Home Cooking With Trisha Yearwood: Stories and Recipes to Share With Family and Friends (11 page)
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Authors: Trisha Yearwood
Tags: #food.cookbooks
Pizza doesn’t have to be round! I make this pizza dough into a rectangle and cut it into squares to serve.
chicken and dressing
Our cousin
Linda Paulk brought this chicken and dressing casserole to our family reunion, and I loved it. It combines all the things I love about my grandma Lizzie’s cornbread dressing with the poultry all in one dish. Linda doesn’t use a recipe, but she was kind enough to write one down for me!
SERVES 12
1 hen, about 4 pounds (
see Note
)
Salt and pepper
1 8-inch pan prepared cornbread (about 1 pound)
32 saltine crackers, crumbled
10 slices white bread, torn into pieces
8 large eggs, boiled and chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 celery stalks, diced
In a large pot with a lid, cover the hen with water and add 1 tablespoon salt and ½ teaspoon black pepper. Bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer the hen until tender, about 1 hour and 30 minutes, or until the meat falls off the bone. Reserve the broth and meat separately and discard the bones.
In a very large bowl, crumble the cornbread, crackers, and bread crumbs. Add the chopped eggs. In a medium saucepan, heat the olive oil and cook the onion and celery until tender, about 7 minutes. Add ¼ cup of the reserved chicken broth and continue cooking until the vegetables are translucent, about 6 minutes. Add the onion and celery to the bread mixture. Add 2 cups of the broth and mix well using a sturdy spoon or your hands. Continue adding broth until the mixture is very moist, almost soupy. Put the dressing in a 9 × 13 × 2-inch casserole dish. Press chunks of boiled hen into the dressing, using about three fourths of the meat. Cover the casserole and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the casserole from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature while the oven is heating. Bake for 45 minutes, or until heated through. The dressing should be moist. If it appears to dry out too much overnight, pour another cup of broth over it.
NOTE: A hen is more flavorful, but if you can’t find one, substitute a roasting chicken.
spinach lasagne
The mention of spinach in a recipe usually sends a few folks running from the dinner table, but in this twist on lasagne, one taste will have them asking for more. Beth’s friends often gather in each others’ homes for a weekend bring-a-dish, and when it’s her turn to host, she usually makes this lasagne. Even the kids like it! You can put it together ahead of time and bake it just before dinner is to be served. It’s great with some wild rice and a green salad. The spinach can just be your little secret!
SERVES 12
1 10-ounce package frozen spinach, thawed and drained
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cooked and shredded
2 cups grated Cheddar cheese (5 ounces)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon cornstarch
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 10-ounce can cream of mushroom soup
1 8-ounce container sour cream
½ cup sliced fresh mushrooms
⅓ cup mayonnaise
8 ounces lasagna noodles, cooked according to package directions
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup pecans, finely chopped
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, combine the spinach, chicken, Cheddar cheese, onion, cornstarch, salt, pepper, soy sauce, soup, sour cream, mushrooms, and mayonnaise. Put a layer of noodles in the bottom of a greased 9 × 13 × 2-inch casserole dish. Spread half of the spinach mixture over the noodles. Put another layer of noodles over the mixture and cover with the remaining spinach mixture. Sprinkle the Parmesan cheese over the casserole. Then sprinkle the pecans on top. Bake for 1 hour. Let the casserole sit for 15 minutes before serving.
Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole
casserole
Including the fresh vegetables we grew in our summer garden, Beth and I were raised on basic foods: meat, potatoes, white rice, and gravy. That pretty much covers every meal you’d ever need. My mama was serving up the dishes that her mama, Lizzie, taught her to make. I think we were all slow to try new things, because we knew what we liked, and we didn’t change things that much. This dish is the first “new” recipe I remember trying that had wild rice in it. I thought I was doing something crazy by eating wild rice! This dish has now become a regular at my dinner table. I love to take this casserole to parties or church suppers.
SERVES 10 TO 12
2 4½-ounce cans sliced mushrooms, drained (reserve juice), or 16 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1 small onion, chopped
½ cup all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken broth
3 cups half-and-half
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, cooked and diced
2 6-ounce boxes long-grain and wild rice mix, such as Uncle Ben’s, cooked
1 cup slivered almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped
½ cup sliced pimiento
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 × 13 × 2-inch casserole dish.
If you use fresh mushrooms, sauté them in a large skillet with 1 tablespoon of butter until tender, about 10 minutes. Drain and reserve the juice.
In a large skillet, sauté the onion in the remaining butter until tender. Stir in the flour, cooking for 2 to 3 minutes. Combine the mushroom juice with enough broth to make 3 cups of liquid. Slowly stir the juice-broth mixture into the onion mixture. Stir in the half-and-half. Cook until the mixture is thickened. Add the sautéed or canned mushrooms, the chicken, rice, toasted almonds, pimiento, parsley, salt, and pepper. Pour into the prepared casserole dish. Bake, uncovered, for 30 to 45 minutes, until most of the liquid is absorbed.
bass
My great-grandmother
Mary Paulk had a large farm pond in Willacoochee, Georgia. She liked to paddle a boat out into the dark waters and fish for bream with a cane pole. My
grandaddy Paulk fished for bass with a rod and reel, often taking my mom along to paddle for him. I’ll bet they never cooked bass this way!
SERVES 4
2 teaspoons salt
1½ pounds largemouth bass fillets (8 fillets total)
½ cup ketchup
½ cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
½ cup olive oil or salted butter, melted
½ cup chopped sweet onion
1 lemon, sliced
Preheat the oven to 300°F.
Line a 9 × 13 × 2-inch casserole dish with aluminum foil. Salt the bass and transfer it to the dish.
Make the basting sauce by mixing the ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, olive oil, and onion. Pour the sauce over the bass and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the meat flakes easily with a fork. Spoon the sauce over the fish at 20-minute intervals as it bakes. Using pancake turners, carefully remove the fish to a platter and garnish with lemon slices.
My daddy proudly displaying his largemouth bass!
Mary Paulk with her catch.
Try substituting other fish, such as whole rainbow trout. Adjust the baking times by testing flakiness.
catfish
My eighty-eight-year-old cousin
Pete Yearwood is an experienced fisherman and catches large catfish. My daddy, Jack, was an only child, so his few remaining relatives are very special to me. Pete reminds me a lot of my daddy, from the sparkle in his eyes to his great sense of humor. When my dad built our house in 1970, he found a fresh spring down in the woods. He built a pond out of that spring, and he would often take Beth and me fishing. He baited our hooks for us and removed them from our catches long after we were old enough to do it ourselves. We never caught a fish as big as Pete’s, though!
SERVES 6
6 large catfish fillets
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cornmeal
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon black pepper
2 quarts peanut oil
Put the catfish in enough water to fully cover. Add a tablespoon of salt, cover with plastic wrap, and soak overnight in the refrigerator.
Mix the cornmeal, flour, 1 teaspoon salt, and black pepper in a plastic bag. Drain the water from the catfish and transfer the fish to the bag with the cornmeal. Shake the bag to coat the fish.
Heat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 300°F. Drop a few pieces of fish into the hot oil. Do not overcrowd. Cook the fish until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the pieces with a slotted spoon and keep warm in an oven while frying the remaining pieces.
FROM GWEN:
A steak from one of these fish is more than a serving. Pete says the key to a good piece of fish is in the way it’s cut. He cuts 1-inch slices, crosswise, from the largest part of the fish, then fillets one side of the remaining tail portion and leaves the bone in the other side.
FROM BETH:
Serve this fish with a side of
Jalapeño Hushpuppies
.
