The post War & Peace Pudding with Mock Apricot Jam – for the 75th anniversary of ‘Victory in Europe Day’ A Recipe from Pride and Pudding appeared first on Miss Foodwise.
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Today 8 may I’ll be showing two war-time recipes over at London’s Borough Market for the 75th anniversary of ‘Victory in Europe Day’ or the end of WWII.
While world wars and lockdown are very different, both have led to difficulties obtaining certain ingredients. We’ll be looking at two war-time recipes that were actually promoted by the Ministry of Food because there was an overload of carrots and potatoes. Recipe booklets were made to help cooks to whip up a variety of recipes with carrots and potatoes and other austere but often very delicious creative recipes
We’ll be cooking up “War & Peace Pudding” with “Mock apricot” carrot jam, both wartime recipes from my book Pride and Pudding. Tune into our IGTV over at Borough Market on Instagram
During wartime, ingredients for plum pudding were hard to come by so the Ministry of Food produced a recipe for a ‘War and Peace Pudding’ made of carrots, potatoes and suet.
The recipe also appeared as a ‘Wartime Christmas Pudding’. Carrots and potato were both promoted by the Ministry of Food because they grew easily and were plentiful, and therefore they were important to keep people healthy. Potato was often used as an alternative to other ingredients in dishes and carrots were used because of their sweet flavour. At some point ‘carrots on sticks’ were sold to children instead of ice cream – which was banned – and ‘toffee carrots’ replaced toffee apples.
This is an excellent pudding and the “mock apricot” carrot jam absolutely sublime and a great novelty for when dinner parties are back allowed!
War & Peace Pudding
Makes 1 pudding in a 14 cm (No. 42) diameter basin (mould)
75 g carrots, grated
100 g potatoes, grated
85 g plain (all-purpose) flour
30 g fresh breadcrumbs
30 g shredded suet
1 teaspoon ground allspice
or mixed spice
1 teaspoon bicarbonate
of soda (baking soda)
2 tablespoons warm water
1 tablespoon mixed dried
fruit, soaked in water, rum or brandy
Method
Preheat the oven to 160C. Prepare the pudding basins for steaming
In a large bowl, combine the carrot, potato, flour, breadcrumbs, suet and allspice. Dissolve the bicarbonate of soda in the water and add to the mixture. On a lightly floured work surface, knead into a ball. Don’t be alarmed if the mixture seems dry, it will come together after kneading it for a few minutes.
Work through the mixed dried fruit and roll the dough into a ball. Put the ball into the prepared pudding basin and push it down. Close the pudding basin off with baking paper and wrap in tin foil. Place on an inverted saucer in a pot large enough for the pudding basin and pour in boiling water to come up halfway the sides of the basin. Close the lid, cover any steaming holes the lid might have and steam for 2 hours.
Serve with carrot jam
“Mock apricot” Carrot jam
500 g carrot puree made from boiled carrots
500 g raw sugar
juice of 1 lemon
zest of 1/2 lemon, grated or cut into fine strips
5 apricot kernels
2 tablespoons brandy
Put the carrot puree in a large saucepan and bring to the boil. Add the sugar, lemon juice and zest and apricot kernels.
Boil until the mixture has thickened and gels quickly when spooned onto a cold plate.
Remove from the heat and take out the apricot kernels if you can spot them. Stir the brandy through the jam and decant into sterilised jars. Close the jars and turn them upside down to cool.
The jam has a hint of apricot; it was marketed as mock apricot jam.
This jam doesn’t keep long and must be stored in the fridge.
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Today is Stir-up sunday and the most important day on the pudding calendar. Today is the day to prepare the Christmas pudding, or plum pudding. Why this should be done a month before Christmas is something I’ve written about in a previous posting here and in my book Pride and Pudding. But this year I wanted to give you an alternative to the traditional plum pud.
A figgy pudding is just another name for a plum pudding – and both of them generally refer to puddings made with raisins or currants and no figs at all. However there have been recipes for figgy pudding in the late 19th century, but those recipes did refer to puddings made with figs and didn’t give a recipe for plum pudding. Using dried figs, this results in a dark and luxurious winter pudding. Why not have this as your pudding on Christmas day for a change this year?
This is a recipe from my little book the ‘National Trust Book Of Puddings‘ which was published in april (2019).
Maybe you have noticed on instagram or you have spotted one of my previous post about the copper pudding basin I developed with the people from Netherton Foundry? It creates a perfect pudding because copper holds the heat much better than ceramics do. It is a pudding basin for life, and one to pass on to your sons and daughters, because this is seriously durable and also incredibly pretty. To find out more about the copper pudding pot, go over to Netherton Foundry’s website here.
Figgy Pudding – from my book ‘The National Trust Book of Puddings’
- 400g dried figs
- 3 tablespoons golden syrup
- 120ml red wine
- 20ml Cointreau
- 60g currants
For the pudding
- 110g plain flour
- 60g shredded suet
- 120g brown sugar
- 60g fresh breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon mixed spice
- Pinch of salt
- 2 eggs
- 75ml stout or porter beer
Method
Start the day before you want to make the pudding. Put the figs and golden syrup into a saucepan with the red wine and Cointreau and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring to immerse the figs in the liquid. When the figs have softened, remove them and set aside while simmering the liquid until it becomes syrupy. Cut any tough stems off the figs, then halve the figs and put them in the syrup to soak overnight. Soak the currants separately in a little water. It is also best to mix the pudding a day or a few hours in advance. Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the eggs, currants and stout and mix well by gently stirring with a wooden spoon.
Prepare a 1.1-litre pudding basin for steaming and preheat the oven to 160C. See how to prep a pudding basin on this post about Christmas pudding here >
Arrange the halved figs all around the basin. Chop any leftover figs and fold them into the pudding mixture then spoon the mixture into the basin, cover and steam in the oven for 3 hours.
When done, turn the pudding out on to a plate. Warm any leftover syrup and drizzle over the pudding. Slice and serve with custard or clotted cream.
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Mincemeat is an ancient recipe that gives you a taste of Medieval times gone by when the usage of this mixture was widely common for sweet as well as savoury dishes. That is if you were well off, dishes with these rich ingredients were the privilege of the very rich and one of the first recipes dates from the 14th century scroll presumably written by the chef of King Richard II.
Mincemeat is best made at least a month in advance so that the flavours can mature. You can use it for different recipes: as a filling for Mince pies of course but also for Eccles cakes and a couple of other British bakes.
The combination of fruits and spices for mincemeat is often diverse, but raisins, currants and candied lemon, cedro and/or orange peel are standard. Some old recipes also contain prunes, dates, figs or candied ginger. Spices are usually cinnamon, cloves, mace and nutmeg. There is always grated apple or pear and sometimes also lemon or orange juice – mostly from Seville oranges (these are very acidic and also the basis for English marmalade – see recipe here).
You can make the mincemeat in this large quantity and store it in the fridge for up to 6 months in sterilised preserving jars.
And then for a little joyeus news: my new book ‘Brits Bakboek‘ has been nominated for ‘Het Gouden Kookboek’ a prestigious kookbook award in the Netherlands. I’m absolutely chuffed and honoured to be nominated as the only Belgian on the list!
Check back around Christmas for my Mince pies recipe (or check my book ‘Brits Bakboek’)
For the mincemeat – makes 880 g/1 lb 15 oz
- 175 g (6 oz) currants
- 175 g (6 oz) large dark raisins
- 175 g (6 oz) stewing apple, coarsely grated
- 50 g (1¾ oz) candied orange peel
- 50 g (1¾ oz) prunes, pitted and chopped
- 115 g (4 oz) shredded suet or butter, frozen and grated
- 115 g (4 oz) soft brown sugar
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground mace
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- pinch of sea salt
- ½ lemon or Seville orange, juice and zest
- 250 ml (9 fl oz) brandy or rum (or half sherry, half rum)
Put all the ingredients for the mincemeat in a bowl and add the brandy or rum to cover the fruit. Stir well, then let it rest overnight. The next day, stir again and then divide among sterilised preserving jars.
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