Fry Sauce..... who knew?

I just discovered that there's actually a recipe for something that we use to dip our Fries!
I had no idea...... we dipped them in Ketchup, we dipped them in mayonnaise.
I first saw the use of mayonnaise in France.
I had no idea that a recipe claimed to mix the two ingredients together and then.... add some hot sauce like Tabasco. Brilliant!
So I'm sharing the recipe and history! 



Ingredients
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Hot sauce, for spice, optional ( in Texas, I think it should be a mandatory ingredient)
Directions
Measure out the ketchup and mayonnaise into a bowl and mix together. If you want it spicy, add dashes of hot sauce to taste. Serve with fries!

Fry sauce is a regional condiment served with French fries. It is usually a simple combination of one part ketchup and two partsmayonnaise. When spices and other flavorings are added, it is similar to—but thicker and smoother than—traditional Russian dressing and Thousand Island dressing. In the United States, fry sauce is commonly found in restaurants in Utah and Idaho. Occasionally other ingredients such as barbecue sauce are substituted for ketchup, and other variations (created independently of the Utah version) exist outside of the United States.

The Utah-based Arctic Circle restaurant chain claims to have invented fry sauce around 1948.^[1] However, a recipe for Thousand Island dressing dating from 1900 has mayonnaise, ketchup, and pickles as the only ingredients, albeit in a 1:1 ratio.^[2] Arctic Circle serves fry sauce in its restaurants in the western United States. Many other fast-food restaurants and family restaurants in the region, such as Carl's Jr, Crown Burgers, Apollo Burger, Astro Burger and Hires Big H, also offer their own versions of the sauce. Some variations include chopped pickles, chopped onions, and shredded cabbage. Utah franchise locations of McDonald's also carried fry sauce until 1997. Many other national fast food restaurants in Utah and nearby states serve fry sauce.^{[citation needed]}

In Idaho and the Pacific Northwest, fry sauce is also popular and is found at many local restaurants^[3] as well as chains such as Dairy Queen and Sonic.

In the 2008 film Step Brothers, there is a scene in which the main characters referred to a home-made sauce of ketchup and mayonnaise as "fancy sauce".

In early 2010, Stephen's Gourmet began distributing a bottled, shelf-stable traditional fry sauce to grocery store and mass merchandise chains throughout the United States. It hit the shelves in Utah and the Pacific Northwest in May 2010. Prior to that, a company bottled fry sauce sold mainly in Utah called "Some Dude's Fry Sauce." Similar to Stephen's variety, it is also shelf stable and sold in grocery chains throughout Utah and parts of Idaho. The Utah-based Arctic Circle also now sells their fry sauce in bottles at most of their locations.

In Belgium, the mixture of mayonnaise and ketchup is known as cocktailsaus or sauce cocktail, often refined with the addition of some paprika powder or whisky. Mayonnaise and ketchup separately on a dish (usually fries) and topped with freshly chopped onion is known as speciaal. A mixture of ketchup, mayonnaise, finely chopped onion and sometimes spices is known as "riche", literally "rich sauce".

In France, many Turkish restaurants and other fast-food establishments serve fry sauce and call it sauce américaine; it is also common for customers to request "ketchup-mayo"—a dab of mayonnaise and a dab of ketchup—alongside their French fries at such places. Both American sauce and the more thousand-island like sauce cocktail(somewhat similar to that of Iceland) can often be found in supermarkets, and occasionally also premixed "ketchup-mayo."^[5][6]

In Germany, a popular product called 'Rot Weiss', meaning 'red white' is sold in toothpaste-style tubes, and consists of ketchup and mayonnaise, while "Pommes-Soße" ("Pommes" is the commonly used word for "Fries," so this is "Fry Sauce") is a lightly spiced mayonnaise.

Enjoy!
French Fries with Fry Sauce!

Mushroom Sauce / Knorr Rahm - Champignons

I don't usually use or endorse packaged food.
I was at our local German Deli recently, not really looking for anything special.
I saw the Knorr package for Mushroom Sauce, (Rahm-Champignons)

I adapted the recipe that calls for fresh mushrooms because I always have a container of dried mushrooms in the pantry.
I used about 2 cups of dried mushrooms. I rehydrated them in boiling water, drained them and hand squeezed out the remaining liquid.
I sauteed them in butter and a bit of oil and then followed the recipe on the package.

We'll serve the sauce with boiled potatoes.

Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!

I never post pictures of other recipes.
Since I haven't made this recipe, I felt that the photograph was important to the recipe until I can make it and photograph my version.
This looks amazing and it could very well be made with other types of fruit and different cookies for the lid! I can even imagine a pudding recipe with various cookie lids.
I will definitely make this.

strawberry pot pies with sugar cookie lid

By Mandy @ Lady and pups 

Photo by Mandy @ Lady and pups

• 
  

Author Notes: Warm and creamy fruit fillings with a crispy and chewy sugar cookie lid. - Mandy @ Lady and pups

Serves 4

The lid

• 1/3cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/3cup sugar
• 1tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2teaspoon lemon zest
• 1small egg, or 2/3 large egg
• 1teaspoon lemon juice
• 1cup all purpose flour
• 1/3teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8teaspoon salt

fruit fillings

• 500gram of strawberries
• 8tablespoons creme fraiche
• 4tablespoons brown sugar
• 4teaspoons lemon juice

1. Make the lid: With a wooden spoon or whisk, stir the unsalted butter, sugar, brown sugar and lemon zest together vigorously. You can of course do this with a handheld mixer which I assume is much easier. Then stir in the lemon juice and egg and whisk until fully incorporated. Add the flour, baking soda and salt. Stir the dough together until everything is thoroughly incorporated. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 min.
2. To bake: Preheat the oven on 350ºF/ 175ºC. Cut the strawberry into halves or quarters depending on the size. The chunks should stay nice and large so they don’t completely disappear during baking. Mix the strawberries with creme fraiche, sugar and lemon juice. Divide the mixture into 4 small ramekins preferably with diameters no bigger than 3.5″/9 cm, and fill them up to 90% full. Prepare 2 tbsp of powdered sugar in a bowl. Take a large ice-cream scoop and tightly pack it with the chilled cookie dough. Drop it in the powdered sugar and roll it to evenly dust the surface. Use your hand to press the dough down to a thick disk that fits the diameter of the ramekins. Place the cookie disk on top of the filling and press lightly around the edges to make sure the dough covers the entire ramekins. Repeat with the other three. You can also keep all the components in the fridge and make one single serving at a time as needed. Bake in the oven on 350ºF/ 175ºC for 15 min, then lower the temperature down to 320ºF/ 160ºC and bake for another 10~15 min until the cookie top is golden brown and puffed. Dust with powdered sugar and serve immediately.

           Enjoy!

           Peace in the Kitchen!

Pound Cake / history and recipes

I've seen a number of recipes for Pound Cake on other blogs. I thought Id' look into the history and post it.

1700s - The Pound Cake is a British creation that dates back to the early 1700s.

1796 - In the 1796 cookbook American Cookery: or, The Art of Dressing Viands, Fish, Poultry and Vegetables, and the Best Modes of Making Puff-pastes, Pies, Tarts, Puddings, Custards and Preserves, and all kinds of Cakes, from the Imperial Plumb to plain Cake by Amelia Simmons, she includes two recipes. This was the first cookbook authored by an American and published in the United States.

POUND CAKE - One pound fugar, one pound butter, one pound flour, ten eggs, rofe water one gill, spices to our tafte; watch it well, it will bake in a flow oven in 15 minutes.

Another (called) POUND CAKE - Work three quarters of a pound butter, one pound of good fugar, till very white, whip ten whites to a foam, add the yolks and beat together, add one fpoon rofe water, two of brandy, and put the whole to one and a quarter of a pound flour, if yet to foft add flour and bake flowly.

1800s - By the mid 1800's pound cake recipes began to deviate slightly from the original formula to make a lighter cake.

1881 - The Pound Cake has traditionally been a popular dessert in the southern states. The first known cookbook written an African-American, Abby Fisher, calledWhat Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking. Mrs. Fisher, born a slave, somehow found her way to San Francisco soon after the Civil War and created a life and business there manufacturing and selling "pickles, preserves, brandies, fruits, etc. Mrs. Fisher could not read or write. It is said that her friends wrote down her recipes and helped her publish her cookbook. Her cookbook includes two Pound Cake recipes.

1900s - Artificial leaveners (baking powder/soda) were added. Today, pound cakes use different proportions of the same ingredients as the original formula to produce a lighter cake.

In the original recipe, no leaveners were used,other than the air whipped into the batter.

The original recipe consisted of 1 pound of Butter, 1 pound of Sugar, 1 pound of Flour and 1 pound of Eggs.
In times when many people couldn't read, this made it simple to remember the recipe.
The recipe changed over the years but the name didn't.

Here are the equivalent measurements for 1 pound:

Butter = 2C
Sugar = 2 C
Flour = 4 C
Eggs = 12


Here's the closest recipe I could find to an original Pound Cake:

Grease 3 8x4 loaf pans with butter ( today, I use my Pan Release recipe)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2 C Butter
2 C Sugar
4 C Flour
1 dozen Eggs
2/3 C Milk ( this is the only change that I found in my research) some recipes called for lemon juice and zest, but I know that lemons in the 1700's would have been scarce so I chose the recipe with milk. Otherwise you can omit the milk and add 1/4 C lemon juice and 1 TBS lemon zest.

The preparation is quite basic:

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, it would have originally been done by hand
Beat in eggs, one at a time
Beat in flour alternately with milk
( I like the addition of 2 spoons of Brandy from the history recipe above)

Pour into pans
Bake 70 minutes at 350 degrees
remove from oven
loosen edges with a knife
cool in pans for 10 minutes
remove cakes to a wire rack and cool completely



1700's British Pound Cake:

1lb. (2 C) sugar
1 lb. (2 C) butter, room temperature
1 lb. (4 C) flour
1 dozen eggs
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C fresh lemon juice
1 TBS fresh lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

1- Tube Pan greased with my Pan Release Mix ( equal parts of flour, Crisco, vegetable oil, mix well and store in a jar in the refrigerator) I start with 1 C of each, I always have some available in the refrigerator.

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment :
sugar
butter
Beat until light and creamy

Add each egg, one at a time, mixing well.
Gradually add flour, 1/4 C at a time.
Add lemon juice and zest.
Pour batter into the pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 to 1 hour and 30 minutes,
A toothpick in the center should come out clean.

Cool on the pan on a cooling rack for 15 minutes.
Release the cake and cool completely on a cooling rack.


Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!


Deep Chocolate Pound Cake:

Deep, is that deeper than Dark, I don't know, but I like a Deep Dark Chocolate Pound Cake.
I did a Blog about Pound Cake, the History and recipes.
I wanted to post this one separately and I'll add it to my Pound Cake post too.

Here's what you'll need:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
1 Loaf Pan, I think the regular size is approximately 9" X 5", brushed well with Pan Release Mix. (Equal parts of Crisco, Vegetable Oil and Flour) I start with 1 C of each , mixed well and refrigerated in a jar. I always have it available for all of my baking needs.


1 1/2 C Cake Flour, this is not regular Flour so make sure it's Cake Flour.
1/4 TBS Salt
1/4 C Dutch Processed Cocoa Powder, this is important too, don't use a Natural Cocoa Powder.
2 oz. Semi Sweet Chocolate, roughly chopped.
2 TBS Medaglia d'Oro Instant Espresso Coffee
1/4 C Boiling Water
1/2 C Buttermilk
1 tsp Vanilla
16 TBS (2 sticks) Butter, room temperature
1 C granulated Sugar
3 Egg Yolks, room temperature
1 C Hershey's Dark Chocolate Chips

In a small bowl:
1 C of the Chocolate Chips
1 tsp of the  Flour
Stir to coat the Chips and set aside.

In a small bowl:
Flour
Salt
Whisk and set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl:
Cocoa
Chopped Chocolate
Espresso
Boiling Water
Whisk well and set aside.

In a small bowl:
Buttermilk
Vanilla
Whisk and set aside.

In a Stand Mixer with a Paddle Attachment:
Butter
Sugar
Beat 5 minutes.

Add:
Egg Yolks, one at a time, beating to incorporate after each one.

Add:
Cocoa mixture
Mix just until combined.

Add:
Flour alternating with Buttermilk.

Add:
Chocolate Chips and mix just until mixed in.

Pour batter into the pan.
Bake 1 hour.
Check after 55 minutes. A toothpick in the center should come out clean.

Remove the pan to a rack and cool for 10 minutes.

Invert the cake right side up on a Parchment Paper lined race and cool completely.
Slice and serve with Whipped Cream.

Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!


This is a Dump Cake version of Pound Cake. It's easy and delicious. It can be enjoyed plain or with garnishes that I've recommended at the end of the recipe.

Dump Cakes are very American. I have several recipes for the Iconic Dump Cake on my Blog.

Make sure all of the ingredients are at room temperature before making the cake. And then...... dump all of the ingredients in the bowl of a Stand Mixer with a paddle attachment. It's easy.

Here's what you'll need:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees

1 - Bundt Pan brushed well with Pan Release Mix. (equal parts of Crisco, Vegetable Oil and Flour) 

I start with 1 C of each, mix well and refrigerate in a jar.

I always have it available for all of my baking needs.

It's the only mix I use for cake release. It works with all intricate Bundt Pan designs.

4 C Flour

3 C Granulated Sugar

1 Pound  (4 sticks) Butter, room temperature

3/4 C Whole Milk, room temperature

6 Large Eggs, room temperature

3 tsp Vanilla

In a Stand Mixer with a Paddle Attachment, on low speed:

Flour

Sugar

Butter

Milk

Eggs

Vanilla

Beat on low speed for 1 minute.

Increase speed for an additional 2 minutes.

Pour the batter into the pan.

Bake for 1 hour 30 minutes.

Remove the pan to a rack and cool for 10 minutes.

Invert the cake onto a Parchment Paper lined rack and cool completely.

Serve with these garnish options:

Dust with Confectioner's Sugar

Lemon or Vanilla Glaze

Rum or Bourbon Sauce

Raspberry Jam

Whipped Cream

Vanilla Ice Cream

Enjoy!

Peace in the Kitchen!

I like the simplicity of Pound Cake and this recipe sounds good to me.
I did a story on the blog called Pound Cake / history and recipes. 
You can search for it on the Blog, it's interesting.

Honey Pound Cake:

1/4 C honey

1 C (2 sticks) butter, softened

1 1/3 C sugar

5 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 C flour, sifted

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt
Confectioner's Sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees
Grease a Loaf Pan with my Pan Release Mix (equal parts of flour, vegetable oil and flour, I start with a cup of each and keep it in a jar in the refrigerator) I always have it available for all of by baking needs.

In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment:
Butter
Sugar
Honey
Beat until creamy at least 3 minutes
Beat in eggs one at a time
Add vanilla
Add flour, baking powder and salt
Beat until smooth 

Pour batter into the pan
Bake for 1 hour, until a toothpick in the center comes out clean
Cool in the pan on a cooling rack for at least 15 minutes
Invert onto a serving platter
Optional: Dust with Confectioner's Sugar

Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!

Toddy Coffee / there truly is a Hippy in the Kitchen!

I made it in the 60's and I'm making it today!
When the brewing process is complete, I'll make a Toddy Torte.


You'll need a Toddy Coffee maker.
1- 12 oz. Bag of Coffee Grounds.

Here's the process for the coffee:
Place the cork in the bottom of the brewer.
Wet the reusable filter and place it in the bottom of the brewer.

 Add 1 cup of water into the bottom of the Toddy brewing container and 6 ounces (2 C) of ground coffee. Slowly pour 3 more cups of water over the grounds, in a circular motion. Then, add the remaining 6 ounces (2 C) of ground coffee. Finally, wait 5 minutes and slowly add the last 3 cups of water.
Tamp it gently with the back of a Tablespoon so the coffee on the top is wet. Do not stir it.

Let the Toddy Brewer sit for 10 - 12 hours , 24 for stronger coffee. ( I generally wait 22 hours)
When the cold brewing is complete, lift the top, remove the cork, place the top back on the glass decanter and let the concentrated coffee filter into the decanter.
Refrigerate when complete.
To make coffee:
Use 1 1/2 ounces (3 TBS)  of concentrate in a coffee cup and add 1C of Boiling Water for Hot Coffee or  Cold Water and add Ice for Iced Coffee.

Recipes include:
Toddy Cafe Brulot (prepared in a chafing dish and flavored with cloves ,brandy, brown sugar and lemon peel)
The Toddy Continental ( made with coriander, allspice red wine and orange)
Toddy Ice Cream Pie
Toddy Hopper Pie
Tall Toddy's ( made with Irish Whiskey, Amaretto Liqueur, Frangelica Liqueur , Cointreau or Creme de Cacao)
Toddy Bavarian Cream 
Toddy Butter Creme Icing
Mocha Toddy Butter Creme Icing
Toddy Torte , my favorite!

The inspiration for the Toddy maker came to Houston from Guatemala, where Todd Simpson, a garden nursery owner on a plant-gathering trip in the early 1960s, ordered coffee in a small cafe. "They sat a little urn of coffee concentrate and boiling water in front of him ," said his son, Strother Simpson. "He tasted it, and he thought it was the best cup of coffee he ever had." 

Todd Simpson brought the idea home to his wife. "He sort of made a contraption to make this coffee," said his son, in a Texas accent as thick as coffee syrup. His mother had a delicate stomach and couldn't tolerate coffee, but her system handled the cold-brewed coffee just fine. That was enough for Todd, who invented a simple concentrate maker -- soon dubbed "Toddy" after its inventor -- and started a business in his garage. Forty years and thousands of Toddy makers later, Strother runs the business. 

Todd Simpson had a degree in chemical engineering from Cornell, so of course he tested his coffee to learn why it was so tasty and gentle on the stomach. Simpson claimed that brewing coffee in hot water leaches out acids, fatty acids and other unpleasant substances, all of which end up in your cup. A cold-process coffeemaker leaves that nasty stuff behind. According to the Toddy company, lab tests have found 3 to 4 times more acid in hot-brewed coffee.

Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!

Tropical Carrot Cake from The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather

Tropical Carrot Cake from The Pastry Queen by Rebecca Rather.
I've adapted the recipe without changing the integrity of the original one.

This is definitely a Best of the Best Recipe.

This is the only Carrot Cake I make. I believe it's the best I have ever tasted.  I hope you take some time to try this recipe if you love Carrot Cake.

This is the best Carrot Cake we have ever eaten.
Rebecca is the daughter of Dan Rather and had a Restaurant in Fredericksburg, Texas called The Pink Pig.
Since posting this Blog, the restaurant has closed.

Here's what you'll need:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3 - 9" Cake Pans brushed well with Pan Release Mix. (equal parts of Crisco, Vegetable Oil and Flour) I start with 1 C of each mixed well and refrigerated in a jar. I always have it available for all of my baking needs.


Cake:

1 C Macadamia Nuts
3 C Flour
3 C granulated Sugar
1 TBS Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 TBS Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
1 1/2 C Sweetened Flaked Coconut
4 Large Eggs
2 TBS Vanilla
1 1/2 C Vegetable Oil
1 1/2 C Shredded peeled Carrots
1 1/2 C Crushed Pineapple, drained.
1/2 C Sweetened Cream of Coconut ( Coco Lopez)

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting:

3 (8oz.) packages of Cream Cheese, room temperature
1/2 C Confectioner's Sugar
1/4 C Heavy Cream
1/4 C Coco Lopez
1/2 tsp Salt


Arrange the Nuts on a sheet pan and roast them for 7 - 8 minutes.
Set aside until they're cool enough to chop.

Place one oven rack 1/3 from the bottom of the oven and the second one 2/3 from the bottom.

In a large mixing bowl:
Flour
Sugar
Baking Soda
Salt
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Coconut
Chopped Nuts
Whisk well.

In a medium mixing bowl:
Eggs
Vanilla
Oil
Carrots
Pineapple
Cream of Coconut
Whisk well.

Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir to combine well. Do not over mix.

Pour the batter equally among the 3 cake pans.
Stagger the pans in the oven so that they're not directly over each other.
Place 2 pans on 1 rack and the third pan on the other rack.

Bake for 30 - 35 minutes.
A toothpick in the center should come out clean and the tops should be golden brown.

Remove the pans to a rack and cool for 10 minutes.
Invert the cakes onto Parchment Paper lined racks to cool completely.

Prepare the Frosting.

In a Stand Mixer with a Paddle Attachment on medium high speed:
Cream Cheese
Confectioner's Sugar
Beat for 1 -3 minutes.

Add:
Heavy Cream
Cream of Coconut
Salt
Beat just to combine.

Place 1 layer of cake on a serving platter.
Spread with a thick layer of frosting.
Add the second layer of cake.
Spread with a thick layer of frosting.
Add the third layer and frost the top and sides of the cake with an even layer of frosting.

Enjoy!
Peace in the Kitchen!