Dates I made these recipes:
April 21 – April 27, 2016 – Queen Elizabeth's 90th Birthday
Country Cuisine
by Elizabeth Kent
Published by:
Sidgwick & Jackson – London
© 1980
Recipe: Carrot Vichyssoise – p. 117 – from Sharrow Bay
(hotel) in Ullswater , Cumbria
The Duchess of Duke Street
Published by: Coward,
McCann & Geoghegan, Inc. New York
© 1977
Purchased at an estate sale
Recipe: Louisa Trotter's Cheese Straws – p. 69-70
The Great British
Bake Off Big Book of Baking by Linda Collister. Includes recipes by Mary Berry & Paul
Hollywood
Published by: BBC
Books
ISBN: 978-1-849-90483-4
Purchased at Barnes and Noble
Recipe: Paul's Chocolate Volcanoes – p. 310
Right then. Let me
start off by saying that I hope "HM" (Her Majesty) appreciates the
efforts I went through to produce some delicious delights befitting HM and her
90th birthday because folks, finding and making these recipes was a
downright horrible exercise, what what!
Let's begin with a few points of culinary interest: 1) In 1994, my husband, Andy, and I went to England
and considered ourselves most fortunate to have eaten fairly decent food while
there. This was at a time when the Brits
were just getting the hang of edible cuisine.
But that said 2) most of their food is, I'm sorry to say, rubbish and I
spent more time for this blog post eliminating food I wouldn't eat on a bet
(like ""Smoked Mackerel Hot Pots"—oh me no think so!) than what
I would eat.
Then 3) I eliminated recipes that called for hard-to-find
ingredients (i.e. native to Great Britain but not here) or recipes that just
took too damned long to make. So there
went half of the three book's contents right there.
And then there was this problem: 4) Some books like Country Cuisine had so many usable recipes that I wanted to
"cheat" and make a bunch of stuff from that book and that book alone
but that would break my own rules of one per cookbooks so I couldn't go down
that rabbit hole. Then other books like The Duchess of Duke Street Entertains
was just bereft of anything usable or – dare I say – edible, and I had to work
hard to find a recipe – any recipe – that would work. Best I could do was Cheese Straws and I
thought they would pair well with the soup so there you go. And finally there was dessert which seemed
like it would be easy except I had to eliminate anything made with yeast (due
to previous efforts at making a doorstop), phyllo dough (I hate working with
it) or anything requiring 2,000 or so steps before I could shove the thing in
the oven.
So there was that.
And then, and it has to be said, I had to deal with measurements and
converting measurements and that was no fun at all. Not at all.
England
uses grams for measures which is why you absolutely need a scale to do some of
this stuff. In fact, the very same day
that I made this recipe, my friend, Star
Tribune columnist, cookbook author and master baker, Kim Ode, wrote a
column for the paper outlining essential kitchen equipment for amateur bakers
as well as one for advanced and I am chuffed to say that although I don't bake
a lot, I had all but one item from both lists.
As I commented on her Facebook
page, I love my kitchen scale and marvel that I ever went without one.
And as a reminder, all of this was to honor "HM"
whom I adore and who gets mad props for making it to age 90 (and 63 years on
the throne) while looking fabulous to boot.
And all the dishes I made her paid homage to her in some way, shape or
form. "HM" is fluent in
French, thus the vichyssoise, Brits love their crackers ("biscuits")
and toasts at tea times (cheese straws) and "HM" loves chocolate so
hooray! And with the exception of the
cheese straws, all of these turned out to be pretty darned smashing! (Details
to follow.)
And now a word about the books:
Country Cuisine
is a compilation of recipes from country hotels, inns and bed and breakfasts
and it is "delightful" as the Brits would say. I thought it especially appropriate that the
author's name is Elizabeth Kent as Elizabeth II is related to the Duke of Kent;
they are first cousins. Most of the
recipes in this book were sounded good and were pretty easy to make while
others, as noted, sounded horrible.
The Duchess of Duke
Street Entertains is based on a TV show – The Duchess of Duke Street – that aired on the BBC from 1975 to 1976. The
show spotlights Louisa Leyton Trotter a/k/a "The Duchess" who worked
her way up from being a servant to a cook to being a Duke Street hotel proprietress. I didn't watch the series but heard about it
(it was Emmy-winning) and so there you have it.
This cookbook gave me the most trouble as most of the recipes just
weren't "all that." Again, I
reference dishes like "Creamed Veal Kidneys" and "Kippers with
Marmalade." Ghastly. The "biscuits" I made were okay but
that was mostly my fault – I think. The
recipe said to add the egg mixture to the flour mixture to form a paste but the
paste didn't form like it should. I
suspect more liquid was necessary but didn't know how much so left it
alone. I also think the dough sat too
long in the fridge but that was my fault.
The last cookbook, The
Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking, got me back on track and thank
goodness for that. Say what we will
about British cooking, baked goods – both savory [savoury if you are
British) and sweet saved the day. Baking
doesn't usually involve icky ingredients although savory bakes can be
dicey.
Now if you're not familiar with the BBC/PBS show, The Great
British Bake Off, acquaint yourself with it ASAP by watching it on PBS or YouTube. I'll wait. In Britain , this show is several seasons ahead of
where we are in America
but I don't care because the show is fantastic!
The premise of this show is that several bakers, most of
them baking at master or near-master levels, compete to win the show's grand
prize. Each episode has three baking
challenges: the signature challenges
i.e. recipes they are known for; the technical challenge where they are given
basic instructions for the challenge of the day and the showstopper where they
have to make spectacular items like 7-tiered cakes that look good and taste
good too. Each challenge has winners and
losers and then at the end of each episode, someone is cut and sent home.
Each challenge is judged by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood
(yes, that's his name), who are master bakers and whose recipes are included in
this cookbook. And each show is hosted
by Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc. Mel is an absolute stitch to watch and you
will likely "luff" her.
The thing I "luff" about this show besides Mel is
that the contestants are so absolutely polite with each other it's
ridiculous. And so British. Even though they're in a competition they
rally around each other each and every episode and it's touching. Compare this to some of their American
"counterpart" shows where every single day in that kitchen is a
thrown down of some sort, sometimes involving knives, sometimes not. "Uncivilized" is likely what the
Brits would say with a good "sniff, sniff" in that way they have.
And I also love the judges and marvel at their own skill of
being able to ascertain when someone's "bake" is just not quite on
point. Plus they're funny although Mary
is much more quiet compared to Paul.
And with a last name of "Hollywood ," it should be no surprise
that Paul is the more outgoing. And out
of all the incredible edibles out of this cookbook, supplied by the bakers and
the judges, I decided on his Volcano
Cakes. They were easy to make and
seeing as how HM loves chocolate, this is as close as I could get to a birthday
cake in her honor.
And with that, let's have a "Hip, Hip, Hooray" for
HM and then off we go to the kitchen!
Carrot Vichyssoise –
serves 8 – from County Cuisine
2 potatoes
4-5 carrots
2 onions
2 leeks
Ham bone or 2-3 rashers of bacon (Ann's Note: thin slices of
bacon)
2 bay leaves
2 ½ pints chicken stock
1 dessertspoon sugar
Salt and pepper
½ pint single cream (Ann's Note: The Brits have "single cream" and
"double cream" and best I can tell, half and half is probably the
closest although I used regular cream without any problems."
Carrot cut in fine strips to garnish
Peel the potatoes, carrots and onions, then chop into small
pieces. Trim and shred the leeks. Put all the vegetables into a large saucepan
with the ham bone or chopped bacon, bay leaves and stock. Cover and simmer over
low heat until the vegetables are tender.
Remove the bay leaves and ham bone and liquidize until smooth (or put
through a sieve). Add the sugar, then
season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Blend in the cream, the slowly reheat (taking
care not to let it boil) or chill thoroughly.
Just before serving (hot or cold), garnish with fine strips of carrot.
Louisa Trotter's
Cheese Straws – serving size not given – from The Duchess of Duke Street Entertains
5 ounces plain flour
(Ann's Note: plain flour is all-purpose flour)
4 ounces unsalted butter
2 egg yolks
2 ounces freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Good pinch of salt (about ¼ teaspoon)
Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon cold water
Mix yolks, lemon juice and water together. Rub fat into flour until sand-like texture is
arrived at. Toss in grated Parmesan
cheese. Season lightly, tossing well
in. Make well, pour in the liquids, mix
quickly and form deftly into a paste.
Leave for 1 hour in a cold place.
(Ann's Note: My mixture did not form a paste and I suspect
it was because there was not quite enough liquid in the mix but I followed the
directions given so....)
Roll out dough ¼-inch thick and then cut into 2-inch wide
strips. Place these onto a buttered
baking sheet, mark out the strips into ¼ to ½ inch sticks.
Dredge with more grated Parmesan cheese if the budget
permits! Bake at 400 for 7 to 8 minutes,
or until crisp and golden brown.
Remove with the aid of a palette knife to a cooling
tray. Divide when quite cool. Store in airtight tin.
Ann's Notes: Because the dough did not form into a paste,
the rest of the instructions were difficult to follow. I did my best to roll out the dough into a
¼-inch piece but failed and gave up trying to cut the dough into strips and
sticks and just sort of threw the mess onto a baking sheet and hoped for the
best.
The result was not half bad in the taste department but
horribly awful in the looks department.
And I baked them for about 10 minutes as 7-8 didn't cut it. If I had time I would make these again to see
if I got different results but I didn't so there you have it.
Paul's Chocolate
Volcanoes (Signature Bake) – makes 6 – from The Great British Bake Off Big Book of Baking
Unsalted butter and cocoa powder for the moulds
165g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped into small
pieces
165g unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
3 medium eggs
3 medium egg yolks
85g caster sugar (a/k/a "Baker's sugar,"
"Superfine," or "Fast-melting" sugar)
2 tablespoons plain flour
6 small pudding moulds
Grease the pudding moulds with butter and dust the inside
with cocoa powder. Chill for 30 minutes.
Gently melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set
over a pan of simmering water. (Ann's
Note: or use a double boiler). Remove the bowl from the pan and stir until
the chocolate mixture is smooth.
Combine the eggs, egg yolks and caster sugar in a bowl. Using an electric mixer, whisk together for
several minutes until thick, pale, and mousse-like in consistency. Carefully fold in the chocolate mixture, then
fold in the flour, trying not to knock any air out of the mix.
Divide the chocolate mix equally among the 6 prepared
moulds. Place in the fridge and chill
until firm. (You can make the puddings up to 24 hours in advance and leave them
in the fridge until you are ready to cook them.)
Heat your oven to 400F.
Place the moulds on a baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes* until the
puddings are risen but not cracked. Ann's Note: at 8 minutes*, the dough was raw so I added 5
more minutes to the timer and they were almost done. Five more minutes got me closer but still not
quite there so I added 5 more and after a total
of 23 minutes, they were perfect. I
don't see how on earth they would be done in 8 minutes unless he used the
tiniest "pudding" moulds on the planet. I used small soufflé molds and still had to
bake them for quite some time.
Also, I've had similar "volcano" cakes in Hawaii at Roy
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