Cooking for Today

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Cooking for Today offers the chance to prepare, cook and taste unique combinations of ingredients to create surprisingly simple dishes. Perhaps you have something special to celebrate or just a cosy evening in. For those days when you want to try something light and healthy, or need inspiration for something equally simple, but more substantial. A collection of dishes, which are nothing short of perfection for your palatte.

6 Jellied Moose Nose 8 Stuffed Blossoms 10 Cow Udder Eclairs 12 Fried Bugs 14 Slug Fritters 16 Crudits with Vomit 18 Pickled Pig Ears 20 Turtle Soup 22 Fruit Bat Soup 24 Locust Bisque

contents

2 hours prep.

2 hours cooking ingredients

Jellied Moose Nose

1 1 1 1tb 1tsp tsp c Jawbone of a Moose Onion; sliced Garlic clove Mixed pickling spice Salt Pepper Vinegar

method serves 8 Page 6

1 Cut the upper jaw bone of the moose just below the eyes. 2 Boil for 45 minutes. 3 Remove and chill in cold water. 4 Pull out all the hairs (like plucking a duck). 5 Wash thoroughly until no hairs remain. 6 Place the nose in a kettle and cover with fresh water. 7 Add onion, garlic, spices and vinegar. 8 Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until the meat is tender. 9 When cool, discard the bones. You will have two kinds of meat, white meat from the bulb of the nose, and thin strips of dark meat from along the bones. 10 Slice the meat thinly and alternate layers of white and dark meat in a loaf pan. 11 Reheat the broth to boiling, then pour the broth over the meat in the loaf pan. 12 Let cool until jelly has set. Slice and serve cold.

30 minutes prep. ingredients

Stuffed Blossoms
24 c 24 c Pesticide-free nasturtiums Cream cheese Capers Pesto

1 Place nasturtiums on a tray or large platter. 2 With butter knife, press about teaspoon cream cheese into center of each nasturtium. 3 Pat capers dry on paper towels. Push a caper into the center of the cream cheese in each flower. 4 Dress with pesto. 5 Serve stuffed nasturtiums immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

serves 6

Page 8

method

2 hours prep.

30 minutes cooking ingredients

Cow Udder Eclairs

12 1pt 1c 1c 1 1 1 fresh lean cow udders whipping cream brown sugar artichoke hearts stick butter small filleted smelt Nair

1 Soak the cow udders in Nair to remove the hair. Repeat several times if necessary until all hair is removed. Rinse in warm water. 2 Place a stick of butter into a warm frying pan. Wait until all of the butter has melted, then add the cow udders. Fry them for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. 3 Chop the artichoke hearts and smelt on a cutting board into fine pieces. 4 In a large bowl, add the whipping cream, brown sugar and the chopped artichokes and smelt. 5 With a mixer on low, whip until creamy with a consistency like vanilla pudding. 6 Remove the udders from the pan and make a long slice down the side of each udder. 7 Spread the pudding mixture into each slit. 8 Serve warm or cold and have an Udderly Wonderful snack.

serves 12

Page 10

method

2 hours prep.

30 minutes cooking method

Fried Bugs
Ants 1 Heat a pan and fry the ants dry. They produce a lot of oil from their bodies. 2 Remove them from the pan, and dry in the sun or a low oven. 3 Remove the wings by winnowing or picking them out and store until ready to eat. Bee Larvae 1 Remove the bee hive or nest from the tree and boil it. 2 Remove larvae from the comb and dry them. 3 Fry them with a little salt and eat. No oil is required for frying. Bush Crickets 1 Remove the wings and the horned part of the legs. 2 Boil them for 5 minutes and then dry in the sun or at a low temperature in the oven. 3 Winnow away the wings if any remain by tossing them gently into the air, allowing the wings to blow away. 4 Fry in a pan with salt. These may need a touch of added fat to fry or roast.

serves 4

Page 12

30 minutes prep.

20 minutes cooking ingredients

Slug Fritters
10 c c 3 2 c 4tbs 4tsp fresh slugs cornmeal high protein flour eggs egg yolks heavy cream butter sour cream

1 First chop the slugs into fine mince. 2 Beat the eggs and egg yolks with the heavy cream together. 3 Sift the dry ingredients and then cut 2 tbs of butter into that mixture. 4 Add the egg and cream mixture to the dry ingredients and whip with a whisk vigorously for one to two minutes. 5 Melt one tbs of butter in a saut pan and pure the batter into 21/2 inch cakes in two batches. 6 Serve warm with a dollop of sour cream.

serves 4

Page 14

method

45 minutes prep. ingredients

Crudits with Vomit

Cherry tomatoes Carrots Zucchini Celery stalks Radishes Mushrooms Cottage cheese Onion soup mix Milk Yellow food colouring

2c 1 c

1 Rinse the vegetables in warm water, except the mushrooms. Wipe those gently with a damp paper towel. 2 Slice the carrots, zucchini and celery into thin sticks. 3 The cherry tomatoes can be served whole, but you may want to remove any green stems. 4 The radishes and mushrooms can be halved or served whole. 5 In a small bowl, mix the cottage cheese, onion soup mix and milk. 6 Stir in some food coloring until you get the desired yellowish color. 7 Do not overmix! Lumpy is more realistic! 8 Arrange your vegetables on a platter surrounding the Vomit Vinaigrette.

serves 6

Page 16

method

1 hour prep.

4 hours cooking ingredients

Pickled Pig Ears

4qt 1tb 2c 2c 1ts 2lb Water Alum Distilled white vinegar Granulated sugar Salt Pigs ears

1 Boil 2 quarts of the water with the alum for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and allow to cool. 2 Boil the vinegar with the sugar and salt for a few minutes, or until the sugar is completely dissolved. 3 Remove from the heat and cool. 4 Boil the remaining 2 quarts water and drop in the pigs ears. 5 Boil for 20 minutes. 6 Remove the pigs ears and cut them into lengthwise slices 1/4 inch wide. 7 After the sliced pigs ears have cooled, return them to the alum water to soak for 2 hours, then drain and rinse under cold water. 9 Dry lightly. Place the pigs ears in a jar, pressing them down. 9 Pour in enough cooled vinegar mixture to completely cover the contents of the jar.

serves 8

Page 18

method

1 hour prep.

1 hour cooking ingredients

Turtle Soup
1 2tsp 1 Snapping Turtle Ground Ginger Onion Salt & Pepper

serves 4

Page 20

1 To butcher a turtle you start by chopping off the turtles head. Be careful becausethe head will still bite even after it is removed from the body and the body will still crawl away after the head is removed. Turtles dont die right away. 2 When the body stops trying to crawl away, dip it in boiling water and scrape off the exterior layer of skin, including the shell. 3 Remove the shell. Cut along grove on each side between the front and back legs. It is the narrowest part of the shell. The tail, neck and all four legs are attached to the top of the shell. Remove from shell and you have the bulk of the meat. However, there will be some meat on the bottom shell and top shell. 5 It is at this point that you remove the fat. Just roll back the skin and with a paring knife and your index finger scrape out the fat. 6 Just cook it long with lots of vegetables and it will be good if you removed all of the fat.

method

20 minutes prep.

1 hour cooking ingredients

Fruit Bat Soup

3 1tb 1lg Fruit bats Water Finely sliced fresh ginger, Onion Sea salt to taste Chopped scallions Soy sauce

1 Place the bats in a large kettle and add water to cover, the ginger, onion, and salt. Bring to the boil and cook for 40 minutes. Strain broth into a second kettle. 2 Take the bats, skin them and discard the skin. Remove meat from the bones and return meat, and any of the viscera you fancy, to the broth. Heat. 3 Serve liberally sprinkled with scallions and further seasoned with soy sauce and/or coconut cream.

serves 4

Page 22

method

15 minutes prep.

3 hours cooking ingredients

Locust Bisque
1 2 1 1 2 tsp 1c method gallon locust shells onions, roughly chopped clove garlic, chopped celery stalk carrots powdered mace salt and pepper to taste whipping cream

1 Put all ingredients except whipping cream into a large stew pot, and fill with water. 2 Bring to the boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 3 hours. 3 Process in blender or food processor in batches, and strain before returning to clean pot. 4 Add whipping cream, being sure not to allow it to boil. 5 Serve with animal crackers.

serves 6

Page 24

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28pp 74 120mm Graphic Design by Aaron Skipper www.aaronskipper.co.uk Illustration by Alice Vine www.alicevine.co.uk Set in the following typefaces: Adobe Caslon Regular LL Brown Regular Other titles in this series: Tastes of TodayDrink Tastes of TodayMains Tastes of TodayDesserts