Devon Caviar with Wheat-Free Blini

Exmoor Caviar, delicious British sturgeon roe (Acipenser Baerii) produced in the clear waters of Devon and salted with Cornish Salt – a real West Country treat. I can’t recommend it enough, the Caviar has an excellent creamy flavour with just the right amount of saltiness. The best way to eat it – on its own, by the spoon! But if you want to spread it on something, put it on blini, the small yeasty pancakes from Russia, traditionally served with sour cream and caviar – recipe below.

Recipe

Gluten-Free flour Blini

Classic Russian blini are made with wheat or buckwheat flour. I thought I’d try gluten-free flour blini for a change. I added a bit of bran to the recipe as the flour is white and it really worked. They had a satisfying texture and the same slight yeasty, sour tone as the classic recipe.

165g Gluten Free Flour, sifted (Doves Farm) or buckwheat flour

2 tablespoons of bran (optional)

¼ teaspoon of salt

1 pack 7g easy blend dried yeast

150ml full fat Greek yoghurt

175ml whole milk

2 medium eggs separated

25 g of butter

Mix the gluten free flour, bran, dried yeast and salt bowl in a large bowl.

Place the Greek yoghurt and milk in a small saucepan and warm it gently – it must only be slightly warm, as too much heat will kill the yeast.

Now add the egg yolks to the milk, mix them in with a whisk and then pour the whole lot into the flour mixture. Whisk everything until you have a thick batter, then cover the bowl with a clean tea cloth and leave it in a warm place for about 1 hour.

It will now be bubbly and spongy.

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them in. Cover with the cloth again and leave for another hour or so.

When you are ready heat a little of the butter in a heavy bottomed or iron frying pan. Let the butter sizzle and drop 1 teaspoon for small blini of about 3-4cm across (or 1 tablespoon for larger blini) into the pan.

Fry for about 40 seconds then flip and repeat on the other side. The pancake should look thick and fluffy with a few air bubbles and golden in colour.

Timings depend on your hob. Transfer it to a wire rack and repeat, brushing the pan with butter each time. This mixture should give you about 24 small blini or 16 bigger ones. Serve with sour cream and caviar.

 

 

 

 

FIG SUNDAY, an April Palm Sunday Tradition

Palm Sunday falls on April 14th, 2019.

This is hearty fare, be warned! You might need to go on a long country walk after eating this figgy delight.

TO MAKE FIG PUDDING

Ingredients

1/2 lb breadcrumbs made from stale crusty white bread

1/2 lb dried figs

1/2 lb of soft light brown sugar

6 oz suet

1/2 a nutmeg grated

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 eggs, well beaten

Lashings of cream

1. Mince the figs very small

2. Mince the suet likewise.

3. Mix the bread crumbs, figs, sugar, suet, vanilla and nutmeg very well together

4. Moisten with eggs

5. When well mixed place in a clean, floured muslin cloth and tie tightly.

6. Drop into a pan of boiling water and leave at a low simmer for 4 hours.

7. Remove from the pan and hang to drain and cool for 5 minute, unwrap the figgy cannon ball from the cloth and place on a plate.

Serve with cream, and a cold glass of white wine.

Oysters Hot or Cold?

Oysters Hot, Oysters Cold? I like ’em hot. A modern day version of this is to fy them and stuff them into a slim baguette, warmed and spread with garlic butter. Mmmm.

Cider Apples and Drunken Wasps

We have five cider apple trees and have just planted the same again. Fun

Collect them.

Break them up in the ‘scratter’.

Squash’em. Put the juice in a tub and let it do it’s work.

All you need is apples to make cider.

Beef shin in Cider

1000g             beef shin, diced into 1 inch cubes

30g                  seasoned flour

3tblsp             vegetable oil

250g               onions sliced

600ml               brown stock

300ml             cider

salt

pepper

250g               carrots peeled and diced

250g               turnips peeled and diced

2                      sticks of celery, cleaned and diced

 

Flour the meat. Heat oil fry onions until transparent then add meat and fry until brown.

Mix stock and cider and deglaze pan. Bring to boil.

Remove white scum from surface. Add other veg. Reduce cover and cook for 4 hours in low oven.

 

 

Devon Crab

Devon Brown Crab (Cancer Pagurus) is stupendously good and arguably the best in the world!  The people of Salcombe in South Devon celebrate this fact each year in May at the Salcombe Crab Festival and it’s all in aid of charity. This year it’s on the Sunday the 6th and we’re going so I’ll update this blog on Sunday and give you a taste. Can’t wait!

There’s nothing more enjoyable than sitting by the Devon coast leisurely eating a whole Devon crab with a glass of crisp white wine and all the time in the world – it’s the essence of slow food. These days, the crab sandwich has become hugely popular but I favour the crab savoury. Savouries were little treats served as a final course at dinner to ‘cleanse the palate’ before the bottle of port and the sojourn to the card tables, so popular in the 19th century. I like to surprise my family with savouries before dinner and they go mad for them. Crab toasts are one of the best – a simple dish but a perfect one that allows the crab to shine.

Crab Savouries

Take some good white bread, sliced very thin. Cut off the crusts and cut each slice diagonally to create triangles. Toast until golden brown and crisp  (the best way to do this evenly is on a grill tray in the oven). Butter generously while hot so the butter soaks into the toasted bread. Spread thinly with brown crab meat, then pile generously with white crab meat. Season with salt, pepper and a grate of fresh nutmeg. Serve immediately while the toast is still warm.

Crab fishing has always been a specialty of Devon. In the past families would make their own ‘inkwell’ pots in the winter from willow grown locally along the coast. The pots were baited with fresh fish secured with a wooden skewer and lasted about a year. The men would go out to sea and the women would help sell the catch. The pots are no longer hand-made from willow but the industry is still run by small family businesses who fish sustainably, so go get some crab!

Crab Linguine – add a few fennel seeds and chilli for a bit of kick.

Kitchenalia Cartoons can also be seen in Devon Life Magazine –  the Devon county magazine (UK) offering hundreds of pages of articles and superb photography every month.

 

The Lord of Devonshire, his pudding!

What an excellent thing is an English Pudding! The Lord of Devonshire’s delicious pudding set with bone marrow and spiced custard is the epitome of old English comfort food; three out of four of my guests had seconds immediately. The dish is rich and silky, puffing up when taken from the oven to create a creamy confection of delight. Those who wolfed down two portions one after another, did so with such murmurs of  satisfaction I do believe it would be a pudding fit for the Royal table.

But how did the “Lord of Devonshire” come to have a pudding named after him?

Charles Blount came to court at the age of twenty. He was known to be clever, courageous and amiable but perhaps it was his “beautiful eyes and comely proportion” that first got him noticed by Queen Elizabeth I. She “subjected him to an inquisition, with the eye of majesty fixed upon him, then seeing his confusion, gave him her hand to kiss, saying she would bethink herself how to do him good.” 1.

Queen Elizabeth was so keen on this comely vision of a man, she liked to keep him at court, sometimes against his wishes, as he up for adventure and advancement. She eventually let him go to serve in several military campaigns abroad and fight under Lord Henry Seymour during the Armada. He was much valued for his intelligence and negotiating skills and was made Lord Deputy of Ireland, then Lord Lieutenant by Elizabeth. James I created him Earl of Devon (not to be confused with the title of the Earl of Devonshire of Powderham Castle in Devon UK) and he reached high favour until he secretly married his mistress, mother of his five children, after her divorce from a miserable forced marriage. James I would not legitimise the secret marriage and they were sent from court. Both died soon afterwards. The love story inspired John Ford’s play “The Broken Heart”.

This pudding recipe was collected, written down and named as the Lord of Devonshire’s (rather than his correct title, Earl) by Elinor Fettiplace, an English aristocrat who wrote a book of recipes in 1604 when Mountjoy was at the height of his powers. The manuscript was rediscovered, edited and published in 1986 by Hilary Spurling and remains a fascinating document of Elizabethan cuisine and household management. It is doubtful Mountjoy would have gone down to the kitchens and made his own pudding but possibly, while out in the field on military campaigns, he might have come into closer contact with the people who prepared his food than the average Lord. At some point he shared his recipe with Elinor or she heard of it from others, and here we have it today.

Bone marrow puddings were still commonly being made in the 1920’s and into the war years, see Good Things in England by Florence White, Persephone books. 

How to extract Bone Marrow

Ask your butcher for a beef marrow bone and ask him or her to saw it into 4 pieces. Simply bake the bones and scoop out the marrow. Sieve it, while still a hot liquid, to remove the bits and you are left with a clear liquid which turns white and solid when cold. Use like butter.

Bone marrow is nutritious and also very good on toast, Queen Victoria was said to eat it every day! (see below for the recipe). Marrow is “a significant source of the hormone adiponectin, which helps maintain insulin sensitivity, break down fat, and has been linked to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity-associated cancers. 2” Marrow is also very good on toast and Queen Victoria was said to eat it every day! (see below for the recipe. So you don’t have to feel guilty. Bring on the marrow fat.

Lord Devonshire – his pudding.

“Take manchet and slice it thin, then take dates the stones cut out, & cut in pieces, & reasins of the sun the stones puld out, & a few currance, & marrow cut in pieces, then lay your sippets of bread in the bottome of your dish, then lay a laying of your fruit & mary on the top, then another laying of sippets of bread, so doo till your dish be full, then take cream & three egg yolks & whites, & some cynamon & nutmeg grated, & some sugar, beat it all well together, & pour in so much of it into the dish as it will drinke up, then set it into the oven & bake it.” Recipe as found. Adaption below.Ingredients – Recipe serves 4 -6

8                                 finely hand-cut stale white bread, crusts removed,

A handful                     dates, chopped (50g)

A big handful               raisins (85g)

1tbspn                         currants (10g)

The beef marrow from a marrow bone

Or butter the bread with unsalted butter if you must

600ml                         single cream (you may have some left over)

3                                  eggs

1/2 tsp                       cinnamon

a good grating              ½ nutmeg

5 tbsp                          sugar

more nutmeg

Method, adapted from Hilary Spurling’s recipe.

1. Butter a bread loaf tin
2. Mix the dried fruit together
3. Take a bowl and mix the cream, eggs, spices and all but 1 tablespoon of sugar.
4. If using cut marrow bone: bake in the oven for approx 45mins then scoop out the marrow and place it in a bowl. The solids will settle at the bottom, sieve the liquid to remove the solids. While still hot spread the clear liquid onto the bread slices, or dip them into it as I did. If you have to – use butter instead! But it’s not the same at all.
5. Layer the bread on the bottom, marrow-spread side up then layer the fruit sparingly and repeat until you fill the tin ending with a layer of bread.
6. Carefully pour the cream mixture on top and then dredge the top with the rest of the sugar and another grating of nutmeg.
7. Bake at 180 for about 45mins (it will puff up and should be golden brown on top) Serve hot with even more cream if you are feeling naughty. And who wouldn’t be.

Marrow Toast – loved by another Queen

Queen Victoria’s cook, Charles Elme Francatelli, claimed marrow toast was eaten every day at dinner by her majesty while he was in her pay. This is how she liked it.

Sieve the hot marrow (as above) then “season with a little chopped parsley, salt & pepper, lemon juice and the mere suspicion of finely chopped shallot. Toss lightly altogether, then spread it out upon squares of hot crisp dry toast and serve immediately.”

Kitchenalia Cartoons can also be seen in Devon Life Magazine –  the Devon county magazine (UK) offering hundreds of pages of articles and superb photography every month.Text refs:

1. Geni.com about Charles Blount
2. Marrow health benefits

Wassail for Twelfth Night

Ale or Cider that is the question? Down in Devon, these days, we tend to make our mulled wassail using cider but in the past, ale was just as common, particularly with Lambswool.

The word comes from Old English, ‘wes’ or ‘wass’ being a greeting and ‘hal’ or later ‘hail’  meaning be healthful. Traditionally, there are two forms of wassailing, one, a house visiting custom and the other which took place in the orchard (or from orchard to orchard) wishing for a bounteous crop for the coming year. However, the tradition has variations around the country. The most important element of all was the ‘wassailing bowl’ which was filled with warming punch of mulled ale or cider to be shared as a communal group. In the Westcountry, the house visiting wassail took place on Twelfth Night and could include musicians as well as singers. It’s easy to see how the wassail tradition would have been a highlight of the calendar in rural communities – women visiting every house, wishing good luck and cheer to all, drinking, and gathering more and more participants along the way -the evening quickly developing into a long night of raucous, neighbourly fun.

Lambswool is sweet – a warming draft and plainly a drink to be drunk outside or after coming in from the cold. I’ve made Lambswool with cider, two types of ale, and one with crab apples in the interest of research! The cider version made with ‘Poundhoouse Crisp’ 4.5% from Sam’s cider from Winkleigh in Devon, is easy drinking, like hot apple juice with an alcohol bite and I give the recipe below. The apple mash floats on the tops and you get a mouthful as you sip, so you feel like you’re being fed and watered at the same time.

The ale version follows the same recipe and needs the higher amount of sugar. This drink is bitter/sweet and, I feel, not really suited to most people’s modern taste as the bitterness lingers after drinking.  I tried two fabulous Devon ales – a personal favourite, the rich & full-bodied ‘Jail Ale’ 4.8% from the Dartmoor Brewery and the paler citrusy, hoppy “Ideal Pale Ale’ from Tavy Ales 4.8%.  The Dartmoor Jail Lambswool  was resonant of toffee apples and Tavy ale was sharper which raised the apple flavour. Both ales made a sweet drink with a clearly bitter undertone which the tasters found unappealing, but I rather like.

Lambswool made with cider

Ingredients:

1 ½ litres of ‘proper’ dry cider like Sam’s cider from Winkleigh in Devon/or ale

4 cooking apples – baked and skinned ( or 2 two large)

a knob of butter

½ teaspoon of ginger

½ teaspoon of cinnamon

½ nutmeg grated

100-200g caster sugar to taste

Wash and core your apples then rub them lightly with a little butter. Place them snugly on a lightly greased oven dish. Put them in a hot oven 200C for about 20 minutes or until golden and bursting out of the skin.

Remove them from the oven and allow to cool slightly. Scoop out the flesh and discard the skins. Mash the flesh up with a potato masher. Meanwhile, add the spices to the cider/beer and place in a big saucepan. Beware, alcohol burns off at 78c within 20 seconds, so it is easy to de-booze your punch with speed. If you don’t have a liquid thermometer you can judge this by sight – take it off the heat at the first wisp of steam or dip your finger in the liquid, you should be able to hold it in without burning. Do not let it simmer. Add the warm apple mash which will float on the top like lamb’s wool. Serve immediately.

Crab Apple Wassail

The wassail bowl can also be made filled with baked crab apples if you have managed to save any from the Autumn, which I have.  This drink is referred to in Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ by Puck.

And sometime lurk I in a gossip’s bowl,

In very likeness of a roasted crab,

And when she drinks, against her lips I bob.

We tried this too, but the apples are quite sour (probably less so to the people of the past, who ate less sugar) and rather woody, so you have to spit bits out! We found Lambswool with its tasty apple froth, was the superior drink of the two.

For a small but perfectly formed selection of West country ales and ciders go the Grape and Grain in Crediton, Devon. You’ll find them at the back of the shop if you can get past the delicious wines on the way.

Kitchenalia Cartoons can also be seen in Devon Life Magazine –  the Devon county magazine (UK) offering hundreds of pages of articles and superb photogr’aphy every month. Everyone who loves Devon will find something to interest them on a whole host of local subjects.