Sweet Dreams

There are times when teachers like to ponder alternative occupations. Tea breaks during training days, gathering for after school meetings and planning days before or after the official holiday breaks all seem to be prone to discussions about this topic. Revelations emerge in tones, from wistful to earnest of plans,  from feasible to fanciful. Inevitably someone will mention managing a bookshop and someone else will admit to nurturing the idea of owning and running a traditional tearoom. The really ambitious might have wished to combine both ideas and I can only wonder how many of these establishments across the country are run by former teachers. I am sure that the idea of owning a dessert cafe would feature in these fantasy plans if the concept was better known in the UK. The dream of concerning oneself with devising the most elegant and delicious confections that discerning customers would flock to devour and enthuse over has to appeal to anyone  currently concerned with any kind of mundanities, doesn't it?

So just what is a dessert cafe? Adelaide has several well worth investigation. One such is Eggless . OK, it is closed until January 19th by which time most resolutions to foreswear anything remotely dessert-like will have been abandoned by all but those who would never dream of admitting anything with sugar and cream past their lips anyway. It does offer some savoury dishes, but the main purpose is to cater for the sweet course of an evening meal. It opens later than most other restaurants, the idea seems to be that  having eaten your main course elsewhere, possibly at home, you then stroll out to enjoy your coffee or tea and something sweet at a dessert cafe. Monthly menus and daily blackboard specials ensure that the offerings make the most of the seasonal best.

 From Eggless's blackboard menu came this pannacotta. With its perfect texture flavoured with rose it was worth resisting the temptation of opting for the tasting platter. I know there are some who prefer to keep all flower fragrances inhaled rather than ingested but this was distinctive yet subtle, enhanced by the merest spoonful of elderflower syrup and decorated with chips of turkish delight. Green tea was the ideal accompaniment.
Of course there are those too for whom dessert equates to pudding expecting that their sweet course has at some point seen the inside of an oven or steamer and preferably comes coated with a sauce of some kind. Such people would opt for the ginger pudding of course.

 

This is not the kind of place where you go with a party of people who all sit down and order the same thing. Shared spoonfuls are all just part of the fun. And of course there are other dessert cafes to sample like the newly opened Patissierie Jin. 

A place to feast the eyes before the palate.

And as a 'once upon a time teacher' would owning a dessert cafe be my fantasy future career? No, I prefer to stick to the customer side of such businesses. Behind all those exquisitely presented creations and delighted customer feedback, there would have to be stacks of washing up to be faced late at night. Decidedly not my cup of tea, green or otherwise.

Arboreal Blues

In the last days before Christmas it would be a far too Grinch or Scrooge-like to focus on sad feelings so the blues I am thinking about are the colours. Now you may have gone out and bought a splendid Blue Spruce for your Christmas tree and very fine it will look too. With the botanical name Picea Pungens you should have that wonderful resinous aroma so evocative of the season that no-one in the Real Tree brigade is prepared to forgo.

On the other side of the planet, in Australia there is another kind of tree flaunting the most bewitching mauve-blue at this time of the year. It is almost the same colour we find in southern England on the floor of  beech woodland in April and May when the bluebell carpet flourishes. This paler colour is borne aloft in clouds of blossom on the branches of the jacaranda trees in late November to December. I have only ever seen them as street trees in an urban setting but it is easy to see why they are so popularly planted for that purpose.

 

A vibrant blue against the brick and stone buildings and seemingly more purple against a blue sky, the flowers eventually carpet the ground and give way to feathery leaves. 

 A blue to uplift; a blue to beat the blues! If the flowers of lilac and lavender have colours named after them then surely the jacaranda deserves no less an honour.

Family Favourites

When I was setting up home, my mother sent me a recipe folder. A useful gift, I thought but I was delighted  when I opened it to find that the pages inside were not all blank but she had already written in so many of the things she knew I loved and further, she had handed pages around to all the cooks in the family so I had a good selection of all their specialities.  Compiled before word processors and emails became commonplace, it is very special to have all these suggestions and hints and tips written in their own hand. At first the vast geographical distance seemed to lessen working from these recipes; the handwriting evoked the voices and even mannerisms of these relatives and friends so that something of their presence appeared in my own kitchen. Now with the deaths of several of the older generation, that sense of presence is even more cherished.

 One of the recipes I usually turn to at this time of the year, having made White Christmas, is one given by Auntie Gladys. She used to make a dessert based on a  rice cereal and date mix pressed into pie plates to set and then topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit to serve. I imagine it would have been a dessert she would have contributed to club lunches or suppers at events where all would have been expected to 'bring a plate'. I know it was very popular and regarded as her specialty.

I have adapted it (as I believe have others in the family) to make squares to serve with coffee or drinks at Christmas. I added salted peanuts having discovered how well they go with the dates to make a good salt-sweet combination. And on the recommendation of child tasters, I have inevitably included chocolate chips. The problem then became a name for this as it is clearly to no longer any kind of special fruit tart. I have decided in honour of the lady who inspired it and the season in which I usually make it, to name it Glad Tidings; the news that I was making a batch was always regarded as good news in our house.

Glad Tidings

Ingredients

4 ozs margarine or butter(125g)
4 ozs brown sugar (125g)
4 ozs Dates (125g)
4 cups of rice bubbles ( I cup =125ml aprrox)
Half a cup of small or roughly chopped salted peanuts
Half a cup of chocolate chips #

To assemble

1. Line a tin (approx 18cm by 30 cm) with baking paper and butter the paper.
2. Place the rice cereal -once again it is the snap, crackle, pop type - in a large bowl  along with the peanuts. I use the economy peanuts as they tend to be small enough not to need chopping up but if the larger, more luxurious ones are what you have to hand, then coarsely chop them.
3. In a saucepan put the butter  and brown sugar. Snip the dates with scissors into thirds and add to the butter and sugar. Stir gently over a low heat until the butter melts, the sugar dissolves, the dates begin to blend in and you get a glassy toffee mixture. It will may take up ten minutes but don't be tempted to rush it or to turn your attention elsewhere or it will burn. What you want is a thick, gloopy liquid studded with some lumps of the dates.
4. Pour this mixture into the cereal and nut mix and stir well to combine.
5. Spread this into the lined tin and press down really firmly and evenly.
6. While it is still warm sprinkle over the choc chips. (I have sometimes added these into the mixture before spreading it into the tin, but it is easier to convince children that there is chocolate in there if they can see it on the top.) While the mixture is still warm the chocolate should melt and fuse with the base.
7. Set aside to cool completely and then use a bread knife to saw the mixture into squares.

I quite like to give hand made gifts, if I have made the time to prepare them. I have gone to great lengths to master florentines and lebkuchen but boxes of this and White Christmas have been as well received. Guess they have become my speciality!

White Christmas - a recipe

Last night I made up a batch of a sweet snack that became popular during my childhood in Australia. As I put it aside to firm up overnight and closed the kitchen curtains, I began planning this post. I was going to say, straight after the title, that this post would not be offering any kind of spell or charm to influence the weather. But then this morning when I opened the curtains to the following scene - well - I began to wonder!

To get back to the cooking. I haven't made this recipe for several years but then this year I have scope for some of the little extras and, rich and varied though the range of shop bought Christmas food has become, this is one that needs to be home-made. Being based on crisped rice cereal, (like the kind that goes snap, crackle and pop) it is a recipe that children seem to be happy to help with. To help make it that bit easier I have measured most of the ingredients by volume rather than weight. A small metric measuring jug makes it all much quicker to get to the  fun mixing part.

White Christmas

Ingredient List

100g Trex

150g Creamed coconut (This is the solid kind you buy in a box, not in a can. See on the left below)

1 Teaspoon vanilla

450 ml crisped rice cereal

250 ml dried milk powder

250 ml icing sugar

250 ml dessicated coconut

250 ml chopped dried fruit and nuts  - I used dried cranberries, sultanas and almonds

 Method

Line a 8 inch square baking tin with baking parchment.

Grate, shred or finely chop the creamed coconut.

In a small pan over a low heat melt the Trex, then add the creamed coconut and stir until that too is melted. (Be careful with this as the coconut will burn quite readily if you don't give it your undivided attention. While a little browning only makes for a toasted flavour, the colour changes  and makes the result more of a suntanned Christmas.)

Add the vanilla to the melted liquid and set aside.

Place the cereal into a large bowl and slightly crush it with a spoon.

Stir in the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well. 

Now add the liquid mixture and stir well to combine. It will be a rather dry mixture but make sure that all the ingredients are evenly mixed throughout.

 Put about half of the mixture into the  lined tin and even it out. Pack it down well with the back of a spoon and smooth it over. Pile the rest of the mixture on top and again press it down really firmly especially at the edges and smooth the top.

Now set it aside somewhere cool for several hours to firm up and solidify.

Then turn it out onto a board and use a breadknife to saw it into small squares. It keeps well in a sealed container.

I have seen many variations of this sweet some with glace fruit and crystalised ginger; some with a layer of white icing and silver dragees on top.  In Australia the recipe would  have Copha a kind of coconut vegetable shortening but as it is not available in the UK I have subsituted Trex and creamed coconut, which is readily available from larger supermarkets and stores which sell ingredients for Indian or Asian cooking. This substitution was recommended  by Australia House no less!

Meanwhile in the garden, one of the clipped box bushes  had  been dressed up as a Christmas pudding.

A Seasonal Oddity

Here we are in late November with the temperature outside sulking at around freezing. In the garden, the annuals have long since shown that their year is up, the evergreens are quietly living up to their title and the perennials have withdrawn their life force into the ground to hibernate. It would be all to easy to think that we have to wait for the snowdrops to herald in the new and show that the seasons are turning. But in my garden there is an oddity, a plant that comes up in the autumn and dies down in early summer.

 

 It is alexanders and was amongst a collection of herbs I put in several years ago. I have since learned that in some parts of the country it is considered a roadside weed and I can see why that might be but having never seen it on roadsides around here I was totally unaware of that at the time.I remember when it disappeared early in its first summer I thought it was yet another plant that had declined my invitation to flourish in my patch. I was delighted to see it re-emerge in October and by the next autumn I had learned not to let it set seed, attractive though the shiny black seeds on ochre coloured stalks are. It is clearly very happy to thrive here. I value it for its fresh green when many other leaves are dull and grey and the  early honey scented flowers loved by the lacewings. And now I have realised that it was an early precursor of celery I will be using it much as I use lovage in the summer.

 When I went out to pick some two days ago, I noticed all the stems had bowed  to honour the presence  of Jack Frost.  I noticed that the water in the rain barrel was almost completely frozen. The elemental force and artistry that could sculpt a glassy plaque of swirling abstract patterns and sign it with the delicate etching of a beech leaf all in the course of a few hours is certainly worthy of such homage.

Making Mincemeat

I guess with Stir up Sunday behind us now it is not too soon to be talking about Christmas preparations. This year mine will be rather different as we will be spending the holiday away from home so the dinner won't be cooked in my kitchen by me.  It is a long time since that happened, time for a new family tradition to take shape. Without the turkey and trimmings to think about, I can turn my attention to some of the little extras like the mince pies.
Looking in the cupboard, I had partly-used packs of dried friut left over from cake baking so I decided to make up some fruit mince rather than use jars of  the shop bought kind. The best recipe for this is in NMAA Cooks which has to be the most used book on my kitchen bookshelf. From the spots on the page it is obvious I have made this several times before and I know it makes much more than I could use in a year. Although I have kept it from one year to the next, now that each ingredient package has a 'best by' date wagging a warning finger, I would not advise or even suggest that anyone else does the same. I am only saying that I stored it in a sealed container and used it the following year and no one suffered any adverse consequences. None-the-less this time I adapted my trusted recipe to reduce it to one fifth of the orignal quantity. That should match more closely both the ingredients I had to hand and my ambitions for mince pie making this year.

Fruit Mincemeat

Ingredient List

100g each of raisins, sultanas and currants

25g mixed peel

50g grated suet

100g cooking apple -  peeled and  coarsely grated or finely chopped

100g muscovado sugar 

1/2 teaspoon of grated lemon and orange rind

 1/2 teaspoon mixed cake spice (or a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice)

50 ml brandy or rum.

Closer scrutiny of my prep picture will reveal that the orange has become a clementine, there are no currants (I substituted extra raisins and sultanas to make up the difference) and that no one supermarket has my undivided loyalty.


Method
Check over the dried fruit and remove any little stalks then chop the fruit coarsely. This is so that they will take up the flavours quickly and also not bloat when the pies are cooked. Then in a large bowl combine the chopped fruit with the rinds, spices and suet.
In a cup mix the sugar and spirit to disslove the sugar, then pour it over the fruit. Stir it all well, cover and leave for a couple of hours. Stir well again and pack into a clean sterilised jar. Cover and store in a cool dry place for at  least 4 weeks. (Made it just in time!)
This made about 1/2 litre of mincemeat.

 I think I will be turning the jar on its side and rotating it a few times every couple of days just to make sure that the mixture at the bottom of the jar isn't the only bit to benefit from all that lovely sugary, spirited syrup.

And I got to thinking that a similar mixture without the suet,  gently heated to cook the apple  then cooled and whirled into softened vanilla icecream and refrozen would make a very good iced version of Christmas Pudding. But would that be one new tradition too many?

Little Boxes - Part 2

I knew I wasn't finished with making those little crochet boxes I saw on Kirstie's Homemade Home. Far from it. I was planning to build on the basic design, adding handles and some kind of embellishment. And so I did. But as they are so good to make being such a portable project, quick, easy and use up left over bits and pieces, their numbers are steadily increasing and they seem to be appearing all over the house.

 The red one - now with handles - is the ideal size for holding a ball of yarn, a crochet hook, scissors and a needle case thereby contributing to the proliferation of its own kind. The blue one with its built in slit handles shows that the basic box is evolving.

Even when I was working in the garden clearing up leaves, an idea for another change to the basic design came to me. As someone who finds fascination in so many of Mother Nature's designs, you might imagine my inspiration may have come from the exquisite structure of an acorn cup or a larch cone. It was something much less decorative and entirely functional.

The green bag provided by the council for the collection of garden waste! Suddenly I noticed that is is basicly constructed in the same way having four rectangular sides stitched onto a square base. It even has the seams on the outside to help it to stand up.  Maybe I could use braid to add handles in the same way.

So this fascination with little crochet boxes looks like being far from over - at least for the time being. Oh Kirstie Allsopp, what have you started?