The Thorngrove Table

Easter Egg Coolness

This, for those of you who haven't already suffered my geekgirl squeeing over it, was my Easter egg this year*. Amusingly enough the foil was black (who puts black foil on an Easter Egg?!?), but the best part was, when you pressed the button, a little Dalek voice demanded, "EXTERMINATE!". So I did.

Exterminate the egg that is, not the human race.
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Lousy photo taken by my mobile phone

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*From the usual Twinney 'I haven't bought you an egg, go out and buy one and say it's from me and I'll do the same' exchange. 

Fifteenth Century Frugality: Stewed Cold Cuts

Other people send you chocolate-flavoured candy - or if you're really lucky, real chocolate - for Easter. My mother sent me a leg of New Zealand lamb. Is she not awesome?

(There was also a bottle of lovely rosé champagne, some baby potatoes & a bunch of mouthwateringly tender asparagus, but as this post is about the lamb they don't really get a mention. Though yes, I definitely have a wonderful mother.)

As my housemates had swanned off to Czech for a fortnight however, I was left to consume the whole leg of lamb by myself. Of course this meant I could cook it to my preferred level of 'medium rare to medium', rather than the 'well done to briquette' that Mark prefers, but still, no easy task. After seeding it with garlic, covering it in rosemary & oil and roasting it, I was left with a lovely dinner - for several nights. I did visit friends for Easter Monday, but as they're vegetarians I couldn't really share any roast lamb with them!

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After a couple of nights of reheated roast and cold cuts, I was tossing up whether or not to make Shepherd's Pie, when I remembered a rather tasty dish, "Stewed Roast Mutton or Chicken", which I'd served at a medieval re-enactment feast, and made a couple of times since. I used cold roast chicken for the feast, and roast beef leftovers the other times, and both results were very nice.

This is a good 'example' recipe - the sweet and sour taste of meat, wine & vinegar, laced with cinnamon & saffron gives you a dish characteristic of the flavour of C.15th English cuisine. The recipe comes from Harleian MS 4016, a manuscript in the British Library and is very typical of medieval stews, which as I've previously mentioned, consisted of little more than meat, onions, spices and/or herbs, and liquid.

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Original Receipt
Harleian MS 4016
Take faire Mutton that hath ben roste, or elles Capons, or suche other flessh, and mynce it faire; put hit into a possenet, or elles bitwen ij siluer disshes; caste thereto faire parely, And oynons small mynced; then caste there-to wyn, and a litel vynegre or vergeous, pouder of peper, Canel, salt and saffron, and lete it stue on the faire coles, And then serue hit forthe; if he have no wyne ne vynegre, take Ale, Mustard, and A quantite of vergeous, and do this in the stede of vyne or vinegre.

My Transcription
Take good Mutton that has been roasted, or else Chickens, or other such meat, and mince it finely; put it into a possenet* or else between two silver dishes; add to it good parsley, and onions minced small; then add to it wine, and a little vinegar or verjuice, powder of pepper, cinnamon, salt and saffron, and let it stew on the good coals, and then serve it forth; if he [you] have no wine or vinegar, take ale, mustard and a quantity of verjuice, and use this instead of wine or vinegar.

*A possenet was specifically a small, three-legged metal cooking pot, usually with a handle and used for boiling and stewing.


Modern Redaction
About 400 g cold roast lamb (or other meat)
2 tsp chopped parsley
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tsp cinnamon, preferably freshly ground
salt & pepper
1 large pinch of saffron strands
1 Tb lukewarm water
2 tsp wine vinegar
150 ml wine (I used Shiraz)

1. First leave the saffron strands to soak in a tablespoon of lukewarm water, to soften them and release the flavour. This will take about 15 minutes and the water should be yellow by then.
2. Dice or chop the meat into small pieces
3. Put in a heavy pot or frypan.
4. Add the parsley, onion and cinnamon stick.
5. Season to taste.
6. Sprinkle the saffron strands (and their water) over the meat.
7. Pour the vinegar and wine over the meat.
8. Bring to the boil.
9. Reduce temperature to a simmer and cook until the onion is soft and the meat heated through.
10. Add a little extra wine if the 'stew' looks like drying out, but do not make it sloppy.
11. When served, the liquid should be almost reduced to a syrup or glaze.

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Bibliography
AUSTIN, Thomas, ed. "Two fifteenth-century cookery-books : Harleian MS. 279 (ab 1430), & Harl. MS. 4016" London: Oxford University Press, 1964.
Available online here at The University of Michigan's Middle English Compendium.

Photo: Cassava Cake

Another delicious test recipe from Pat's forthcoming "The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook", this time using an ingredient I'd never tried before - cassava root. I won't go into my traumas in finding the stuff, which is actually quite easy if you skip the experience of 'Lack of English' meets 'Strong Kiwi Accent' and problems resulting thereof.

The condensed milk on top got a bit toasty (my fault), but still tasted fantastic (yes, I also like my toasted marshmellows "black as the Earl of Hell's waistcoat", as my dad used to say) and the cake is moist, coconut-tinged and a delightful texture. There's actually two variations - the piece in the middle had added grated coconut and no milk topping. I made another batch of this sort to take to a friend's place over Easter, where it was declared "the Win!".

Leaving off the optional topping, the Cassava Cake is wheat-, gluten- and dairy-free, so is excellent for coeliacs and the gluten or dairy-intolerant. It practically has my Mum's name written on it! Definitely one for the 'repeat' file.

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Cherry Cupcakes & Chocolate Sour Cherry Cupcakes

If it had been me in the Garden of Eden, I would have cheerfully passed up all other fruits for a cherry. Offer me anything from an August Heart to a Zweitfruhe, and the Apple of Knowledge doesn't even get a look-in.

One of my Christmas treats every year when I was a child was a bowl of cherries, which as Christmas in New Zealand is the height of summer, were stupidly expensive. Sadly I had to share the fruit with the rest of my family, but it was a foregone conclusion that I would end up eating half of them. My adoration even extends to those little sweetened balls of artificial colour, maraschino cherries (but not, I must assert, to Cherry Coke, which is an abomination to my tastebuds).

In my recent baking adventures I have, naturally, been baking cherry cupcakes. The two recipes I like the most are quite different, although both (obviously) have cherries. The first is like an abbreviated version of my favourite cake, Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte (Black Forest Cherry Cake). The second is a light, faintly-scented cake with little nuggets of sugary cherry goodness in it.

Both recipes originate in Feargal Connolly's "500 Cupcakes & Muffins" , but I've changed the recipes somewhat. They can be halved with few problems, as long as you increase the flour to make sure the batter isn't too runny. Personally I think these are both fantastic without icing of any kind except a light dusting of icing sugar, but YMMV, so I will leave you to decide for yourselves.

(and yes, the reason there are only 2 cupcakes in the photos is because I ate most of them before I remembered to take shots)

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Schwarzwalder Kirschkleinekuchen
(or, more easily remembered and with better grammar - Black Forest Cherry Cupcakes)
This is a truly decadent little cupcake. Brandied cherries are good also, but I especially like it with sour cherries, as the taste contrast with the sweet, sour and faintly bitter is deeeelicious!

225 g / 8 oz unsalted butter, softened
4 Tb Dutch processed (i.e. alkalised) cocoa powder - I use Green & Black's Organic Cocoa Powder
225 g / 8 oz caster sugar
225 g / 8 oz self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
100 g / 3.5 oz sour cherries

1. Preheat the oven 175C/350F/GM4 & place 18 paper baking cases in cupcake/muffin tins, or - as I usually do - organise 18 silicon cupcake cases.
2. Sieve together the self-raising flour, cocoa and baking powder.
3. In a large bowl, cream the sugar and butter together until smooth.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well.
5. Fold in the flour mixture and the cherries, and stir until well combined with as few strokes as necessary.
6. Spoon the batter into the cases. I find filling them to 2/3 is best.
7. Bake for 20 minutes.
8. Remove and check. A toothpick should come out clean from the centre. If there are any crumbs, put the cupcakes back in the oven for another 3 - 5 minutes. Repeat until cupcakes are cooked.
9. Remove cases/tins from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
10. Remove the cupcakes from the cases/tins and cool on a rack.
11. Dust with icing sugar (Connolly suggests a dollop of sweetened whipped cream), or decorate with icing if you wish.

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Very Cherry Cupcakes
This second recipe is quite light, sweet and kinda girly to be honest! Sure to be a hit with your inner diva.

225 g / 8 oz unsalted butter, softened
225 g / 8 oz caster sugar
225 g / 8 oz self raising flour
50 g / 1 ¾ oz maraschino cherries, chopped in half
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
2 tb kirsch

1. Preheat the oven 175C/350F/GM4 & place 18 paper baking cases in cupcake/muffin tins, or - as I usually do - organise 18 silicon cupcake cases.
2. Combine all ingredients except the maraschino cherries together in a bowl.
3. Beat until smooth.
4. Mix in the maraschino cherries, with as few strokes as necessary.
5. Spoon the batter into the cases. I find filling them to 2/3 is best.
6. Bake for 20 minutes.
7. Remove and check. A toothpick should come out clean from the centre. If there are any crumbs, put the cupcakes back in the oven for another 3 - 5 minutes. Repeat until cupcakes are cooked.
8. Remove cases/tins from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
9. Remove the cupcakes from the cases/tins and cool on a rack.
10. Dust with icing sugar, or decorate with icing if you wish.

Photo: Hot & Sour Soup

Currently I am doing some testing for Pat Tanumihardja of Edible Words. She is writing The Asian Grandmothers Cookbook and I'll be trying out some of the recipes for her.

My favourite so far has been a very delicious Hot & Sour Soup, which has served me for lunches this week. My workmates have been deeply envious.

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"Guardian" Arbroath Smokies photo essay

The Guardian has a lovely little 7-shot picture essay by photographer Murdo MacLeod of Iain R. Spink making his Arbroath Smokies, a traditional smoked haddock.

The Arbroath Smokie is now officially a protected 'Geographical Indication', much like champagne or Roquefort cheese, and must be manufactured within 8 km of Arbroath, a small town northeast of Dundee, Scotland.

Click here to go view the photo essay:

Iain Spink smoking.
Image: Murdo MacLeod.

Scaling up is worth it

Amazon.co.uk is currently having a sale on electronic Salter Kitchen Scales. Now normally I wouldn't bother commenting, however I have to say the Salter scale I have (which is a smaller compact model, but still goes down to 1 gm or 1/8 oz weight) is excellent, and if you're thinking of buying one, I thoroughly endorse this brand.

At one point about a year ago, I dropped the whole thing into a bowl full of water for several seconds (don't ask), and for a little while it showed nothing but blinking numbers and I was like, "Woe! I've killed my little electronic friend!". However once it had dried out a couple of days later, it went back to normal and has worked fine ever since. I'm not recommending you follow my example (!) or even claiming that yours would survive such a dipping, but it was an impressive feat nonetheless (plus I was very grateful I didn't have to shell out for another scale).

So yes, they are expensive, but the quality is worth it. And if you look around online you can usually find one on sale, e.g. currently on Amazon (one of them is £13, see below) or off eBay. The latter is where I got mine (brand new from a kitchen store) for £20, which was about £10+ off the RRP at the time.

Savoy Coleslaw with Avocado Cream

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When I was about 10 or 11 my uncle Rocky, a chef at the time, told me that mixing coleslaw together with their hands was how chefs cleaned their fingernails. After that, I refused to eat coleslaw for years.

I no longer suffer from 'coleslaw reluctance' (although I still don't know - and have little desire to be illuminated either - as to whether Uncle Rocky was lying or not), and with the discovery of the delicious Savoy Cabbage in latter years, have even jumped on the I Love Cabbage bandwagon. Admittedly White Cabbage still raises childhood memories of over-boiled & tasteless limp leaves and I never buy it, but as an adult I can avoid particular vegetables without censure. Yah for being an adult!

Coleslaw has a lot going for it however. Firstly - look at those colours! Aren't they gorgeous? You want to eat that dish. Secondly; taste. Scrumptious fresh vegetables, a touch of sweet, a tang of sour and delicious cream. Mmm. Thirdly; texture. Slightly crunchy vegetation in a creamy sauce. Perfect match. Fourthly; much easier to digest than raw vegetables. Personally I have trouble digesting fruit and vege au natural, so coleslaw is easier on my tum than a normal salad. The dressing and blanching breaks down the vegetables enough that digestion isn't so much of a Big Thing. Fifthly, it keeps well. Always a bonus for those of us who make our own lunches and/or work late. There's probably a dozen other reasons why coleslaw is a big 'YES', but really, who needs more than that?

The coleslaw recipe I use is an amalgamation of various recipes, and can of course be played around with depending on what you have in your chiller at the time. I'm fond of avocado coleslaw however, as it adds just an extra little fillip of flavour. You can of course use a cream dressing, but I like the simple tastes of this version:

Coleslaw with Avocado Cream
1 head Savoy Cabbage
1 red onion, sliced finely
1 red capsicum (pepper), sliced finely
1 carrot, rough grated
1-2 Tb flavoured vinegar
1-2 Tb walnut or other salad oil
1 tsp sugar
pepper & salt to taste (about 1/4 - 1/2 tsp each usually)
1 cup creme fraiche, sour cream or cream
1 avocado

1. Wash and shred the cabbage.
2. Blanch the Savoy Cabbage in boiling hot water for a couple of minutes, until it is a bright bright 'just call me Green Lantern' green.
3. Drain the cabbage and press out all excess water. I squeeze it together in my hands in a locking grip, and it's amazing how much extra liquid you express like that. Doing it manually rather than with a tool means the leaves tend to spring back into shape better.
4. Mix the shredded cabbage with the onion, capsicum and carrot.
5. Beat together the vinegar (I used a mix of Forum red wine vinegar & white balsamic vinegar, which results in a slightly sharp & fiery but sweet flavour), oil, sugar, salt and pepper.
6. Pour dressing over cabbage and stir in.
7. Chop up the avocado and beat together with the cream/creme fraiche until smooth and lumpless. Alternately use a kitchen whizz - I use my Bamix processor for this.
8. Add avocado cream to cabbage.
9. Voila! Coleslaw with Avocado Cream. Eat and enjoy.

Food company cooks the books

In an innovative and stylish amalgamation of marketing and cuisine (and, I suspect, tongue-in-cheek humour), Croatian food company Podravka's 2006 Annual Report is offered in what appears to be a blank book, entitled "Well Done".

But no, they aren't really cooking the books - they expect the recipient to. After the book is wrapped in foil and baked in an oven at 100°C for 25 minutes, thermo-reactive ink blossoms into sight, displaying a range of beautifully detailed pictures, a range of recipes with comments, and an independent auditor's report. And if you overcook the book? Well, just like any ill-tended meal, it burns.

Half-baked idea or art? You decide.

The recipes are also available in a beautiful interactive book from the Podravka website, and further details and full photographs of the cooking book can be found on YouSayToo.

Previously, Podravka & Bruteka & Zinic (designers of the 2006 report also) won the red dot Communication Design & Best of the Best Awards for their 2005 Annual Report "Excerpt of the eternal debate about the heart".

Again, this didn't just present the company's financial data for the previous year. In a stylish continuous-paper format (reminiscent of the days of dot-matrix printers), it furnishes the reader with several recipes accompanied by a Croatian author's stories in handwritten text, detailing how these foods played a role in his childhood, and how "he not only associates them with nourishment but with a world of taste experiences and memories". Again, this is available via the Podravka website.

Crisp Stir-fried Shrimps (or Prawns)

One of my favourite fast dinners is prawns tossed in a wok with a large splash of Thai Sweet Chili Sauce and some chopped spring onions. Mmmm - tasty (it works well for frogs legs too). When I have a little more time however, Crisp Stir-fried Small Aquatic Arthropod is also a favourite, especially when paired with egg stir-fried rice (as seen above).

Although it's in the Hors d'Oeuvres section of my cookbook, I eat it as a main, and 500gm of shrimp or prawn is enough for 2 - 4 anyway (depending on their appetite and liking for arthropods), or can be reheated for lunch. It's a nicely flexible dish, i.e. this time I used prawns rather than shrimp, a Fino sherry and chicken consommé rather than stock, of which I had none. I was also lazy and didn't bother to de-tail the prawns.

The recipe I use comes from the very comprehensive "Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook" (recommended by Barbara of the excellent Tigers and Strawberries), which has become my favourite Chinese collection, and is reproduced below:

Crisp Stir-fried Shrimps
Yan-Kit So "Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook - A Complete Guide to the Equipment, Ingredients, Recipes and Techniques" Dorling Kindersley Ltd, 2nd ed. 1998. ISBN 0-7513-0563-4; p.48

Ingredients
500 gm fresh or frozen raw peeled shrimps or prawns cut into 2 cm pieces
groundnut or corn oil
15ml (1 Tbs) Shaohsing wine or medium dry sherry

For the Marinade:
5 ml (1 tsp) salt
15 ml (1 Tbs) cornflour
1 egg white

For the Sauce:
5 ml (1 tsp) cornflour
60 ml (4 Tbs) clear stock
1.25 ml (1/4 tsp) sugar
salt to taste

1. If frozen shrimps are used, defrost thoroughly. Wash the shrimps under cold running water. Pat dry with kitchen paper but leave damp. Put into a bowl.
2. Prepare the marinade: sprinkle the salt over the shrimps and mix well. Sitr in the cornflour, then add the egg white and stir again to coat the shrimps evenly and thoroughly. Cover and leave to marinate for at least 5 hours.
3. For the sauce: mix together the cornflour, stock and sugar in a small bowl. Put aside.
4. Half fill a wok or deep-fryer with oil. Heat until just hot (150C/300F). Carefully add all the shrimps and fry for 30-45 seconds, seperating them with a pair of long chopsticks or a long-handled wooden spoon. Remove the shrimps before they are quite cooked with a hand strainer or perforated disc and drain on kitchen paper.
5. Pour most of the oil into a container, leaving only about 30 ml (2 Tbsp) in the wok. Reheat until smoke rises. Quickly add the shrimps to the wok and stir a few times with a wok scoop or metal spatula. Splash in the wine or sherry around the side of the wok. When the sizzling dies down, pour in the well-stirred sauce. Continue to flip and toss for a few more seconds. Add salt to taste, if necessary. Remove the mixture to a warm serving plate. Serve immediately.