Today’s recipe book is another vintage beauty found second hand called, Peter Hunt’s Cape Cod Cookbook. There is no date on the book and after doing some research turns out Peter Hunt was a beloved folk artist who lived in provincetown in the 1920’s! How fun is that. This Book was published in 1954 and is a rarity. Glad I scooped it up many moons ago.
The book pays homage to the Portuguese culture. Chapter 1 being called “The portuguese are wonderful cooks” . With that I’ll type up my first recipe. The Illustrations in this book are done by the Author and they are very unique and fun to look at.
Portuguese Kale Soup
- 1 cup pean beans
- 1 large onion
- 1 pound chorico (or any sausage you wish) kielbasa would be yummy
- 1 pound kale
- 1 TBSP salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 TBSP vinegar
- 2 cups cubed potatoes
- 10 cups of water
- 1 cup of water
Soak beans overnight or use canned beans well rinsed. Dice onion, cut sausage into pieces, break kale into pieces and add all ingredients; EXCEPT POTATOES, to a Pot. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours then add potatoes and 1 cup of water and cook until tender. serves 6
Next up is Roast Chicken just because the drawing was so adorable
Roast Chicken
I try to roast a chicken weekly. I love having my own homemade chicken stock in the fridge ready to go. There are so many ways to roast a chicken. I will share peter’s thoughts here with a few of my additions. Make sure you know the weight of the bird before you throw away the bag it comes in. Take out the giblet. I choose to brine my chicken overnight before i cook it, it comes out very moist every time. I put it in a square kitchen container big enough to fit it fill with water and tons of salt maybe a lemon maybe a shallot sometimes just the water and salt depends on my mood and time I have . After it brines for at least half a day, I have been to leave mine for quite some time. you do have to be careful about how much time it sits in the salt but i have never had an adverse affects to letting it sit for a long time, YET anyway. i rinse it very well and pat dry very well. . I choose to tie up the legs and wings so they don’t burn, just tucking them in tight will suffice however you choose to do so. I use kitchen twine. Preheat oven to very hot! 425 to 450. Put the bird in a roasting pan or even a flat sheet pan works fine with a small chicken. Peter Hunt rubs his bird with fat and flour to get a ‘crispy” skin. I have never rubbed flour on a chicken. I sometimes just add salt to the skin and sometimes I mix up butter with salt and finely chopped rosemary and thyme and rub that all over the chicken before cooking. Sometimes i add a lemon and shallot to the inside of the bird, sometimes i don’t. Cooking is forgiving. Once seasoned add to the very HOT oven for 15 mintues to sear the skin and make it crispy. After 15 mintues reduce the temp to 375 and cook for 20 minutes per pound. Peter covers his chicken, I do not. You do You! You could also insert a meat thermometer that stays in the chicken while cooking and once it reaches 165 its done. You don’t want to poke the chicken before its done because then all the moisture will leak out. Add water to the pan and baste periodically if your worried about dryness. When it’s done let it SIT quietly for at least 20 minutes you don’t want to cut it when its very hot. you will lose all the moisture. My favorite part about roasting chicken is making a gravy. Put you roasting pan on the stove and simmer adding sifted flour slowly and stirring constantly. Add butter too and salt and pepper YUM. We love mashed potatoes and corn with our roast chicken and yummy dinner rolls are always welcomed at our table.
This year I became really obsessed with cranberries. I wanted them in every bite of food I had. Their color is so bright and pretty and they are tart but can be made to be sweet. I can’t help but think about all the good vitamins they bring to the table. So in lieu of that obsession here is a cranberry muffin recipe from Peter Hunt’s book
Cranberry Muffins
- 3 cups flour
- 3 TBSP baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp of salt
- 4 TBSP sugar
- 1 tsp of zested orange
- 1/2 cup shortening or butter
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup fresh cranberries (chopped fine)
Stir flur, baking powder, salt, sugar and orange zest a good size mixing bowl. Cut in the fat with a pastry cutter. Now i know not many like the pastry cutter so you could add the flour mixture to your mixer bowl and use the paddle attachment to get a similar result. After you cut in the butter or shortening to pea size pieces add the egg and milk and stir well. then add cranberries. Peter calls for a 425 degree oven for 20-30 minutes. All ovens are not created equal, know your oven. I would not cook them at 425 in my oven. I would choose 375 and watch them after 15 minutes or so. If you wanted to add some extra sweetness you could add white chocolate chips to these and they would be soooo good… Good Luck 🍀
If your inspired by these recipes and decide to make some. Share your thoughts and the results.
