Shenandoah Valley cuisine combines southern country cooking with the influence of the Pennsylvania Dutch, who settled much of the countryside. The area's most enduring chefs rely on fresh, locally grown ingredients such as the apples and peaches grown in Valley orchards and the berries picked from its hillsides.
Helen is well known for her pies. When she loses a bet to Nancy early in the book, she makes one for everyone to share.
HELEN'S ONE CRUST BLUEBERRY PIE
1 9" unbaked pie shell (I like the ones in the dairy section that you place in your own pie pan.)
1/3 cup flour
½ cup sugar (or less if berries are very sweet)
4 to 6 cups of freshly washed blueberries
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon of vanilla
Nutmeg and or cinnamon
½ cup of brown sugar-firmly packed
1 cup flour
½ cup butter (lower fat margarine will work, as well)
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Combine 1/3 cup of flour, ½ cup sugar and the blueberries. Sprinkle with lemon juice, vanilla and a little cinnamon or nutmeg if you desire. Pour into pie shell.
Combine remaining 1 cup flour and brown sugar, cut in butter (or margarine) until crumbs are fine. Sprinkle evenly over berries.
Bake for 30 minutes, then cover with foil and bake another 20 minutes.
Serve with good quality vanilla ice cream.
Helen's mother Delilah always made peanut brittle as a Christmas treat for her family using the excellent peanuts grown in southern Virginia. It was a Depression era treat.
Peanut Brittle sounds deceptively simple, but this is a practice-makes-perfect recipe. If you don't want to risk it, you might go to http://www.vapeanuts.com to order some instead.
If you want to give your own a try, here's Delilah's bare bones recipe:
DELILAH'S OLD-FASHIONED PEANUT BRITTLE
2 cups of granulated sugar
2 cups of raw peanuts
1 teaspoon of salt
Sprinkle the sugar over the bottom of a cast iron frying pan and heat slowly until the sugar melts and turns light brown (300 degrees). Handle carefully and protect yourself from splattering.
As the sugar heats, spread the peanuts on a buttered marble pastry board or a buttered cookie sheet and sprinkle with salt. When the sugar has reached the proper consistency and temperature, immediately pour over the peanuts.
When cool, break into pieces.
Ham Pot Pie in the Shenandoah Valley is much like the one served inPennsylvania Dutch country. Many Shenandoah residents have roots in that area and brought their recipes with them. The "crust" in this pie isn’t a crust covering a stew, as you might expect, but crust squares cooked in broth. Delilah, Helen’s mother, made it frequently. Try it and see what you think.
DELILAH'S HAM POT PIE
Save the bone from a baked ham, preferably with generous bits of meat clinging to it. Cover the bone with water in a medium sized kettle and stew with onions, celery, herbs, etc. to make a tasty broth. Use what you have, just the way Delilah did.
Strain and discard vegetables. Remove and discard bone after shredding meat back into the stock. Set broth aside. Skim when cooled if desired.
Mix 1 ½ cups of flour and 1/4 tsp salt
Blend in 2 Tbs. butter or shortening with a pastry cutter, two knives or a fork until crumbly, like pie crust dough.
Add ½ cup of water and a slightly beaten egg to the mix and stir in flour until dough is stiff. Don’t add too much water. As long as it just holds together, you’re in business.
Let the dough recover. As it does, add your choice of the following cubed or sliced vegetables to the broth: carrots, celery, onion and potatoes until you have a medium thick stew. Flavor mixture with herbs such as thyme or marjoram. Simmer until tender.
While the veggies simmer, roll out the dough. This is easiest to do in smallish pieces since you want the result to be thin. Cut into 1 inch squares.
When all the squares are cut, bring cooked vegetables and stock to a boil and drop in the squares. Simmer and stir occasionally until squares are tender.
Taste before you season, but pepper is a nice addition.
For a variation, simmer chicken, debone and use instead of ham.
|
