Spotted What?

My cousin Heather recently posted this photo on Facebook, together with the comment “Thank goodness Fresh & Easy grocery store carries this!!!!!! Look.....it's microwavable!”  We all got a good chuckle out of it. 

Since all things British seem to be on our minds this week, I thought it might be interesting to learn something about this intrinsically English dish. 

Spotted Dick’s name derives in part from the liberal quantity of currants distributed throughout the dough.  There’s lots of speculation about the rest of the name but a best guess is that it may possibly be a corruption of the word dough or dog, as "spotted dog" is another name for the same dish, but made with plums rather than currants.  Whatever the name and regardless of its origin, it’s a tasty pudding, worth trying at home.

Spotted Dick is a steamed suet pudding.  We’re not terribly familiar with these puddings here in North America, except in the form of Christmas (or plum) pudding.  Our Christmas pudding is a cousin to Spotted Dick, prepared in much the same way.

Steamed puddings have a long history.  They date back to a time when ovens were not commonly found in most homes.  Steamed puddings could be either savoury or sweet. The main ingredients of the dish were carried in a moist dough made from flour, some sort of fat, and a leavening agent.  The dough was either placed in a pudding bowl and covered, with the lid tied on securely, or simply wrapped in muslin.  It would be boiled or steamed for quite a long time—usually two to three hours—until cooked through.  Steamed puddings were, and are, most often served with a sauce.

I’m not at all sure that I want to try the canned version of Spotted Dick but I am quite happy to make it from scratch at home.  It makes a splendid, and relatively inexpensive, end to supper on a chilly evening and is substantial enough, and pleasant enough in appearance, to be offered to company. 

My favourite recipe has spots of several colours.  It’s adapted from Jamie Oliver, who offered it in his book “The Naked Chef.”  You'll need a kitchen scale. Many of the quantities are given by weight.

Suet is not often available in stores here, other than at Christmas time.  If you can’t find it, substitute an equal quantity of butter, frozen and then grated on a box grater.

4oz suet
1 lb mixture of currants, dried cranberries, and finely chopped dried apricot
zest of 1 lemon or 1 orange
4oz all purpose flour
4oz sugar
4oz breadcrumbs
1 level teaspoon ground ginger (or to taste)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg, grated
pinch of salt
1 egg
about 2-1/2 cups of milk

Grease a 1.5 quart pudding basin or Pyrex bowl.  Mix all the ingredients together, except the egg and milk.  Add the beaten egg and milk and mix well.  Put the mixture in the basin, cover with the top with a circle of brown paper much larger than the top of the pot.  Tie the paper cover tightly onto the bowl, and then trim away most of the excess paper.  Put the basin in a pan with water half-way up the sides of the basin.  Bring the water to the boil, put on a tight fitting lid, and simmer for 3 hours, remembering to top the pot up with boiling water now and then.

Serve Spotted Dick hot, with custard sauce and—if you are being very British—a little Lyle’s golden syrup. 

Some grocers stock custard sauce (also called poured custard) in the dairy aisle but, if you can’t find it there, you can easily make your own.  It does requires some prior planning though, because the sauce should be made a day ahead and then chilled.

To make custard sauce, you’ll need:

2 cups whole milk

1/2 cup sugar

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla

Bring the milk and sugar to a simmer in a saucepan without stirring. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl until blended, then gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the yolks. Return the custard to its saucepan and cook it over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until the sauce thickens enough to coat back of a wooden spoon and registers 170°F on an instant-read thermometer.

Immediately pour the custard sauce through a fine sieve into a metal bowl and place the bowl in a large bowl of ice and cold water. Stir in the vanilla and then place a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the top of the custard, covering the surface of the sauce completely.  This will prevent a skin from forming on the top of the sauce.

When the sauce has cooled to about 90°F, place it in the fridge to chill completely.

So there you have it:  Traditional English cooking at its best.  Please do try it.  If you have to stifle a giggle at the name, that’s just fine with me.

70's Bride

There are fads in wedding gifts just as there are fads in fashion.  Back when my mom got married in the 50’s, the Pyrex glass percolator was big, along with steam irons.  In the 70’s almost every new bride received a slow cooker.  Brides in the 90’s got bread machines and brides now seem to be receiving those fancy single cup coffee brewing stations.  Of all of them, I think the 70’s brides got the best deal. 

I love my slow cooker.  In fact, I love my slow cookers.  I have three of them and all three see regular use in my kitchen.  They may not be a fashionable way to cook but they use less energy than an oven or a stove top burner and, because they do their job without requiring supervision, they are very convenient.

I use my slow cookers for all sorts of things:  

• If my stove burners are all occupied, a slow cooker is a great vessel for making stock. 
• Foil wrapped potatoes can be prepared in a slow cooker, providing baked potatoes for a company dinner while leaving the oven free for other chores.
• Dried beans are much less expensive than canned beans but time consuming to prepare.  If I soak them overnight, I can drain them, transfer them to a slow cooker, add stock and seasoning and then ignore them until dinner time, confident that they’ll be cooked to perfection.
• Roasts of all sorts—including chicken—can be cooked in a slow cooker.  I prepare them the night before and store them in the fridge, putting them on to cook first thing in the morning.
• Stews are actually better if cooked in a slow cooker than on the stove.
• Baked pasta dishes and other casseroles can be prepared in a slow cooker.
• If I have a house full of company, I can start a pot of steel cut oats before I go to bed, knowing I’ll have a hot breakfast ready when I get up in the morning.
• Bread puddings, rice puddings and fruit cobblers have all found their way into my slow cookers.
• Over the holidays they become impromptu punch bowls, keeping apple cider, hot toddies or winter sangria warm and convenient to my guests. 

I’m sure there are countless other ways to use a slow cooker and I’m open to learning them all.  I think I’ll invest in some magazines.  I see that many of them are featuring slow cooker meals these days.  Right now though, I’ll count my blessings.  I’m fortunate, indeed, to have been a 70’s bride.  A bread maker wouldn’t have been nearly as versatile.

Waffles for Supper (Not What You Think)

We had waffles for supper tonight; savoury waffles made with onion and herbs, topped with chicken and mushrooms in gravy.  They were excellent.

For those of you who only think of waffles as food that travels from a box in the freezer to the toaster on hurried weekday mornings, or those of you who think of them as a sweet plateful of scratch-made love at a leisurely Sunday breakfast, savoury waffles will be an eye-opener.  They’re easy and quick to make and they’re excellent refrigerator Velcro.  They can transform just about any savoury ingredient in your fridge into a tasty supper. 

I’d really like you to try these waffles so I’ve provided the recipe below.  Feel free to adapt the seasonings to suit the toppings you have on hand.  (I’m particularly fond of parsley, dill and lemon rind if I’m serving seafood.)  You can top the waffles with just about anything; if it can be served on pasta or potatoes or rice, it’ll work on waffles, too.

This recipe makes 6 waffles in my waffle iron. 

6 Tbsp. butter

2 c. flour

1 Tbsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1 Tbsp. chopped parsley leaves

1/2 tsp. dried, rubbed sage

1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves

1-3/4 c. milk

2 large eggs, separated, at room temperature

1 Tbsp. grated onion

Heat your waffle iron.  Melt the butter in a medium sized saucepan, over low heat, and then set it aside to cool slightly. 

In a medium size bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add the herbs. Toss the dry ingredients with a fork until the herbs are mixed through and lightly coated with flour.  Set aside.

Beat the milk, egg yolks and grated onion into the melted butter then stir the wet mixture into the flour mixture just until the flour is moistened.

In a small bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold the whites into the waffle batter.

Pour enough batter over the waffle iron to cover 2/3 of the grid.  Using a metal spatula, spread the batter to the edges of the grid.  Close the lid and cook the waffles until the steam stops.  When the waffle is done, remove it from the iron with a fork.  Transfer the finished waffle to a wire rack on a baking sheet.  Keep finished waffles warm in the oven until the entire batch is cooked and ready to serve. 

Photo by:  James Starmer
                 http://www.flickr.com/photos/starmer/2886631374/

Wascawy Wabbit!

It used to be that when times were hard, you could find at least one home in each neighbourhood with a rabbit hutch in the back yard.  We’re not seeing those rabbit hutches this time ‘round and that’s a shame.  A good source of lean protein, rabbits can be raised in a very small space, and for very little money.  Because they breed like…well…like rabbits, they can provide a good quantity of healthy protein to feed a hungry family. 

One rabbit buck and three does will provide about ninety-six fryers each year.  If butchered at weaning age, each fryer will average about four and a half pounds, with one hundred thirty three grams of protein per pound.  That’s only slightly less protein than is found in roast sirloin, and rabbit is much less expensive and much more environmentally friendly to produce.

Rabbit is easy to cook.  Like poultry, it should be cooked through; never served rare.  It’s very lean so it works well in braised dishes or stews.  It can be fried like chicken if marinated or brined for a few hours prior to cooking.  Rabbit pie is also very tasty.  Rabbit meat is so lean that if you are planning to use rabbit as ground meat or in sausage, you’ll need to add some fat.  I find that one part ground bacon to three parts ground rabbit works quite well.

Despite the ease and affordability of raising rabbits, rabbit meat is hard to come by.  I’m on the search for a butcher or a farmer who will sell me some, but have yet to find one. If you know someone on southern Vancouver Island who’s selling rabbit meat, please let me know.

Investing in Stock

Cooking as much as I do has the potential to generate a fair bit of waste.  Stock is an important tool in my kitchen:  It reduces waste and it provides a flavour base for many of my dishes. 

My stock pot can almost always be found simmering on the back burner of my stove.  The outside leaves of the cabbage, the ends of tomatoes, turnip peels, left-over carrot sticks, celery trimmings, small ends of cooked meats and deli cuts, chicken and turkey carcasses, and left over beef and pork bones all find a home there, together with aromatics like garlic and bay.. 

I usually start my stock on Sunday, and continue to add to it throughout the week.  I strain it, cool it, and refrigerate it each night.  The following day, I bring it to a full, rolling boil and check to ensure it’s wholesome before reducing it to a simmer and adding new ingredients.  I don’t salt my stock until I’m actually using it in a dish. 

I use stock for a lot of things.  I make soup from it, of course, and gravy.  I cook rice in it. If I’m making mashed potatoes I cook my spuds in it. I use it to flavour pasta sauces, and to cook dumplings.  If I have a surplus, I freeze it. A good supply of stock is invaluable.

We’re all thinking green these days so why not consider making your own stock?  It’ll reduce your kitchen waste, it’s economical to make, and you won’t be sending all those cardboard containers to the landfill.  It’ll probably taste better than the store-bought stuff too.

Lack of Spring Greens Nettling You?

With field produce still waiting to be sown, the appearance of wild greens is something to celebrate.  With that in mind, the Alderlea Farm is hosting a stinging nettle festival today. 

Most of us thing of stinging nettles as an irritant—something to be avoided when walking in the woods—but they’ve long been used as food.  If soaked in water or cooked, nettles lose their sting and have a pleasant taste that is not unlike spinach.  They are rich in vitamins A and C, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium.  In their peak season, stinging nettles contain up to 25% protein (dry weight), which is high for a leafy green vegetable.

Nettles can be used in a variety of recipes, including soup, polenta and pesto.  They’re used as flavouring in some varieties of Gouda.  In Nepal and in the Kumaon region of Northern India, stinging nettle is known as shishnu. It's cooked with Indian spices and is a very popular component of the local cuisine.

I will confess that I rarely cook nettles, and then only in soup, but I would be interested to learn more about preparing them.  I’m unable to attend the festival today, but I do plan on visiting the farm later in the week in the hope that they’ll share some recipes with me.

I admire Alderlea Farm’s creativity in using this seasonal green as a means of drawing people to the farm. If you are interested in attending the stinging nettle festival you can find out more about it by visiting the farm’s website.  They’ve posted a schedule of events at http://alderleafarm.wordpress.com/

Messing With a Classic

This week I was asked to make a wedding cake, from the groom’s mother’s carrot cake recipe.  I was honoured to take the job.

The carrot cake recipe I was given harks back to the 70’s, with shredded carrot, some crushed pineapple, and a LOT of oil.  I made a test cake and, sure enough, it tasted just like the carrot cakes I remember from back in the day.  Unfortunately the very moist texture of the cake meant that when I tried to layer it, it wanted to collapse in on itself.

I don’t usually like messing with the classics.  Recipes that have been around for 40 years have lasted for a reason.  People like them just the way they are.  If the wedding cake was to be constructed though, changes had to be made.

During the first low fat fad that followed hippie-dom’s hey day, a number of cookbooks were written to address oil-laden recipes like carrot cake.  Although I don’t like many of the recipes from those books, one thing that stuck with me was the suggestion that you can substitute applesauce for vegetable oil.  Applesauce is one of the few ingredients that can replicate the mouth-feel that oil provides.

With substitution in mind, I set to work and—after several tries—arrived at a recipe.  I ended up substituting applesauce for 2/3 of the oil called for in the original recipe, and baking the cake for a longer time at a lower temperature.  So far it’s working out pretty well. The texture will work for my wedding cake construction.  More importantly, the cake tastes close enough to the original recipe to please the groom. 

I guess you can mess with the classics from time to time after all.