Buttermilk Pie

Buttermilk is a favorite of mine; therefore, buttermilk is something I always have in the refrigerator. To keep things simple, you can just buy pie dough from the refrigerated section of your supermarket, or you can buy preformed shortbread or graham cracker crust pie shells, which come in a baking tin. I "believe" they are all 9 inch pie shells, but this amount of filling from this recipe should be fine for 9 or 10 inch diameter pies.

 

 

Ingredients (for one 9 to 10 inch pie):

 

1 cup buttermilk 

1 1/4 cups sugar 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 extra large eggs 

3 tablespoons flour

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 tablespoon orange or lemon juice

1 tablespoon orange or lemon zest   

unbaked pie dough (preformed shortbread shell)

raspberries, blackberries or strawberries for garnish 

Mix together well the buttermilk, sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, flour, melted butter, orange or lemon juice and orange or lemon zest. Add the filling to the pie shell and bake at 350 F for 50 to 60 minutes, or until the middle of the pie is well set. Let the pie cool for about 15 or 20 minutes, then cover it lightly with a kitchen towel or a paper towel and let it cool a further half hour; or, refrigerate until the pie is chilled.  Serve with fresh or thawed frozen raspberries, blackberries or strawberries; OR, a mixture of these. Oh, and there is whipped cream to top the fruit, or you can simply top the pie slices with whipped cream.   

Variation #1: Chocolate Buttermilk Pie: use a preformed chocolate pie shell, use no lemon (or orange) juice, no lemon (or orange) zest, add and mix into the filling 1 heaping tablespoon cocoa.

Variation #2: Chocolate & Peppermint Buttermilk Pie: use the same mixture as for the chocolate pie  above, except, use no vanilla extract, but add 1 teaspoon peppermint extract to the filling mixture.

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Bore-This is the noun and verb form having to do with "piercing a generally solid material to make a hole." It is related to the main body of "perforation" and "perforate," both words borrowed from Latin. "Bore" goes back to Indo European "bher(h)," which meant "to pierce or cut through." This gave Old Germanic the verb "buronan," meaning "to pierce, to make a hole in a material by turning a sharp tool to drill into the material." This gave Old English the verb "borian," with the same meanings. This then became "boren," before the modern form. The English noun form "bore" either developed from the verb or there is a possibility that Old Germanic had a noun form "bur/bor," meaning "a tool for piercing," but the English noun form doesn't seem to show up until the 1300s, which adds the possibility that it came along into English via Old Norse, or that Old Norse strongly reinforced a developing native form based upon the existing English verb form. The noun also took the meaning of "the result of boring;" that is, "the bored hole in a material."   

Indian Rice Pudding: Chawal Ki Kheer

Long grain rice, like basmati rice, is commonly used for this dessert dish. Unlike the rice pudding we generally make in the U.S., which is firmed up; that is, "set," the Indian-style is more fluid, but not totally so, and it is usually served while still warm. I checked probably about 25 recipes for this dessert, and all of them used almonds, while some also used pistachios or cashews, and a couple used both pistachios and cashews. I like raisins, and the Indian recipes all kind of skimp on raisins, in my opinion, so I add a little more to my own recipe, but you can always tailor things to your own taste. 

 

You can use store bought ground cardamom or grind you own cardamom (I use a mortar and pestle). 

Rosewater is available in supermarkets or spice shops. It isn't really expensive.

 

Ingredients (4 to 6 servings):

 

1/2 cup basmati rice, rinsed, then soaked in water for 30 minutes

12 ounces (1 1/2 cups) evaporated milk; that is, 1 can (NOT sweetened condensed canned milk)

2 1/2 cups regular whole milk

5 tablespoons sugar

8 to 10 saffron threads

3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

2 tablespoons slivered almonds

1 tablespoon chopped cashews

1 tablespoon chopped pistachio nuts

2 tablespoons golden raisins

(optional) 1 or 2 teaspoons rosewater

 

Soak the basmati rice for 30 minutes. Heat milk in a heavy bottom pan over low heat, stirring often, until the milk boils. In a small cup or dish, add 2 tablespoons hot milk and the saffron threads and set it aside to steep. Drain the rice and add the rice to the hot milk, stir well. Keep the heat low and let the rice cook. After 10 minutes, add the sugar and ground cardamom and stir well to mix; continue cooking, stirring occasionally. After another 4 to 5 minutes, add the chopped nuts and golden raisins, stir well again, then add the saffron/milk mixture and mix well again. Cook until the rice is very tender, by which time the dish should be fairly thick and creamy. Stir in the rosewater (if using) and remove from the heat. Let sit for a few minutes, stir and serve warm; refrigerate unused portion.  

 

 

  

WORD HISTORY:

Tally-This word, used as both a noun and as a verb, is related to "tailor," "detail," "retail" and "entail," all words of Latin-derivation and borrowed by English via French. "Tally" is of unknown origin, and its history is somewhat difficult, but Latin had the noun "talea," meaning "a narrow or slender piece of wood;" thus, "a stick, a twig, a rod," which passed to Latin-based Old French as "taille" meaning "a stick with marks cut into it to show an amount or amounts (usually for debts, including taxes;" thus, 'an account')." (Note: The idea of cutting marks into sticks, or even into bones, was long used by humans as a way of keeping accounts, until it eventually began to be replaced by written records.) Old French "taille" eventually was often, but not always, rendered as "tallie" in the French that had been carried to England by the Normans. English borrowed the word in the mid 1400s with the same meaning. Over time, other meanings were added like, "a recording of points/goals in sporting events" (mid 1800s), and also "a point or a goal in some competition." The verb also came about in the 1500s, "seemingly" from the Latin verb "talliare," one of the meanings of which was "to tax;" thus, initially the verb "tally" meant "to keep an accounting of taxes owed and paid," with the meaning then broadening beyond keeping tax records to simply keeping records. The verb followed the noun in the mid 1800s with the sports/competition usage "to record points/goals," and with the actual "to achieve a point or goal in a competition."     

Big North German "Dumpling": Mehlbeutel

This is an extra large German dumpling dish, with a pretty dense texture. The standard German word for this dish is "Mehlbeutel,"* which means "flour bag." It gets its name from these large dumplings being boiled inside cloth flour bags long ago. The dumplings are from the marshy Dithmarschen region** of Schleswig-Holstein. The standard German form, "Mehlbeutel," was taken from the actual Low German form of that region, "Mehlbüdel." While more typically a dessert, served with fruit compote, it can also be used as a lunch dish served with bacon or ham and boiled potatoes, along with some mustard on the side, which is how I prefer it. The basic idea for this dish most likely came from a combination of German merchant sailors returning from England with various recipes for English puddings*** they had tried while there, and from English merchant sailors leaving such recipes in German ports when docked there. This dish itself seems to date back to around 1700. Some Germans call the dish "Großer Hans" (Big John/Jack).

 

Serve as a lunch dish with the smoked pork you've cooked, boiled potatoes and mustard, or serve as a dessert dish with cherry compote (see below), strawberry jam, or just some melted butter drizzled over each serving and then dusted with powdered sugar. If you don't have black currants, you can use all raisins. The meat must be smoked to give the dumpling the proper flavor as it cooks in the water used to cook the meat.

 

Ingredients: 

 

4 cups flour, more if needed, + a couple of tablespoons for the towel

4 eggs, separated 

2 cups milk (a little more IF needed)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

5 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup raisins

1/4 cup black currants

smoked slab bacon in a piece or smoked ham shanks or smoked pork shoulder in a piece or smoked ham hocks 

water for cooking the smoked pork & Mehlbeutel

For cherry compote: 

1/2 cup dried cherries

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 to 3 tablespoons sugar (depending upon desired sweetness)

1/3 cup water 

First you'll need a linen towel or large cloth napkin (not stringy in any way). Boil the towel in plain water, absolutely NO soap or cleaning agents of any kind. Let the towel boil for about 10 minutes; afterward, drain the water, let the towel cool so that you can wring it out and then spread it out so that it can dry somewhat (I let it dry completely, so I do this part well in advance of making the dumpling, but it doesn't have to be totally dry).

 

In a pot (you will need a pretty good size pot), add whatever smoked meat you'll be using, like for instance: slab bacon, ham shank, pork shoulder, ham hocks, and cover the meat with water. Bring to a good steady simmer and let cook while you prepare the dumpling. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, 4 egg yolks, milk, baking powder, melted butter, salt, sugar, raisins and black currants. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until peaks form. Fold the egg whites into the batter/dough. 

 

On a flat surface, spread the towel out, sprinkle a couple of tablespoons of flour into the middle part of the towel and smooth it out. Add the dough to the middle of the towel, then pull up the corners of the towel around the dough (the dough shouldn't be like bread dough or pizza dough, but it shouldn't be like pancake batter, either). I use some kitchen twine to tie around the towel corners (you should leave a little room for the dough to expand at the top). Germans often tie or fasten the handle of a large kitchen spoon or ladle to the "bundle" and suspend the bundle from this in the pot to keep the dumpling from sitting on the bottom of the pot. I have not done this "step," and I found that after putting the dumpling bundle into the boiling water, that it floated in a matter of a few minutes, just like other dumplings do (I moved it around occasionally so that it wouldn't just sit on the bottom of the pot), but you can leave the meat in the pot, and this will keep the dumpling from resting on the bottom anyhow. Add a little more water after you put the dumpling into the pot (and at any time during the cooking process, if the water level drops too much), and turn the heat to low (or to a point on your stove where the water maintains a gentle simmer). Remove the meat to a plate when it is done, but you won't be arrested by the "Mehlbeutel police" if you keep the meat in the pot for the duration of cooking the dumpling. I occasionally use a large spoon to "dunk" the dumpling "bundle" into the water and to turn it. The dumpling needs to cook for about two hours, then remove it from the pot, take the string off and peel the corners of the towel down and set the dumpling onto a plate without the towel for 5 to 10 minutes (see photo three, below). While the dumpling rests briefly, cut or distribute the meat to however many serving plates you need, then slice the dumpling into wedges (see photos below). Serve as a dessert or lunch dish as mentioned above. 

 

* English has words related to the component parts of its German cousin's compound "Mehlbeutel:" "Mehl" in English is "meal;" that is, meal the flour or ground up grain, and "Beutel" is from the same Old Germanic source that gave English "bud (of a plant)," with German "Butte" being an old form that meant "bud, the housing or casing for plant seeds."

 

** Dithmarschen is a region in the state of Schleswig-Holstein where a rather large amount of marshland along its North Sea coast has been reclaimed from the sea. The city of Heide is the district seat. It was from areas like this all along the North Sea coast that elements of Germanic tribes began sailing to Britain nearly 1600 years ago and took over a substantial part of land there, which then came to be named for one of those Germanic tribes, the Angles of "Angle-land;" that is, "England."  

 

*** Generally, English puddings date back centuries and originally referred to chopped meats and other ingredients stuffed into animal stomachs or intestines and then boiled or baked. The term then moved to flour, liquid and often egg mixtures (some containing fruit and spices and sometimes rum or other liquor) that were boiled, baked or steamed until firmed into a more solidified form. In American English, puddings are flavored custard-like mixtures that are commonly thickened with cornstarch and they are usually refrigerated. 

 

In photos 1, 2 and 4 below, "Mehlbeutel" with smoked pork shoulder, boiled potatoes and mustard; photo 3, cooked "Mehlbeutel" with the towel removed (the towel I used was not smooth, so it naturally left the pattern on the Mehlbeutel), and you can see the size of the dumpling, as that is a full size dinner plate; photo 5, "Mehlbeutel" as a dessert with melted butter and cherry compote ... 

 

 

 

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Dusk-This word is distantly related to the main part of "obfuscate," a word English borrowed from Latin, and it's more closely related to "dust," a word from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to Indo European "dheu," which had the notion of "smoke, haze, dust," with the extended form "dheus(k)." This gave Old Germanic "dusko," with much the same meaning, and this produced the adjective "duskaz," meaning "of dark color, dark colored," and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "dox" (swarthy, dark haired). This then became "dosc/dosk," by which time the meaning had altered slightly to "not bright in color, to the dark side in color, shadowy," and this then became "duske," before the 'e' was dropped, and the noun meaning became "trending toward full darkness, not complete darkness" (the noun originally meant "darkness," circa 1400, and it was rendered as "dusknesse"). While not all that common in modern times, the verb form came into being (1300s?) as "dusken" ("to get dark"). The adjective "dusky" is from the mid 1500s, meaning "dim in light, near darkness."    

Bavarian Cream: Bayerische Creme

This famous dessert was seemingly developed in France centuries ago, where apparently it was invented for the purpose of honoring the German noble family the Wittelsbachs, as King Charles VI of France was married to Isabeau (known in German as Elisabeth) of Bavaria, who was from the House of Wittelsbach; thus, she was the queen of France. Over the centuries, Wittelsbach family members were involved in many regions of Europe, including England/Britain, as King George I was of the House of Hanover, but his mother was a Wittelsbach. Ludwig IV (Louis) was German emperor (Holy Roman Emperor) in the 1300s and Karl VII (Charles) was German emperor in the mid 1700s (note: Ludwig IV was the great grandfather of Elisabeth/Isabeau of Bavaria mentioned above). The Wittelsbach family's center of power has always been in Bavaria, but branches settled elsewhere due to marriages. Wittelsbach family members have ruled in various capacities in many places over the centuries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Bavaria, the Palatinate (Germany), Greece, part of the Netherlands, Bohemia, the Archbishopric and Electorate of Cologne. Over time, the strong association of this dessert with Bavaria has made it a German dessert, rather than French, as it originally was.

 

Ingredients (4 to 5 servings):

 

1 cup milk

3 egg yolks

6 tablespoons sugar

1 packet unflavored gelatin in 5 tablespoons cold water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup heavy cream

 

In a heavy bottom sauce pan, heat the milk to a simmer. Mix the yolks and sugar together in a cup or small bowl. Dissolve the gelatin in water in another cup. Add the vanilla extract to the hot milk, whisk 2 tablespoons of hot milk into the egg mixture, then whisk in 2 more tablespoons of hot milk (this will help prevent you from serving scrambled eggs rather than Bavarian Creme). Turn the heat to low and whisk the egg mixture into the remaining milk in the sauce pan, then continue to whisk as the custard heats up (do not boil), then whisk in the gelatin. When thickened, remove from the heat and let it cool, whip the heavy cream until thick, then when the custard has cooled substantially, fold in the whipped cream, distribute to individual serving dishes, or put the cream into molds, refrigerate for at least a couple of hours or overnight. Serve in the dishes or unmold the cream and the add topping of your choice, like fruit sauce or chocolate sauce.

 

Bavarian Cream topped with dark sweet cherry compote ...

Topped with Lemon Curd ...

WORD HISTORY:

Swarm-This word is related to "swirl," a word from Germanic. "Swarm" goes back to Indo European "swer/suer," which meant, "to buzz;" and was likely used for bees and other insects. This gave Old Germanic "swarmaz," meaning, "a large moving group of buzzing and humming insects," and also, "a commotion," which gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "swearm," with the buzzing and humming insect meaning. This then became "swarm," where it has remained for hundreds of years. The other Germanic languages have: German has "Schwarm," Low German has "Swarm" (both German and Low German nouns are capitalized), Dutch has "zwerm," West Frisian has "swarm/swaarm," Danish has "sværm," Norwegian has "sverm," Icelandic has "sweimur," Swedish has "svärm."

 

The verb form was derived from the noun in the 1300s meaning, "for insects, often bees, to leave one living space to go to another." The figurative usage has been common as, "to have a large group converge on an area," as in: "The fans swarmed over the plane as the victorious team returned home," or, "Police swarmed over the area after the bank was robbed." Other verb examples in Germanic: German has "schwärmen," Dutch has "zwermen," Swedish has "svärma."  

German Blushing Virgin: Errötende Jungfrau

Very "north German" dessert with many variations as to the flavor used, like raspberry, red currant, lingonberry, and I tend to use strawberry. It is known from northern Germany in the Schleswig part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein (the part that borders on Denmark) and in the Mecklenburg and Pomerania area (since the end of World War Two reduced to Vorpommern, with the remainder a part of Poland) along the Baltic Sea.

 

Serve with vanilla sauce, whipped cream or just plain heavy cream.*

 

Ingredients:

 

32 ounces of buttermilk (half to be heated, half cold)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 box (3 ounces) red gelatine (strawberry or raspberry flavored)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 tablespoons sugar (check gelatine box instructions)

 

Heat half the buttermilk to boiling. Add the hot buttermilk to the gelatine and sugar in a bowl, stirring to dissolve the gelatine/sugar mixture and to prevent lumps. Add the cold buttermilk, lemon juice and vanilla extract, mix well. Refrigerate until set and chilled. Serve with vanilla sauce or whipped cream.    

 

*  The recipe for vanilla sauce is at this link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/11/vanilla-sauce-vanillesoe.html

 

WORD HISTORY:

Blush-This word is not well documented, but it is very likely related to "blaze" and "bleach," both words from the Germanic roots of English, and it is distantly related to "flame," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via Anglo-French. It goes back to Indo European "bhel," which had the notion of "to shine, to glow, to be bright, to be white." This gave Old Germanic "bluskjanan" (or "bliskjanan"?), which seems to have meant "to burn, to glow with fire," and this gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "blyscan," meaning, "to glow red, to make red." This then became "blus(s)chen/blusshen," before eventually settling upon "blush." The noun form developed in the 1300s, and it also took on the meaning "(a) look," which brought about the phrase "at first blush;" that is, "at first look," or "at first glance," with the second form even replacing or becoming a substitute for the original to some extent, but why this meaning developed is unclear. The idea of "glowing, becoming red" in the verb form led to "become red in the face from embarrassment or shame," along with such a meaning for the noun form, and this seems to have happened in the second half of the 1500s, and this has become the main meaning in English, with a secondary noun meaning specifically referring to "light red or pink" wine. Because the original meaning of "burn, glow" spawned forms in the Germanic languages, the English word's Germanic relatives tend to have words closely related to "blaze," but Dutch has "blozen" and Low German has "blü­sen," both meaning "to blush," but did this meaning develop on the continent with it then passed by one or both languages to their cousin across the North Sea, or was it perhaps the other way around?      

Puerto Rican Coconut Pudding: Tembleque

As an adjective, the Spanish word "tembleque"* means "shaky, trembly, wobbly," and as a noun, it means, "(the) jitters, shakiness." This dessert obviously got its name from the "shaky" nature of the pudding, which is true of many gelatin type dishes. The dish seems to have originated in Puerto Rico, but Brazil has the same basic dessert, although the Brazilian version is often topped with a plum and wine sauce and the dessert is called "manjar branco" in Portuguese.**   

Ingredients:

2 cans coconut milk (28 to 30 ounces total)
1/2 cup cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 teaspoon salt
candied orange peel for garnish
ground cinnamon to taste for garnish
(optional) toasted coconut for garnish

In a bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and 1 can of coconut milk until the cornstarch is well dissolved into the coconut milk. In a heavy bottomed sauce pan over medium heat, mix together the other can of the coconut milk, the cornstarch mixture, the sugar and the salt (a whisk is good to use for this). Bring the mixture to a boil while stirring constantly and let the mixture thicken, taking care that there are no lumps. You can use ramekins or other small dishes, filling them with the pudding and then covering them with plastic wrap before refrigerating them for 4 to 6 hours. Serve in the individual dishes or unmold onto serving plates, but in either case, sprinkle on some cinnamon and/or some toasted coconut and add a strip or two of candied orange peel.

* The basic pronunciation in Spanish of "tembleque" is as if "tem-blay-kay," but from what I understand, Spanish speakers from various parts of the world may put a little more emphasis (accent) on either the second or third parts, according to their local or regional speech patterns.

** In Portugal, "manjar branco" is the name of a couple of dishes, with one "similar" to the basic Puerto Rican/Brazilian dish, but it is not made with coconut milk, but rather with cream or milk. Then there is another dish of that name which is made with chicken meat in thickened milk. This dish has the more specific name "manjar branco Coimbra."  

WORD HISTORY:
Bonus-This word is related to quite a number of words including, "bounty" and "beauty," both words of Latin derivation borrowed by English through French, and "bonanza," another Latin-derived word, but in this case borrowed by English from Spanish (particularly Mexican Spanish). "Bonus" goes back to Indo European "deu," which had the notion "partial to, show favor or reverence toward." This gave its Italic offspring "dweno(s)," meaning "good." This gave Latin "duenos," also meaning "good," but the word then became "duonus," before the change to "bonus,"^ still with the meaning "good," but with the extended meanings, "useful, brave, gallant." English borrowed the word in the mid 1700s, mainly with the meaning, "money or other benefit given to reward good work performance" (or used as an offer to entice and encourage good work performance), then expanded to "any kind of additional benefit," including in competition, such as "bonus point(s)," and also "special benefit to join an organization or business, often in sports, but not exclusively so."      

^ The Latin word for war, "bellum," was also once spelled with a beginning "d." 

Greek Cheese & Honey Cheesecake: Melopita

This Greek cheesecake is called "honey pie," "μελοπιτα" (Melopita) in Greek, and it seems to have originated on the Aegean island of Sifnos, although there are other similar versions in Greece, especially on other Aegean islands, and some of the recipes use the cheese mixture as a filling for a pie crust. Instead of using one larger baking dish, I used some 5 inch pie pans when I made the Melopita for this article. Ricotta cheese is a highly suitable substitute for some of the similar Greek cheeses used to make Melopita, but which are not always easily obtained elsewhere.  

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
2 eggs
1/3 cup honey
1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves
1 heaping tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
(for serving) ground cinnamon + honey

Crush the thyme leaves into fine particles. Mix together the ricotta, flour, eggs, honey, finely ground thyme leaves and lemon zest. Mix until smooth (I just use a hand mixer). Butter a baking dish, pie pan(s), or cake pan. Preheat oven to 350 F. Bake about 50 minutes or until the top is lightly browned. Allow to cool, then drizzle with some honey and sprinkle on some cinnamon.

In the top two photos, I inverted the small tart pan to remove the Melopita

In this photo, I removed the Melopita straight out of the tart pan (you can see the lightly browned top beneath the honey and cinnamon ... 

One of the Melopita still in the pie pan ...

WORD HISTORY:
Abyss (Abysm)-The ultimate origin of this word is uncertain, and it "may" not be Indo European. Transliterated Ancient Greek had "byssós," which meant, "deep area, bottom." This was then given the prefix "a," which in Greek meant "no, not, without;" thus, the transliterated noun "abyssos," meaning, "bottomless pit," which was also used adjectivally ("bottomless, boundless, unfathomable"). Latin borrowed the word as "abyssus" (bottomless pit) and English borrowed the word circa 1400, meaning "depths of the sea," but also in the context of creation, "vast chaos." Latin "abyssus" also produced "abyssimus," seemingly a superlative form meaning, "of the greatest depths," and the figurative, "utterly terrible, awful, 'abysmal' "). This passed to Old French as a noun, "abisme," meaning, "the greatest depths of the Earth," and also used to mean, "Hell." This was borrowed by English from French in the early 1300s as "abysm" meaning, "the greatest depths of Earth, bottomless pit." In common usage it was overtaken by its close relative with the spelling "abyss," but "abysm" remained around in poetry and high style writings, although it now seems to be a rarity indeed.      

White Chocolate Terrine

White chocolate does not have the cocoa solids that give the varying shades of color to "brown" chocolate. So is it really chocolate? The answer is easy for me... who the hell cares? I bought a chunk of Belgian white chocolate that was a little over 1 pound, but by the time I made the recipe, it was down to exactly 1 pound... hm, must have been mice. I used a 5 x 9 inch, 1.5 quart baking dish for this, but use what you have.

Ingredients:

about 1 pound white chocolate, chopped
1/2 stick unsalted butter, in pats
1/2 pint (8 ounces) heavy cream
3/4 cup dried cherries
1 cup walnuts, halves or chopped, but not into small pieces
mint leaves for garnish
fresh or dried cherries for garnish
some vegetable oil to coat dish

Add half of the chopped white chocolate and all of the heavy cream to a double boiler set up (a pan or bowl over a pan of barely simmering water). Stir often to keep the mixture smooth (a spatula is good to use). When the chocolate has melted, add half of the remaining white chocolate and melt it and blend it in, then do the same with the rest of the chocolate. When the chocolate is totally melted and smooth, add the butter, one piece at a time, until it is melted and mixed in. Lightly coat the dish you will use with some vegetable oil. Add a layer of a third of the chocolate to the bottom of the dish. Put the dish into the freezer for just a few minutes. Remove the dish from the freezer and now add a third of the dried cherries and the walnut pieces over the surface of the chocolate (as evenly as you can). Push the cherries and walnuts down into the chocolate (I used half of a walnut to push the cherries and walnuts into the chocolate). Place the dish into the freezer for another minute or two, then remove the dish from the freezer and add another third of the chocolate and a third of the cherries and walnuts, and repeat the process used above. Place the dish back into the freezer for another couple of minutes and repeat the same process for the final third of the chocolate and the cherries and walnuts. Place the dish back into the freezer for about 30 minutes (you don't want ice in this). Take the terrine from the freezer and run some warm water over a knife blade. Be sure to completely dry the knife blade, then run the blade around the perimeter of the dish. Also run a shallow pan of "warm," NOT HOT, water, and let the terrine dish sit in the warm water for a few minutes (I first tried to unmold the terrine after only about 2 minutes, and it wasn't enough time in the warm water, so I put the dish back into the warm water for about 3 more minutes, which worked). Turn the dish over onto a platter or plate, and give it a minute to loosen and come out of the dish. You can smooth it over, if it is a little rough looking from the unmolding, then put the terrine back into the freezer to solidify it completely again (10 to 15 minutes should be fine). You will need some warm water again to keep your knife warm enough to slice the terrine. Remember, this is a rich, sweet desert (You: "Ahh, Randy... that's 'dessert.' " R: "Well then how come we don't write, 'Don't dessert me now, when I need help?'  You: "Because we don't; now, get your damned fingers back to typing and finish this, I'm hungry!") Anyway, this is a rich, sweet dessert, so you don't need 2 inch slices for a serving, but rather about 1/4 to 1/3 inch slices. You can always reshape the slices a little if they don't come out exactly as you would like. Ideally you could leave the terrine in the refrigerator for several hours to make it easier to slice. I happened to have some fresh cherries on hand, so I included a couple on the plate with the white chocolate terrine, as well as some mint leaves, but you can just use a few dried cherries, or some thawed frozen cherries.

Click on the photo to enlarge...

WORD HISTORY:
Spatula-This word is distantly related to "spade" and to "spoon," both words are from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to the Indo European root "speh" (flat piece of wood) and an elongated form "speh-deh," which had the notion of "flat piece of wood for doing work." This gave Ancient Greek transliterated "spathe," meaning, "flat wooden blade used in a weaver's loom." This later expanded to include "metal blade" and the word was borrowed by Latin as "spatha," meaning, "blade of a sword, blade used as a tool." Its diminutive form in Latin was "spatula," meaning, "shoulder blade," but also, "kitchen tool/utensil for turning, scraping or stirring." The word was borrowed into English circa 1500 with the kitchen utensil meaning, but also with the limited meaning "type of medical scalpel." 

Vanilla Sauce (Vanillesoße)

Apparently vanilla has been around for a long, long time, but it was the development of the New World that sent the flavoring to other parts of the world on an increasingly large scale. Vanilla is derived from the pods of a type of orchid plant... and here I thought they got it from vanilla ice cream. There are many variations to vanilla sauce recipes, but this is from Germans (Germans, broadly speaking, not just from Germany*), and it is called "Vanillesoße," or sometimes, "Vanillesauce," in German, and it is a fairly common accompaniment to desserts from German kitchens, although the English and French have the same or similar, so if Prince Harry and Meghan drop by, tell them it's "Crème Anglaise," but if Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte are your guests, says it's "Crème Française à la Vanille." Put simply, it is a vanilla custard.
.  
Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups canned milk (12 ounce can)
1 cup heavy cream
4 egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar (for a little sweeter use "heaping" tablespoons)
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon vanilla

Place a bowl (I use a stainless steel bowl) over a pan of simmering water. The bowl should not actually touch the water. Mix the eggs and the cornstarch together, set this aside for the moment. In the bowl over the hot water, mix the milk, cream and sugar. Let the liquid heat, but do not let it actually boil. Stir well to completely dissolve the sugar. Add a tablespoon of the heated liquid to the eggs and stir immediately to mix it; repeat a couple of more times. This will help the eggs to mix in with the hot milk and cream easier, as you don't want to end up with scrambled eggs in milk and cream ... Hey! I think I just invented a new dish... scrambled eggs in milk and cream.... Wait a second, I've "fixed" this dish before, unintentionally! Gradually drizzle in small amounts of the egg, whisking constantly, until the egg/cornstarch mixture is fully added. Add the vanilla and whisk further to incorporate it into the sauce. The milk and cream should thicken as you add the egg mixture. You can, of course, adjust the cornstarch amount for a thicker or looser sauce, but the best sauce has a thickness on the order of melted ice cream. The sauce will have a slight "yellowish" tint to it from the egg yolks. This is good served warm on various desserts, but if you let it sit, cover it with plastic wrap to prevent the sauce from developing a "skin" on top. By "cover," I mean the plastic wrap should literally be in contact with the sauce.   

* Not just from Germany, but from Austria, much of Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, much of Alsace, a part of Lorraine and part of northern Italy (South Tirol/South Tyrol, Italian: Alto Adige). 

I had some vanilla sauce on sweet bread pudding...

WORD HISTORY:
Starch -This word is closely related to "stark," a word from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to the Indo European root word "ster," which meant "rigid, stiff." The Old Germanic offshoot was "starkaz," which had much the same meaning, but also with the added notion that if something was rigid, it was "strong." This gave Old English "stearc," which meant, "stiff, rigid, hard;" thus also,  "unyielding," and also, "stern." This provided the verb form, "stearcian," meaning, "to stiffen, to harden, to become hard." This then became "starchen/sterchen" (?), and this verb produced the noun  "starche" in 1400s, before it took on the modern form. Germanic relatives also meaning "starch": German has "Stärke," Icelandic has "sterkja" (?), Swedish "stärkelse." All of the Germanic languages have relatives to the base word "stark." 

Austro-German Dessert Pancake: Kaiserschmarrn

I often had Kaiserschmarrn at the "Wienerwald" Restaurant in Frankfurt back in the 1980s. If I remember right, the restaurant was on Kaiserstraße, not far from the main train station, and it was located in a split level space, so you had to walk down a few steps (not many) to enter. "Wienerwald" means "Vienna Woods," and the restaurant was part of a large restaurant chain in Germany and Austria, one of the largest in Europe at the time, as I recall. They specialized in chicken dishes, with particular emphasis on "Backhendl;" that is, "fried chicken." The chain had financial difficulties and they later closed the restaurant on Kaiserstraße, but after some restructuring, they opened at a new location around the intersection of Kaiserstraße and Weserstraße. The chain was much scaled back a number of years later, as financial problems continued, and this resulted in the closing of the restaurant in Frankfurt. I believe the restaurants in Austria were sold off, so that they have a separate owner from those in Germany, but they all have similar menu offerings. 

Anyway, Kaiserschmarrn are a type of sweet pancake that is torn or cut into pieces and dusted with powdered sugar before serving. They are often served with a side dish of plum compote (German: Pflaumenröster or Zwetschgenröster) or apple sauce (German: Apfelmus), but I like to put a little glaze on my Kaiserschmarrn. The German word "Schmarren/Schmarrn" is related to English "smear," which in German is "schmieren" (verb), and the noun from that is, "Schmer," meaning, "fat of a swine;" thus also, "lard," and the connecting thought was likely because the original pancakes would have been cooked in lard. The word seems to have only come into use in southern German dialects in the 1500s, and the meaning became, "piece(s)," perhaps from the idea that the pancakes cooked in lard were then cut up into pieces. Besides its use for a cut up pancake (a pancake in 'pieces'), it also took on the slang meaning of "nonsense/rubbish."* This may have come from the idea of regular pancakes being cheap; thus, with little value. 

The history of this dessert is not really known, but the "Kaiser" part has long tied the dish to Kaiser (Emperor) Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary, who ruled for some 68 years, before his death in late 1916 at the age of 86. Over the years I've read several theories about the name of this pancake dish, with one simply being that it had originated from a simple pancake recipe from the countryside, but that by the mid 1800s, it took on added ingredients, like raisins, sugar, vanilla and sometimes, cinnamon, which were not available to common people, thus making it "fit for the Kaiser," or perhaps, "fit for a Kaiser." Other stories "claim" it was a favorite dessert of Franz Joseph and that this is, therefore, the source of the name. 

Ingredients:

1 cup flour, sifted
4 egg yolks
4 egg whites
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
few drops of vanilla 
1/3 cup golden raisins
pinch of salt
2 to 3 tablespoons butter for frying (or mix of half butter, half neutral oil)
powdered sugar for dusting

Mix together the sifted flour, sugar, salt, egg yolks and milk to make a batter. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold them into the batter. Some people use a large skillet and make one large pancake, but I prefer to use a smaller skillet and make two pancakes, one after the other. Melt the butter in a smaller skillet over low heat. Add enough batter to the skillet to make a 6 to 7 inch pancake, tilting the skillet back and forth to even out the batter. Sprinkle some raisins on top once the bottom of the pancake sets. Fry the pancake until it is nice and brown, then fry the pancake on the other side. Remove the pancake to a dish and keep it warm, while you repeat the process for the second pancake. Cut or tear the pancakes into bite-sized pieces. Serve with a dusting of powdered sugar, or pour on a little powdered sugar glaze... enjoy.


Powdered sugar glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 tablespoons warm milk

Put the butter and 2 tablespoons milk in a microwave safe dish. Heat for a few seconds until the butter melts. Mix in the powdered sugar. You can add a little more milk if the glaze is too thick.

* For a little more on the word "Schmarren," and also about Kaiserschmarren," here is the link:
http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2012/09/its-none-of-your-pancake-business.html

Click to enlarge

WORD HISTORY:
Speck (2)-This word, meaning "small spot," has a very uncertain history. It is related to "speckle," both the noun and the verb forms. In Old English (Anglo-Saxon) it was "specca," which then became "spekke," before the modern form. It is related to the Dutch verb "spekelen," which fell into disuse, but which meant, "to sprinkle." The Dutch word in this case is the likely source of English "speckle," and it was influenced in meaning by English "speck," then still spelled "spekke," to produce the meaning "make small marks on something." Whether "speck/speckle" are from Germanic; that is, derived from some Germanic base word, is unclear.    

Hungarian Pancakes With Walnut Filling

This is a Hungarian pancake, a "palacsinta," called "Gundel Palacsinta," in Hungarian, after the dessert's inventor, Károly Gundel, a Budapest restaurant owner of the early to mid 20th Century.   

Ingredients:

Pancakes:

1 1/4 cup flour
2/3 cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup sparkling mineral water (or club soda)
1/4 teaspoon salt
oil/butter for frying

Filling:

1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 to 1 cup finely chopped or ground walnuts
1/4 cup chopped raisins
2 tablespoons rum
2 tablespoons grated orange peel

Chocolate Sauce:

4 ounces dark chocolate
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cocoa powder
1 tablespoon rum

Put the raisins and grated orange peel into the rum in a small bowl or cup about an hour before you will use them. In a bowl, mix the flour, the eggs, the salt and the sugar. Gradually stir or whisk in the milk to form a batter. Add the sparkling water (it will foam) and stir to mix. The batter should be neither too thick (like most cake batter), nor too thin, but rather like the thickness of gravy, so you can adjust the ingredients slightly to achieve that. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes. In a sauce pan, heat the cream to just a simmer, then stir in the sugar until it is well dissolved. Add the other ingredients and mix well. Keep the heat very low, so that the mixture just barely simmers for a few minutes, stir frequently. The mix should form a paste-like consistency. In another pan, heat the cream over low heat. Add the chocolate and keep stirring until the chocolate has melted. KEEP THE HEAT LOW! Mix the egg yolks with the sugar and cocoa and then gradually whisk the mix into the chocolate, whisking constantly. Whisk in the rum. Let the chocolate sauce remain over VERY low heat, stirring or whisking occasionally, until it is nicely thickened.

Make sure to oil the pan you will use to fry the crepes (pancakes, palacsinta). I used an 8 inch nonstick fry pan with a little butter and oil mixture for each palacsinta. I used low heat, but some recipes I've seen used medium heat. Put enough batter into the pan to just coat the bottom. These should be pretty thin pancakes. Cook until lightly browned, then flip the pancake to the other side and do the same. Spread some walnut mixture (paste) onto half of each palacsinta, fold over the other half and then fold again. Drizzle some chocolate sauce over each palacsinta and serve while still warm.  


Spread some of the walnut paste onto half of each pancake ...

Fold the palacsinta and drizzle with some chocolate sauce ...

WORD HISTORY: 

Meander-This word goes back to a river in southwestern Asia Minor (now modern Turkey). The transliterated Ancient Greek name was "Maíandros," which was borrowed by Latin as "Maeander." English borrowed the word in the late 1500s as "meander," meaning "a winding path or course," seemingly initially for rivers and streams and then broadened to land courses. The verb developed about a decade later meaning, "to flow in a winding course," but it too then broadened beyond water, eventually even taking on a further meaning for humans or animals of "wandering about." 

Apple Dumplings Of Another Kind

This is not the traditional recipe for apple dumplings, which are cored apples, seasoned with spices and butter and then wrapped up in dough and baked. These dumplings are more of what many people think of AS dumplings, being a dough cooked in boiling water. Apples are generally mild tasting, so using a lot of spices can really overwhelm their flavor. I used some apple juice as the basis for a sauce, or sort of icing, as the topping for the dumplings. I just used a small pinch of cinnamon to dust each serving. The basic recipe for the dumplings themselves comes from Germany, with my adjustments, and the Germans often serve them with a red wine based sauce.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons sugar
grated peel of one lemon
2 eggs
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
1 large apple finely chopped (I chose not to peel the apple, but you most certainly can do so)
1/2 cup apple juice or apple cider
2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar (depending upon desired thickness)
cinnamon for dusting

Beat together the butter and sugar. Mix in the lemon peel and eggs. Mix the baking powder into the flour, add the milk and mix with the lemon peel/egg to form a dough. Mix in the finely chopped apple. Drop tablespoon size amounts of dough into a pot of lightly salted simmering water. The dumplings will float after a short time, but let them cook for a total of about 5 minutes thereafter, using a long spoon to make sure none of the dumplings stick to the bottom of the pan, and to make sure the dumplings are turned a couple of times during the cooking time. Remove dumplings with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. For the icing/sauce: mix 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar into the apple juice. Mix in more sugar depending upon how thick you want the sauce. Spoon some sauce over each serving of dumplings and dust very lightly with cinnamon.

WORD HISTORY:
Thirst-This word, distantly related to "terra" (ground, land), a word of Latin derivation borrowed by English, goes back to Indo European "ters," which had the notion, "to dry, to become dry." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "þurstu" ^ (equals modern, "thurstu"), meaning, "dryness in the throat;" thus, "thirst." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "þurst" (="thurst"), which then became "thurst," before the modern version. The verb form in Old English was "þyrstan" ("to thirst"), and it also had the figurative meaning, "to strongly desire," a meaning that has continued to this day. Relatives in the other Germanic languages (nouns): German has "Durst," Low German Saxon "Dörst," ^^ West Frisian "toarst," Dutch "dorst,'' Danish "tørst," Icelandic "þorsti" (not to be confused with their word for "thirsty," which is, "þyrstur"), Norwegian "tørst," Swedish "törst."

^ The 'þ' is called a "thorn," an old letter/symbol in the English alphabet, as well as some other alphabets in Germanic languages, as it came from the old Germanic runes, the letters/symbols used by the Germanic tribes for their writings. It is still used by Icelandic (see above in words related to "thirst"). It is written as "th" in modern English. 

^^ Once spelled exactly as its English cousin, "thurst," in the Middle Ages.

Mecklenburg Dumplings & Spiced Pears

This is a dessert dish from the region of Mecklenburg, part of the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a large state that runs along the Baltic Sea. In German the dish is often referred to as, "Mecklenburger Klöße mit Birnen" ("Mecklenburg Dumplings with Pears").

Ingredients:

For the pears:
3 or 4 ripe, but firm, pears, peeled, cored and quartered
water to cover
1 cinnamon stick
lemon peel from one lemon
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 4 tablespoons water
pinch of salt

For the dumplings:
1/4 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons cream
2 large eggs or 1 jumbo egg
1 teaspoon sugar
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup (more or less) finely ground breadcrumbs

Put the peeled, cored and cut pears, the cinnamon stick, the lemon peel, the sugar and the salt in a pan and add just enough water to cover. Simmer the pears until they have softened, but not so that they are mushy. Add the cornstarch/water mixture and continue to stir until the liquid thickens a bit. It is not supposed to be super thick, however. In the meantime, bring a pan with about 5 to 6 inches of water to a gentle boil. Beat together the butter, eggs, sugar and cream until foamy, mix in the nutmeg and salt. Gradually add the breadcrumbs until a dough forms. If a good dough forms by using less than 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs, that is okay. Likewise, if you need more than 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, add an extra tablespoon at a time, until the dough forms. A "good dough" should be able to hold its shape when put into simmering water. Use a tablespoon to scoop out the dough to form the dumplings and put them into the boiling water. Cook about 5 to 6 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to remove the dumplings. 

Click to enlarge... I've left the cinnamon stick and a piece of lemon peel on the pears purely for the photo

WORD HISTORY: 
Pear-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown, but it goes back to Latin "pirum," meaning, "pear," the plural of which was "pira," apparently mistakenly thought of as a singular when borrowed by Germanic, giving Old English "pere," with the ending "e" pronounced as "eh/ah." The term also spread throughout the other Germanic dialects, giving the modern Germanic languages: German "Birne," ^ Low German Saxon "Beer," Dutch "peer," West Frisian "par," Danish and Norwegian "pære," Icelandic "pera" and Swedish "päron."

^ German too spelled the word with a "p" long ago, but the "b" variation came about and became the dominant form. I wonder if some Germans confused the word with "beri," the forerunner of modern "Beere," the close relative of English "berry?" The "n" seems to have appeared in the 1200s.

Plum Pudding and Plum Cake

Believe it or not, it wasn't until a few years ago that I had my first "plum pudding." It was during the Christmas season and one of the stores had it advertised. I'd long heard of plum pudding, but I really didn't even know what it was. It came in a small tin canister, as I recall. I tried it and I liked it. It is in the same sort of category as fruit cake, as it contains pieces of dried fruit in a spiced dark cake like mixture, laced with rum or brandy. A little research revealed there are no plums in plum pudding, the term for the dessert being taken from the fact that up until about two hundred years ago, raisins were referred to as "plums" in England, and plum pudding has lots of raisins. It eventually came to be associated with Christmas in England and some people made the pudding about a year in advance, allowing the product to age for a year, before serving it. Plum pudding made the journey across the Atlantic with English colonists, whose descendants became Americans, and I suppose it may still traditionally grace the Christmas menu in parts of New England, or a few rural areas, where such traditions have lingered. The term "pudding" will also throw most Americans off, too, as in England, puddings can mean a dish of meat and other ingredients boiled or steamed until solidified into a loaf or sausage, or a pudding can be a pastry or a sweetened dessert like rice pudding. To non American readers, most Americans certainly think of pudding as a milk-based kind of custard, or cornstarch thickened flavored milk dessert.

Initially I was going to include a recipe here, but there are many and you can find a multitude of such online or in cookbooks. The general idea is, raisins, dried fruit peel, and spices like nutmeg, ground cloves, and cinnamon are combined and soaked in rum or brandy for a few days. These are then mixed with flour, bread pieces or bread crumbs, eggs, sugar, and more rum or brandy. The dough can then be wrapped in cloth and steamed or boiled, or put into a bowl and steamed.

Plum cake (what Americans might call a plum tart) is something I became attached to in Germany, where bake shops frequently had them displayed in their windows. There are many regional terms for this dessert in German, with "Pflaumenkuchen" (literally "plum cake") being more common in the north and a wide variety of forms like Zwetschgendatschi/Zwetschkendatschi" (in Bavaria and Austria), "Quetschekuchen" (Hessen and part of the Rhineland) or "Zwetschgenkuchen" used elsewhere. It is my understanding that it is also made in the German part of Switzerland, but I'm not sure of the name they use for it there. A plum tart has a flat, usually yeast-risen, somewhat sweetened dough rolled out like a pizza crust for a baking sheet. The pitted, but unpeeled plums are fitted onto the dough in overlapping fashion, like roofing tiles. Sugar and cinnamon are sprinkled over the top, or in some regions, it is more of a streusel like topping. I loved the "Quetschekuche" of Frankfurt, along with a cup of coffee.         

WORD HISTORY:
Plum/Prune-These are really the same word, but in slightly altered forms. The ultimate origins are uncertain, although many believe the term to come from an ancient language in the area of what is now Turkey, but well before the Turks settled there, and people in that area in ancient times were often Indo Europeans. Anyway, Greek had "proumnon" which then became "prounon," which meant "plum." Latin borrowed the word from Greek as "prunum," which then became "pruna." Old Germanic borrowed the word from Latin, but with many of the Germanic dialects changing the "r" to "l;" thus Old English (Anglo-Saxon) had "plume" (likely pronounced as "ploom-eh," before the "u" sound changed to a short sound, and the ending "e" was dropped). The Latin form "pruna" was inherited by Old French, a Latin-based language, as "prune." English borrowed the word circa 1400; thus English has "plum" for the fresh fruit and "prune" for the dried, wrinkled, shiny fruit. Forms in the other Germanic languages: standard German has "Pflaume"^ (plum) and both "Backpflaume" and "Dörrpflaume" (dried plum/prune); Low German Saxon has "Pluum" (plum) and "Backpluum" (prune); Dutch has "pruim" (plum) and "pruimen" (prune); West Frisian has "prom" (plum); Danish has "blomme" (plum; notice the "b" in place of "p"); Norwegian has "plomme" (plum) and Swedish has "plommon" (plum) and Icelandic has "plóma."

^ Standard German is based upon a form of High German. One of the characteristics of High German long ago was the "frequent" change in sound of "p" to "pf" and sometimes to "f." Thus while English has "pipe," German has "Pfeife," where the first "p" changed to "pf" and the second "p" changed to "f." The Low German dialects and Frisian were not affected by this sound change, nor was English, as the Anglo-Saxons had already departed the mainland for Britain by the time many of the changes which brought about High German had taken place.