The Thorngrove Table

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

From the political sector:

Taken verbatim from Pim from foodblogscool (because she says it so much better):

"Have you heard? The democracy of the internet is being threatened. I hadn't even realized that it was possible to threaten the very foundation of this place we use so freely, until I heard about what's going on in the US Congress right now.

Big service providers -or the Pipes as called in the Telecom jargon- such as AT&T, Comcast, and others, are lobbying Congress and the Senate to allow them to create two tiers internet, essentially a fast and slow one. The fast one will be used by companies who are willing to pay for the über speed, while the rest of the little guys can move at a snail's pace on the slow lane.

This is not the same as the varying types of Internet access that people have. Currently, consumers can pay at their end for different connection types at varying speed, DSL, dial-up, etc. Once they are connected to the internet, reaching a little blogs or the big Food magazine sites will be just as easy. But this new law, when passed, will change things completely. It will allow the Pipes to dole out different sites at different speed. It will even allow these Pipes to exclude sites or blogs that they don't like out of their services altogether.

This change in the very foundation of the internet will affect us all, regardless of country we are in.

I'm out of words to describe how important this is. If the internet is allowed to change, it will spell doom to our beloved blogs and to this very community that we've built together.

Even if you blog isn't in the US, if you think you have any US reader at all, please urge them to write their Congressperson AND Senator. And if you are not a US citizen, then please go to Savetheinternet.com and sign the petition to support Net-neutrality. Let's all do this together. We can easily afford to lend the front page of our blog for a day for a cause THIS important.

Let it [today] be a day without food blogs. Instead, all visitors to our blogs will learn about this menacing threat to the internet instead."

Euro Blogging By Post #4

Its hour come round at last, the fourth Euro Blogging by Post is here, run by Andrew of Spittoon. No theme this time, just what you feel like, and the date set to post your parcels is Monday 20th March.

For further details and to sign up to the Euro-foodbloggers' mystery parcel (so much nicer than mystery meat!) exchange, check out Andrew's post.

What I Had For Breakfast meme

Andrew of Spittoon invited me to join in this meme and honestly, I had every intention of doing so! However, breakfast got skipped both days this weekend for a number of too-tedious-to-mention reasons, so I've decided to show you what I had for breakfast last weekend - a much more entertaining prospect.

This happened to be fried eggs (a guilty indulgence once a fortnight or so) and baby black puddings, courtesy of Farmhouse Direct, a mail-order and farmers' market outlet who had a stall at the Covent Garden Food Lovers' Fair that Andrew, Jeanne and I visited.

Black Pudding is one of those mythical (and maligned) traditional English foods in New Zealand, where I grew up. Imagine my surprise when I first tried it and discovered a full-bodied, spicy, taste sensation that I absolutely loved - regardless of its origins. Since that day seven years ago I've grown a lot less squeamish about the components of my food but a lot more picky about the quality of said food. I'm delighted to say the Farmhouse Direct puddings were excellent! Delicious taste, texture and weight, and just the right size to fry whole, which I think a much better option to slicing a larger pudding to pieces. A seat at my dining table (to my mind you can't enjoy a cooked breakfast fully unless you've set the table), a cup of hot black coffee on the side, and altogether a lovely way to start a lazy day.

Welcome to my Kitchen

I was tagged for this meme by the lovely Celeste of Chopstick Cinema (at which a new film is now up so go look) a couple of weeks or so ago. In cooking, 'better late than never' doesn't hold true, but fortunately this is blogging - albeit cooking blogging - so it does. Anyway, on with the show. This is my minute 7' by 7'12" kitchen. It's in a relatively tidy state at the moment, but as you can imagine when it's untidy it's a nightmare. It's about time to do a reorganisation however...

Looking in the door, immediately to the right is a bookcase stuffed full of comestibles and ingredients. Beyond that is my kiln on a table, which supports my kettle, kitchen towel and supply of dishclothes. It also usually supports my food processor, but Mark has just had his wisdom teeth pulled so Tanya borrowed it to make him mush. I'm thinking of adding shelves above that area. The sink has a shelf above it with my tiny deepfryer, hand mixer, chocolate melter and hotpot on it beside the colanders and wok. Out the window you can see my overgrown back garden.

One dead washingmachine that I'm about to replace, one newish hotwater heater and one on-its-last-legs gas stove, the latter crowded with stainless steel pots and my lovely cast iron frypans (which work brilliantly and cost me the ridiculous sum of £10 for 3). I use the dishrack to store my clean dishes.

The little blue thing is my fridge. No, I kid you not. It also needs to be replaced, but I haven't decided with what and where exactly I'm going to put it yet! Other than that, the usual jars of kitchen utensils, a knifeblock with some of my Globals and a lovely blue & white meatplate that my Mum gave me for Christmas. The cat mugs are a highly amusing range by Portmeiron, "Splat" by Rob Scotton - ideal gifts for cooks. The "Platter of Tiny Feet" one cracks me up whenever I look at it. The hotpot is cooking beef, onions & red wine stew. Usually my housemates and I share a Sunday roast but as mentioned above; wisdom teeth extraction pain.

Rubbish bin, burgler alarm, salt cellar, scales, the knives I use most, and sundry other items. And that's pretty much it for my kitchen. Carolyn, I want yours instead!

EBBP #1: from Something's Cooking

My box of goodies for the first Euro Blogging By Post (as hosted by Andrew of Spittoon) arrived from The Netherlands, courtesy of Taina of Something's Cooking.

I ripped it open with great anticipation (no, I'm not one of those people who keeps my wrapping paper at birthdays and Christmas) and was delighted to first of all pull out some traditional Dutch Stroopwafels. Yum! I got addicted to these several years ago when my twin sister lived in Rotterdam. Sadly the only kind you get here always seem to be stale, so these were a happy surprise. They're especially nice if, as Taina suggests, you heat them in a dry frying pan for a couple of minutes. All sweet and caramelly. Mmmmm.

Next out of the box was a packet of Licquorice Drops, the mild, slightly sweet kind. I must admit I'm one of those strange people who don't like liquorice. I tried a piece, but nope, still don't like it. However the guys at work are happily munched their way through the bag and said it was lovely.

Last but certainly not least, were a bag of Bella Biscotti, straight from the talented hands of Taina herself (recipe here on her weblog). They were delicious - wonderful texture, with the subtle taste of cardamon, cinnamon and honey blending together beautifully. I so wish I could bake like that - I've tried, but my biscotti always resemble crumbly plaster. In absence of any ability to bake on my part, I shall just have to enjoy the fruits of other people's labor. And I am.

Thank you Taina!

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The Gelée de Shiraz I put in my box for Cecile of English Patis was made using Clotilde of Chocolate & Zucchini's Gelée de Pomerol recipe with the addition of half a teaspoon of powder forte - a medieval spice mix of long pepper, grains of paradise, cinnamon, nutmeg, blade mace and black pepper. It adds a little more 'background depth' to what has become one of my favorite condiments for meat.

Fresh Lemon Curd! Who doesn't love it? This Lemon Curd recipe makes a tangy, creamy sweet n' sour spread, ideal for sponge cakes, desserts, ice cream or just indulging yourself with it on a slice of bread. I've had the recipe for ages and don't remember its origin, but it goes as follows:

Lemon Curd
Makes about two jars
225 gm/1 heaped cup Sugar
85 gm/4 Tb Butter
2 lg Lemons or equivalent citrus fruit
3 Eggs, beaten lightly

1. Grate the citrus fruit finely, avoiding adding the pith (white bit) as it tastes bitter.
2. Squeeze the juice from the citrus fruit.
3. Put the citrus zest, juice, butter, sugar and lightly-beaten eggs into a heavy saucepan or double boiler (bain marie) and gently heat.
4. Stir continuously until the mixture is thick. Be patient! It may take a little while but it will 'catch' quickly so you need to watch it.
5. Strain into warm jam jars* and cover.

Notes: This curd will keep in the fridge about 3 weeks. If it boils accidentally, the acid and sugar should keep the egg from seperating.

*To make sure the jam jars are hygenic, I boil them in a saucepan covered with water for ten minutes and then put them in the oven on the lowest setting until they are needed.