Notes from Stella's Kitchen
I don’t believe there are really any “new” recipes.
Most of what we think of as being new are really long-tried, basic recipes that, as Emeril would say, are “kicked up a notch.” I like to think of all my recipes as being my own, but I secretly know that they fall into that category. We all love to experiment in the kitchen and some of our experiments result in very good dishes, some not so good. But when you get down to it, we all are conducting our experiments on a basic set of very old, tried-and-true recipes. In one way the results are our really our own and in another way they’re not.
This month’s recipe is not quite that kind. Despite it being unique and one you won’t easily find in a recipe book, I don’t really consider it my own. This month’s recipe is the result of a walk down memory lane. It’s a trip that many of us make in the kitchen and I suppose is one of the joys of cooking that we all secretly love. The recipe is one that my mother and I concocted when, years ago, we set out to reproduce a favorite salad my aunt used to make. It was a wonderful day in the kitchen and one that I remember well. I’m not sure how close my mother and I came to aunt’s recipe, but we were both very happy with the result. We rather grandly called it, “Cranberry Waldorf Salad.”
I suppose in a way it is “our” recipe and in a way it is not, but the memory of the fun my mother and I had in the kitchen when we worked to reproduce it is all mine. I can’t give you that, but I can give you part of what we made that day, the recipe.
It’s a “salad” recipe in the sense that it is a cold dish that accompanies the meal, but it’s not the typical leafy salad one conjures up when thinking of salads. Nor is it that molded Cranberry jelly that comes out of a can and people slice and place on the plate with the turkey at Christmas - a dish which some people love and others say that’s nice and reach for more candied sweet potatoes. My cranberry salad is a festive dish that can be used with any grand meal, not just with end-of-year holidays feasts but at other occasions such as Easter or Father’s Birthday.
But there is more! Not only is this dish good as a salad, it can be served as a dessert and, when topped with a dab of whipping cream, it is not just good but makes a grand presentation. Ta! Ta! C’est tres elegante!
Note that in the recipe, I call for a can of whole cranberry sauce; however, fresh cranberries are wonderful in this salad and, I believe, very much tastier. A 12 oz. bag of berries cooked with one cup of sugar and one cup of water works quite well. So go the extra not so many steps and, rather than the can of whole cranberry sauce, use fresh berries when available - the extra effort is well worthwhile. Note that we are talking about fruit here. As a natural product, fresh fruit varies in taste according to where it comes from. I’ve found that we prefer cranberries from New Jersey and other eastern states over those sent from California.
P.S. After cooking some fresh berries for dinner the other evening, we did a little experimenting. We topped some homemade vanilla ice cream with about a teaspoon of fresh raspberries. It was wonderful, just a slightly tart, delicious taste. We realized that it could be also used as a topping for a number of other dishes such as bread pudding or rice pudding. Experiment, have fun.
Bon Appetit!
