Scalloped scallops

’tis the season for bay scallops. While they’re pricey this year at nearly $30 per pound, these sweet smaller cousins of the sea scallop are worth the splurge at least once. Yes, the price is enough to knock the wind out of a frugal Yankee, but as my husband points out, cooking these scallops at home remains less expensive than dining out at a restaurant.

Fanny Merritt Farmer's Boston Cooking School Cook Book contains a recipe for baked scallops with cracker crumbs and cream. It's called "Scalloped scallops." My recipe for baked scallops is similar, but it omits the cream:

Baked stuffed scallops

1 pound scallops

1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed

6 tablespoons butter, melted

Chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. (It’s important that the oven be hot when you put seafood in to bake.) Reserve two tablespoons of the melted butter for drizzling later. Mix Ritz cracker crumbs with remaining four tablespoons butter. In a single baking dish or individual casserole dishes, place a scant layer of cracker crumbs. Arrange a single layer of scallops and top with cracker crumbs. If necessary, add another layer of scallops and top with cracker crumbs. Avoid layering scallops any more than two deep; they won’t cook properly. Drizzle with reserved melted butter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Crumbs should be lightly browned and the scallops opaque. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with a wedge of lemon. Serves three.

Soup for supper: butternut and apple

My grandmother, who was born in 1916, never used the word “lunch.” Her world revolved around breakfast, dinner and supper. Growing up, I used the term “lunch,” but what we now call "dinner" was always “supper” in our house. The only “dinner” was Sunday dinner, which was served in the afternoon. I still refer to the evening meal as “supper.”

Older New Englanders favor something light, like soup, for supper. And nothing gastronomic reflects autumn in New England like this soup. It combines two ingredients readily available in the region at harvest time: butternut squash and apples. Use any sweet apples you have on hand. I used Jonagold for this recipe. My family likes this soup with a bit of body, but you can make it as thin as you like by adding more liquid.

Butternut squash and apple soup

2 tablespoons butter

1 yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

One medium/large butternut squash (enough to yield about 4 cups)

3 cups chicken stock

1 bay leaf

2 teaspoons salt

½ cup half-and-half or light cream

Nutmeg for sprinkling (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Cut butternut squash in half lengthwise. Do not peel. Scoop out seeds. Place halves, flesh side down, in a roasting pan. Add ½-inch water to pan. Cover with aluminum foil. Bake for one hour or until squash is soft. Drain water from pan. Allow squash to sit until cool enough to handle. Scoop flesh out of peel. Set aside.

In a small stockpot, melt butter. Add onion and apples. Cook until softened. Stir in squash, chicken stock, bay leaf and salt. Bring to a boil; then reduce heat and simmer for about 40 minutes. Remove bay leaf. Using an immersion blender, puree soup in pot. Stir in cream. Sprinkle with nutmeg (optional). Serves six.

Saucy Pilgrims & Indians: cranberry sauce

The Pilgrims probably didn’t eat cranberry sauce for the first harvest celebration in 1621 because sugar was in short supply. But not much later they did indeed make cranberry sauce, according to John Josselyn’s New-Englands Rarities Discovered, published in 1672. Josselyn visited Massachusetts in 1638 and 1663. Of cranberries, he writes, “The Indians and English use them much, boyling them with Sugar for Sauce to eat with their Meat; and it is a delicate Sauce, especially for roasted Mutton: Some make Tarts with them as with Goose Berries.”

Here’s a basic recipe for whole-berry sauce:

Cranberry sauce

2 cups cranberries, picked over and rinsed well

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

Place all ingredients in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. If you prefer a loose sauce, boil the berries for about 10 minutes, partially covered. Cool and refrigerate. For a gelled sauce, simmer berries for about 15 minutes, uncovered. Seal sauce in a glass jar and set on counter to cool. Then place jar in refrigerator for at least 24 hours to allow sauce to gel before serving. Makes about 16 ounces.

Rocket science: arugula salad

Arugula, that peppery and oh-so-hip salad green, has been gracing tables in this country--on and off--since Pilgrim times. The Separatists knew it as “rocket,” and they used it in “sallets.” Bitter herbs were thought to purify the blood. Arugula is easy to grow in the well-drained soils here. It is always abundant in my garden, spring through frost, and its flavor seems to improve in autumn. This salad is my take on one enjoyed several years ago at The Red Pheasant Inn in Dennis, Massachusetts. That simple, but memorable, salad included mixed greens, dried cranberries, walnuts and warm goat cheese, dressed with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Rocket sallet

arugula

dried cranberries

glazed or toasted plain walnuts

goat cheese, crumbled

Assemble the above ingredients in the proportions you like. Dress with a simple vinaigrette.

Simple vinaigrette dressing

3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon brown mustard

6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon or more maple syrup

Whisk together the first five ingredients. Sweeten to taste with maple syrup.

That’s johnny without the 'h'

Rhode Island is considered to be the authority on jonnycakes, little fried pancakes made from cornmeal mush. According to Yankee magazine, the Algonquin Indians taught the early English settlers how to make these. True jonnycakes, Rhode Islanders maintain, are made not from just any cornmeal but from locally ground whitecap flint cornmeal. Because the Rhode Island cornmeal isn’t readily available outside of the state, you can substitute southern-style grits. This recipe, provided by Plimoth Plantation museum, is based on a Native American recipe for Indian corn bread:

Jonnycakes

1 cup of hominy grits, uncooked

2 cups of water

Pinch of salt

2 tablespoons of butter (my addition)

½ teaspoon sugar (my addition)

½ cup cold water or milk (my preference)

Bring water, salt and butter to a rolling boil. Slowly add hominy grits and sugar. Cook until water is mostly absorbed. Stir in milk or water to make batter; add more if necessary. (The consistency should be like corn-bread dough.) Drop by the spoonful onto a hot greased cast iron griddle. Cook for a full five minutes on each side. The outside should be brown and crispy while the inside hot and fluffy. Makes about a dozen three-inch pancakes.

An apple crisp a day

It’s apple-pickin’ time! We visited a Maine orchard last weekend and picked about 40 pounds of organic McIntosh, Cortland, Jonagold and Fameuse Snow (an heirloom parent of the McIntosh). I used a mix of Cortland, Macs and Jonagold in this apple crisp. A traditional New England dessert that appeared on every school lunch menu until authorities determined that serving dessert at school is a bad thing, apple crisp is a favorite fall comfort food. It’s easy to prepare but tricky: Apple crisp can be apple soggy if you use the wrong apples or not enough flour in the topping. If you choose McIntosh apples exclusively, the result is likely to be mush because these apples cook down to almost nothing. They are great for applesauce. Cortlands are among the best for cooking because they retain their shape. Jonagolds can be dry. I find a combination of apples works well. However, if I had to pick just one for baking, it would be Cortland.

Apple crisp

Five or six large apples (about 2 pounds)

1 cup flour

½ cup old-fashioned oats

¼ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

½ teaspoon salt (cut in half if using salted butter)

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Pinch of nutmeg

1 stick cold butter, diced

To make topping: mix flour, oats, sugars, salt and spices. Add butter and cut in with pastry cutter, two knives or fingers. (I start with a pastry cutter and end up using my hands.) Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using butter wrapper, grease the inside of an 8-inch-square or similar baking dish. Peel and slice apples about a quarter-inch thick. Fill baking dish, leaving some headroom for the topping. Cover apples with topping.

Bake uncovered for 40 to 45 minutes, or until topping is browned and apples are bubbly. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Serves six.

Capt. Shrimp and rice

Not long after the Pilgrims arrived in the New World in 1620, profligate English lawyer Thomas Morton settled to the north of the Plymouth Colony in a place he called "Merry-mount." Morton and the Pilgrims didn't see eye to eye. Morton viewed the Separatists as a lot of religious fundamentalists. The Pilgrims dubbed the fun-loving Morton the "Lord of Misrule" and attempted to eject him from their New English Canaan, eventually succeeding. Morton referred to Capt. Myles Standish as "Capt. Shrimp" because of his small stature and red hair.  

While this dish incorporates shrimp as its main ingredient, it has little to do with New England cooking. Before returning to my home state of Massachusetts nearly 15 years ago, I lived for four years in the Florida Panhandle, where shrimp and oysters are plentiful. On my way home from work, I would frequently stop at the fish market to buy a pound of freshly caught shrimp for $5.99. And so this pilgrim added a number of shrimp recipes to her file. This is one of my own invention. It’s a relatively quick and easy recipe, especially if you buy the shrimp already cleaned.

Bayou shrimp and rice

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

½ cup uncooked white rice

1 clove garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

½ teaspoon paprika

cayenne pepper or hot sauce, to taste

1 cup diced tomatoes

1 cup water or shrimp broth*

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup frozen peas (optional)

In a large skillet with a lid, melt the butter and olive oil. Add onion and sauté until softened. Add the rice and cook, stirring often, until the mixture is lightly browned. Add garlic and sauté for a minute. Add bay leaf, paprika and cayenne pepper and cook for a minute. Then add tomatoes, water or broth and salt. Bring to a simmer and then add shrimp and frozen peas. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 20 minutes or until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. Serves four.

*If not in a hurry, I’ll make shrimp broth to use in this dish. It adds more depth of flavor. When cleaning the shrimp, I reserve the shells for the broth. This recipe makes about four cups, so you’ll have some to freeze.

Shrimp broth

shrimp shells

one small whole onion

one garlic clove, lightly crushed

a sprig or two of parsley

Place all ingredients in a stock pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil; then lower the heat and simmer, lid tilted, for about 30 minutes. Strain.