The Thorngrove Table

"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.

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.

Confucius Fortune Cookie say:

"You will find the source of your fortune... in bed Japan."

Yes, it turns out that Chinese Fortune cookies originated from slightly further to the east than previously thought - researcher Yasuko Nakamachi has uncovered the genesis of the fortune cookie in C.19th Japan.

"Her prime pieces of evidence are the centuries-old small family bakeries making obscure fortune cookie-shaped crackers by hand near a temple outside Kyoto. She has also turned up many references to the cookies in Japanese literature and history, including an 1878 etching of a man making them in a bakery - decades before the first reports of American fortune cookies."

Full article by Jennifer Lee, available from the New York Times online here.

A hand with eating seasonally

If, like me, you are a child of modern times - which translates to 'having no more than the vaguest clue as to when things are in season' - then here's someone helping to set us on the straight and narrow with our weekly food purchases:

Eat the Seasons offers a newsletter, sent to you every Wednesday, telling you what fruit and vegetables are currently in season and therefore the best thing fo you to buy.

The website also offers articles on many of the fruit and vege listed. These contain brief history, biology, nutrition, tips and 'other stuff' sections, as well as their 'pick of the recipes' - both online and those available in popular UK recipe books (e.g. Jamie Oliver, Raymond Blanc, etc).

There is also an Eat the Seasons USA/Canada site for those of you in North America.

Although I'm probably preaching to the converted, here are the very good reasons we should eat seasonally (as listed by Eat the Seasons):

• to reduce the energy (and associated CO2 emissions) needed to grow and transport the food we eat
• to avoid paying a premium for food that is scarcer or has travelled a long way
• to support the local economy
• to reconnect with nature's cycles and the passing of time

but, most importantly, because

• seasonal food is fresher and so tends to be tastier and more nutritious

A Food article & Chocolate Shopping Online

An interesting article on food shopping for speciality ingredients by The Guardian, here.

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Regarding Chocolate:

I'd just like to add my two pence and remark that although it's the only chocolate outlet mentioned by the article, I haven't been impressed with the taste or quality of hotelchocolat's chocolate on the several occasions I've eaten it. The presentation and packaging is very pretty, but I definitely don't recommend it to anyone to buy as a gift or a treat for yourself. My samplings have all been corporate gifts - welcome ones, but me scoffing freebies doesn't equate to my tastebuds losing their sense of discrimination.

If you want chocolate online, here are some options. These shops either make their own quality chocolates or import/sell good quality chocolates:

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Charbonnel et Walker
Some of the world's best rose and violet creams.
1 The Royal Arcade, 28 Old Bond Street, London W1S 4BT
www.charbonnel.co.uk/

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Chococo
Ethically-produced handmade artisan chocolates by Claire & Andy Burnet - what could be nicer?
off Commercial Road, Purbeck
www.chococo.co.uk

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Chocology
Shop selling a variety of high-end chocolates - Neuhaus, Valrhona, Leonidas, Chocolate Society, Cafe Tasse, Gudrun, etc.
London Bridge Railway Station, Railway Approach, Bermondsey, London SE1
www.chocology.co.uk

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Chocolate Gourmet
Stocks a wide range of speciality bars and truffles, including one of my favourites, El Rey Icoa White Chocolate, made from Venzuelan-only sourced beans. Although not currently certified organic due to the cost of certification, El Ray are an organic Fair Trade company. When I wrote to them to enquire about their policies a couple of years ago, their managing director took the time to personally answer me and assure me of their values and vision. Add this to the fact their chocolate is absolutely divine, you can see why this company occupies a special corner of my heart (and stomach).
www.chocolategourmet.co.uk

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The Chocolate Society
Da Authority! They run excellent classes and promote real chocolate (as opposed to candy) in the UK. They also make scrumptious chocolates.
36 Elizabeth Street, London, SW1W 9NZ.
32 - 34 Shepherd Market, London W1J 7QN.
www.chocolate.co.uk

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Godiva Chocolatier
Famous for a reason.
7 stores in London & 1 at Bluewater
www.godiva.com

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L'artisan du chocolat
Really interesting flavoured chocolates - the liquid salted caramels? Heavenly.
89 Lower Sloane Street, Chelsea, London, SW1 W8DA
www.artisanduchocolat.com

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Montezuma's
Gorgeous organic British-made chocolate with interesting flavours & real couverture for cooks (I use this one myself)
51 Brushfield Street, Spitalfields, London E1 6AA
12 Peascod Street, Windsor SL4 1DU, plus several other stores around England
www.montezumas.co.uk

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Plaisir du Chocolat
Amazing artisan chocolates, as well as Pâtes de fruit (yum!) and other delicacies.
251-253 Canongate, The Royal Mile, Edinburgh
www.plaisirduchocolat.com

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Rococo Chocolates
Lovely, lovely artisan chocolate that's as pleasing to the eye as the palate.
321 Kings Road, London SW3
www.rococochocolates.com

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And of course, don't forget you can also chocolate-shop at Fortnum & Mason or Harrods.

Afternoon Tea & tasty discoveries

Saturday I went to a lovely afternoon tea with some friends. Johanna of The Passionate Cook organised it; she has just had a baby and as she is feeling the lack of culinary outings, her solution is for Mohammed to go to the mountain. I'm certainly not complaining - I had a great deal of fun talking cooking, cooking, and yes, more cooking! and the food (somewhat unsurprisingly) was fantastic. The other attendees were Jeanne of Cook Sister!, Jennifer who runs her own cooking school, Eat Drink Talk, and Susan who runs her own catering company, Joy of Taste.

I made Brie Tartlets and Prune Tartlets, and there was also Smoked Salmon on Ryebread with wasabi cream cheese, Beef Carpaccio Sandwiches with garlic mayonnaise & parmesan cheese, Chive Mini Scones with ham, mascapone and red onion marmalade, Myer Lemon Curd, Ham & Cheese Paprika Muffins, Fruit Scones with a variety of tasty preserves & clotted cream, Almond Pansyshell Cookies, and Fruit & Custard Tartlets. All of it tasted gorgeous.

. .

I was particularly pleased to finally get a taste of a Myer Lemon. I've heard a lot about them from American cooking friends, but I've never seen them in the UK. Jennifer says they are rather like a cross between a mandarin and a lemon (the curd was definitely an orange shade of yellow) and they have a thinner skin. The curd was delicious and definitely sweeter than a normal lemon. I'm now wondering if they can be grown in the *cough* sunny climes of Berkshire...

Jennifer also brought along a new import from Borough Market - a Finger Lime (Citrus australasica). At first glance I took it to be some sort of gherkin, but it's a cylindrical shaped lime, about an inch in diameter and three inches long. It has very large globular vesicles (the little seedlike juice-filled sacs you get in citrus fruit) and apparently is marketed as 'lime caviar'. The taste was amazing - a real punch of lime, without the bitter aftertaste.

As Jennifer said, it would be perfect as a garnish or in cocktails. It seems that they grow in shades of green and red (although the taste is the same) and I can just imagine how lovely it would be to have little lime and ruby droplets glowing on a dish. They would be just as pretty as pomegranate seeds, and without the pip too! I'd never even heard of this fruit before (apparently it only grows in lowland rainforests in Eastern Australia) and have to say - as an ardent lime fan - that I was completely enthralled with it. Jeanne and I are planning to visit Borough Market on Easter Saturday, so I will try to find some.

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P.S. For those of you in London, both the Myer Lemons and the Finger Limes can occasionally be found at Borough Market at Booths Mushrooms, the large fruit & veggie stall opposite the Brindisa stall on Rochester Walk.

Waiter, There's Something In My... Easter Basket: C.14th Tart de Bry

Easter was an occasion of great celebration in medieval times in the Western Christian world - not just for religious reasons, but for culinary reasons also. It was the termination of Lent, the seemingly endless 'tithe days of the year', meaning no more preserved dried fish! Meat, eggs, cheese, milk and butter were back on the menu; fasting was finished and the single daily Lenten meal reverted back to two official daily meals (and any number of smaller unofficial ones).

There was a practical reason for Lent in addition to its purpose of religious penance - it was the end of winter. Food was scarce, with medieval households relying on the provisions stored and preserved during autumn. By early spring, the chickens would not be laying many eggs, the majority of the cheese and salt meat will have been eaten, the only surviving animals were being kept to breed and the cows wouldn't be giving milk yet.

By the end of Lent, all the new shoots and vegetables would be coming into season, the chickens would be laying again and the animals breeding and producing milk, making for a magnificent feast at the end of the fasting.

One of the dishes that would have been a sure fire hit at Eastertide is my offering to this month's "Waiter, There's Something In My... Easter basket" challenge - an egg & cheese tart from the fourteenth century. This is an English recipe (once again, taken from "The Forme of Cury", cookbook of Richard II's chefs), which specifies 'chese ruayn'. This means cheese from Ruayn or rather, modern day Rouen. This was apparently being a soft fresh cheese rather like a modern-day rindless Brie. I actually made these for an afternoon tea as individual tartlets (and must admit to overcooking them a little!). They puff up into beautiful golden mounds and work very well like this because as well as being pretty and delicious, they're also rather rich.

Tart de Bry. Take a crust ynche depe in a trap. Take 3olkes of ayren rawe & chese ruayn & medle it & Þe 3olkes togyder. Do Þerto powdour ginger, sugur, safroun, and salt. Do it in a trap; bake it & serue it forth.

Brie Tart
1 wedge of Brie, de-crusted
8 egg yolks
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp normal sugar*
4 threads saffron
¼ tsp salt
Short Pastry **

1. Soak the saffron in a tablespoon or so of lukewarm milk or water for at least 10 minutes. This softens it and releases the flavour.
2. Chop the Brie into ½ inch cubes.
3. Mix the eggs together but don't beat them.
4. Mix together the eggs and cheese.
5. Add the ginger, sugar, saffron and salt.
6. Line a flan or pie dish or small individual tartlets with the pastry.
7. Bake the tart for 30 - 40 minutes at GM5/375°F/190°C.
8. After 25 minutes, check the tarts every 5 minutes or so. They are baked when the top goes golden and pastry browned.
9. Serve either hot or cold.

* The sugar here is used mainly to bring out the flavour, like salt or MSG, rather than as a sweetener.
** I got 14 tartlets from half a block of Saxby's Shortcrust Pastry i.e. aprx. 250 gm. I also used the small tin disposable tartlet cases.

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Bibliography:
HIEATT, Constance B. & BUTLER, Sharon. (transcription) ANONYMOUS Curye on Inglysch (includes 'The Forme of Cury') London, Oxford Early English Text Society, 1985.
WILSON, C.Anne Food and Drink in Britain Penguin Books, 1973, reprint 1984 ISBN 0-14-046.546-4

Addendum to the Long Pepper brief

I've just acquired the book "Dangerous Tastes: the story of spices" by the excellent food writer Andrew Dalby. He has an interesting section on long pepper, which includes an elaboration on its disappearance from medieval Western cuisine. Rather than paraphrase him, I'm just going to quote the book verbatim:

"The fact that long pepper continued to appear in all the European medical books, and in some of the cookery books, until the nineteenth century is deceptive. It suddenly dropped in price in the later sixteenth century. Soon after that it fell out of common use, although it was still in the reference books. . . . The reason, perhaps, was the discovery in central America of yet a third 'long pepper'*, the chilli. This is quite a different spice but it was occasionally called 'long pepper' in Europe because it had the same shape and served the same purpose of adding a powerful hot taste to food. And the chilli was cheap: unlike long and black pepper it propagated easily; it was readily transplanted - as it was to Spain and Hungary, for example - and it will grow indoors or in a greenhouse even in northern Europe...  [Long pepper's] price eventually fell to only one-twelfth of that of black pepper, a price at which it no longer repaid the cost of gathering and transport."  p.90

The rest of the book looks equally fascinating, so if you've enjoyed other similar culinary history books, you might like to check it out.

* in addition to Piper longum and Piper retrofractum.

DALBY, A. "Dangerous Tastes: the story of spices",  British Museum Press, 2000. ISBN: 0714127205.

Lindow Stew & Long Pepper

I'm going to call this creation Lindow Stew - it tastes great, but there's no denying it resembles nothing so much as one of those ancient bodies pulled out of a peat bog!

On the plus side it's a no-brainer to make, especially if you own a crockpot (slow cooker) with an automatic setting like I do. The one I have is small, only taking about 1.8 litres, so if you have a bigger one, add more liquid. Just throw the recipe together in the morning before work, and you'll come home to the delicious scent of chicken stew wafting through the house. The prunes and their sauce add richness and depth to the meat as well as visual entertainment. Add some cooked rice or a salad as an accompaniment, and dinner is served...

Lindow Stew
4 - 5 chicken thighs, skinned
1 large red onion, diced
1 can of prunes in syrup
1 cup of white wine
½ tsp long pepper, ground

1. Put the chicken thighs, onion, prunes (including all that lovely syrupy goodness they come stored in), wine and ground long pepper into the crockpot.
2. Turn on Automatic or Low setting. Leave for 3 -4 or more hours.
3. Serve!
   
   Note: You can use water or stock instead of wine if you feel abstentious, but it won't taste as good.

This recipe make use of my most frequently used cooking pepper for both modern and not-so-modern recipes; Long pepper.

Long pepper (Piper longum and Piper retrofractum)¹ is a close relative of Black Pepper (Piper nigum), but possesses a more complex, slightly sweeter and more firey taste. It has an unusual rod-like shape rather like an elongated pinecone, or as Wikipedia says "the fruit of the pepper consists of many minuscule fruits — each about the size of a poppy seed — embedded in the surface of a flower spike".

Long pepper has a slightly higher content than black pepper of piperine, the pungent component of peppers. The taste is quite distinctive and to my mind it's by far the more interesting pepper. It also has a lovely smell (please note however, that snorting it up your nose is not recommended! Not that I've ever done that).

Although nowadays it's only beginning to impinge on the consciousness of the general household cook, in medieval times long pepper was a popular spice with the well-to-do, and had been for centuries. It was imported from South East Asia and arrived in Europe before black pepper did. The earliest Western documentation for pepper comes around 400 BCE, from the physician Hippocrates, in a medical context. In the third century BCE the Greek philosopher Theophrastus describes long pepper in his work Historia Plantarum (Enquiry into Plants), as "long and black, with small seeds like those of the poppy, the stronger of the two..."².

Long pepper also enjoyed an enormous amount of culinary popularity in Roman times. In the 1st century CE Pliny the Elder complains in his Historia Naturalis about the prices of piper longum and piper nigum, considering them much too high for this spice; long pepper cost 60 sestertius, white pepper 28 sestertius and black pepper 16 sestertius a pound. During the reign of Nero (when this work was written), a cup of house wine cost a quarter of a sestertius, 6.5 kg of wheat cost 3 sestertius, and a tunic cost 15 sestertius.³ The normal daily wage for an unskilled labourer or common soldier was about 4 sestertius at the time. So by no means a cheap spice.

As with most spices in ancient and medieval times, long pepper had medicinal purposes as well as culinary (in fact, the two purposes blended much more closely together in those times than they do nowadays), and is mentioned as a component of health-fortifying spiced wine recipes. Although both types of peppers were superseded in fashionable appeal after the fourteenth century by the spice 'grains of paradise', long pepper fell out of general use upon the discovery of the New World and the more easily grown and imported American chilli pepper.

Nowadays long pepper is mostly used in Indonesian, Malay, Indian and North African - particularly Ethiopian - food. You won't find it in a general store, but online vendors or The Spice Shop will stock it. Ethnic grocers are also probably a good place to try. If you live or work near an African restaurant, beg them for the name of their long pepper supplier - you won't be disappointed at the trouble you went to once you get your hands on some.

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Bibliography
FAAS, P. Around the Roman Table Translation, Macmillan 2003; ISBN 033390466
KATZER, G. Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages
MILLER, J.I. The Spice Trade of the Roman Empire Oxford University Press, 1969. Reprinted 1998; ISBN 0198142641
SCULLY, T. The Art of Cookery in the Middle Ages Boydell & Brewer, 1997; ISBN 0851154301

Notes
1. Piper retrofractum from Indonesia has rods a little bit smaller than Piper longum from India (Bengal pepper). In Western countries, mostly the latter is available. - Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages
2. Theophrastus describes the second pepper as "round and reddish, with a kelujoz or capsule", which Miller considers to be Malabar cardamom, which the Romans also termed a pepper. Miller STRE pp.72-3. This could also possibly refer to grains of paradise however.
3. FAAS, P. Around the Roman Table Appendix, p.350