MEAT & SEAFOOD ENTRÉES TOURTIÈRE (FRENCH CANADIAN PORK PIE)

Yield: 10 to 12 servings

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1/4 cup dry sherry

3 tablespoons plus 5 tablespoons salted butter

FOR THE FILLING:

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoon paprika

2 cup crushed Ritz-style (butter) crackers

2 tablespoons salted butter, melted

First, make the crust: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Use a pastry cutter or fork to cut the butter cubes into the dry ingredients until the pieces are about the size of a pea. Then use your fingers to rub some of the butter into the flour so that it forms flakes; the mixture should look like cornmeal with lumps in it.

1 tablespoon milk

3 cups mashed potatoes teaspoon ground cloves

Cook, stirring continuously, until the sauce thickens and bubbles. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Add the blue cheese, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and pepper; stir to incorporate. Spread half of the sauce over the potatoes; then sprinkle with half the Parmesan cheese. Layer the remaining potatoes over the cheese and cover with the remaining sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan. Bake until the potatoes are tender and the cheese on top is golden brown, 45 to 50 -min utes more (you can run the dish briefly under a broiler for extra browning, if you like). Serve hot.

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FOR THE TOPPING: the prepared dish and set aside. In a medium-size saucepan over low heat, melt the butter. Add the shallots and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add the flour, stir or whisk to blend, and cook 2 -min utes. Add the milk and buttermilk.

Arrange half of the potato slices in overlapping rows in the bottom of

Preheat your oven to 350°. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.

3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

2 teaspoons mustard (Dijon or brown)

2 1/2 ounces blue cheese, crumbled, divided

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups whole or 2% milk

2 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 shallots, minced

3 tablespoons salted butter, plus more for the pan

6 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, sliced 1/4 -inch thick

Mary Lou Carlson of Bothell, -Washing ton, was one of 17 winners of our October

BUTTERMILK–BLUE CHEESE

1988 “Great New England Cook-Off” for her fresh take on potato casserole. Like many “gourmet” recipes of the era, it had a laundry list of ingredients, so we cut it back while preserving the rich flavors of the blue cheese, mustard, and Worcestershire sauce.

3 tablespoons of the cooking oil over the kale and toss with the lemon slices and garlic. Serve warm or at room -tem perature. Yield: 8 servings

1 1/2 pounds fresh kale, stem ends removed, chopped

3 large cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1 lemon, very thinly sliced

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Olive oil (for frying)

1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt food. Mary served hers with lemon wedges on the side, but we love the beauty and mellow tartness of fried lemon slices. The oil in which you cook the lemon and garlic becomes the dressing for the kale.

Fill a 5- to 7-quart pot with water to a depth of ¾ inch. Add 1 tablespoon of salt. Set a steamer basket into the pot and bring to a simmer over mediumhigh heat. Meanwhile, pour the oil into a medium-size skillet to a depth of ½ inch and set it over medium-low heat; bring it to a temperature of 300° to 350°. In a small bowl, stir together the flour and the remaining ¼ teaspoon of salt. Toss the lemon slices with the flour mixture to coat. Add the lemon slices to the skillet in two batches and cook until golden brown, 1 to 3 minutes. Remove and drain on paper towels. Add the garlic to the pan and cook until golden brown, about 1 -min ute. Remove and drain on paper towels. Reserve the oil. Put the kale in the steaming basket with the simmering water and cook until just tender, 7 to 9 minutes. Drain and transfer to a serving bowl. Drizzle

We featured Mary Codola’s Italian -Amer ican cooking in our “Great New England Cooks” column back in December 1984, long before kale became the go-to power

-HANDS ON TIME : 35 MINUTES

TOTAL TIME : 35 MINUTES ;

KALE HITW RIEDF ONMEL & CARLIG

Preheat your oven to 400°. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and arrange the potatoes in it. In a small bowl, stir together the maple syrup, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Pour over the potatoes; then sprinkle the butter pieces evenly over all. Cover the pan with foil and bake 25 minutes. Uncover the pan and baste the -pota toes generously with the liquid. Cook, uncovered, basting thoroughly every 15 minutes, for 45 minutes longer. Sprinkle the pecans over all and baste one more time; then bake until the potatoes are shiny, glazed, and lightly browned, 15 to 20 minutes more. Serve hot. Yield: 8 to 10 servings

1/2 cup chopped pecans

3 tablespoons salted butter, cut into small pieces, plus more for the pan

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 teaspoon kosher salt

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

2/3 cup maple syrup

3 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/3 -inch-thick casserole, a subtle counterpoint to the maple syrup’s sweetness. The idea came from a March 1939 story on Vermont maple culture that included dozens of recipes, including one for sweet potatoes steamed in maple syrup and vinegar. Our version calls for regular basting, which builds a tantalizing glaze, and pecans for crunch.

Vinegar is the secret ingredient in this

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Shake well until the mixture is fully blended, about 10 seconds. Taste and add more salt if desired. Toss the -dress ing with watercress and currants until lightly coated.

Put the oil, vinegar, mustard, honey, salt, and pepper in a small jar or other container with a tightly fitting lid.

2 large bunches watercress (about 8 ounces each), washed, dried, large stems removed 3/4 cup dried currants

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

2 teaspoons honey

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons apple-cider vinegar

6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

In 2003, we consulted with historians at Plimoth Plantation and asked writer Jane Walsh to devise a menu using ingredients that would have been served at the first Thanksgiving meal. We prioritized deliciousness over strict authenticity, but we did use currants, which grew wild in the area. Likewise, watercress might have been available if the frosts had held off. That formed the basis of this simple salad with a tangy cider vinaigrette.

Garnish: about 30 small sage leaves

1 clove garlic, halved

1 baguette, cut into 1/-inch-thick3 slices

2 egg whites, beaten to firm peaks

8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter

3 ounces cream cheese

4 ounces sharp Cheddar cheese

Casserole) are best left to memory, but this quirky appetizer from December 1974 caught our eye. The cheese sauce is leavened with egg white so that it toasts up, a bit soufflé-like, on rounds of French bread. A fun alternative to cheese twists.

In the 1960s and ’70s, we ran readersubmitted recipes in a regular column titled “My Favorite Recipe.” Some dishes (Kidney Bean Relish, Liver & Rice

-HANDS ON TIME : 30 MINUTES

TOTAL TIME : 45 MINUTES ;

Holiday C Eeseh Puffs

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Sprinkle the flour and paprika over the mushroom mixture and stir 1 -min ute. Slowly add the chicken stock, -stir ring continuously; then increase the heat to medium-high and simmer 20 minutes. Stir in the cream and reduce the heat to low; cook 5 more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, stir in the chopped thyme, and serve hot, -gar nished with fresh thyme.

CWATER RESS–CURRANT ALADS HITW

Yield: about 30 pieces mering water. Add the Cheddar, cream cheese, and butter, and melt, whisking continuously until creamy. Remove the bowl from the heat and let it sit 5 -min utes to cool. Now fold in the egg whites in two batches. Dip one side of each bread slice into the cheese mixture.

Bake until puffy and browned, 10 to 15 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Arrange on the prepared baking sheets, coated side up. Press a sage leaf into the center of each slice.

Preheat your oven to 400°. Line 2 -bak ing sheets with parchment paper. Set a double boiler over a pot of -sim

In a 5- to 7-quart pot over medium heat, cook the leeks in butter, stirring often, until softened, about 6 minutes. -Gen tly stir in the potatoes and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms give up some of their liquid and shrink in size, about 8 minutes.

Garnish: Fresh thyme

2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme

2 cups light cream or half-and-half Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 quart reduced-sodium chicken stock

2 teaspoons ground paprika

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 pound (about 8 cups) assorted mixed mushrooms (see “Note,” p. F19), sliced

1 large Yukon Gold potato, peeled and diced

4 tablespoons salted butter

1 medium-size leek, thinly sliced with her husband, Steve, in Gorham, N.H., in 1997, and has been bringing “locally sourced, funky fine dining” to the White Mountains ever since. This recipe, from Jan./Feb. 2002, extracts big, earthy flavors from just a handful of ingredients and can be served puréed (as originally presented) or chunky. These days, we prefer the latter.

N ote: Wild mushrooms, such as -por cini, morel, and chanterelle, would be delicious in this soup, but they’re very expensive. We had terrific results using a simple mix of sliced button, cremini (“baby bella”), and shiitake mushrooms, all sold in our local supermarket.

Chef Liz Jackson founded Libby’s Bistro

Melt the butter in a 5- to 7-quart pot over medium heat. Add the celery, carrots, and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until translucent, about 6 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over all and stir 2 minutes. Add the chicken stock a bit at a time, whisking as you go, until you have a smooth base. Add the milk and cream and stir to combine. Purée the mixture in batches in a blender (or use an immersion blender) until smooth. Return to the pot over low heat and sprinkle the cheese over the liquid, a handful at a time, stirring -con tinuously until smooth. Season to taste

1 large carrot, peeled and diced

1 stalk celery, diced

5 tablespoons salted butter

Louise Andrews Kent was a well-known writer of cookbooks and fiction in the post–World War II era. Under the pen name Mrs. Appleyard, she wrote witty tales, bookended by recipes, of life in Calais, Vermont (look for them in used-book stores —they’re terrific reads). We ran the recipe for this zesty, creamy soup from The Summer Kitchen in June 1957, the year it was published. In testing, it required very few updates, a proven classic that’s even more delicious the next day.

-HANDS ON TIME : 35 MINUTES

TOTAL TIME : 45 MINUTES ;

VERMONT CHEDDAR SOUP