Thursday, February 03, 2011

Cherry-Apple Dumplings and Clam-Cottage Cheese Mold

I have so many chapters of George Washington's Birthday recipes in my vintage cookbooks. So then I have lots of great cherry recipes to go with the old false legend of the cherry tree chopping, but of course also a few weird ones. Look at these lovely Cherry Apple Dumplings, from The Southern Living Holiday Cookbook, late 1960's. Here's the recipe, too:

Cherry Apple Dumplings
2 2/3 c. sifted all-purpose flour
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. vegetable shortening
1 8-oz. jar red maraschino cherries
1/3 c. finely chopped walnuts
1/3 c. firmly packed light brown sugar
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
6 med. tart apples
Cream or milk
1 1/8 c. sugar
Combine the flour and salt in a bowl and cut in the shortening until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Sprinkle with 6 1/2 tablespoons water and toss with a fork until mixed.  Press into a ball.  Roll out on a lightly floured surface to a 14x 21 inch rectangle and cut into six 7-inch squares (Boy, that's pretty specific!). Drain the cherries and reserve syrup.  Reserve half the cherries.  Chop remaining cherries coarsely and drain on paper towels.  Combine with walnuts, brown sugar and 1/4 tsp. cinnamon.  Pare and core the apples.  Place an apple on each pastry square and fill cavity with cherry mixture.  Moisten edges of square with cream.  Bring opposite corners of pastry up over apple and press together. Repeat with remaining corners and brush dumplings with cream.  Blend 2 tablespoons sugar with remaining cinnamon and sprinkle over dumplings.  Place dumplings on ungreased baking sheet.  Bake in 400-degree oven for 30 - 35 minutes or until browned.  Spread remaining sugar evenly over bottom of a large saucepan.   Place over low heat and let stand undisturbed until sugar melts and forms a light golden brown liquid.  Mix 3/4 cup water and 1/4 cup reserved cherry syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Add to caramelized sugar very slowly, stirring constantly, and cook, stirring, until clear and thick.  Add reserved cherries and serve warm or cold with dumplings.

And then there's this one:
Clamm-Cottage Cheese Mold
1 8-oz. can minced clams (uhoh)
1 env. unflavored gelatin
1 1/4 c. skim milk
1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. salt
3 or 4 drops of hot sauce
Dash of grated nutmeg
2/3 c. cottage cheese
1 tbsp. chopped green pepper
1/2 tbsp. onion flakes

Drain the clams and reserve 1/2 cup liquid. Mix the gelatin with reserved clam liquid in a saucepan.  Place over low heat and stir for 3 minutes or until gelatin is dissolved.  Remove from heat and add the milk, Worcestershire sauce, salt, hot sauce and nutmeg.  Chill until mixture is consistency of unbeaten egg whites.  Add the clams, cottage cheese, green pepper and onion flakes and turn into a 2 1/2 cup mold or small loaf pan. Chill until firm. Umold to serve. 3 servings

Pass the Pepto.

2 comments:

Linda Glaz said...

Okay, the dumplings sound just this side of amazing. And me eating no carbs, errgh!

Unknown said...

The clams sound very scary...do you wonder about the poor souls in the test kitchen at that time?