good cateress newsletter Oct/Nov 2008

good cateress newsletter Oct/Nov 2008

October and November are the months for mushrooms, game and squash. All great earth items.

Late last week I was driving past the Live Poultry Shop on 127th Street and Amsterdam, something I do frequently on my way to the West Side Highway or Fairway. I am always intrigued and slightly horrified when I drive past and the crates of live birds are being unloaded. Would I in fact be able to deal with a live bird? I always joke to myself that it would depend on how hungry and desperate to eat I would be. I definitely fall into the category of preferring not to think of how chickens we eat are kept and butchered. I do know that the live chickens are undoubtedly in better condition than the chickens breasts we buy laid out on styrofoam and wrapped in plastic at most supermarkets.

I was stopped outside the store, waiting for the light and I realized that the birds I could see in the window were pheasants and turkeys. I could also see the salesman with a brace of chicken held in his hand, ready for someone’s weekend food. Do they kill them in the store? I presume so, I have never actually seen anyone carrying live poultry down the street.

Pheasants, I think to myself, I could probably handle the pheasant. When Dad and Murray would go out on shoots, back in the 70’s. We often had pheasant, hare and duck hanging in the cool of the stockroom, and it was often Simon’s and my job to pluck them. Murray liked to hang his birds a long time, I was never so keen on plucking those, sometimes they fell apart at the first tug of the feathers.

As roast lamb is my favourite spring and summer meal; roast pheasant and crisply roasted duck are some of my favourite winter meals. I have never understood american reluctance to eat game, it has so much more flavor and is hormone and antibiotic free. I also like pheasant or Guinea Fowl made Normandy; cooked with apples and onions in cream and calvados.

I do have to admit that the day I came home from school, walking through the kitchen and seeing a skinned rabbit soaking in water, totally freaked me out. I did not eat rabbit for a long time afterwards. But spending time in France and Spain where rabbits reared for eating were kept in cages outside houses, it just seemed second nature to eat them. In Spain I have loved it cooked with prunes; in France I have been served Coq au Vin or Chicken stew in the country, where the chickens had rib cages and spines. The meat was wonderfully succulent and flavorful.

On the Isle of Wight there were no deer to shoot. A few years into being here in America, Simon was up in State College, PA doing his Ph.D. I would drive up for weekends to see him. One November weekend, I was heading back to the City on Rte 80. I could see something strapped to the roof of the car in front of me, I couldn’t make out what it was, and it certainly looked quite odd. As I got closer and was getting ready to pass, I realized I was looking at a dead buck deer with it’s tiny horns; I almost swerved off the road when I saw it. A few more miles down the road, there was another car with a deer strapped too it. Hunting season had started. I wouldn’t know where to start to skin and butcher a deer! But thinking back this was during the recession of the early 90’s. I am betting there will be a lot more people shooting their meat this winter and the coming hard years.

Last winter, I finally, after much thought bought a piece of D’Artagnan Wild Boar to roast. I made a very herby stuffing to lay the boar on as it roasted, and a spicy apple sauce to serve alongside it. Of course, roast potatoes, I would not be English without a good roast spud, and braised some baby Brussels Sprouts from Union Square. Totally yummy comfort food.

I wrote about mushrooms in my second newsletter, October 2006. All of the newsletters can be found at http://goodcateress.blogspot.com. Although, last week I found myself with some extra Chanterelles, which I turned into a heavenly soup with very subtle flavor. Something to remember for next Fall, although I suspect I will probably not have too many occasions when I have too many Chanterelles!

Squash. I was amazed about the squash when I first came to America. I knew about pumpkin having seen pieces of giant pumpkin for sale in markets in France and Spain. Sadly the closest we came to squash in England in the 70’s and early 80’s was Courgette (Zucchini) and Marrow. I loved marrow; please don’t give me an overgrown courgette and tell me it’s a marrow, they are two totally different squash, one is supposed to be eaten when it is smaller and sweeter, one is grown for it’s size. Mum would cut up, peeled pieces of marrow, put them in foil with plenty of salt and pepper, butter or olive oil, then roast it in the oven with the meat that was being roasted for Summer sunday roasts.

But the Squash I saw here were an array of colors, shapes and size. Although, at first I only really saw Acorn Squash. The first time I ate acorn squash it had been, halved, roasted with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon - there’s that cinnamon again. But I couldn’t understand the very sweet brown sugar aspect, it made the squash too sweet for me, and as we know, I do like my sweet. So other than at Thanksgiving I passed on the squash for a few years. Over the years, I started to see other squash, particularly down at Union Square Green Market, I talked to the farmers, who suggested different ways to cook and eat the different squash. I started to buy Butternut squash and my early form of cooking was to cut into squares and roast it, as a Brit, we understand roasting! It was divine, crisp outside and succulent in the middle.

I made a soup with butternut squash, ginger and pear, which I liked a lot, I never added cream or milk, I liked the simplicity of the fruits and stock combination. But truly my favourite Squash item was risotto, heartwarming nectar. For the risotto I would halve the butternut squash ( by the way, for anyone interested you should buy a farmers market squash and a squash from a store and compare colors and flavors, two different items!), scoop out the seeds and strings, season the cut halves and add a knob of butter, lay on a roasting pan skin side down and bake for 45 minutes or until soft. Let it cool slightly, then scoop out the flesh and puree with a wand stick or in a cuisinart. Make risotto your usual way, add the squash puree about half way through adding your liquids. Serve with parmesan cheese.

The squash I have had least success with is Spaghetti squash. I know this is all about me, rather than the squash, but truly I don’t get the point.

I debated with myself about which recipe to share this month and came back to my original thought. My mothers apple cake. Neither Simon or I remember mum cooking this or eating this cake, but Mum sent me the recipe and I started making this cake about 15 years ago. It is one of my favorite mum recipes, and I have been known to eat the entire cake in a few days, but not recently!


Lucy McQueen-Masons Apple cake “Rungli Rungla”

Butter and flour a 8” spring form pan
Oven 375 degrees

10 oz/2 cups flour mixed with a teaspoon of baking powder
8 oz sugar, we use the organic baking sugar that adds a slight caramel flavor
2 large eggs
8 oz/ 1 cup melted butter
1lb apples, we use Granny Smith in England it would be Bramleys - peeled, cut into pieces, placed in a bowl with lemon juice
3 oz sultana’s/golden raisins
2 oz chopped walnuts
large teaspoon cinnamon mixed with 2oz Demerara sugar

Beat eggs and sugar together in kitchenaid or with handheld mixer. Add the melted butter, then flour mixture. When combined add apples, sultana’s and walnuts. Put mixture in baking tin, sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake for 35 - minutes or until done, test with a skewer. Serve warm with whipped cream or creme fraiche.



Happy Thanksgiving

We should give thanks for the change of power here in America, this year.