Ball game buffet menu

Here comes another season of fun ball game parties. I prepared a menu plan for myself for a buffet style spread. I thought I put it up here, with all the links I researched for some nice recipes, so that not only will I have everything at my fingertips, but maybe someone else can benefit from my preparation efforts. So here it goes:

Savory meatballs in brandy sauce (video)
Roast turkey breast and legs
Corn bread dressing
Chilled shrimp with remoulade sauce
Cold meat platter (thinly sliced salamis, ham, prosciutto, etc)
Cold vegetable platter (carrot sticks, cauliflower, celery, radishes, red and green pepper strips, etc)
Dip for the veggies
Israeli couscous and tuna salad
Green salad
Potato salad
Concorde salad
Deviled eggs
Scalloped potatoes
Chocolate stout cake
Double frosted Bourbon brownies

Middle Eastern Spice Mix

We love to experiment with spice mixes in this family, so we had several favourites in the past.  I found this one recently at Chef Jeena's Food Blog. Very nice!  

We particularly like the idea of making a dip (dunk) out of it.  We mix it into a little olive oil, sprinkle some dried garlic powder into it and a spoonful of fresh lemon juice.  And then we dunk freshly baked bread chunks into it.  With slices or red pepper or cucumbers it is just divine!  The perfect snack. 

Banana cream (Entremet à la purée de bananes)

When we lived in Paris in the mid 70's (me pregnant with our first child conceived on the Côte d'Azur :) there was a cookbook published monthly as a series, to be collected and eventually bound. It was called La cuisine de A à Z. I managed to collect five of them, one of them containing the "entremets". This banana pudding is one of the recipes that appears on our table occasionally, to the delight of all the members of the family. It is recipe of medium fuss, it needs a bit of time with three different steps in the preparation. But it is all worth it in the end!

6 bananas
lemon juice
100ml (1/2 cup) whipping cream or half-and-half
2 tbs rum or 1 ts rum essence
40gr + 35gr butter
½ l (2 cups) milk
4 large eggs
50gr flour
80gr+50gr+50gr sugar
1 ts vanilla essence

Pour the milk into a 2L glass container, retaining 1/2c of it. Bring the milk to boil in the microwave oven. Break 3 eggs, separating them into two bowls, putting only two whites to be whipped, one will be put aside for another use. Now add the fourth whole egg to the three yolks, add the 80gr of sugar, beat them together, slowly adding and incorporating the flour, alternating with the retained milk. Now pour this mix into a pot, slowly add the boiling milk to it, the cook it over medium heat, stirring the mix with a wire whip so it will not develop clots. Alternately, you can pour the flour and egg mix slowly into the hot milk in the glass bowl and carefully thicken it in the microwave, stirring every few minutes. Now add the 40gr butter and the vanilla, beat it in, then put the container in some cold water in the sink to cool it while preparing the bananas.

Mash the bananas and sprinkle lemon juice (about 1 tbs) over the mash to make sure it does not brown. In a saucepan melt the 35gr butter, add the banana mash with 50gr sugar and keep stirring over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Now add the cream and cook it for another 5 minutes, until it thickens a bit. Ad the rum, stir a little loner, then remove and cool it in the sink while you prepare the egg whites.

Beat the whites, slowly adding the leftover sugar, until it forms stiff peaks. If both the cream and the bananas are cool, mix the two, then gently fold in the whites. Cover the bowl with a cling wrap and place it in the fridge to cool it thoroughly. For special occasions you can decorate the top with extra banana slices and/or whipped cream.

Special gourmet tamale pie

Meat mixture
2 tablespoon oil
1 cup chopped green pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1 pound ground beef
3 tablespoons tomato paste
½ pound tomato sauce
3/4 pound corn kernels
2 teaspoons dark cocoa powder
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cornmeal
½ teaspoon ground allspice
½ teaspoons Tabasco
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup sliced Spanish olives (optional)

Cornmeal topping
2 cups cornmeal
1 cup all purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
5 tablespoon s butter, melted
1 – 1 ¼ cup milk
1 egg
4 – 6 oz Jalapenos chopped
1 cup grated cheese
½ cup cheese for the top

Saute the onions with the green pepper in the oil to soften them, then add the ground beef. Stir it at medium heat, making sure that the meat doesn't cump up, until it is no longer pink. Mix in the tomato paste and sauce with all the seasonings and let it simmer on low, covered, for about half an hour.

Prepare the cornmeal topping by mixing everything together in a bowl.

Spread the meat mix in a deep baking dish, carefully dot the cornmeal mix on top, then smooth it over the meat. Finally sprinkle the extra cheese over it. Bake it at 400F for 10 minutes, the reduce the heat to 350F and bake it for another 40 minutes.

Festive meatloaf

I had guests this weekend, but I did not feel like creating something labour intensive. Yet, I wanted "visual appeal". Plus I only had ground turkey at home and it needed to be used up. So I looked around for inspiration on the net, in Images, for a nice meatloaf. The resulting creation looked like this:




Ingredients:
3 lbs ground meat (any kind)
1 1/2 cup soft breadcrumbs
3 eggs
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (or Maggi)
a 4 oz chunk sharp Cheddar, grated
1 cup or more of chopped parsley or spinach
tomato paste
salt pepper, paprika, cinnamon
bacon slices (optional)

Mix together the first five ingredients, add salt and pepper to taste, then take off one third of the mix. To this smaller amount add a pinch of cinnamon, some mild paprika and tomato paste until you like the resulting colour.

Now spread the larger amount of meat onto a square of plastic wrap, carefully arranging so the width would fit the loaf pan. Now spread the steamed and ground spinach (or chopped parsley) on top of the meat, then sprinkle the cheese over it. Finally carefully spread the red meat on top, not quite all the way to the edge on the long side so you can roll it up nicely.

Transfer the roll into the pan and, if you have bacon, cover the top of the loaf with the slices. Cover the pan with aluminum foil and bake it at 350F for half an hour. Then remove the foil, return the loaf to the oven and bake until the bacon on the top is nice and crisp.

Serve it with celery-lemon rice. I also offered steamed snow peas, pickles and a tomato salad to go with it.

Chicken stew with fennel

I tasted this recipe many years ago at the house of a friend who was born in Morocco. He is a musician and amateur cook who often produces brilliant menus. Fennels were on sale this week and I got two nice big ones, so I called him for the recipe. He graciously shared it with me but after the call I realized that I have some ingredients missing. I still decided to go ahead with the dish and, although the end result was not quite like the memory of the dish I had at their house, I did end up with a very tasty tagine like casserole that the whole family enjoyed. So much so the even though I did take a photo during the cooking, I never got around to take another one with the food on a plate. Here is my recipe:

3 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 large fennel bulbs (called bisbas in Morocco)
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoons grated ginger (or 1/2 ts powder)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/8 teaspoon Ras El Hanout
fresh ground pepper, to taste
1 to 1 1/2 cup water
handful of parsley tied into a bouquet
Stuff I did not have:
1 or 2 handfuls of red olives
1 preserved lemon, quartered and seeds removed

This is how the stew looked halfway through the cooking process.



I cut the chicken breasts into strips. The fennels I quartered, cut out the bottom rooty part (and ate them raw - yum), then I sliced them across into finger width strips.

First I heated the oil and quick fried the chicken slices on relatively high heat, in two batches. I removed them onto a platter. When I was done with the second batch, I ended up with a lot of little chicken morsels in the oil. I added to the pot the fennel seeds, stirred them a bit to let them release their fragrance. I dumped in the finely chopped onion, sprinkled the leftover spices over it, and I sauted it on medium heat until it started to show a few golden bits.

Then I added the fennel. I did not have the Moroccan spice mix, so I just sprinkled in a little extra of what I had: cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, nutmeg and cayenne. By that time the bottom of the pan started to turn brownish from the leftover chicken matter. While stirring, I managed to scrape up most of the stuck morsels, as you can see in the picture.

When the fennel started to soften, I added the chicken and poured water over it to cover up to about 2/3 of the stuff in the pot. At this point I covered it and let it stew until everything got cooked. At the end I adjusted the taste, adding a little extra salt, and served the stew over rice. Of course the real thing would have been eating it with khobz, a crusty Moroccan bread, but besides the fact that we did not have any, two of the family members are also gluten sensitive, so rice it was. Overall, it was a success, that is why I have the recipe up here... :-)

Yam or sweet potato pockets

This week sweet potatoes, or better known here in our corner of the world as yams, were on sale. Of course I bought a bagful of them and looked around for recipes. These buns appealed to me because for our afternoon coffees we always have to have something sweet as an accompaniment. My husband is able to finish off a whole plate of cookies with one mug of coffee. So I am always on the lookout for things that are at least healthier than those commercial cookies I was forced to buy during my lengthy illness I thankfully have behind me now.

But to get to the point, I made a small batch of these buns and, sure enough, they were gone before I could snap a picture of them. So I had to breach copyright laws and use the photo taken by Manang, the creator of the recipe. Actually I may as well send you to her website because she has a slideshow that details all the steps necessary in the creation of these lovely and healthy little gems:
Kusina ni Manang

Turkey nuggets

I discovered half of a large turkey breast lurking in the back of my freezer. Unfortunately it has been sitting there for almost two months, so I was worried about "freezer taste". I figured that if I soak the meat for a good while in lukewarm water and then marinate it with some exotic spices, things will turn out all right. And they did.

I read somewhere about using cardamom in a meat dish but I did not taste such a dish yet. So I thought that this was as good a time as ever for experimentation. This is what I did.



I cut the meat into relatively small pieces, then I marinated them for half an hour with the following spices:

1 lb turkey breast pieces
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 crushed garlic
dash ginger powder
salt, pepper

Then I made a batter by putting in the blender:

½ cup grated Cheddar cheese
3 tablespoon sour cream
½ teaspoon chili powder
2 tablespoon chopped parsley
salt, pepper to taste

I poured this on the meat pieces and let it sit for another 15 minutes. In the meantime I lined a baking sheet with aluminum foil and sprayed that with PAM. Then I mixed into the meat 2 tablespoon cornmeal and arranged the pieces on the baking pan. I drizzled a little extra oil on the whole thing and then let it bake under the broiler. When one side got a nice colour, I turned the pieces over to give the other side a chance.

We had a nice coleslaw as an accompaniment, as well as some dipping sauces. Some of us had pitas alongside, refreshed under the hot grill, others who have wheat sensitivity (like myself) went with parsleyed rice.

It was a bit of an unusual taste experience but we liked it, I will definitely repeat it!

Chayote soup

I have recently discovered this wonderful vegetable. It is actually a member of the squash family. It grows on vines, and they harvest it when it is still quite tender, about the size of your palm.


For a long time I eyed it with suspicion, until one day I read that its taste is not unlike that of kohlrabies. I LOVE kohlrabi, particularly in the form of kohlrabi soup. So when I ventured to give chayotes a try, I made a nice soup out of them.

Chayote soup

2 chayotes, peeled, seed removed, chopped
a handful of parsley, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups or more of stock (chicken or vegetable)
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 cup milk
salt, pepper to taste

Prepare the chayote, chop the parsley, then heat the butter in a saucepan. Throw in the parsley and saute it for a minute to release the flavour.


Add the chopped chayote, sprinkle the sugar over it and saute until some of the pieces start to develop a golden edge. Pour the stock in, cover the pot and let it cook gently for some 10 minutes. Doesn't need much time, it becomes tender very quickly.


When it is crisp tender, make a paste using the flour and a little milk. Stir it until smooth, then dilute it with the rest of the milk and add it to the soup. Adjust the saltiness of the soup, and let it simmer few minutes longer.


That's it!

The resulting soup lacks the robustness of kohlrabies, I still prefer those instead of the chayote version. Not that it is not enjoyable, because it is. But I will look around for other ways to make use of these. Actually I very much enjoy eating chayote raw, as is. I did not try the salad recipes I saw on the net.

All in all, chayotes now joined my culinary repertoire.

Middle Eastern rice casserole (pilaf)

This is a wonderful one pot complete dish that needs only some veggies or pickles on the side to make it a full dinner experience.



2 ½ cups rice (preferably Basmati)
2 cups green lentils
1 pound ground beef (lamb is even better)
2 large onions
2-3 potatoes
1/3 cup raisins
a handful of dates
salt, pepper
saffron (or a pinch of turmeric)

For this dish you wash the rice until the water stays clear to make sure that there is no starch left that could make the rice sticky. Then you have to pre-soak it for up to four hours, until the grains will become nice and plump. Finally you bring a big pot of lightly salted water (about 6 cups) to boil, add the rice and bring it back to boil. Keep checking the rice while simmering it on low for a few more minutes, the grains should be slightly al dente when you drain the rice off in a colander. When drained properly, pour it back into the pot, add a little oil to keep the grains separate, taste for salt and pepper and adjust if necessary.

In the meantime, cook the lentils until tender but not falling apart. Drain.

When you have the rice and lentils both ready, chop the onions and saute them in a little oil until translucent (some like it fried to golden). Add the ground meat, some salt and pepper, and saute it until looses its pink, then add half a cup of water and let it simmer, stirring occasionally, until the water evaporates. Wash the dates and raisins, then chop the dates into quarters or smaller, and mix them into the ground meat, together with the lentils. Taste for salt and pepper and adjust.

Now generously oil a Dutch oven, peel and slice a few potatoes, just enough so you can cover the bottom of the pot with the slices. Pour half a cup of water over them, then pour in half the rice. Now add the meat mix and top it with the second half of the rice.

Poke a few vents into the mix all the way to the bottom, place a folded kitchen towel over the pot and place the lid on top of it. The reason for this is that if you just cover it with the lid, the water gets condensed, drips back and will make the rice soggy. On the other hand, if you cook without the lid, the top of the casserole will get too dry and not completely cooked through. Now put the pot over low heat and let it cook for about 20 minutes. At that point lift the lid and towel and smell. You should smell a bit the fried potatoes at the bottom. If not, let it cook just a little longer.

Remove the pot from the heat, dissolve the saffron (or turmeric) in a bit of warm water, pour it over and lightly mix the rice and meat, while making sure that you do not scrape up the potatoes from the bottom. Turn the mix out onto a platter, then lift out the potatoes and arrange them in a circle around the edge, golden side up.

Gingerbread Pumpkin Bars

Since this year we bought a couple of oversized pumpkins for Halloween, I decided to make good use of them. One of them is processed already: I peeled it, cut it into inch thick cubes, steamed the whole thing in a large pot, then I left the cooked mass in a colander for a couple of hours, until most of the liquid drained off. Then I mashed the pumpkin into a puree and packed it in plastic containers that went in the freezer. I left one box out.

The next step was to look for a recipe. The boys wanted pumpkin pie but I felt that this time maybe we should do something different, so I promised them a pie for next week. Then I looked around on the net. I found this easy recipe on the blog called Culinary in the Country.



It sounded good, so I decided to try it. We did not regret it. Very nice! The recipe is definitely staying in my repertoire. It did turn out looking a little different, though. The pumpkin layer is much lighter in colour, and the 3/4 cup topping was not enough. Next time I will use only 2/3 of the dough at the bottom, and 1/3 on top, or maybe even half and half. As for the recipe, you can just go there for it. One more thing, the 16 tablespoons of butter is actually half a pound, no need to fiddle with a measuring spoon.

Super easy banana ricotta ice cream

Wow! I just discovered a great new, and what is also important, super fast and easy ice cream recipe. We had a long hot and steamy stretch of weather here in Toronto and I looked around for something easy to make. Since I did happen to have a few frozen bananas in my freezer, this recipe at "the minbaker" caught my attention. I did make ice creams with frozen fruit and whipping cream before, but that is too calorie rich to have it too often. This idea of using reduced fat ricotta really works! I made it for the family today and it was an instant success. No time for taking pictures, though... This photo is from the source of the recipe...


Easy Banana Soft Serve

2 ripe frozen bananas
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon sugar

In a food processor, combine frozen bananas with remaining ingredients. Process until smooth. Divide into 4 serving bowls and serve it right away.

Blog hopping

I have been cooking a lot of East Indian dishes in this past year. As such, I have visited a lot af good blogs that offer Indian fare. The last such successful contribution to my family's culinary experiences came from Show Me the Curry. We had their Chicken kofta curry. It is particularly helpful that they have a lot of videos that demonstrate the right techniques for preparing their recipes.



Another Indian blog with very detailed explanations is Kajal's Dreams. I am planning on preparing her spinach dhokla sometime in the next few days.

I also discovered a set of Jordanian blogs that each focus on certain dishes. One of them is the Hummus blog, another one is dedicated to Falafel, while another one is dedicated to Rice recipes. So I suppose my direction is in the process of changing...

Balsamic Mushrooms

I make mushrooms as a side dish often, but I just found a recipe with a very simple extra ingredient that can make a whole lot of difference. From Cherry at sakurambokitchen. It is very quick, just as good at room temperature as hot off the stove. And it is nutricious. What else do we need?

Balsamic mushrooms

1/4 cup olive oil
12 ounces to a pound of white mushrooms, halved, quartered or sliced
1 tsp garlic
1 corn
1/4 red pepper, diced
3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (the magic ingredient)
salt, pepper

Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Fry garlic. Add mushrooms, and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in vinegar, salt, and season with pepper. Add corn and red pepper. Cook 1 minute more.

I served it as a side dish for meatballs, with rice.

My best ever scalopped potatoes

This was one of those inspired moments when you add a bit of this, a bit of that, and you end up with a dish that turns out better than any other version you ever prepared before. I must put it up here to make sure I will be able to repeat it again, to make sure I will not upset my family with lesser casserole. This is what I did:

cca 9 lbs potatoes
½ to 1 lb dry sausages, preferably smoked, like a Chabai
½ cup oil
¼ cup bacon bits
5-6 eggs
1 pint (500 gr) sour cream
2 cups milk
1 Tbs chicken soup powder, or Mr Dash, or any other flavour enhancer
salt, pepper

Cook the potatoes, let them cool, then peel and slice them. While the potatoes cool, slice up the sausages and fry them slightly in the oil. This will make the sausages tastier and the oil will be infused with the sausage flavour. When you take it off the heat, stir in the bacon bits, also. Scoop the coins out with a slotted spoon, the bacon bits can stay.

Oil a large casserole dish. I prefer the wider, flatter variety, as that produces a casserole with lots of crunchy corners and surfaces. As you peel and slice the potatoes, they can go directly in the pan. Layer them down alternately with the sausages so that the top layer will be potatoes.

Now take a bowl and whip the sour cream in it until smooth. Add the eggs one by one, then the oil with all the bacon bits. Stir in the milk, eyeballing it to have approximately enough liquid to cover the top layer of potatoes also, then flavour this sauce, making sure that the flavours are quite stronger than normal, because the potatoes will absorb and mellow them.

Pour a spoonful or two of extra oil on the top, and bake it (350F-) until the edges are golden and the top is crunchy. In our family this constitutes a hearty meal, served with pickles, beet relish, or tomato salad.

Pesto crescents

This recipe will yield a relatively large amount of crescents. If you want, you can fill half of the dough with jam, a nut or chocolate filling.

2 lbs flour
2 Tbs fry active yeast
2 c milk
1/2 c white wine (or soda water)
1/2 c butter (margarine)
2 Tbs sugar
2 tsp salt
2 or 3 egg yolks
a jar of pesto (basil, olive, or sun dried tomato)

Knead all these together to get a nice, smoothly elastic dough. If too stiff, you can add a few spoonfuls of sour cream. If sticky, add a little extra flour. Let it rise till double.

Separate into balls and roll each ball into a circle. Cut the circle into wedges, smear a little pesto on each and roll them up. Arrange them on parchment lines cookie sheet and let them rise a little. You may brush the tops with egg wash and sprinkle some Parmesan or sesame seeds over them.

Cardamom coffee cake with almond filling

(Picture) – to follow

flour, altogether 3 ¼ - 3 ½ cups
1 package active dry yeast
2/3 cup milk
6 Tbs butter or margarine
1/3 cup sugar
1 ts salt
1 egg + 1 yolk
½ to 1 ts ground cardamom


Heat the milk, butter, sugar and salt together in a cup. It should be still comfortably warm to your hand. Take a large bowl, put in it 1 ½ cup flour, cardamom, egg and yolk, and beat it with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes. Then add enough of the remaining flour to have a moderately stiff dough. Turn this out onto a floured surface and knead it for another 3-4 minutes. Now put it in a greased bowl and let it rise to double it original amount.

In the meantime prepare the filling:
½ cup almonds
½ cup sugar
1 ts cinnamon
1 egg white

Toast the almonds spread on a sheet of aluminum foil in a toaster oven. When cool enough to handle, grind it in a grinder or blender. Beat the whites to stiff, gradually adding the sugar. Then gently fold in the almonds and the cinnamon.

Now take off 1/3 to ½ of the dough. Roll out the rest into a 10x10 inches rectangle. Spread the filling over it, then roll it up jelly roll fashion. Make a ring and place it on a parchment lined sheet. Now make a rope out of the smaller ball of dough, wet the top of the large ring and form a ring on top of it with the rope. With a pair of scissors snip diagonally into the rope at regular (cca 2 inches) intervals, then twist these leaf shaped sections one outward, one inward, all around.

Let it rise again a little, then bake the cake at 375F for about 25 minutes. You can put some aluminum foil over it if the top seems to brown too quickly. When done, let it cool, then drizzle the icing over it.

Brown butter icing

Heat 2 Tbs unsweetened butter, stirring constantly, until it turns brown. When cool, gradually add 1 cup powder sugar, adding ½ ts vanilla and further easing it with drops of milk to get it to drizzling consistency. Now pour this by tablespoons over the top of the cake and let it dry.

New Year's Day open house

We had a great New Year's Day open house. It is a recent "tradition" that our family started a few years ago. Our doors open at around lunch time (12:30 this year), and goes on for whenever the last guests leave. There is a little detail about this year that I did not appreciate: the first guest arrived at 12:20, ten minutes before the official opening... Please, people, don't do that! (...they are my relatives and I know they won't mind my public disclosure here :) Give a little extra time to the hosts, they are NEVER ready right on time, there is always something forgotten that they remember in the last minute.

Anyway, aside from me still being in the shower when guests started to arrive, we had a successful open house this year. The fireplace was crackling invitingly, the buffet table was laden, the coffee machine was exuding its heady aroma, and the mulled wine was gently warming on the stove. For the earlier guests we had finger food, both savoury and sweet, then around dinner time we had a few warm, more substantial dishes added to the menu.

This is the list of this year's offerings: cold turkey breast stuffed with chicken liver pate, olive pesto rolls, almond rice, cabbage salad. On the sweet side: cardamom coffee cake with toasted almond filling, the all-time favourite Bacardi rum cake, brownie-cheesecake slices, walnut slices, and peanut brittle. For the later warm fare I always make a big pot of chili, because that always tastes even better when prepared ahead and reheated. We also had an artichoke cheese cake that was reheated in the toaster oven, and I had some puff pastry cups that I filled with a salmon-scrambled eggs filling, both prepared ahead of the time, just assembled and heated before serving.

I managed to take only a few photos, I will post those recipes in the coming days.

Happy New Year!

Armenian khurut

Here is a recipe I inherited from my Armenian great grandmother. My grandmother still used to make it occasionally, but my mother did not bother with it any more. I still remember the taste of it and one day I will make some (I promised to myself...).

So what is this mystery food? It is a potted mix that is used to flavour dishes, mostly soups. I did try to look for it on the net without success, so maybe modern Armenians don't bother with it either. If so, then I consider it doubly my duty to post it here as a heritage recipe. Of course, it may happen that in Armenia it goes by another name. I would appreciate if someone who happens to pass by could comment on it. There is another recipe I never found anywhere and which unfortunately I do not own, I just remember it from my childhood. It was called HARSNEMADNAG and it was a cigar shaped cookie. I would very much appreciate the recipe if you happen to have it...!!!

For now here is the description of how khurut was prepared in my great grandmother's house:

Bring 1 liter (4 cups) milk to just below boiling point, let it cool a bit, then mix in ½ liter (2 cups) pure sour cream (which does not contain any gelling agent), cover it and let it stand at room temperature overnight. Next day bring large quantities of milk, 6-8-10 liters, again to boiling point, let it cool and mix the previous day's clotted batch into it.

Cover and let this big pot sit in a warm room for three weeks, stirring it every day. After the three weeks put the resulting yogurt on the stove and let it simmer, stirring occasionally, until it becomes as thick as good sour cream.

Meanwhile get a huge amount of parsley (about the size of a 10 lb bag of potatoes, or maybe even more), pick the leaves off the stems and grind these leaves in a food processor (the old recipe suggests a meat grinder), adding 10-12 celery tops (leaves only), and maybe some fresh tarragon leaves. Put the ground mix into the yogurt and keep simmering while stirring until it becomes as thick as marmalade.

Distribute this among jam jars while still hot, screw the tops on, turn them over for a short while, then store the jars in a dark closet. It will last indefinitely, or at least until next year. They usually prepared it in August or September.

It is used by adding a spoonful or so, mixed with fresh yogurt or sour cream, into soups or sauces, adjusting the amount to get a pleasingly sour taste.