Mmmmm the Delights of Preserving Mulberries

The past few months have been all about preserving the bountiful fruits of nature and indeed mother natures store-cupboard otherwise known as the hedgerow has been most generous this year. The blackberries have been bigger, fatter and juicer than ever and I have quite a few gallon of blackberry wine brewing, not to mention a lot of jam in the pantry, but it was finding a mulberry tree that got me excited this week. I managed to pick 4lbs of this delectable fruit and now they are happily resting in a preserving paradise of gin…..I’ll share the recipe if you like!

Sorting out the props and getting everything ready

Well I am starting to get all my props ready in eager anticipation of the Dig for Victory Show at the North Somerset Showground on the 5th and 6th of July 2014. I am delighted to be involved with this years show and have had great fun sorting out some of my props ready for the event. I’m sure it is going to be a great few days and I’m really looking forward to sharing some wartime recipes.

I am bringing lots of original Wartime packaging with me, period preserving tools and kitchen implements and even a period toys for my little ones to play with, although I am rather tempted to play with the toy mangle myself.

I am going to be demonstrating everything from Wartime preserving techniques to how to make  mock crab and hard time omelette.  There will be a chance for visitors to sample some of the recipes and hopefully I’ll inspire people to adopt some of the make-do-and-mend philosophies of the era.

Chick, Chick, Chick, Chicken Lay A Little Egg for Me

As my Eat for Victory Diet begins tomorrow I went off on my travels earlier in the week to ensure I had a fresh supply of eggs. Well after baking a few things using wartime recipes and dried eggs  earlier this week I can see both their advantages and disadvantages and as I like to bake my focus is still on the latter. So I welcomed fourteen feathery ladies to my ranks along with three rather friendly cockerels.

I have high hopes for my egg yield and my WWII egg preserving pan is ready to hand, but we’ll see how things progress.

 

 

 

 

Eating for Victory

I am soon going to be following a wartime diet and eating as if rationed in the 1940’s. I am currently eating up all the sweet treats and indulgent foreign fancies in my pantry before I embark on a full time victory diet. I started Digging for Victory a few months back and the veg patch is starting to come on, my basket is lined up ready for foraging and my vintage egg preserving pan is at the ready.

As a food historian I regularly give Wartime cookery demonstrations and talk about the food that we were eating during the Second World War and so part of me is doing this experiment to get a real feel of what eating a  wartime diet is like as oppose to just trying the odd recipe here and there. However, the other reason is that I feel that the ‘make do and mend’ method of shopping and cooking is something I will benefit from in both terms of health and in terms of reducing my weekly shopping bill. I like most people have become accustomed to eating whatever I want. There is always a good range of ingredients to choose from and whilst I attach great importance to eating seasonally I like most consumers in the UK, have become accustomed to exotic, imported foods not available in the UK, not to mention an abundance of dairy products. I am curious to see if this new diet will have an effect on my health and well-being and whether it will also help with that of my children who despite me always cooking their meals from scratch when I started analysing what we have been consuming each week it was shocking to realise the amount of sugar that is currently in mine and their diet.

I will be using authentic recipes and will be posting regularly to share the recipes and experiences as I feed myself and two under fives on a 1940’s ration book diet.

 

The Great British Institution of Tea

Tea is a great British tradition. In times of crisis we reach to put the kettle on and it is tea that we brew up to ease the pain of a broken heart, dampen the effects of a shock; numb the pain of loss  and to calm frayed nerves. Tea has seen us through war, peace, joy and sadness and it is undeniably the nations drink of choice. Whilst chain coffee shops may continue to spring up on the high street with their sentiment of froth over filling and we may all lap up their exotic offerings  air filled milk foam and a dash of coffee at home tea is still our drink of choice.

After a lovely chat with Bill from The UK Tea Council I learned that the British love affair with tea is still as passionate as ever and that we are now enjoying a better quality of tea than ever, indeed Bill reliably informed me that today the tea we drink is of superior quality to that we were buying twenty years ago, due to advances in processing.

Now  I had always thought loose tea was superior to that of the tea found in a bag, but I learned from Bill that this was just snobbery and that if you are buying good quality tea whether it is in a loose or bag form will make no difference, indeed Bill explained that the most important factor was the temperature of the water we pour over our tea and I will be posting an article on this matter shortly. As I still have a soft spot for loose leaf tea I can now formally pronounce myself a ‘tea snob’.  Well all I can say is that you can’t read your fortune in a tea cup if you use a tea bag.

As you brew up your pot of tea or at least dunk a teabag in a mug, bear in mind these tea superstitions if you want to avoid strife and scandal:

• To stir the tea in the pot anti-clockwise will stir up trouble.
• To spill a little tea whilst making it is a lucky omen.
• Bubbles on tea denote kisses or money.
• If two women pour from the same pot one of them will have a baby within the year.
• To put milk in your tea before sugar is to cross the path of love and perhaps never to marry.
• To make tea which is stronger than usual indicates a new friendship.

In my next post I shall be talking about how to make the perfect pot of tea and the etiquette of taking afternoon tea.

Retro Dinner Party Recipes as Featured in Vintage Life Magazine

 

In April’s edition of Vintage Life Magazine I wrote an article entitled, Retro Dinner Party Revival. Since the magazine went on sale I have had requests for the recipes for some of the retro food featured and so for those of you who would like to recreate a little taste of the 60’s and 70’s at home here is the recipe for the Creamed Tomato Salad Ring:

Creamed Tomato Salad Ring  (original version)

This is so pretty and easy to make

This is the original version of the dish, which contains gelatine,  I have also provided a vegetarian version of the dish which is the one photographed.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp of powdered gelatine

1 400g tin of cream of tomato soup

1/4 pint of evaporated milk

Cheese Salad

cucumber slices for decoration

Method:

Heat the soup in a pan until at boiling point and then carefully whisk in the powdered gelatine, until dissolved. Work quickly to avoid lumps. Once cool, but not set, whisk in the evaporated milk and season well with black pepper. Pour into a ring mould and leave to set. Once set, turn out and fill the centre with a nice fresh green salad or to be authentic a cheese salad. Decorate the edges of the mould with sliced cucumber halves.

An impressive and yet simple dish.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Version of Creamed Tomato Salad Ring

Ingredients:

15g Carrageenan  Kappa  

15g Carrageenan Iota

1 400g tin of cream of tomato soup

1/4 pint of evaporated milk

Freshly ground black pepper, to season

Cheese Salad

cucumber slices for decoration

Method:

Heat the soup in a pan until at boiling point and then carefully whisk in both types of carageenan,  whisk quickly until dissolved. It is vital to measure the carageenan accurately to achieve a good and palatable set. Work quickly to avoid lumps. Once cool, but not set, whisk in the evaporated milk and season well with black pepper. Pour into a ring mould and leave to set. Once set, turn out and fill the centre with a nice fresh green salad or to be authentic a cheese salad. Decorate the edges of the mould with sliced cucumber halves.

For a truly retro look dye boiled eggs with a little food colouring and use to pretty up the salad.

 

A 1960’s salad with dyed boiled eggs

 

Chicory Root the Alternative Cup of Coffee

 

 

 

 

all of chicory is edible but the roasted roots make a coffee substitute

Chicory is believed to have originated in ancient Egypt and was later used by the Romans to purify the blood , before  it was grown by Medieval monks in Europe  for its medicinal benefits.  Today we recognise that chicory root is full of antioxidants and that it aids digestion whilst being anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. Its anti-inflammatory properties make it excellent for the digestion and it really helps to aid the natural body functions.

Chicory root has been used as a coffee substitute for centuries, but the most iconic of brands has to be that of Camp Coffee.  This liquid chicory based coffee rose to fame as the world’s first instant coffee in 1876. Camp Coffee  is an essence of coffee-beans, chicory and sugar that is poured from a bottle and makes the most delicious drink when combined with hot milk. The origin of Camp Coffee is believed to have come from a request from the Gordon Highlanders to Campbell Paterson for a simple to prepare coffee drink that military field kitchens could make with ease and in an instant.

I find that Camp Coffee is a great flavouring in coffee flavoured puddings and cakes, but with all the health benefits that chicory has perhaps we need to start thinking of chicory coffee as less of a ‘cheap alternative’ to real coffee and more of a healthy alternative.  unlike coffee , chicory root is caffeine free, will not interrupt your sleep pattern or  weaken your bones by creating acidity in the body, instead of  acting as a stimulant it has been proven to reduce the heart rate.

Award Winning Marmalade

I was absolutely delighted to find out that I have been awarded a Bronze Award in the Artisan Marmalade Maker category at The Worlds Original Marmalade Awards 2014.

When entering the competition I had hoped to get placed, but with the competition attracting so many entries I didn’t allow myself to build up too much hope.

I sat and designed this label one very rainy afternoon whilst my little ones coloured in their own cat pictures

But it seems that the lucky stir that my children gave the competition batch made all the difference and it makes me glow with pride to think of my entry having been displayed in the Marmalade Temple at Dalemain Mansion over the weekend.

So it seems that my marmalade season is far from at an end indeed today I have ordered more quinces and I will be religiously chopping peel for the next few days.

Nothing quite like the deep colour of cooked quinces and the smell is divine

I make my marmalade in small batches and it takes three days to make a batch. I cut all my peel by hand and it is truly a labour of love. My favourite part is the stirring and watching the peel, fruit and sugar magically transform into wonderfully rich marmalade.  When I get to the stirring part I know that the hard work is behind me and now I get to enjoy wonderful aromas and it won’t be long until I see the results of my hard work or better still taste them.

I love the smell of marmalade cooking, I don’t think there is a more homely or enticing smell on the earth. The sharp citrus zing combined with the caramelised undertones.  Although I keep hearing reports that marmalade is in decline and that less people are buying this wonderful preserve, the amount of entries to The Worlds Original Marmalade’s Competition 2014 do not indicate a decline in makers; instead each year the competition attracts a steady increase in entries.

Well I shall celebrate my marmalade success by baking a cake…with marmalade in it of course!

There’s More to Rhubarb than Crumble

Rhubarb is thought of as one of those quintessentially British vegetables being the source of many nostalgic memories of crumble and custard, school puddings of stewed rhubarb and slightly stodgy rhubarb pudding, but the British claim to ownership of rhubarb goes back just a few hundred years, a relatively short period when you consider that the vegetable is ancient.

Whilst Marco Polo may have brought the Rhubarb root to Europe in the 13th century but little is known of this vegetable in Britain until the 14th when it was alleged that it held restorative properties,  being capable of purifying the blood and making young girls look fair.

Understandably the proclaimed properties of rhubarb root captivated the imagination and increased its value. At this time, the price of rhubarb root commanded even more than opium, in France it was ten times the price of cinnamon, and four of saffron, reflective of its ‘cure all’ status and the high demand for it from apothecaries and medics. It should be noted that at this time it was the root that was prized and that the stalk and leaves were of no value and certainly not considered of any culinary merit.

However, Britain embraced the culinary delights of rhubarb well before the rest of Europe and with the falling price of sugar it led the way in making the tart rhubarb stalk palatable and transformed it into an essential ingredient of pies, puddings, jams, jellies and wines.

It is Hannah Glasse that is attributed with what is believed to be one of the first recipe in print for rhubarb , in 1760. Her recipe in the Compleat Confectioner tells of taking the stalks of English rhubarb, cutting to the size of gooseberries, sweetening and making as you would a gooseberry tart.

The British love affair with rhubarb continued through to the middle of the last century and whilst the affection for rhubarb did dwain after the Second World War, the British now have a burning desire for this wonderful vegetable once more. Indeed this year demand is outstripping supply with an extended winter period seeing crops poor and a big demand for rhubarb from restaurateurs, rhubarb is now hot and trendy once more and is proving rather elusive in the shops.

With chefs eager to get their hands on the green and pink stalks it’s hard to understand why it ever went out of fashion. The second world war gets most of the blame for its temporary demise, with a lack of sugar to sweeten the rhubarb leaving a sour taste in the British palette. There is also the fact that familiarity breeds contempt and as nearly everyone had rhubarb in the garden by the end of the war the nation was sick of it. Rhubarb was suddenly thought of as old fashioned like the jam it was made into.

Rhubarb is now back on the menu and it’s daring to be different. No longer the preserve of the crumble it is now served with fish, and with meats. It has gained the acclaimed status of a “superfood” and has once again seized the attention of medical studies proving that nothing is ever truly a new idea.

I love to make rhubarb jelly and it is incredibly good with stilton  or strong cheddar cheese.

Vegetarian Rhubarb Jelly

ingredients:

450g rhubarb, washed, trimmed and roughly chopped
450g caster sugar

6g agar agar powder

6g pectin powder

Method

Put the rhubarb and sugar together in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, and gently bring to the boil, stirring continuously.

Allow to simmer gently  for 1 hour until soft and then pass through a fine-meshed sieve.

Place the strained mixture back into a saucepan and bring back to the boil, whisk in the agar agar and the pectin and pour into a mould and leave to set in a cool place.

When set turn the jelly out and slice it to serve with a cheese board or to peck up a sandwich.

Has my Marmalade Season Ended?

Today my marmalade entry for this years Dalmain Marmalade Competition was waived off at the postoffice, but not before being given a final good luck blessing.

The entry has been duly labelled with care, wrapped in bubble wrap and packed with particular attention.  The  marmalade itself was made with the usual love and attention although both my daughters gave the competition batch a lucky stir. So no more can be done on the competition front, but maybe there are just a few more batches of marmalade to be made this year.

This years competition saw me enter more than just marmalade, I have also entered my marmalade label, one which I doodled myself along with a very special picture of a Marmalade Cat called Minnie that was enthusiastically drawn by my little daughter.

So all that remains is to keep my fingers crossed until judging day is over and wish my Bergamot Lemon, Quince and Grapefruit Marmalade the very best of luck