Country Captain

One 2-3 pound frying chicken
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 Tblspns butter
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup finely diced onion
1/3 cup finely diced green bell pepper
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 Tbspn curry powder
1/2 tspn crumbled dried thyme
One 16 oz can stewed tomatoes, with liquid
3 Tbspn dried currants
Blanched toasted almonds

Cut chicken into small pieces.  Wash and pat dry, coat
with a mixture of the flour, slat, and pepper.  Heat
the butter and oil in a large skillet; brown the
chicken on all sides.  Remove chicken and add the
onion, green pepper, garlic, curry powder, and thyme
to skillet.  Stir over low heat to loosen the browned
particles.  Add the stewed tomatoes.  Return the
chicken to the skillet, skin side up.  Cover and cook
slowly until tender, 20-30 minutes.  Stir the currants
into the sauce.  Serve accompanied by almonds.
Serve over egg noodles or pasta.

Notes - 
When I made it the other night I used two boneless
skinless chicken breasts cut into chunks and then
cooked them as suggested.  I might use three or for
breasts next time.
As per your Mother's wise advice regarding sauce, be
it any kind, make three times as much as it says.  The
recipe is meant to present the chicken as the main
feature of the meal with a bit of sauce over it.  When
Susie made it she thought the "serve leftover sauce
with noodles" advice sounded better, so that's how I
make it too.

Enjoy.


p.s. from Jessica
These instructions are from Susie via email sent to me 23 February 2008, with further notes I added in an email to Maren on 10 March 2008.  That's just two days after little Jonah turned five years old.  He is approaching nine this coming March.  Time rules us all.
The first time I had this dish I was lost in the divine deliciousness of it.  The ingredients are simple and few, but the flavor is unique and powerful.  I have made this several times when we have company and plan to serve this to the lucky missionaries tonight.  
Love and miss you all.

Fresh Apple Cake

Mix 3/4 cup cooking oil

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

Mix dry ingredients and add to above:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

Fold in:

2 1/2 cups grated apples (try 3 large and see if that’s enough)

1 cup chopped walnuts

This is the original recipe with instructions to bake 1 hour at 325 degrees in a loaf or tube pan. Mom noted that if I wanted a 9 x 13 pan, I should double the above recipe. That’s how I always make it.

When I made this last time, I made sticky toffee pudding sauce to go over it. In case someone didn’t hear me say this, the way they serve sticky toffee pudding (which is similar to this apple cake but made with dates) in a lovely tea shop in Thirsk is you put the piece of cake in a large-ish shallow bowl and pour in enough sauce to come up the side about half way. This is how I like it, of course, but look at me! Shelley makes do with a few spoonfuls – but I ask you, what fun is that?

Sauce:

Mix the following ingredients and bring to a boil:

1 cup butter

2 3/4 cups brown sugar

1 pint whipping cream

This makes a ton, so if you’re not like me, you for sure would want to halve this recipe. Oh, it makes my mouth water just to think about this. Of course, you can serve the cake plain, as I did for 40 years, but again – what fun is THAT?

So, anyway, this is a recipe Janet got from someone in her first husband’s extended family, Billie O’Brien of Albuquerque. Mom was hard of hearing and said this part of Lee’s family was so amazingly soft-spoken that she could hardly hear a word anybody said. One of these people was, I think, Lee’s uncle. He seemed like a very nice, mind-mannered man, and Mom was beyond astonished to learn that earlier in life he had gambled away his family’s home. Can’t imagine. And what kind of person would collect on a gambling debt that turned children out of their home? We are SO sheltered.

_____

Shelley wants the apple cake recipe I made some weeks ago, and I tried to get into our family recipe blog following the link (as I have previously been able to do) that Emma emailed me. I got a message that said I had already used the link, or some such thing. So I’m sending this recipe to you all hoping that one of you will take a few minutes and post it on that blog. And if you can tell me how to get into it again, I would appreciate it.

SOMEbody, please, find a way to put this on the blog.

_____

I love the email commentary from Susie. Such heritage.

- Jessica

Double Layer Lemon Cake

This is actually a pound cake recipe, designed to be baked in two 8 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pans. I baked it in two 9" cake pans. The cake is dense and doesn't rise much. If you have two 8" cake pans, I might try that. Also, I may have overbaked the cake a bit (I'm not sure of that, though). I thought the edges were pretty crispy. So you might want to try a toothpick at a certain point, although you have to know what to look for. I always thought the toothpick was supposed to come out clean if the cake was done, but then I saw something on the Food Network where the cook said the toothpick would have some crumbs on it, but the crumbs will be dry when the item is done. Probably depends on the recipe. I found that the cake was better with softer edges the next day, so I would bake it a day ahead if possible.

Cream

2 sticks unsalted butter

2 cups sugar until light and fluffy.

Add five eggs (1 at a time, beating after each addition until incorporated).

Mix Dry Ingredients - with a whisk in a medium bowl.

3 cups flour,

1 1/2 tsp. salt,

1/2 tsp baking powder,

1/2 tsp baking soda

Mix Separately

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (from approximately 2 lemons)

finely grated zest from the lemons.

Add flour mixture to butter mixture in three parts alternately with the buttermilk mixture in two, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat just until smooth and do not overmix.

Divide batter evenly between two well-buttered and floured pans. (Oops, here it is!) Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50-60 minutes. (But remember that is for loaf pans and it will also depend on how hot your oven is.) Let cool a few minutes, then turn out on rack and let finish cooling completely before you ice the cake.

Frosting

1 1/2 sticks butter

3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 T heavy cream (I didn't have, so I added a bit more butter)

2 tsp. lemon juice ( I added lots more to get a good lemon flavor, then I had to add some more sugar to get the texture right. NO WAY 2 tsp lemon juice is going to make it taste lemony enough.)

1/4 tsp vanilla

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest (I doubled or tripled that amount)

Good luck! (You know, you've got to have the lemons [or just one lemon] for the lemon zest, but if you don't have enough for all the juice you need, you can use the Minute Maid frozen lemon juice -- not the stuff in the green bottles which is full of chemicals and is not good.)

Oh, and by the way, I really think this cake is better without the ice cream on the side. The cream cuts into the lemony-ness and does it a disservice, in my opinion.

All notes are from Susie, the master chef. This came directly form her email of the recipe.

- Jessica