Cooking it Old School
I am so honored. My fans voted Alice the Cook and her assistants took 2nd place in the Best Non-Musical Group, Non-Comedy Performance from Renaissance Festival Music Podcast Awards. I am so honored to be part of Renaissance Magazine, the Minnesota Renaissance Festival and the Siouxland Renaissance Festival.
Gramercy all!
This was a surprisingly tasty complement to the Chicken with Whiskey Cream Sauce recipe. The most difficult part of the recipe is the caramel sauce.
To begin, start with 1 lb. of carrots and cut them into 1″ cubes and boil them until tender. Remove from the water and put aside.
Whiskey Caramel Sauce
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup whiskey
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
pinch of salt
1/8 tsp of powdered cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg
Heat sugar in a dry 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, undisturbed until it begins to melt. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally with a fork. Until sugar is belted into a deep golden caramel.
Remove from heat and carefully add Scotch, butter and salt. It will begin to harden and continue to cook over moderately low heat until everything is blended together.
Add the cooked carrots to the warm caramel sauce a stir lightly. Spoon the sweetened carrots onto the plate and serve.
The cooking with whiskey cooking demonstrations were a lot of fun, but had the potential of being dangerous. The igniting of the whiskey can go wrong very fast, so use caution when doing this recipe.
Chicken with Whiskey and Cream
Ingredients
3 lbs roasting chickens (excess fat trimmed cut down the back)
sea salt
black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsps butter
1/3 cup scotch whisky (blended, warmed)
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup fresh parsley (chopped)
Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and rub all over with salt, pepper and half the olive oil. Combine the remaining oil and butter in a lidded roasting pan and place over medium heat. When butter is foaming, place the chicken, breast side down, in the pan and brown for about 4-5 minutes, then turn and brown on the other side for the same length of time.
Drain off most of the fat. Return the pan with the chicken to the heat and, working quickly, pour the whiskey over it and then set alight. Let the flame die down and then add the broth. Cover the chicken with the roasting pan lid (or tuck foil all the way around) and transfer to the oven to bake for about 45-50 minutes at 400 degrees.
When the chicken is cooked, transfer it to a cutting board to rest. Drain off some of the accumulated fat and then set the pan on a medium high heat. Add a spoonful of water to loosen bits clinging to the bottom of the pan, and then add the cream, stirring as you do so. Bring to a
boil and let cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add the parsley to the sauce and keep warm. Section the chicken and serve the sauce at table with the chicken. Serves 4-6.
This weekend is unusual. There are two separate themes running this upcoming weekend. On Festival Friday at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, students come in and the festival provides a number of educational opportunities. For more information, you can download their program HERE.
For Festival Friday, I will have four lecture based demonstrations at 11am, 1pm, 3pm and 5pm. My cooking will be very limited that day as all of my assistants will be unable to attend. Festival Friday will provide ample opportunity to speak with me one-on-one.
For Irish weekend, you can download the program HERE. My shows for the final weekend are:
11am: Spice making demonstrations
12:30pm: Soda Bread and Irish Stew cooking demonstration
2pm: History of Spices
4pm: Cooking with Whiskey cooking demonstration
5pm: Seasoning your cast iron pots
This is the final show of the season.
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground or freshly grated nutmeg
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup extra fine dry breadcrumbs (optional)
4 T butter (optional)
Preparation:
Combine flour, salt and nutmeg. Add eggs and mix. Pour milk into the dough little by little, until a smooth batter forms, slightly thinner than brownie batter. Let rest at least 5 minutes.
Bring 2 quarts of water with 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil in a heavy, 4 – 5 quart saucepan. Plan on boiling at least 2 batches from this recipe.
Set a large colander (one with large holes) over the saucepan and press the dough, a few spoonfuls at a time, through the holes directly into the water. Boil for 5-8 minutes until the noodles are tender to the bite. Remove noodles with a slotted spoon and drain further in a sieve. Toss with roasted breadcrumbs to serve.
To make breadcrumbs: Melt and stir 4 tablespoons butter in a pan over medium heat until butter stops foaming. Add 1 cup breadcrumbs and cook, stirring constantly, until crumbs are browned. Drain on paper towels.