My Great Recipes Collection

Great Recipes From the Past

Liqueur

Orange Liqueur

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Looking for a homemade Christmas gift? Make this orange liqueur from Cross Country Cookery. It’s sure to please many people, and is ready in only two weeks.  The recipe makes two pints.

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Orange Liqueur

Ingredients

  • 3 large navel oranges
  • 3 cup vodka
  • 1 1/2 cup superfine granulated sugar

Instructions

  1. Pare very thinly the bright colored rind from the orange -- No White. Blot peel on paper towel to remove excess oil.
  2. Put peel in 4 cup screw top jar. Add 2 cups vodka. Mix. Close jar. Store in cool, dark place for 2 days, or until vodka has absorbed the flavor and color of peel.
  3. Remove peel. Add sugar. Shake vigorously till sugar dissolves. Add remaining 1 cup vodka and stir until liquid becomes clear. Close jar. Store in cool, dark place at least 2 weeks to age.

Smoked Orange Pate

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This smoked orange pate is lovely accompaniment for Lillet, a fragrant French apertif wine lightly flavored with orange.

Lillet is always served chilled. Although both red and blonde Lillet are available, blonde is always used in mixing cocktails unless red is specifically designated.

Apertifs, Card 25 contains two drinks and one recipes. Copyright 1977 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA

Burnt Orange

3 2/3 jiggers chilled blonde Lillet
1 orange peel, 1 1/2 inches long
Pour chilled Lillet into 6-ounce stemmed wine glass. With one hand, light match; with other hand, squeeze orange peel. As oil exudes from peel, touch lighted match to it. Oil will go “pfft” as it ignites. Drop peel immediately into glass and serve.

Bitter Burnt Orange

Place 1 dash orange bitters in bottom of glass and add Lillet; proceed as above.

Lillet Cocktail

1 jigger blonde Lillet
1 jigger gin
Stir well with ice; strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with orange peel.

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Smoked Orange Pate

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup minced green onion
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 pound chicken livers chopped
  • 1 tablespoon orange peel grated
  • 1/4 teaspoon orange bitters
  • 1/4 teaspoon liquid smoke
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 2 egg yolks

Instructions

  1. Saute minced onion in butter until tender; do not brown. Add chicken livers. Cook, stirring constantly, until red juices cease to run. Remove from heat. Preheat oven to 300.
  2. Pass mixture through sieve or food mill, or puree in blender or food processor. Add orange peel, bitters, liquid smoke, salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
  3. Mix cream and egg yolk together lightly with fork. Stir into chicken liver mixture. Grease small earthenware casserole and fill with pate. Cover with wax paper and secure.
  4. Bake one hour or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Remove wax paper. Garnish with parsley or whole-wheat crackers. Serve cold with Melba toast or whole-wheat crackers. 

Recipe Notes

Makes about 2 cups pate.

Toasted Almond Mushroom Pate

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The flavor of this meatless pate is surprisingly like that of the favored chicken liver mixture.

Good served with crisp crackers or bread as a spread or as a dip for raw vegetables.

Pate can be made several days ahead of time, covered and refrigerated.

Quick and tasty.

Makes 1 1/2 cups pate.

Hot and Cold Appetizers, Section 1, Card 50

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Toasted Almond-Mushroom Pate

Ingredients

  • 1 cup almonds toasted
  • 1 clove garlic minced or pressed
  • 1/2 cup fresh mushrooms chopped
  • 3/4 cup butter divided
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  • 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1 tablespoon dry sherry or Madeira optional
  • Green onions optional for garnish

Instructions

  1. Grind almonds or pulverize them in blender or food processor using steel blade. Reserve.
  2. In wide frying pan, saute garlic and mushrooms in 1/4 cup butter over high heat until liquid evaporates. Add salt, thyme, pepper, and sherry. Simmer until mushrooms are dry.
  3. Puree mushroom mixture in blender or food processor with half the almonds. Blend in remaining 2 tablespoons softened butter and fold in remaining almonds.
  4. Turn into serving dish. Cover and chill for at least 30 minutes. Garnish with chopped green onions before serving.

Green Appetizer Salad with Lemon Mint Dressing

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A crisp, colorful salad served in a handsome bowl makes a novel and nourishing cocktail-hour appetizer, and may serve as a first course, too. On informal occasions, when dinner is served “lap style,” prepare an extra-large salad and continue to serve it throughout the evening, right up to dessert.

This is Apertifs, Card 22 from the 2 in 1 International Recipe Card Collection. The card contains two drinks, a recipe for Green Appetizer Salad, and a recipe for Lemon Mint Salad Dressing. I’ve combined the salad and salad dressing into one recipe. The salad serves 4-6. Copyright 1977 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA.

Adonis

2 jiggers dry sheery
1 jigger sweet red vermouth
1 dash orange bitters
Stir well with ice and strain into cocktail glass. For a Greek Adonis, follow instructions as before, but add 1 tablespoon ouzo to mixture before stirring with ice. The picture on the card shows a Greek Adonis.

Triple Crown

2/3 jigger dry vermouth
2/3 jigger gin
1/3 jigger Cointreau or triple sec
3 dashes orange bitters
Shake well with ice and strain into prechilled cocktail glass. Garnish with orange twist.

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Green Appetizer Salad with Lemon Mint Dressing

Ingredients

Salad

  • 1 medium head iceberg lettuce
  • 1 medium head romaine lettue
  • 1 green or red pepper cut into 1-inch strips
  • 12 scallions sliced
  • 1 medium cucumber peeled and thinly sliced
  • 12 radishes sliced
  • 12 black Green olives
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 6 to matoes peeled and cut into wedges
  • 1/2 pound feta cheese crumbled

Dressing

  • 12 fresh mint leaves cut into thin strips
  • 1 tablespoon white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup olive oil

Instructions

Dressing

  1. Pulverize mint leaves, sugar, salt, pepper, and mustard with mortar and pestle. Place in screw-top jar. Add lemon juice and olive oil. Cover and shake thoroughly until blended. Set aside.

Salad

  1. Tear lettuce into bits, wash, drain, and chill.
  2. Prepare vegetables and mix together with olives.
  3. Rub salad bowl with garlic and discard garlic.
  4. Toss salad greens with dressing. Toss in vegetable-olive mixture.
  5. Arrange tomato wedges and crumbled feta cheese on top of salad.

 

Cheese Beignets

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These curiously shaped, crisp and chewy fritters serve as a most agreeable appetizer with any aperitif or cocktail, and provide a particularly harmonious accompaniment to the brandy-fortified, herb-scented flavors of vermouth.

This recipe is on Card 21 – the first in the Apertif section. It is preceded by a divider card that explains the history of apertifs and how to best serve them.

What Is An Aperitif?

A light before dinner drink designed to stimulate the appetite and taste buds.

The French word aperitif is derived from the Latin “aperiere” – to open.

Aperitifs are often a fragrant blend of wine, spirits, and a tantalizing array of herbs and spices, buds and flowers, barks and roots.

Leading aperitifs include Campari, vermouth, Dubonnet, Lillet, Sherry, Kir.

Also on the divider card are credits – the first I’ve seen so far:

  • Author, Michael Dorn (not Worf.)
  • Home Economist, Janet Glenn
  • Photography, George Ratkai
  • Mixologists, John Neckland and Peter Carlson

This card contains one drink with two variations and one recipes.
Copyright 1977 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA

Addington and variations

1 jigger sweet red vermouth
1 jigger dry white vermouth
Club soda
Lemon twist
Pour vermouths into Old Fashioned glass and stir well with ice. Fill with club soda and garnish with lemon twist.
Addington Cooler Prepare as above, but use highball glass instead of Old Fashioned glass.
Addington White Prepare as above but substitute sweet white vermouth for sweet red vermouth; garish with maraschino cherry.

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Cheese Beignets

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup parmesan cheese grated
  • 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
  • 1 dash hot sauce
  • oil for deep frying

Instructions

  1. Plate butter and water in heavy-bottomed saucepan; bring to boil. When butter is melted, remove from heat and dump in flour, all at once. Stir quickly with wooden spoon until mixture thickens. Return to heat and stir constantly until mixture forms smooth, shiny mass. Remove from heat.
  2. With back of spoon, make small pocket in batter. Break 1 egg into it and beat until smooth. Repeat process with second egg. Add remaining ingredients, except oil, and set mixture aside until shortly before serving time.
  3. About 15 minutes before serving time, preheat oven to 250, and heat oil (2 1/2-3 inches deep) in deep-frying pan to 350.
  4. Scoop up heaping teaspoons of paste and drop into hot oil. To avoid over-crowding and heat loss, fry no more than 3 to 4 fritters at a time. As fritters rise to surface of oil, turn over with spoon and cook until evenly browned, about 2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and place on serving tray; keep cooked beignets warm in oven for up to 1/2 hour. Serve warm.

Recipe Notes

Makes 16-20 beignets.