Creamed Onions, and A Whole Lot More

A friend and former business partner from the South( Alabama) used to say, " every night's a Saturday night and every day is a Sunday." I think he was expressing his view of heaven on earth. The two best days of the wk. The debauch on Sat night; church and redemption on Sunday?

Let me tell you about Sunday. There's always a great singing of old hymns and some new, and usually a great message( sermon) from Pastor and then the feast. A buffet style cornucopia of hot dishes and sides and breads, fruits, cakes, pies, bars, cookies and candy. It is different each week, according to the whim or plan of our inspired providers/cooks. They cook their fare at home and bring it to church. No sign up sheet, all volunteer.That is God at work. If you come and eat it you would know that.

Noodle casseroles, or rice, perhaps a stew( often venison) , or chili, spaghetti , sauer kraut and sausage, something with potatoes, and this last Sunday a heavenly dish of creamed onions.

Creamed onions. If you have not had them before and then had them, you will have them again. A little sweet and creamy, dreamy w/ cheese, two kinds, according to Lois. You must first boil the onions till tender, and pour off the water. If you don't they will be too strong. Then, saute' in butter, add flour to make a roux( butter and flour for thickening), and add milk, get hot and simmer for ten or fifteen minutes, then add a sharp cheese like cheddar ( a white cheddar would be great, but unnecessary), and parmesan cheese. It is really good. People were eating it like it was a main course, in big bowls, like it would nourish both the body and the soul.

Creamed onions forever is what I say. What a side on a day like this ( about a hundred and fifty below zero).

The Other White Meat

I write this as our President speaks to a surfeit of applause in his State of the Union address. No more pork, he says. He used to be the king of pork. He is giving pork a bad name. Nothing like pork this time of the year, as a roast w/ potatoes, carrots, and onions. A Boston Butt w/ plenty of fat and flavor is my recommendation. More pork is what I say.

It Doesn't get Any Better Than This

I baked, finally, my great Aunt Sophia's bread again yesterday. ( Halleluia!) It is whole wheat w/ scalded milk and water and oil and salt and vinegar, oatmeal, and my addition which is flaxseed. A little molasses and brown sugar, too.( half whole wheat, half unbleached white). A crunchy crust when it comes out of the oven. The first slices are exquisite w/ cold butter. Round loaves in the rustic way. Mine is softer than I would like - hers w/ more body and you sliced it w/ a hack or kitchen saw. She has been gone for years so I cannot ask or witness her exact method. Less kneeding, more kneeding, a pan of water in the oven? Anyways, a loaf like this has a depth of flavor that reveals itself as you chew, and an after taste that is like a great memory of something you shot or caught w/ a good dog at your side.

Dunk in a bean and lentil soup w/ plenty of carrots, celery , onions, garlic, thyme and bayleaf w/ polish sausage, not too much you don't need too much unless you want, from your favorite meat mkt. It is perhaps my favorite soup, rich, delicious, and good for you. I was in cooks heaven even before I cooked the next thing,...

Which was chocolate chip cookies, the recipe on the pkg of chips, but I did nearly half w/ whole wheat flour, and added hazel nuts. I love cookies, but in deference to health issues( because I know that I will be eating a lot of them), I attempt to make them more healthy. Chocolate is good for you, right, and nuts too, and whole grain. So my grandson and I ate them warm from the oven w/ vanilla ice cream, and no guilt. It is a rationale that works for me. Try it.

Try all these things. It will be a good day. Terve' tuloa( come again)!

" Break a Leg"

I want to remind you that I consider all food as outdoor food( except chickens and pigs and more these days) since it lives or grows outdoors, and that I consider the wild and the free( well, not quite free) to be the best of it along w/ what grows in your garden.

Good food is available in markets these days as well, and that has happened because we the consumer have demanded it. A good thing. Shop smart. Make wise food choices. Did you know that the chickens that are labeled"all natural" are raised in lots of 50,000 or more, indoors, and they grow from day old to a 5 lb market weight in just six weels? That their legs break under the strain of quick growth and weight gain?

All natural? Yeah, like Barry Bonds is all natural.

Not Quite the Way Mom Did It

I was certainly not the only teenage duck hunter who drew the short swampgrass straw and had to strip down to swim out and set the decoys. It was in a remote and secluded location at a beaver pond that had never been hunted before, according to the behavior of the ducks. We made blinds. Ducks arrived shortly before dusk.

We would not have needed decoys. The ducks had obviously been bedding down here on a nightly basis for years, through generations. We stood, we shot, all five of us. We dropped ducks, they left, returned, we shot, they left, and returned. This continued for an hour. We stood unhid on the beaver dam, laughing and shooting. The ducks kept coming.

In those days, some 4o yrs ago, our moms cooked those ducks in the traditional way. Each bird dressed w/ 2 bacon strips, and roasted forever in a dry pan. It worked. They tasted of dryness and burnt bacon. Not bad for wild game. It was our duty to eat them.

It would be years before I would discover that duck was my favorite wild game, when prepared in a learned and skillful way. But simply.

You can roast them whole. Add carrots, celery, onions and garlic to the roasting pan, along w/ salt, black pepper and thyme, a cup of water and a cup of red wine, cover and roast for about an hour. Do put the bacon strips on them, thick sliced. Uncover for the last ten minutes if you want them nice and browned. You could add potatoes also, at the beginning, and whole regular white mushrooms or any kind about half way thru the roasting. Check for moisture at that point, and add more water if necessary. The resultant broth could be thickened into a gravy or sauce, or leave it thin as jus, which is what I prefer. A wonderful one pot meal, simply and easily made. Vegetables are rich and carmelized and unsurpassed when you cook them this way.

Wish it was duck season.

It's Just Ducky

Duck soup. A Marx Brothers' film? Great slapstick as I recall.

Of all the wild game stocks that can be made, duck is hands down the best. Don't even try pheasant or grouse for stock - an off flavor that just doesn't work for me.

It's been a couple of years since duck, unfortunately. It is my favorite wild game to eat. You wll want to bone out the breasts and season w/ salt, pepper, garlic( shallots,too, if you have 'em) before you grill them med rare on the Weber or gas grill. I live in hardwood country and always fire the grill w/ oak or maple. I think it is stupid and expensive to use charcoal when hardwood is available on the cheap or free.

Cut the thighs and drumsticks off of the duck together w/ the bones to roast separately. Cover the remaining carcass w/ water in the stock pot, add carrots, celery and onions, salt, pepper, red wine( half cup), garlic and gently boil for a couple of hours. Taste it, adjust seasonings. If it is not rich enough, add a little chicken and/or beef base( quality) to it. The resultant broth can be used to make a gravy/sauce, or can be strained w/ a fine sieve or cheesecloth. If it is right it can be served as a consomme'( it does stand alone, it is that good).

Additional Notes:

One of the best natural flavors in the animal kingdom is duck fat. The French have known this for a long time.When you bone out the breasts, you may either remove the breast skin w/ the fat( just under it), or leave it on. When grilling then, the trick is to get that skin crispy w/o over cooking the breast, and believe me, you do not want that breast grilled past medium because it is a waste of exquisite texture and flavor.It melts in your mouth.

If you remove the skin, which I often do, you will either want to fry it ( the skin) on med low preferably in a black cast iron pan( or roast it in the oven) to get all the fat out of it so you can make a roux w/ flour to thicken your sauce. Duck fat is better than butter.Way better. A bonus is the skin "cracklins" that remain. You will want to save the fat that will be on the top of the stock pot too, either by skimming it w/ a spoon or ladle, or by cooling it. When you cool it, the fat congeals on top, and is then easy to gather.

Why so involved? It seems like a lot of work, time, and method. Because duck is worth it. It is that good. More about duck next time.

A Loaf of Bread, A Bowl of Stew

It was a pleasure to prepare and eat a simple stew of potatoes, carrots, onions and celery, seasoned w/ sea salt and black pepper, thyme( light), garlic( light) and bayleaf. A couple of bouillon(chicken) cubes, too.

It was the beginning of two different stews - broth based, unthickened - one of chicken for my 10 yr old daughter, and one of fish for me. I slow roasted a chicken breast to add to one, and poached some northern pike to add to the other - the meats are kept separate on plates to be added to the respective stew bowls. I added milk and a generous pat of butter to mine - which was modelled after the famous Finnish fish stew - and fresh ground allspice as a distinctive garnish and flavor.

Allspice is a spice/flavor usually associated w/ Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines( curries), and is quite exotic for a simple Nothern European( midwest) influenced stew. It is the perfect addition, adding intrigue and another level of flavor. Gosh it was good. Deeply satisfying in it's simplicity of broth and vegetables, and nice clean whitefish. Butter was the clincher, the winning fieldgoal.

So it was a great way to satisfy two tastes - mine and my daughter's.

Two cups 1 inch diced potatoes, 1 cup carrots, 1 cup onions, 1 cup celery( all in one half inch dice), just covered w/ water - gently boil w/ seasonings until vegetables are tender. Cook meat and fish ( seasoned or unseasoned) separately. So simple and good. Dunk w/ rustic whole wheat bread w/ butter. When you are eating this simple and healthy it is ok to eat butter. God bless you and your appetite.