Oyster stew 

 1 leek, mostly just the white part

1 pint of shucked oysters

2 strips of bacon

1 cup skim milk*

1 cup heavy cream *

4 T butter, approximately

salt - about 3/4 tsp, but do it to your taste

pepper -- white pepper if you have it, about 3 shakes or to taste

paprika, at least 1/2 teaspoon, more if you want -- I used Smoked Spanish paprika

1. Prepare the leek. I discarded the outer leaves of the leek because they were the dirtiest and toughest, then sliced off most of the green part, cut it in half lengthwise and rinsed it thoroughly under running water, then chopped each half into about 1/4 inch pieces. 

2. Fry the bacon. I used a large cast iron skillet. Remove bacon from pan, leaving all residual grease.

3. Add about 2 T butter to the pan to supplement the bacon grease, and start sauteeing the leeks. Add salt and pepper.

4. Drain liquid from the oysters into a 3-quart heavy saucepan. Add the milk and cream and begin heating. Add the paprika.

5. If the leeks seem to have absorbed most of the butter, add another 2 T. Pour the oysters into the skillet with the leeks and cook just until the oysters curl at the edges. Do not overcook. **

6. When the liquid is hot, either add the leeks and oysters to the saucepan or, if using a large enough skillet like my chicken fryer, pour the liquid into the skillet. Taste and add more seasoning if you want.

7. Remember that bacon you fried earlier? Cut it up into pieces and put some in a bowl. Then ladle in the stew, making sure to get plenty of oysters!

 

*I usually have skim milk and cream on hand. If you have whole milk, you could use 1-1/2 cups of whole milk and just 1/2 cup cream, or even all whole milk, in a pinch. 

**The shucked oysters I got this time were quite plump, which is one reason I sizzled them separately before joining them back up with the liquid. If you get small oysters, they could cook right in the liquid once it has heated. Do not add them at the beginning, though, or you're likely to overcook them.

 

 

Katharine Hepburn’s brownies, slightly tweaked

 

These are wonderfully fudgy, borderline gooey. If you prefer crunchy, dry brownies, this is probably not the recipe for you. Or you could bake them longer. I don’t know, because I have no desire to find out! I have tweaked the original recipe slightly to suit myself and my array of baking pans. My way creates eight brownies that are 2 inches square and about an inch thick.

Ingredients

• ½ cup cocoa *
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup flour (I have even used a gluten-free flour substitute, which worked fine)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Pinch of salt -- I prefer using about half a teaspoon because I like salt with chocolate. Up to you.
  
• 1 cup roughly chopped walnuts or pecans (optional – I never use them)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line a loaf size baking pan** with parchment paper,or butter it well.
2. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over medium low, then remove from heat and whisk in the cocoa powder until blended. Stir in the sugar. Let this mixture cool a bit while you measure the other ingredients and crack the eggs (there’s a risk of scrambling the eggs if you add them while the mixture is too hot). Always crack eggs one at a time into a separate small bowl, just in case, and give them a little whisk before adding.
3. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and, if using, nuts. Mix well.
4.  Pour into baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean***.
5. Cool completely (about an hour) and cut into squares. These brownies are very fudgy and may be somewhat difficult to slice cleanly; use a sharp knife and a spatula to help them loosen from the baking dish if you have not used parchment, If you have used parchment, it’s a snap to lift them out and cut them on a board.

 

*Some recipes say you can substitute 2 squares of unsweetened bakers chocolate. I personally think that if you do so, you should reduce the butter by a couple of pats’ worth, because there is some fat in the chocolate. I haven’t tried it, because I am more likely to have cocoa powder on hand than unsweetened bakers chocolate.

**I use a pan that’s approximately 4 x 9, and I line it with parchment paper even though it is allegedly non-stick. If you butter your pan instead, the brownies likely will cook a bit faster, and if you use a lot of butter, they might be even gooier. The original recipe says to use an 8 x 8 inch pan,baked at 325 for 40 minutes, but I thought the brownies were a bit thin. If you double the recipe, a 9x9 pan would probably work just fine; you would probably have to adjust the time, using the toothpick to determine when they are ready.

***”Clean” is relative – no gooey crumbs, but the toothpick might be stained a bit by the chocolate. That’s fine for me because, again, I like fudgy brownies rather than dry, cakelike ones.