Rice Piedmontaise from Los Angles Union Station

I certainly hope that those railroad cooks and their chopping knives are better than I am with a hefty knife. Just a few weeks ago, I “missed” and ended up cutting a finger nail in half. Auwooooh!! Should have used my pink KitchenAid 12-Cup food processor. Maybe the kitchen gods were telling me something? Like, the old ways are not always better?

Max, I’m sure I’ve given you this recipe before, but this rice recipe has been a favorite of our for years. My mother-in-law gave me a little pamphlet put out by the Santa Fe Railroad when we were first married and living in California. Lorraine had grown up riding all over the West on the Santa Fe Lines and well remembered the days when dining on the train was a gustatory experience to look forward to.

Risotto, Piemotaise was supposed to be a signature dish of the Fred Harvey Dining Room at the Los Angeles Union Station. It was my first encounter with Risotto, and I loved it!

Later on, Max, Risotto became a fashionable dish and we read all about how hard it was to make, and how you had to keep adding liquid and watching so it wouldn’t burn. This isn’t at all like that. Perhaps the Fred Harvey chef hadn’t been to Italy? No matter. It’s still a great and unique way to serve rice.

Like you with serving Welsh Rarebit because it was easy on the budget, I served Risotto, Piedmontaise to lots of company, and they thought it was a gourmet dish straight from Italy. There are few dishes cheaper and easier than this one. What? Pennies per serving?

Risotto, Piedmontaise:

1 small onion
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup rice
½ teaspoon salt (I never use salt as the chicken broth is salty enough)
2 ½ cups chicken broth, heated
Grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Chop the onion fine with a small mincer. Heat the butter in a large skillet and slowly bring the onion to a limp stage. Add the rice and continue cooking, stirring, until the rice is golden which will be about ten minutes. Watch carefully as it will cook for quite a while and suddenly start to brown. (This step can be done up to a day ahead with the rice stored in the fridge.)

At this point you can do one of two things: In the original recipe, you added the hot chicken broth, put a cover on the skillet, and reduced the heat to cook slowly for 18 to 20 minutes. The liquid should all have evaporated. Stir in Parmesan cheese if desired.

My method is to put the browned rice and chicken broth in a casserole with a tight lid and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Again the rice should be dry. I sometimes take the lid off for several minutes to slightly brown the top of the rice.

This makes about 8 large servings of rice and it reheats well in the microwave.

I bake this when I am making a meal with other stuff that needs to cook in the oven. It isn’t fussy about temperature. I’ve made it at 300 degrees (just takes longer), or up to 375. I’ve even baked it with almonds and raisins, in which case it is a pilaf.

Brandy Flip Pie

Max, I am afraid that the heat has finally fried your brain. Calm down, girl. Get ahold of your self. Yes, I’m sick and tired of the heat too, but trust me, it is about over. In a few weeks you will forget that we were dripping like wet rag dolls, and hating to turn on the kitchen stove. I now it must be bad when you are rebelling from fixing full, thresher meals. Surely you didn’t serve that Crabmeat Olympia Hiawatha salad to your family for the main meal. It sounds more like a ladies luncheon item rather than fare for working men.

Your mentioning Fred Harvey reminded me of another one of his company’s recipes that I used to make in the heat of summer. It is a Brandy Flip Pie that was featured at his Dining Room at the Chicago Union Station once upon a time. My only encounter with Chicago Union Station was 30 years ago, and boy was it a disappointment. Shabby didn’t begin to describe it then. And the food there looked like it came out of a vending machine. Maybe it is better now?

Actually, Doctor Erma prescribes a piece of this pie as a sure cure for excessive summer heat. It is easy to fix, cold, and best of all it has 4 tablespoons of brandy! Before you start in on me and my “excessive utilization of alcohol”, think about it. I haven’t sent you a booze recipe in at least a week or two.

Trust me, dear, a little slice of this pie and you will forget all about the heat.

Brandy Flip Pie:

1 envelope of unflavored gelatin
¼ cup cold water
4 eggs, separated
½ cup sugar
½ cup milk, scalded
½ teaspoon fresh nutmeg
4 tablespoons brandy
1 baked pie shell
Bitter or semi-sweet chocolate bars (Optional)

Soften the gelatin and cold water. Beat the egg yolks with a hand whip and then combine with sugar and milk. Cook in a double boiler until the mixture coats a spoon. Remove from the heat and add the gelatin. Stir and chill until slightly thickened.

With a small mixer, beat the whites until stiff with the remaining sugar, nutmeg, and brandy. Gently fold this mixture into the thickened yolk mixture with a spatula.

Pour into a cold pie crust and chill until firm. Serve with chocolate curls made by running the long blade of a vegetable or potato peeler over the slightly warmed chocolate.