Fare Exchange: Time to make cornbread, gin-soaked raisins

Good morning, most-welcome March readers. The readers who requested the following are still waiting for your answers, patiently or not. Who can supply instructions for coconut rice, power salads (Chick-Fil-A is serving its own version nowadays, and it’s good), and cooking freekah, farro, quinoa and couscous? We know the answers are out there.

STAR CORNBREAD

In answer to the request for Southern Star’s lacy cornbread, Lenora Perry found one that is “very similar.”

Lacy-Style Cornbread

1 cup cornmeal

1 3/4 cups water

1 tablespoon salt

Dash of pepper

1 small onion, finely chopped

Oil

In a bowl, mix cornmeal, water, salt, pepper and onion into a thin batter.

Drop by tablespoons into inch of oil in a skillet, approximately 2 tablespoons of oil per piece. Fry to a golden color, turning once. Drain on paper towels and serve immediately.

RICED POTATOES

Mary Zelle hinted that she now makes mashed potatoes without a potato ricer. She wrote: “Until I was about 50 years old, I’d never fixed mashed potatoes any other way.” I wonder whether her ricer, a kind of handheld press, might have broken. We’ve lost several that weren’t strong enough to manage the potatoes. At any rate, here is her riced-to-mashed potato solution.

Riced Mashed Potatoes

Potatoes, boiled

Milk

Butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Peel potatoes before boiling, or cook them in their skins and peel after cooking. Drain.

Put potatoes through the ricer and, when the bowl is full, add milk, butter, salt and pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

There is nothing easier, and these mashed potatoes have no lumps.

CUSTARDS

A day at home sent Roseann Strazinsky to her cookbook shelf to dig for boiled custard. She reported, “I found what they call soft custards in the ‘American Women’s Cook Book’ from 1939.”

“A custard is a mixture of cooked egg and milk, flavored. Custards are classified according to the method used in cooking them; those cooked over hot water and stirred throughout the cooking process are known as soft or stirred custards. Erroneously, they are known as boiled custards as they are not boiled. Those set in hot water trays and baked in the oven (oven-poaching) are firm and baked custard.”

Plain Soft Custard

2 whole eggs or 4 egg yolks

1/8 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons sugar

2 cups milk, heated

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Scald the milk in the top of the double boiler.

In a large bowl, beat together slightly the eggs, salt and sugar. Add the hot milk to the egg mixture, mix thoroughly and return all to the top of the double boiler. Cook over hot water, stirring constantly until the egg coats the spoon.

Soft Custard Variations

* Coffee: Use recipe for soft custard, substituting 1 cup of very strong coffee for one of the cups of milk.

* Caramel: Caramelize 1/4 cup sugar and add to 1 cup scaled milk. Follow recipe for soft custard, using this milk with caramel as part of milk and, in addition, using the full amount of sugar called for in the recipe.

* Chocolate: Melt 1 ounce of chocolate and add to it 2 tablespoons of sugar dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water. Mix thoroughly. Add this chocolate mixture to 2 cups of scalded milk and use as the milk in the plain soft custard.

Note: Ms. Strazinsky is “sure they mean Baker’s chocolate bars by the 1 ounce of chocolate.”

Serving Soft Custard

* It may be served in sherbet cups, frappe glasses or deep sauce dishes, garnished with whipped cream and pieces of tart jelly.

* It may be poured over fresh fruit.

* It may be poured over ladyfingers or sponge cake and may be garnished with meringue or whipped cream.

* It may be served as a sauce for most gelatin dishes.

* It is an excellent foundation for ice cream.

GIN AND RAISINS

Ms. Strazinsky also found some information from the People’s Pharmacy website about the arthritis folk remedy of gin-soaked raisins.

“To prepare this remedy, put golden raisins in a shallow bowl and pour in just enough gin to cover. Allow them to stand uncovered – or covered with a towel to keep out dust – until the gin is nearly completely evaporated. This could take from two days to a week, but the raisins will still be very moist. When ready, store in a tightly closed container. Do not refrigerate. Eat nine raisins a day.”

Now, let’s get to the science or experimentation behind the recipe. People’s Pharmacy explains: “Of all the remedies we have shared over the years none has received as much praise as gin-soaked golden raisins.”

One reader of that column reported, “As an active senior I was more than dismayed with increasing arthritis to the point of pain when I attempted simple activities. Aspirin and exercise helped a bit.

“I tried deleting the ‘reds’ from my diet, (meat, tomatoes, eggplant), taking ‘guaranteed’ OTC arthritis remedies (for which money was returned) and capsules with boswellia/turmeric/bromelain mix. Some easing occurred.

“Then I tried the gin-soaked raisins and I am pain-free and flexible once more. Fantastic.”