Gone With the Wind

.... recipes long gone with the wind...

I have a smudged little metal recipe card holder. You probably have one too. Mine started the week I got married, when friends and my family and my new family all wrote out cards for me of their favorite recipes. It grew and grew over the years.

Some people write diaries. I write recipe cards. I do it to preserve a recipe to try later, to remember people or meals, and flipping back through them is much like reading a diary if I had written one.

Except there are cards I can’t remember where they came from. Like the one for Clam Souffle (souffle palourde) with its Sherried Red Clam Sauce to serve with it. I have another almost identical one, a total mystery, for a tuna souffle with a caper hollandaise sauce. Who gave me that? Where did it come from?

Tears suddenly erupt when I come across some cards because they hold so many happy memories. The one that my mother-in-law gave me, for instance. She would make the most amazing chicken liver mousse, then mold it with her hands into the shape of a pineapple, crown it with the top of a real pineapple, and stick it all over with little toothpicks holding a chunk of pineapple, a chunk of cheese, or a chunk of curled salami. In those days, by her pool, during cocktail hour, it seemed a work of art and sheer genious. I remember we wore caftans then and teased our hair very full and high.

Most if not all are recipes long gone with the wind. Not considered chic or healthy or taking way too long to make. Aspics don’t cut it anymore. Especially a tomato one smothered in mayonnaise. Nor does creamed chipped beef on toast. Or my father’s flaming baked alaska with homemade ice cream.

So, to do them one last honor, I thought I would share a couple of my favorite gone with the wind recipes with you. I promise they will not bore you. On the contrary, these are fun and have stories to them and you may never come across them again!

Number One: Papillote de Perche en Choucroute

Yes, this translates to fish wrapped in sauerkraut, and it came from a lovely friend long ago who grew up in Alsace. The unlikely pairing is a revelation and absolutely delicious and surprising. I think you will really like it! It is in French, so I will give it to you the way I make it. I never saw her again. The night that she served it, she decided to divorce her husband and go back home, to Alsace, where they cook fish with sauerkraut.

Ingredients:

800 grams choucroute (I use 4 cups of good store-bought sauerkraut made with white wine)

700 to 800 grams filet of perch (I ask for 4 filets of red snapper or flounder or fluke)

4 tranches de truite fumée (4 slices of smoked trout but I usually use 4 slices of smoked salmon)

4 cl. de vin blanc sec (I use 1/2 cup dry white wine or Alsatian white wine or Rieslin)

4 cl de creme fraiche (I use 1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream)

1/2 boite de persil (I use 1/2 bunch fresh parsley, leaves only, minced)

1/2 boite de ciboulette (I use 1/2 bunch fresh chives, minced)

sel, poivre

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Cut 4 large pieces of aluminum foil, appx. 11x11 inches and turn up their edges.

In a bowl, mix together the sauerkraut and wine. Divide evenly between the 4 pieces of aluminum foil. Lay on top a slice of smoked salmon (or smoked trout), then the white fish filet and generously sprinkle with salt and pepper. Divide the parsley and chives on top of each fish, then divide the creme fraiche or sour cream on top.

Carefully close up the aluminum foil packages around the fish to seal, place on a baking tray in the oven, and bake for 20 minutes.

Serve in the foil packets and enjoy!

Number Two: Ritz Cracker Pie

Before Crack Pie, there was Ritz Cracker Pie. In fact, Milk Bar’s founder would probably love Ritz Cracker Pie. The recipe probably originally came off the back of the box, but just the mention of it appearing for dessert after dinner would have us all anxious for the end of the meal. What the heck was in it? Here you go!

Ingredients:

20 Ritz crackers (rolled, not too fine)

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 egg whites, room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 pint heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

chocolate bar to shave for garnish

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease a pie plate.

Add the baking powder to the Ritz crackers and mix well.

Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add 1 cup sugar and gradually continue to beat until very stiff. Gently fold in the vanilla extract.

Gently fold the cracker mixture into the egg white mixture. Gently spoon into the pie plate and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave in the oven for 20 minutes with the oven door open.

Meanwhile beat the cream and sugar together until medium stiff. When the pie comes out of the oven, spread the whipped cream over the top and shave chocolate over it before serving.

Note: some people add in finely chopped pecans or walnuts before baking the pie.

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