Irish Cheese Fondue

I told my friend Peter I was working on recipes for Saint Patrick’s Day—and as usual he came up with a wonderful idea!

He said he had been surveying the variety of Irish cheeses on the shelves in his local grocery store and suggested that I create an Irish cheese fondue.

I picked up some Irish cheddar and threw in some stout. My guests swooned–with the possible exception of my mother, who is not completely convinced that melted cheese constitutes dinner.

If you don’t have access to Irish cheddar, you may use a domestic variety, but the Irish cheddar does have a different flavor. It’s slightly sweeter, I think, and yet a little tangy as well.

Marilyn stirs the fondue.

Ingredients:

2 to 3 cloves garlic, slightly crushed
1 pound Irish cheddar cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup Irish stout
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
a few sprinkles of Worcestershire sauce
1 medium baguette, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 apples, cut into bite-sized pieces

Instructions:

Rub the inside of a fondue pot with the garlic; then discard the cloves.

In a bowl toss together the cheese and the flour.

Bring the stout, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce to a boil in the fondue pot. Reduce the heat and stir in the cheese/flour mixture. Continue to stir until the cheese has melted. Don’t be concerned if your fondue is brown: it’s supposed to be!

Dip the bread and apple pieces into your fondue. Yum! Serves 4.

Kay samples the fondue.

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Giving Thanks (Part II)

The king and high priest of all the festivals was the autumn Thanksgiving. When the apples were all gathered and the cider was all made, and the yellow pumpkins were rolled in from many a hill in billows of gold, and the corn was husked, and the labors of the season were done, and the warm, late days of Indian Summer came in, dreamy, and calm, and still, with just enough frost to crisp the ground of a morning, but with warm traces of benignant, sunny hours at noon, there came over the community a sort of genial repose of spirit — a sense of something accomplished. – Harriet Beecher Stowe

Here are two additional dishes for Thanksgiving (I’m leaving the turkey to you). The pie may look a little complicated because of its multiple layers. It’s quite simple, however, and can be made the day before. The second layer comes out a lovely pink. Enjoy

Hush Puppy Pudding

In an earlier post I said that I would come up with a non-box-mix-dependent version of Marilyn Pryor’s corn pudding. Here it is. Marilyn originally used 1 cup of cornbread mix instead of half of the flour, the cornmeal, 2 tablespoons of the butter, and the baking powder. You’re certainly welcome to do that if you have cornbread or corn-muffin mix in the house.

One note: although the pudding looks gorgeous in the flat dish that appears in the photo here, it’s even better in a deeper pan, which keeps the pudding moister.

Ingredients:

3/8 cup yellow cornmeal
1 cup flour
3/4 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sliced green onions (I used 1 bunch; it didn’t quite make a cup, but it worked)
2 cups plain yogurt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
3/8 cup (3/4 stick) sweet butter, melted
2 10- or 11-ounce cans vacuum-packed corn

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2- to 3-quart casserole dish.

In a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, combine the onions, yogurt, eggs, and butter. Stir in the corn, and add this mixture to the cornbread combination, stirring just until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Spoon the resulting batter into the prepared pan, and bake until golden brown and set in the center (about 45 minutes). Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish.

Cranberry Chiffon Pie

I’m a sucker for cranberries at this time of year when we crave color and flavor. This pie is a little messy when you slice it, but I hate to add gelatin and make it stiff. If you want to make sure it will slice beautifully, use a graham-cracker crust; that way you can freeze the pie until half an hour before you serve it and keep it solid. My family likes goopy delicious things so we use a standard pastry crust.

Ingredients:

for the first layer:

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
3 cups (1 12-ounce bag) cranberries
1 pinch salt
1 prebaked 9-inch pie shell

for the second layer:

3 ounces cream cheese at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup of the mixture from the first layer
1 cup COLD heavy cream

for the third layer:

sweetened whipped cream to taste

Instructions:

In a medium saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil. Add the cranberries and salt, and simmer until the cranberries pop (about 10 to 15 minutes). Basically, you’re making cranberry sauce so if you have a recipe you prefer feel free to substitute it here. Let the sauce cool to room temperature; then set aside 1/2 cup for the second layer and pour the rest into the pie shell.

Next, create the second layer. With an electric beater, whip together the cream cheese, sugar, and reserved cranberry sauce until they are smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the cream, and beat the mixture at low speed until it is blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, turn the mixture to high, and beat it until the cream forms pink peaks (1 to 2 minutes). Spread this layer into the pie shell as well.

At this point, you must refrigerate the pie, gently covered, for at least 3 hours. You may leave it for up to a day, however, if you want to make it in advance. Just before serving, decorate the pie with whipped cream (or serve the whipped cream on the side.) Serves 6 to 8.

I love to whip cream!

Hush Puppy Pudding

Pirate Captain (and 2008 Pudding Head) Raymond Poudrier and First Mate (and Judge) Michael Collins admire Ray's prize-winning Hawley Grove Pudding (Courtesy of Phyllis Gotta)

The Sons & Daughters of Hawley (the historical society in my small town in Massachusetts) have just pulled off another successful Pudding Hollow Pudding Contest. The pudding contest is my baby so I have to admit I’m a bit prejudiced, but I’ll pretend I’m objective and say that it was a huge success and a lot of fun. This year’s entertainment, “The Pirates of Pudding Hollow” (which posited that our inland town was visited by pirates in the late 18th century), had both the actors and the audience roaring with laughter.

I’ll post more details and more pictures soon but for now I want to share one of the recipes that made it to the finals, Hush Puppy Pudding from Marilyn Pryor of South Hadley, Massachusetts.

One of our testers for the semi-finals was reluctant to make it because the ingredients include commercial cornbread mix. I understand her scruples (who knows what’s in those mixes?), and one of these days I’ll try to duplicate the pudding using scratch, rather than boxed, ingredients. When that happens, I’ll add the amended recipe to this post.

In the meantime, as the person who DID prepare it for the semi-finals, I can say that this pudding is very tasty and (except for the cornbread-mix ingredients) quite healthy. I served it with ham, pineapple, and a green salad for a terrific fall meal. And it certainly lived up to its name since Truffle blissfully (and quietly!) ate some of the leftovers.

Puddings Await Judging (Courtesy of Phyllis Gotta)

Hush Puppy Pudding

Ingredients:

1 cup cornbread mix
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup sliced green onions (I used 1 bunch; it didn’t quite make a cup, but it worked)
2 cups plain yogurt
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) sweet butter, melted
2 10-ounce cans vacuum-packed corn

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 2-quart casserole dish.

In a large bowl, mix together the cornbread mix, flour, and salt. In another bowl, combine the onions, yogurt, eggs, and butter. Stir in the corn, and add this mixture to the cornbread combination, stirring just until the dry ingredients are moistened.

Spoon the resulting batter into your prepared pan, and bake until golden brown and set in the center (about 45 minutes). Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish.