The Road to San Sebastia de Oeste

High in the Sierra Madre, we follow the twisting road from Puerto Vallarta and the seaside on our way to San Sebastian de Oeste.


We're just an hour from Puerto Vallarta but its seaside beauty and lovely neighborhoods filled with shops and restaurants gives quickly away the higher we go into the magnificent mountains with their shades of green, ochre and dusky blue. The road is wide and smooth but our guide tells us that just a few years ago it was a narrow path and there were stops along the way at farms where freshly caught meat and distilled tequila were accompanied by hand patted tortillas and cheese made that morning. He sighs, missing what were some of the best meals he ever had and which are now no more.


As we near San Sebastian, taking a turn on a dirt road where cows,unconfined by fencing, have to be shooed out of the way, to San Sebastian. Here we stop at La Quinta Café de Altura, an organic coffee farm owned by Rafael Sanchez, his wife Rosa and Lola, Rafael’s sister. Five generations of the family have grown coffee here .

 The family, in a building dating back more than 120 years, tend 11 acres of coffee trees, some as old as the house, handpick 30 tons of beans each year, dry, roast and grind them, making blends such as a mixture of ground beans with cinnamon and sugar for the traditional, and now often hard to find, Mexican coffee. Tastings are available and so are Rosa’s homemade candies such as guava rolls and sweets made from sweet goat’s milk. In an interesting aside, we learn that the Sanchez’s parents married early (the Don was 15), a 68-year union that produced 21 children. Their grandfather did even better, having 28 children, though that took both a wife and several mistresses. 

Walking along the cobblestone road, past a massive 300 year plus ash tree and cascading white frizzes of el manto de la virgin, we enter Comedor Lupita. Here terra cotta platters loaded with chicken mole, fresh handmade tortillas (in America they’d be called artisan tortillas), refried beans and something I’ve never tasted before – machaca, a dish of dried beef mixed with spices and eggs, are heaped in front of us. As we eat, we watch the family busy behind the tiled counter, making even more food. 

Through the windows we see splashes of bright purple from the masses of bougainvillea that drape the stone exterior walls and here the sounds of caballeros, their horses’ hooves striking the centuries old street. We sip our sweet agua de Jamaica water and feel time passing seemingly in reverse. 

Machaca 

Marinade: 
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
Juice of 4 limes
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon salt
1/2 tablespoon black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil

Machaca:

2 lbs. skirt steak, cut into strips
1 large sweet onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1/2 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (Tabasco or a Mexican brand, such a Valencia)
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons oil 

Whisk all the marinade ingredients together, and then add the skirt steak. Marinate at least 6 hours or overnight tablespoon Remove meat from marinade, drain, and pat dry. Bring to room temperature. Discard marinade.
In a large heavy pot, heat oil. Sear the meat well on both sides, in batches so as not to crowd them. Remove the meat as it is browned and set aside.

Drain fat. Add in the onion, peppers, and garlic, cook until tender, then add tomatoes, broth, pepper sauce and spices. Bring to a boil, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot. Return beef and simmer, covered, for two hours, stirring from time to time until tender. Cool and shred.

Lay meat on a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake at 250º for 20 minutes or until meat is dry. 

Machaca con Huevos

2 chopped scallions (white part only)
1 hot green chili
2 tomatoes
1 cup dried machaca
2 eggs
Chopped cilantro

Sauté scallions and peppers in oil until tender, add tomatoes and beef until heated. Remove from pan, add eggs and cumin. Scramble, then stir machata mixture. Garnish with cilantro and serve with hot tortillas.

The Baking Sisters of Monastery Immaculate Conception

A special holiday tradition is a trip to the Monastery Immaculate Conception, a wonderful Romanesque building sitting high on a hill overlooking Ferdinand in Dubois County, Indiana. For it is here that the sisters make wonderful cookies in their Simply Divine Bakery which they sell at the monastery’s For Heaven’s Sake Gift Shop and online ( the sisters are very modern these days). Their big selling Christmas cookie is the springerle and they make and sell about 2700 dozen during their peak months – October through February. That may not sound like a lot, but the cookies are handmade by a group of the sisters using presses brought by one of the Benedictine order from Germany over a century ago.

“It’s a very time consuming process,” Sister Jean Marie Ballard told me. “They take a long time to make and five of us often work on them at a time.”

Traditionally, springerles are made with anise oil but for those who don’t  like the licorice flavor, the sisters created  almerles using the same recipe but substituting almond oil for the anise.”

 

Leading the baking of the springerles is Sister Barbara Jean who grew up in the predominantly German area of Ferdinand and nearby Jasper who has been making them since she was young.

The baking sisters grow their own peppermint on the extensive monastery grounds and use that for their buttermint cookies.  And they also bake a cookie they call the Hildegard after Saint Hildegard who lived in the 1100s and besides being saint sounds like a most remarkable woman.

A Benedictine abbess, she was a scholar who corresponded with popes and royalty and wrote books on natural science, medicine, theology, metaphysics and music.  Besides that, as a composer and lyricist, Hildegard created the earliest recorded music by a woman. All this in a time when most women – and men – didn’t even know how to read.  And when she wasn’t doing all that, Hildegard practiced natural medicine and in one of her writings, “Physica: Liber Simplicis Medicine,” she recommended the frequent consumption of a health cookie. It has long been a tradition in the monastery to make these cookies using Hildegard’s recipe which was recorded in 1157.

A Google search quickly led me to the recipe which calls for spelt flour, often available at health food stores, but whole wheat flour can be substituted. Besides that, all of the ingredients except for kelp, which is optional, are probably already in your pantry.

Saint Hildegard’s Cookie

Cream together:

1/2 cup softened butter

1/2 cup honey

1 egg

In separate bowl, mix together:

2 cups flour (spelt, whole wheat, or 1/2 cup garbanzo flour plus 1 1/2 cups wheat)

1 tablespoon baking soda

1 tsp dulse or kelp (optional, but this adds valuable trace minerals)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 tablespoon ground fenugreek (optional)

1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped almonds or walnuts (optional)

Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Pour liquid ingredients in well and mix into dry ingredients.

Chill in refrigerator to cool, to make it easier to work with (optional). Form into walnut sized balls.

Place on greased and floured cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes.

To order cookies, call 812 367-1411 or visit www.thedome.org

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South of Puerto Vallarta Where the "Predator" Once Roamed

On the second day in Puerto Vallarta, we drove south on Carretera a Mismaloya, a coastal road that follows the contours of the bay and then turned onto a rutted mountain track which wound its way through the jungle along the Mismaloya River. It was at the summit here, in an area known as El Eden, that Arnold Schwarzenegger filmed the movie “Predator.”

But even before Arnold arrived, this pretty spot was popular because of its large smooth boulders where the river spills over creating a natural water slide. The water collects into deep pools of cool water perfect for swimming. 

For more than 30 years, people visiting El Eden could eat at the thatched topped restaurant that edges the river and many of the people working here, including the man playing accordion have been here almost since the restaurant first opened. Now there are also zip line tours above the jungle canopy and for those not afraid of heights, the sights include remains from the movie set including a large metal predator and a helicopter. Remote as this place is, Arnold was not the only movie star to visit. Eric Roberts was here recently filming “Sharktopus.”

But my interest is the food and El Eden’s specialty is fresh seafood prepared in the large open air kitchen filled with busy cooks including a woman making corn tortillas by patting balls of masa into flat rounds and then placing them on a hot comal or griddle.

The restaurant’s long time menu items now have names from the movie including their specialties – large shrimp stuffed with cheese and wrapped with bacon called Camarones Depredator or Predator Shrimp and La Mariscada del Depredator -- huge platters of grilled red snapper, lobster, shrimp, beef, crabs and skewered chicken.  The fish seasoning is a traditional one typically found along the coast here and we tasted it again when eating the red snapper dish called Pescado Zarandeado at Mariscos Tinos Puerto Vallarta. This second floor restaurant in the city’s Centro or Central district near the water so impressed Mexican food authority and restaurateur Rick Bayless that he featured their recipe on his TV food show “One Plate at a Time.”

Tino’s Pescado Zarandeado as adapted by Rick Bayless

(Fish Zarandeado)

4 ancho chiles or 8 guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into flat pieces

1 8-ounce can tomato sauce

2 garlic cloves, peeled

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons Worcestershire

Salt

1 3-pound fish (round fish like snapper, grouper or striped bass work really well)—ask to have it filleted

Oil for brushing or spraying the basket and fish

12 warm corn tortillas

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced, for serving

2 limes, cut into wedges, for serving

Chinese toasted chiles in oil (or your favorite salsa or hot sauce), for serving (optional)

In a dry skillet over medium heat, toast the chile pieces a few at a time, pressing them firmly against the hot surface with a metal spatula until they are aromatic, about 10 seconds per side. In a bowl, rehydrate the chiles for 20 minutes in hot tap water to cover; place a plate on top to keep them submerged.

Use a pair of tongs to transfer the rehydrated chiles to a food processor or blender. Add 1⁄2 cup of the soaking liquid, along with the tomato sauce, garlic, soy and Worcestershire. Blend to a smooth puree.  Press through a medium-mesh sieve into a bowl.  Taste and season highly with salt, usually about 2 teaspoons.

Cut 1⁄2-inch-deep diagonal slashes along the flesh side of the fish (to promote even cooking and aide in marinade penetration). Sprinkle with both sides with salt. Spread or brush about 3 tablespoons of the marinade over both sides of the fish. You’ll probably have marinade leftover for another round of fish which will keep for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator.

Grill and serve.  Turn on a gas grill to medium or light a charcoal fire and let it burn to until the coals are covered with white ash. Lay a grill basket over the fire. When quite hot, brush or spray the basket generously with oil. Spray or lightly brush the fish with oil, then lay the oiled-side down on the basket; spray or brush the other side. Close the basket and cook lay over the fire. Cook, turning every 3 or 4 minutes until the fish is cooked through but still juicy.  A 3-pound snapper typically takes 10 to 15 minutes.

Gently and carefully open the basket and remove the fish to a platter. Serve with warm tortillas, red onion, lime and toasted chiles for making very tasty soft tacos.

Puerto Vallarta Restaurant Week: Trio

Who could turn down an invitation to Puerto Vallarta during Vallarta Restaurant Week, a 17-day event held every May 15-31 and the chance to try so many of their great restaurants. During restaurant week many of the city’s dining establishments – and they have a ton -- offer innovative three-course menus, with three options available for each courses at prices that are often discounted  up to 50% (tips and beverages not included).  

At Restaurant Trio, I met chef/owner Bernhard Güth who fixed a wonderful meal for all of us. Trio, which is located on Guerrero, the oldest street in Puerto Vallarta dating back to the 1840s when the city was a trading port where salt was shipped in and taken by mules up into the mountains.  And though now Puerto Vallarta is a sophisticated city,  Güth, who moved here from New York in 1994, told us that they didn’t get electricity until 1971 – the same year that the first road was paved.

Güth changes his menu five to six times a year and some of his special dishes the night we were there relied upon what was in season (though in this part of Mexico there’s always something wonderful ripening). We tasted chile and roasted red snapper over ratatouille with a lime-cilantro sauce, a Lebanese salda –baked beet slices with parsley and marinated goat cheese and young goat from Tuito – a Colonial town about an hour from Puerto Vallarta –cooked in the traditional Jalisco style called birria which is a thick stew. It was served with a ragout of sweet corn and huitlecoche (corn fungus) and a cabbage salad. 

We also tasted (okay it was more than taste) several Mexican wines and I learned that the oldest winery in the Western hemisphere is Casa Madera, established in 1597 in Parras de la Fuente, one of the Pueblos Magicos – pretty and enchanting towns in Mexico featuring symbolism, legends, history, important events and charming day-to-day life.

Bernhard Güth’s Fish & Shrimp 

4 red snapper fillets, 7 oz each, seasoned with salt, pepper and fresh thyme

16 - 20 peeled shrimp

4 oz butter

1 clove garlic, chopped

Sauté the fresh fish fillets and shrimp in frying pan with the butter and garlic. Finish off in oven 5 - 6 minutes, until cooked through. Strain and reserve the butter for the lime-ginger sauce.

Lime-Ginger Sauce

16 oz fish stock

8 oz cream

1 tsp grated ginger

2 tsp lime juice

Habanero sauce

Reserved butter from fish & shrimp

Combine the fish stock with cream and reduce by half. Add the ginger and lime juice. Season with salt, pepper and habanero sauce. Add the butter.

Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Mash

24 oz pumpkin, peeled and cut in chunks

24 oz sweet potatoes, peeled and cut in wedges

1 sprig rosemary

1 - 2 tbsp maple syrup

Toss the pumpkin and sweet potatoes with the other ingredients and bake about 30 minutes, until tender.  Stir and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Blood, Bones and Butter

I just finished listening to Gabrielle Hamilton's book on CD in time to ask her some rather okay questions (I hate when I interview someone and haven't read their book, seen their movie or whatever and end up asking a question that even a five year old would know the answer to) and she took the time to really give me some great answers, ones I hadn't seen written in 25 other places.

She is totally compelling, seemingly frank and honest and not really into the glamour of being a top chef who owns one of New York's best restaurants but instead focused on cooking, her family and friends. Listening to her made me want to get in my kitchen and cook fried sweetbreads with capers which are on her menu at Prune though I refuse to kill my own chickens, pigs and lambs which Hamilton has no problem doing.  Alas, I had a deadline so instead of cooking I had to write. Here's one of the articles I wrote about the book which ran in the Northwest Indiana Times -- or  read it on their Website: http://www.nwitimes.com/entertainment/books-and-literature/article_68589136-19c5-5bf8-8b07-e927607121b5.html

Chef Gabrielle Hamilton: Finding the end of a journey in food

Gabrielle Hamilton knows what she's hungry for and what she isn't, and this fierce chef, owner of Prune, a very popular New York City restaurant, won't let anything stop her. Her honesty for life translates well in her newly released memoir, "Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef" (Random House $26).

"Being extremely honest is my nature and also a family trait - we all were raised with such candor in the household," says Hamilton, who will be at the Publican in Chicago on Sunday for a reception and book signing.

"That said, I exerted terrific effort to take good care of everyone I had to include in the book and wrote about people and places and events as I experienced them and with as much gentleness as I possessed. I also did not exempt myself from such honesty. I frequently am unlikeable in this book, as in life."

The book is, in some ways, about her search to recreate a family like the one she had when young. It was a childhood ranging from her parents' wonderful parties, sometimes for over 100 people, of pit-cooked lamb and fresh root beer, to breakfasts of homemade Italian sausage and fresh bread made by her father.

This dream existence, at least for Hamilton, ended one morning when her mother, cooking over a six burner stove in the family's rural kitchen, swept the New York Times off the table and away from her father and he retaliated by throwing dishes and food to the floor before walking out.

"It probably took over a year, or almost two, to dismantle the family," writes Hamilton. "But I was eleven turning twelve, and I felt as if I fell asleep by the lamb pit one day and woke up the next morning to an empty house, a bare cupboard, the leftover debris of a wild and brilliant party, and only half an inch of Herbal Essence left in the bottle on the ledge in the shower."

Hamilton and her older brother were pretty much abandoned by both parents - often for weeks at a time. Or they'd be isolated in a remote area of Vermont with their mother and then back to a distracted father who set no limits and had no money.

Next came jobs in restaurants starting at age 13, as Hamilton tried to make money, and also often "borrowing" cars from a local repair shop when they left the keys in the ignition. It was on to more stealing, inventive illegal schemes, drugs, affairs and that continuing achy hunger for what no longer existed.

"I wrote a book in a way that I would like more people to write books," says Hamilton, noting that she isn't afraid of the real truth. "There is nothing you can tell me about yourself that is going to make me clutch my pearls."

Her honesty is legendary. Asked during an audition why she wanted to become "The Next Iron Chef," she pondered and then replied that she really didn't, removed her microphone and left the room.

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

At times she has even said that she isn't a real chef by society's standards, looking down on the celebrity chef phenomenon.

"I was commenting that I must not be a real chef if I am still in my kitchen cooking," says Hamilton, "while my peers all seemed to be out golfing at charity events or cooking in their Tuscan summer villas for an elite group of wine enthusiasts or buddying around at the Aspen Food and Wine Festival."

But despite all this, there is still more of Hamilton that we don't yet know.

"I realize the book feels intimate and deeply personal to the reader," she says. "But I withheld significantly and aimed to write with a larger or greater point of view than simply my own little personal story."

It will be interesting to learn what Hamilton held back, if she ever decides to write another book.

Rebecca Rather's Sweet Treats

I spent early Thursday morning drinking coffee and sampling pastries and baked goods at Rebecca Rather’s Rather Sweet Bakery & Cafe in Fredericksburg, Texas. Rather, the author of “Pastry Queen Parties: Entertaining Friends and Family, Texas Style” and “The Pastry Queen Christmas: Big–Hearted Holiday Entertaining, Texas Style,” which was an 2008 IACP Cookbook Awards Winner, has a charming shop fronting a secluded courtyard.                                       

Rather started cooking as a child but segued into it after a career as a model, running a catering business in Houston. With an avid interest in baking, she honed her bread baking skills training with Daniel Leader, owner of Bread Alone in Boiceville, New York, who was one of the leaders in introducing artisan hearth-baked, European style bread to this country. After working in a corporate job opening up bakeries, Rather decided she’d rather be on her own and so, after moving to this delightful historic town in the Hill Country of Central Texas, creates delicious goodies at her bakery.

Although everything I tried there was delicious, one of my favorites – and one of Rather Sweet’s best sellers – is her apple-smoke bacon scone. Here is Rather’s recipe and though I doubt that I can come close to making my as good as hers, I’m going to give it a try.

 

Apple-Smoked Bacon and Cheddar Scones

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1-1/2 cups grated Cheddar cheese

4 green onions, thinly sliced

10 slices bacon, cooked and chopped into 1-inch bits

3/4 to 1-1/2 cups buttermilk

1 large egg

2 tablespoons water

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and black pepper in a large bowl on low speed.  With the mixer running, gradually add the cubes of butter until the mixture is crumbly and studded with flour-butter bits about the size of small peas.  Add the grated cheese and mix just until blended.  (This can also be done by hand.  In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper.  Gradually cut in the butter with a pastry blender or two knives until the mixture resembles small peas.  Stir in the cheese.)

Add the green onions, bacon, and 3/4 cup of the buttermilk to the flour and cheese mixture.  Mix by hand just until all the ingredients are incorporated.  If the dough is too dry to hold together, use the remaining buttermilk, adding 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough is pliable and can be formed into a ball.  Stir as lightly and as little as possible to ensure a light-textured scone.  Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured flat surface.  Pat the dough into a ball.  Using a well-floured rolling pin, flatten the dough into a circle about 8 inches wide and 1/2 inch thick.  Cut the dough into 8 to 10 equal wedges, depending on the size scone you prefer.

Whisk the egg and water in a small mixing bowl to combine.  Brush each wedge with the egg wash.  Place the scones on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown and no longer sticky in the middle.  Serve warm.

Yield:  8 to 10 scones

Sweet Indiana

Early spring is sweet in Indiana when maple sap is turned into rich golden syrup.  It’s a historic rite, one first used by Native Americans who taught the newly arriving settlers how to tap trees and create syrup and sugar that would help sustain them throughout the year. Maple syrup and sugar are considered to be Indiana’s first agricultural product and to celebrate this heritage, Burton’s Maplewood Farms in tiny Medora, Indiana, becomes the Mecca each spring for all things maple syrup during their annual National Maple Syrup Festival, held each year on the first two weekends of March.

And so I traveled to Medora to participate in this springtime event and to help judge the Sweet Victory Challenge sponsored by King Arthur Flour which asked for home bakers to send in their best recipes – using maple syrup and their flour -- for judging. About 30 finalists were chosen from more than 500 recipes sent from all over the country and their recipes were prepared by professional chefs in Medora’s school auditorium.

The contest, divided into Adult and Youth Divisions, each had three categories -- Savory Main Dish, Dessert and Breakfast.  My job, along with five others, was to judge the Youth Breakfast.  The judges were a diverse group that included chefs from places such as Chicago, Indianapolis and Louisville, print and TV  journalists, the screenwriter/director of “Hoosiers” and “Rudy” and even a local blacksmith --Medora, set amidst a rural landscape dotted with covered bridges and round barns, is the kind of place where there are still blacksmiths.


While tasting the entries, served by the chefs who prepared them, I couldn’t help noticing that in the crowd of people watching us (we were also being televised and believe me, it’s tough to eat knowing that a camera is focused on you), was a large family wearing Native American garb.


After our judging forms were finalized and the winners announced, I discovered that one of my favorite dishes, the Native American Maple Meatballs, had won first place and had been created by Elijah Batz, a 9-year-old and one of the children in a Native American outfit. 


He told me that his family made maple syrup every spring, he loved meatballs and had visited a buffalo farm in Lincoln City, Indiana and so had taken those ideas and devised a recipe.  The meatballs, Batz explained, were also based on Native American food traditions.


Elijah’s 12-year-old sister Martha had submitted a recipe for maple soufflé and though it made it into the finals and was one of my favorites, she didn’t win. Martha vowed to return next year to best her brother and win.

One of the chef's was ChickiePoo, whose parents started a restaurant with the same name in Madison, Indiana as a way for the family to be together while ChickiePoo fights acute lymphoblastic leukemia.  For more info on the restaurant and Chickiepoo, visit http://chickiepoo.me/


After the judging, I boarded the shuttle bus to the Burton farm, where they have 1400 taps (tapping a tree is the way that the sap, which rises after a cold night and warm day cycle typical of early spring, is siphoned from the tree) and five miles of the tubing used for tapping. After collecting the sap, it is sent to the rustic looking “Sugar Shack” where it processed into syrup.  Inside the shack is a state-of-the-art evaporator used to boil the syrup.


But this is the modern way.


Syrup used to be made by boiling the sap in big open kettles above a roaring open fire. During the National Maple Syrup Festival the old-fashioned ways are on display. And so by following a winding pathway through the woods, I moved through history, watching syrup making as it was done by the varied people who had lived in these Southern Indiana hills.  Living history enactments, all researched and prepared according to contemporary documents, showcased encampments of French fur trappers,  Delaware Indians and English surveyors – all preparing syrup the way it was made centuries ago.  And in an interesting aside, one of the Delaware enactors had trapped several beavers earlier in the season. Field dressed, they were now simmering in a stew pot at another enactment campsite. I would have taken a taste but it wasn’t going to be ready for several more hours.


Also on the agenda was live music, horse drawn wagon rides, pioneer games for kids and lots to eat including, you guessed it, pancakes with freshly made maple syrup, maple barbecue pork chops and maple baked beans.  


For more information about the National Maple Syrup Festival visit   www.nationalmaplesyrupfestival.com/  For recipes, visit www.sweetvictorychallenge.com

Martha Batz’s Maple Soufflé

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

8 tablespoons King Arthur flour

2 cups milk

½ cups maple syrup

1teaspoon salt

6 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  On low/medium stovetop burner, make a roux with butter and flour.  Add milk slowly and mix with a whisk.  Next, add maple syrup and salt, cook for a minute .

Remove from burner and stir in 6 well-beaten egg yolks.  Meanwhile, beat 6 egg whites until stiff with a kitchen-aid or electric beater.  Fold in egg whites into the maple/yolk  mixture.

Pour mixture gently into 7”X9”X3” (or 8”X8”X3” or 9” round glass pan, which is a 3 qt. pan).

Bake 50 minutes or until golden brown.

Serve immediately with sausage or bacon for a delicious breakfast.  

Elijah Batz’s Native American Maple Meatball

1/2 pounds buffalo (bison meat) or ground sirloin

1/2 pound sausage

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose King Arthur flour   

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1/4 cup onion, sautéed (optional)

1/4 cup maple syrup

Combine ingredients with fork or mix with hand in a large bowl. Divide into walnut shaped balls, making 20-24 and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cook at 350 

degrees for 15 minutes.

For white gravy:

2 tablespoons coconut oil or butter

2 tablespoons King Arthur flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 cup milk or half and half

1/3 cup maple syrup 

In a saucepan combine fat and flour, salt and pepper. Then add milk or cream stirring constantly until thickened. Stir in maple syrup after mixture is thick. Pour over cooked meatballs and serve with biscuits, pancakes, or other bread OR alone on toothpicks with the gravy for a quick snack.