If there were ever a party-giving smack-down between Dorothy Draper and Elsa Maxwell, my money would clearly be on Elsie: she was a loud, obnoxious, aggressively unattractive social climber who had nowhere to go but up–and up she went, by hook and crook. Luckily, the same folks who reissued Dot’s Entertaining Is Fun! will soon be turning out Elsie’s chef d’oeuvre How To Do It (not to be confused with Jean-Paul Gaultier’s late 80s foray into house music entitled “How To Do That”), so the next time you’re entertaining heads of state and Hollywood A-listers, you’ll know just where to turn.
In honor of la Maxwell, here’s a recipe from that book: Rosalind Russell‘s version of veal in sour cream. If you’re not hung-up about keeping kosher and you happen to have a spare asbestos mat lying around the kitchen, give it a try–and do let me know how it turns out…
VEAL IN SOUR CREAM
(six servings)Cook 6 pieces of bacon in a large frying pan and set bacon aside. Brown 3 pounds of boneless stew veal in the bacon fat. Cook 1/2 pound of sliced mushrooms and 2 large onions, chopped, in same fat. Mix 1 cup of white wine with 1 cup of sour cream. Put veal, mushrooms, and onions in buttered casserole. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour on wine and cream. Crumble bacon over top. Simmer, covered, 1 and 1/2 hours, either in a 325-degree oven or on top of the stove over a low flame with an asbestos mat under the casserole. For variety, a good addition is 1 and 1/4 pounds boiled ham, diced and browned with the vegetables. In that case, skip the bacon and use other bacon fat.
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