ReallyGoodWriter | Food • Writing • Poetry Iambic Cafe

food & poetry, but mostly the poetry of food

Food • Writing • Poetry

It was goodbye Gorge on Tuesday, and hello London Wednesday afternoon.

We left London last night and here we are in Suffolk, where the sun is improbably shining on a cool autumn countryside and the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival is about to get underway. Headliner is Sharon Olds; Philip Levine has had to pull out. My Suffolk hosts have promised me a tour of local fooderies with the possibility of lunch at Butley Orford Oysterage. We tried to lunch there a couple of years ago but were too late for the restaurant; the extremely kind man in the adjoining shop took pity on us and shucked us a couple of dozen to eat standing at the counter with brown bread and butter. Our non-oyster eating companion simply gazed at us in disgust while she meditated on a batch of smoked prawns.

So. Much to look forward to. Looking back on the blur of packing, packing, packing and more packing, the bright moments included a farewell trip to Fanny Bay, where the sun shone on us on our last walk through the Wacky Woods.

A lovely bay on a windy day.

What would farewell to Canada be without a dinner at Tita’s, all dressed up for Halloween? The quince maragaritas were divine and the ancho chile chocolate ganache smoother than silk.

Anton, great dog of the forest, says cheerio.

Rosewall Creek, a beautiful place to walk any time of the year.

I found a very good recipe to use up some coconut I found in the back of my cupboard – relic of a failed macaroon initiative I suspect. It seems a pretty perfect cake to me: everything can be mixed up quickly, you don’t need to ice it and it won’t dry out by morning! I reduced the quantities from the original recipe (which makes a 9×13 version) and it was excellent — and perfumed the house nicely to boot. The oil and the syrup should ensure it keeps well for several days, although it does not seem destined to last that long.

Middle Eastern Coconut Cake (Harissah)

Syrup
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
Harissah
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 cup oil
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 cups unsweetened coconut (I used dessicated) (- if you use sweetened, reduce sugar to about 3/4 cup)

• Boil the water and sugar together 5 to 10 minutes until nearly consistency of pancake syrup. When syrup has cooled a few minutes, carefully add vanilla (do not add it immediately to the scalding syrup unless you want to experience a volcano effect on your stovetop).
• Mix sugar, eggs, oil, milk, vanilla and lemon juice until blended. Add flour and baking powder to mixture and blend well. Stir coconut into batter, and pour mixture into greased and floured 8×8 square cake pan.
• Bake 40 minutes at 325 F until set and top is a light/medium golden brown.
• When cake is done and still hot, and still in the pan, poke holes with a skewer or toothpick and pour the syrup evenly over the top.
• Let cool, then cut in squares or diamonds.

Tonight’s reading at the Black Stilt was a launch by Anglo-Canadian chapbook press Rubicon, promoting Tempus, an anthology/chapbook on the theme of summer, and other works. The night was prefaced by the musical stylings of the David Kosub Trio and very good it all was too, even and also the swift and absorbing open mic set betwixt music and main event.

Yvonne Blomer introduces the evening, with a copy of Todd Swift’s new chapbook, Natural Curve, in hand, with one of the handsome and poem-adorned Rubicon t-shirts hanging on the right.

Grace Cockburn reads.

Barbara Pelman, reading from Tempus and One Stone.

Cynthia Woodman Kerkham concluded the evening, following Andrea McKenzie.

I was signed up and looking forward to the Poetry in Transit party at the Vancouver Writers Festival this Friday, but have had to cancel my part in that event.

Organizers were planning a gala event with about 30 participants, which meant we each had a 3 minute slot (unpaid). So when I thought about it, looked at my mountain of boxes and considered it would cost me about 2 days and at least $100 just to get there and back, I thought… not this time. So if anyone out there was hoping to catch up at the event, I’m sorry!

I have more thoughts on bulk packaging of poets at literary events but will save them for another day.

Haven’t had much time for poetry lately, but a poet still needs to eat, and I’m still trying to empty my cupboards and freezer of perishables.

I had a little lost jar of ground almonds begging to be used, and ditto a bag of frozen raspberries, so I conferred with Nigella who suggested a Bakewell Tart with Fresh Raspberries (from How to Eat). Bakewell tarts are usually a kind of jam tart with ground almond batter (frangipane) on top; they are equally nice as pies or individual tarts or plumped into cakes, and often to be found in English bakeries. Haven’t seen them in Canada, but maybe it’s because I don’t frequent bakeries so much.

Being surrounded by boxes and chaos I dispensed with Nigella’s home made pastry and pulled out a frozen pie shell which worked perfectly well, although because the shells are smaller than what the recipe called for, there was about a cup of batter left over. And since I was using frozen raspberries, they were quite juicy, so I drained off some of the juice (to save for my morning yogurt of course!) and mixed them with a dollop of jam rather than putting, as the instructions said, a layer of jam on the base. I managed to scorch the topping by adding the flaked almonds from the start of baking as instructed, but other recipes suggest adding the flaked almonds later on and I hope that will work better. So here’s my easy version with North American measurements.

Raspberry Bakewell Tart

1 frozen pie shell
1 cup frozen raspberries, thawed
2 tbsp (or to taste) raspberry or blackberry jam
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup sugar
3-4 tbsp flaked almonds

• Heat the oven to 400f.
• Mix the raspberries and jam together and partially drain, so it’s a jam-like consistency. Prick the pie shell.
• Melt the butter and set aside. Beat the eggs and almonds together and add the melted butter.
• Spread the raspberry mixture in the pie shell. Pour almond mixture over the berries.
• Bake 20 minutes, and then sprinkle the flaked almonds on top and bake for 15-20 minutes longer, until puffed and golden.
• Cool and serve either warm or at room temperature.