Last Father's Day, my wife volunteered us to take a Jell-O salad to a get-together at her parent's house. What this really means is that my darling wife volunteered me to make a Jell-O salad for everyone on her side of the family. She hates cooking so I get volunteered a lot. I ended up making two salads, or rather two different flavors of the same recipe, just to make sure there was enough. They were quite a hit. I'm always glad when people enjoy a dish I've made, it's just that if they like it too much I'll be asked to make it again ... and again ... and again ...
Here's the variant I made on a recipe you used to be able to find at Kraft Foods. (I made that recipe for the get-together, too, in case you were wondering.) It's not the famous green Jell-O with pineapple or grated carrot that's so much a part of Utah Mormon food culture, but I like this one better.
Peach Gelatin Mousse Mold
(If you say that phonetically it sounds, awful, doesn't it? Who wants to eat mold? Okay, if it's in bleu cheese or gorgonzola I'll eat it, but I draw the line at penicillin.)
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 (4 serving size) packages of Peach flavored gelatin dessert (or one 8 serving size package)
1 cup cold water
2 fresh peaches, peeled, pitted, and chopped.
1 8oz. tub of artificial Whipped Topping
Preparation
In a large bowl, mix the boiling water and powdered gelatin with a fork until completely dissolved (about two minutes). Stir in the cold water.
Place half the peach pieces in a 6 cup gelatin mold (I used a bunt cake pan). Pour 2 cups of the gelatin mixture into the mold, over the peach pieces, and refrigerate for about 35 minutes. The mixture should be firm, but not fully set. You can use more peaches, if you want. Just don't let it overwhelm the amount of gelatin.
In the meantime, refrigerate the remaining gelatin mixture for about 30 minutes, or until it has the consistency of raw egg whites. (Or, if you have children with head colds, the consistency of their . . . never mind.) Gently stir 2 cups of whipped topping into this mixture, along with the remaining peach pieces, until well blended.
Once the gelatin in the actual mold starts to get firm, pour (or spread) the whipped topping mixture evenly over the top, and refrigerate for about 4 hours, to let it fully set up.
Tips
To un-mold the gelatin, plunge the bottom of the mold (not the gelatin inside it), into some warm water for about 5 to 15 seconds, depending on how hot the water is. This melts the thin layer of gelatin that's actually in contact with the mold. Don't do this for to long. You want gelatin, not fruity flavored soup. Place a serving plate on top the mold, face down. Invert the plate and remove the mold. You may need to shake it slightly to get the gelatin to come out.
You can make this recipe with canned peaches as well, but you have to do a little more work. Cut the peaches into small pieces, and then wrap them in paper towels to get as much of the excess canning liquid out of them as you can. You may need to use a couple of paper towels. If you don't get the majority of the liquid out, the gelatin won't set up as well.
Enjoy!
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Pertaining to Jell-O(r)
It's been a long time coming but, I'm finally ready to start tackling Jell-O. For those who have been living under a rock, Jell-O is General Food's brand of powdered gelatin. It comes in various colors and flavors and is the Holy Grail of Utah Mormon food culture.Gelatin has been around for a long time. It was quite popular during the Victorian era as part of complex "jelly molds." The base ingredient is derived from collegen taken from pigs and cows. The modern product is processed so exhaustively, however, that it's no longer considered an animal product by the FDA.
Back in 1845, an industrialist and inventor by the name of Peter Cooper (you know, the guy who also invented the first steam locomotive?) obtained the first patent for powdered gelatin dessert. The fact that this was a mere three years after the founding of the Relief Society, a charitable group composed of LDS women, is entirely coincidental.
Maybe.
In 1895, the patent was purchased by Pearl B. Wait, a cough syrup manufacturer from Le Roy, New York. He turned Cooper's gelatin dessert into a prepackaged commercial product. His wife, May David Wait, renamed it "Jell-O." Unfortunately for them, they couldn't sell the darned stuff, so they sold the patent to Frank Woodward, a twenty year old high school drop out, who just happened to already own his own business.
Sales were slow, at first, but the long term marketing efforts paid off for Woodward. By 1906 sales of Jell-O brand gelatin dessert broke the $1 million mark. Woodward's company later merged with the Post Cereal Company and became General foods, which now markets it under their Kraft line.
By the 1930's, a dish known as a "congealed salad" became the fashion in America. People would add all kinds of weird things to gelatin: grated carrot, pineapple, you name it. I've even heard of tomatoes being added. General Foods introduced lime flavored Jell-O at the time; to complement the foods people were sticking in these things. In addition, they started putting out vegetable and savory flavors of Jell-O: celery, seasoned tomato, mixed vegetable, etc. Thank goodness these were eventually removed from the market.
Utahans love Jell-O, and it's become a huge part of Utah Mormon Culture. (If they knew what it was made from I don't think they'd be so thrilled, but you never know.) I don't think it's a coincidence that the boundaries of the Jell-O Belt covers Utah, and the areas outside of Utah, that were generally colonized by the Mormon Pioneers.
Utahans take pride in the fact that, for years, Salt Lake City held the record for the most Jell-O consumed per capita. In 1999 they lost that position to Des Moines, Iowa. It was in response to being relegated to number two, that a grass-roots campaign was started by Scott Blackerby of the Bambara restaurant. He organized a "Take Back the Jell-O Title" Recipe Contest, hoping to help Salt Lake City regain the title. The effort was successful and Salt Lake City once again has No.1 Jell-O eating status. As an additional result of that campaign, Jell-O was declared the state's official snack food in 2001.
The stereotypical Utah "Jell-O salad" or "Jell-O casserole" is lime flavored Jell-O with either pineapple chunks or grated carrot mixed in it. Sometimes people top it with Cool-Whip, or some other brand of artificial whipped topping. My mother would make a weird fruit salad by mixing powdered Jell-O with cottage cheese and canned fruit. I like it, but other people aren't so keen. However you make it, Jell-O is a permanent fixture in the Utah Food landscape.
Jell-O, anyone?
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Bread Maker Magic
I love my breadmaker. It doesn't make the most fantastic bread I've ever had, but it does a pretty good job. The nice part is that I don't have to babysit it. I can set it up before I go to bed, set the timer, and voila! Warm bread for breakfast!Most of the recipes that came with it are pretty good. One of my friends came up with her own variations that work even better. One my family's favorites, from her list of breadmaker recipes, is for a half-white half-wheat bread. By itself, the recipe makes nice, soft, and tasty bread. I've modified the recipe by adding a couple of "secret ingredients" - wheat gluten and dough conditioner. They don't make the bread any tastier, but they do seem to help it rise a bit better, and more evenly.
Half-Wheat Bread a la Jennifer (as interpreted by the Mormon Foodie)
This recipe will make a nice 1 1/2 pound loaf in your breadmaker. The ingredients are listed in the order suggested by my breadmaker's manufacturer. Check the order recommended for your breadmaker. It does make a difference.
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cup white flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 1/2 tsp dry yeast
2 tsp wheat gluten
1 tsp dough conditioner
Use the "wheat" cycle, and set it to make a "light" loaf. (Yes, this recipe is light in the loafers. Ha Ha. Now be quiet.)
After it's done baking, cover it with a kitchen towel and cool it on a wire rack. Make sure you let it cool completely before cutting. That way the warm moisture on the inside of the bread will rise up and soften the crust, not fly out the side and dry out the bread.
What I like doing is making a couple of loaves of 100% whole wheat bread the "old fashioned" way over the weekend, and then supplement that with bread from the breadmaker during the week. That way we can cut down on making all those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches using store bought "air" bread.
Mmmm . . . peanut butter . . .
Enjoy!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)