DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, sorry, but I couldn't resist. Can you believe no one writing cooking cozies has used this for a title? If anyone wants it, I give it freely!
But, seriously, I am talking about cooking with sherry. And not with execrable "cooking sherry", a substance that should be banned from all kitchens. Dishes made with a dash of real sherry were a household staple when I was growing up–things like seafood Newburg with sherry, or a chicken fricassee with mushrooms and sherry, or crabmeat bisque. Was this a Julia Child/Frenchified fad of the Sixties and Seventies? Did these recipes go out of fashion with the homely casserole?
I can also remember going through a "sherry phase" with my mom. (Don't worry, I was in my twenties by then!) We bought bottles (occasionally!) of Dry Sack, which we considered very refined, and drank sherry out of tiny little crystal glasses, which I still have. This was certainly prompted by our travels to England and France.
What made me think of this was my attempt the other night at a chicken casserole with a sherry cream sauce. Now I have never been big on casseroles. I don't like things made with canned soups, for starters, so they mean cooking from scratch, and I've never had a big family to feed. But in this case I had delicious leftover roast chicken (fall cooking! Ina Garten!!) and a big head of broccoli that needed using, so I took a stab at a classic chicken divan. Remember that one, anyone?
I made a lovely white sauce with grated sharp cheddar and a touch of sherry. And the dish was delicious, although my sauce to broccoli ratio was off. Next time I'd make more sauce or use less broccoli–and I'd add more sherry!
And replace my sherry, which was a bit past its use-by date.
Dear REDs, sherried casseroles, anyone? Favorite sherry (or casserole) recipes?
HALLIE EPHRON: Mmm, chicken divan! A lot of work…
I developed a taste for sherry when we were traveling in Spain and Portugal. I like all kinds – dry (aka fino), medium (amontillado) and sweet (cream). We’d end the day with a mixed drink, sherry with orange juice over ice, at an outdoor cafe. Surely there’s a name for it but I don’t know what it was. These days, I like to sip a glass of sherry with an ice cube at the end of a summer day.
I’m always amazed at how few people would even consider drinking it. It’s often in the sauce. And shows up in Chinese recipes (in place of rice wine vinegar). And of course it’s THE taste in lobster newburg, but lobsters don’t need
newburging, at least not in my book.
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: My mother’s special guest dinner was chicken divan, which is certainly in keeping with the 1960s-1970s cookery (her fancy guest dessert was Baked Alaska, which could be a whole ‘nother blog!)
I love sherry - I also picked up the habit when in school in London, and went to a church where they regularly offered it during coffee hour - a practice I think all Anglican parishes should embrace. But cook with it? Sorry, no. I get the good stuff, and it’s going down my gullet, not into a sauce. I don’t think casseroles are dead, per se - I brought my kids up on them! - but I think those heavily, well, newburged dishes have fallen way out of favor.
RHYS BOWEN: I was raised on sherry! It was the polite thing to offer to a guest, early evening, was drunk before dinner (and maybe lunch too). At college sherry parties with the faculty were regular occurrences (I remember my friends stuffing peanuts into my mouth when I attended a sherry party having had no lunch and got a little too vocal in my opinions).
I used to cook with sherry a lot–shrimp newburg was a favorite for guests. And bisques. But the bottle of Harveys Bristol Cream has sat in my liquor closet for a long while unopened. I really don’t make sauces or casseroles much any more. We have guests coming next week and I’ll make paella. That’s about as fancy as I get these days. (And I agree with Hallie–lobster should only be served with butter)
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: oh, I am sitting in an airport right now, with a turkey sandwich, and swooning over these dinner ideas! I love love, love Chicken Divan, all that rich sauce, I can imagine the fragrance right now :-)
And I love casseroles, it’s so interesting, how I never think of it, until one makes itself. Just like you, Debs, I realize I have things that will go together if I just have sauce and cheese and maybe a little sherry. Can’t hurt.
Of course, my turkey tetrazzini, incredibly delicious, but anything that has chicken things and vegetable things and cheese things and then lovely cheese bubbling and brown on the top. Bring it on.
As for sherry, I have to admit I love it. All kinds. I had a boyfriend, years and years and years ago, who always loved apples and walnuts and sherry and blue cheese together. It is still close to one of the best things I’ve ever had. (The food I mean, not the boyfriend. :-))
And now the perfect girl dinner, right?
DEBS: When I read Hank's comment I HAD to put together sherry, blue cheese, walnuts, and apple, as you can see from the first photo! I used one of my mom's little crystal sherry glasses, too. Also, I toasted the walnuts. The combination of those ingredients is absolutely fantastic. (Of course, you have to like blue cheese. That's my favorite, Trader Joe's Cave Aged Blue.)
JENN McKINLAY: I think I was born after the sherry craze as I have no recall of my mom ever cooking with it and she is a top notch cook. And I’ve never been one to drink sherry so I have no frame of reference there either. I’m more of a whiskey gal. Neat, if anyone’s pouring.
DEBS: We are hoping our Lucy comes back from her adventures in Spain and Portugal with lots of sherry stories and recipes to share!
Of course I had to try Hank's sherry with blue cheese, apples, and walnuts, and I now declare it to be my favorite new thing. What an absolutely perfect combination--at least for those of us who like blue cheese (but that is another blog!)
When I stopped at my little local wine shop to replace my sherry, there was one option, as the owner said he doesn't sell enough to justify more. But I was happy enough with his choice, and maybe I will start a new sherry party trend in my neighborhood...
How about it, dear readers? Will you raise a little glass with us?
We never have cooking sherry [or cooking wine], so I can't speak to using them in anything. But we do have sherry [and wine] and I always add sherry to clam chowder or to creamy chicken dishes . . .
ReplyDeleteAnd, yes, I'd be happy to raise a little glass with you . . . .
Cheers, Joan!
DeleteI know my mom made a couple of recipes that used wine or alcohol of some kind in them, but it was so long ago I don't remember. I tend to avoid it if there are other options when I am dining out.
ReplyDeleteFew people know that sherry ranges from dry & piquant to lusciousy sweet. [I wrote the book on it: Strong, Sweet & Dry, available through bookstores or online sellers.]
ReplyDeleteVery cool, Becky! It's going on my Christmas list!
DeleteNice to see you here, Becky--and putting your book on my Christmas list, too. I think it's high time for a sherry revival!
DeleteHere's a link to Becky's book. Gorgeous, and it definitely needs to be in my collection1 https://www.amazon.com/Strong-Sweet-Dry-Vermouth-Madeira/dp/1789141524/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=strong+sweet+and+dry+becky+epstein&sr=8-1
DeleteWhat a great way to remember happy childhood times. Sherry was one of the markers that I was an adult. A small glass with my grandmother, complete with a 'tea cookie'. I remember one Christmas when all the family thought of the ultimate gift for a 85 yo. matriarch. Right, sherry. At least 9 bottles circled the tree. Every one including the elf on the shelf had a good laugh. Now that I don't drink, I do wonder... help me out here... is there an herbal tea that would taste similar to sherry? I would love to infuse my casseroles or soups if possible.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could just use the cooking sherry, Coralee. No alcohol!
DeleteYes, people, pick up Becky Sue's book!
ReplyDeleteThe fancy trend skipped my mother entirely. She didn't entertain, except relatives on traditional things like Thanksgiving and Christmas. And neither of my parents drink, so sherry was simply not in the picture.
I am fond of sherry myself. I usually have a bottle of Amontillado around. I can no longer eat raw apples, alas, so that yummy snack is out for now. On the other hand, I have leftover roast chicken and a new bag of broccoli at home. So I might look into that chicken divan for dinner tonight. Debs, can you post the recipe?
I sort of made it up as I went along. Half a leftover roast chicken, chopped. Head of broccoli, in florets (smaller is better.) Basic Bechamel sauce; butter, flour, then I used 2 cups chicken stock and almost as much whole milk, adding a splash of cream, a tbs of sherry, and a cup or so of grated sharp cheddar at the end. Assemble in 9 x 13 buttered casserole dish, top with breadcrumbs (I just blitzed some sourdough bread in the food processor.) Dot with butter. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350, until casserole is bubbly. I stuck under the broiler for a couple of minutes to brown the breadcrumbs. Delicious flavor, could have used more sauce.
DeleteThanks!
DeleteI use sherry to flavor chicken and mushroom kinds of dishes. And Marsala wine. Sherry and cheese straws. Yum!
ReplyDeleteNow putting cheese straws on my shopping list :-)
DeleteVery interesting blog, Debs. I do think that my mother and some of her female relatives drank sherry occasionally, she has those gorgeous, tiny crystal glasses for it.
ReplyDeleteThere is a very complicated recipe for Spanish stew, that I cut out of the newspaper several years ago. I make it every winter at least once. It calls for sherry and the only one in the house the first time I made that stew was a creme sherry. That worked out great. It is worth every step and is usually my main dish when we have friends over for Scotch and Stew.
Maybe I should try some other sherry types, but I, like Jenn, prefer my Scotch neat.
You might like the fino--very dry--sherry, Judy. And one day you must share your stew recipe with us.
DeleteFrom Celia: Lovely memories, thanks Debs. Yes Sherry was drunk by by family for some reason it was considered a ladies drink in England. But I have fond memories of flying with my family from England to Ghana where my father was working. This was the ‘50’s and mass air travel was fairly new. We would take an airline, now defunct, which stopped to refuel in Lisbon. As we went to reboard, one always left the plane for snacks in the terminal, each of us was given a 1/4 sized bottle of Sherry Portugal’s gift to the world. My younger sibs loved getting these bottles and would beg to be allowed to drink them. I was old enough to enjoy my bottle. But I missed those creamy sherried dishes. Now I use dry vermouth if no wine is open and JC recommended it and often Marsala which does a nice job in risotto and other dishes.
ReplyDeleteYes, Marsala works very well and I think can easily sub for sherry. What a wonderful memory of the little sherry bottles!
DeleteJenn, we need to have a whiskey together at Crime Bake, along with Edith and Judy Singer!
ReplyDeleteMy first exposure to sherry was using it in turkey tetrazzini, gosh, almost 50 years ago already. Eek. It's THE ingredient that makes this recipe. I've always had a bottle of Harvey's Bristol Creme in the drinks cupboard ever since. It's been a long time, but once in awhile I'd sip a small glass on a winter evening.
Coralee, it's the nuttiness that sherry provides in recipes, so maybe use that as a guide for alternatives. I've seen suggestions to use apple cider vinegar, sometimes with chicken broth, as substitutes, but I guess it depends on the recipe.
Writing this down for future reference: apples, bleu cheese, walnuts, and sherry. Next dinner party!
Thanks Karen/ will experiment with nut flavored creamers.
DeleteCount me in on the whisky! (Spelled the proper Scottish way!)
DeleteWhiskey party! Hmm, I can bring a bottle of Writer's Tears and some cups to my room...
DeleteRight, Crime Bake whiskey meet up!! Please include me!
DeleteThe more the merrier! Writer's Tears sounds wonderful, Edith! Maybe Judy, since she's not flying, can find some good Scotch for us, and Debs and I can chip in.
DeleteI can bring a bottle of Scotch. I can bring stuff to go with it, too. Karen, let's confer.
DeleteI'll raise a glass of sherry. My parents often offered guests "a drop of sherry", and cooked with it, although they may have had the dreaded cooking sherry. I have one crock pot recipe I make frequently that includes sherry. I started making it when I was cooking for my parents at the end of their lives. It's chicken thighs (I cut them up because dad didn't have many teeth) browned with salt and pepper and then added to the slow cooker with diced carrots, diced red onion, a very small can of tomato paste, juice of a lemon, 1/2 cup of sherry plus 1/2 cup of water, 2 tablespoons of oregano.It cooks for 3-4 hours on high, and I serve it over rice. So easy and Yum.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds delish, Gillian. I'm always looking for good slow cooker recipes.
DeleteYeah, my late mom used the dreaded "cooking sherry" in her 1970s/1980s cooking. She was learning how to cook North American entrees, so those recipes must have included it.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading "A Cask of Amontillado" in my late teens, I did go through a phase of drinking this sherry as an aperitif.
These days, I often use other alcohol in my recipes, not sherry.
The Dry Sack I used to drink was an amontillado, Grace. And I use wine or vermouth more often than sherry but I quite like the taste of the sherry in things.
DeleteSherry – ah yes- once upon a time.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in university (67-70), the legal age to drink was 21. I didn’t turn 21 until after I graduated. We were good kids, all in all, and drinking really wasn’t a ‘thing’ unless you lived in the men’s residence (there were no unisex residences in those days), and even they had adults who lived on the first floor who were usually ogres patrolling what was brought in.
It was a small university (150) on campus, and the President lived on site. Twice a year he had a sherry party with cheese niblets and very small cheap crystal glasses of Dry Sack sherry. It truly was gross. One glass, say hello and thank you and boot it back home to a coke and a chocolate bar.
However, one of the six of us was the daughter of an Anglican minister. The plot is thickening. She would often come back from home with a bottle of church wine (medicinal, you know, so said her father) ((Manischewitz – even more gross than Dry Sack)). We would all sit around on someone’s bed usually hers, and take a swig from the bottle, pass it along to the next who would wipe the bottle with her sleeve and have a gulp and discuss the important issues of the day – what do you think they will have for supper tonight? One mouthful was enough, and then the bottle went back in the drawer under the underwear.
In our third and last year, she applied for and got the only Suite in the building. Not only was this room much bigger than all of ours, it had a bathroom. The bathroom was cold or maybe you would call it properly chilled. Aha, the bottle of medicinal libation was neatly tucked between the cold window and the curtain, and so was chilled to perfection.
There was nothing better than if you were having a bad day or not, to invite yourself in, visit the bathroom (with or without a book), set yourself down on the seating provided and have a lovely medicinal nip. Thank you so much Joannie’s father for your part in our education.
When I became of age, my father would buy me Harvey’s Bristol Cream in the blue bottle. It was expensive and so smooth.
As for Port, I love paring good Port with the right cheese. To me it makes a dessert platter. If trying Hank’s blue cheese plate, add a fresh fig for me…
Cheers!
Oh, always the fresh figs. When figs are in season again I will definitely switch out the apples. Love your "church wine" story!
DeleteI've never tried sherry but this recipe makes me tempted to try it! aprilbluetx at yahoo dot com
ReplyDeleteI have to say I know little about sherry other than what I had in the past which must have been very, very sweet and put me off of sherry. For cooking, I generally will use a good red wine if the recipe calls for wine. It is so interesting to learn that there are so many aspects to sherry that I had no idea about.
ReplyDeleteMargo your college days & sherry story is so funny!
Yes, lots of types of sherry. What I used in the recipe--and drank with the blue cheese--was very dry. I never liked the sweet stuff, even back in college days when I can remember people drinking Harvey's Bristol Cream.
DeleteYum, yum. Yes to sherry, dry, and cream - how weird is that - no middle flavors. I also love casseroles. So lovely to put something together and know you have the next few days free. We freeze half so it's rather advanced prep, too. Oh, no soup need apply. Sorry. Tossed all those soup recipes years ago. Sauces are easy enough to make and you know what's going in them! Anyone remember Stouffer's Chicken Divan and Chicken Tetrazzini? Both were fabulous lunch options.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely no soups! What a trend that was, canned soups in things. And I suppose still is. The first two dozen recipes I pulled up for chicken divan all had canned soup!
DeleteThis post is so appropriate for me at the moment, Debs! My husband and I are traveling in Spain, and right now we are spending a week in Cádiz, which is sherry country! Just two nights ago we were in a sherry bar with our friends who live here, trying tiny glasses of amontillado, oloroso, and other kinds of sherries with different degrees of dryness. My mother, too, made casseroles with sherry (must have been a sixties thing!), but what I remember best is my father and she having their Friday pre-dinner drink: Jack Daniels on the rocks for him and a tiny glass of semi-sweet sherry for her. A happy memory of two dear people long gone!
ReplyDeleteOh, what fun, Kim!! I wonder if you've crossed paths with our Lucy? I would love to try all the different sherries in their natural habitat--with tapas!
DeleteKim, that sounds like heaven! Enjoy the rest of your travels and stay safe! — Pat S
DeleteI’ve tasted Sherry once or twice on special occasions. I liked it but it wasn’t something that I would want to drink regularly. I don’t drink at all now; alcohol would interfere with a couple of my BP and cholesterol meds. (Thank you, heredity!)
ReplyDeleteSome of the recipes people are sharing here sound so delicious!
DebRo
I don't remember sherry being used in our home but I do remember serving chicken divan at the annual holiday bazaar at church. I think it must be an easy recipe to make in multiply for large groups.
ReplyDeleteWalking home from Quaker Meeting, I tried two places to acquire more sherry, since my bottle of Amontillado is nearly empty. Even the small chi-chi liquor store didn't have any, so I picked up some Madeira (after I checked online about sherry-Madeira equivalence). After tasting it, I think it will be fine.
ReplyDeleteMy little store carried one sherry, one madeira, and one marsala. Oh, and I think they had sweet sherry, too. Lucky you to be able to buy fortified wine or spirits on Sunday. We can't. This is Texas... sigh.
DeleteI think I need to go to Spain and sample sherries...hmmm....
ReplyDeleteI think that sounds like a great idea, along with some tapas! I have yet to meet a person who has visited Spain and not raved about what a great place it is to visit. And they weren’t even talking about drinking! — Pat S
DeleteI'll toast you with a small glass of fino but sherry has never been my go to drink. My husband really enjoyed it when we went to Spain years ago, but I didn't get bitten by the sherry bug. When we first married I had a "company" dish that was chicken breasts (they were small back then), mushrooms, sherry and little else. It wasn't a casserole and I don't remember where the recipe came from. I just looked for it and no luck. But I do remember no cans of condensed soup were involved.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 70s I worked at a shopping mall that had a crepe restaurant, The Magic Pan. After work my friend and I would have crepes, preceded by a bowl of New England clam chowder with sherry in a little crystal pitcher (I am sure there’s a name besides “pitcher” but I can’t recall it). That was my introduction to sherry. It was a delicious addition to the chowder. Nowadays, though, I prefer Port for sipping, but agree with Debs that sherry does bring a special flavor to certain dishes. — Pat S
ReplyDeleteMy first sherry experience was at our B&B in Christchurch NZ. There was a little decanter of sherry and tiny glasses in our room.
ReplyDeleteOn our trip to Portugal, we missed the sherry but came back with a love of port.
Oh Deborah! Sherry! My Mom started having a small glass of sherry, doctor’s orders, really!, once my father left and she became a single, working outside the house, Mom. Her doctor said, after work to pour a small glass, sit down, and wait at least 10 minutes before answering the questions and complaints of her two children, and before starting dinner. She continued this until we were in Europe together for my college graduation trip and the sherry became red wine. The Episcopalian church I sporadically attended at UMass Amherst offered sherry at coffee hour. I now always have a bottle of fino and amontillado at home. I love cooking with sherry. Adds a nutty flavour and some complexity. I must try a glass with an ice cube next summer. Suzette Ciancio
ReplyDeleteI'm going to try that, too. Maybe today, lol!
DeleteMy first introduction to good scotch was at a B&B in Boat of Garten, Scotland. A dram of a different whisky every night before dinner.
DeleteI can't recall ever having had sherry. I always thought it sounded lovely though. Of course, I could have had it in a dish from a restaurant and not known. So, what kind of sherry is usually used as an end of the day drink? I can't drink right now because of a certain medicine I'm on, but I'd like to try the sherry someday.
ReplyDeleteDebs, you brought up fresh figs. Well, my daughter has a fig tree she planted in her front yard, and plucked off of fig to open and eat for me when I was there last week. Yummy.
And, for whiskey or bourbon drinkers, even though I'm supposed to be off alcohol and never really drank bourbon, which is an embarrassing confession from a Kentucky gal, I had a really good bourbon cocktail this summer in a restaurant. The drink is called a Sour Diesel and consists of JIM BEAM DOUBLE OAK BOURBON, FRESH SQUEEZE TANGERINE JUICE, HONEY AND A SPLASH OF SOUR, CBD, CHERRIES (sorry for the CAPS, copied it from the menu). I was told by my son's friends that his drink was Jameson Whiskey and Amaretto.
Kathy, I like a Fino, but you might prefer a little sweeter version, like an amontillado.
DeleteI didn't get a single fig off our fig tree this summer! The squirrels and birds ate them all while I was in London, boo.
Not a bourbon drinker, here, although if I had the right cocktail I might be swayed!
My mom was a pretty adventurous cook for someone who was not actually that sophisticated, but sherry was not in her tool kit then ( We used it together for Chinese food later) I occasionally make a Newburg sauce though and is it delicious! My husband would agree that lobster doesn't need anything but butter, and I'm not a lobster fan, so I serve the sauce with chunks of cooked fresh salmon...and eat it ALL. Mmmm
ReplyDeleteLove the phrasing "sherried alive". That would be a great title for a cozy mystery! I think we used Dry Sherry? in the homemade Sangria? It seems that they drink sherry in England.
ReplyDeleteDiana