Over time, families develop Christmas food traditions. The favorites may have been passed down through generations or they may be more current. Often, they are a blend of the two. Traditional dishes may hail from the lands of one's ancestry, such as areas of Europe or South America. Some favorites are regional to this country -- those from the Southern states may have certain favorites that differ from those of the Northeast or the Southwest.
Please share your favorite traditional holiday dish recipes with us to publish during the coming weeks. Your ideas can be simple or more difficult.
E-mail your recipes and any thoughts about them to diane@tooeletranscript.com or call Diane Sagers at 882-6797.
This week's guest cook is Mary Durtschi who currently lives in Stockton.
As I visited on the telephone with Mary Durtschi last week, I was quickly caught up in her enthusiasm for her family's favorite Christmas dishes. She explained to me in her Southern drawl that she has dishes she makes traditionally and her family just can't seem to get enough of them. With many of her seven grown children and their families returning for special occasions, she doubles and triples the recipes for many of the favorites and they still empty the dishes.
Born in Louisiana, Mary grew up on a farm. As a young woman, she came to Utah where she met her future husband. After her marriage, the family moved around the country as her husband's employment transferred them around. Mary and her husband, David, have now happily settled in Stockton. But her Southern roots run deep and still play a major role in her cooking. Her family is happy about that.
She shares her recipes below and with each recipe I have included the tricks she uses to make the dishes turn out the way her family likes them.
"One of our family favorites is sweet potato casserole. It is wonderful. I can't take credit for the recipe -- a friend in Colorado Springs made it for me when I had my fifth baby. But it is delicious," Mary explained.
It is important to use the right ingredients for the right results, Mary cautions.
"When it is made right it is wonderful. Once when I was making it I realized I was out of butter and didn't have time to go to the store. I used soft spread instead. It isn't the same. There is not enough oil in soft spread and the mixture didn't whip up right. Usually it is fluffy and the top is crisp -- that time it was too soft and runny."
Yam or Sweet Potato Casserole
5 medium sweet potatoes. Mary prefers the darker ones, but light or dark will work.
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cream milk makes it lower in calories, but cream tastes better.
Cook and mash the sweet potatoes.
"I boil them without peeling, then slip the skins off when they are tender. Whip them up with electric mixer. As you mix it, you whip them for a couple of minutes. Then take off the mixer blades and rinse them off. Put it back and whip it some more, then wash the blades off again. Keep doing that until they come out fairly clean. It takes out the fiber. Always do this process until the fibers left on the blades are really small. That is the key," Mary says.
Add salt, butter, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, sugar and cream and mix in.
Place in a 2-quart casserole and top with topping below and bake as directed below.
Topping for Sweet Potato Casserole
1/4 cup softened, not melted, real butter
3 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 to 3/4 cup chopped pecans
Use a pastry blender to blend the ingredients and sprinkle the mixture over the sweet potatoes.
Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Top should be crispy and potatoes light and fluffy.
"Corn pudding is really easy," Mary said. "It is really a corn soufflé. I triple the recipe (single recipe below) and it is always the first thing to go. My family just loves it. There are always quite a few here to eat, but it is definitely a favorite."
Corn Pudding (Corn Soufflé)
4 eggs whipped
6 tablespoons of melted butter "I use real butter"
2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon red pepper (cayenne)
10 ounces frozen kernel corn thawed
17 ounces cream canned corn. "They don't make 17-ounce cans of cream corn any more, so I have to measure it each time," she noted.
1 cup heavy whipping cream
Spray a 9x13 casserole dish with non-stick cooking spray. Mix all the ingredients together. Pour into the greased casserole dish. Bake at 325 for 1 1/2 hours until set and golden brown. Serves 8
"In the South, homemade banana pudding is hands-down the favorite dessert. Growing up, we had it for Thanksgiving and Easter. And we never wanted a birthday cake, we wanted banana pudding. I always double this recipe. There is no doubt what dessert my family likes best," Mary said.
Banana Pudding
1/2 cup sugar
3 1/2 tablespoons flour
Dash salt
Add 1 1/2 cup of milk
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup half and half or evaporated milk. Mary says this makes it creamier.
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 box vanilla wafers
6 fully ripe bananas
4 egg whites
1/3 cup sugar
Mix milk, 1/2 cup sugar, flour, salt, and egg yolks in blender mixing until very smooth.
"They don't necessarily do it this way in the South, but I always use blender to blend this first part. My mama didn't do it that way because she didn't have a blender, but I like to do it that way," Mary explains.
Place half and half in top of double boiler and add blended milk-sugar-egg mixture.
Place the double boiler over boiling water. Cook until the mixture thickens up. "It won't get real thick because it is hot, but it will thicken," Mary explained.
Remove from heat. Add vanilla and mix in.
Layer bottom of a 8x11 1/2-inch casserole dish with vanilla wafers. Stand more on edge to line the outside of the pan.
"I use the best quality (brand-name) vanilla wafers because the cheap ones don't work as well," Mary noted.
Slice bananas over vanilla wafer layer.
"I use approximately six for this recipe but depending on the size of the bananas, it may take more or less. We like plenty so I layer them deep. Use fully ripe bananas so they are soft, but not as ripe as for banana bread," Mary says.
Pour half of pudding mixture over bananas.
Place another layer of vanilla wafers, bananas and pudding. Place another layer of cookies over the top.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Make a meringue by putting the egg whites in a clean glass bowl and whip them until they are fluffy to soft peaks. Add 1/3 cup sugar. Continue beating until very stiff peaks form. Top entire banana pudding with the meringue.
Bake at 425 for about 5 minutes until meringue is golden brown. Cool completely. This dessert should be served cold.
Sweet potatoes are more of a way of life in the South than they are typically in the West, so it is no surprise that Fluffy Sweet Potato Pie is a favorite at the Durtschi house. This recipe is one Mary's first cousin gave her. You can use pumpkin in place of the sweet potatoes if you prefer, Mary said, but she likes the sweet potatoes much better.
"The key to my cooking is to keep it easy but sweet potato pie is worth the effort," Mary laughs.
Fluffy Sweet Potato Pie
1/2 envelope unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup cold water
3 eggs separated
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups cooked sweet potatoes, or pumpkin if preferred
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon chopped candied ginger or 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger
Soften gelatin in cold water. Beat egg yolks well with 1/3 cup sugar. Add sweet potatoes, sour cream, salt, spices and ginger to the egg yolk mixture. Place mixture in saucepan and cook stirring constantly over medium heat until the mixture comes to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer two minutes continuing to stir constantly.
Remove from heat and stir in gelatin until dissolved. Cool to room temperature. Beat egg whites until very frothy. Add 1/4 cup sugar. Continue beating until stiff peaks form, like meringue.
Fold egg whites into pumpkin mixture gently. Spoon into crunchy praline pastry shell. Chill until firm and serve with whipped topping or whipped cream.
Crunchy Praline Pastry Shell
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 9-inch lightly baked pastry shell
1/2 to 3/4 cup shopped pecans
Precook pecans for 3 minutes at 425 degrees. Spread in pan and bake. Pre-bake pastry shell for about 5 minutes. It will not be completely baked.
Combine butter and brown sugar in a saucepan. Cook, stirring constantly until sugar melts and mixture bubbles vigorously. Remove from heat and stir in pecans. Spread over the bottom of the partially cooked pastry shell. Bake at 425 degrees for 5 minutes or until bubbly. Remove from oven and allow to cool thoroughly before adding sweet potato filling.
"During the day while I am cooking, I don't cook other meals. People get hungry, so I try to have a snack available. They like this cheese ball recipe that I got from my daughter-in-law's mother," Mary said.
Cello's Cheese Ball
2 8-oz packages cream cheese
1 8-oz can crushed pineapple drained
2 cups chopped pecans
1/4 cup finely minced green peppers
2 tablespoons finely chopped or minced onion
1 teaspoon salt
Beat cream cheese until smooth. Stir in pineapple and 1 cup of the chopped pecans, the onion, bell pepper and salt. Chill and shape into a ball. Roll it in remaining nuts. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 to 5 hours.
Serve with assorted crackers.
This rice recipe is really simple. You just put it together and let it bake, she notes.
Dukes Rice
(from Mary's friend in Tennessee)
1 cup uncooked long-grain white rice.
1 stick melted butter
2 cans beef consume
8-ounce can sliced mushrooms
1/4 cup dried onion. "I like it better with dried than with fresh in this case," Mary said.
Combine all ingredients and put it in 9x13 pan. Bake covered for about 1 hour at 350 degrees.
This Pumpkin Chiffon Pie recipe came from Mary's mother-in-law's old cookbook from the early 1940s.
Pumpkin Chiffon Pie
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups pumpkin mashed (canned or homemade - even better)
3 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
Prepared pie shell (2 shells required if smaller than 9-inch)
Top with frozen whipped topping, thawed.
Chopped pecans
Dissolve gelatin in 1/4 cup milk and set aside. Mix 1/2 cup milk, 3/4 cup sugar, pumpkin, egg yolks, salt and spices. Cook in top of double boiler until thickened -- takes a while, but it does thicken. Remove and add gelatin. Refrigerate until it just starts to set up.
Beat egg whites until fluffy. Add 1/4 cup sugar. Beat until stiff. Slowly add part of the pumpkin mixture to the meringue then fold the meringue mixture back into the pumpkin mixture. Fold gently to keep it fluffy. You don't want it to break down.
Spoon mixture into pie shells, top with whipped topping and garnish with chopped pecans.