The Blackhawk Creamed Spinach

 The Blackhawk Creamed Spinach

Berghoff Creamed Spinach

 

Berghoff Creamed Spinach

Strongbow Inn Bleu Cheese and Garlic Dressing

A Box of Matches from Strongbow Inn

Strongbow Inn Bleu Cheese and Garlic Dressing

Makes 5 cups

1 cup cider vinegar

1 tablespoon salt

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon oregano

4 cloves garlic, peeled

3 cups vegetable oil

Cheesecloth and string

1 cup crumbled bleu cheese

Directions:

1. Prepare a piece of cheesecloth cut into a small square.

2. Combine salt, pepper, sugar, oregano and garlic, wrap in cheesecloth, fasten, and tie. Use a

mallet or rolling pin to slightly pound the contents of the tied cheesecloth.

3. Place the cheesecloth bundle in a large quart-canning jar. Pour 1 cup of the cider vinegar

over the spice bundle, seal jar and allow spices to steep overnight on kitchen counter.

4. Remove spice bundle, squeezing out excess liquid before discarding bundle.

5. Add three cups vegetable oil to vinegar mixture to fill jar and drop in the crumbled bleu

cheese.

6. Store dressing in refrigerator and stir well before serving.

Submitted to the blog by Marsha Hinko Pedersen

Grandma Hinko's Borscht (or as close as I've gotten to recreating her masterpiece)

Let me tell you a little about my Grandmother. Sabina Sklar and John Hinko came over separately from the Ukraine. They met in New Jersey and married in 1913:

Sabina and John Hinko Wedding

In the Ukraine, the Sklar family worked as caterers; if there was going to be a big occasion, like a royal wedding, the Sklar family would arrive on the site weeks ahead to prepare the feast. So, Sabina is from a family of cooks.

Ask anyone whoever ate her cooking, they will roll their eyes and joyfully sigh as they describe their favorite dishes. When I invited family members to voice over old Hinko family movies and the topic of Grandma's cooking came up, there was spontaneous tribute to her culinary mastery. This is fifty years after the last forkful of her cuisine crossed anyone's palette.

As a young boy, I stood in her kitchen and watched her cook. She'd give me little odd jobs. If I had been four or five years older I would have been cooking with her. But it didn't work that way, she died and her recipes mostly died with her. That didn't keep family members from pooling scraps of information they had gathered from her in an effort to save the recipes. The borscht recipe is one of two or three that Hinko family members salvaged. And I'm happy to share it with you.

There are a couple of ingredients that will take some doing; one is the veal neck bones, very difficult to find (go directly to a specialty butcher) and if/when you do find them, they cost a small fortune. While making inquiries at the butcher, ask his or her advice on something you may use as a substitute. The point is to make a delicious stock. Second thing is the dried mushrooms. Some of those imported from Poland have the right flavor. Go with your most trusted source. If you can't find a high quality Polish import, do some research to find a high quality accessible source of dried mushrooms. Others preparing this recipe have had good results with dried porcini.

Stock

One pound veal neck bones, cook in 3 quarts of water and skim after water boils.

Add: 

One onion

1/2 Cup celery

1 carrot

Dried mushrooms

Cook for one hour or until bones fall apart.

OK, those are the 1971 instructions for the stock. I'll tell you what I did; I made more stock and then reduced it so I had a rich tasting stock. I strained, chilled and skimmed it. Then put it back in the pot and resumed the 1971 recipe:

Strain (already did that) and to the stock add 2 cans of beets, slivered or coarsely grate fresh beets.

Again, time out. I never once saw my Grandma use fresh beets. For good reason; you can't count on them. The flavor is all over the place and could ruin the soup. So I would definitely go with the canned, but if you are generally considered by your friends to be an exceptionally lucky person and you are determined to use fresh beets, go for it. If you roll snake eyes, it has the same effect that rancid pine nuts have on pesto--throw it down the drain.

Simmer about one hour.

There are two more steps:

--Sour Cream Thickening

--Dumplings

In the 1971 recipe, Sour Cream Thickening comes first, then it says further on down the page you should first do the dumplings. That's pretty funny. So I'm going to save you that dark comedic moment when you realize you've ruined the soup and run through the dumplings first.

Dumplings

Scrape meat off bones (if not enough meat, grind up boiling beef). 

Grind all meat in Food Chopper

Another note: The dumpling texture was a point of contention for years after the 1971 recipe was distributed. We all remembered the original and there was something about the methodology spelled out in the 1971 recipe that wasn't quite hitting it. Here is what I did; I scraped the meat off the bones, I added some additional meat. I pulled the meat apart with a couple of forks and then chopped it with a very sharp knife. I think this came closer to Grandma's dumpling texture.

Resuming recipe.

Add:

3/4 Cup flour

1 egg

1 Tablespoon water

1 Tablespoon oil

Salt

Mix: form into dumplings with hands, add to borscht  BEFORE sour cream mixture (now you tell me)

And then my mother hand-wrote on the flip-side of the recipe sheet, New Improved Borscht Dumplings

Pick meat from bones, grind with coarse blade of Food Chopper, pick mushrooms from stock strainings (I agree 100% with this, I'm certain my grandma used the mushrooms in the dumplings), Also grind one-half pound fresh mushrooms, mix with one pound fresh ground veal, 1 and a 1/2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 2 Tablespoons of oil, 2 Tablespoons of water, salt and pepper. Form into Dumplings with hands, cook in borscht for 10 minutes.

I know why my Mom is extending the yield; everyone always wants more of these dumplings in their bowl.

Sour Cream Thickening

1 Pint Sour Cream (the real 100% stuff, you do not want to cut calories with a variation, this is not a diet soup)

About one cup of water

1/4 Cup flour

Add flour to water, using enough water so it does not lump, beat in sour cream and add to rapidly boiling borscht. Stir until it thickens and remove from heat--do not continue to boil.

And then you eat it.

And then you eat pierogi, kielbasa, kapusta, cabbage rolls, potato pancakes, roast loin of pork, freshly baked bread, a minimum of six other dishes, followed by kolaczki and poppy seed roll and then Grandma fixes you a bag of leftovers to take home.

John and Sabina Hinko in their kitchen, 1957

Don Curto's Tomato Basil Cream Soup

Don Curto's Tomato Basil Cream Soup

3 12oz. cans diced tomatoes

2 pt. whipping cream

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

6 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 cup olive oil

salt to taste

Heat oil in stock pot, add garlic and sauté 1 - 2 minutes. Add diced tomatoes, cream, basil and salt. Simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. Serve with Italian bread.

Don Curto had a restaurant in Marquette, Michigan. We'd stop there whenever we were in town. Donna loved this soup. And it is easy to understand why; six cloves of garlic and a quart of heavy cream! It is a very good soup, easy to make. 

Recipe courtesy Sue Blomgren

Cypress Point Carrot Cake à la Kate Dufresne

Posted by Mike Hinko, with Kate's permission.

I wish Kate had personally posted this. She'd have stories to go along with the recipe. Kate tells me she has been baking this cake since 1989 and has made some tweaks to it through the years.

I've had this cake several times, and I believe it hits all the flavor and texture points you want from a piece of carrot cake.

Here's the recipe.

Cypress Point Carrot Cake

1 ½- Cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2- Cup Soy Flour (or use regular flour) 

2 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 Cups grated Carrots (about 4-5 large) (I like to add a little more) ☺
1 Cup Crushed Pineapple (slightly drained)
1/2 Cup chopped Nuts (Any variety to make it different than the frosting)
1/2 Cup Sesame Seeds (I use a mixture of roasted black and white)
3 1/2 Ounces Shredded Coconut (About 1 ½ Cups)

3 Eggs
3/4 Cup Oil 
3/4 Cup Buttermilk
1/2 Cup Honey or 1 Cup Brown Sugar (I use honey) Moister!

1 tsp vanilla extract

Set Oven to 350 degrees

Combine flours, cinnamon, and baking soda in small bowl. 

In another bowl, mix carrots, pineapple, nuts, sesame seeds, and coconut. 

In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, buttermilk and honey.  

Add carrot mixture to egg mixture, and then add flour.  

Bake in greased Tube, Bundt or Angel food cake pan 50 minutes to 1 hour. 

Check for doneness at 50 minutes with a toothpick.  Do not over bake!

Loosen all edges with knife.  Put onto round serving platter keeping topside up if angel pan.

Cool completely before frosting.  

Frosting:

1/2 Cup Butter
1 8 Ounce Package Cream Cheese
1# (16 ounce) Powdered Sugar
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Cup Chopped Pecans
1 Cup Flaked or Grated Coconut

Combine butter and cream cheese.  Cream until light and fluffy.  

Add sugar and vanilla, mixing well. Stir in pecans and coconut.  

Frost cooled cake and top with several half Pecans if desired.

Store tightly covered.