Hard Sauce

I have such fond childhood memories of my grandmother K-K making hard sauce while my mother worked away at making minced meat pis for Christmas dinner. It was such hard work for a reward I loved to snitch out of the refrigerator before we ate. 

 

Ingredients

 

1 cup sweet butter, softened

1 cup confectioners sugar

1/4 brandy (or rum or sherry but rum is best)

Nutmeg 

 

Process

 

1. Cream the butter and sugar well (this is the hard work when done by hand)

 

2. Add the brandy, a few drops at a time (This is another element of effort because it takes time.) and beat it until fluffy (your arms will hurt)

 

3. Add the nutmeg to taste and chill, (this is the phase where I would sneak tastes)

 

Serve with pie of choice.  

 

 

 

Brandied Fruit

 

" Take equal quantities of ripe and sound fruit (apricots, peaces, or plums) and prick them several times with a fork through to the stones. Put sugar in lined vessel - 1 lb sugar to 1 lb fruit - a pour in a small quantity of water, just enough to be absorbed by the sugar. Place over fire until small transparent bubbles rise to the top. Put mixed fruits into the syrup and simmer gently until they begin to soften. Leave them in the syrup until cold or until the following day. Take out and place on sieve to drain. Boil syrup until somewhat thickened and reduced. When cold mix with an equal quantity of pale brandy. Place fruit in jars or glasses and pout syrup over them and serve."

Sauteed Grouse on Wild Rice with Brandy Cream Sauce

SP has always made me gourmet meals out of the birds he kills. More often than not these birds die upon impact with his truck. Tonight we ate roadkill and it was scrumptious. I remember, when miserably sick when first pregnant with our daughter, SP made pheasant with sour cherry and blueberry sauce. Last night one male grouse made the perfect dinner for two - no marketing necessary!

Ingredients

1 Grouse breast

2 tbsp butter

1/4 cup Cream Sherry
1/4 cup minced shallots

1/4 cup brandy

1 cup chicken stock

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 cup wild rice

handful sliced mushrooms (optional)

Process

• Bone breast and separate tenders.

• One at a time place pieces between two sheets of waxed paper and gently pound into 1/4 inch thick paillard (I don't have a fancy paillard which I think is a French word for 'meat hammer', so I use an empty beer bottle- funny, I always seem to have plenty of those)

• Make rice. Wild rice is fickle and tough to pin down regarding proportions and time. I add 1 cup uncooked rice to 3 cups water. Bring water to a boil, stir once and cover.

• Simmer over low heat until all the water is absorbed by which time the rice kernels should crack open revealing their tender white innards. It will take between 30 minutes and one hour. If all the water is absorbed before the kernels break open, add more water 1/4 cup at a time until the rice is fluffy, cracked open and tender.

• While rice cooks, melt butter in a 12" skillet over med heat.

• Saute paillard in butter- about a minute per side.

• Add Cream Sherry and saute until meat is glazed and sherry is mostly gone. Probably unnecessary but I happened to have Cream Sherry on hand (leftover from last weekend's soup) and I love the flavor.

• Remove meat from pan and cover to keep warm.

• Add minced shallots and saute for about a minute. My wife, your blog mistress, simply abhors mushrooms, but if you, like me, love them- add a handful of sliced mushrooms. I recommend shitakes, but use what ya got and we just happened to have some leftover int he fridge from last weekend's pizza making!

• Remove pan from heat and add brandy. If brandy flames don't panic, just wait for it to burn out. Return pan to heat, bring to boil and cook until brandy is nearly gone- about 5 minutes.

• Add stock, bring to boil and cook until reduced by half- about 5 minutes.

• Add cream, return to boil and cook until reduced by half.

• Finis

• To serve: Place a bed of rice on plate, top with one breast piece and one tender and smother with sauce. What I did was make a plate for the mushroom hater ... ... then add mushrooms to the remaining sauce in the pan, hit it with a splash each of brandy and cream, cook until the mushrooms were tender then plate up mine (see photo at top).

Watermelon with Brandy or Rum

Isn't this the way we would sneak booze into a concert?

Ingredients:
One round watermelon.
Rum or Brandy

Process:

• Cut out and remove a piece of the center of a watermelon.
• Pour in 1 pint liquor
• Replace the piece of watermelon in it's former position.
  
• Put melon in ice box for 6 hours before serving.