Stir up Monday

I didn't have time to make my Christmas puddings on Sunday, the traditional stir up day,  but I'm sure they will taste just as good. I make quite a large batch for family and friends. Not a lover of puddings myself, I am always surprised that they go on asking for them year after year and I have to keep my enthusiasm going by trying out different recipes. This year I based my mixture on a Tamsin Day-Lewis recipe but without the nuts and cider brandy; I never add nuts when I can't be sure of who will eat my products and I wasn't able to find cider brandy in the local shops. If you want the original recipe you can find it here. 

The first thing I do before making Christmas cakes, mincemeat and puddings is to throw away all my old spices and buy fresh. It really does make a difference! There are a lot of ingredients in the pudding mix and it is easy to miss one (or more!) so I prepare them first and line them up in order on the counter.  When the ingredients have been prepared it is simply a matter of putting them all into the largest mixing bowl you have and stirring! I cook mine overnight in the simmering oven of the Aga so my house is not filled with the lovely spicy smell of Christmas - the chimney takes all the cooking smells outside so I have to stand in the yard to enjoy them!

In goes all the beautiful fruit

Time for the great stir up

I got two large and three small puddings from the mixture

Puddings in the oven, now to put my feet up .... oh, I forgot about this!

If you didn't make your pudding on Stir-up Sunday, don't worry. I have been known to make them two weeks later and no-one has noticed the difference. And then there is always Waitrose, M&S, Sainsbury and Tesco!

A plethora of plums

The extraordinarily hot spring and the wet summer have combined to produce bumper crops of fruit. I have an abundance of apples, a slew of strawberries, a teemingness of tomatoes and a richness of raspberries. After making jam from the berries, I thought I had time to relax until the apples and tomatoes are ready for picking but a friend had other ideas.  She arrived with four enormous bags of plums and a box of jars. What could I do but get the preserving pan out again?

Stoning and cutting up 20 pounds of plums was quite a task and it was more fruit than I needed for jam. What to do with the rest? Fortunately, I was about to visit my son so a big bake up was justified.

I decided to try out my resurrected tuna quiche recipe on him. That's the result on the left of the photo. It was a great hit with him and with little Brit.  I also made a roasted vegetable quiche and a plum tart and then I made some jam tarts with a jar of the plum jam. The other item in the photo is a plum crumble cake. I have had the recipe for many years but this was my first attempt at baking one.  Here is the recipe:

I used a 10 inch/25cm springform cake tin, lined with baking parchment.
Ingredients
5oz/150g butter at room temperature
5oz/150g caster sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
5oz/150g plain flour
1teaspoon baking powder
2lbs/900g red plums, halved and stoned

For the crumble topping
4oz/115g plain flour
4oz.115g light brown sugar
1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
3oz/75g butter, cut into pieces and refrigerated

Method

1. Make the topping by combining the flour, brown sugar and cinnamon powder in a bowl. Rub in the cold butter pieces until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Leave to one side while you mix the cake batter.
2. Cream the butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the vanilla. Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold into the cake mixture.
3. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Arrange the plum halves on top and sprinkle with the crumble topping.
4. Bake at 180C/350F/Gas 4 for about 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave in the tin to cool.

Result

I will be using the recipe again with apples when they are ready. I am sure that pears and raspberries would work as well.

Greek yogurt dessert in a hurry

I have just returned from a week of family visits in Bristol, Oxford and Lancashire. Looking forward to a leisurely weekend of catching up on sleep and reading, I was horrified to learn that the MM had committed us to a Sunday lunch party and committed me to taking a dessert for 10 people. With no time to go further than the corner shop, what could I do but ring my brother for the recipe for the delicious dessert he had served just a few days ago. He had said that it was quick and easy and so it is:

Ingredients
1 packet digestive biscuits (I used about three quarters of the pack)
500g tub Greek yogurt (0% fat is fine but my shop only had the full fat variety)
1 small can condensed milk (this is the light version, making up for some of the butter to follow!)
Butter
1 large lemon

Method
Put required amount of biscuits in a plastic food bag and crush with a rolling pin. Place in base of serving dish. Pour on melted butter and press mixture down to form base of dessert.

Zest the lemon and reserve for decoration.
Pour yogurt, condensed milk and the juice of the lemon into a bowl and stir until smooth. The mixture will be quite runny but have faith, it will set to a cheesecake consistency.  Pour it on top of the biscuit base, sprinkle the lemon zest on top and put in the fridge.  It will be ready to serve in about an hour but mine will stay in the fridge until tomorrow.

Voila! One delicious dessert to serve at least 10 people, made in less than 10 minutes. Thank you, brother.

Walnut and raspberry cake

I tried out a new cake recipe yesterday as a teatime treat for my mother-in-law on Mothering Sunday. Well yes, I admit I did try some myself. I made a few changes to the original recipe, which appears in the Kenwood Recipe Book as Morning Coffee Cake. I used less sugar and a little more yoghurt because I don't like very sweet things. The uncooked mixture is more like a soft dough than a cake batter. I found it took 50 minutes to cook in the Aga roasting oven with the grid shelf on the floor and the cold shelf on the second set of runners.

This is the original recipe:
Ingredients
115g (4oz) butter, melted
115g (4oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon almond essence (I used extract for better flavour)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
150g (5oz) natural yoghurt
225g (8oz) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
50g (2oz) walnut pieces
3 tablespoons raspberry preserve
1 tablespoon demerara sugar
75g (3oz) walnut halves

Method

1. Grease and line the base of a 23cm (9 inch) loose-bottomed cake tin. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4
2. Beat melted butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
3. Gradually beat in the eggs, almond extract, lemon juice and yoghurt until thoroughly combined
4. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder and gently fold them into the mixture together with the walnut pieces.
5. Place half the cake mixture in the prepared tin. Spoon over the raspberry preserve and top with the remaining mixture.
6. Sprinkle the top with the walnut halves and demerara sugar. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until risen and firm to the touch.
   
7. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
   

Enjoy!

F is for fennel

I haven't abandoned my vegetable alphabet, it is just that life has been getting in the way of organised thought. If I can get back to my PC later in the week (i.e. if The Man turns up on Wednesday and is able to repair it), I will get around to collating the recipes to date.
Fennel is one of those vegetables that people either love or hate and I love it. I grow it in pots in my yard and use it in salads, or add it to roasted vegetables. Here is a favourite recipe from my Cranks recipe book:

Fennel and tomato salad

Ingredients
6 small fennel bulbs
3 cloves garlic, sliced paper thin
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1lb ripe plum tomatoes
4oz black olives
2oz fresh Parmesan, cut into slivers
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
Trim fronds and ends from fennel stalks. Slice thinly along the vertical grain.
Either leave as it is or cut slices into thin strips.
Mix garlic slices, oil, vinegar and salt and pepper and pour over the fennel. Allow to marinate for 20 minutes or so.
Then add the tomatoes, cut into wedges and, finally, the black olives and Parmesan.

Can't you just taste summer in the recipe?

More potatoes

Thursday
Day 2 on the wartime recipes went much better than the first. There was enough soup left over from yesterday for today's lunch and it tasted much better too. So, I think this soup will be appearing regularly through the winter.

Thursday's main meal was the wartime version of Irish 'champ'. In fact it is a version of 'colcannon' because it uses cabbage and not scallions but who am I to question the Ministry of Food? Click on the picture to enlarge it if you want the recipe. It was quick and easy to make and we ate it with some locally caught fish and more green vegetables.

More snippets from We'll eat again, this time on waste:
If a sense of guilt didn't make you adopt frugal habits, perhaps social pressure might .....

Okay, I'm planning to use the leftover 'champ' as a pie topping today. No waste in this household.

Sticky coconut and lime cake recipe

As promised, here is the recipe for the cake I made for the Macmillan fund-raiser.

Ingredients
4oz butter, softened
6oz golden caster sugar
6oz self-raising flour 2 eggs
1teaspoon baking powder
Half of 400g can coconut milk
grated zest of 2 limes
For syrup: 6oz golden caster sugar, the rest of the can of coconut milk and juice of the limes.

Method
Put all ingredients into a mixing bowl, beat until well combined. Pour into a greased and lined 2lb loaf tin. Bake at 180°C for about 40 minutes until golden and firm to touch.
Meanwhile make the syrup:
Put 6oz golden caster sugar into a saucepan with the other half can of coconut milk. Boil the mixture for a few minutes until a clear syrup is formed. Remove from the heat and add the juice of the limes.
Spoon the mixture over the warm cake, leaving it to cool in the cake tin. Sprinkle the top with coconut flakes.

Chocolate cake

Here, at the request of reader Bruessel, is the recipe for our family favourite.

Prepare two 7 inch (18cm) sandwich tins by brushing with oil and lining base with baking parchment.

Ingredients
6oz (175g) soft margarine (I find this gives a lighter texture than butter)
6oz (175g) caster sugar
5oz (150g) self-raising flour
1oz (25g) good cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 large eggs

Sift all the dry ingredients and put into a large bowl with the eggs and margarine. Beat well for for 2 or 3 minutes, until smooth and blended. Divide mixture between the prepared cake tins.

Bake for about 20 minutes in a warm Aga oven, slightly longer in a conventional oven (Gas 3, 325F or 160C) until cakes are risen and firm to the touch. Turn cakes out onto a wire rack, to cool.

Suggestions for decoration

• Fill with butter cream (pictured): Blend together 3oz (75g)butter with 6oz (150g) icing sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Top may be decorated with more butter cream and sprinkled with chocolate
• Top may be decorated with melted chocolate
• Fresh cream and raspberries make a good filling

I like this recipe because it can be made quickly for family teatime and can also be 'dressed up' for special occasions.

Perhaps someone can tell me how to insert the symbol for 'degrees' so that I can include the temperature for conventional ovens correctly?

Lavender, lavender that makes your linen sweet

The garden is something of a perfumed paradise at the moment. Climbing the steps, I brush against the fragrant honeysuckle, then I am surrounded by heady rosemary, next I walk round the herb bed with its scented thymes, lemon balm and mint. But overwhelming the rest is the lavender.
I have three varieties of lavender but next week I will be at Buckfast Abbey, where the lavender garden contains 150 varieties. The lavender there is harvested in September, but I will be taking some of my own along for several activities with the youngsters on the summer camp that I'll be leading.

This afternoon I have been sewing dozens of little calico bags for the children to make into lavender bags and pillows. (Perhaps we should make them on the first day and hope that we get a peaceful night.) We will also make lavender biscuits and cakes. When I get home, I would like to try out a recipe I have found for lavender champagne and another for cordial.

Here is my favourite recipe for lavender biscuits (cookies):
4oz butter
4oz caster sugar
4oz plain flour
1 tablespoon fresh lavender, finely chopped
Icing sugar to dust

• Cream the butter and sugar together.
  
• Sift the flour and stir in the lavender.
  
• Fold the flour mixture into the creamed butter and sugar.
• Divide the dough into small balls and flatten lightly and place on a greased baking tray
  
• Bake in a moderate oven (180C, 350F or Gas 4) until just beginning to colour
• Cool on a wire rack. Dredge with icing sugar to serve.
  

There, I didn't even mention the Aga!

Lavender champagne
40 or 50 lavender flowers
4 pints cold water
12oz sugar
4oz sultanas, finely chopped
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lemon

• Stir all the dry ingredients together in a large glass bowl
• Pour on the water, vinegar and lemon juice and stir well.
• Cover the bowl with cling film and leave for 7 days.
• Strain the liquid and pour into sterilised bottles.
• Seal and leave for another week, when it should be sparkling and ready to drink.

Emergency cake

I woke full of the joys of spring this morning. My husband will be arriving soon with his precious cargo of beloved daughter and granddaughter. I have had hardly any time at home recently but I was quite pleased to see that I had everything under control when it hit me - no cake! The children always like to be greeted with the aroma of freshly-baked cake, and I hadn't made one.

My mother's recipe for what she used to call her 'boiled cake for emergencies' came to mind. When I was a student, my mother used to send me regular food parcels. There was always a fruit cake and jars of Gentlemen's Relish and other savoury spreads because afternoon tea in the college refectory was always bread with jam or sticky chocolate spread and very sweet cakes which I disliked. Unfortunately, the arrival of parcels for students was always announced at lunchtime, so when the wonderful words, 'There is a parcel for Maureen Graham to be collected from the Porter's Lodge' were heard, I knew that mine would be the most popular room in college and that I would be lucky to save a single crumb of cake for myself.

This is the recipe for the cake she would make at short notice, when I rang to say I couldn't wait for the regular parcel:


Put 4oz butter, 4oz sugar, 1lb pack mixed dried fruit, 1 heaped teaspoon mixed spice, 1 scant teaspoon bicarbonate of soda and 8fl oz water into a saucepan. Bring to the boil then simmer for a minute.


Allow the mixture to cool. Meanwhile beat two eggs. Sift together 4oz self-raising flour and 4 oz plain flour and a pinch of salt. Stir these into the cooled mixture.

Put the cake mixture into a prepared 8inch cake tin. Cook for about 1 hour 15 mins in a moderate oven. (Mine goes into the Aga cakebaker)



And here is the finished product, ready to greet the travellers, who have just rung to say they will be here in less than an hour. Whew! Thanks, Mum.

Christmas pie

I have never been so organised for the holiday season. The visitors don't start arriving until Sunday and not only are the beds made up, the presents wrapped and the tree and house decorated but I started cooking today. I usually do that in the wee small hours of the morning before they arrive. I think it must have something to do with retirement!

With half the family being vegetarian, I have two menus to prepare. I like to think up something special for those who won't be having the roast goose and baked ham and this pie is one of several dishes I'm preparing in advance. It looks and smells delicious and I suspect the meat-eaters will be demanding a slice or two.

Vegetarian food usually takes a little more thought and preparation than meat or fish dishes but it is worth the effort. Many people seem to be giving up or reducing the amount of meat they eat and I'm frequently asked for ideas other than meat-substitutes and dry nut roasts. Here is the recipe for the Christmas pie:
You will need:
An 8 inch spring form cake tin
1 pack of Filo pastry
5oz melted butter
4 tablespoons olive oil
6 scallions, chopped
1lb frozen spinach, thawed
12 oz plain cottage cheese, drained
1lb good Feta cheese, drained and crumbled
1 tablespoon uncooked long grain rice
Pinch mixed dried herbs or 1 tablespoon fresh herbs of choice, finely chopped
Salt, pepper, grated nutmeg
Sesame seeds

Method

1. Heat a little of the oil and gently fry the chopped scallions until soft. Add the spinach and heat thoroughly.
2. Drain the mixture in a sieve, pressing out as much liquid as possible. Put into a large bowl together with the cheeses, herbs and rice and season to taste with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
3. Combine the melted butter with the rest of the olive oil. Brush the bottom and sides of the cake tin with the mixture.
4. Remove the filo pastry from the pack and cover it with a damp cloth to prevent it from cracking. Then start layering it into the cake tin: place one sheet of pastry in the bottom of the tin, paint it with the oil and butter mixture, place another sheet on top, at a slight angle to the first, paint this and then add another. Continue until you have about 7 or 8 layers of buttered pastry.
5. Pour the cheese and spinach mixture into the pastry case.
6. Fold the edges of the pastry over the mixture then take the extra sheets and place them on the top of the pie, tucking the edges neatly down the side of the pie. Brush each layer with the remaining butter.
7. Take a sharp knife and cut the pie into 8 slices.
8. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds.
9. 2-oven Aga cooks - place the grid shelf on the floor of the roasting oven and the cold shelf on the second set of runners. Cook the pie on the grid shelf for about 40 minutes.
10. I think gas cooker equivalent is Mark 4 and electric 180 C, whatever is 'moderate' temperature.

The pie will keep well in the fridge or may be frozen. It is good to eat hot or cold.

That is Christmas Eve supper sorted, now how about the big day and Boxing Day? Mmm

Cad in the kitchen

In the Weekend section of today's Daily Telegraph, sadly not available online, there is a review of W.M.W Fowler's book Countryman's Cooking. It is probably just as well that Fowler died in 1977, without his book coming to the attention of Germaine Greer; he might otherwise have finished up in one of his own pies.

The recipes look good enough, but the author's comments and prejudices are absolutely delicious. The introduction explains that the book is intended for 'men who, through choice or circumstance, live on their own' but who want to give small dinner parties. The man must do the macho preparations of hunting, skinning and eviscerating the meat, but then call on 'liberal use of blandishments and flattery' to procure a glamorous pastry maker.

Here is his recipe for rabbit pie:


This is an excellent dish. The only snag is that you must have some pastry;
and here, I fear I cannot help you. So far I have been able, by the liberal use
of blandishments and flattery to get someone else to make it for me. Anyway,
what better gambit could you have than "Come and make the pastry for my rabbit
pie, darling."?

Well now, presupposing that you have your glamorous pastry-maker positively
champing at the bit, cook the rabbit either in the same way as for a casserole,
or else dispense with the marinade and begin by flouring and frying. Then simmer
in a saucepan, using cider or mild beer as a cooking liquor. Don't forget the
salt. Whilst this is cooking, hard-boil three eggs and cut the rind off half a
pound of bacon - smoked or plain as you prefer.

Take the meat off the bones as soon as it is ready to come. You will now
have finished for the time being, with the kitchen table, so, having fortified
your pastry maker with a couple of stiff gins, let her loose with some flour,
lard, a bowl and a rolling pin. Look admiring and make encouraging noises from a
safe distance.

He adds this caveat:

"Don't kiss her till she has carried out her duties. You will find the situation gets quickly out of hand and you end up, hours later, with no gin and no lid on your pie."