Artichoke Foam, Pumpish and Apple Sour Cherry Pie

Well, we are back from our trip to Vienna (love the Gulash), Nurnberg (just ate my last Lebkuhen) and Belgium, where my all time favorite chocolate shop is in Kortrijks (if you going to Belgium a side trip to Kortrijks Chocoladehuis, Leiestraat 35, is work the time).

So this week I've really been pushing to find some lost recipes.

First, Artichoke Foam. If you watch Top Chef, this is not the same type of foam. Marjorie tells me that she baked it. Haven't found anything like it in my books or on the internet. But I did find an interesting Artichoke Cookbook by Patricia Rain. I was able to track down Patricia's email address and was asked her about this recipe. Her response was "Well, you've got me stumped as well. I've never heard of Artichoke Foam." She suggested I contact the Artichoke Advisory Board which is my next step.

However, in my Artichoke search I discovered that Patrica Rain is also the Vanilla Queen. She has a website devoted to vanilla and has written the history of vanilla. I requested the book from my local library and plan to post a review on the HeritageRecipe site soon. She has a really interesting website, so check it out.

But back to Artichoke Foam...if anyone has any ideas about this recipe, please let me know.

The next recipe stumper is the request for Pumpish. Since we are just back from Austria, I thought it had an Austrian-Hungarian sound to it, so I emailed thepassionatecook (check out her terrific blog). She was kind enough to send the request on to some of her friends and got this response...

I’m not sure but eventually it could be a dish called Pompos (sp. pomposh). It is a Hungarian regional speciality originating from a village called Tök (hence the name „töki pompos”). The preparation is quite different then described by the lady but the name sounds so similar. It is basicly a potato bread dough topped with garlic sour cream and bacon, a kind of pizza actually. It used to be prepared in old times by women: when baking bread, they always stole a few piecec from the leavened dough for the always hungry children and topped it with whatever at home (potato, onion, sour cream, cheese, lard, etc.)
I think, it’s not quite what the lady is looking for but maybe it helps further.

The recipe goes like this:
Ingredients:
· 500 g strong flour
· 2-3 cooked potatoes
· 1 package instant dried yeast
· 200 g bacon, cut in cubes
· 1 onion, sliced thinly
· 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
· 500ml sour cream
· (150-200g grated cheese) optional
salt

Cook potatoes, peel, mash. Mix the flour with salt and the dried yeast. Add the potatoes and some of the cooking water. Knead. Let rest for 1 hour in a warm place. Roll out the dough and put on a baking sheet. Pre-bake in a preheated oven (200C/400F) for about 9 minutes. Mix sour cream with garlic and bacon. Top the half-baked bread dough with this mixture. Sprinkle with sliced onion and put back to oven for 10 minutes. (At the very end of baking you can add cheese and bake until melted)

This dish looks like here: http://www.tokipompos.hu/images2/IMG001.jpg

I sent this info along to Holly N., who was looking for the recipe, and hope this is it. If not, we will keep searching. I did buy an Austrian cookbook in my travels, but it and most of our luggage, is still traveling or hanging out in London in a giant pile of luggage in Terminal 4 at Heathrow (what a mess -- home 11 days and still waiting for the luggage).

Finally, I thought I had a better chance at finding a recipe request from Carole -- she's looking for Elizabeth Woody's recipe for Apple Cherry Pie. Carole says it is made with sour cherries, and since I have a quart of sour cherries from last summer, my interest was really peaked.

Turns out to be harder than I thought. My local library doesn't have the book (The Pocket Cookbook by Elizabeth Woody) and it's out of print and rather pricey on Amazon. I posted a request to see if anyone has it on the CooksIllustrated Board -- no answers yet. I also emailed the Virginia Tech Special Collections Library as they have lots of old cookbooks. Still waiting for a reply. If you have this cookbook, please look up the recipe and I will send it on to Carole.

Other New Requests:

Pour Biscuits

"I am looking for a Pour Biscuit Recipe that my husbands grandmother used to make when
they were little. She never measured out the ingredients, but poured into hot skillet, like
making cornbread. When they came out of the oven, she cut into wedges like cornbread.
I would appreciate anyone sharing information about this recipe. " This request is from Sandra. If you have this recipe, please send it to me.

Cheery Chowder

Tonight I got this request, "About fifteen years ago, I got a recipe out of Cosmopolitan magazine (I think) called Cheery Chowder. It had ham, cheese, broccoli, potatoes, cream, etc. I have lost the original recipe and wanted to know if any of your readers remembered it. IT WAS SO GOOD! I have written to Cosmo to see if it was archived, but haven't heard back from them. I hope someone else in web-land happened across this recipe many years ago and was smart enough to hang on to it," writes Brenda.

Okay, you Cosmo readers -- anyone have this recipe in their files. A quick internet search got zip so I'm counting on you!