I had my first real British scone in the town of Grasmere in the Lake District of England. It was light, airy, and I ate it in the sunshine on an ancient stone patio surrounded by fragrant British roses. I love scones slathered in salty whipped butter, clotted cream, honey or freshly made salmonberry jelly. If you keep the basic recipe in mind the flavor combinations you can make are endless. In the summer they are great with fresh Alaskan berries, or in the winter they can be made with dried fruits and nuts. They are delightful at breakfast, scrumptious for an afternoon snack, or delicious for dessert. Usually when I make them, they end up being all three.
The year before last my brother and his wife decided that they wanted to start raising chickens. My brother is especially enamored with the idea of being self sufficient, he’s been telling me how much he wants a goat for years now. They built a cute little chicken coop next to their homey cabin on Douglas Island, Alaska and somehow managed to acquire a handful of Transylvanian Naked Neck chickens.
They were fairly good egg producers, and from what I was told they provided hours of entertainment to their keepers. One day in spring though, they were sitting in their cabin when all of a sudden they heard a ruckus outside. My brother ran out there and immediately saw their coop was under assault by a wily black bear. Now SE Alaska black bears aren’t necessarily anything to be worried about. Of course they can be aggressive and should be given a wide berth, but for the most part they are about the size of a large Newfie and fairly timid.
In this particular case my brother only had to pick up an old snow shovel and shake it a bit and the bear in question took off for the hills. There was however one casualty. The noble chicken Blackavar (Yes named from Watership Down). Somehow the bear had been able to get a hold of him and I don’t know whether the chicken died from a broken neck or maybe just from the sheer terror of getting caught by a large land predator, but Blackavar’s body was undamaged by the bear’s teeth or claws so he seemed in perfect condition to still be eaten.
In the end, when it came time to move out of that quaint little cabin I think they ended up giving away a couple of their chickens and eating the rest. Well, except for another one that also got caught by a black bear, but lets just say that one was not salvageable.
They moved out of their cabin, put almost all of their stuff into storage and set off on an amazing month long adventure to Hungary and Croatia. From which they brought my back a TON of different Hungarian paprikas. This plethora of paprika played heavily into my creation of this Chicken Paprikash recipe. My SIL just told me yesterday that they also had catfish paprikash while they were there which is definitely something I’ll have to try with some halibut or rockfish.
After my brother and SIL brought me back a TON of paprika from Hungary I was at a loss with what to do with it for quite a while. I had used it sparingly as a garnish for deviled eggs and such, but I couldn’t think how to use a whole bunch all at once. Then I stumbled upon a question someone had asked online, “What was my grandma making with slow-cooked chicken in a paprika gravy?” The answer: Some bizarre Midwest adaptation of Chicken Paprikash but still the same general idea. “Oh right, that’s a thing!” I thought. Sure enough my SIL informed me that they did indeed eat a lot of paprikash in Hungary and Croatia. So this is my adaptation since I didn’t have a cookbook on Hungarian classics laying around.
First take desired quantity of meat and brown it in a heavy bottomed dish (this is ceramic coated cast iron).
Dice your veg. This is half of one large sweet onion (yellow onion is fine too) and one medium sized red bell pepper.
Remove your chicken from the pan and saute your veg on low for quite a while in the rendered chicken fat. About 15-20 minutes until the onion is golden brown. Make sure you add a pinch of salt to draw out the moisture and I added a teaspoon of honey too.
Add 2 tablespoons of of sweet paprika and stir into the veg, letting it cook for about a minute, releasing it’s flavores into the oil. Keep stirring so it doesn’t burn.
Deglaze the pan with a cup of medium dry-sweet white wine (Hungarian wine tends to be sweet. I think I used a chardonnay here). Add two cups of chicken broth and replace the chicken back into the pan. The skin can be removed at this point because it gets soggy as it simmers. Cover with a lid and cook for about 30 minutes and then remove the lid and cook for an additional 15 minutes, until the thighs are fully cooked and the liquid has reduced by half. Make sure to give it a little stir every now and then so the peppers don’t stick to the bottom. Even though the liquid has reduced, I still wanted my sauce to be thicker so I added about a 1/2 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed with cold water to the sauce and let that thicken it up.
When the sauce is reduced turn off the burner and let the dish cool slightly. Next you will be adding the sour cream and you don’t want it to be too hot of the sour cream will break. When the mixture is cooler, you can remove the chicken into your serving dish and then start adding the sour cream a dollop at a time. The sauce will become light pink and even thicker.
Serve with spaetzle, egg noodles or rice. garnish with some sliced scallions.
Ingredients:
4-6 chicken thighs (or chicken breasts or drumsticks if so desired)
This ice cream isn’t too hard to master but all your friends will me amazed when you tell them you made this yourself!
A couple of years ago I went berry picking in the fall with my friend Jenn (I wont tell you where! It’s a secret, of course!). I don’t have a ton of patience for sitting in one spot monotonously picking pea-sized things off the ground, so I only managed to get about a quart of blueberries. When I brought them home I found I also did not have the patience to pick all of the teeny-tiny stems off the berries so I took the lazy way out. I blended them, stems and all. I then ran the puree through cheese cloth sitting in a mesh strainer. What I ended up getting out of all that was about two cups of thick blueberry puree.
I froze this for about 4 months and dug it out of the freezer for a New Years dinner. I used about half of it for a blueberry gastrique I made with lamb, and the rest seemed like enough to keep, but I had no clue what for.
We’ve had a Cuisinart ice cream maker for about two years (one that Nina generously gave me), and I never had managed to churn out anything good. Well I let my very precise husband loose on the machine and whereas I had always simply eyeballed the recipes, my husband managed to create a masterpiece of a dark chocolate stout ice cream. A remembered the blueberries and a light bulb seemed to go off in my head! Make ice cream with it, my brain screamed! But of course I am not the ice cream master, so I sat there as my dear husband concocted this blissful creation.
Seriously though. MAKE YOUR OWN ICE CREAM. It’s so creamy, and rich, and you can put anything you want in it! The key is in the custard!
Note: Best results come from putting your freezing canister in the bottom of a chest freezer for 24 hours, or better yet, put in outside in Fairbanks, Alaska in the middle of January!
Ingredients:
1 cup milk (we used 2%)
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup blueberry puree
1/2 sugar (for the blueberries)
Instructions:
First heat up the blueberry puree with about 1/2 a cup of sugar, just to get the sugar to dissolve. In another pot mix milk, salt, and sugar and heat on medium low until steam starts to rise off of it. You can still stick your finger in the mixture at this point, but it’s pretty hot. In a separate bowl whisk four egg yolks until they are completely broken apart and a slightly lighter color. VERY SLOWLY pour the hot milk mixture into the eggs a little bit at a time as you whisk continually. Once all of the milk is incorporated pour the egg/milk mixture back into the pot and mix constantly with a wooden spoon until it begins to thicken. When it’s about the viscosity of maple syrup try the wooden spoon test. Pick your spoon up out of the mixture and run your finger horizontally over the back of the spoon. If the custard on top of the line doesn’t run down over the gap your finger made then it’s ready. Pour the custard through a mesh strainer into a bowl. Finally whisk in the heavy cream and the cooled blueberry sauce. Toss into ice cream maker and mix for about 30 minutes. When it is done it should be about the consistency of soft serve. Place into a storage container and freeze until it firms up completely.
We are both born and raised in Alaska, land of the midnight sun and fishing at 2am. We love to find new ways to use fresh ingredients or put a modern spin on an old Alaskan classic. We hope you will enjoy tasting Alaska.
We are both born and raised in Alaska, land of the midnight sun and fishing at 2am. We love to find new ways to use fresh ingredients or put a modern spin on an old Alaskan classic. We hope you will enjoy tasting Alaska.