BOOK/A TABLE - Marmalade Bread & Butter Pudding

It could well be that marmalade was created by one of the nurses attending Mary, Queen of Scots when her lady fell ill. The nurse is purported to have prepared a soothing concoction of sugar and oranges for Mary saying, in French, “Marie est malade...” Marmalade!

However, the idea of making this Marmalade Bread & Butter Pudding came from Blaming by one of my British authoress idols, Elizabeth Taylor. When Amy is left widowed on holiday in Istanbul, another woman comforts her and returns home to England with her, but Amy finds it difficult to maintain their unusual relationship afterward and naturally, complications ensue.  

I adore this book, like all the others in Taylor’s canon, but it was the mention of this pudding that I found particularly inspiring. Can you blame me? 

The character of James is trying to cut down on sweet things, but his resolve weakens at the discovery of this pudding that Amy made. 

“What kind?” he asked cautiously.
“That marmalade bread and butter one that your father liked so much. You did, too.”
“Bread and butter...yes, oh yes, I remember...I think I do remember.” He had forgotten until now all the delicious English puddings.

Serve your pudding warm after cooling completely and reheating—you want it to set completely. It’s also fantastic ice cold from the fridge the next day. It is “super easy” to make, as Jamie Oliver states, but you still have to crack and separate nine eggs.

Do enjoy! 

Marmalade Bread & Butter Pudding
Adapted from Jamie Oliver

Ingredients
For the flavoured butter
100g (7 TB) unsalted butter, softened
a large pinch of ground nutmeg
a large pinch of ground cinnamon
zest of 1 large orange

8 x 1cm (about ½”) slices of good-quality bread
9 large free-range or organic eggs

140g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
500ml (2 cups) semi-skimmed milk
565ml (2 1/3 cups) single cream
1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways and seeds removed
4 tablespoons good-quality fine-cut marmalade

Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4.

First make your flavoured butter by mixing the butter with the nutmeg, cinnamon and orange zest. Use a little of it to butter a medium-sized shallow, ovenproof dish.

Butter the bread using the flavoured butter, then cut each slice in half diagonally. Put the slices in your buttered dish.

Now separate the eggs, reserving all 9 yolks but just 1 egg white. Whisk together the egg yolks and egg white with the sugar, then gently heat the milk and cream in a saucepan with the vanilla seeds and pod. Pour into the eggs, stirring all the time. Remove the vanilla pod then pour the mixture over the bread and leave to soak for at least 20 minutes.

Put the dish in a roasting tray and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the side of the dish. Then put it in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes, or until the custard has just set.

Meanwhile, gently warm the marmalade in a saucepan, then remove the dish from the oven and brush the marmalade over the top of the bread. Pop the dish back into the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes. Allow it to cool and firm up slightly before serving.

 

 

 

Kitchen Cupboard Duck

Instead of rescuing lost dogs or cats, my father would often return home with stray produce, such as sugar cane and pomegrantes, gathered up from the wilderness formerly known as the 1970’s supermarket. It was a way of encouraging us to be curious about trying new things. 

Similarly, my husband orders random kitchen gadgets online that show up at our door and he also brings home various stray cuts of meat when Whole Foods has 50% discounts (which is usually the last day of sale). Duck went on offer not too long ago and we made duck confit from the legs and froze the breasts. 

I was eager to get going when I found this super recipe for pan-fried duck breast from British celebrity chef and restaurateur Jamie Oliver. After scouring the cupboards for the few other ingredients, I set to work. We certainly already had the duck!

The dish features Oliver’s singular, simple style, which has alway found lots of flavor from a wild assortment of fresh herbs. Here, you’ll just need rosemary—and as I discovered, a tablespoon or so of fine herbes works just fine in a pinch.  

Pan-Fried Duck Breast
Ingredients
1 free-range duck breast (250g)
2 rashers of higher-welfare smoked streaky bacon (I used some leftover Polish bacon but any hearty strips will do)
2 cloves of garlic
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary (or a tablespoon or so of fine herbes)
Red wine vinegar
1 x 560g jar of white beans (a 15 oz can of butter beans worked out quite nicely)
100g spinach (I only had a bag of frozen green beans in the house, great substitute!)

Method
Score the skin of the duck breast at roughly one inch (2 cm) intervals, then season with sea salt and black pepper.

Place the duck skin-side down in a cold non-stick frying pan, then turn the heat on to medium-high. Cook for 8 minutes without moving it, or until the fat is well rendered and the skin is golden and crispy.

Meanwhile, finely chop the bacon. Peel and finely slice the garlic.

Turn the duck over and cook for 4 minutes on the other side, then remove to a plate to rest, leaving the pan of duck fat on the heat.

Sprinkle the bacon and garlic into the hot pan, strip in the rosemary leaves and cook for 2 minutes, or until golden, stirring regularly.

Add a splash of red wine vinegar and stir to pick up any sticky bits, then pour in the beans, juice and all. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then stir through the spinach until wilted (I added in the frozen green beans, simmering until warmed through).

Slice the duck breast at an angle. Divide the bean mixture between your plates and arrange the duck on top, spooning over any resting juices, to finish.

 

 

 

 

 

BOOK/A TABLE - A Study in Scarlet...Punch?

 

In anticipation of Hallowe’en, I’ll be featuring a few frightening reads or recipes (or both!) all this month—kicking things off with a tribute to that celebrant of Gothic New England, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and his novel The Scarlet Letter (which features at least one witch, in the form of Mistress Hibbins).

I have to admit the bookseller looked at me kinda funny when I asked if he carried the book.

“Hawthorne?” he asked, arching an eyebrow. Not because he was unsure of the author, but rather he seemed to be asking, “Still?”

“I know...” I nodded, trailing off. “I haven’t read The Scarlet Letter since high school.” 

But I had been thinking about it because there was a recent question on Jeopardy asking which novel has a scene featuring a falling meteor? I don’t know how I remembered this at all, but I felt there was a meteor somewhere in The Scarlet Letter, wasn’t there? 

Turns out, Hawthorne’s novel wasn’t the answer Jeopardy was looking for (I think they wanted Paradise Lost), but re-reading it, sure enough there is a scene on the scaffolding where Arthur Dimmesdale and Hester Prynne clutch each other under a shooting meteor whose trail in the celestial skies may or may not resemble the letter A.

 

Anyway...I feel Hester didn’t get a fair shake in The Scarlet Letter. So let’s shake up a cocktail in tribute to the old gal, yes?

The Spooky Spiced Scarlet cocktail (or perhaps a Prynne Punch?) is a blood-red Halloween drink that combines Bacardi Gold rum with a homemade cinnamon spice syrup, fresh pomegranate juice, and cranberry juice. Created by Rich Hunt and Alba Huerta for Jamie’s World, the recipe involves stirring these ingredients with ice and garnishing with a lime wedge for a tart contrast.

Spooky Spiced Scarlet Cocktail

Ingredients
50 ml (about 1.7 oz) of Bacardi Gold Rum (or Ritual Zero Proof alcohol-free rum)
3 tablespoons of homemade cinnamon spice syrup
50 ml (about 1.7 oz) of fresh pomegranate juice
50 ml (about 1.7 oz) of cranberry juice
Ice cubes
Lime wedge for garnish

Instructions
In a cocktail shaker, combine the Bacardi Gold rum, homemade cinnamon spice syrup, fresh pomegranate juice, and cranberry juice.

Add ice cubes to the shaker.

Stir the mixture well until it is thoroughly combined and chilled.
Strain the cocktail into a glass filled with fresh ice.
Garnish with a lime wedge to add a splash of color and serve to your best...boo.

Stick A Fork In It - Red Eye Gravy

Baby let some big pork chops liberally coated with applewood smoked salt sit over night in the refrigerator while I conspired to make my red eye gravy. The pork chops are made especially juicy by the simple brining process and the gravy gilds the lily! Wipe the salt off of your chops before stowing them under the broiler in the oven for six minutes each side, second to top rack. Then cover in foil and let rest for 10 minutes.

To the gravy! This was really fun and pretty much made up, based on the Southern tradition: we had homemade pork stock (chicken or turkey stock would work as well) on hand so after about five cups had been thawed, we heated it up, added a 1/2 pound of crumbled bacon (spicy ham is perhaps more common) that had been cooked in a separate pan and when no one was looking, we also added some of the bacon grease into the mix. Six tablespoons of flour were whisked in after that as well as two cups of still steaming coffee. Reduce for about 15 minutes and grind some fresh pepper into your brew and serve over your chops.

Creamy mashed potatoes and steamed asparagus with a simple buttermilk dressing courtesy of Jamie Oliver are ideal companions for this--and of course by all means make chocolate pudding topped with whipped cream for dessert.

Thanks to Recipe.com for the photo!

Turkey in Turks!

Baby whisked me away to Turks and Caicos islands for an incredible Thanksgiving vacation this year. We stayed in Provo with friends for a few days and also shacked up at the breathtaking, sprawling Grace Bay Club resort. While our hosts assumed their respective posts working on a holiday that is not necessarily celebrated there, Baby and I hit the supermarket for groceries and set to work ourselves, to create our Thanksgiving candlelit midnight supper! The chalkboard with the menu above is my handiwork, and the price per person listed on the lower right hand corner was merely foolishness.

Here's our table in the glorious sunshine garden, before we set up and descended for the feast.

While our neighbor created Jamie Oliver's Dinner Lady Carrots and Soldier Leeks with Bacon next door, Baby injected our 22 pound turkey with sherry and melted butter and stuffed it full of onions, oranges, lemons, tangerines, rosemary, parsley and thyme. I got a good handful of softened butter and gently rubbed it underneath the skin and yes, I tore a bunch of parsley apart and further placed it under the skin as well to form a heart shape.

We trussed our Tom with kitchen twine...and into the oven it went to ruminate for a few hours!

Having acquainted ourselves with the kitchen and putting out plates, utensils, serving ware and the cooking tools we'd need ahead of time, I made my usual Sweet Potato Tipsy and went out to set the table, while Baby made his mashed potatoes with herbed butter and Alouette creamy cheese and amazing cranberry-cherry-orange compote.

When guests arrived, Baby served a sentimental platter of Pigs & Blankets, the way his mother used to make, with the dogs wrapped up in Pillsbury puff pastry. Yellow and grainy mustards went alongside with a sort of ketchup sauce that I made up from a carton of sensuously red Kumato tomatoes that also veer toward black pearls in color, some balsamic vinegar and crystallized pineapple that was on hand.

Behold the beast with the parsley heart gracing its proud breast!

How quickly it was ravaged! And it was so tender, I daresay it was the best turkey I ever had. For me, the injection of sherry and butter is essential, and the bird also must be monitored with a meat thermometer.


Our table at night! And what a flurry it was!

The tryptophan clearly kicked in somewhere around here.

Our guests delighted in lemon and coconut Pepperidge Farm cakes, the old store-bought dressed up with some fresh blackberries and raspberries.

For leftovers the next day, we pored over turkey sandwiches wedged into local rolls and I pureed the Lady Carrots and Soldier Leeks with gravy and heavy cream for a marvelous soup.

And somehow we managed to keep Coco away from raiding everything until it was time for her to have leftovers of her own, which she devoured!