COOKBOOK/A TABLE - Quentin's Ghoulish Goulash

Anyone I’ve ever talked to about Dark Shadows (and the occasions have been many; the conversations long) has invariably told me how they used to race home after school to watch the 60’s Gothic soap opera in syndication. 

Certainly, I did. I kept a diary back then too (around the fourth grade) and when there wasn’t much to report about school, I filled in the pages with episode recaps!

For the uninitiated...the perpetually inclement, spectrally lit Dark Shadows was about Barnabus Collins, an elegantly creepy vampire with a soul, who actually suffered from guilt and had feelings for many of his victims. But there was also the true heroine of the show, Victoria Winters, who came as a governess to the great ancestral home of Collinwood, somewhere in the wilds of Maine, and was put through every trial imaginable (including an actual witch trial, when she was sent back to the year 1795 during a séance).

And of course, there was Quentin Collins, the werewolf who charmed hearts even as they were being torn from their host bodies.

So, with that appetizing prospect in mind, I wish you a wickedly wonderful Happy Hallowe’en! I hope you enjoy Quentin’s Ghoulish Goulash pulled from The Dark Shadows Cookbook. There are better goulashes out there (feel free to submit one here!), but this recipe is definitely among the more palatable ones found in the truly ghastly collection. Clam-Pourri, anyone? Beef and Olive Loaf? Enter if you dare!

The recipe calls for a pressure cooker, but I don’t have a pressure cooker—in the event that you don’t either, below I’ve added the simple method of using a Dutch oven instead. And oh yes, I add some paprika to the goulash and half a cup of beer to the gravy!

Quentin’s Ghoulish Goulash
Serves Four

Ingredients
Goulash
2 tablespoons margarine
1 1/2 lbs beef stewing meat, cubed
1onion, sliced

2 tablespoons paprika (my addition)
1 teaspoon parsley flakes (or fresh!)
Salt and pepper to taste
½ cup tomato juice
1 cup water
4 small potatoes, cut in half
4 small carrots, cut in half
1 cup tomatoes, drained
Paste
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup of water

Pressure Cooker Method
Heat pressure cooker, add margarine and brown meat. Add onion, salt, pepper, paprika, and parsley. Place potatoes, carrots and tomatoes over meat. Mix ½ cup tomato juice and half a cup of water and pour on top of combination. Cover securely and place pressure regulator on vent pipe. Cook 15 minutes at 15 lbs pressure. Cool cooker at once. This can be done by placing the cooker under cold running water in the sink. The hissing sound of pressure being released will stop and then the cover can be safely opened. Make a paste of flour and water. Stir into stew to thicken.

Dutch Oven Method
Heat the Dutch oven, add margarine and brown meat. Add onion, salt, paprika, and pepper. Place potatoes, carrots and tomatoes over meat. Mix ½ cup tomato juice and half a cup of water and pour on top of combination. Cover and simmer your goulash over a low flame for three hours. Add parsley. Then make the paste of flour and water and stir into stew.


Ghoulish Gravy
Makes 2 cups
Ingredients
2 cups liquid stock
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons enriched flour
½ cup beer

Method
Remove meat and vegetables from pan. Skim off fat from top of remaining liquid. In a measuring glass, put 1/4 cup cold water in 2 tablespoons of flour. Stir until smooth. Pour slowly into stew gravy, stirring constantly over medium heat until gravy bubbles. Add half a cup of beer to the gravy. Lower flame and cook 5 minutes or so until smooth, stirring occasionally.



Thanks to spendwithpennies.com for the photo.

BOOK/A TABLE - Napoleon House Muffulettas

 

Rereading a book is often a chance to revisit a time in your life when you first turned the pages; perhaps a reminder of where you were in the world and what you knew of it back then. For example, when I first read Anne Rice’s fantastically creepy The Witching Hour, I hadn’t yet been to New Orleans, San Francisco, or Marseilles as featured in her book. But she captures New Orleans so particularly well I felt I had been there even before experiencing for myself the murmuring Spanish moss under the shiver of rain, the iron-lace balconies and flickering flambeaux, as well as that sense of something quite magical in the air...

 
This sentence from The Witching Hour brought back a delicious memory: “We left Galatoire’s finally for a small, quiet Bourbon Street café and continued our conversation until well after 8:30 that evening.”

How well I got to know Bourbon Street over several visits! And how quickly I remembered a perfectly languid afternoon spent with a good friend in the enchanting back garden at Napoleon House in the French Quarter. After so many hours (witchy and otherwise!), our final bill included about a million Sazerac cocktails and a traditional muffuletta sandwich that we shared. 

Napoleon House is one of my all-time favorite places in the world that I know. I’m thrilled to share the recipe for a muffuletta here, made with simple deli meats and cheeses, olive salad, and the best bread you can find. I suggest a host of Sazeracs as an accompaniment as well, but they are entirely optional, of course.

Napoleon House Muffuletta
Yields: 2-4 servings
Ingredients
1 (9-inch-round) seeded muffuletta bun or Italian seeded bread, halved
Extra-virgin olive oil
4 slices ham
5 slices Genoa salami
2 slices pastrami
3 slices provolone cheese
3 slices Swiss cheese
⅔ cup Napoleon House Olive Salad (recipe follows)

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°.
Brush bottom and top half of bun lightly with oil. Layer ham, salami, pastrami, and cheeses on bottom half of bun. Top with Napoleon House Olive Salad, and cover with top half of bun. Wrap in foil.
Bake until thoroughly heated, about 20 minutes. Unwrap, and cut in half or quarters.

Napoleon House Olive Salad
Yields: 3 cups
Ingredients
1 cup pimiento-stuffed Spanish queen olives, chopped
½ cup canned chickpeas, drained and coarsely chopped
½ cup pickled vegetables,* drained and coarsely chopped
⅓ cup canned artichoke hearts, drained and coarsely chopped
¼ cup cocktail onions, drained and coarsely chopped
¼ cup green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 tablespoon capers, drained and chopped
½ teaspoon minced garlic
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions
In a large bowl, combine olives, chickpeas, pickled vegetables, artichoke hearts, onions, bell pepper, capers, and garlic. Add oil, vinegar, oregano, and pepper, stirring to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours. Will keep refrigerated for up to 1 week.

Notes
*We used giardiniera, a mixture of pickled carrot, cauliflower, celery, and green pepper.

Thanks to stripedspatula.com for the muffuletta photo!

BOOK/A TABLE - Chicken Pot Pie in a Pumpkin

Growing up in New England, a trip to Salem was part of the deal. I first visited with my cousin and aunt when I was in the fourth grade, already vividly obsessed with stories of Tituba, those fitful girls, and the riveting witch trials. Although the little town is more like an overwrought mall now, I’m still enamored with The House of the Seven Gables, that grand, mysterious edifice staring out onto the harbor (and featuring at least one hidden staircase).

As Nathaniel Hawthorne describes in his great Gothic tale, before the witchy Matthew Maule placed a curse on the Pyncheon family and that historic house with the seven gables, it was once a happier place, full of revelry and merriment...and food!

“The chimney of the new house, in short, belching forth its kitchen smoke, impregnated the whole air with the scent of meats, fowls, and fishes, spicily concocted with odoriferous herbs, had onions in abundance. The mere smell of such festivity, making its way to everybody’s nostrils, was at once an invitation and an appetite.”

Surely something as delicious as Chicken Pot Pie in a Pumpkin was also on the menu. Adapted from a recipe courtesy of Martha Stewart, I can hardly think of a better way to usher in the fall season than with this recipe guaranteed to bring the house down!

Chicken Pot Pie in a Pumpkin
Serves 6

Ingredients
6 sugar pumpkins - (about 2 lbs are the best)
5 tb butter
2 tb melted butter
2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 lb pearl onions
5 tb all-purpose flour
9 oz peeled cubed potatoes
2 medium peeled sliced carrots
12 oz button mushrooms; quartered
2 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 c milk
4 1/2 c poached or roasted chicken
2 tb fresh thyme leaves
3 tb chopped parsley
2 tb chopped fresh sage
1 lg egg beaten with
1 tb heavy cream

Method
This recipe calls for pate brisee with thyme but spare yourself the trouble and work with a tube of Pillsbury dough instead and pound some thyme into it.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. 

Slice the tops off the pumpkins. (Placing a pumpkin on a towel will help keep it from rolling around.) 

Scoop out the seeds, and discard them. Using a pastry brush, brush insides of pumpkins with 2 tablespoons melted butter. Season insides of pumpkins with 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg. Place pumpkins on a baking sheet; cover tightly with foil. Bake until tender, about 30 minutes.

Bring a medium saucepan of water to boil. Add pearl onions, and let simmer for 15 minutes. Drain; rinse under cold running water. Peel onions, and set aside. Melt 5 tablespoons butter in a large, high-sided skillet set over medium heat. Add potatoes and onions, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes begin to turn golden.

Add mushrooms and carrots, and cook 4 to 5 minutes more. Add flour, and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

Add reduced chicken stock and milk, and bring to a simmer. Cook until thick and bubbly, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes.

Stir in chicken, parsley, thyme, sage, remaining nutmeg, remaining 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, 3/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg, and 3/4 teaspoon pepper.

Remove from heat, and divide mixture among reserved pumpkin shells. Roll each piece of pate brisee to a thickness of 1/8 inch.

Pull center of dough upward to form a pumpkin-like stem. Place over the hollow of each filled pumpkin. Using the back of a small paring knife, mark the dough to simulate the lines of the pumpkin.

Brush top of dough with egg wash.

Bake until crust is golden, about 45 minutes.

 

BOOK/A TABLE - A Study in Scarlet...Punch?

 

In anticipation of Hallowe’en, I’ll be featuring a few frightening reads or recipes (or both!) all this month—kicking things off with a tribute to that celebrant of Gothic New England, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and his novel The Scarlet Letter (which features at least one witch, in the form of Mistress Hibbins).

I have to admit the bookseller looked at me kinda funny when I asked if he carried the book.

“Hawthorne?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. Not because he was unsure of the author, but rather he seemed to be asking, “Still?”

“I know...” I nodded, trailing off. “I haven’t read The Scarlet Letter since high school.” 

But I had been thinking about it because there was a recent question on Jeopardy asking which novel has a scene featuring a falling meteor? I don’t know how I remembered this at all, but I felt there was a meteor somewhere in The Scarlet Letter, wasn’t there? 

Turns out, Hawthorne’s novel wasn’t the answer Jeopardy was looking for (I think they wanted Paradise Lost), but re-reading it, sure enough there is a scene on the scaffolding where Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne clutch each other under a shooting meteor whose trail in the celestial skies may or may not resemble the letter A.

 

Anyway...I feel Hester didn’t get a fair shake in The Scarlet Letter. So let’s shake up a cocktail in tribute to the old gal, yes?

The Spooky Spiced Scarlet cocktail (or perhaps a Prynne Punch?) is a blood-red Halloween drink that combines Bacardi Gold rum with a homemade cinnamon spice syrup, fresh pomegranate juice, and cranberry juice. Created by Rich Hunt and Alba Huerta for Jamie’s World, the recipe involves stirring these ingredients with ice and garnishing with a lime wedge for a tart contrast.

Spooky Spiced Scarlet Cocktail

Ingredients
50 ml (about 1.7 oz) of Bacardi Gold Rum (or Ritual Zero Proof alcohol-free rum)
3 tablespoons of homemade cinnamon spice syrup
50 ml (about 1.7 oz) of fresh pomegranate juice
50 ml (about 1.7 oz) of cranberry juice
Ice cubes
Lime wedge for garnish

Instructions
In a cocktail shaker, combine the Bacardi Gold rum, homemade cinnamon spice syrup, fresh pomegranate juice, and cranberry juice.

Add ice cubes to the shaker.

Stir the mixture well until it is thoroughly combined and chilled.
Strain the cocktail into a glass filled with fresh ice.
Garnish with a lime wedge to add a splash of color and serve to your best...boo.

BOOK/A TABLE - This Applesauce Rules!

                   

A Prayer for Owen Meany* by John Irving was the first book that ever made me cry. Books had been making people cry for years, of course, but I never quite understood it growing up. Crying during a movie made more sense to me, the passivity of watching the drama unfold, you know? Reading is active—if distracted, you turn away, the reel jams, the celluloid melts, the story stops! Hardly a time for tears. Oh, the impatience of youth!

But when I read the extraordinary A Prayer for Owen Meany, I finally understood. Oh, the tears fell down like autumn windfall apples! 

I suppose it wasn’t surprising then that I cried again over Irving’s The Cider House Rules only a few months ago. The story centers on events surrounding an orphanage and hospital in the fictional town of St. Cloud’s in Maine (my homeland). There, women deliver unwanted babies (those ‘Princes of Maine’; those ‘Kings of New England’) or the women themselves are delivered from unwanted pregnancies. The book deliberately parallels David Copperfield as we follow Homer Wells’s journey—and indeed wonder whether or not this particular orphan will become the hero of his own life. 

There are also many pages devoted to apples, their cultivation (and rules of operating the cider house), as you might well imagine. But here, let’s start with the basics. Applesauce!

Following the loose instructions torn out of an old Bon Appétit, I have made Carla Lalli Music’s practically effortless recipe for perfect applesauce many times. She says, “As the apples transform, their skins surrender tannins and color to the sauce, and the fruit steams in its own juices, concentrating the flavors as the liquid simmers.” Doesn’t that sound just fantastic? 

And as Homer (our Prince of Maine and King of New England) observes, “...people will always eat apples...it must be a nice life.”

Applesauce
Adapted from a recipe by Carla Lalli Music, featured in Bon Appétit

Ingredients
A few apples; any kind that suits your fancy
A stick of cinnamon
Juice from 1 lemon
A scraped-out vanilla bean (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Method
Halve the apples and add them to sturdy pot (enamel Le Creuset pots are great) with all the ingredients on medium-low. Add a 1/4 cup of water and let them be. When the rich aromas begin filling the kitchen, stir your apples to make sure they aren’t sticking—if they are, add a little more water.

The total simmering time should be about 45 minutes to yield a rosy, tender flesh. Transfer your batch to a food mill to catch any seeds or stems.

Serve warm. Or chilled!

*(For a deeper dive into A Prayer for Owen Meany, check out Fifth Business by Robertson Davies—Irving based Owen Meany on it.)

COOKBOOK/A TABLE - Plant-Based Cornbread

In the 1989 Batman movie, Jack Nicholson’s Joker gleefully declared, “This town needs an enema!” As remakes often reflect the current climate of the culture, I can only imagine a new version of the film where The Joker might instead declare, “The entire world needs an enema!”

So think globally, but act locally, right? With that buoyant expression in mind, I offer a solution to our constipated world—a plant-based corn bread that I find to be most cleansing. (The recipe calls for jalapeños but I’m not going there.)

Jessica Murnane wrote the cookbook One Part Plant: A Simple Guide to Eating Real, One Meal at a Time to combat her chronic, painful endometriosis. After teaching herself how to cook, she changed her diet to incorporate whole plant-based meals into her daily life with life-changing results. The recipe for jalapeño cornbread is just one of many recipes resulting from her efforts in the kitchen while she created the book she wished she’d had during her personal struggle.

The struggle is real—everywhere. But don’t give up. In the meantime, this cornbread is delicious!

Jalapeño Cornbread
Adapted from One Part Plant by Jessica Murnane https://www.jessicamurnane.com/one-part-plant
Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients
1 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon flax meal
3 tablespoons water
1 cup medium grind cornmeal
Half cup almond meal
Half cup brown rice flour
2 teaspoons aluminum free baking powder
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup real Maple syrup
2 jalapeños seeded and diced
3 tablespoons olive oil
Raw honey or real maple syrup

Method
Preheat the oven to 400°. Grease an 8 inch square pan or line it with parchment paper.

Next line in a small bowl, combine the almond milk and apple cider vinegar. In another small bowl, make a flax egg: flax meal and water together. Set both the almond milk mixture and the flax egg aside and let them sit for at least 10 minutes.

Next line in a large bowl, mix the cornmeal, almond meal, rice flour, baking powder, installed together. Add the almond milk mixture, flax egg, maple syrup, and half of the jalapeño slices. Stir to combine, but do not over stir. Add the olive oil and give it a few more stirs.

Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Spread the remaining jalapeños on top. Bake for 20 minutes or until a fork or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let it cool for 10 to 15 minutes before serving.

Thanks to jessicainthekitchen.com for the photo!

Like Buttah!

I had almost a full bottle of buttermilk left over after making my Fried Chicken Salad and still had butterbeans on my mind after my D.C. friend wrote me about the Brunswick Stew he had concocted. 

So, I searched keywords buttermilk and butterbeans, et voilà, I found this delightful recipe for Buttermilk White Beans with Eggs & Greens. 

As a shortcut, I opted for canned butterbeans, although I realize many folks would balk at the idea of not using dried. But it was a weeknight and I couldn’t linger as long in the kitchen as I might have liked, so what the hell—my creamy buttermilk butterbeans were quick and delicious. With the tender greens, a good, fruity olive oil and rich, liquid gold yolks it was all just like buttah, but I did feel the proposed preparation needed a little clarity: my comments below are in italics.

And I would be completely remiss if I didn’t mention my all-time favorite band The B-52’s and their paean to the virtues of the butterbean in the fabulously fun song, Butterbean! 

*BONUS* Click here for a recipe for Italian Style Soba Noodles that band member Fred Schneider was gracious enough to share on Evenings with Peter.

Buttermilk White Beans with Eggs & Greens
Food52.com
Ingredients
Extra-virgin olive oil (or unsalted butter). Use a really good oil for this.
5 sprigs thyme
1 yellow onion, sliced thinly
10 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pound dried white beans (such as cannellini, gigante, or great northern) Or two 15.5 oz. cans of butterbeans!
2 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
2 cups buttermilk
1 bunch (10 leaves) hearty greens (such as kale, chard, or rapini), cut into ribbons. Rainbow chard worked very nicely. To make ribbons, strip the leaves of their stems, roll up several stacked leaves like a cigar and slice them on the bias. 
1/4 teaspoon chile flakes (optional)
1/2 cup white wine
4 large eggs
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Step 1
In a medium to large saucepan, heat several glugs of olive oil or knobs of butter over medium heat. Add the thyme sprigs and fry until fragrant and the leaves have stopped making the popping sound, about 1 minute. Add the onion and half the garlic, then reduce the heat to low and sweat until tender, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the beans and enough water to cover by 2 to 3 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the beans are completely tender and creamy, and the water is mostly absorbed. This should take 45 to 75 minutes, depending on the variety and age. This goes much quicker with canned beans, about 10-15 minutes—and don’t rinse; add bean juice to the pan.

Step 2
When they’re done, remove the beans from the heat and add the rest of the garlic, the salt, and buttermilk. Stir to combine, cover, transfer to the fridge, then allow the beans to cool in the buttermilk—at least 30 minutes, but ideally overnight.

Step 3
Before serving, remove the sprigs of thyme (don’t worry if some leaves break up into the broth) and gently warm the beans over low heat. When the beans are warm, taste and adjust the seasoning as desired. Remember the beans will take some time to warm up. Allow for that, then move on to Step 4, which goes very quickly.. 

Step 4
In a large frying pan, heat a glug of olive oil over high heat until almost smoking, then add the greens and a big pinch of salt. Sautée the greens until they are bright in color and starting to soften. Add the white wine and chile flakes (if using) and allow the wine to evaporate by half.

Step 5
Reduce the heat to medium and make four divots in the greens. Drizzle more olive oil into the greens and crack an egg into each divot. Season the eggs with salt and black pepper. Cover the pan with a lid to steam the eggs—5 to 6 minutes, checking frequently toward the end so they don’t overcook. Poke with spoon to check that the white are firm. 

Step 6
Dish the beans into serving bowls. Scoop a nest of greens and an egg from the pan and nestle on top of the beans. Drizzle with a bit more olive oil and serve on its own, or with a thick slice of toast.