A Bit of a Blip

I have been trying for almost a week now to find a recipe that works in my Aunt Anne’s books and since the undisclosed fiasco of the Canadian Lemon Pie, I haven’t been successful.

I have come to a realisation that these books seem to be an aide-memoire for my aunt who must have known the recipes well. There is just not enough instruction written down and so much is left to chance.

Over the past few days I have tried Savoy Biscuits followed by the Biscuit Gateaux and neither of them worked even slightly and searching through the books show that most of the recipes assume a lot of knowledge. Now, although I like to think I know quite a lot, my knowledge of early 20^th century cooking techniques is a little sparse and sometimes I just need to know what temperature a semolina cake needs to be cooked at and what is a ‘mould’? A cake tin or a pudding bowl?

But brightness lurks on the horizon – my go to book whilst trying to decipher my Aunt’s recipes has been my ancient copy of Mrs Beeton’s Household Management printed in 1890 and after endless mistakes I decided to cheer myself up by cooking a couple of things from this weighty tome.

Some ‘nice breakfast cakes’ and ‘ginger biscuits’ under my belt and I feel ready to head back into the fight!

There are 2974 recipes in Mrs Beeton so plenty to keep me busy – as for today, I am going to try an Aunt Anne recipe in my new pudding steamer from Lakeland. Exciting!

A World of Mistakes with Semolina Cake

It really hasn't been going to plan. Yesterday I failed at an ancient recipe for Canadian Lemon Pie and then overcooked the poached eggs for our muffin, poached egg and salmon supper.

So, I picked myself up and dusted off the flour and headed back to the kitchen in the light of day. Today was a recipe I have wanted to make since translating it a earlier this week.

Gateau de Semoule

1 ltr boiled milk

150g semolina

75g sugar

Cook the semolina in the boiling milk with the sugar for 15 minutes and remove from the heat. Put in a spoonful of rum, 3 whole eggs, cherries, angelica, orange, etc. Mix well.

Make a caramel:

Dissolve 75g sugar in a little water in a pan. Boil to make a caramel and then pour into the cake mould and chill.

Once the caramel is chilled, pour in the semolina mix and bake for 20 minutes.

So apart from slightly vague instructions on type of mould and temperature of oven, I felt this was in the bag. No problem, no difficulties - a straightforward semolina cake.

I followed the recipe but left out the angelica as I couldn't find any at my local shops. I used a deep pudding bowl as a 'mould' and set the timer for twenty minutes.

The cake came out slightly browned on top, puffed up and exciting looking. Sliding a pallette knife down the sides showed the caramel had worked and I was beginning to get that feeling of unexpected success in my stomach. Unfortunately the excitement was short-lived.

I may have misunderstood the nature of the dish but as there was a caramel sauce hidden under the cake, I thought I needed to un-mould the cake. I probably shouldn't have done this as what ensued was the most almighty collapse of goo-ey proportions - barely contained by a full size dinner plate. Hum.

Thinking on my feet I grabbed a spring-form baking tin and spooned the mess of semolina and fruit into it, and popped it back into the oven before I had even turned it even began to cool down. This time I started no timer and watched no clock - in fact I made myself some lunch and waited.

Once it was brown all over and skewer came out clean, I took it out of the oven.

I am not totally disappointed, I think I saved it in the end. The edges are still covered in a really yum caramel that sticks in your teeth in a very satisfying way - the overwhelming flavour is of the peel and cherries so quite old-fashioned (as you would expect).

Would I make it again? Probably, as I now know how to do it and I want to get it right and I think it would be different again starting from the beginning again.

It is unexpectedly more-ish too! x

Australian Jacks

This recipe doesn't originate with my Great Aunt as the hand writing is very different and on a tiny piece of ruled paper tucked into her cookbook.
I have no idea why these are called Australian Jacks but the recipe is similar to the Flapjack so it cant be all that bad.

Australian Jack

4oz butter
4oz brown sugar
8oz rolled oats
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Put the butter in saucepan - melt - add sugar - mix well - add bicarbonate of soda and beat well till frothy - add oats - stir well till quite mixed - put roughly into shallow greased tin and bache in moderate oven 20 - 25 minutes.
Let it cool in front of fire and eat in squares when nearly cold.The cooking brown sugar, butter and bicarbonate smells like honeycomb and goes that delicious light honey brown colour. Once the oats are mixed in and the mix is in the oven, the smell is almost unbearable! The 20 minutes felt like forever but they did come to an end eventually.
Now the recipe asked me to put the tray next to the fire to cool so that's what I did but I am not sure that it is that important - so if you don't have a fire don't worry too much!
They turned out pretty wonderfully - light biscuits that are less chewy than the usual flapjack but the brown sugar makes them really scrumptious!

x

Loch Leven's Larder

We took advantage of the stunning weather and decided to head off and be a bit touristy for the day. We headed north over the Forth Bridge and made our way to Kinross which sits next to Loch Leven.Loch Leven is a giant space of water surrounded by walking paths. Although there is an old castle on an island in the middle, because of wild migration, you cant visit during the winter months.

The sun was shining but the wind was a bit biting so we headed back to the car to find something to eat for lunch. A sign by the road pointed us in the direction of Loch Leven's Larder which rang with possibility and once we had squeezed into the only space left in the car-park we headed into this little haven on the banks of the Loch. Inside there was a large tall ceilinged barn conversion that had large windows over-looking the sun dappled water and an eclectic decor.

It took a little while for us to be seated which gave us time to pick up some 'Wicked Chocolate' dark chocolate buttons from the shop. We went for the good old baked potato - me with prawns(in a tomato and chili sauce), hubby with tuna (with creme fraiche and dill).

While we were waiting a neighbour ordered the tea menu and a proper high tea stack arrived with little sandwiches, carrot cake, scones, meringues, tiffin and tea. Well, I regretted my choice slightly but it was only 1pm so it felt a little early in the day but it did look awesome.

Our bakers arrived and they were really tasty served with a lovely salad and a very fragrant rice salad on the side too. YUM.

Next time I am coming back for the tea... definitely.

x

Gorgeous Gnocchi

Well, here's the thing. I love to bake, I'm a baker and basically this means a lot of the sweet things in Aunt Anne's cookbooks appeal to my nature.

Today I got through an epic page of French to get to the bottom of Gnocchi a la Romaine and I thought that it would be a good foray into the savoury world. The recipe calls for semolina and although I cannot profess to being a regular gnocchi maker (actually never from scratch) I thought there would be more potato or flour to the whole thing.
So the recipe is as follows and I promise I followed it to the letter until the bit when you shaped it - here I rolled it into sausages and chopped it into little gnocchi sized pieces and pressed a fork into each one to make it look like it does in a packet!

Gnocchi a la Romaine

100g Semolina
1/2 ltr milk
Salt and Pepper
100g grated gruyere cheese

Add the semolina to the milk and boil. Salt and Pepper (well!)
Working with a wooden spoon, stir until the mixture turns stiff and remove from the heat and stir in the grated cheese mix well.
On a (well) floured surface, flatten the dough until no more than 1cm thick. Leave to cool.
Once cooled, divide into small peices and place in a buttered baking dish.
Sprinkle the arranged gnocchi with a little more grated cheese.
Bake until browned.

About 1/2 hour later it came out looking completely gorgeous. Taste? Well, the gnocchi had gone back to being light little fluffy balls of cheesy deliciousness and the sprinkled cheese had gone crispy on the top. It was fabulous.

My advice would be - make this! It takes no time at all to do and served with a crisp salad and you have yourself a dish to impress anyone. Yum... just one more forkful?..

x

B.E. Quick Pudding

I have no idea about the origins of the name of this sponge pudding but it was on a sheet of lined paper tucked into one of Aunt Anne's cookbooks and it seemed too good to miss.

Travelling to Aunt Anne's house in Norfolk was always much anticipated and you would arrive to the faint bubbling of a steamed suet on the ancient cooker. As a child I would tootle off down to the end of the garden and look for her ever elusive tortoise - normally without success! She was making steamed puddings that when turned out revealed a deep sticky puddle of jam that would ooze its way down the sides of the suet as you watched. Mmmm.

So the recipe.

B.E. Quick Pudding

1 Teacup of flour
3/4 cup of sugar
1 egg. 1 oz butter
2 tea. spoons. of Baking powder

Rub butter in flour. add sugar.
B powder and egg well beaten
Mix with a little milk
put in a greased pie dish
with jam or marmalade in bottom
and bake for 15 minutes -
and serve with jam or marmalade

The milk should be added until a good sponge mixture consistency is reached and I found that it took a little longer to cook through than the recipe says... Having said that, I think mine was a little over cooked!

The result was delicious. The sponge wasn't too sweet so the apricot jam worked wonders. It didn't last long though - hubby asked me to wrestle it from his grasp before he ate the whole thing. It was gone by the time I got to the kitchen in the morning - apparently it made a good breakfast too!

Ooooo! Soufflé ...

With much trepidation I decided to face one of the many soufflés found in Aunt Anne's books. There are so many that it gave me some sort of confidence that way back then everyone must have been popping perfectly formed fluffy soufflés on the table.

Well, the house smells delicious! I divided the recipe below by 3 as I didn't want to make a giant soufflé (6 eggs!!) but it managed to stretch to 4 ramekins of the good stuff.

100g butter

100g flour

½ ltr milk

Salt and pepper

75g grated cheese

Heat the milk a little.

In another saucepan, melt the butter then stir in the flour. Add the milk little by little.

Beat 6 egg yolks and add the grated cheese and mix with the rest of the mixture.

Season well.

Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold into the egg yolk mixture.

So having never, yes, never made a soufflé in my life I was really unsure how the mix should look and feel something quite new to me! So I followed the recipe to the letter, preheated the oven to 180 C, greased some moulds and threw it together.

I know that shouldnt work. Isnt that too easy? 30 minutes later I opened the oven expecting a mess of slop and burny bits.

Not very cheesy but very light and tasty!

x

Sunday delicacies

It was Sunday, there were patches of blue sky appearing and there was nothing better that we could do except go to an independent cinema (Cameo) in the south side of Edinburgh and watch Inside Job - "a feature-length documentary about the 2008 global financial collapse" - not my first choice if I'm honest but hubby had the last word on this! Before disappearing into what seemed like a plush millionaires screening room for a couple of hours, we popped for a drink (soft).
Iglu is well known in Edinburgh for awesome food in a lovely atmosphere but we were drawn in by the offer of a cup of Artisan Roast coffee. Battered leather seats, tweed cushions, sturdy wooden tables and chalk boards listing wines welcomed us to the cafe section of this tucked away destination. Giant windows allow light to stream in so we spent a very pleasant half hour with the Sunday papers and awesome coffee.
Once we had been popped out the other end of an interesting account of the financial crisis, I needed something a bit stronger and we were both incredibly hungry. Still new to the city, going out seems to be something we do the whole time. We went to a place on Thistle Street called TexMex II - the first restaurant we went to in Edinburgh when we came up for hubby's job interview.I am not going to give a blow by blow account just that the food is fabulous, the atmosphere intimate and the Margarita's awesome. I left full of burrito, re-fried beans, salad and an indecently decadent slice of chocolate tart! It is frill free but I implore anyone visiting this culinary gem to take the plunge and try the chili sauce - fiery but worth the work!

x

A l'Italia!

Although new to the city, there is one place that seems to be mentioned in unfair quantities by guidebooks and that is the hallowed Valvona & Crolla.

It being a bleak, grey Saturday morning, me and husband decided to have ourselves a brunch in this almost mythical establishment. A plus is that it is only minutes away from home.

At the doors you find yourself waiting for the people streaming in and streaming out in a fug of contented foodie happiness. Find a break and head into the all enveloping world of Valvona & Crolla.

Rows of hams and sausages hang from the double height ceiling and there are shelves as far up as you care to crane your neck.

Counters hold refrigerated treasures from cheeses to meats to heavenly looking vanilla pods to oat cakes. Further along vegetables, hand-made pizzas, gnocchi and more. Bon-bons, choccies, biscuits and nougat give way to beautifully crafted wooden salad bowls, rows of oils and vinegars, wicker baskets filled with breads, brioches, pastries and muffins. And then the wine, oh the wine!

Onto breakfast and into a bright clean barn like addition to the shop which doesn't entirely gel with the atmospheric den of the main deli. I ordered a vegetarian breakfast and a latte, and sat waiting with huge anticipation of the meal ahead.

It turned out that hubby had ordered an omelet inna bun and I lucked out with a vegetarian feast with chargrilled aubergine, courgette, mushrooms and tomatoes which were amazingly smokey. A chunk of grilled polenta and an awe inspiring egg that tasted heavenly (how do you do that?) I realised after a little while that I hadn't taken a photo so hurriedly took one before it was too late!

This was all served with two slices of fresh, white caraway seed flecked bread accompanied by a teacupful of fresh, pale unsalted butter - waistline be damned, that butter had to be spread!

The latte was lovely with just the right amount of bitterness to compliment what was a fabulous brunch. I understand the hype. On the way out, I took a snapshot of the sweetest looking sweeties - teeny little mints that appealed to my more arty side! I didn't manage to get through the deli without making a couple of purchases. We tried a chunk of pecorino with the most amazing chestnut honey drizzled over it but I thought the cheese was a bit overpowering but could still taste the honey on my tongue some time later. Into my bag went handmade oatcakes, a burratini (mozzarella cheese creamed with butter and re-hung) and a slice of fontina... I do have people over for supper tonight after all!

x

Basic beginnings

This is the first of the recipes I have tried from Aunt Anne - I chose a simple one, that looked like it might work and that was in English rather than the French many are written in.

Shortbread

4 1/2 oz plain flour
3 oz butter
1 1/2 castor sugar
colouring

Rub all together, handle as little as possible. Roll out with sugar and a little flour.


So, as I am beginning to find is the way with most of the recipes, the instructions are a little sparse. Follow them I did though, rolled out a round, crimped the edges, dusted with sugar and put in a fan oven at 180 C for 12 minutes. (I took advice from the brilliant Great British Book Of Baking)


...this is the result. A little over-coloured at the edges so next time I'll use a lower temperature (170 C probably) for a longer time to make it really biscuity. Delicious though.

Oh, I completely ignored the food colouring idea.

Took no time at all and makes the house smell lovely and the hubby really happy.

x

The Reason

After a week and a half of 'me time' I found myself in my pyjamas at midday. That is it. No excuses nothing else, just flannel check pjs as the clock struck twelve and the deep despair of the idle.

I have moved to Edinburgh and found a cosmopolitan, vibrant city brilliant for foodies. And being so free and easy with my time, I plan to go and sample the local produce from sausages to sweeties (trying not to destroy my hopes of a waistline at the same time!).

Another upshot of the move is that I have time to concentrate on two black covered battered books with yellowing, crumbling pages. Pages filled with sloping script of another era. My great Aunt Anne lived in Norfolk and hers was the home of the steamed sponge pudding - these were her books and I am happy to be their custodian.

So I will bake, boil and braise according to these two books and let you know how I get on with those. Sip, nibble and munch my way around delis and gastro delights in my new found home and review as best I can.

Thanks

Jo x