Kate’s Cooking: Try These

Greetings folks on a very wet day in the desert southwest (USA). We hardly had any rain last year and in the last 3 days we have had as much as we had in the whole of last year. It’s good to see this rain as the desert needs a soaking from time to time. With this rainy weather on hand, I took the opportunity to read through some of my cooking books and novels and I came across a number of interesting recipes that I have not tried but thought I would over the next week or two. I thought you might like to try them to. So here they are:

*The first is a batter. I have a variety of batters that I use, mostly a variant of the traditional flour, egg and milk style. I have used soda water and beer in my batters but this depends a lot on what I am cooking. I found this batter in a cooking book from Alaska and for all the batter coated cooking that I have done I have never used this combination. I have always been a great believer in experimentation in cooking. Its fun, especially on a rainy day like today.

EGG WHITE BATTER

4 egg whites
1 bottle of beer
1 cup flour

Beat egg whites until stiff. Add beer and flour and whip until stiff. Whatever it is you are frying, lightly coat with flour and then dip in the batter and deep fry (preferably).

**The second recipe is I guess, in the cookie category and comes from a book emanating once again, from Alaska. It has an intriguing name and has all sorts of interesting ingredients. My husband is eager to try this and there is no reason why young folk and husbands can’t make it to!

EAGLE’S NESTS

3 cups pretzel sticks
1 cup roasted peanuts
1 cup raisins
1 cup mini marshmallows
2 cups chocolate chips
2 teaspoons oil (approx.)

Combine pretzels, nuts, raisins and marshmallows in a bowl and set aside. In a smallish saucepan heat chocolate chips and oil over a low heat, stirring constantly until chocolate chips melt. Pour the chocolate mix over pretzel mix and stir until evenly coated. Spoon into small muffin tins or something similar and refrigerate at least 20 minutes until the nests are hardened.

***The third recipe fascinates me. It is made with slices of salt (or fat) pork which was a very common food in the pioneering west and it comes from a book of life on the northern prairies. I don’t see why you can’t use modern bacon – an interesting thought and maybe experiment? I sometimes use salt pork in beans. It is available in most modern supermarkets. I am going to type the recipe as it appears in the book. Modern nutritionists and doctors who are trying to get us to use less fats will probably be against this but like our family, the occasional use of salt port and bacon is okay, unless of course, you have specific medical reasons why you should not eat these meats.

FRIED SALT PORT AND GRAVY

Cut the meat slices thin and set them to parboil in cold water. When the water boils pour it off. Then roll the slices in flour and fry them brown. When they are crisp, take them out onto a platter and pour off some of the fat and save it to use for butter. Then brown some flour in the fat left in the frying pan and pours in some milk and keep stirring it as it boils and until the gravy is just right.

Well that’s it for this time. Take care out there and be well and safe and warm.

Happy cooking, Kate.