American Cuisine : Pumpkin Pie (Repost from 05 November 2009)

One of the great things I love about the fall season (North American term for autumn) is the food! One of my favorite desserts this time of year is the classic all-American pumpkin pie. This dessert can be traditionally served for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/7733/classic-pumpkin-pie-with-pecan-and-maple-cream

Classic Pumpkin Pie with Pecan & Maple Cream

550g piece pumpkin , peeled and cut into chunks

500g pack shortcrust pastry (la pâte brisée)

175g light muscovado sugar (la vergeoise)

2 eggs

142ml pot double cream (la crème fraîche épaisse)

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp allspice (le piment de Jamaïque)

1 tsp ground ginger

small grating of nutmeg

 

For the Pecan & Maple Cream

142ml tub double cream

5 tbsp maple syrup

25g pecans , finely chopped

Method

Place the pumpkin pieces in a large microwaveable bowl. Cover, then cook on High (850W) for 15 mins or until soft. Tip into a colander to drain, then leave to cool.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to the thickness of a £1 coin so it's wide enough to line a 25cm tart tin. Ease the pastry into the case, making sure there's an overhang, then chill for 30 mins. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Line the case with foil and baking beans, then bake for 15-20 mins. Remove foil and beans, then cook for a further 10 mins until the pastry is golden. Turn oven down to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3.

Meanwhile, place pumpkin, sugar, eggs, cream and spices in a food processor, then blend until smooth. Pour into the baked pastry case, then bake for 1 hr until the filling has puffed up in the centre (it will sink as it cools). Remove from tin, then leave to cool.

Whip the cream with the maple syrup until thickened, then fold in the pecans. Serve spoonfuls of the cream with slices of the pie.

American Cuisine : Angel Food Cake

I made this the other day for one of my classes and I promised to put up the recipe for them. You’ll have to look up any vocabulary yourself.

This is a traditional American sponge cake like the French génoise that became popular at the end of the 19th century. It’s very sweet, light and airy; a true “food of the angels.”

The cake is usually made in a special angel food cake pan that is a tall, round pan with a tube in the center. Some pans have little “feet” on the rim so that you can turn the cake over to cool. Otherwise, the pan is usually turned upside down on the neck of a bottle while the cake cools. The pan normally has a removable bottom that helps to remove the cake after it has cooled for a couple of hours.

Such a pan may be hard to find in France but other tube pans can work too. However be aware, if you use a pan that has a decorative bottom or side, the cake may have trouble coming out and stick to the sides because the sides of the pan are not buttered or oiled!!

Angel Food Cake

recipe taken and adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

The cake can be served plain, dusted with confectioners’ sugar, drizzled with a glaze, or served with fresh fruit, a coulis and whipped cream!

93g flour + 1 tablespoon of cornstarch (such as Maizena)

298 g sugar (divided in half)

12 to 14 egg whites, at room temperatures (420/425ml)

1 teaspoon cream of tartar (le bitartrate de potassium)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1. Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 163°C. Line the bottom of a large tube pan with cooking paper but do not grease. Whisk the flour and the first half of the sugar together in a medium bowl and set aside.

2. Whip the egg whites in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until foamy. Whip in the cream of tartar and salt until the whites form very soft, billowy mounds. Increase the speed to medium and beat in the last half of sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until the whites are shiny and form soft peaks. Beat in the lemon juice and extracts.

3. Sift 1/4 cup of the floor mixture over the egg whites, then gently fold in (not stirring!) using a large rubber spatula. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture, 1/4 cup at a time (about 6 more times).

4. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, then rap the pan on the counter several times to settle the batter. Wipe any drops of batter off the sides of the pan. Bake until the cake is golden brown, and the top springs back when pressed firmly, 50 to 60 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through baking.

5. Invert the tube pan over a standard kitchen funnel or the neck of a sturdy bottle (or, if your pan has “feet” that rise above the edge of the pan, simply let the cake rest upside down). Let the cake cool completely, upside down, 2 to 3 hours.

6. Run a serrated knife (bread knife) around the sides and center of the cake to loosen. Gently tap the pan upside down on the counter to release the cake. Peel off the cooking paper, then flip upright onto a serving platter. Cut into slices, using a serrated knife.

To make ahead: After the cake has cooled, it can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and kept at room temperature for up to 3 days.

American Cuisine : U.S. Senate Bean Soup

Bean soup is on the menu in the Senate's restaurant every day. There are several stories about the origin of that mandate, but none has been corroborated. 

According to one story, the Senate’s bean soup tradition began early in the 20th-century at the request of Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho.  Another story attributes the request to Senator Knute Nelson of Minnesota, who expressed his fondness for the soup in 1903.

The recipe attributed to Dubois includes mashed potatoes and makes a 5-gallon batch.  The recipe served in the Senate today does not include mashed potatoes, but does include a braised onion.  Both Senate recipes are below.

The Famous Senate Restaurant Bean Soup Recipe

2 pounds dried navy beans

four quarts hot water

1 1/2 pounds smoked ham hocks

1 onion, chopped

2 tablespoons butter

salt and pepper to taste

Wash the navy beans and run hot water through them until they are slightly whitened. Place beans into pot with hot water. Add ham hocks and simmer approximately three hours in a covered pot, stirring occasionally. Remove ham hocks and set aside to cool. Dice meat and return to soup. Lightly brown the onion in butter. Add to soup. Before serving, bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper. Serves 8.

Bean Soup Recipe (for five gallons)

3 pounds dried navy beans

2 pounds of ham and a ham bone

1 quart mashed potatoes

5 onions, chopped

2 stalks of celery, chopped

four cloves garlic, chopped

half a bunch of parsley, chopped

Clean the beans, then cook them dry.  Add ham, bone and water and bring to a boil.  Add potatoes and mix thoroughly.  Add chopped vegetables and bring to a boil.  Simmer for one hour before serving.

Taken from http://www.senate.gov/reference/reference_item/bean_soup.htm

American Cuisine : Eggnog

Christmas just isn't Christmas without eggnog! Now, I know most of the French take one look at the recipe and they turn up their noses with disgust. However, this is a drink you just have to try!! You will be surprised by just how good this is. Eggnog comes in several different forms: cooked, uncooked, alcoholic and non-alcoholic. The recipe that follows can be modified to leave out the rum or replaced with another hard alcohol of choice.

(taken from allrecipes.com)

Eggnog

(12 servings)

950 ml milk, 5 whole cloves, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 12 egg yolks, 300 g sugar, 590 ml light rum (optional), 950 ml light cream, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. Combine milk, cloves, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and cinnamon in a saucepan, and heat over lowest setting for 5 minutes. Slowly bring milk mixture to a boil.
2. In a large bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar. Whisk together until fluffy. Whisk hot milk mixture slowly into the eggs. Pour mixture into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for 3 minutes, or until thick. Do not allow mixture to boil. Strain to remove cloves, and let cool for about an hour.
3. Stir in rum, cream, 2 teaspoon vanilla, and nutmeg. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

Cartoon : Trimmings

Trimmings is a strange word in English. In comes from the verb to trim meaning to ornament or decorate. For example, at Christmas we say to trim the tree. This means to decorate the Christmas tree. Trimmings is used to talk about all the the extra parts added to a meal to make it traditional or more interesting. This word is usually used for the festive meals of Thanksgiving or Christmas. In the United States, some of the trimmings you might find gracing the Thanksgiving table along with the turkey are stuffing (une farce), sweet potatoes (des patates douces), various types of casseroles (des gratins), mashed potatoes (une purée), cranberry sauce or relish, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and other various desserts.

For some American Thanksgiving recipes, go to:

Allrecipes.com - Thankgiving recipes homepage

Holidays.net - Thanksgiving recipes

Foodnetwork.com (Food TV) - Thankgiving and Turkey recipes

Taste of Home - Celebration recipes for Thanksgiving

Epicurious.com - Thanksgiving

Culture Spot : The Food That Kept America Growing

Although early Americans lived with uncertain harvests, their bountiful new land was amply supplied with finned (having fins), furred (having fur), and feathered (having feathers) fare. Indeed, one writer claimed that “game made the settlement of America possible.”

Some colonists suffered a surfeit of seafood. In 1622 the Pilgrims bemoaned the fact that they could offer newcomers nothing but lobster (some of which weighed 11 kilograms). And Captain John Smith observed, “He is a very bad fisherman who cannot kill in one day one, two or three hundred cod.”

In later centuries the abundance of game on the frontier was equally astonishing. On a wagon trip west from Missouri, one boy wrote that “frequently my father killed three deer (note: singular and plural forms are the same!) before breakfast.” Countless settlers made meals of the then-ubiquitous passenger pigeon. The birds (now extinct – in part as a result of overhunting) flew in flocks so vast that they darkened the sky. A single blast of buckshot could fell as many as 125. In 1736 the birds were so prolific that farmers fed them to their pigs, and city dwellers could by a half-dozen for a penny.

Those with more refined palates dined on the delectable canvasback duck – a treat praised by the hard-to-please English novelist Frederick Marryat. Describing the “countless profusion” at American markets, Marryat wrote that he had seen “nearly three hundred head of deer, with quantities of bear, raccoons . . . and every variety of bird. Bear I abominate,” he cautioned, but “raccoon is pretty good.”

Another observer, however, noted that a companion enjoyed bear meat “so passionately that he would growl like a Wild-Cat over a Squirrel.” Other native delicacies included beaver tail, moose (especially the nose), and terrapin.

Taken and adapted from Reader’s Digest Discovering America’s Past – Customs, Legends, History & Lore of Our Great Nation

American Cuisine : Classic Double-Crust Apple Pie

Reposted from last year:

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, here's a favorite dessert that graces many American dinner tables along with the famous pumpkin pie. Tart apples and sweet ones come together in this all-American favorite.

Crust

• 300 g all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 142 g chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1.5 cm pieces
• 102 g chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1.5 cm pieces
• 4 tablespoons (about) ice water

Filling

• Nonstick vegetable oil spray
• 795 g sweet apples, such as Spartan or Golden Delicious, peeled, cored, thinly sliced
• 795 g tart apples, such as Granny Smith or Pippin, peeled, cored, thinly sliced  
• 150 g plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon plus large pinch of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced
• 1 tablespoon whole milk

For crust:
Whisk flour and salt in large bowl to blend. Add butter and shortening and rub in with fingertips until very coarse meal forms. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons water; toss until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if mixture is dry. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Flatten into disks. Wrap in plastic; chill at least 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated. Soften slightly at room temperature before using.)

For filling:
Preheat oven to 200°C. Spray 23-cm-diameter deep-dish glass pie dish with nonstick spray. Stir all apples, 150 g sugar, lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and vanilla in large bowl to blend. Let stand until juices form, about 15 minutes. Mix in flour.

Roll out 1 dough disk on lightly floured surface to 30-cm round. Place dough in prepared pie dish. Spoon in filling; dot with butter. Roll out second dough disk to 33-cm round. Using small bottle cap, cut out ten 1.5-cm-diameter circles from dough for decoration; discard circles. Drape dough over filling. Seal top and bottom crust edges together; trim to 1.5 cm overhang. Fold overhang under; crimp decoratively. Brush pie with milk. Combine remaining 1 tablespoon sugar and large pinch of cinnamon in small bowl; sprinkle over pie.

Transfer pie to baking sheet; place in oven. Immediately reduce temperature to 190°C. Bake pie until crust is golden brown, apples are tender and filling is bubbling thickly, covering edge with foil if browning too quickly, about 2 hours. Cool 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover loosely; store at room temperature.)

along with	accompagné de
blend	mélanger, se marier à
bubble	bouillonner
chill	mettre à refroidir
coarse meal	grumeaux granuleux
core	épépiner, dénoyauter
crimp	crêper, friser, pincer
crust	pâte
dice	couper en dés
discard	jeter
dot	disperser
dough	pâte
filling	garniture
fold under	plier par en dessous
gather	ramasser, rassembler
grace a table	honorer la table
moist lumps	grumeaux humides
overhang	surplus
peel	éplucher
rub in	faire pénétrer, masser
seal	fermer, sceller
slice	trancher
soften	ramollir, adoucir
spoon in	garnir en utilisant une cuillère
sprinkle	saupoudrer, sucrer en saupoudrant
store	conserver
trim	couper, tailler
vegetable shortening	graisse végétale
whisk	fouetter
wrap	emballer

 

American Cuisine : Pecan Pies

Taken from : http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/5047/american-pecan-pies

Ingredients

FOR THE PASTRY:

300g plain flour

150g melted butter

50g caster sugar

FOR THE FILLING:

175g pecans halves

4 large eggs

85g golden syrup

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp bourbon

50g butter , melted

85g light muscovado sugar

FOR THE ICED BOURBON CREAM:

150ml whipping cream

2 tbsp bourbon

2 tbsp golden syrup

1. Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Work the flour, butter and sugar together with your hands until well mixed, then press onto the base and up the sides of six 10cm fluted tart tins. Put on a baking tray.
2. Reserve 36 pecan halves and roughly chop the rest. Beat together the eggs, sugar, syrup, vanilla, bourbon, melted butter and chopped pecans, and spoon into the tart cases. Top each one with 6 pecan halves, then bake for 20-25 mins until golden and set. The filling will rise up as it bakes, but will settle back as it cools. You can make these 2 days ahead and freeze for up to 2 months.
3. If you fancy a double shot of bourbon, serve the pies warm topped with this iced bourbon cream. Beat the whipping cream with the golden syrup and bourbon until softly stiff, then turn into a rigid container and freeze for up to 1 month. Serve straight from the container like ice-cream, or leave to soften for up to 15 mins for a softer, creamy version.

Make it bigger : If you don't have small tart tins, you can make one large one in a 23cm tin and bake it for 40 minutes.

American Cuisine : Make a Peach Cobbler (Video)

It’s the end of the summer season and probably the peach season as well but I found this nice, easily understandable video explaining how to make an American summer favorite : peach cobbler!! You’ll have to convert the measurements to metric and the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius.

Video of the Moment : Fried Coke !

I kid you not! This is a donut (beignet) that is made with Coca-Cola!! The creator of these donut balls seems to have kept his recipe a secret but if I happen to come across a version I’ll post it! But here’s a video showing you his award-winning creation for the Texas State Fair in 2006. Americans love their fried food!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Culture Spot: Maple Sugaring Time

Every April, the residents of St. Albans, in far northern Vermont, gather for a celebration that is repeated throughout the late winter and early spring in towns across northern New England: the annual maple sugar festival. There is much to celebrate. Maple sugar gives a boost to the local economy, a sweetness to breakfast tables throughout the country, and a lift to sagging spirits weary of the log, cold, snowy New England winter. In St. Albans, as elsewhere, local residents gather together to taste maple delicacies, to watch the sticky sap boil down to thick, sweet maple syrup, and to declare their faith that spring will arrive, despite the snow – still often measured in feet – and the bare tree limbs against steel gray skies.

Maple sugar festivals offer the chance to taste and rate the year’s crop, and they remind everyone that maple syrup is about more than pancakes: maple muffins, maple gravy, maple candy, and many more special treats featuring the sweet springtime sap are available at every festival. To byway travelers searching for a taste of northern New England, there is no better place than a small-town maple sugar festival.

LINK: Vermont Maple Festival

Maple Muffins Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease 20 muffin cups. Combine 188 g all-purpose flour, 135 g old-fashioned oats, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1 teaspoon baking soda. Set aside. Combine 2 beaten eggs, 240 ml heavy cream, and 240 ml maple syrup. Add dry mixture to egg mixture, stirring just until combined. Add 150 g chopped dates and 150 g walnuts, if desired. Fill muffin cups with batter. Drizzle an additional 80 ml maple syrup over tops. Bake 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out dry. Serve warm with butter. Makes 20 muffins.

Maple Cream Candy Place 475 ml maple syrup into a saucepan and boil  over very low heat without stirring until temperature reaches 112°C. Pour into a shallow pan; without stirring, cool to 43°C or until lukewarm. Beat until light in color and creamy in texture. Pour into a greased pan. Let cool; cover tightly to store.

 

Evening in a Sugar Orchard

by Robert Frost

From where I lingered in a lull in March

Outside a sugarhouse one night for choice,

I called the fireman with a careful voice

And bade him leave the pan and stoke the arch:

“O fireman, give the fire another stoke,

And send more sparks up the chimney with the smoke.”

I thought a few might tangle, as they did,

Among the bare maple boughs, and in the rare

Hill atmosphere not cease to glow,

And so be added to the moon up there.

The moon, though slight, was moon enough to show

On every tree a bucket with a lid,

And on black ground a bear-skin run of snow.

The sparks made no attempt to be the moon.

They were content to figure in the trees

As Leo, Orion, and Pleiades.

And that was what the boughs were full of soon.

For vocabulary exercise, use the dictionary links in the right-hand column to look up the words!

American Cuisine: Banana Crumb Muffins

This recipe comes from a www.allrecipes.com . A site I like to look at from time to time for recipes.

Prep Time: 15 Minutes

Cook Time: 20 Minutes

Ready In: 35 Minutes

Servings: 12

"A basic banana muffin is made extraordinary with a cinnamon-and-brown-sugar streusel topping."

Ingredients:

225 g all-purpose flour

1-1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1-1/4 teaspoon baking powder (la levure chimique)

1/2 teaspoon salt

3-1/2 bananas, mashed

180 g white sugar

1-1/4 egg, lightly beaten

90 g butter, melted

90 g packed brown sugar (la vergeoise)

20 g all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

15 g butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 190 degrees (C). Lightly grease 12 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.

2. In a large bowl, mix together 225 g flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 20 g flour and cinnamon. Cut in 15 g butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

4.Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

American Cuisine: A History of Creole and Cajun Food in Louisiana

This comes directly from Voice of America. The direct link to this article can be found HERE.

MP3 Download (MP3) (Right click and choose “enregistrer la cilble sous..”)

A History of Creole and Cajun Food in Louisiana

Also: A listener question about crocodiles and alligators. And three examples of Cajun music. Transcript of radio broadcast: 22 January 2009

HOST:

Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. This week:

We learn about the history of Cajun and Creole food and culture …

Visit some of the famous restaurants of New Orleans, Louisiana …

And listen to some traditional zydeco music.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

The state of Louisiana is widely known for its rich history, musical traditions, good food and fun spirit. Its largest city, New Orleans, is considered one of the best cities for food in the world. Many famous cooks began their careers in restaurants that offer the rich traditions of Cajun and Creole cooking. Before we tell about the food and music of Louisiana, Bob Doughty explains more about Creole and Cajun traditions.

BOB DOUGHTY:

We asked food writer and cook Marcelle Bienvenu to help us with the definitions of Creole and Cajun as part of our exploration of Louisiana cooking.

The word "Creole" refers to French colonists and their descendants who came to what is now Louisiana starting in the early eighteenth century. The roots of Creole cooking come from the traditional French foods these colonists would have made. They had to change their cooking to use the food sources that were available in the hot, wet climate of Louisiana.

Other settlers came from countries including Spain, Germany, Italy and England. The food traditions of those countries also influenced Creole cooking.

One group of settlers came to Louisiana during the eighteenth century from an area of Canada known at the time as Acadie. The Acadiens were from France and still spoke their native language. They were forced to leave Canada when the British took over.

Many Acadiens travelled south to Louisiana. The French and Spanish settlers there permitted them to speak their language and follow their religion. Some Acadiens settled in rural parts of the state. Over time, the term "Acadien" developed into the word "Cajun."

Marcelle Bienvenu says the cooking of the Creoles living in New Orleans often was and still is more formal and complex.

Cajuns living in rural areas made and continue to make hearty dishes like gumbo and jambalaya that usually contain seafood, vegetables, rice and spices. These are prepared in one cooking pot. Cajun cooking uses whatever foods are nearby and available, like crawfish, duck, alligator, okra, corn or tomatoes. Miz Bienvenu says: "When a Cajun cook is planning a meal, he or she simply opens the kitchen door and whatever is flying, swimming, walking by or growing in their gardens may well end up in the pot."

Miz Bienvenu adds that Creole and Cajun cooking have influenced one another. So it is hard to make set rules about their differences. One thing the two cultures have always had in common is a love of good food.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

That was "Cedric Zydeco" performed by the twenty-five year old musician Cedric Watson. Born in the state of Texas, Watson now lives in Lafayette, Louisiana. He is helping to keep the sounds of Creole and Cajun alive and well. We thought this energetic music would help us get in the mood to talk about food in the city known as "The Big Easy."

New Orleans has many famous restaurants that celebrate the best of Cajun, Creole and French cooking. In fact, the travel Web site iExplore recently listed New Orleans as the best food city in the world. Many food lovers would agree.

Visitors can start their day at Cafe du Monde where they enjoy chicory coffee and pieces of sugary, fried bread called beignets. Its main shop in the French Market is open twenty-four hours a day. So visitors have all the time they need to enjoy their coffee outside while watching the people walk by.

The family-owned Galatoire's restaurant has been serving fine Creole food in the French Quarter since nineteen oh five. Its specialties include Trout Marguery. This fish dish is named after a French cook who created a rich sauce containing white wine, fish stock, egg yolks and butter.

At Commander's Palace in the Garden District, food lovers can try American as well as Creole specialties including turtle soup and fish covered in pecan nuts. Two famous cooks once worked at Commander's Palace. Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse have helped make Creole and Cajun food popular around the world.

Antoine's is another favorite for French Creole cooking. This restaurant is known for dishes including Oysters Rockefeller and alligator soup.

Which brings us to our listener question from Vietnam. Khoa Pham wants to know the difference between alligators and crocodiles. Each creature belongs to a different group within the order of crocodilians.

The clearest difference between the two is the shape of their heads. The alligator has a shorter and wider head with a curved jaw or snout shaped like the letter "U." The crocodile has a pointier snout, shaped like the letter "V."

Also, alligators liketo live in freshwater, while crocodiles can survive in salt water. There are several kinds of crocodiles and alligators.

In the United States, crocodiles are only found around the southern tip of Florida. But alligators live in several southeastern states.

(MUSIC)

HOST:

That was "Dance Everyday" by Terrance Simien and the Zydeco Experience Band. Simien has been performing Creole music professionally for twenty-five years. Simien, his wife and others worked for years to influence the Recording Academy to create a zydeco and Cajun music award to present at its Grammy Awards ceremony. This music became an official Grammy category last year.

(MUSIC)

About two hundred kilometers west of New Orleans is where another star of Cajun cooking spent her career making delicious food. Barbara Klein remembers Eula Mae Dore who died last year.

BARBARA KLEIN:

Eula Mae Dore spent most of her adult life on Avery Island in Louisiana. This area is known as the home of one of the world's most famous hot sauces, Tabasco. Miz Dore worked for the McIlhenny Company which makes Tabasco for fifty-seven years. She worked in the general store of the company and also cooked for its workers. Her sandwiches became famous in the area. The food she made was so good that the McIlhenny family soon asked her to cook for them and the many important visitors to the island.

Eula Mae Dore grew up in a small town in Louisiana. Her mother died when she was ten years old, so she had to teach herself to cook for her family. She also learned by watching her grandmother prepare traditional Cajun food. Miz Dore never trained professionally, but she had an extraordinary skill with food. Many famous cooks came to Avery Island to try her dishes and learn from her.

Paul McIlhenny and the food writer and cook Marcelle Bienvenu asked Eula Mae Doré if she would write a cookbook. Miz Dore at first did not think anyone would be interested in her style of cooking and refused. But she later agreed to the project. Miz Bienvenu and Miz Dore worked for two years on the cookbook. "Eula Mae's Cajun Kitchen" was published in two thousand two. It captures the spirit of this special woman and her love for her native cooking.

HOST:

We leave you with "Chanson D'Acadie" by the band BeauSoleil and Michael Doucet. The group combines the sounds of Cajun, zydeco, jazz and blues music.

(MUSIC)

I'm Doug Johnson. I hope you enjoyed our program today.

It was written and produced by Dana Demange. To read the text of this program and download audio, go to our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

Join us again next week for AMERICAN MOSAIC, VOA's radio magazine in Special English.

American Cuisine 04: Eggnog (lait de poule)

Christmas just isn't Christmas without eggnog! Now, I know most of the French take one look at the recipe and they turn up their noses with disgust. However, this is a drink you just have to try!! You will be suprised by just how good this is. Eggnog comes in several different forms: cooked, uncooked, alcoholic and non-alcoholic. The recipe that follows can be modified to leave out the rum or replaced with another hard alcohol of choice.

(taken from allrecipes.com)

Eggnog

(12 servings)

950 ml milk 5 whole cloves 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 12 egg yolks 300 g sugar 590 ml light rum (optional) 950 ml light cream 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1. Combine milk, cloves, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and cinnamon in a saucepan, and heat over lowest setting for 5 minutes. Slowly bring milk mixture to a boil.
2. In a large bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar. Whisk together until fluffy. Whisk hot milk mixture slowly into the eggs. Pour mixture into saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly for 3 minutes, or until thick. Do not allow mixture to boil. Strain to remove cloves, and let cool for about an hour.
3. Stir in rum, cream, 2 teaspoon vanilla, and nutmeg. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

American Cuisine 03: Old Fashioned Gingerbread

Here's a recipe for the traditional American version of pain d'épices. This is an easy cake to make and the main difference in this version is the use of molasses (la mélasse) instead of honey. This product can be found in organic and health food stores in France. Molasses is a thick syrup that is the by-product of processing sugar cane or sugar beets into sugar.

Old Fashioned Gingerbread

(taken from allrecipes.com)

100 g white sugar 115 g butter 1 egg 235 ml molasses 310 g all-purpose flour 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon salt 235 ml hot water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Grease and flour a 9 inch (=22.9cm) square pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the egg, and mix in the molasses.
3. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Blend into the creamed mixture. Stir in the hot water. Pour into the prepared pan.
4. Bake 1 hour in the preheated oven, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan before serving.

American Cuisine 01: Southern Pecan Praline Pie

This is the first in a series of American recipes. Unfortunately, American cuisine is very much misunderstood in France; it definitely isn't McDonalds!! Hopefully this blog will help remedy these misconceptions.

In this first edition of American Cuisine you'll find the recipe for pecan praline pie, a true modern Southern tradition. Particularly in the South but throughout the United States, this pie often figures on the Thanksgiving dinner table along with the traditional pumpkin pie.

According to tradition, the French settlers in New Orleans invented this dessert after the Native Americans introduced them to the local pecan nuts. However, the process for refining corn sugar into syrup, an essential ingredient in pecan pie, wasn't developed until the 1880's refuting this tradition. In fact, research done to trace the origins of this pie found that no cookbook dating before 1925 has any mention of this recipe. The company Karo is primarily responsible for the popularity of pecan pie. Karo was and still is the maker of corn syrup and promoted this pie as a 1930's "discovery" of a "new use for corn syrup." In some areas of the Deep South, pecan pie is sometimes still called Karo pie.

Unfortunately corn syrup is very difficult to find in France but if you click on corn syrup above, you'll find a link to a French organic foods site that sells, albeit very expensive, corn syrup.

SOUTHERN PECAN PRALINE PIEChopping the pecans with a knife will produce a fine dust that can could cloud the pie. Instead, use a rolling pin to gently break the pecans into small 1.5 cm pieces. Be sure to remove the pie from the oven when the center is set but still wobbly; residual heat will finish the job.Dough (la pâte)157 grams all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting2 tablespoons dark brown sugar (la vergeoise)1/2 teaspoon salt113g unsalted butter, cut into 0.5cm pieces and chilled3 to 4 tablespoons ice waterFilling (la garniture)113 grams unsalted butter, cut into 2.5cm pieces150 grams packed dark brown sugar1 teaspoon salt3 large eggs180 milliliters dark corn syrup (le sirop de maïs)1 tablespoon vanilla extract2 tablespoons bourbon whisky300 grams whole pecans, toasted, cooled and broken into small pieces.

1. For the dough: Pulse the flour, brown sugar and salt in food processor until blended. Add butter and pulse until flour is pale yellow and resembles coarse cornmeal, ten to fifteen 1-second pulses. (To do this by hand, grate frozen butter into flour using large holes of box grater, then rub flour-coated pieces between your fingers until flour turns pale yellow and coarse.) Turn mixture into medium bowl.
2. Using rubber spatula, fold 3 tablespoons water into flour mixture, then press against side of bowl (if mixture doesn't hold together, add up to 1 more tablespoon water). Squeeze dough together and flatten into disk. Dust with flour, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 30 minutes or up to 2 days before rolling.
3. Remove dough from refrigerator and let stand until dough is malleable enough to roll out but still cool, 10 to 20 minutes. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 190°C. Roll dough on lightly floured surface into a 30cm circle. Roll dough over pin and unroll it evenly into 22cm Pyrex pie plate. Fit dough into pie plate and flute edges. Refrigerate for 40 minutes, then freeze for 20 minutes.
4. Line pie shell with two 30cm pieces of aluminum foil, fitting foil so that it hangs over edges of crust. Distribute 2 cups pie weights over foil, then bake until dough under foil dries out, 20 to 25 minutes. carefully remove foil and weights, then continue to bake until crust is firmly set and lightly browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove pie shell from oven and set aside. (Shell can be cooled, wrapped tightly in plastic, and stored at room temperature for 1 day.)
5. For the filling: Lower oven to temperature to 135°C. Place pie shell in oven if not still warm.
6. Cook butter, brown sugar, and salt together in medium saucepan over medium heat until sugar is melted and butter is absorbed, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in eggs, one at a time; whisk in corn syrup, vanilla, and bourbon. Return pan to medium heat and stir constantly until mixture is glossy and warm to touch, about 4 minutes. (Do not overheat; remove pan from heat if mixture starts to steam or bubble. Temperature should be about 55°C.) Remove pan from heat and stir in pecans.
7. Pour mixture into warm shell and bake until center feels set yet soft, like gelatin, when gently pressed, 45 to 60 minutes. Cool pie completely on rack, at least 4 hours. (Pie can be refrigerated for up to 1 day.) Serve pie at room temperature (or warm it briefly in oven), topped with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

AFTER-HOURS SOUTHERN PECAN PRALINE PIEThe extra bourbon in this pie will please the adults of the table.

• Add 2 more tablespoons bourbon to pie along with pecans in step 6. Proceed with recipe as directed.

Recipe taken from Cook's Country October/November 2005 magazine.