MAIN COURSES

For a small turkey or a whole breast. Prepare with brine or just salt and pepper it.

Dressing:

• 4 ½ C of thinly sliced peeled and pared apples
• 1 ½ C orange sections
• 1 ½ C chopped pecans
• ¼ C of plumped raisins
• ¼ C lemon juice
• ¼ C sugar
• 1 ½ tsp grated orange peel (no white pith)
• ½ C white wine
• 2 Tablespoons of butter, a little salt and some black pepper.

Mix well, cover and chill. Stuff the turkey with the mix, and truss it. Place it on a rack in a roasting pan, uncovered, breast down, in a preheated 325° oven. Baste often with melted butter. Cook for one hour, then turn the breast up.

Continue to cook for one hour longer, depending on the size of the bird, until the breast reads 160° and the thigh is 175° (or total 20 min. per lb.). When done set aside to cool, then refrigerate to chill thoroughly.

To cook the breast only: Bone the breast. Place it on a buttered foil sheet on a v-shaped rack in a baking pan, inside facing up. Lacking a V-rack, you can prop up the sides of the breast with crumpled rolls of foil so that the breast forms a cup to hold the dressing. Heap the dressing on, and cover lightly with foil. Cook at 325° for 20 min. per lb., basting with butter. Should read 160° in the thickest part when cooked. Let it cool, then tightly wrap the breast and its stuffing in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until serving time.

To serve: Prepare a salad dressing, such as poppy seed or boiled dressing, or a mayonnaise with minced herbs. Place the turkey on a serving platter and surround it with fresh fruit, such as plum halves, peeled peaches, grapes in small bunches, cherries, avocado, flowers and leaves etc., to make a Dellarobbia wreath. Garnish the platter with watercress, or other fresh greens. Serve stuffing on the side. The meat can be sliced and re-assembled to make the serving easy. Slice across the grain of the meat to make individual servings. This is a great buffet dish, particularly in hot weather..

• Four turkey legs or two thighs, plus two turkey wings (to enrich gravy)
• Two or three onions, depending on size, chopped
• Four garlic cloves, minced
• Two carrots and two stalks of celery, both minced
• Vegetable oil to cook the vegetables
• Salt and pepper
• 1½ cup chicken stock and 1 cup white wine
• tarragon, thyme, bay leaf,Worcestershire sauce

Sear the meat in a Dutch oven or large saute pan filmed with oil. When browned on all sides, remove the meat, then cook the vegetables until softened. In a separate pan make a roux, using 1 1/2 tablespoons of flour and a tablespoon of butter. Cook to a light brown. Add a little stock to make a paste, then slowly dissolve the roux paste with one and one half cups of stock and one cup of white wine, whisking all the while. Add ½ teaspoon of dried tarragon, ½ teaspoon of powdered thyme, ½ teaspoon of powdered bay leaf, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper to taste.

Return the meat to the pot and bring to a simmer, then immediately turn down the fire to a low simmer. Cook for one hour or more, covered, until the meat is very tender. Alternately, cook in a low oven (250°) for about an hour and a half.

When it is all cooked, take out the meat and decant the gravy into a processor or blender. Let it rest so that the fat rises and can be removed. Blend the gravy to make it smooth.

Optionally, it can be enriched with pre-cooked small onions, mushrooms, celery slices, carrot slices, potato, etc., in order to make it into a traditional stew.

Serve with rice, non -sweet waffles or wide noodles. Garnish with chopped parsley. Cranberry jelly and chutney go well with this concoction. Dumplings, poached in stock and finished in the sauce, are an excellent accompaniment.

Cook an onion and a stalk of celery, minced, in very little butter and oil.

Bone and chop the leftover Thanksgiving turkey meat, add to the onions with just enough stuffing mix and gravy to make a wet hash consistency. Taste for seasoning and add herbs or salt as needed. Bake for 20 minutes at 350° to meld the flavors. This is served on unsweetened waffles.

Use the bones, skin and other debris to make stock, using chicken stock to cook it in for added richness. After a long, slow simmering strain it and use for gravies or gumbo.

A 12 to 15 lb. turkey. 24 to 48 hrs. before cooking, dry-brine it. This does not work if it is pre-salted, like Butterball or Kosher or any turkey that has “injected” on the label. Starting at the cavity, loosen the skin by carefully running your hand between the skin and muscle of the breast and leg parts. Ignore the back and any other unreachable place. Sprinkle the cavity with 1 teaspoon of salt with a sprinkle of black pepper in it. Rub 1 ½ teaspoons of salt under the skin of each breast half and 1 ½ teaspoons in each leg section.

Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate 24 hrs or more. Rinse off excess salt and dry well. Do not stuff the turkey until just before cooking – it will sour for sure. Save the neck and giblets for making gravy, but make the gravy first - then chop the giblets and add them to the stuffing. (If you have the liver, do not use it for gravy but chop it up and sauté it to add to the stuffing.) Stuffing should be as hot as possible when putting into the bird, then put it into a hot oven immediately.

If you buy a frozen turkey, allow three days for thawing it in the refrigerator.

Oyster Dressing—Assemble this just before roasting the bird:

Chop and cook 3 onions, 3 stalks of celery in one stick of butter, add ½ teaspoon each of powdered thyme and bayleaf. Cook until the celery and onions are soft. It can be made ahead and chilled, or frozen, then added to the stuffing mix.

Pick over 1 quart of oysters to remove any shell bits. Strain the oyster water through cheesecloth or a fine sieve to remove any sand or shell bits. Add some white wine or white vermouth to the oyster water and poach the oysters in it, for just a minute or so, until the edges get curly. Cover and refrigerate. Save the poaching liquid. This is done the day before the turkey cooking.

Other ingredients needed are: 1/2 package each of Pepperidge Farm Cornbread Dressing Mix and Seasoned Dressing Mix, chicken or turkey stock to wet the dressing, 2 beaten eggs, parsley, green onions, chopped mushrooms, pureed garlic, melted butter, 1 tablespoon Worchestershire sauce, thyme, salt and pepper to taste.

It takes one package of stuffing mix to fill a turkey, but CC always wanted leftover dressing, so she would use both packages and double the other ingredients, and half was baked in a casserole.

To stuff just the turkey, coarsely chop the oysters, warm the onion mix in a large pot and add one half of the contents of each bag of dressing mix. Add the strained oyster poaching liquid to moisten the mix, It probably will be not enough to really soften it, so add some stock.

The dressing should be moist, but not runny. It will draw some fats and moisture from the turkey. Be certain that the bread has absorbed enough moisture. Cook the mixture briefly, stirring constantly, until it is well melded and heated.

Fill the turkey’s body and the space recently occupied by the neck, with the dressing. Use poultry skewers or sew the cavities shut. Rub the skin with a mix of 2 teaspoons each kosher salt and baking powder. This will help brown the skin and make it crisp. This may be skipped.

You are pretty much on your own now, since everyone has his own roasting method. The pork listed above is for barding the breast. Thickly folded cheesecloth soaked in melted butter is also a good barding method. Cook at 350°, 20 minutes per pound for frozen and 10 to 15 minutes per pound for fresh turkey - depending on the size. Be certain that the turkey breast registers 160° and the thickest part of the thigh 175° to be considered done. Check the dressing also, it should be at least 150°. If the breast is cooked before the dark meat, cut and pull open the skin and - with a sharp knife - scoop out the breast halves and keep them on a platter, covered, until the dark meat is up to temperature. Slice across the grain, reform the breast halves on the turkey and cover them with the cut skin.

To make gravy, use the neck, gizzard, and any trimmings, browned in the oven or broiler, to make about 1 quart of stock. Use chicken stock to simmer them, this will enrich the flavor-along with ½ onion, some celery, parsley, bayleaf and thyme - all minced. Cook for at least 30 minutes. To thicken, make a dark roux of 1 tablespoon of flour and fat and mix it with the strained stock. Pour the fat off the roasting pan and put the stock and roux into the pan and scrape up any cooked bits. Mix it all and cook, adding a little white wine, until it thickens and smooths out. Adjust the seasoning and strain. Chop the cooked gizzard, heart and liver to add to the dressing.

To be certain that there is enough stock, get some turkey wings and neck, roast them to brown and simmer in unsalted, seasoned water for an hour or so. Strain and freeze the stock until needed. The meat can be used in dressing, salad, etc.

Leftover stuffing was a great favorite. CC would make a pan of extra dressing, including the giblets from the gravy, minced, and some stock to moisten it-to bake with the turkey. (She liked a sandwich of cold dressing, cranberry sauce and cheddar cheese.)

Simmer the leftover bones, skin, etc. with onion, celery, etc. after the meat is picked off. Strain and use the resulting stock for turkey gumbo, a soup that includes leftover gravy, chopped turkey meat, a little stuffing (acts as thickener), slices of andouille sausage (or diced ham), and oysters (added 3 minutes before serving). Well seasoned with chopped and cooked onion and celery, thyme, bayleaf, Worcestershire, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper, it is both rich and soupy.

Put some rice in the soup bowls and ladle the soup on it. Sprinkle with minced parsley and scallions. Use a dark roux to thicken it if necessary.

Holiday turkey always reminded CC of the Thanksgiving visits to her Josey grandparents. They had the faithful retainers who cooked a turkey dressing that CC described as “slimy”. Apparently, it was mostly bread and too much liquid. You could duplicate it using Bunny bread or similar, with canned chicken stock, if you are into a perverse kind of nostalgia.

She also talked about the platters of fried oysters that were served after the main course as a savory. She would have much preferred them in the dressing of the turkey. The Josey and Shepherd families were both from Virginia.

This recipe is really intended for veal chops, but since the Food Nazis have made it impossible to get real veal we shall content ourselves with piggy. It works best with the dark meat kind of pork.

• 6 chops, shoulder, loin, or whatever you think will work.
• 2 onions, chopped.
• salt and white pepper, flour
• butter
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 4 apples
• thyme
• apple cider, juice or white wine, Calvados (or use apple jack).

Trim fat from the chops, mix salt and pepper with flour and lightly flour the dried chops. In a saute pan, sear the chops in butter on a medium fire, remove, and cook the onions and thyme. Remove the onions and cook the peeled, cored and sliced apples in an additional ½ stick of butter. Deglaze the pan with a little apple juice, hard cider or white wine, add 2 oz. of Calvados (or applejack). Return everything to the pan and simmer, covered, on a very low fire until the chops are very tender. Or it can be cooked in a 250° oven for about 1 hr., or until almost falling apart. Add the cream and simmer 5 minutes.

Almost anything a la Normande is basically onions, apples and cream. Chicken is superb this way, see recipe for poulet en cocotte.

Buy pans with metal handles, not plastic or wood, so that they can be used in the oven.

Brown pork chops in a generous amount of clarified butter, remove and add garlic, some white wine and chopped fresh rosemary and fresh sage. Cook for a couple of minutes to meld, then return the chops to the pan. Cover and simmer slowly for about ½ hour, turning once. Remove the chops, strain the sauce through a fine sieve, add a little lemon juice and finish the sauce with butter, added bit by bit.

To finish a sauce with butter, use about a tablespoon of cold butter per cup of sauce. Remove the pan from the fire and whisk in the butter, in little bits, stirring all the while. The sauce will thicken slightly and achieve a luscious taste.

Cook chopped garlic in olive oil until the garlic is very lightly browned. Quickly add thinly sliced leftover pork roast and cook it just long enough to warm it. Pour the garlic and oil on the meat to serve. It is worth cooking a pork roast to have this dish later.

This comes from a small restaurant opened by a barber, Jorge Rodriguez. He had a cook who also was a refugee from Castro’s Utopia. He made an incredibly good calamares en su encre and other Spanish dishes. Unfortunately, the restaurant did not catch on because in those days that was skid row. It is now the “Arts District” and has lots of chi-chi restaurants, few of which have food as good as that man cooked. Jorge moved to Jefferson parish and opened a very ordinary Mexican restaurant that prospered. O tempora, o mores.

Leftovers from the Pork and Milk recipe below are very good reheated this way.

This recipe is from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, a really great cookbook. I tried it with Boston butt and liked the result. It is all about coaxing flavor from the meat, with tenderness as a bonus. Diane and Jim cooked it and put their seal of approval on it.

• The pork
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 2½ cups of whole milk
• salt and pepper

If you use pork loin (about 2½ lbs), remove the bones, keeping the meat whole and adding the bones to the pot for extra flavor. The other cut she recommends is 2 pounds of Boston butt. Tie it with kitchen twine to retain its shape.

We use a small oval Crueset casserole that fits the roast snugly, but any thick bottomed pot with a cover will do. Put in the oil and butter and turn the burner to medium-high. When hot, add the meat, fat side down, and brown it on all sides. Salt and pepper and slowly add 1 cup of milk. When the milk simmers turn the heat to a very low setting and set the cover on slightly ajar. Cook, turning the meat occasionally, at slow simmer for 1 hour or until the milk has thickened. Slowly add another cup of milk and simmer for about 10 minutes, then tightly cover.

After 30 minutes, set the lid ajar again and cook until the milk thickens or resembles curds. Add ½ cup of milk and continue as before until the meat is tender to a fork. Add a little milk if necessary. The milk will have thickened into dark tan curds around the meat. Total time is 2½ to 3 hours.

When you are satisfied that it is cooked, remove to a platter and let it rest for 10 minutes or so. Spoon as much fat as possible out of the pan and deglaze it with a little water to make a sauce of the curds and fond. Strain and serve with the sliced meat.

These directions seem very complex, but the cooking is really simple once you do it and understand the method. It has been many years since we have had pork that tasted like pork. This method is magic. Be sure to use whole milk or it won't work.

This is something we all grew up with, except that it was then made then with veal rather than beef. CC talked about her grandfather Street’s family having this on the table every day, except Friday. That was fast day, so they had Redfish Courtbouillon. This was in addition to whatever they were having for dinner that day. They were creatures of habit.

The usual meat for this is beef round, thinly cut and trimmed of fat and odd bits. We use a lean beef rump or shoulder roast and slice it across the grain about 1/2 inch thick. Cut the slices into serving sized pieces, pound them down to about 1/4“ thickness and lightly flour. Sear the meat in vegetable oil and put it aside.

Cook chopped onion, sweet pepper, garlic, thyme, bayleaf, parsley, salt and pepper. Make a brown roux with 2 tablespoons of flour, add to the veggies. Put in peeled, seeded and chopped tomatoes or canned equivalent. Add one tablespoon of tomato paste and about 2 cups of beef stock. Return the meat to the pan, cover with sauce and cook on a very low fire until the meat is very tender, about 1 hour. Never let the meat boil, cook it at just a very slow simmer – no big bubbles. It can be cooked in a slow oven, 275° for about 1 ½ hour. Serve over grits or rice.

Grillades freeze well.

When searing meat, as in the above recipe, you want a good flavor from the fond. This is the browned bits left in the pan. Non-stick pans will not produce this so always use a steel, enamel or cast iron pan or casserole for this one.

The above (grillades) recipe, using a whole beef chuck or shoulder roast, is a daube in the Creole cuisine. Locally, the meat was cut like a thick steak and used for daube or pot roast. One can probably find something similar in Spain. Daube in France is a kind of pot roast, cooked in a daubiere, an iron pot with a lid shaped to hold live coals. This allowed the meat to cook from all sides. One can buy such a pot from cast iron pot makers, they are used in camp cooking.

When using tomato paste, add it to the pan when the mirepoix is just cooked. Stir it around and cook to caramelize it a little. This removes the sharp taste. There is nothing so acid as tomato gravy that is made with an excess of the paste. Yuk. Buy the tubes of tomato paste, since it is used by the tablespoonful. Keep it in the freezer or fridge and it will last forever.

Cooked with the same technique as a pot roast but has a more elaborate set of ingredients, being a classic French recipe. CC made this one quite often for Sunday dinner.

Marinade:

• 3 to 4 lbs. of good quality beef rump or shoulder roast.
• 2 carrots, 2 onions, 1 celery stalk – all veggies chopped
• parsley, thyme and bay
• 2 cups red wine
• ¼ cup brandy,
• salt and pepper.

Combine the above and marinate the meat in it overnight in the refrigerator.

Other ingredients:

• 1 cup of tomato puree
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 cups of beef broth or canned consomme
• 2 ounces of Cognac or Marsala
• 2 tablespoons of butter.

Dry the meat and sear it all over in the butter, set aside. Put in the drained celery, carrot and onion from the marinade and cook until softened. Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook to dry the tomato somewhat, then add the broth and marinade. Return the meat to the casserole and put into a 325° oven, covered, for about 2 ½ hours. Turn it over when half done.

Check now and then to be sure it never boils. Remove the meat and strain the vegetables, returning the liquid back into the pot. Puree the vegetables in half of the liquid, ladled from the pot. Return the puree to the pot, add the cognac and cook for a few minutes. Let it all rest for 20 min. and finish the sauce with the butter. Serve the sauce on the side. Slice the meat and put on a hot platter. Garnish with chopped parsley and a little sauce.

The best way to marinate meat is to put it into a plastic bag. It can be easily turned to get an even penetration. Also, it is one less pot to wash.

This is my show-off dish, and is the version that developed over time. After cooking it once, the recipe is not so daunting as it seems at first look. The ragout can be made a few days ahead.

1. Ragout: Cook a minced onion and stalk of celery in a little olive oil, when soft add 1 lb. of ground lamb (or lean beef) and cook until meat is grey throughout. Add 3 cloves of minced garlic, thyme and bay to taste. Mince one fresh mint leaf and a few oregano leaves and add, along with salt and black pepper. Add about a cup of peeled, seeded and chopped (or good canned ) tomatoes. Put in a tablespoonful of tomato paste for color and ½ cup of red wine. Cook on a low fire for 45 minutes, or until it tastes right. When it is all melded and tasted, add enough breadcrumbs to make it loosely thick.

2. Eggplant: Peel, thickly slice a large eggplant, or two or three small ones. Salt it generously and let it weep in a colander for 30 minutes or so – to remove much of the moisture and any bitterness. Rinse and dry the slices. Paint both sides of the slices with olive oil and saute or bake them. They should be quite soft.

3. The Topping: Use about 3/4 cup of Mornay sauce. Optionally you may add some sour cream or yogurt and cream cheese. Your imagination can work here. ( Fold in an egg white, beaten to a stiff meringue. It will make a soufflèd topping, so have a deep dish. This is also optional.)

Assembling: In a 9” souffle bowl or a ceramic or glass square baker, well buttered, place a layer of cooked eggplant slices. Cover them with a layer of the meat sauce, repeat until used up, ending with eggplant. Spread the Mornay topping on and sprinkle lightly with grated Parmesan or similar cheese and a few breadcrumbs.

Bake, set into a pan of hot water, in a 350° oven for 1 hour. Let it rest before serving.

This is something we had often, since it is a quick one and does not require a long list of ingredients. Plus, we all liked it. The beef can be cut into strips or cooked as scallops. It can be made with small steaks, but it should be a good cut of meat such as rib or sirloin, etc. The shape is up to you – just make it easy to serve.

• 1 ½ lbs. beef, a tender cut
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 1 minced onion
• ½ cup of sliced mushrooms
• ¼ cup of white wine
• a mixture of 1 cup of sour cream, 2 tablespoons of flour, minced parsley and dill, all brought to room temperature
• ½ cup of beef stock or canned consomme
• salt, pepper and a small pinch of nutmeg.

Saute the meat very quickly in a hot pan filmed with oil – the meat should be cooked to rare. Remove the meat, turn the heat to medium and add the butter and onion and cook until soft, put in a little salt and pepper and the nutmeg. Add the mushrooms and cook briefly (more butter may be needed) add the wine and let it reduce somewhat. Add the sour cream mix and cook, stirring, for a few minutes. Thin with some stock, as needed. Return the meat and reheat briefly, do not allow it to boil. Serve over wide noodles.

Made as above, except with small meatballs instead of sliced beef. Well done, not rare.

More than enough for four people, especially if one of them will be happy with the bone. This was CC’s favorite Sunday dinner, and it is her recipe. This frozen method results in a dark, thin crust and an evenly cooked, rare inside.

A one-rib beef roast, about 2 ½ lbs., bone-in, well wiped, tied if needed, salted and frozen at least the day before.

To cook, pre heat the oven to 400°, smear the frozen roast all over with olive oil mixed with black pepper and a minced garlic clove. Do not thaw. Stand it on the bone side in a shallow baking pan, using cleaned baking potatoes as bookends; or use a v-rack. Place in the oven and cook for 1 hour and 15 minutes for rare, 1 hour and 25 minutes for medium-rare and 1 hour and 35 minutes for well-done. After removing from the oven, put it on a platter, cover lightly with foil and let it rest for 20 minutes before carving.

This makes a good dinner, but its greatest virtue is that it provides us the wherewithal to make “roast” beef poorboys.

• About 3 lb. of beef rump or shoulder, etc.
• ¼ cup of oil
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 2 large carrots, minced
• 2 cloves of garlic minced and 2 cloves sliced
• thyme, bayleaf, parsley
• ¾ cup red wine
• ¾ cup beef stock (or canned consomme).

Flavor the meat by stabbing it with a knife and poking sliced garlic into the holes - 5 or 6 will do. It may discolor the meat, but don't fret, it is wholesome.

Pat the meat dry and dredge it in flour seasoned with salt and pepper and brown it in a casserole in the oil. Pour off excess fat and saute the vegetables, add the minced garlic, herbs, wine, salt and pepper. Cover tightly and cook on a very low simmer, about 2 ½ hrs, or in a 300° oven about 1 1/2 hr. Be sure that it barely simmers and does not boil. Check for tenderness and remove and reserve the meat. Skim off as much fat as you can, take out things like bay leaves and puree the gravy. Thicken it with with a roux or arrowroot, if needed. Taste and adjust the seasonings.

This is served with wide noodles, dumplings, rice, or just good bread.

The basic meat loaf mix can be modified to make many dishes. This is an area that allows you to create your own mixture and method of cooking it. For example, plain old meat loaf can be cooked in a loaf pan or it can be formed into a blob on a rimmed baking sheet. The last method results in more crust and less fat, because the fat runs out onto the baking sheet.

Try pulverizing a portion of the meat in the processor. This acts as another binder and helps in keeping the ground meat from cooking up too ‘pebbly’. The meat loaf mix that is sold in supermarkets is usually beef, pork and purported veal. This is a good basic mix. You can make your own mixes for various dishes, for instance beef and lamb (think gyro) to stretch the expensive lamb. Sausage meats, such as Italian sweet sausage, can liven up a loaf. One can also embed a cooked and peeled sausage in the loaf so that it forms a nice medallion in the middle of each slice, or use strips of long vegetables like cooked carrot or peeled sweet pepper strips. Be careful to not put the inserts all in one layer – the loaf will break in two when you cut it.

• 2 lbs. of ground beef or meatloaf mix (should be 2 beef : 1 pork : 1 veal.)
• 1 large whole onion and 1 stalk of celery- both chopped and cooked, with 2 or 3 minced garlic cloves added late in

the cooking.

• 3 slices of bread, torn or chopped to small pieces, soaked in 1/4 cup whole milk and lightly squeezed. Mix the

excess milk with the meat.

• Chopped parsley and other herbs, thyme, bayleaf, rosemary, etc.
• 2 eggs, beaten with salt and pepper.
• A small can of deviled ham added will help to smooth the texture and enrich the flavor.
• 1 tablespoon whole milk.

Mix everything together, except the meat. Fold the mixture into the meat, handling it as little as possible. The idea is to keep the meat mixture from compacting and toughening. The loaf can be put into a loaf pan or formed into a rectangle (sort of) on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil. Put some thick brown sauce or tomato sauce on top the loaf in the pan, or paint it on to the free-standing loaf. Bake at 350° for 30 minutes, or until it reaches an internal temperature of 155°. Pour off the fat and unmold, or pick up with two spatulas from the baking sheet.

These are made with the same meat mixture and cooked the same as meat loaf, with some cooked rice added to the mix to lighten it. The peppers are lightly parboiled to soften them after they are cleaned, then they are stuffed, stood in a baking pan, covered with enough light tomato sauce to fill the pan about 1/4”, then baked at 350° for 45 minutes to an hour. Check the sauce and baste often.

The peppers can also be stuffed with a cooked and chopped shrimp and rice mixture, along with cooked onion and celery, bay leaf, thyme and parsley and bound with breadcrumbs or a thick Bechamel sauce. Put them into a pan with 2“ sides, and crowd them so that they stand up. Pour about 1/2” of thin tomato sauce into the pan.

Place in a 350° oven to bake for 30 minutes. At the end of cooking, lightly sprinkle the tops with breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese and broil just long enough to brown the crumbs.

Use the same mixture as for meatloaf.

Brown the meatballs before poaching them in a sauce. This can be done by frying or by baking in a 400° oven on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil. Make them in large batches and freeze some for future use. The size is up to you.

Try the small, ping-pong ball size, it is the most versatile. Use them in tomato gravy with pasta or in beef Stroganoff instead of using beef strips. They can be poached in barbecue sauce for a filling party food, served on wooden picks. Hardly a new idea, but always popular.

Try ground lamb prepared with cooked onion, garlic and herbs and cooked as patties; it's really tasty when cooked on a wood fire. They should be somewhat rare inside or at least pink.

I made a couple of experiments recently, based on something I read, in which the ground meat is treated with milk. It seems to tenderize the meat and prevent the gritty texture that too often happens. I added about two ounces of milk to a pound of ground meat. The meat absorbed it and did not get soupy. It was rested for about an hour before being mixed with the other ingredients and being cooked. Seems to work.

We first went to Rome on our “honeymoon” trip, about 3 years after we were married. CC knew of a restaurant near the Piazza Navona that served Osso Bucco, and we went there to get some- my first meal in Rome and it was delightful. She learned to cook it and we had it fairly often. Most of it is made with beef shank now, and that thick, acidic red stuff that serves as sauce for all restaurant pasta dishes. (Ossobucco is eaten with rice)

In the 1970’s we stayed in John Hohnsbein’s apartment on the Corso, near the Piazza Venezia, while he was visiting his family in Florida. There was a wonderful small restaurant called the Abruzzi, just around the corner. I liked their whole baby veal shank, braised in a brown sauce and called stinco de vitello. It is no longer there. When John moved to Venice we found the Albergo Cesàri, near the Piazza Collona, as our hotel. It is still there, and considerably tarted up now. It is a great location. Do not go to Rome without first reading Georgina Masson’s guide to Rome, it is the best of all travel books. Read it even if you do not travel.

So much for the travelogue, here’s the recipe as CC made it. This is the Southern Italian version. The Milanese claim the origin and theirs is made with a kind of dark brown sauce, quite different from this:

• 4 slices of veal shank, about 1 ½” thick
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 carrot grated
• ¼ cup of chopped celery
• 1 chopped onion
• ½ teaspoon chopped rosemary; ½ teaspoon chopped fresh sage leaf
• 2 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 1 cup of white wine
• ½ cup of veal stock
• salt & pepper.

For the Gremolada:

• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
• 2 minced garlic cloves.

Brown the meat in the oil and butter, remove and add the vegetables and herbs to soften, then add the tomato paste and cook for a few minutes. Add the stock and wine, salt & pepper. Return the meat to the pan and simmer very slowly, making sure it never boils. It may also be cooked in a 300° oven. It takes about 2 hours to really tenderize, and when it is cooked, add the gremolada and let it all rest for 5 minutes or so.

Serve with risi e bisi, better known as rice and green peas mixed together. It is also good with orzo pasta – and peas.

This dish is best when made with fresh tomato and no tomato paste, it is much lighter. CC would usually do it that way in summer, when real tomatoes were available.

With some luck, you will find a lamb shoulder roast. This recipe may be done with a bone-in roast, although the original specified a boned and rolled roast. Most often now you will find the shoulder sliced into “chops”. This is to satisfy the barbecue crowd. Cuisine regressif. CC made this with the slices when it was the only thing available. She said that her mother had clipped the recipe from a Vogue magazine in the 1920’s, giving it now some claim to antiquity.

Cut 2 small peeled onions lengthwise into quarters; peel 6 or so garlic cloves; peel, seed and cut a tomato or two into chunks; string and cut a celery stalk into 1” slices. Prepare a bouquet garni of thyme, bay, fresh basil and rosemary by wrapping in cheesecloth or placing in a large tea ball.

Tie the boned slices together to form a roast-like piece.

Sear the meat and vegetables in a tablespoon of olive oil in a casserole. Add the herbs, salt and pepper, and ½ cup of white wine. Place a sheet of foil over the casserole and shape it to the edges, letting it sag in the center to induce the condensation to drip back and not escape from the pot. Firmly place the cover on the pot, heat it first on the stove and cook for two hours in a preheated 250° oven. Do not open the pot during cooking.

This is usually the smaller end of the ribs, those not made into chops. New Zealand lamb is generally smaller than the American-raised, and the American is more robust and flavorful. American lamb is available only in Spring and the New Zealand lamb is shipped frozen and is available year-round.

In our day, the New Zealand racks were cheap and plentiful and CC would cook them often. This is her method: Marinate the rack in a plastic bag with minced garlic, rosemary and thyme in red wine with salt and pepper. The salt will penetrate the meat and keep it moist. Use about a half teaspoonful. Let it sit overnight, at the least, and turn the bag from time to time.

Dry the meat, rub it with olive oil and put in a rack on a shallow pan. Depending on size, roast for 20 to 25 minutes at 450°, then at 400° for 5 to 10 minutes. This is for medium-rare.

The individual small chops can be cleaned of all fat, and the bone scraped clean, roasted as above and served cold as party food. They are called “lamb lollipops”.

Marinate as for the rack and, for a 2 ½ pound leg, turn the oven to 350° and cook for 20 minutes,then turn it down to 300° and cook for an hour – more or less. Insert a meat thermometer deep into the thickest part. (don’t let it touch the bone) It is done at 150° for medium rare. Let it rest outside the oven for 20 minutes before carving.

Mint jelly is OK as a condiment, but better is the basil jelly that CC made to go with lamb roasts. It is made in the same way as mint jelly, and it can also be made with rosemary, tarragon, oregano, or other herbs - experiment. Recipies for mint jelly are easy to find.

Quail seem to be pretty widely available in the freezer section now. Thaw for a day or two in the fridge. (Perhaps you will get really lucky and get some fresh ones. Let them age a couple of days in the fridge.) Salt and pepper the cavities and stuff them or just put in some garlic, parsley and rosemary. Pin or sew the cavities and truss the legs close to the bodies. Rub with salt, pepper and olive oil.

Make a sauce with a dark roux and onion, celery, carrot, turnip, thyme, parsley, all minced and cooked in butter. Add a little salt and some black pepper, bay leaf and rosemary. Put in enough chicken stock and some white wine to make a liquid sauce, then cook it down to meld and thicken.

Quickly brown the birds in butter in a casserole then baste with the sauce and bake at 325°, tightly covered, for 45 minutes or until they yield easily to a fork. (Test at ½ hour.) Take out the rosemary and bay, reduce the sauce if it seems thin. Strain or puree the sauce and finish it with a little cold butter cut into bits.

Do not have the quail swimming in sauce, something less than an inch in the casserole. Baste often, turn them halfway through cooking and add a teaspoon of brandy.

They would be served in northern Italy on a molded mound of polenta on a platter. Yellow grits is even better.

The quail can be stuffed like any fowl, but because of the shorter cooking time the stuffing must be thoroughly cooked before putting it into the bird. The favorite is cornbread stuffing with the addition of some chopped and cooked chicken liver, minced mushrooms and minced thyme and parsley. Moisten with chicken stock or drippings. Put some butter in it for texture.

Before going ugh and yuk and making other 5-year-old type noises, try this, it is really different and delicious. The gelatine in the pork makes the sauce rich and unctious, and the flavor is sour-sweet-peppery.

• 1 jar of pickled pigsfeet. (try a Mexican grocery)
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 stalk of celery, cut in 1” pieces
• 1 carrot,scraped and coarsely grated or chopped
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 4 ounces of tomato sauce
• thyme, bayleaf and parsley
• Salt and pepper as needed - taste first

Drain and rinse the pigsfeet, let them soak in water for at least 30 minutes. Cook the onion, celery and carrot in a little oil until they are soft. Add the other ingredients, including the pigsfeet. Add a little white wine (optional) and enough water to almost cover. Cook on a very slow simmer (or in a 250° oven for 2 hrs.) for about an hour or so - depending on the softness of the meat and skin. Taste a piece, it should be reduced to an almost gelatinous state and the skin should be very soft. Let it rest for a couple of hours and reheat to serve with white or yellow grits.

No idea of the origin of this dish, but it used to be locally common. It would not be surprising to find it in Mexico since it is much like their menudo soup. Like so many Creole recipes, it or close relatives can be found all around the Gulf of Mexico.

This was popularized by Kolb’s restaurant on St. Charles near Canal St. It was on the lunch menu every Thursday and would be sold out before one o’clock. It is now a popular home dish in New Orleans and it is reflected in the high price of the hard-to-find shanks.

In a casserole, brown 4 lamb shanks and remove. Cook 2 onions, 2 celery stalks and a carrot or two - all chopped. When softened, add about 1 ½ tablespoons of flour and make a brown roux. Add 1 cup of beef broth, ½ cup of red wine, bay, thyme, minced garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper. Add the meat, cover and simmer on a very low fire for an hour or more - or in a 250° oven for 1½ hr. or more. Test the meat, it should be separating from the bone and quite soft. Serve with potatoes or sweet potatoes and greens (collards, mustard, etc.). Traditional mint jelly is good with it, as well as chutney. Basil jelly is the best.

Fresh herbs such as thyme, bay leaf, etc., are better than the dried but the powdered kinds work quite well. For real economy, try to find a Mexican grocery. The spices are good and they cost about 1/10th of the McCormick prices. (I have seen a $4.00 price on a jar containing 3 bay leaves; I buy them for about a dollar for a bagful.) Vietnamese markets often have good fresh herbs for insanely cheap prices.

If you live in a reasonable climate try growing your own bay leaf. Make sure that it is Laurus nobilis and not the California variety.

Keep paprika and dried tarragon in the freezer. Many other dried or powdered herbs keep their flavor better when frozen.

To keep fresh parsley, place the bunch in a jar of water and put the jar into a plastic bag (the grocery produce bags are perfect), blow into the bag to inflate it and seal with a twistem. Keep in the warmer part of the fridge and wash before using.