Welcome to a full fall exchange. JTW is looking for a recipe for "grilled fish and shrimp tacos." We are still in search of a Southwestern pork loin or pork tenderloin, as well as the very best granola recipe ever. Here, too, is an anonymous shopping request: "Where can you find kosher groceries year-round? I am looking for a particular matzo cracker."
CLASSIC SANDWICH
This week we continue to give you plenty of sweetness, but before the cobblers and the pies and the crisps, Janice Hixson offers another sandwich idea. This one freezes well, but should be served warm.
Or should it? Let us know if this recipe has worked for you when served cold.
Ham and Cheese Sandwiches
1 cup margarine, slightly melted
Jane Henegar1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 small onion, chopped
3 tablespoons poppy seeds
3 tablespoons mustard
1 pound boneless shaved ham
12 ounces grated cheese
2 or 3 trays of rolls (small dinner rolls, the kind that come 20 to a package)
Cream together margarine, Worcestershire sauce, onion, poppy seeds and mustard. Add ham and cheese. Using a bread knife, split rolls down the middle. Spread mixture between rolls. Cover with foil and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. These freeze well. Let thaw before cooking.
An aside: Reading about these sandwiches brought back a family memory of the late Mary Wright Payne, who dispensed these sandwiches and everything else with a generous hand. This memory prompted someone at our house to ask, "What is the point of poppy seeds, anyway, here or in poppy seed dressing? Do they taste at all?" If you have an opinion, do share it.
ULTIMATE PECAN PIE
Barbara Mann answered the pecan pie query with these words, "I have been using this never-fail recipe since I got my 1999 copy of 'The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook.'"
Is there a cookbook that succeeded this 1999 one? If so, what was the next one called, since Ultimate had already been taken?
Pecan Pie
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
4 large eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pastry for a 9-inch pie
1 1/3 cups pecan halves or chopped pecans
Combine first 3 ingredients; cook over low heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves. Cool slightly. Add eggs, vanilla and salt to mixture, and mix well.
Pour filling into unbaked pastry shell, and top with pecans. Bake at 325 degrees for 55 minutes or until set. Serve warm or cold. Makes 8 servings.
COFFEE, TOFFEE PECANS
Clifford Burdette described his pecan pie favorite as awesome.
Blue Ribbon Coffee-Toffee Pecan Pie
3 ounces (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter
3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
3/4 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup light corn syrup
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons bourbon (I used Jack Daniel's Black label)
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 to 3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup very finely chopped toasted pecans (optional)
1 cup flaked coconut (optional)
2 cups toasted pecan halves plus 8 for garnish
1 (10-inch) pie crust
1/2 cup English toffee bits plus 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips (or 1/2 cup crushed chocolate toffee candy pieces such as Heath or Skor)
Position a rack in the center of the oven, set a heavy-duty rimmed baking sheet on the rack, and heat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and cook, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter is brown, 3 to 5 minutes.
Immediately whisk in the brown sugar, dark corn syrup and light corn syrup until smooth.
Remove the pan from the heat, and let cool slightly.
When cooled, whisk in the eggs one at a time. (If you whisk in the eggs when the mixture is too hot, you will risk scrambling them.)
Whisk in the bourbon, espresso powder, vanilla and salt.
Stir in the chopped pecans and flaked coconut if using.
Sprinkle half of the pecan halves in the pie crust, followed by the toffee candy pieces and mini chocolate chips, and then the remaining pecan halves.
Pour the syrup mixture over all.
Carefully float 8 pecans halves around the outer edge, spacing evenly; this is for appearance and for a cutting guide later.
When it comes time to cut your pie, you will cut between the pecan halves, leaving the half pecan neatly in the center of each piece on the outside edge.
Put the pie on the heated baking sheet and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
Bake 25 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake another 25 minutes, until done.
You will know the pie is done because when the pan is nudged, the center of the pie will no longer wobble, but the whole pie will jiggle just slightly, and the filling will bubble at the edges.
Transfer to a rack and cool completely before serving.
The pie can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.
CRISP AND COBBLER
Janice Hixson and Holly Jones, both of Hixson, found amaretto desserts on another page in another Ronald McDonald cookbook, this one from the 1990 version titled "From Our House to Yours." Page 114 held both amaretto desserts. Is one of these the one Ann Stone sought? They are very close to last week's two recipes, and we will print them later, but for today, here are two recipes on that very same page, for those of you who want some taste variety.
Any Fruit Cobbler
Note: The assumption here is that you will use canned fruit, or a fruit that also has a little juice along with it.
1 stick butter or margarine
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups fruit
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Melt butter in a square cake pan. Mix together in a separate bowl the flour, sugar and milk. Pour this into the pan, but do not stir. Pour fruit over this, but do not stir. Pour juice from fruit on top. The flour mixture will rise to the top and make its own crust.
Bake in 375-degree oven for 35-40 minutes, until top is brown.
-Recipe from Lillye Scealf, "From Our House to Yours" cookbook
Apple Crisp
1 stick butter, divided
1 can of apples or apple pie filling
1 box yellow or white cake mix
Cinnamon
1/2 cup broken pecans
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 1/2 stick butter in a 9- by 13-inch baking pan. Add apples. Cover with cake mix, and sprinkle cinnamon and pecans over the top. Drizzle remaining 1/2 stick butter over the top. Bake in a 350-degree oven until brown.
- Recipe from Twyla Y. Gibson, "From Our House to Yours" cookbook
We've got a small stack of goodies ready for you in the next week or two, but we do both need and want contributions from the one who reads these words, whoever you are. So, please.
Requests:
* Grilled fish and shrimp tacos
* Southwestern pork loin
* Granola
* Year-round kosher groceries
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