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Crumbling allegiances to British food
I get raised eyebrows by the pair when I respond to the question “what do you miss about Britain?” with “the food”. But it’s true. Somehow, perhaps in an effort to stem the flood of immigrants, a myth has been perpetuated that the only food available in the UK is overcooked vegetables, slabs of meat and inedible puddings with strange names. In reality, the countryside is dotted with gastro-pubs offering superb menus; London has the staggering range of cuisine you’d expect of a city of 7 million; and the array of produce and ingredients in supermarkets and specialty shops is the boon of proximity to the Continent and beyond.
That having been said, the Guardian recently offered a grisly list of traditional British dishes that are falling off the nation’s menus, either because they don’t suit the low fat high speed preparation needs of contemporary cooks or because their ingredients – offal (such as calves’ feet or pig cheeks) or game (such as rooks or hare) – are no longer popular.
I was sad to see fruit crumble among the Ten most threatened puddings:
- Calf’s foot jelly
- Junket
- Sussex pond pudding (suet and lemon)
- Kentish pudding pie (rice and pastry)
- Dorset dumplings (apples and suet)
- Lardy cake
- Simnel cake
- Malvern pudding (fruit crumble)
- Singin hinnies (fried scone)
- Spotted dick
For those who don’t number fruit crisps on their hit list, there’s a wonderful recipe for Peach and Blackberry Crisp (I made it with apples, blackberries and blueberries and it was fabulous) that has pecans in the topping.
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Raspberries and blueberries
A nice campus to visit is Virtual University. Cheap (US$20 for up to 4) classes and one useful freebie that’s already underway this week: How to Prevent Identity Theft and Online Fraud. They have courses in PaintShopPro for anyone that has this cheaper-than-Photoshop application, and some writing classes (but no poetry, at least not this time).
I happened upon a leaflet promoting the Urban Farm Market and Urban Feast Stage which are being offered (free!) as part of Open Air 2006 right through till September. Upcoming on July 23 is featured chef Christopher Moore of the Union Club, July 30: Rick Choy from Hotel Grand Pacific; August 6: Mike Upward, James Bay Inn; August 13: Patrick & Christabele Simpson, The Marriott Inner Harbour. I fear I might be turning into a food demo junkie…
Fresh fruit abounds. I weakened at the sight of a flat of raspberries at the Red Barn Market last week and brought them home to my freezer. I have a couple of good recipes already. I tried the very tasty Gâteau au Yaourt à la Framboise from a wonderful blog, Chocolate & Zucchini which Bonnie sent me a while ago. At that point I was a little short on raspberries so I used half blueberries and it worked well. I’m going to try her blueberry coffee cake recipe next.
From the Lighthearted Cookbook, I have long been a fan of Raspberry-Yogurt Küchen, which has a shortbread base and berries smothered in a baked creamy yogurt topping: particularly nice I think if you make it ahead and served chilled. This time I substituted mostly loganberries, which seemed to me to lack a little zip. Here’s a slightly amended version (I no longer own the cookbook so I’m not sure where I deviated):
Base
1½ cups flour
½ cup sugar
1½ tsp baking powder
1/3 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups fresh or frozen raspberries
Topping
2 tbsp plain flour
2 cups plain yogurt
1 egg lightly beaten
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp vanilla- Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, butter, egg and vanilla. Mix well and press into a 10″ square cake pan or springform or flan dish. Sprinkle with raspberries.
- In a mixing bowl, sprinkle flour over yogurt. Add egg, sugar, lemon rind and vanilla and mix until smooth. Pour over berries.
- Bake in 350f/180c oven for 70 minutes or until golden.
Peace reigns, most of the time, in the foster animal kingdom:
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Is nothing safe?
Appalled to see that a salmonella outbreak in the UK was traced to Cadbury’s chocolate bars! But relieved to see that the source was not the chocolate but the crumb base. So purists can rest easy and carry on with that therapeutic intake.
Yesterday I found the perfect activity for the first gentle day of our heat wave: a visit to Merridale Cidery. We did the self-guided tour to see where and how the cider was made, admired the acres of apple trees and then enjoyed a small tasting of half a dozen of their products. Apple juice was thoughtfully provided for our under-age companion, who was at an age to enjoy the faerie fixtures that were strategically placed to help her endure the tour.
Scrumpy and Traditional Cider were my favourites. In West Country dialect, “scrump” meant to steal apples, and so Scrumpy was the name for pilfered apple cider. At 11% alcohol it was described as a “sit down” cider, and mercifully Merridale has departed from the traditional recipe which calls for raw pork as one of the ingredients.
Merridale puts on a mean spread in La Pommeraie Bistro, where we sat outside on the covered veranda and admired the orchard. I had some very nice pulled pork and apple crepes and the soup of the day, a cold honeydew-raspberry concoction which the waitress accurately described as “a smoothie without all the sugar”. It was garnished with chopped mint and gently flavoured with dill and was just the thing for a warm summer day.
The perfect surprise for this melting heat we’re facing was the arrival of my copy of Loutro Poems, an anthology of poetry by writers who attended World Spirit poetry courses 200-2005, lavishly illustrated with colour photos. As if I could forget…
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In her latest collection, Rhona McAdam navigates the dark places of human movement through the earth and the exquisite intricacies lingering in backyard gardens and farmlands populated by insects and pollinators, all the while returning to the body, to the tune of staccato beats and the newly discovered symmetries within the human heart.
“…A beautiful, filling collection, Larder is a set of poems to read at the change of the seasons, to appreciate alongside a good meal, and to remind yourself of the beauty in everything, even the things you may not appreciate before opening McAdam’s collection….”
Rhona McAdam is a writer, poet, editor, and Registered Holistic Nutritionist with a Master’s in Food Culture from Italy and a deep-rooted passion for ecology and urban agriculture. Her work spans corporate and technical writing to poetry and creative nonfiction, often exploring the vital links between what we eat and how we live. Based in Victoria, BC, and available via Zoom, Rhona is always open to new writing commissions, readings, or workshops on nutrition and the culinary arts.
