Q: I am a weekly [online] reader of the food section of The Miami Herald, and I especially enjoy your column. It's a friendly, nationwide recipe and memory exchange.
My mother used to make something called lemon icebox cake. It was made in a 9-by-13-inch pan or in metal ice cube trays and used graham crackers to form a bottom crust. It had lemon Jell-O, cottage cheese and crushed pineapple in it. There was no baking involved. It sounds simple enough, but I have never been able to get the measurements right. I would love it if you could come up with the correct recipe.
Laurie Mehta, Cincinnati
A: Your request reminded me of a favorite ''salad'' that used to show up regularly on Southern cafeteria menus, but it was made with lime gelatin and included chopped pecans and sometimes marshmallows or coconut besides the pineapple. I found many lemon Jell-O cheesecake recipes, but these used cream cheese or a combination with cottage cheese. I experimented and came up with the recipe here, which has a texture like a Bavarian.
You could omit the graham cracker crust, use low-fat cottage cheese, nonfat half-and-half and even sugar-free gelatin to cut back on calories. The recipe makes a full pan, but stores well. Or cut the ingredients in half and prepare it in a 10-inch pan.
Q: About a year ago I cut out a recipe for grilled Jamaican jerk chicken and it became a family favorite. Unfortunately I am unable to find it and was hoping you could reprint it.
Ellen Sobczak
A: Though The Herald has published many Jamaican jerk recipes over the years, none for grilled chicken has appeared as recently as you recall. I did come up with a homemade jerk seasoning mix in 1991 (since refined a bit) that could be a starting point for your own recipe. To be authentic, you need two island ingredients -- allspice and Scotch bonnet pepper. Jerk should be a cacophony of flavors -- hot, fragrant, sweet, spicy -- with the cook's signature addition of soy sauce, rum, molasses, tropical fruit juice, tamarind paste and/or malt vinegar, to name a few. Most recipes include thyme, ginger, garlic and chopped green onions.
You can find island-made jerk seasoning in some supermarkets (Busha Browne's and Walker's Woods are two brands), or use the homemade mix in our recipe. Use it dry as a rub or mix it with wet ingredients to make a marinade. If you use soy or teriyaki sauce, limit the marinating time to a couple hours or the sauce flavor will overwhelm the spices.
Q: I've misplaced a favorite recipe I got from your column way back, for New England Oyster House's coleslaw. What I liked is that you make the dressing once, and can make as much or as little coleslaw as you want.
Raeleen
A: This recipe dates back 21 years, and has certainly withstood the test of time. You could use low-fat mayonnaise if you prefer.
SLEUTH'S CORNER
Q: In the 1970s, I subscribed to Sphere magazine. I kept most every copy, but two years ago I took one to my daughter's house to make my favorite corn soufflé for a holiday dinner. The magazine went astray, and I have not been able to locate the recipe anywhere. It included canned Mexican corn, hot sauce and Parmesan cheese. Can anyone help?
