Just finished 40 corn waffles to go with chicken fricassee

[yellerpup]

for our annual historical society Colonial Dinner fundraiser. Had to go to Costco between batches to get 40 chicken breasts for the main course. Last year we had venison stew, bean stew, corn waffles and chicken fricassee as main courses and they want to do the same thing this year. Although the mulled cider is out and ginger beer is in. Just wanted to check into my favorite forum and say :hi:! Hope you had a great Valentine's Day. I'm working part-time and working on a new novel, so I haven't been checkin in as often as I used to.... Miss you guys! Keep cookin'! :hug:

[Lucinda]

1. Sounds like fun! Happy fundraiser!

:hi:

[yellerpup]

2. I'm glad I get to go this year.

The leftovers were a big hit at the homeless shelter last year. :hi:

[Lars39]

3. I poked around a bit, looking for a recipe for corn waffles, and ran across this:

http://www.cornwaffles.com/

:rofl:

[yellerpup]

5. Whoa! 2 Cups of calf urine?

Not my recipe. Thanks, Lars39 for the research and the recipe from another planet! :rofl:

[Lars39]

6. You're welcome!

:D

[Tsiyu]

4. Okay my stomach is now growling

One of those Upstate NY dishes I totally miss is chicken fricassee. I can taste it just reading the words.

Good luck with your dinner and the novel :hi:





On edit: a recipe.

http://foodchains.blogspot.com/2008/07/french-comfort-food-chicken-fricassee.html

[yellerpup]

8. Thanks for the recipe, Tsiyu!

I adapted mine from a classic French cookbook. The sauce is so completely delicious! I adapted that recipe a bit, too, to add some color with roasted red sweet peppers (Caribbean influence on the colonies) and besides the color it also adds a hint of smoke. Pop in any time! Donadagohi! :hi:

[hippywife]

7. Wha...wha...what?

You just drop right in like that, talk about all this food and don't leave recipes. Humph!


























:hug: Have fun! :hi:

[yellerpup]

9. Here you go, gal!

Old-Fashioned Chicken Fricassee

To Serve 4

Cut up a 2-1/2 to 3-pound frying chicken
6 Tbsp. butter
Salt
Pepper
1/4 cup flour
3 cups hot chicken stock, fresh or canned
Bouquet garni made of 4 parsley sprigs and 1 bay leaf tied together
1/4 tsp. Dried thyme crumbled
1 small red bell pepper, roasted, peeled and diced or 1 small jar pimento peppers (not traditional, but yummy)
1/2 C. green peas (also, not traditional, but it makes a prettier plate, especially at a banquet)

Wash the chicken quickly under cold running water and dry the pieces thoroughly with paper towels. In a heavy 2-3 qt. Flameproof casserole melt 6 Tbsp of the butter over moderate heat. Using tongs, lay a few pieces of chicken at a time in the butter and cook them, turning them once or twice for about 5 minutes, or until they stiffen slightly and are no longer pink. Do not let them brown. Remove to a plate and season with salt and pepper.

With a wooden spoon, stir the flour into the butter remaining in the casserole and cook over low heat, stirring constantly for 1 or 2 minutes without letting it brown. Remove from heat. Slowly pour in the hot chicken stock, beating vigorously to blend roux and liquid. Return to heat, whisking constantly until the sauce thickens and comes to a boil. Then reduce the heat and let the sauce simmer slowly for 1 minute.

Return chicken to the casserole together with the juices that have collected on the plate, and add the bouquet garni and thyme. The sauce should almost cover the chicken; add more stock if it doesn’t. Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer until chicken is done. (when done, the chicken juices will run pale yellow when a thigh is pierced with a sharp knife). Serve immediately or allow chicken to cool off in the broth and refrigerate, covered.

When ready to serve, bring chicken and gravy back to a simmer until chicken is heated through then add the pimento and green peas.

Serve over Corn Waffles. (Recipe follows.)


Note for 2-16-09 Batch: I had buttermilk, so I added 1/4 tsp. baking soda to following recipe. I had about 1/3 C. of leftover creamed corn, so I used it without detriment. These crisp nicely, brown beautifully, freeze and reheat just great.


Corn Waffles

Makes 10-12 waffles

1-3/4 cups sifted unbleached flour
1/4 C. corn meal
3 tsp. Baking powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
2 beaten egg yolks
1-1/4 cups whole milk
1+ cup cream style corn
1/2 cup vegetable oil (corn oil would probably be good, today I used canola)
2 stiffly beaten egg whites

Sift together dry ingredients. Combine yolks, milk, creamed corn, and oil and stir into dry ingredients. Fold in whites, leaving a few fluffs. Bake in a waffle iron until golden and crispy.

[hippywife]

10. Thanx!

Sounds delish. I think I'd have to figure a work around on the canned corn so I can use the corn I blanched and froze last summer. Hmmmm. Do you put the chicken on the waffle or do you serve the waffle on the side with something else? Or did you already say that and my reading skills need a little buffing?

[yellerpup]

12. I'm not sure how they served it last year.

(We had a death in the family and I wasn't feeling very Colonial) I think they served the chicken on top of the waffle, using the waffle as a rusk or sop. My grandma used to can creamed corn out of her garden. I remember her scraping the corn milk out of the cob with the back of her knife, but I imagine that if you gave your homegrown a whirl in the blender with stock, milk, etc would work just as well as commercial creamed corn. I wanted to bring a native dish and offered grape dumplings and fried hominy, but they looked at me like I was crazy so I came up with this. It was inspired by the fact that (even though the local Dutch settlers baked waffles all the time) Thomas Jefferson returned from a trip from France with a waffle iron and started a huge fad with waffles. I imagined what ingredients would have been available then put myself in the frame of mind of an ambitious, social-climbing colonist aching for Thos. Jefferson to come to dinner at my house and so invented this dish to lure him in. Supposedly, George Washington "slept here" in several spots around town before the British pushed him up the river to Yorktown. He slept around, but he never slept over -- if you know what I mean. He was the REAL housewife's (even the Tories) favorite!

[grasswire]

11. thanks!

Been missing you, yp. Is this your first novel? Is it about Grandma's cooking??

[yellerpup]

13. Hey, grasswire!

Good to touch base with you again! This is actually my third novel. I got an agent and a big bite on the first one, pitched #2 and was told we'd make a two-book deal by "August, September at the latest." I had the $200 lunch, I had a lot of fun with the starmaker editor and I spent the rest of the summer getting the first 50 pp. and synopsis ready for when the publishing world returned from the Hamptons at the end of summer. Just before Labor Day I sent it to my agent, she read it over the weekend and on Monday morning sent it by bike messenger to the editor. Unfortunately, it was delivered at 10:00 AM, Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Nine months later regrets were expressed with a note saying "no one is interested in the dark side of the American family anymore." I'm sure that will change some day, but not in time for my first novel. The one I'm working on now has a good description of a Cherokee hog fry in it, so yes, Grandma's cooking is always with me. None of my main characters have been particularly talented in the kitchen, although they always have a friend who can feed their soul. :hug: