A Vintage Meal

Vintage.  Retro.  Mid-century. 

You know you are getting old when these are the words that describe trends in fashion, interior design and architecture from your youth.

But when I think of cuisine from my childhood, which mostly encompassed the 1960s, I don’t think of it in such glamorous terms.  

As a child growing up in northern Wisconsin, I didn’t have a lot of access to gourmet food and fine dining experiences.  In fact, what I mostly recall are dishes with canned soups, Jello and processed cheese. 

This is not because my mother and other relatives weren’t good cooks.  They were.  

But their cooking was also circumscribed by the constraints of middle-class incomes, lots of kids and, consequently, a lack of time.  This was a pre-food processor, pre-microwave oven era. 

And there was a lack of product availability.  Take vegetables, for example.  It’s hard for us to remember a time when even the local grocery store didn’t have tomatillos, celery root or eight kinds of peppers. 

But for my mother, a child of the Depression and World War II, canned vegetables were the norm, frozen vegetables were an expensive and recent innovation, and fresh vegetables, other than root and seasonal, local vegetables, were hard to come by. 

I can remember the first time I had fresh broccoli at a friend’s home in the early 70s.  I came home raving about the “little trees.”  Broccoli is still my favorite vegetable.

So when I started planning a dinner party for friends of a “certain age,” I thought it would be fun to take some of the “swankier” dishes I remember from my childhood and teens—some I had only read about--and re-present them. 

My sincerest thanks to my Guinea pigs:  Jan, Dennis, John, June, and Malcolm.  And to my dear husband who did the grocery shopping and listened with enthusiasm as I talked through this menu again, and again, and again. 

A Vintage Dinner Party Menu

Miniature Twice-Baked Potatoes

Gougères

Roasted Shrimp Cocktail & Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Deconstructed Chicken Kiev

Quinoa Pilaf

Spinach Gratin with Roasted Red Peppers

Red Velvet Baked Alaska
Stinger Shooters & "Cigarettes"

The Recipes

Miniature Twice-Baked Potatoes

Twice-baked potatoes were always a special-occasion treat when I was growing up.  I’m sure my mother didn’t have time to do much of anything TWICE. 

These are a “toy” version of those tasty spuds.  I was going to stick a small piece of cooked bacon in each potato, but I ran out of time.  I’m sure a sprinkling of cheddar cheese either in or on the potatoes would be good, too. 

Source:  original recipe

Yield:  16 potatoes, appetizers for 6-8

Ingredients:

20 very small (about 1 to 1½-inch size) Yukon gold potatoes

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

2 T. buttermilk

4 T. sour cream, divided

4 T. snipped chives, divided

Preheat oven to 425°.  Line a baking sheet with heavy duty foil (I’m tired of washing baking pans.)  Place the potatoes on the foil-lined pan and drizzle with olive oil.  Mix the potatoes with the oil to coat.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix again.  Roast the potatoes until fork-tender, about 20-25 minutes.  Remove from the oven and cool until the potatoes only warm to the touch.

Cut each potato in half horizontally.  Using the small end of a melon-baller, scoop out the cooked potato into a small bowl.  (For a short "ode" to the melon-baller, see "Summer (Jazz) Brunch.")  Reserve the potato “shells.” Using a fork or potato masher, mash the potatoes.  Add 1 T. buttermilk and 1 T. sour cream.  Mix to combine.  Add more buttermilk and sour cream to achieve a “rough” mashed potato consistency.  Season with salt and pepper and 2 T. chives. 

Using a small spoon, fill the potato shells with the mashed potatoes.  (You will probably not be able to fill all of the potato shells). 

These can be made 2 hours ahead and held at room temperature.  Before serving, rewarm on the baking sheet at 350° for about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, fill a sandwich-sized plastic bag with the remaining 2 T. of sour cream.  Cut off one of the corners of the bag to make a ¼-inch hole.  When the potatoes are warm, remove them to a platter. Squeeze a small amount of sour cream on each potato, and sprinkle the potatoes with the remaining chives.  (I considered a caviar garnish, but I had to stop somewhere!)

Gougères

My first experience eating anything made out of a pâte à choux dough was when, as a child, I ate the delicious cream puffs at the Wisconsin State Fair held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  Real whipped cream (it IS the “Dairy State”) oozing out of pastries the size of babies’ heads!  Making the puffs is really quite easy, and I remember making éclairs when I was in my teens. 

These are a savory, appetizer version.  I did find a recipe from the 1960s for these, but it called for a stick of butter.  This more modern recipe is actually by the blogger and food writer who inspired me to start this blog. 

I think if I made these again, I would make them maybe half the size and adjust the cooking time.  I also might sprinkle some additional cheese on the top before baking.

They were a huge hit and completely devoured by my dinner guests.  You will have to take my word for it that the presentation—I piled them up in a gigantic martini glass—was perfect.  In the excitement of my hungry guests arriving, I forgot to snap a picture.

Source: Bon Appétit, April 2009 (Molly Wizenberg)

Yield:  Makes 2 dozen 1 ½-inch gougères

Ingredients:

1 c. water
3 T. unsalted butter (I used 4 T.)
¾ tsp. salt
1 c. unbleached all-purpose flour
4 large eggs, chilled
1 c. (packed) coarsely grated Gruyère cheese (about 4 ounces)
¼ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Process:

Position 1 rack in top third and 1 rack in bottom third of oven; preheat to 400°F. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.

Bring 1 c.  water, butter, and salt to simmer in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat, whisking until butter melts. Add flour; stir rapidly with wooden spoon until flour absorbs liquid and forms ball, pulling away from sides of pan. Stir vigorously until film forms on bottom of pan and dough is no longer sticky, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Remove pan from heat; cool dough 2 to 3 minutes. Using an electric mixer, beat in eggs 1 at a time. Stir in cheese and pepper.

Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough onto baking sheets, spacing about 3 inches apart. Using damp fingertip, press down any peaks of dough.

Bake gougères until golden brown, about 30 minutes, reversing position of pans halfway through baking. Using small sharp knife, pry open 1 gougère to check for doneness (center should be slightly eggy and moist). Serve hot or warm.

Can be made 3 hours ahead. Transfer to racks; cool. Rewarm in 350°F oven for 5 to 10 minutes.

Roasted Shrimp Cocktail 

As I’ve mentioned before, I LOVE shrimp.  (See Shrimply Delicious.) 

But shrimp cocktail seems especially vintage and indulgent when shrimp of this size are used.  So I decided to combine this classic first course with a salad.  The baby arugula and julienned radishes echo the peppery flavor of the horseradish in the cocktail sauce.  Roasting the shrimp makes all the difference in the flavor.

Source:   Back to Basics by Ina Garten

Yield:  6-8 servings

For the shrimp:

2 pounds (12- to 15-count) shrimp (I bought 3 shrimp per guest, which was plenty.)
1 T. olive oil
½ tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. freshly ground black pepper

For the sauce:

½ c. chili sauce (recommended: Heinz)
½ c. ketchup
3 T. prepared horseradish
2 tsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
¼ tsp. hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco)
1 hollowed out lemon half per guest for cocktail sauce, bottoms sliced so lemons will stand

Process:

Preheat oven to 400°.  Peel and devein the shrimp, leaving the tails on. Place them on a sheet pan with the olive oil, salt, and pepper and spread them in 1 layer. Roast for 8 to10 minutes, just until pink and firm and cooked through. Set aside to cool. For the sauce, combine the chili sauce, ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Serve as a dip with the shrimp.

Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Source for Lemon Vinaigrette:  Bon Appétit, December 1998

Yield:  Makes about 3/4 cup

Ingredients:

½ c. olive oil
3 T. fresh lemon juice
1 T. minced shallot (I left this out)
1½ tsp. Dijon mustard
½ tsp. grated lemon peel
½ tsp. sugar

Process

Whisk all ingredients in bowl to blend.  Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Chill. Bring to room temperature before using.)

For the salad:

Source:  original recipe

Yield:  6-8 servings

Ingredients:

8 c. mixed greens (I uses a mix of baby spinach and baby arugula)
½ c. julienned radishes (about 4-5 radishes)

Process:

Before serving, lightly dress greens with vinaigrette.  Sprinkle salad with radishes.

To assemble shrimp cocktail and salad:

Fill the hollowed out lemon halves with about 2 T. of the cocktail sauce.  Place a filled lemon half and 3 shrimp on each plate.  Place some of the salad on each plate.

Deconstructed Chicken Kiev

O.K. the name of this recipe is very tongue-in-cheek.  In fact, I thought about calling it “Plan B Chicken.”  I had intended to make Chicken Kiev, a quintessential “vintage” dish and one I actually made in my early cooking days in the mid-70s.  

But breasts are bigger than they used to be in the 70s—including the breasts of chickens. 

Chicken Kiev is made of very thin pieces of chicken that are wrapped around chilled butter and then pan-fried.  It’s important that the chicken completely encase the butter. 

However, even though I gently pounded the huge chicken breasts my husband had purchased, I couldn’t get them thin enough to roll around the chilled butter to make Chicken Kiev.  In retrospect, I might have had the butcher cut scaloppini, or I might have cut the breasts horizontally myself.  

Anyway, I didn’t, and I was left with uneven and too-small pieces of chicken.  

So, having already made the compound butter—truffle butter was my plan to “modernize” the dish—I decided to “schnitzel” the chicken and use the butter in a sauce.  

Schnitzel is not really a make-ahead kind of dish, so frying the chicken while my guests were in the living room made me a little nervous.  But it worked!  I think my German mother-in-law would have been proud.

Source:  original recipe

Yield:  8 servings

8 skinless boneless chicken breast halves, pounded to 3/4-inch thickness (about 2 ½ pounds total)

Salt & pepper

1 c. flour

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 c. panko (Japanese breadcrumbs) 

vegetable oil

2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 stick (8 T.) truffle butter (recipe follows)

1 c. dry white wine

Lemon wedges for serving

Between two sheets of plastic wrap, pound each breast to ½-¾-inch thickness.  Blot the chicken with paper towels.  Lightly season the chicken with salt and pepper on both sides.  Place the flour, eggs and panko in 3 different pie plates or shallow bowls.    In two large frying pans, pour enough vegetable oil to reach about ½-inch high.  Heat oil until smoking and then add 1 T. of the truffle butter to each pan.  Working quickly, coat both sides of each chicken breast with flour, then egg and then panko.  Cook chicken in the butter-oil until browned, crisp, and cooked through, turning once, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to platter.  Tent loosely with foil.  

Drain one of the frying pans of most of the oil, leaving brown bits on bottom.  Over medium-high heat, deglaze the pan with the wine and lemon juice, whisking and cooking until reduced by about half.  Whisk in at least 4 T.of the truffle butter, one tablespoon at a time.  To serve, drizzle the butter sauce on the chicken.

Truffle Butter

1/2 cup butter, softened

4 tsp. truffle oil

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. black pepper

In a small bowl combine the ingredients with a fork until blended.  Chill until almost firm.  Using plastic wrap, form the butter into a log about the size of a stick of butter.  Chill until ready to use.  (Leftovers can be frozen.)

Quinoa Pilaf

Source:  Foodnetwork. Com

Yield:  4-6 servings (in parentheses are my modifications for 8 servings)

Ingredients:

1 T. olive oil (1 T + 1½ tsp.)

1 med. onion, peeled and chopped (1 lg.)

½ cup crimini mushrooms, wiped clean and thinly sliced  (3/4 c. I chopped them for a finer texture)

1½ c. quinoa, rinsed well and drained  (2 c.)

½ tsp. fresh thyme leaves removed from their stems (3/4 tsp.)

11/2 tsp. kosher salt (2 tsp.)

Pepper, freshly ground

3 c. chicken broth (4 c.)

Process:

Place a saucepan on high heat and get it hot. Add the olive oil and swirl it around to make sure the entire surface is covered with oil. Add the shallot and sweat (cook until translucent but not brown). Add the crimini mushrooms and cook until brown. Add the quinoa, thyme leaves, bay leaf, kosher salt and black pepper to the pan and stir. Let the ingredients heat up and roast a little to bring out all their fullest flavors. The steam coming up should be very aromatic.  Slowly and carefully add the vegetable stock (it will spatter because the pan and ingredients are hot). When it comes to full boil, reduce the heat to a low simmer, cover and allow to steam for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, turn off the heat, remove lid and fluff the quinoa and then replace the lid and allow to sit for about 10 minutes.

Spinach Gratin with Roasted Red Peppers

When I asked my husband what vegetable dish he remembered most fondly from his childhood, he didn’t hesitate a second before replying, “Creamed spinach.”  This is Ina Garten’s recipe. 

Although she’s known as the “Barefoot Contessa,” I think of her as “The Food Queen.”  And if she says frozen spinach is acceptable, it is!

But with apologies to Her Highness, I added roasted peppers to this dish.  The flavor and color of the peppers put this over the top.  This would be a great make-ahead Christmas dish.  

Source:  Parties! by Ina Garten

Yield:  8 servings

Ingredients:

4 T. (½ stick) unsalted butter    

4 c. chopped yellow onions (2 large)

¼ c. flour

¼ tsp. nutmeg grated nutmeg

1 c. heavy cream

2 c.  milk

3 lbs. frozen chopped spinach, defrosted (5 (10-ounce) packages)

3 red bell peppers, roasted, charred skin removed, cut into strips (can be omitted)

1 c. freshly grated Parmesan chees

1 T. kosher salt

½ tsp.  freshly ground black pepper

½ c. grated Gruyère cheese

Process:

Preheat oven to 425°.   Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until translucent, about 15 minutes. Add the flour and nutmeg and cook, stirring, for 2 more minutes. Add the cream and milk and cook until thickened. Squeeze as much liquid as possible from the spinach and add the spinach to the sauce. Add 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese and mix well.  Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Transfer the spinach to a baking dish.  (I used a fairly large gratin dish.)  Stir in the peppers, if using.  (At this point, I refrigerated the gratin.  The next day I brought it to room temperature before proceeding.)  Sprinkle the remaining ½ c. Parmesan and the Gruyère on top. Bake for 20 minutes until hot and bubbly. Serve hot.

Red Velvet Baked Alaska

A quick glance at Wikipedia (I’m sorry!) tells me that this show-stopping dessert has been around for a very long time, but that it was given the name “Baked Alaska” in 1876 at Delmonico's Restaurant to celebrate the acquisition of the territory of Alaska.  

It’s a dessert that, to me, screams 1960s indulgence and exhibition.  

Another dessert that reminds me of the 60s and 70s is Red Velvet Cake, also known as Waldorf Astoria Cake.  I first had this luscious cake at the home of my BFF, Patti, when I was in high school.  Her mother, Gloria Juetten, iced it with a great cream cheese frosting.  I’ll admit I mostly think of cake as a “frosting deliverer,” but, oh, what a delivery!

So my idea was to combine all these food memories in this dessert.  It was, if I do say so myself, amazing.  

This is my ice cream maker--it's a non-electric "chill chamber."

Cream Cheese Ice Cream

My family members shake their heads in disbelief that I, a Wisconsin native, don’t really like ice cream.  

Maybe it was all that un-homogenized milk I was forced to drink as a child.   I hated those “clunks” on the top of a newly-opened bottle of milk.  This milk, by the way, was delivered in glass bottles twice-weekly and placed by the milkman in the insulated milk box outside our back door.  

So here’s a “double diary” ice cream recipe, and it, surprisingly, might just be my favorite ice cream ever.  

Source:  Gourmet, April 2003

Yield:  Makes about 1 quart

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 cup milk

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup heavy cream

Process:

Blend cream cheese, milk, lemon juice, sugar, and salt in a blender until smooth. Transfer to a bowl, then stir in cream. Freeze cream cheese mixture in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden, at least 2 hours. 

To make the Baked Alaska, line a 9” X 5” loaf pan with plastic wrap.  Spoon the soft ice cream into the pan.  Freeze.

Even uncooked this red batter looks so yummy!

Waldorf Astoria Cake

Source:   Gloria Juetten, mother of my dear friend Patti Seaman

Yield:  2 8-inch layers (measurements for one layer are in parentheses)

Ingredients:

½ c. shortening  (¼  c.)

1 ½ c. sugar  (¾ c.)

2 eggs (1)

¼ c. red food coloring (2 T.)

2 T. cocoa (1 T.)

2 ¼ c. sifted flour (1 c. + 2 T.)

1 t. baking soda (½ tsp.)

1 t. salt (½ tsp.)

1 c. buttermilk (½ c.)

1 tsp. vanilla (½ tsp.)

Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease and flour 2 8-inch round cake pans.  In a large bowl using an electric mixer, cream the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs and food coloring until well mixed.  In a medium-sized bowl, mix the dry ingredients, sift the dry ingredients together. In a small bowl or glass measuring cup, mix the buttermilk and vanilla with a fork.  At low speed, mix in 1/3 the dry ingredients until well mixed and then mix in ½ of the buttermilk mixture until well mixed.  Continue with 1/3 of the dry mixture, ½ of the buttermilk mixture and ending with the remaining 1/3 of the dry mixture. 

Pour the batter in the prepared cake pans and bake on the center rack for approximately 30 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester comes clean.

For the Baked Alaska:  Prepare one-half of the recipe, using measurements in parentheses.  Pour batter into 8”X8” lined with parchment paper, greased and floured.  Bake for 20 minutes.  Cool 10 minutes in the pan and then remove to completely cool on a wire rack.  Cut the cake to fit on top of the ice cream in the loaf pan.  You will have to cut a strip to fit the end of the loaf pan, and you will have some cake left over--darn!

Wrap the loaf pan with the ice cream and cake in plastic wrap and freeze. (Make ahead:  this can be done  several days ahead of serving.)

Meringue

Ingredients:

4 egg whites, room temperature

½ tsp. lemon juice

Pinch cream of tartar

1/3 c. sugar

Process:

With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites, lemon juice and cream of tartar until frothy.  Gradually beat in the sugar until stiff peaks form.  

To assemble and finish:

Remove the ice cream and cake from the pan and plastic wrap and place on a baking dish.  Using an off-set spatula, spread the meringue over the ice cream loaf completely encasing it and finishing with little “peaks.”  (Make ahead:  The meringue can be prepared and spread on the cake several hours before serving.  Place in freezer before continuing.)  Preheat oven to 500°.  Bake dessert for 3 minutes until the peaks of the meringue are browned.  Slice and serve.  

Stinger Shooters

If this were truly a 1960s  meal, we would have started out with serious cocktails—Martinis, Manhattans, Old Fashioneds and the like.  Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think we have the drinking stamina we used to have.  

But I thought I’d present, more as an after-dinner liqueur, shot-sized Stingers.  These remind me of my step-father, Ron Douglas, who introduced me to Dr. McGillicuddy’s Mentholmint Schnapps in a Stinger at the Fireside Restaurant in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  I served these with Pepperidge Farm Pirouette rolled cookies to stand in for cigarettes.  

Yield:  6-8 shot-sized servings

Ingredients:

½ c. brandy

½ c. white crème de menthe (which is actually colorless)

1-2 shots water

This is a make-ahead recipe.  Combine all the ingredients in a small pitcher jar.  Chill. (If making to serve immediately, skip adding the water and shake or stir with cracked ice.  Strain and serve.)