What's a Nice Vegetable Like You Doing in a Batter Like This? or Tinky's Asparagus Fritters

I am working on a recipe for rhubarb catsup, which I thought would be just wonderful for Memorial Day weekend. I pictured it on a nice grilled burger on top of a red, white, and blue plate.

Alas, the catsup is still a work in progress. So I’m giving you a recipe that isn’t really a holiday recipe—or maybe it is. It certainly isn’t an everyday recipe since it manages to take a healthy seasonal food (asparagus) and make it into something really, really, really, really fattening.

And really, really, really REALLY delicious.

Tinky’s Asparagus Fritters

Ingredients:

1 pound asparagus
2 cups flour, divided
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup beer
1 egg
peanut or canola oil as needed for frying
lemon wedges
coarse salt (optional)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

Wash and trim the asparagus spears, and cut them into small pieces—between 1 and 2 inches long.

Pop the pieces of asparagus into boiling water. Return the water to the boil, and cook the asparagus for 1 more minute. Drain the pieces in a colander with ice so that they will stop cooking immediately.

In a bowl thoroughly combine 1 cup of the flour, the baking powder, the salt, the pepper, the lemon zest, and the cheese.

Whisk together the beer and the egg. Stir this liquid mixture into the flour mixture. (A few lumps are just fine.)

Place the remaining cup of flour in a small bowl.

Pour oil into a frying pan until it is about 1 inch deep. Heat the oil until it is about 350 degrees.

Dredge each piece of asparagus in the small bowl of flour; then dip it into the liquid fritter batter so that it is coated.


Pop each fritter into the oil and cook it quickly, turning as needed, until it is golden brown. Do not crowd the fritters in the pan!

(Don’t worry if the flour and batter don’t adhere perfectly to the asparagus spears. A little green peeking out of the batter looks attractive. And don’t worry if your fritters are oddly shaped. Each one will have its own personality, and that will be just fine.)

When individual fritters are ready drain them on paper towels and store them in the warm oven until all the fritters have been cooked. You may end up with a little extra asparagus if you run out of batter or just get tired of cooking. Use this in a salad or a stir fry.

Serve with lemon wedges so that your guests can sprinkle a little juice on their fritters. They may add a little coarse salt for extra zing if they wish. (I wish!)

Serves 4 to 6.

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Cookie Catastrophe: NOT Margaret Sullavan's Peanut Butter Hermits

This is the photo that appeared with Margaret Sullavan's alleged recipe. Jake Jacobs estimates that it was published around 1938.

I recently purchased a CD called Hollywood Cooks! from Kathleen O’Quinn Jacobs and her husband Jake. Collectors and vendors of movie memorabilia, the two have scanned recipes and food-related stories from myriad old movie magazines.

Naturally, I felt the need to try one of the recipes—and since it was almost the end of the month and I hadn’t yet posted a “Twelve Cookies of Christmas” recipe I decided to share with you the recipe for Margaret Sullavan’s peanut-butter hermit cookies.

Or not.

Here’s what happened: I made the hermits yesterday. They were absolutely the easiest cookies I’ve ever made, featuring very few ingredients: condensed milk, peanut butter, and graham-cracker crumbs (plus a little salt). They shaped up very nicely on the baking pan.

Unfortunately, they didn’t pass muster in terms of taste.

Even my mother, who at 91 eats cookies at a rate that belies her slenderness, passed by the cookie jar (which I placed out in the open hoping she would eat some of the darn things) without even stopping.

She may not be able to articulate where she is or who I am all the time, but her brain retains information about pets and cookies very well. She never forgets our dog Truffle’s name. And she remembered that she didn’t like this recipe.

The problem has got something to do with the condensed milk, I think. It renders the texture a bit rubbery. And frankly the cookies just don’t offer enough peanut-butter flavor. Or flavor of any kind.

This probably makes sense. Actress Margaret Sullivan (1909-1960) is delightful in such films as The Shop Around the Corner (1940) with Jimmy Stewart. And she’s touching in No Sad Songs for Me (1950), in which her character gets ready for death in a romanticized preview of Sullavan’s own early demise.

Sullavan with James Stewart

Nevertheless, nowhere in her daughter Brooke Hayward’s family memoir Haywire or in Lawrence Quirk’s biography Margaret Sullavan: Child of Fate did I find any reference to this mercurial actress’s skill in the kitchen. She probably never actually baked a hermit in her life.

In order to salvage my cookie post and not abandon Sullavan entirely, I am sharing a recipe that relies on her three main ingredients (plus a couple of additional ones!). I got the idea from Borden’s Eagle-brand web site, which features a number of recipes that involve condensed milk.

I don’t know whether Margaret Sullavan would have approved—but I’m sure that Brooke Hayward would have enjoyed my non-hermits as a child! A relative of the ever popular Hello Dolly Bars, also known as Magic Bars, they’re VERY sweet and chewy.

My mother LOVES them.

Please keep your fingers crossed for me as I move on to my next movie-star dish……..

Before I get to my recipe, here is Miss Sullavan’s version:

Margaret Sullavan’s Peanut Butter Hermits

Ingredients:

1 cup sweetened condensed milk (a little less than a 14-ounce can)
6 tablespoons peanut butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

Instructions:

Thoroughly blend together the milk and peanut butter. Add salt and graham cracker crumbs. Mix well. Drop by spoonfuls (I used a 2-tablespoon scoop) onto a buttered baking sheet (I used two). Bake 15 minutes, or until brown, in a moderately hot oven (375 degrees). Makes eighteen hermits.

NOT Margaret Sullavan’s Peanut Butter Hermits

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter
1-1/2 cups graham-cracker crumbs
2-1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut
1 cup salted peanuts (optional but good for crunch and peanut flavor)
1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
1-1/4 cups peanut-butter chips
2/3 cup peanut butter (I used chunky)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9-by-9-inch pan with aluminum foil, and butter the foil generously.

In a saucepan melt the butter. Blend in the graham-cracker crumbs, and press the crumb mixture into the bottom of the pan and up the sides an inch or so.

Place the coconut on top of the graham-cracker crust. Throw on the peanuts if you are using them. Pour the condensed milk over all.

Bake this mixture for 25 to 30 minutes, or until it browns lightly.

While you are baking, use a double boiler to melt the chips and peanut butter together. Gently stir this mixture over the baked mixture.

Cool the bars on a wire rack for 15 minutes; then cover them with foil and refrigerate until the chocolate is set. (In my kitchen on a hot day this took more than 2 hours.)

Cut the baked stuff into bars. Makes between 16 and 60 little squares, depending on how big you want to cut them.

Grapes Romanoff "24"

20th Century Fox

The idea for this post came from Kathleen O’Quinn Jacobs of Macon, Georgia. Kathleen is one of my internet pen pals. I “met” her when she sold me a CD full of recipes and images from old movie magazines on eBay. (You’ll see some of them soon!)

Kathleen and her husband Jake love the television series 24. Knowing that I enjoy linking recipes to TV programs, she told me of their practice of nibbling on something special each year during the season finale of 24.

Since no one eats during the series (Kiefer Sutherland’s character, Jack Bauer, and his colleagues are too busy running around saving and shooting each other) the two have had to provide their own recipes.

Several years ago they came up with the idea of making something from a country featured in the previous season’s plot line for each finale.

Over the eight seasons of the series Kathleen and Jake have sampled Hungarian, Middle Eastern, and Mexican dishes, to name a few. This year Russians have resurfaced on the show so Kathleen is making Grapes Romanoff.

I haven’t been as faithful a viewer as Kathleen and Jake, but I have to admit to a certain fascination with 24.

I know that the “real time” gimmick is ridiculous. I haven’t spent much time in Los Angeles, but I do know that it can take hours to traverse Washington and New York, the settings of the last two years’ alleged 24-hour scenarios. Nevertheless, I’m willing to spend disbelief.

Here’s why: The producers have been astute over the years in courting a variety of audiences, not just lovers of action.

I am NOT an action fan. I find hero Jack Bauer really, really tedious. At least half (often more) of each episode is devoted to shots of Jack as he shoots people, blows up buildings, tortures bad guys, and so forth.

Boring.

And the man has absolutely no sense of humor—probably because he never sleeps, eats, or goes to the bathroom.

Yawn.

20th Century Fox

So I push the fast-forward button on my DVR and skip straight to the good stuff.

That good stuff, as far as I’m concerned, comes when the storyline gets to the wonderful character actors who seem to find their way into each season’s narrative.

Over the years such luminaries as Dennis Hopper, Powers Boothe, James Cromwell, and Jon Voight—to name a few–have popped in (usually as bad guys) to sweeten the storyline.

And then the women come onscreen……..

Jack finds romantic interest only with skinny, rather tense babes. He has to deal professionally, however, with substantial women who are a force to be reckoned with.

The restrained yet authoritative Jayne Atkinson played Karen Hayes, who went from serving as the head of the fictional counter-terrorism unit to working as the president’s national-security adviser, in Seasons 6 and 7.

Jack’s ongoing friend and coworker Chloe O’Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) is blunt, smart, quirky, and ethical—if a bit too loyal to Jack for my taste.

Cherry Jones (20th Century Fox)

One of my favorite stage actresses, Cherry Jones, has brought gravity to the series over the past two seasons as President Allison Taylor.

I’m disappointed with what has happened to her character lately (my fellow viewers will know that the once ultra-honest President Taylor was easily led into abusing her powers by the Rasputin-like former President Logan), but I can’t help enjoying her performance anyway.

Most gloriously of all, the radiant Jean Smart completely stole Season 5 as troubled first lady Martha Logan. Martha was in turn paranoid (with good reason, it turned out), furious, pathetic, and strong. She was gorgeous throughout.

So despite the tedium of Jack’s shoot-‘em-up moments, despite the ridiculousness of many of the plot lines, I’ll miss 24 after this evening’s series finale.

I may just cry into my grapes a little tonight.

Grapes Romanoff

I forgot to ask Kathleen for guidance in preparing these grapes. I have a feeling I added a bit more sauce to the grapes than was required! It’s hard to make just a little sauce, however.

Even now I have leftover sour cream. Can Strawberries Romanoff be far behind?

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
24 whole red seedless grapes

Instructions:

Lightly combine the sour cream and brown sugar. Stir them gently into the grapes. Let stand a minute or two; then serve.

Serves 2. (Jack Bauer could probably eat the grapes all by himself at the end of a busy day.)

In keeping with the grape theme, Kathleen sent me this vintage image of actress Betty Compson sipping grape soda.
Jack Bauer would be a happier character if he could share her drink.

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Asparagus Refrigerator Pickles

I know I’ve mentioned this before on these pages, but it bears repeating at this wonderful time of year:

I could eat asparagus every single day of my life!

It’s my favorite vegetable—pretty, crunchy, sweet, and versatile. I’m always trying to think up new ways to use it.

I love dill refrigerator pickles made with cucumber so a few days ago I decided to try something similar with a bunch of fresh asparagus I found at a farm stand.

My mother, whose tastes become sweeter and sweeter as she grows older, found my pickles a little tart. I thought they were refreshing.

My only complaint was that they could have been crisper. They had more or less the consistency of cooked asparagus—cooked al dente, but cooked nevertheless.

Next time I’ll probably try just pouring warm brine over them instead of pre-cooking them. (I’ll let you know how this turns out!)

Meanwhile, I recommend them as they are. After a few days the vinegar turns the asparagus buds a gentle and pleasing pink.

Ingredients:

1 pound fresh, local asparagus spears
1 cup water
1/2 cup white vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 pinch sugar
2 cloves garlic
1 generous branch dill
a few whole peppercorns

Instructions:

Clean and sterilize a pint jar. (A wide-mouth jar is best as it is easiest to stuff.)

Snap the asparagus spears where they break naturally. Discard the part of the spear that has fallen below the break.

Combine the water, vinegar, salt, and sugar in a nonreactive saucepan and bring them to a boil. Set the mixture aside to cool completely.

Wash the spears, and trim them so that they will fit into your jar. Save the extra bits of asparagus for salad, pasta, or stir-fry dishes.

Immerse the spears in boiling water. Return the water to a full boil and boil for1 minute. Rinse immediately and completely in very cold water to stop the spears from cooking further and drain them.

When the vinegar mixture is cool place the garlic, dill, pepper, and asparagus spears in the sterilized jar. Pour the vinegar mixture over them.

You should have about the right amount of liquid. If you need a little more, pour a little tap water into the jar to fill it to the top; then cover and gently shake the mixture.

If you don’t need to add water, just cover the jar. Refrigerate the pickles for 3 to 4 days before eating. Makes 1 pint.

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A Program Note

Iris Barry, c. 1940. Photograph by George Platt Lynes (Courtesy of MoMA)

Those of you who enjoyed my post in February about film critic and curator Iris Barry may be interested in attending a Barry-themed film series taking place right now at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Iris Barry: Re-View features films Barry chose for a program at Hartford’s Wadsworth Atheneum in 1933 that would gauge public interest in film as an art form. The program paved the way for MoMA’s film library, which Barry went on to curate.

The series also includes the Mae West classic She Done Him Wrong (showing tonight!).

If I had time, I’d make you a Mae West recipe. I promise to figure out a way to include one on these pages soon. In the meantime, I hope New York-area readers will try to make it to some of the films this weekend.

Here’s the link to the Museum’s information on this series……….

Let Them Eat Birthday Cake (Part II): Washington Capitals Puck Cake

My favorite young goalie makes a save at the Verizon Center.

My nephew Michael loves to play and watch hockey. During hockey season he follows the exploits of the Washington Capitals.

He has even been known to read the newspaper (which I certainly never did when I was ten) in order to keep up with the latest Caps news.

I shudder to think what family life will be like when he realizes that entire chat rooms on the internet are devoted to analyzing the team’s performance on the ice.

When Michael’s birthday rolled around last week, his mother Leigh asked me to design a birthday cake that would (a) taste yummy and (b) look like a hockey puck.

“A” was not a stretch. All my cakes taste wonderful (probably because I’m so modest).

“B” was more challenging. Luckily, I knew I would have Leigh to help. She is much better at presentation than I am.

Even with her help the cake was a learning experience! As I mentioned in my recent cupcake post we had a couple of tries to get it right since like royalty Michael enjoyed a public birthday as well as a real one.

My concept was a chocolate cake with fudge frosting that would include a moon-pie-like marshmallow filling. (I know this is a bit excessive, but I also know kids love marshmallow filling.)

We started out with a pan from Williams-Sonoma with ridged edges, designed to mimic a chocolate sandwich cookie. The cake was adorable, but the ridges made it difficult to frost.

Even when we used a straightforward round cake pan we had a little trouble with the filling, which tended to melt and ooze when confronted with warm frosting.

Our solution was to refrigerate the cake and filling—and to make sure that the filling didn’t go all the way to the edge of the cake.

For one version of the cake we added butter to the frosting (you’ll see I’ve marked it as optional in the recipe). The butter made it possible to frost the cake later in the life of the frosting—that is, when the frosting was almost cool. It made the frosting a little less fudgy, however. This didn’t bother me, but Leigh was disappointed.

You may ice your cake either way. Frankly, delicious as both versions were, I don’t want to see another chocolate cake for a long time. It’s all yours now, dear readers……

Washington Capitals Puck Cake

For the Cake:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup (1 stick) sweet butter, at room temperature
1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 squares (1 ounce each) baking chocolate
3/4 cup hot water
2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together the butter and the sugar. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, followed by the baking powder and soda.

Melt the chocolate in the hot water. Add the flour to the mixture alternately with the milk. Stir in the chocolate and hot water. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch layer pans (you may use 8-inch pans, but 9-inch pans look more puck like), and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Let the cakes cool for 15 minutes on a wire rack before removing them from the pans. Allow them to cool completely before frosting.

For the Filling:

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 7-ounce jar marshmallow cream

Instructions:

Beat together the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Fold in the marshmallow cream.

For the Frosting:

Ingredients:

2 cups sugar
4 squares (1 ounce each) baking chocolate
2 eggs
6 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) sweet butter (optional)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions:

Place the sugar, chocolate, eggs, milk, and butter (if you are using it) in a saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, and boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat, and stir in the vanilla.

Cool the mixture for about 15 minutes. (If you use the butter, you may wait an hour before you use the frosting.)

For Assembly:

Ingredients:

2 layers of cake
filling
icing (you may have a little of this leftover, or you may skip the filling and use the icing between layers)
additional colored icing of your choice for decorating the puck

Instructions:

Bake the cake and allow it to cool completely. Assemble the filling, and spread it on the bottom layer of the cake. Do not go quite all the way to the edge of the cake. Refrigerate both layers, separately, lightly covered with foil to keep them from drying out.

Make the frosting. When it has cooled sufficiently to be usable assemble the cake layers and quickly but firmly spoon and spread the icing over the cake. Return the cake to the refrigerator until ready to decorate.

Decorate just before serving. Serves at least 10.

Here are a couple of our experiments......

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Let Them Eat Birthday Cake (Part I): 1-2-3-4 Cupcakes

I think I can speak for the entire Weisblat family when I say that we have had enough cake in the past week or so to last for several months.

My nephew Michael turned ten on Thursday. Naturally, a birthday cake was in order.

We ended up making a number of cakes—two identical cakes for his official party the previous weekend (he had invited quite a number of guests), a similar cake for the actual birthday, and cupcakes for his classmates at school.

None of them was hard to make individually—but en masse they pretty much exhausted us.

I do not want to talk about calories here. I will say that we have bought and used a HUGE amount of butter, eggs, flour, and sugar of late. Luckily, the birthday boy and his friends ate most of the cake(s)—and they were very happy indeed.

I’m starting with the cupcake recipe because, frankly, I’m not sure I can write with equanimity yet about the main event—a chocolate, marshmallow-filled cake in the shape of a Washington Capitals hockey puck!

The cupcakes were made with one of my very favorite cake recipes—a simple yellow cake that takes less work than a mix (well, almost). It’s the Platonic ideal of a yellow cake.

This old-fashioned combination is called “1-2-3-4” because it takes a cup of butter, 2 cups of sugar, 3 cups of flour, and four eggs.

If you want only 24 cupcakes (or a 9-by-13 sheet or 2 8-inch rounds), you may reduce the recipe by a quarter to 2-1/2 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, 3/4 cup butter, and so forth. Be sure to adjust baking times if you change pan sizes. You can probably get 3 8-inch rounds with this version, if you want a high and lovely cake!

Since my family is into excess we piled sprinkles on top of the cupcakes—red and blue for the Washington Capitals, of course (we already had white icing).

The birthday boy took cupcake decoration seriously.

1-2-3-4 Birthday Cupcakes

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
2-2/3 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) sweet butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1-1/3 cups milk

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 32 cupcake tins with liners.

In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla, and beat again.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into your cupcake tins.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the cakes pass the toothpick test. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan and let cool. Ice with snappy butter icing (see below). Makes 32 cupcakes.

Snappy Butter Icing for 1-2-3-4 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups (3 sticks!) sweet butter at room temperature
confectioner’s sugar as needed (I think we used a little less than a pound)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Instructions:

Cream the butter and add confectioner’s sugar a little at a time until the icing is tasty and spreadable. Beat in the vanilla. Ice your cupcakes, and throw on some birthday sprinkles if you want to. Ices 32 cupcakes generously.

Grandmother Jan went to town with the sprinkles.

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Thistle Be Yummy: Artichoke Plus Pizza

Every few years my yard in Hawley, Massachusetts, is beset by a plague of thistles. Despite their gorgeous flowers, I detest the prickliness, the invasiveness, and the sheer tenacity of these plants.

I do absolutely adore a certain kind of thistle—one that thrives in only one garden in Hawley: the ARTICHOKE!

My neighbors who grow it have asked to be nameless since they have very few thistles to share each year. I can tell you this much: they’re MUCH better gardeners than I.

(Actually, just about anyone in Hawley is a much better gardener than I. But that’s another blog post and possibly another blog.)

I was thrilled when my friend Peter told me recently about the annual Artichoke Festival in Castroville, California. It takes place this weekend.

I won’t be able to go. But I will enjoy thinking of the joy of the folks in Castroville on Saturday and Sunday as they attend the festival’s gala parade, the exhibition of fruit and vegetable art, the classic car show, and the wine exposition.

Naturally, I’ll also eat some artichokes this weekend. They aren’t quite as fresh here as they are in Castroville, but they’re looking pretty perky in local grocery stores.

I’m a traditionalist when it comes to artichokes. Generally, I just boil or steam them in water and vinegar. (I may try lemon juice this weekend.) And I can’t resist serving them with a little melted butter.

The Artichoke Festival has inspired me to play with artichokes a little more. My nephew Michael adores pizza so the other evening we prepared an artichoke pizza.

I wasn’t sure what to put on the pizza so we tried a number of different topping combinations in different sections of the pan.

We experimented with mushrooms, prosciutto, ripe olives, and fresh basil leaves. Surprisingly since I love it, the only thing I decided to leave out of the final recipe was the basil. The herb overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the artichoke hearts.

I highly recommend this recipe for those of you who want to hold your own artichoke festival this weekend. With my usual modesty, I think our pizza would qualify as vegetable art in the festival’s Agro Art Show.

Artichoke Plus Pizza

Since I was experimenting with this pizza, I don’t have exact quantities for most of the ingredients. Sprinkle happily but not too lavishly and you should be fine!

Ingredients:

1 1-pound package of commercial pizza dough (make your own if you want to)
10 ounces mushrooms, washed, trimmed, and sliced
a small amount of butter and extra-virgin olive oil for sautéing
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (or 1 teaspoon fresh)
a sprinkling of salt and pepper
a SECOND small amount of extra-virgin olive oil for the pizza
2 to 3 handfuls of shredded mozzarella cheese
4 to 6 thin slices of prosciutto cut into small pieces
1 12-ounce jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drained and cut into quarters
1 cup (or so) feta cheese
1/2 cup pitted ripe olives, cut into rings

Instructions:

Bring the pizza dough to room temperature and preheat the oven as indicated in your dough instructions.

While the oven is preheating sauté the mushrooms in a little butter and olive oil until they are gently browned. Toss on the oregano, salt, and pepper, and set aside.

Next, roll and/or stretch the pizza dough out gently (this may take a few tries) so that it forms a 14-inch circle (or a rectangle to go onto a cookie sheet if you don’t have a pizza pan). Use a little flour to help with this if necessary.

Spray your pan lightly with cooking spray and oil it even more lightly. Place the dough on the pan. Spread a very thin film of olive oil on top.

Sprinkle the mozzarella all over the pizza, and arrange the pieces of prosciutto in a pleasing fashion, followed by the artichoke hearts, feta, and olive rings.

Bake the pizza until the cheese is nicely melted and the bottom of the crust turns golden brown. With my crust (from Trader Joe’s) and my oven this took 15 to 20 minutes.

Serves 4 to 6.

Here's the pizza just before baking.....

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Ballpark Food III: Cracker Jack

Today’s tribute to baseball food falls on the 85th birthday of Yogi Berra, the colorful player and manager whose propensity for malapropisms has made him the Sam Goldwyn of Baseball.

As a chanteuse I can’t do a series on ballpark food without alluding to baseball’s signature song, the 1908 hit “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack,

I don’t care if I never get back.

Historians make much of the fact that neither the lyricist, Jack Norworth, nor the composer, Albert Von Tilzer, had ever attended a baseball game when they came up with the song.

I’ve never seen a professional baseball game in person, but I still understand the place of the sport in American culture—and clearly so did Norworth and Von Tilzer.

Nowadays few Americans recall that the song has verses. Here they are as they appeared in the 1908 sheet music (along with the more famous chorus, of course!) in an early Edison cylinder recording.

Cracker Jack predated the song and this recording, making its mass-market debut in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. (It was then called “Candied Popcorn and Peanuts,” not receiving its name for a few more years.)

I love caramel corn—and CJ is nothing but caramel corn with a hint of molasses.

I’m afraid you’ll have to provide your own prizes……

Homemade Cracker Jack

Ingredients:

2 quarts freshly popped popcorn
1 cup roasted shelled peanuts
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup brown sugar, VERY firmly packed
5 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 generous tablespoon molasses
1/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 250 degrees. Mix together the popcorn and peanuts and place them on a large jelly-roll pan (a cookie sheet with sides) in the preheated oven.

In a small saucepan combine the remaining ingredients. Over medium heat, bring the mixture to a boil, stirring. Cook, stirring frequently, until the liquid reaches about 260 degrees. It should form a definite but pliable ball when inserted into cold water.

Remove the popcorn and peanuts from the oven. Quickly but gently pour the caramel mixture over them and stir. Return the pan to the oven.

Cook for 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes and making sure that all of the solid material is covered with the coating. If it starts to stick to the pan earlier, remove it from the oven; you’re aiming for Cracker Jack, not peanut/popcorn brittle!

When you remove the pan from the oven, transfer the Cracker Jack to sheets covered with waxed paper to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Makes about 2 quarts of candy-coated popcorn with peanuts. Don’t forget to add a prize or two!

This 1907 Cracker Jack postcard featured President Teddy Roosevelt (Courtesy of Yellowstone National Park)

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Ballpark Food II: Fenway Franks

I mentioned in my last post that hot dogs are the top-selling concession item at Fenway Park in Boston. I suspect that they dominate the menu in ballparks all over the country.

I’m still enough of a kid to love hot dogs, and I have a feeling I’ll never outgrow my fondness for these warm, portable meals.

Fenway Park is pretty specific about what it calls the Fenway Frank. The offical Red Sox hot dog features brown mustard–not yellow!–with a little relish on a New England-style bun. Feel free to vary this recipe by using your own favorite condiments.

I didn’t make relish for this post since the ingredients aren’t yet in season. I did bake hot-dog buns, however, with the help of my mother and sister-in-law. A New England-style hot-dog bun has soft sides. If you’d like your sides more crispy, just place your rising buns a little farther apart.

As you can see from the photo above, my family’s own baseball player is now a convert to home-made hot-dog buns………

Fenway Franks

Ingredients:

1 New England-style hot-dog bun (see recipe below)
1 hot dog (Fenway Park serves Kayem franks, which are made in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and steams them. I like to grill them.)
brown mustard and relish (preferably homemade) to taste

Instructions:

Split the bun in the middle. Insert the hot dog into the bun, and cover it with mustard and relish. Makes 1 frank. Be sure to spill mustard and relish all over yourself as you cheer for your favorite team!

New England Hot Dog Buns (from King Arthur Flour)

King Arthur Flour notes that this dough should be very relaxed so the buns will be soft and tender. When you’re adding the flour, don’t overdo it; just add enough after the first 3 cups to make the bread kneadable and to keep it from sticking to you or the board.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 packet active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees—slightly warmer than lukewarm but not hot)
1 cup warm milk (ditto)
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon salt
3 to 3-3/4 cups flour

Instructions:

In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar and then the yeast in the warm water. Add the milk, the butter, the salt, and 1-1/2 cups of flour to the yeast mixture. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes.

Gradually add more flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface.

Knead until you have a smooth, elastic dough.

Place the dough in an oiled bowl. Turn once to coat the entire ball of dough with oil. Cover with a tightly-woven dampened towel and let rise until doubled. King Arthur Flour says this will take about an hour; in my house it took quite a bit longer.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly oiled work surface. Divide it into thirds, and divide each of those into thirds again so that you have nine pieces. Roll them into little balls.

Roll the balls into cylinders, 4 1/2-inches long. Flatten the cylinders slightly and place them on a well-seasoned baking sheet 1/2 inch apart so they’ll grow together as they rise.

Cover with a towel and let rise until almost doubled—an hour or so. Keep an eye on the buns; if they rise too fast, they’ll stick to the towel and make a mess. (Can you tell I’m writing from experience?) If you can find a way to lightly cover the buns with a box or something do that instead to avoid the danger of sticking.

Fifteen minutes before you want to bake your buns, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Bake the buns for 20 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown.

When the buns are done, remove them from the baking sheet to cool on a wire rack.

Makes 9 buns. This recipe may be doubled.


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Take Me Out to the Ball Game (but don’t forget to feed me!)

Fenway Park (Courtesy of the Boston Red Sox)

My nephew is in love with his Little League team and has started to watch grownup baseball on TV. For a non-sports fan like me this is trying: I’m only just now recovering from being subjected to hockey and basketball games!

I can always cook, however.

In honor of baseball season, then, my next few recipes will be for foods that are popular at ballparks—particularly at my state’s own Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

I called the publicity folks at Fenway, who were nice enough to provide me with a little information about their current menu.

Not surprisingly, the most popular food item sold at the ballpark is the hot dog. On Opening Day alone this year the concessionaires estimated that they sold more than 23,000 Fenway Franks.

Other popular items include pizza, hamburgers, nachos, soft pretzels, and funnel cakes.

In keeping with trends across the country, Fenway has begun to feature more healthy foods on its menu—vegetarian sandwiches and salads, yogurt, hummus with crackers, and fresh fruit.

I asked Fenway’s historian, Dick Bresciani, whether he had any information about what was served during the park’s first season in 1912. In that year the Red Sox beat the New York Giants to win the tenth World Series.

Courtesy of the Boston Public Library Print Department

Unfortunately, Dick had no documentation about food from that year. He did share with me the earliest material he could find, from the official 1927 Fenway program.

In it Fenway advertised Neapolitan Ice Cream, “sold exclusively within Fenway Park.” “Always fresh and wholesome,” read the advertisement. “Order from the boy.”

Other treats included Oh Henry Bars (ten cents), White Rock Mineral Water and Ginger Ale, and Wrigley’s Double Mint Chewing Gum. “The real peppermint flavor is deliciously cooling to parched throats!” the program boasted.

I almost made Neapolitan ice cream but decided that the challenge of lining up separate ice-cream makers for the three flavors was beyond me.

Instead, I’m helping readers make a refreshing glass of freshly squeezed lemonade—the perfect drink throughout baseball season.

I promise you’ll hit a home run with it!

This recipe is quite flexible. Taste the lemonade before you serve it and see what suits you best.

Some of my family members like it with more lemon; some (Michael!), with a little more sugar syrup. You may also make it a little stronger or a little weaker.

I like it just the way it is here.



Ballpark Lemonade

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, more or less to taste
3 tablespoons simple syrup (equal parts of water and sugar, brought to a boil and heated until the sugar dissolves), more or less to taste
water as needed
mint for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

Place ice in a 12-ounce glass. Add the lemon juice, sugar, and water, and stir gently to blend. Taste and adjust flavors. Garnish with mint if desired.

Makes 1 glass.

Psyche, the White Rock Logo, in the 1920s

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Run of the Mill Guacamole (But How I Love That Mill!)

It’s Cinco de Mayo, and I’m making guacamole.

My guacamole isn’t original or trendy. But it’s really, really good. It tastes as fresh as can be. And really what more do you need in guacamole?

It’s a dish the boys in my family enjoy making—and eating.

I’m sure most readers know this, but in case jalapeño novices are lurking out there I offer a little warning:

BE CAREFUL while chopping the jalapeño. Wear gloves if you can; otherwise, just wash your hands as quickly as you can afterward, and be careful not to touch anything that could encounter any part of your body while chopping. These peppers can sting!

Tinky's Guacamole

Ingredients:

3 scallions (green onions), white and some green parts, chopped (I’ve also been known to use about 2 tablespoons of finely chopped red onion)
1 large garlic clove, peeled and minced
1 small jalapeño pepper (more if you like spicy foods!), with the stem and seeds removed, finely chopped
1 small ripe tomato (optional—only use it if in season), cored and chunked
5 sprigs fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
the juice of 2 limes
3 small, ripe avocados
1 teaspoon salt

Instructions:

In a 1-quart bowl, combine the scallions, garlic, pepper pieces, tomato (if desired), cilantro, and lime juice.

At this point, you may leave the mixture for a few hours. About 15 minutes before you want to eat the guacamole, get out your avocados. Slice them in half lengthwise, stopping at the pits.

Separate the avocado halves from the pits, and use a spoon or fork to scoop out the flesh of the avocado. (If there is brown flesh, don’t use it; aim for the light green stuff.) Put the flesh in the bowl with the onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, and lime juice.

Mash the avocados into the mixture with a fork, adding the salt as you mash so that it is stirred in. You don’t have to mash them too much; a few chunks add to the flavor.

Place the guacamole in a decorative bowl, and serve it with tortilla chips (homemade are the best, but they’re also the most fattening!).

Serves 6 to 8.

From left to right: Alan, Michael, and David mash avocados into guacamole.

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Simple Cinnamon Scones with Fruit

As I mentioned in last week’s cookie recipe, I recently purchased cinnamon mini-chips from King Arthur Flour to make scones.

KAF itself has a grand cinnamon scone recipe that uses not just the chips but several other types of cinnamon as well. I like my scones quick and easy so I’ll leave that one to the experts. It does look fabulous.

This recipe is a bit easier, although I encourage you to adjust it. You may add a little cinnamon glaze after baking, sprinkle the tops with cinnamon sugar instead of plain sugar, and/or substitute fresh berries for the dried ones. (I used dried ones because fresh aren’t yet in season.)
I would avoid frozen fruit, however, as it will make your scones wet.

We served these for a weekend breakfast with plenty of fresh fruit on the side.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) COLD sweet butter
2/3 cup dried tiny blueberries or small pieces of apple
2/3 cup cinnamon mini-chips
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
additional sugar as needed (optional)

Ingredients:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or silicone mats.

Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Cut in the butter, but be careful not to overmix. Stir the berries into this mixture.

In a separate bowl whisk together the buttermilk, egg, and vanilla. Add the liquids to the dry mixture and blend just to moisten the dry ingredients.

Quickly scoop the dough (it will be moist) into rounds on the prepared cookie sheets. Small rounds will give you about 16 small scones, but you may also make 8 larger scones. Sprinkle sugar on top for added flavor and crunch.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes for small scones. I imagine large scones (which I did not try) might take a bit longer. Makes 8 to 16 scones.

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