old recipes

Pescado de Allende (Asparagus Stuffed Bass or Mackerel)

Asparagus is in season and has been substituted for the canned asparagus originally suggested in this authentic Mexican recipe adapted from [Concha's Mexican Kitchen Cook Book, 1946].

Pescado de Allende
Fresh asparagus*
Fresh mackerel or bass (about 1 1/2 pounds)
Four tablespoons of butter
Two tablespoons of capers
One tablepoon of flour
One teasponon of butter
One cup of milk
One-half cup of stuffed olives.
Sliced lemon
Sliced green pepper

Clean fresh mackerel or bass. Lightly cook asparagus in boiling water just until done and then brown asparagus in butter; add to it one tablespoon of capers. Open the fish and stuff it with this. After larding and salting well, put in moderate oven 350 degrees F. and cook slowly for 45 minutes. Take the juice from the asparagus, add to it flour and one teaspoon of butter, and mix well; then add milk. Cut into this the stuffed olives and remaining capers. Cook ten minutes. Serve fish with this sauce and with slices of lemon and green peppers. Four to six servings.

* original recipe calls for canned asparagus - yuck.

[read more about Concha's Mexican Cook Book]

[buy it at OldCookbooks.com]

Matzoth Shalet (Passover)

I was taken with the [shalet] recipes in an old Jewish cookbook, which include carrot, apple, and seven-layer shalets with textures ranging from fruit cake to pudding.

Here is a is a pudding-like version for Passover. Warning: it has nine eggs and half a pound of fat! Good thing this is eaten only once a year.

Matzoth Shalet for Passover
from the 1918, 1931 [Jewish Cook Book]

Four soaked matzoth, nine eggs, one cup of sugar, two grated apples, one and one-half cups of seeded raisins, one tablespoon of cinnamon, grated rind of an orange or a lemon and a few pounded almonds. Beat the sugar, eggs and cinnamon until light; then add all the ingredients, except the matzoth, mixing well. Now drain the matzoth, gradually adding them into the mixture, beating until very light. Melt half a pound of rendered fat into the dish for baking, and then pour in the mixture. Bake in a moderately hot oven for one and one-fourth hours. Serve hot with wine, fruit or prune sauce.

Recipe for [Apple Shalet].

More about the [Jewish Cook Book].