"The Tasha Tudor Cookbook" - Date and Nut Bread for my late mother's birthday

Date I made this recipe:  January 25, 2017 – my mom's birthday

The Tasha Tudor Cookbook – Recipes and Reminiscences from  Corgi Cottage by (illustrator) Tasha Tudor, Featuring More than 80 of Tasha Tudor's Favorite Family Recipes

Published by Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 0-316-85531-6; copyright 1993

Recipe:  Date and Nut Bread – p. 35

Today, January 25^th, was my mom's birthday.  The day before, January 24^th, was my dad's.  They've been gone now for several years but I always try to observe their birthdays by making something they would have enjoyed.  And this is how I ended up making Date and Nut Bread but not just any old date and nut bread, Tasha Tudor's Date and Nut Bread.

My mother loved Tasha Tudor's illustrations.  She particularly loved Tasha Tudor's illustrations in the [classic children's] book, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.  The book, first published in 1911, was a favorite of my mom's and yet, I honestly don't recall her ever reading it to me or me ever reading it.  Interesting, that.

Before I get to Tasha Tudor though, I have to say a bit about The Secret Garden, a book I finally read this past summer and really enjoyed.

The central character of The Secret Garden is a young, orphaned British ex-patriot, Mary Lennox, who was living in India with her parents when a cholera outbreak killed her parents and most of the servants.  Mary's character is the book is most unloved: she is a sickly and petulant child, prone to temper tantrums and is spoiled rotten.

After her parents died, she was sent to England to live with her "hunchback" uncle, a widower, and his equally petulant and sickly child, Colin, at a house in the English countryside. Colin is the male version of his cousin, and when we meet him, he is bed-ridden, convinced he is dying.

Then one day, Mary and another boy, Dickon, the brother of one of the servants, stumble onto a "secret" garden. Turns out that Mary's aunt died after an incident in the garden, and her uncle's grief was such that the garden was left to rot and ruin until, of course, Mary and company saved the day. 

Thereafter, the book is as much about the restoration of the soul as it is about the restoration of the garden, and Mary and Colin and Dickon spend a lot of time in their secret hiding place/spiritual retreat, The End. Well, there's more to the story than that, of course, but why spoil things for you?  Suffice it to say that I enjoyed the story and could picture this "magical" garden in my head even though my life motto is (seriously) "Nature is not your friend."  But this is England folks, and the Brits are quite known for their fabulous gardens.  In fact, one of the songs I learned in childhood, English Country Garden, was featured on the TV show, Captain Kangaroo.  I'm pretty sure one of my early piano books contained that song (music) as well and now I'm sitting here thinking that I need to take up piano playing again!

So Frances wrote the book and then Tasha Tudor illustrated one of the versions and that is how my mother came to know both ladies.  But I must confess that I was a little surprised that the illustrations were a little on the shy side and not just in Tasha's version, but in many other illustrated versions I looked at.  I think back in the day, the emphasis was on the book and not so much the art but that's just speculation and recollection.

In addition to The Secret Garden, Tasha also illustrated A Child's Garden of Verses, The Night Before Christmas, The Doll's Christmas, and A is for Annabelle which rings a bell with me as I think I might have owned that book as a child.  You should also know that Tasha was a two-time Caldecott award winner, an award given to the artist who illustrated a "most distinguished picture book for children." And as you might imagine, The Tasha Tudor Cookbook is filled with delightful illustrations as well.

So anyway, one day mom mentioned in passing that she liked Tasha Tudor and The Secret Garden, and so I tucked that information away for future use.  And so sure enough, shortly thereafter, I was out Christmas shopping, stumbled upon a book, The Art of Tasha Tudor, and knew I had to buy it for mom.  If memory serves, this may have been the last Christmas present I gave her; she passed away in March 2008. 

Well, to say my mother was "gobsmacked" (a British term meaning "utterly astonished") is an understatement.  In fact, "touched" is probably the word that fits best as she couldn't believe I remembered what she said, much less bought her this book filled with Tasha's artwork, including illustrations from The Secret Garden.  Well, I am a list-keeper from way back and so was happy to have noted it and also put that notation to good use.

And then as luck would have it, I was [vintage] cookbook shopping online  one day when I once again stumbled upon a Tasha Tudor book, this time The Tasha Tudor Cookbook.  Huzzah!  Well now I was cooking with Crisco, wasn't I?

So as soon as it arrived, I made a note on my calendar to make something from it for mom's birthday and so I did and it was this Date and Nut Bread.  My mother made Date Nut (we left out the "and") bread all the time and the recipes are very similar and equally delicious. 

Back when mom made it, she chopped the dates herself and also chopped the nuts in this vintage nut chopper that I now own.  Thanks to advances in date chopping, I was able to buy my dates already chopped and ready to go, leaving me with only the nuts to chop and add to the mix.  And yes, I could have purchased already-chopped nuts as well, but I felt I needed to put some kind of labor into it to make it more authentic.  Besides, chopping dates is sticky business and I was happy to let go of that task.

This is an easy recipe as were the vast majority of the recipes included by Tasha in her cookbook. Her Table of Contents includes:  "Appetizers and Salads;" "Soups;" "Breads and Muffins;" "Main Dishes;" "Accompaniments;" "Dessert and Beverages," and "Christmas Treats," and while several recipes were tempting, I had to go with the bread, final answer.

Now before I get to the recipe, I have to share a few tangential stories with you about cosmic coincidences—or are they?

In September 2016, I once again visited my mom's only surviving sister, Mary, who lives in Michigan where I am also from.  My aunt's house is in Michigan's north woods and as you might imagine, there are lots of animals there, including deer. I'm mentioning deer because you should know that my dad was a wildlife research biologist who specialized in white-tail deer and who managed a research station a couple hours away in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  Deer factor into our story.

Okay then, well as you can imagine, my aunt and I spent some time discussing my mom and what their childhood was like and it was great reminiscing although I couldn't help but wish that mom was there with us.  Or was she?

Because, reader, on my last morning there, I needed to run into town to pick up some things for my aunt, and just as I rounded the corner to her house and driveway, a doe and two fawns crossed the road in front of me.  Well that gave me chills because really, what are the odds that a momma deer and two baby deer would be there at that exact moment?  Plus, they paused for a minute to look at me instead of just high-tailing their white-tails outta there!  I have to say, I took this as a sign.  (Sadly, I didn't see a daddy deer but maybe he let momma and "kids" have their own moment with me?)

Later that day, I flew home, still thinking about the deer in the woods, and the next day I was channel-surfing and I kid you not, the movie The Secret Garden was playing.  Kid you not.  Honestly, what were the odds!  I have to say, it was a bittersweet moment for me and just kind of brought the whole mom thing full circle.

So Happy "Heavenly" Birthday, Mom, and thanks for the introduction to Tasha Tudor and to The Secret Garden.  And PS, thanks for "showing up" at Aunt Mary's. You could not have timed it better.

Date and Nut Bread- makes one 4 ½ x 9-inch loaf or two 3 x 6-inch pans

1 cup dates, chopped

½ cup sugar

¾ cup boiling water

¼ cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 farm-fresh egg, well beaten

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 ¾ cups unbleached flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ cup English walnuts, chopped

Great well one 4 ½ x 9-inch loaf pan or two 3 x 6-inch pans.

In a large mixing bowl, combined the dates, sugar, and boiling water.  Mix well and allow to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

When the [date] mixture has cooled, stir in the remaining ingredients.  (Ann's Note:  make sure your butter is really soft.) Pour the batter into the prepared bread tin.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes (less for smaller loaves) or until done when tested with a toothpick.  (Ann's Note:  mine baked for 55 minutes before it was done). 

Remove the bread from the oven, take it out of the pan, and place it on a rack to cool completely.

Ann's Note:  Tasha suggests slicing this bread very thin and then spreading it with cream cheese but when I was a kid, I must have put on an inch of butter (actually, margarine) instead.  Yum!

"Colorful Louisiana Cuisine in Black and White" - Shortnin' Bread and Turkey Gumbo - for MLK, Jr. Day

Date I made this recipe:  January 19, 2015

Colorful Louisiana Cuisine in Black and White by Bibby Tate and Ethel Dixon

Published by:  Pelican Publishing Company

© 1988; Third printing  July 1990

Purchased at Bonnie Slotnick's Cookbooks, NYC

Recipes:  Shortnin' Bread (B) – p. 19 and Turkey Gumbo (W) – p. 37

This is one of my more unique cookbooks and entirely fitting for Martin Luther King Day as it combines recipes of two women, one black and one white.  Bibby Tate (whose recipes are denoted with a "W" for white), was a descendent of a Louisiana plantation family who owned slaves.  Ethel Dixon (whose recipes are denoted with a "B" for black), descended from slaves.  Together, they published this book, filled with tons of recipes that will make you hungry.  Really hungry.

The timing for me using this book could not be better as one of the big films of the year – and an Oscar contender for Best Picture – is "Selma," that tells the story of how Martin Luther King, Jr. organized a march from Montgomery, AL to Selma, AL, 50 years ago this year, in an attempt to secure voting rights for all blacks in the state of Louisiana and beyond.  And although the vast majority of marchers were black, many from the white community risked life and limb to join in the fight for equality. 

Normally, I limit myself to one recipe per cookbook but seeing as how people of all color joined the march, I thought I would make two dishes, one of Ethel's and one of Bibby's.  Although a few recipes in this book gave me pause ("Smothered Sqirrel???"), there are 338 pages of glorious recipes sure to please.

And so there I was, all of 19 pages in, when I found my first recipe:  Shortnin' Bread.  Many of you who are my age might remember singing that song, Shortnin' Bread as kids, but the real reason I had to make this recipe – just had to – was all because of one woman and one woman only:  "Ethel Mae Potter (We Never Forgot Her)."

Ethel Mae Potter was TV character Ethel Mertz's maiden name on the show, I Love Lucy.  Actually, Ethel was given a couple of different middle names and maiden names over the course of the show but this one was most memorable.

In season four, Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel motored to LA so that Ricky could be in a movie.  Along the way, they stopped in Albuquerque, NM, so that Ethel could visit her hometown.  This episode remains one of my favorites.  Turns out Ethel told a teeny lie to her dad and hometown neighbors, alluding to the fact that she, not Ricky, was the big star.  And as it also turns out, the entire town always thought that she was destined for greatness as well.  As Ethel's father, Will, explained in a hilarious moment, the local theater marquee now reads "Ethel Mae Potter, We Never Forgot Her."   When daddy explained "Ethel Mae's very big in Albuquerque," Ethel's husband Fred, always the fast one with the quip said "She's big everywhere!"  Love me that Fred Mertz.

So of course, with Ethel Mae now back home (in triumph), she was asked to perform as the headliner for a variety show.  And one of the two numbers she sang is – wait for it – "Shortnin' Bread." 

And this is how I came to select one of today's recipes.  Thank you, Ethel Mae!

I don't know as I've ever had shortnin' bread so I wasn't sure what to expect when I made this recipe but what you get is a rather dense cake that doesn't rise much (and it wouldn't since it doesn't contain baking powder) and is not very sweet.  It reminded me of cornbread which, unless you add sugar to it, is pretty bland (in my northern opinion).  Not in a bad way "bland," just bland!

Since there are only two of us, I decided to make just half a recipe which was fine and I somehow knew that the baking time needed to be adjusted from 60 minutes to about 30.  But I lost track of time and so the bread ended up being a little bit more golden than I would have liked.  Still good, but very golden.  The instructions say to serve with jam or jelly but I used honey instead to combat the aforementioned "blandness."  (It's the word of the day.)

Turning our attention to turkey...for the first time ever, I happened to have a turkey breast carcass in the refrigerator, left over from my New Year's Eve dinner.  So last week, I made up the gumbo base, sans the shrimp, and put it in my freezer.  I can promise you that this combination of "recipe calling for turkey carcass" + my having a carcass on hand = not likely to be seen again until asteroids pound the earth, destroying civilization.  Well, maybe.

But lo, though I had the main ingredient, once again the making of this gumbo was fraught with peril.  As you will see, this recipe doesn't give ingredient amounts, leaving me to guess at the right combinations.  There are several other gumbo recipes in this book but each one is so different, using different ingredients, and that made it hard for me to determine whether or not I could "borrow" ingredient amounts and instructions.  Further, a bona fide roux usually involves fat, flour and liquid but this instruction said to use flour and liquid only.  Soooo...fat, no fat?  I decided to use the flour and liquid as directed and hope for the best.

As to the spices, I started with ¼ teaspoon of each, then tasted, then added another ¼ teaspoon more.  And I added the entire can of Rotel tomatoes without draining them  - in other words, I was living life on the edge!

All in all, this recipe turned out okay and the flavors were good and yet, this recipe also tasted a little bland.  You can adjust that by just adding a bit of salt and pepper to taste before serving.

The bigger problem though, was that I thought this was a bit watery and the only way to solve that – I think – was to either add more okra (which is often used as a thickener), which I did not have on hand, or to add more roux.  But since I didn't know what to do with my roux in the first place, I'm not sure adding more would have made a difference.  Hopefully, some great southern cook is reading this and will let me know just where this thing went south, pun intended.  It was a tasty dish but I felt it was missing a little je ne sais quoi.

As suggested, I added shrimp and the shrimp was okay (actually, some of it was freezer-burned even though I had just purchased it the day before) but I think it would have been even better with pieces of leftover turkey.  Next time.

Turkey Gumbo – Serving size not given - *You'll need a leftover turkey carcass for this!

1 turkey carcass

Flour (Ann's Note:  about 1 tablespoon)

1 chopped bell pepper

1 can Rotel [tomatoes – traditional mixture]

Basil (Ann's Note:  about ½ teaspoon or more)

Thyme (Ann's Note:  about ½ teaspoon or more)

Rosemary (Ann's Note:  about ½ teaspoon or more)

Okra (Ann's Note:  amount not given, instructions not given so I used 4 small diced okra)

Salt and pepper to taste

Ann's Note:  As I explained in my narrative above, exact amounts were not given so season this mixture to taste.  As to the Rotel, all the recipe said was "Rotel" and like many things, there are several varieties of these canned tomatoes.  Use the "traditional" mix.  I also added the can without draining it and have no idea if that is correct or not!

This bears repeating:  Unclear instructions annoy me!

Put whole carcass in big stewing pot and boil in water with chopped onion until meat falls off bones.  (Ann's Note:  I almost boiled away my broth so keep an eye on this pot.  I think I reduced my stock to about half and that actually seemed about right but again, who knows?)

Remove the bones and make a roux by taking some of your seasoned water and mixing with flour, or use one of the prepared roux like "Iron Pot."  (Ann's Notes:  Okay, folks, traditional roux is fat + flour + liquid but do you see a mention of fat here?  No, you do not.) So I followed the directions and mixed flour and liquid until I felt the mixture looked like a roux; not that I know what a roux looks like. 

Return mixture to the pot and add chopped bell pepper, a can of Rotel, chopped basil, thyme, okra, rosemary, salt and pepper.  Cover and let simmer at least an hour.  Add crab meat, fresh or frozen, and shrimp that has not been cooked before.  You may also add gumbo, crabs, and oysters.  Cook till shrimp are done and serve over rice.

Shortnin' Bread – makes a 9 x 12 loaf pan

2 cups flour

2 ½ tsps baking soda

1 pinch salt

1 stick butter

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup sweet milk

Cream eggs and butter.  Add remaining ingredients.  Oil and flour a 9 x 12 loaf pan.  Pour batter in pan.  Bake in 350 oven for about 1 hour.  Let cook.  Cut and serve with jam or jelly.

  

"The Ballymaloe Cookbook" & "Baking with the St. Paul Bread Club" - Potato and Fresh Herb Soup and Irish Soda Bread

Date I made these recipes: March 20, 2011

The Ballymaloe Cookbook by Myrtle Allen
Published by: Gill and Macmillan
ISBN: 0-7171-1339-6; © 1977, 1984, 1987
Recipe: Potato and Fresh Herb Soup – p. 17

Baking with the St. Paul Bread Club by Kim Ode
Published by: Minnesota Historical Society Press
ISBN: 10: 0-87351-567-6
Recipe: Irish Soda Bread – p. 85 (recipe submitted by Karen Vogel, a bread club member)

You can thank chef (and Food Network star) Bobby Flay for the fact that I cooked a belated ode to St. Patrick’s Day.

As per usual, I was up late at night, minding my own beeswax and Bobby came on with a show titled “Bobby’s Ireland.” Well that’s succinct!

One of the places Bobby visited was Ballymaloe which I gathered was a cooking school. But that name sounded familiar to me for reasons other than the cooking school so I went to my cookbook shelves to investigate. And sure and begorrah, people, I had a Ballymaloe cookbook just waiting for me! It’s like the heavens opened up and St. Patrick just pointed to the damned thing. Thanks, Paddy!

My version is by Myrtle Allen who may or may not be related to Darina Allen who currently runs the cooking school. Google and Wikipedia are usually so good about telling me these things but not this time around.

Anyway…nothing really hit me in this cookbook (certainly not lamb, a meat I loathe) until I went back to the beginning and found the soup recipe. Since potatoes are to Ireland what pasta is to Italians, I thought that would be a fine dish for a blustery day. The only issue I have with the recipe is that I could not find a definition for “creamy milk” (What the hell, Google?!) so I used whole milk. And all was well with the world.

And that completes the main course portion of our program.

As to bread, I am not a bread person but my dad and my brother and my husband (and really, most men I know) are. And since my dad just passed away, I reviewed the bread book several times over to see about making something that dad would have liked and I found some…but they all contained yeast. I don’t do yeast. The times I used yeast, my bread became a doorstop it was that hard.

But for all you yeast-phobic cooks out there, I am happy to report that Irish Soda Bread does NOT feature yeast and therefore passes my culinary test and what the heck—it’s even Irish. What better accompaniment could there be to (Irish) potato soup than Irish Soda Bread? The gods had spoken! (That being said, one of these days I’m going to put on my big girl undies and just make the Bittersweet Chocolate – Ginger Bread (with yeast) already! Page 138 if you are interested)

In the interest of fair disclosure, I should tell you that while I have had the pleasure to meet and greet many a cookbook author in my day, I also know personally Kim Ode, author of Baking with the St. Paul Bread Company. In fact, it’s kind of hard to miss knowing Kim seeing how she plays trombone in my community band (Calhoun-Isles Community Band – www.calhounislesband.org) and could, if she wanted to, smack me upside the head with her trombone slide as she sits right behind me. I am pleased to announce that she has not yet done so, tempting as it may be for her.

Besides being an accomplished musician and our band’s librarian (Marian), Kim writes for the local newspaper, (Minneapolis) StarTribune. When I first started reading her byline, she had a column about odds and bits (for 10) of Minnesota life but then she switched to writing for the Taste section. And somewhere along the line she started breaking bread. I am in awe.

So when Kim’s book came out and I told her about my yeast-phobia, she threw her arm around me and said “Let me tell you about yeast.” She even told me I could call her with questions. Believe me, I thought about that but who wants to get a call from me on a Sunday afternoon saying “Help me! Help me! There’s yeast in my kitchen and I don’t know what to do?!”

And this is why I chickened out and made non-yeast bread. So sue me. But dang it all, it was pretty good. And it was huge. So huge that I cut the bread into four large chunks to ensure that the middle was cooked – that kind of huge. (Added bonus: Irish Soda Bread toast!!) My husband is in hog heaven and I’m pretty chuffed that I managed to bake a bread (yeast or no yeast) that I don’t have to use on a door and that was (magically) delicious!

And there you have it—St. Patrick’s Day (with a few extra days thrown in for luck) 2011! We now return to our March (Madness) programming, already in progress…..

Potato and Fresh Herb Soup – serves approximately 7 (not unless you are feeding leprechauns!)

4 tablespoons butter (55g/2 oz)
1 cup peeled diced onions (110g/4 oz)
1 cup peeled diced scallions (110g/4 oz)
3 cups peeled diced potatoes (425g/15 oz)
1 teaspoon salt
Freshly-ground pepper
Sprig of any 3 of the following: parsley, thyme, rosemary, lovage (1/2 leaf), bay-leaf (1/2 leaf) (This time Google pulled through: lovage is a leafy plant that, from what I gather, does not grow here in North America.)
5 cups stock (1.2 liters/2 pt)
1 cup creamy milk (see my note above: I used whole milk) (250 ml/8 fl oz)

Toss the potatoes and onions in hot butter and then sweat them on a gentle heat for 10 minutes, as in the Basic Soup recipe. (Not reprinted here). Add stock and herbs and cook until soft. Remove tough herb stalks. Puree the soup, taste and adjust seasoning. Thin with creamy milk. (Ann’s Note: this last direction was a puzzler. The soup wasn’t that thick to begin with and “creamy milk” suggests it is to be used as a thickening agent, not a thinking agent. But what do I know?!)

Irish Soda Bread – makes one large loaf. (The author points out that this bread is not the sweeter and softer version many of you are used to. I thought it was great)

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup old-fashioned oatmeal
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 large eggs
2 cups buttermilk
Extra butter to grease your hands so the dough won’t stick (this not in the original instructions!)

Preheat oven to 375. In a medium bowl mix whole wheat and all-purpose flour, oatmeal, salt and soda. In a small bowl mix together eggs and buttermilk. Add to flour mixture, and mix well. This dough will be very heavy (and sticky). Turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead just to make sure that all flour is moistened. Shape into a round, and place on a greased baking sheet. Press additional oatmeal into top. With a sharp knife slash an X across loaf. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes.

Ann’s Note: I baked it for 45 minutes, then took a small piece out of the top and found it to be too moist. I put it back in for another 10 minutes then cut the bread into chunks and then put it back into the oven for about another 10 minutes. Perfect! But let me just say that prior to this, I was once again thinking that I was not meant to be a bread baker. I can only imagine what would have happened had I tried to make yeast bread!!