It’s been quite some time since I posted this recipe for my Grandma Delawder’s Creamed Vegetables. Funny enough, it was actually one of the first recipes I ever shared almost three years ago. What a great way to celebrate the recent three-year Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck blogiversary. With a family reunion also coming up this weekend and a strong hankerin’ desire to enjoy the last of this season’s fresh corn, I couldn’t think of a better time to go back and revisit this non-recipe of my Grandma Delawder’s.
If you look closely at the dedication and the cover of my 17th birthday cookbook, you will notice that my Grandma Delawder never spelled my name the same way twice. I always looked forward to what spelling she would come up with next. And no, she never did get it right.
Today’s recipe is a non-recipe. Meaning it’s merely a guideline, with no specific measurements to follow. That seems to be like almost every recipe my Grandma Delawder ever wrote down. A little of this, a pinch of that, enough liquid to cover…etc. (Now you know where I get my style of cooking from Linda Johnson; I’m really not into measuring certain things.)
My Grandma Delawder cooked some of the most outstanding food I remember eating as a child; I still dream about her Raisin Cookies some nights. Unfortunately, most of the recipes she wrote down for me never quite turn out like hers did when I attempt to make them. I am, however, pretty gosh darn thankful that they were at least written down for us. For my 17th birthday, my Grandma Delawder gave me a handmade cookbook, containing a few of her favorite recipes. Then, a few years later, our Aunt Helen put another cookbook together for us as a Christmas gift. It featured even more of my Grandma Delawder’s most-loved and often requested recipes.
After a phone call from my brother Matt this morning, asking me to search for this recipe, I thought I’d share it with everyone. It’s important to share recipes with your friends and loved ones so that they don’t get lost in time. Just cross your fingers that they’ll turn out tasting like what you remember.
Ingredients:
- Vegetables (Lima Beans, Corn, or Peas)
- Milk
- Sugar
- Butter
- Wondra Flour
Directions:
- Cook the vegetables until done, and then drain off any excess water.
- Add milk to cover, add a little bit of sugar and butter.
- Heat added ingredients, then sprinkle in some Wondra Flour, stirring to thicken. (Just use a small amount. The sauce should be of gravy consistency.)
Suggestions:
- You will find Gold Medal Wondra Flour in most baking aisles.
“Wondra Flour is an ingredient sometimes called for in baking recipes, mostly in some pie crust and tart crust recipes that promise a flaky and tender crust. It is actually a brand name for a type of instant flour and because the brand is so widespread, the name Wondra tends to be used in recipes.
Instant flour is low protein, finely ground flour that has been treated so that it will dissolve instantly in water and not require the same long cooking process as non-instant flour to dissolve in a liquid and thicken it. The process is called pregelatinization, and it involves heat a starch (flour) with very hot water and/or steam, then drying it out, so that it has essentially been cooked already. Because of this, instant flour is also very unlikely to form lumps when mixed with water or another solution. Wondra also has some malted barley flour mixed into it, which acts as a dough conditioner in many breads.
While all-purpose flour, pastry flour, and cake flour can all be substituted for each other reasonably well when you make a few adjustments to the amounts you need, you cannot really work out a similar substitution for instant flour. Cake flour, with its low protein content, will be the closest you can get, but unless only a very small amount is called for in your recipe, it is worth either (a) trying to find some Wondra or (b) trying to find a different recipe.”
Improvements:
- I’m guessing Grandma left out one step in this recipe when she wrote it down for us; add salt and pepper to taste.
