THE HOME COOK : Dinner at the Home Cook Restaurant

Many people go to restaurants to sample food that they never have at home. The following menu gives you an opportunity to have food at home that you can’t buy in a restaurant.

Spiced Chicken With Dried Fruit is a tantalizing mixture of spiciness, and of sweet and tart flavors, a fine dish for early spring, particularly when served with steamed brown rice and steamed spinach. For dessert, you could have Caramel Custard.

Caramel Custard? But doesn’t every restaurant that stocks salt and pepper serve Caramel Custard (creme caramel)? Ah, but not this Caramel Custard. It’s silky, trembly and as delicate as a feather--a perfect dessert. And it is a most versatile dessert because you can add any flavor to suit your menu.

During the years when I was teaching three or four cooking classes a week, this simplest of all desserts was a perennial bafflement to new cooks. Following instructions, they’d coat the custard cups with freshly made caramel only to discover to their horror that it quickly became rock-hard. How could this ever become a sauce? But as if by magic, the caramel melts in baking and forms just the right amount of sauce for the custard.

The cardinal rule for custard-making is: Don’t overbake. Restaurant custards often break this rule and become coarse and rubbery. Another rule is: Don’t keep custards too long. They are best eaten the day they are baked.

SPICED CHICKEN WITH DRIED FRUIT

1/2 cup dried prunes, snipped in large pieces

1/2 cup dried apricots, snipped in large pieces

1 cup orange juice

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground mace

6 tablespoons flour

1 (2 1/2- to 3-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces

Salt, pepper

1/4 cup butter

Combine prunes, apricots, orange juice, brown sugar, vinegar and mace in saucepan, and simmer 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Lightly flour chicken pieces. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Melt butter in saute pan over medium heat. Brown chicken pieces on all sides. Remove any fat from pan, lower heat and pour dried-fruit sauce over chicken. Cover and simmer about 20 minutes, or until done. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

644 calories; 315 mg sodium; 159 mg cholesterol; 38 grams fat; 43 grams carbohydrates; 35 grams protein; 1 gram fiber. 53% calories from fat.

CARAMEL CUSTARD

1 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

3 eggs

1/8 teaspoon salt

3 cups very hot milk

2 teaspoons vanilla

Set shallow pan large enough to hold custard cups or baking dish in oven, and fill with 1-inch hot water.

Melt 1/2 cup sugar in heavy-bottomed skillet and cook without stirring, swirling pan so that sugar moves about as it melts. When sugar becomes caramel-colored, pour about 1 tablespoon caramelized sugar into each of 8 (3/4-cup) unbuttered custard cups and swirl around to coat bottom and sides. (Or pour all caramelized sugar into 1-quart glass baking dish and swirl quickly to coat bottom and sides. Caramel will harden at first, but don’t worry; the next step takes care of that.)

Beat yolks and eggs together just enough to blend. Stir in remaining 1/2 cup sugar and salt and slowly add hot milk, stirring constantly. Add vanilla. Strain into custard cups or baking dish. Place in pan of hot water. Bake at 325 degrees about 30 minutes, or until sides are set and center trembles very slightly. Remove from oven. Serve warm or cold. Makes 8 servings.

Each serving contains about:

186 calories; 108 mg sodium; 155 mg cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 30 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0 fiber; 24% calories from fat.