Fare Exchange: Going to Korea for cuisine, plus quiche, baked onions

bakery background
bakery background

To reach us

Fare Exchange is a longtime meeting place for people who love to cook and love to eat. We welcome both your recipes and your requests. Be sure to include precise instructions for every recipe you send. Mailing address: Jane Henegar, 913 Mount Olive Road, Lookout Mountain, GA 30750 E-mail: chattfare@gmail.com

photo Jane Henegar

A Wednesday welcome to you, readers. Janice Locke of Rock Spring, Ga., gets the conversation going with requests for homemade vanilla ice cream and also for canine delicacies: biscuits for dogs.

Ms. Locke wrote to ask for Mrs. Boxell's homemade vanilla ice cream, a recipe she believes was published locally years ago. Once you try it, she promises, "You will never go back. I think you could add three cans of chocolate syrup for a different version."

QUICHE, PLEASE

Not just any old quiche, said you: We want a light and fluffy one. Sabrina Daniel responded with several in the Light and Fluffy category. The first one she credits to Karen Davis of First Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga.

Quiche Lorraine

Pastry for 1 pie shell

6 slices bacon

1/2 cup sliced onion

1 tablespoon bacon fat

1/4 pound natural Swiss cheese, diced

4 eggs, beaten

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Roll out pastry to a 12-inch circle and fit into 9-inch pie pan. Make a high collar and flute it. Cover inside of shell with waxed paper, fill shell with rice or dried beans. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove rice or beans and paper and allow to cool.

Fry bacon until crisp; drain and crumble. Sauté onion in bacon fat until transparent. Put diced cheese, crumbled bacon and onion in pastry shell.

Combine eggs, milk, cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Pour into shell. Bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Reduce oven to 350 degrees; bake 10-15 minutes longer until knife inserted halfway between center and edge comes out clean. Let stand 10-15 minutes before cutting into 6 to 8 pieces.

KOREAN CUISINE

Lynn Carroll carries with her some authoritative ideas for simple Korean food. She wrote, "I lived on the 'economy' in Korea from 1967 to 1971, working for the U.S. government. Here are two simple everyday dishes we enjoyed.

"In Korea cooks put MSG in most dishes, but I didn't include because I don't use MSG. Both dishes are vegan since meat was scarce and not affordable for the middle-class at that period of Korean history.

"The eggplant recipe can easily have browned ground beef or browned ground pork added to stuffing if desired. I'm a little vague on oven time/temperature because no one had ovens there. We just baked on covered charcoals. The eggplant recipe can be easily wrapped in foil and cooked on the grill."

Sa Gum Chee (Spinach)

6 whole green onions, chopped

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 bunch or bag whole spinach (if pink roots are attached, leave on)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce, to taste

2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds

Couple of pinches red pepper flakes, if desired

Constantly stirring in large skillet, sauté green onion in sesame oil 1 minute. Add spinach, sugar, soy sauce. Cook only until spinach is wilted. Add sesame seeds and red pepper. Serve as a vegetable side with rice.

Requests

* Homemade vanilla ice cream* Biscuits for dogs

Ka Gee Jin (Stuffed Asian Eggplant)

4 purple Asian eggplants

1 cup chopped green onion

1/2 chopped onion

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

3 teaspoon sesame oil

1 cup cooked meat, optional

2 eggs, beaten

Sesame oil

Leaving stem on, slit washed eggplants lengthwise to make a deep pocket. Scoop out eggplant, leaving skin as a pouch. Chop scooped eggplant and mix with other ingredients except eggs. Sauté in large skillet with small amount of sesame oil just until eggplant begins to soften and all is well mixed (Add cooked meat here if desired). Add eggs. Let sauté; cool until mixture can be easily handled. Then fill each eggplant pocket, packing firmly. Rub skin of eggplant with sesame oil. Make patties of any extra mixture and place between eggplants on oiled baking pan. Bake at 325 F for about 20 minutes, until egg is cooked and filling has set.

Makes 4 servings. Serve with kimchi and raw grated carrots mixed with any chopped fruit available.

MACAROONS

An anonymous Exchanger sent several pages from Betty Crocker's 1950 cookbook. The first recipe calls for dropping macaroons on "wrapping paper," but substitute parchment paper. Note that his macaroon recipe includes directions for homemade almond paste.

Almond Macaroons

1 pound almond paste (purchased or homemade; recipe follows)

2 cups sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons Gold Medal flour

2/3 cup sifted confectioner's sugar

2/3 cup egg whites, unbeaten

Soften almond paste with hands. Work in sugar, salt, flour, sugar and egg whites.

Drop teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart on ungreased wrapping paper on baking sheet. Pat tops lightly with fingers dipped in cold water. Bake in a 325-degree oven until set and delicately browned, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove from paper.

Makes about 5 dozen 2-inch macaroons.

Almond Paste

2 cups blanched almonds

1 1/2 cups sifted confectioners sugar

1/4 cup egg whites

2 teaspoons almond extract

Grind almonds thoroughly dried (not toasted) through finest knife of food grinder. (A food processor should work here.) Then grind twice more. Mix in confectioner's sugar. Blend in egg whites and almond extract. Mold into ball.

Let age in tightly covered container in refrigerator at least 4 days.

Note: Remove paper with baked macaroons still on it. Lay a wet towel on the hot baking sheet. Place paper of macaroons on towel and let stand 1 minute. Steam will loosen macaroons. Slip off with spatula.

ONIONS FROM THE OVEN

Also from that 1950 cookbook, our anonymous correspondent included a recipe for baking onions, and then stuffing them.

Stuffed Baked Onions

Large onions

Mushroom or cheese sauce, prepared or homemade

Buttered bread crumbs

Cook onions in boiling salted water until slightly tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and cool.

Cut thin slices from root end. Hollow out centers, leaving 1/2 shell. Chop centers and combine with mushroom or cheese sauce, or a creamed meat mixture. Use to fill onion shells. Top with buttered crumbs. Bake 1 hour in 325-degree oven.

That's what's fare today. Thank you all for coming.

Upcoming Events