Recipes
a rule, a guide, a poem?
I am listening to a programme, which is what I call things on the radio or telly, called Gertrude Stein and the Liberation Fruitcake, by Patrica Hannah (many thanks to Julie from my book club for the tip off). It is read by Angela Pleasance who sounds a lot like Katherine Hepburn, with her clipped accent and strange intonation. I urge you to click on the green link above and listen - it is a joy.
When there were no almonds to be found for Gertrude’s fruitcake she ground hazelnuts instead “and that is alright because a recipe is poetry, not a timetable”.
Among many other quotable bits in this brilliant and funny monologue this is one I will come back to. My recipes are possibly not as poetic as some of Alice Babette Toklas’ but I believe in the essence of that sentence.
“Poetry (from the Greek word poiesis, "making") is a form of literary art that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, literal or surface-level meanings.” Replace literary with culinary, language with foods and meanings with feelings… it’s a bit of a stretch maybe, but a recipe can be a poem of sorts, don’t you think?
They are after all simply stories, or poems if you like, of how to feed people in whatever circumstances they find themsleves in, handed down through generations, sometimes written down, sometimes told or simply shown. Adaptations of recipes can create a whole new wonderful dish; or ruin one. The setting, the people, the giving of the food can turn an everyday recipe into a feast, or a fancy dinner into an ordeal to be got through. My mother, when noting the kind of food the mothers in the shelter she worked in often gave their children, suggested that the food became nutritious because it was made with that intent, and with love. I am not wholly sure that is the case with chicken nuggets, but I almost believe it.
Recipes represent the history of place, family, diaspora, feast, famine, pleasure or punishment.
Imagine the recipe for workhouse gruel in Dickens’ London, or the unleavened bread of the wandering Jews, or try this recipe for Gazan famine bread (I did, it’s weird but actually not bad).(Renad is now living in Europe and is safe, for the time being, and still cooking.)
Recipes change with every cook who makes them, with every different oven or knife. They are a guide to the experienced cook, a teacher for the less so.
The thing is that if you cook a lot, and if you enjoy it, it becomes instinctive and you can make additions, substitutions or indeed change the whole recipe because what it did was inspire you to use what you had to hand, which is precisely what I did when making Stuffed Swiss Chards from Alice B’s book. I had no chard, and I had no left over roast meat so it became this total other thing - Recipe for stuffed courgette or small marrow in the style of Alice B Toklas. Click this link for this recipe and also for the haschich fudge for which she is unjustly most renowned.
Blackcurrant Compote.
Take one cast iron enamelled pan (le creuset for example). Cook some black currants in it with a little sugar on a low heat, forgetting that you have done so about 20 mins in.
Remove from the heat when the smell reminds you of its existence. Remove the jammy bit which remarkably does not taste of ‘burnt’. Then take the pan with its new lining of solid carbon and let it sit with water to cover the carbon for 2-3 days. This will do absolutely nothing.
Look up on you tube how to remove this layer of carbon because you’ll be damned if you’ll throw away this, your favourite little green pan with its charming wooden handle. The endless videos remind you that bicarbonate of soda is always just the thing for such emergencies. Add some to the pan with boiling water. That will do very little. Add some more to the pan with vinegar and washing up liquid. That too will do very little.
Do not give up, remember this is your favourite little pan. About 4 days later add the remaining bicarb to the pan, cover with water and leave over night. You will see some mild action after this which encourages you to think that there may yet be a solution to this dilemma. Put the pan with its contents on the heat. It will bubble furiously so turn it down to simmer. Once more, and here clearly is the key, forget about it.
Having a husband or partner who has retired is a useful thing at this point as they may well be loitering around the house and will turn the heat off when they espy a dry pan with a whole new layer of interest over the carbon. On being called to return to the pan you hail the success of the project and scrape off not just the new layer of soda crust but also the offending carbon. The little green pan is saved.
In the meantime you can use the tiny little bit of ‘jam’ that survived the cooking in your morning museli, or to top some vanilla ice cream, but to be honest it is almost irrelevant.
Chocolate & Date Fridge Cake
My last cooking session with Ein Cegin was a week or so ago, with my friend and colleague Maya (Maya can more often be found making butter for Caws Teifi which is very special stuff and should really not be used for this recipe!) in Goodwick for about 30 people including 16 or so kids. Time was limited and we both knew the kitchen from a previous session and were unimpressed with it so knew we needed something for pud that didn’t need baking and Maya came up with this, adapted, as all good recipes are, from a Hodmedods slightly more wholesome version. It’s easy, really yummy and more chocolatey than you might imagine. I scrimped on the butter because I didn’t have enough to hand so the one in the photo is a bit crumblier than it ought to be, but it’s also great crumbled on ice cream or with some yoghurt on that old muesli that you don’t have any black currant compote for, so no waste here.
Ingredients (makes 1 x 25cm square tin)
250g Butter
100ml Milk
250g digestive biscuits
175g rolled oats
60g rice krispies
85g sugar
85g finely chopped dates
40g cocoa powder
Method
Line your tin with baking parchment.
Melt the butter gently until completely liquid.
In a big bowl ash the biscuits until they are rough crumbs.
Add all the other dry ingredients together, then the milk and the butter
Scrape the mixture into the tin and press down firmly.
Refrigerate for at least an hour then cut into squares and serve with your favourite cuppa.
In the spirit of adapting and changing you could use any dried fruit for this, figs would be really good I think. Hodmedods suggest puffed quinoa but I felt a nostalgia pang for rice krispies and they work really well.
Rookery Books News
Plans progress, a website is in the offing, some kitchen bits have been ordered and delivered, we have shelving up and ready, a counter, tables for books, a chair for sitting on, painted walls and visits from important personages (family) to give their blessings.
the bicarb is a miracle. We now also have two tables in the shop, a big counter and space for many books that I'm still trying to order. Liz is way ahead with the cookery objects! I suspect we'll stock designer bicarbonate of soda.