Jalapeño Cornbread

This traditional cornbread recipe was adapted from "Guardian Service Tested Recipes" to suit the Californio theme of our Gold Rush Stuffing in last year's Thanksgiving post on roast turkey. It cooks to golden-brown perfection in the 10" Guardian Service Breakfast Fryer.

Jalapeño Cornbread

1 medium onion, chopped
2-3 jalapeño peppers, seeded, finely chopped
1 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2 T. sugar
2 cups cornmeal
2 eggs
2 cups milk or buttermilk
4 T. melted butter, plus more for sautéing onion and peppers

1. Melt butter in 10" Guardian Service breakfast fryer and reserve 4 T for batter. In remaining butter, sauté onion and peppers until tender.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Add cornmeal.
3. Beat egg, add milk.
4. Mix quickly with dry ingredients and pour batter over the onion and pepper mixture.
5. Pour melted butter over top and cut through batter with a spatula.
6. Bake in oven at 400℉ (or in a layer pan on high in Guardian Service Kettle Canner) for 20-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.

Strawberry Shortcake in the Guardian Service Duplex Utility Pan

Most often this hinged pan is used to prepare omelets (and it will, indeed reward you with lofty, golden omelets once you understand its eccentricities). But the marketing team of the Century Metalcraft Corporation dubbed it The Guardian Service Duplex Utility Pan for a reason. True to its "Kitchen of Tomorrow" name, the pan works as mini-Dutch oven to cook up a meal for two quickly and fuel-efficiently. We like putting the pan through its paces (and have adapted it for various uses) but these quick biscuits prove one of the best: the entire dessert takes less than 30 minutes to prepare, from assembling ingredients to presentation.

I've adapted the Shortcake recipe from the Guardian Service Tested Recipes cookbook to yield enough dough for two large biscuits. While I replaced the shortening in the recipe with butter and reduced the sugar slightly, the biscuits turned out light and fluffy (make sure not to over-handle the dough—rolling and shaping with your hands is sufficient).

Freshly whipped heavy cream is traditional (perhaps with a drop of brandy and scant sugar) but here I've substituted a yogurt sauce (scented with agave nectar, nutmeg and vanilla and added a drizzle of pomegranate molasses to the berries in place of a sugar glaze.

Guardian Service Strawberry Shortcake

The classic summertime dessert adapted for the Guardian Service Duplex Utility Pan

1 cup flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp sugar

pinch salt

2 Tbsp cold butter, diced (plus more for pan)

1/3 cup milk

1 egg

1 dozen fresh organic strawberries, sliced

2 Tbsp pomegranate molasses (optional)

Low-Fat Yogurt Sauce

1 cup low-fat yogurt

2 Tbsp. agave nectar

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

pinch fresh–ground nutmeg

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt)
2. Cut cold butter into flour. Beat egg, add to milk and mix into flour with pastry blender.
3. Turn out onto floured board, roll and shape into biscuits by hand, using a light, deft touch.
4. Heat Duplex Utility pan, add butter and drop biscuits into pan.
5. Close lid, cook for 8-10 minutes until bottoms are browned. 
6. Open pan, heat opposite side, add pat of butter and coat pan. Close lid, flip pan and brown biscuits on other side.
7. Remove biscuits from pan, halve and fill with strawberries, top with yogurt sauce.

The complete Guardian Service dessert: Strawberry Shortcake and Coffee

Long Pepper Pork Chops with Madeira

We've blogged about quick-grilling chops on the Guardian Service Griddle/Broiler, but for thicker cuts (like these lovely pork chops) we tried a slower approach in the large Guardian Service Chicken Fryer, with its "self-sealing, self-basting cover."

The Tested Recipes cookbook provides several solid mid-century chop recipes ("Baked Pork Chops with Pineapple," "Swiss Steak") but the basic concept—sear, then roast—creates juicy, flavor-infused chops.

Using a vegetable (in this recipe, onions) to support the meat as a "roasting rack" is a key technique with waterless cooking and further flavors the meat while allowing the vapors of Madeira to envelop the chops as they simmer.

Andrew's brother recently brought us an ancient spice that's quickly become an obsession: long pepper. Its spike-shaped fruit is slightly hotter than its cousin black pepper and has a pungent aroma and tang that compliments pork perfectly. If you don't have a foodie-in-law with underground connections, long pepper can be found at Indian groceries and specialty spice suppliers online.

Long Pepper Pork Chops with Madeira

4 thick-cut pork chops

1 tsp sea salt

3 spikes long pepper, ground in mortar and pestle

3 Tbsp. safflower oil (for neutral taste and high heat)

2 Tbsp. Madeira wine (or sherry, fruit juice, etc)

Simple Garlic Prune Gravy (see below)

1. Prep the chops (rinse, pat dry and trim of excess fat). Optional: render fat for use in gravy.
2. Rub chops well with oil, salt and pepper.
3. Place the fryer over medium heat until it reaches the water test "ball stage." 
4. Sear the chops on all sides until browned, 90 seconds per side.
5. Remove chops from pan. Place four slices of onion in the pan, spacing equally to support each chop. Place chops on onions. 
6. Sprinkle Madeira over the chops, cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 20-25 mins.

Served with a sauce and vegetables (we served Guardian Service potatoes and golden beets cooked in the Economy Trio Cookers and a Garlic Prune Sauce) this makes an elegant meal for four for $20-25 (depending on the cut of meat) in under 2 hours.

Simple Garlic Prune Gravy

4 pitted prunes
2 Tbsp rendered pork fat and/or cooking oil
2 cloves garlic
juice of 1 orange
1 cup wine (red or white)
1/2 tsp. each cinnamon, allspice, dry mustard (like Colman's), dried parsley
corn starch or barley malt (optional, for thickening)
salt and pepper to taste

In a small cooker (like the Guardian Service Tom Thumb), sauté garlic for two minutes in rendered pork fat and/or cooking oil, then add prunes, parsley and orange juice and cook for 10-12 min until reduced to a sauce. Add spices and corn starch or barley malt for thickening and keep warm in the Guardian Service Gravy Boat to serve with baked pork chops.

Guardian Service Recipe: Knickerbocker Nut Bread, a September Song

In previous posts, we've put the Duplex Utility Pan to its most traditional use, frying omelets. But as the product leaflet notes, this pan was intended to handle everything from "quickie meals" and "dolling up left-overs" to baking meatloaf, loaf cake or quick bread. After a failed brownie mix experiment in our last post, I returned to the original recipe leaflet.

I assume "Knickerbocker Nut Bread" was named by the Century Metalcraft marketing department to give the recipe book  neo-colonial charm—to the best of my knowledge there's no traditional bread by this name. Though Knickerbocker is a Dutch surname dating to the colonization of Manhattan, Washington Irving's satirical A History of New York (1809) was written under the pseudonym "Diedrich Knickerbocker" and became so enduringly popular that the name has graced everything from knee-pants to Hollywood apartments to the NY Knicks since that time. Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson based their 1938 musical satire "Knickerbocker Holiday" on Irving's short stories (minus Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the two for which he's perhaps best known) and gave us the classic "September Song").

On a personal note: I'm eternally indebted to Sleepy Hollow—it's Andrew's birthplace.

Knickerbocker Nut Bread

(from the Century Metalcraft/Guardian Service "Duplex Utility Pan" product leaflet)

3 cups flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract*

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup chopped nuts

Sift dry ingredients. Add egg, milk and nuts. Bake in buttered Duplex Pan, allowing 13 minutes to each side.

*Note, erratum: The original recipe lists sugar twice on separate lines: "1 teas. sugar" and "1/2 cup sugar". I've substituted vanilla (optional), though I suspect the authors may have intended 1 tsp. of soda... it doesn't need it. The 4 tsp. of baking powder provide all the leavening required for this quick bread to fill the pan once completed.

Additional Notes: Begin with ingredients at room temperature. Heat 1 Tbsp. butter in one side of the Duplex Pan (in open position) until butter turns light brown. 

Spoon bread batter into buttered side until almost full. Close unit, reduce heat to "low," and bake for 13 minutes.

Open the pan, butter and heat the opposite side, then close and reverse unit, baking the unfinished side for an additional 12-13 minutes (watch it—even on low heat it can burn quickly).

Unmold loaf to wire rack and allow to cool for ten minutes before slicing.

This recipe spares the fat and sugar, yet baked in the aluminum pan produces a dense, almost coffee or pound cake like consistency: a knockout served fresh for breakfast with butter and jam or cream cheese and jelly and rich enough to serve with ice cream for desert. It slices and toasts up beautifully. Wrap it in foil and it will keep well in the fridge (I'm sure for over a week... ours hasn't lasted that long). Vary with cinnamon and raisin or lemon zest and poppy seed.

Guardian Service Basics: Rice

Though I love rice, it didn't appear in regular rotation in our diet until we looked to it for economy, nutrition and body building. I lack the knack, the Rice Touch. A product of Russian/German and Swedish/Yankee Puritan ancestry, rice rarely featured in my families' menus and though my mother attempted to produce "Chinese Restaurant" rice at my request, it was never her signature dish. Despite various methods promising consistent perfection, I often wound up with a gooey mass.

Enter Guardian Service. I've written about a couple of other staple foods that, prepared the "Guardian Service Way" won us over to the waterless cooking method, potatoes and coffee in particular. When we discovered how easily Guardian Service produces flawless rice (brown, white, basmati, long and short grain), we experimented with other neglected cereals and grains with equal success: grits, barley, buckwheat, wild rice*, quinoa, kamut, spelt, amaranth...

While the mid-century recipe below calls for washing and rinsing the rice until the water runs clear, domestically-processed rice has already been cleaned and rinsed of excess starch prior to packaging. You may wish to rinse to remove any packaging dust, but beware over-rinsing: one of the tenets of waterless cooking is the retention of nutrients which are otherwise rinsed or boiled away. "The general rule is to wash imported rices and not to wash domestic rices, which are well cleaned and dried before packaging. Imported rices have plenty of clinging starch left over from the processing." (The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook, Hensperger/Kaufmann, Harvard Common Press, 2003)

FLUFFY RICE
(from Betty Gay's Guardian Service Tested Recipes)
Time: About 20 Minutes (Serves 6-8)

2 cups rice
3 1/2 cups cold water
1 tsp. salt

Wash rice thoroughly in warm water, washing several times until water is clear. Drain, place in unit, add cold water and salt. Start over medium heat until boiling point is reached. Cover, reduce heat to very low until rice kernels are tender. (Do not stir.) Rice may be unmolded from unit by running a knife blade around edge. (Every grain will be tender and separate—no sticking—no soaking required—no waste of rice.) Serve it buttered as a substitute for potatoes—as cereal—as an accompaniment for chop suey or shrimp creole—or use as a basis for nourishing desserts.

Companion Recipe: Rice Pudding—What better way to use up two cups of leftover cooked rice? Note: While the Guardian Service Tested Recipes cookbook does have a recipe for Rice Pudding (which I'll experiment with and blog about soon), it calls for a cup of uncooked rice... and we had plenty of leftover cooked rice.

(Also Note: 1 cup of uncooked rice yields 3 cups cooked rice).

MODERN RICE PUDDING
(Adapted for the Guardian Service Casserole/Tureen
from The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, First Edition, 1950)

2 large eggs (or 4 egg yolks)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
nutmeg for flavoring
NOTE: Add vanilla, if desired.

Beat all ingredients slightly to mix and add:

     2 cups cooked rice
     1/2 cup seedless raisins (or chopped dates—a handful of chopped candied ginger added to the mix is especially good).

Pour mixture into the Guardian Service Casserole Unit and set into Tureen Unit over medium flame and cover. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until sides begin to brown.

*UPDATE: Wild Rice. Soon after posting this blog, we received an email from Goose Valley, a grower of certified organic and natural wild rice in the Cascade Mountains in Shasta County, California. The farm and ranch at Goose Valley work in tandem, reducing the amount of external inputs each operation requires in an effort to farm with a minimum impact on the environment. Nicole, in their Boston Sales Office, asked if we'd like to try some of their wild rice and sent a trio of their packaged rices. 

We started with their spectacular Organic Wild Rice, which has a rich, nutty flavor and couldn't be easier to prepare the Guardian Service way (we used an Economy Trio cooker and prepared vegetables and chicken in the other two cookers, all over one flame for added fuel economy). Simply add 1 cup wild rice to 3 cups water or stock, bring to boil, cover and simmer on low heat for almost an hour, until the kernels become fluffy and tender.

Thanks so much, Nicole!

Coffee, the Guardian Service Way

We found the coffee pot, caked with dust, in one of those about-to-close antique shops that seem to fade in and out of existence. The stacked shelves and darkened aisles were laden with a lifetime's acquisitions (or its remaining shards) and the stepdaughter of the dead proprietress was anxious to part with anything for about ten bucks.

I picked up the weighty-looking urn, surprised by how relatively light it was, turned it over and saw the embossed logo: a knight's helmet and the words "Guardian Service." We brought it home, polished it up and Aladdin-like, the djinni of our mid-century cookware obsession was unleashed, inspiring a deeper food philosophy and eventually this blog.


While passionate about savoring a proper cup of coffee brewed the Guardian Service Way, I admit that most mornings I grope my way to the kitchen and switch on the automatic Krups, more interested in hastening its effect than enjoying its flavor. But on slow mornings or with "farmhouse breakfasts," this method brings out a deep range of scents and flavors and makes one toothsome cup of Joe.

The complete Coffee Maker/Beverage Urn has five pieces total: the Beverage Urn and lid (as with all Guardian Service ware, the pre-War models had metal lids which were later replaced by glass) and the "Dripper" unit (with filter and water distributor). You'll also need a separate kettle in which to boil the water.

From Betty Gay's "Guardian Service Tested Recipes," the proper method for making coffee in the Guardian Service Ware Coffee Maker:

Guardian Coffee
"Served piping hot to the last delicious drop... a happy ending to any meal."


"You've heard the one about coffee—How one morning it's strong enough to stand alone and the next morning too weak to get up. Not so, when prepared the Guardian Way, for coffee clear, sparkling and full of the natural aroma of the roasted bean will be yours every time. Your Guardian Service Coffee Maker and Beverage Urn prepares coffee by a method that science is proving most satisfactory for flavor, health and economy. It is graceful in design and so convenient for service coffee, as well as other hot and cold beverages at the table."

"Guardian Consistently Good Coffee"

1. Heat the beverage urn by rinsing with hot water.
2. Place dripper in top of urn and put filter disc with seam side down in bottom of dripper.
3. Measure into dripper, 2 teaspoons (1 level tablespoon, if a richer flavor is desired) of standard or drip grind coffee per cup. Do not use pulverized coffee*.
4. Place water distributor over coffee, pressing down firmly but not tight.
5. Pour in actively boiling water to desired measure. Use fresh cold water brought to a rolling boil. (Dripper is marked 2–4–6–8 cups.) For ten cups, measure proper amount of coffee in dripper, add eight cups of boiling water and when filtered thru, add 2 cups clear boiling water and mix.
6. Cover and place over very low heat or on warm part of stove. Allow about 1 minute per cup for coffee to drip.
7. When coffee has dripped thru, remove dripper, place cover on urn, adjusting cover with long flange in front of spout to retain heat.

Note: When using urn for table service, place a mat or table tile underneath to protect table from heat. Use Guardian Urn for various iced drinks. During the summer weather especially, the Guardian Urn will do double duty as a beverage pitcher. It acts as a "thermos" container for cold drinks as well as hot.

Iced Coffee: Prepare coffee double strength, cool to room temperature, Fill tall glasses half full of cracked ice or use 2 ice cubes. Pour coffee into glasses. Serve with cream, pass sugar syrup in a pitcher for sweetening (a spoon of whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream in each glass is a welcome addition).

*Some espresso grinds may work, but pulverized varieties like Turkish or Greek coffee may leave a gritty finish.

Guardian Griddle Cakes

A few posts ago I wrote about stovetop broiling steaks with the "Guardian Service Griddle Broiler," so this time we'll put its "griddle" function to task with pancakes. As Betty Gay waxes nostalgically in the Tested Recipes cookbook, "hot cakes or 'flapjacks,' as we called 'em back on the farm, with plenty of butter and maple syrup will make you feel that this old world's not so bad after all."

I had two distinctly different grandmothers. My father's mother Pauline, who lived "back on the farm" in North Dakota and cooked three large meals for the family and farmhands every day, had a more practical approach to cooking. My maternal grandmother, Muriel, was a professional musician and an excellent cook with a few "signature dishes"—and blueberry pancakes was one of them.
Muriel and Grandpa Ken rented a summer cottage in Rhode Island each year and when blueberries were at the peak of season she'd whip up memorable batches of those pancakes: light and fluffy but crisp and riddled with fresh berries running with juice that stained the cakes purple. Of course, she fried them stovetop in a quarter inch of oil in a cookie sheet... but as a once or twice in late summer treat, they were magical.

Andrew and I do our best to buy locally, seasonally and organically grown foods (or whichever of the combination we can find or afford) and while it's far from blueberry season, I have to admit a moment of weakness recently when Chilean blueberries showed up at our local grocer. A few days of unseasonably hot weather this week made it feel like summer and seeing those berries on sale made me long for Muriel's pancakes and ... I snapped. Fretting about the carbon footprint of this "inexpensive" pint of blueberries, I bought them anyway. In retrospect: I'd have been better off with a handful of chopped apple... fruit that's been shipped or stored or ripened out of season is always a disappointment and never ends up being "worth it." But sometimes these lessons have to be relearned...

SLAPPING THE CAKES

There's nothing unique about the GS pancake recipe (just make sure the baking powder is still active; test by pouring some hot tap water over a half teaspoon of baking powder—if it bubbles, it's still fresh enough; if not, the pancakes won't rise). What's crucial here is technique: the timing and the griddle heat.

Who needs Teflon? The trick to non–stick cooking on the Guardian Service Griddle is the heat. To prevent pancakes from sticking and burning, first warm the griddle for 5-7 minutes on a medium heat (1/2 flame on a gas stove) then test with a bit of cold water. I wrote about this "water test" in the steaks post, but I've taken a few more pictures to show you another example of the "dashing around like mad" effect mentioned in the cookbook: when the griddle is at optimum heat a bit of cold water poured on the griddle will retain it's shape, like globules of mercury rolling across the surface. If the water spreads out and sizzles, it's not quite hot enough and if it evaporates instantly it's too hot. Just set it off the heat for a few minutes.

"No need to worry about overtaxing the family's digestive system because Guardian hot cakes are baked—not fried in grease," notes Gay in the intro to "Hot Cakes... without grease or smoke." In effect, you are "baking" the pancakes on a greaseless griddle and, as with all GS cookware, the aluminum evenly distributes heat so you can cook 5 or 6 average-sized (not IHOP big-as-your-head sized) flapjacks at a time.

Timing: when bubbles appear on top, break and hold their shape, the under side has browned. Using a spatula, flip and brown other side. Place cakes in a pre-heated GS unit until ready to serve (keep the cover ajar so the steam escapes and they don't get soggy).

GUARDIAN GRIDDLE CAKES

Makes 2 dozen (approx 4" in diameter)

NOTE: If you're not feeding an army, use 1 egg and halve the remaining ingredients for a dozen.

2 cups flour

4 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 to 1 /3/4 cup milk (according to desired consistency)

2 Tbsp. melted butter

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
2. Combine beaten egg and milk.
3. Stir into dry ingredients, adding more milk if thinner cake is desired.
4. Blend in melted butter. (Optional: fold in 1 cup of chopped fruit (apples, bananas, blueberries in season...)
5. Preheat griddle over medium heat, test for temperature and bake cakes as directed above.