McClellan: Recipes from over the years
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Happy April to you. Think about all the May flowers these April showers will bring!
This column today is going to be a what if column. The topic comes from what if I wrote another cookbook (which I am not planning to do), what recipes would go in it.
I wrote the first one in 1982 because I was tired of digging in shoeboxes for a recipe I knew I had, but simply could not find. In fact, sometimes I spent more time looking for a recipe than it actually took to prepare it. Then, while doing a microwave class for Amana in Hughes Springs, a lady said, Why dont you write a cookbook?
On the drive back to Longview, I thought to myself, why not. It cant be too hard. After all, I have a Royal portable typewriter that got me all through Baylor, 12 years of recipes from writing a cooking column in the paper, a box of erasable paper; it certainly cannot be that hard. Wow! Was I ever wrong. However, I am going to start sharing recipes I have collected since the last book was written (2005) so I can find them in notebooks as soon as I get my friend Iris Counts to catch up the last year and a half of columns in an organized manner.
Today I am sharing two of the recipes that I make often and every time must spend much time locating.
The first is from my good friends Betty and Bob Rodgers. It is not the typical dark gumbo but what I call light gumbo.
Chicken Gumbo
3-4 large chicken breast halves
1 large yellow onion
Celery tops (leaves from 4-5 stalks)
4 tablespoons butter
1 additional yellow onion, finely chopped
1 large green bell pepper, finely diced
1 (10 ounce) can Rotel tomatoes
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
8 cups chicken stock, reserved liquid from boiling chicken, plus canned stock to make 8 cups
2 (10-12 ounce) packages frozen sliced okra
1 tablespoon (or more to taste) gumbo fil
Salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning
Tabasco sauce, if desired
1 1/2 cups cooked rice
Cook chicken in plenty of slightly salted water to cover with celery tops and large onion cut in quarters. Cool chicken, remove skin and bones and cut into bite-size pieces. Strain broth, discard onion and celery tops, set broth aside. In large stockpot, melt butter and saut onion and bell pepper. Pour in reserved stock and add canned broth or stock to make 8 cups. Add chicken, tomatoes and okra, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Add seasonings, to taste, and rice (or serve over rice). Its better if made a day ahead. Sometimes I add shrimp and/or link sausage cut in pieces. This recipe makes approximately 12 cups.
I developed this next recipe because all the guys in my life are diabetic.
Low-sugar Lemon Pound Cake
1 tablespoon lemon extract
1 (16 ounces) no-sugar added yellow cake mix
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients with electric mixer on low for 1 minute. Scrape sides of bowl and mix for 2 more minutes. Pour batter into a well-sprayed or greased tube pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes. When done, let set in pan for 10 minutes then remove to cake plate.
Lemon syrup
Grated zest and lemon juice from 2 large lemons
1 tablespoon water
Bring ingredients to boil and pour over cake.
Barbara Richardson McClellan is a longtime food columnist. Write her at bayrm12@gmail.com or in care of the Longview News-Journal, P.O. Box 1792, Longview, TX 75606.
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Tuesday, April 11, 2023 at 10:30 am