Country Captain Southern Chicken Curry

I chose a rather laborious title for this post because most people don't know the Americanized version of chicken curry is rightfully called Country Captain Chicken.  Now the origins of this dish are veiled in the mists of time as it has been around since before the Civil War and quite a few towns make claim to Country Captain as being "their" dish.  After looking at literally dozens of recipes dating from now all the way back to 1822 I can say with a high amount of confidence that this dish is a New Orleans Creole recipe.  You can usually tell the background of a recipe by it's base ingredients and Creole cooking is one of the easier ones to spot as almost all dishes start with at least 2 of the "Trinity", bell peppers, onions and celery.  These ingredients showed up time and again in each recipe I looked at, albeit with some variations as time went forward.  I picked a recipe that was simple and stayed close to the original in terms of ingredients and flavor.

Maryland Zucchini Crabcakes

When times were tough and you couldn't afford to buy crab meat this neat little recipe stood in for the Authentic Crab Cake.  They are delicious in their own right and would probably fool someone who wasn't a native Marylander but since I'm from Baltimore I can say they don't fool me.  Don't let this dissuade you from trying them though as it's a great new way to use zucchini.  You will have to shred the zucchini and place in a towel 1 cup and time.  Fold the towel and make a ball squeezing very tightly to get out as much water as possible.  If you skimp in this step your crabcakes will come out too damp.

Holladaise Sauce and Her Daughters

I wrote about Mother Bechamel and her Daughters some time ago and promised to pass along a recipe for Hollandaise Sauce in due time as it is a mother sauce in and of itself.  I finally had the opportunity to make Hollandaise the other day when I made a rather rich dinner of Eggplant Creole topped with a poached egg and Hollandaise sauce.  To tell you the truth I don't really recommend the combination as the relatively light flavor of the sauce was drowned out by the heavier flavor of the eggplant creole.  However if you get back to basics and use the Hollandaise for such things as dressing aspargus or steamed cauliflower or the legendary eggs benedict then you will see the flavor of the sauce shine through into the whole dish not dominating or being dominated in turn.

Ad: Hires Root Beer

1931 Hires Root Beer

Does anyone else like Root Beer?  I know I do, along with it's distinguished brother Birch Beer and it's back of the woods cousin Sarsaparilla.  I suppose you could argue that Moxie is a part of the family, although Moxie's main taste is Gentian, the same herb they put into Peychauld's Bitters, used in the Sazerac Cocktail.  But all that is for another time as I'm going to concentrate on the Hires ad above.

Vintage Cleaning

 How do you clean your home in a safe, effective and green way?  I found out long ago that buying all those expensive cleaning agents is a waste of time and money.  Besides being no more effective than what our parents used, they are harmful to your health and the environment.  For just a few dollars cost you can acquire some things that will make any cleanser you would ever wish for.  So here's what you need:

Baking Soda
Washing Soda
Borax
Fels Naptha Soap
Kosher Salt
White Vinegar

There, that's no so hard is it?  Chances are you have a few of the items around the house right now.  you can replace Windex, tile cleaner and counter top spray by mixing Vinegar 50-50 with water in a spray bottle.  Use it as you would and counter top cleaner or window cleaner.  It leaves mirrors sparkling especially when you use newspaper to wipe with instead of paper towels.  Tile can be cleaned with a paste made of baking soda and some water.  For general cleaning dissolve a couple tablespoons borax in 2 quarts hot water and wipe down the surfaces to be cleaned.  To sanitize and deodorize sink disposals pour in 1/2 cup borax and let sit an hour.  Turn on the disposal and rinse with hot water.  Add some borax and washing soda to laundry to make your detergent more effective or better yet make your own laundry detergent for just pennies per load (more on that in another article).  A mixture of salt and vinegar into a paste will shine most metals.  To clean drains of soap scum pour in some washing soda and little hot water.  Let sit for 15 mins then flush well with hot water.  Have a steam mop?  mix in some vinegar with the water at the ratio of 25:75 (vinegar:water) to get your floors sparkling clean.  Don't mind the vinegar smell as you're mopping, it quickly dissipates and deodorizes the air.

I've given you just a few of the ways I use these "Vintage" products around my home.  The total savings is around $200/yr in cleaning products, much more if you make your own laundry detergent.