Stretch of bad weather had tasty silver lining

That cold, miserable weather we seem to have finally escaped really stretched out the Comfort Food Season.

If it had been as warm and sunny as lots of us wished it were, we’d have been outside at the picnic table a lot sooner eating pasta salad and grilled chicken and swatting black flies in between mouthfuls.

As it is, we were inside relishing stuff such as chili and stews, chicken cacciatore and … remembered that someone wanted a fricassee recipe? There might even be fresh asparagus and fiddleheads to go with it.

There are two kinds of fricassee, a white one and a brown one. The one Maggie Reynolds remembered is a white one and is scarcely distinguishable from chicken stew.

Hannah Allen from Bangor pointed out that a quick version of this can be made with good old cream of mushroom soup fortified with canned mushrooms. Hannah turns the fricassee into a tetrazinni by serving it over spaghetti and topping it with Parmesan cheese.

Fricassee is a good way to warm up leftover roasted chicken. The recipe works well with turkey, too.

But if you have chicken quarters or a split breast or three lying around and you don’t know what to do with them, fricassee from scratch isn’t hard at all. In fact, you can keep your Crock-Pot (er, slow cooker) employed for a while with this one.

Feel free to jazz this with garlic, thyme and parsley.

A splash of sherry toward the end is good. If you want to veg it up a bit, add peas, shredded spinach, even cut green beans, or broccoli.

Serve it on top of toast, baked potato, noodles, rice or biscuits.

Looking for…

I just know someone out there has a good lemon poundcake recipe like the one Marguerite Gallison of Bangor seeks: “baked in a small tin, yellow like cake, but more firm than cake, and when it is out of the oven, drizzled with a tangy lemon glaze all over.” And is it my imagination or do I hear a lot of people giving away rhubarb? What is your favorite thing to do with rhubarb?

Send queries or answers to Sandy Oliver, 1061 Main Rd., Islesboro, ME 04848. For recipes, tell us where they came from, list the ingredients, specify number of servings and do not abbreviate measurements. Include name, address and daytime phone number. For e-mail queries or answers send to tastebuds@modomail.com.

White Fricassee of Chicken

Serves four to five

5 pounds of chicken breasts and thighs, or a whole chicken cut up

3 cups of water or chicken broth

1 carrot, 1 stalk of celery, and 1 small onion, coarsely chopped

3 tablespoons of butter

3 tablespoons of flour

Salt and pepper

Milk or cream (optional)

Put the chicken into a deep, heavy-bottomed pot with the water or broth, and the carrot, celery and onion. Bring just to boiling, then reduce the temperature and allow them to simmer without boiling for about 2 hours, until the meat is tender. Take the meat out of the cooking liquid, and, if you wish, remove the skin and bones, and discard them.

In another heavy pan, melt the butter, and stir the flour into it, stirring with a whisk until it bubbles. Gradually stir some of the cooking broth into the flour and butter mixture, whisking until you have a smooth, thick gravy. Cook that, thinning it with milk or cream, until it is the consistency of sauce. Taste, and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, or any herbs you favor. Add the meat and warm it through in this mixture before serving it over your choice of starch.