Coronation Chicken

This is the original recipe for Coronation Chicken created by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume for the coronation banquet of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. It's a great sandwich filling and is always a party favorite either served in a large salad bowl or in vol-au-vent pastry cases as an hors d'oeuvre. It's hard to find the original recipe on the internet and I had to search a long time for it (can't remember where I found it to give them credit) which was surprising considering this was the queen's diamond jubilee year, so here it is:

                                      [video coming soon...]

Ingredients:                                           

·         2 1/2-3 lbs cooked chicken breasts (chicken pieces or whole cooked chicken)

·         2 teaspoons vegetable oil

·         1 small onion, peeled and diced finely

·         1 tablespoon curry powder

·         1 tablespoon tomato paste

·         2 fluid ounces red wine

·         1 bay leaf

·         1/2 lemon, juice of

·         4 canned apricot halves

·         1 tablespoon apricot jam

·         1 cup mayonnaise

·         4 fluid ounces whipping cream

·         salt & pepper

Directions:  

1.    Remove the skin and any bones from the chicken and cut into small pieces.

2.  Heat up the vegetable oil in a medium saucepan and add the onion. Cook on a medium heat for about 3 minutes until the Onion is soft and translucent.

3.    Add the curry powder, tomato paste, red wine, bay leaf and the lemon juice to the cooked onions.

4.  Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes until reduced. Remove the bay leaf and leave to onion sauce to cool.

5.    Finely chop the apricot halves and puree them through a sieve or with a hand held blender.

6.    Place the pureed apricots into a bowl and mix in the mayonnaise.

7.    Add the onion sauce and apricot jam and mix well.

8.    Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold this also into the mixture. Mix well.

9.    Season with salt & pepper and if necessary add a little extra Lemon Juice.

10.  Finally, fold in the chicken pieces coating them with the mixture well.

  Here's a link to an easy way to make vol-au-vent at BBCGoodFood which I think has  better results than the frozen Pillsbury pucks you buy from the supermarket. It's a foolproof method that works every time:  http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2219652/party-volauvents

Bacardi Rum Cake

[Video coming soon]

Cake Ingredients:

·         1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

·         1 package yellow cake mix (with pudding in it)

·         3 eggs

·         1/3 cup vegetable oil

·         ½ cup Bacardi dark rum

Glaze Ingredients:

·         ¼ lb. butter (1 stick)

·         ¼ cup water

·         1 cup granulated sugar

·         ¼ cup Bacardi dark rum

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, grease and flour 10” tube pan or Bundt pan. Sprinkle nuts in bottom of pan. Mix all ingredients together. Pour batter over nuts. Bake 1 hour. Cool. Invert onto serving plate. Prick top, spoon and brush glaze evenly over top and sides.

Glaze: Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in water and sugar. Boil 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in rum.

Optional: Decorate border with sugar frosting or whipped cream.

This recipe was copied from an old xerox my aunt had. It was her husband's favorite cake.

Chocolate Cake with Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting

[Video coming soon...]

Ingredients:

·         2 cups cake flour

·         1 ¾ cups sugar

·         ¾ cup cocoa

·         ¾ cup shortening

·         3 eggs

·         1 ¼ tsp. baking soda

·         1 tsp. salt

·         1 tsp. vanilla

·         ½ tsp. baking powder

Directions:

1.    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray two 9 inch round baking pans with baking spray/grease and flour.

2.    Place all ingredients into mixing bowl, and mix on low speed for 5 min.

3.    Evenly distribute cake batter into prepared baking pans and bake for 30-35 min.

4.    Cool in baking pans for 10 min. then turn out and cool completely before frosting.

Coffee Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

·         6 oz. cream cheese, softened

·         2 tbsp. evaporated milk

·         1 tsp. vanilla extract

·         A pinch of salt

·         16 oz. confectioners’ sugar

·         4 tsp. instant coffee granules

Directions:

1.    Beat cream cheese and evaporated milk until smooth

2.    Pour in vanilla, 1/3 of the sugar, and the coffee granules, mix, then add another 1/3 sugar, mix, then add the rest of the sugar and mix until smooth. *Adding the sugar in thirds will help prevent the sugar from flying all over your kitchen. 

*Recipe from The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook, 1980

Pierogi Casserole

Ingredients:

·         5 potatoes, peeled and cubed

·         1/2 cup milk

·         4 tbsp butter

·         1/2 lb. of bacon

·         1 onion, chopped

·         6 cloves garlic, minced

·         6 lasagna noodles

·         2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

·         Black pepper to taste

·         sour cream & chives to serve

Directions:

1.    Place bacon on foil lined baking tray, place in oven and set to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Remove bacon when cooked and crumble. Leave oven at 350.

2.    Place the potatoes in a large pot of salted water to cover over high heat. Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender. Remove from heat, drain, allow to steam dry, then combine with the milk and 2 tablespoons butter, mash and set aside.

3.    Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a skillet over medium high heat. Sauté onion, then drain into a bowl and remove ¾ of the onion with a slotted spoon and add back into the pan with the garlic for a few minutes, fold into mash with bacon, cheese and black pepper.

4.    Cook the lasagna noodles according to package directions. (you will have to cut them to fit size of pan)

5.    Place 1/3 of the mashed potatoes into the bottom of a greased glass bread pan, add 2 noodles, then 1/3 mash, 2 noodles, 1/3 mash, and the last 2 noodles. Top with reserved onions and melted butter, cover with foil and bake for 30-45 min.

6.    Cool for 5-10 min. & serve with sour cream and chives. Goes well with pickled beets.

Coming Soon....

Youtube! Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/user/fromdaveskitchen

Beef and Cheese Egg Rolls

1 1/2 pounds ground beef (I used 80/20)
2 medium onions sliced
1 8oz. package pre-cleaned ready to use sliced mushrooms, roughly chopped
1 7oz. package Italian Three Cheese blend
McCormick Montreal Steak seasoning
1 package egg roll wrappers
2 1/2 tablespoons butter

Place a medium non-stick skillet over burner and break up meat with your hands into skillet. Sprinkle about a tablespoon of the steak seasoning over meat and turn heat to medium. Once the meat has begun to brown on the bottom turn the meat over with a spatula and sprinkle more steak seasoning over meat this time use a little less than the first. Continue to cook beef as usual until the meat is browned and all the fat is rendered. Drain fat from beef and place beef in a large bowl. Wipe pan with paper towel and place back over heat. Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons butter to pan and add chopped mushrooms. Cook mushrooms until softened and lightly browned. Add cooked mushrooms to bowl with meat. Return pan to stove and lower heat slightly. Add the remaining butter to the pan once melted, add sliced onions. Cook onions until softened and translucent then add to bowl with meat and mushrooms. Now add bag of cheese to mixture and stir until all ingredients are evenly dispersed.
Now It's eggroll time. I followed the instructions on the package of wrappers and pre-heated my deep fryer at 350 degrees. I then followed the instructions for wrapping the eggrolls. It was pretty easy to do, here are some pictures of the process. It's almost like folding a square burrito.

At this point you moisten the top flap of the "envelope"

Then while carefully holding the mixture in roll the stuffed part towards the point.

Once you've rolled all the eggrolls you are going to make, it's fry time!

The egg roll wrapper package said to fry them for 2-3 min. turning to brown evenly.

It took me around 2 minutes to fry them. I then held the egg rolls over the fryer with tongs to drain any excess oil and then placed them on a plate with paper towel to soak up any more of the oil. Here's a picture of the finished product.

Hope you try and enjoy these!