the door.   My heart when out to her in her final hours as she lay on the floor.  What were her final thoughts or prayers? 

A comment in the Edmonton journal article “When a Woman Falls in Our Community, Do We Hear Her?”, made me reflect on elderly right, choices and societies role, but also about being alone and forgotten by all but a few.

To my surprise when I goggled to find the story, she was not the only one who froze to death in their home in Canada this past week. 

 As I ponder on the true meaning of Valentines, I could not help but  think of these unfortunate people, our networking of friends and family and how Valentines commercialism has profited on our emotions and feeling of wanting to be loved!

I’m not saying that I don’t love to be pampered with a great meal and flowers, but there is so much more to Valentine’s Day.

For many Valentines can be a bitter reminder of the loneliness of being alone.  Yet, we can still celebrate the true meaning of Valentines.  We can do something special for a person in our life; the cousin, the aunt, the uncle, the nephew, the niece, the parent or friend who has been there for you when ever you need them.  The true meaning of Valentines is just not reserved for that significant other, but the expression of love for those that are there for you in your life.  

So dress in red, decorate your place, make some cheesy Valentine cards, plan a special meal and invited those that are important to you!

This year, I plan to spend my Valentines in Manitoba with my brother, visiting my aging aunt and visiting a young family, who just may have a baby born on St Valentines!  All thanks to my loving husband who in the true spirit of Valentines is allowing me to do so!! 

This is a Valentine card that I made for my relatives years ago!

  

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