christmas Archives - Miss Foodwise

Stir-up Sunday, History and Plum pudding

Regula — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 14:45:06 +0000

Let me start with blowing my own trumpet, it’s my blog so I’m allowed! I’m pleased to have tracked down a copy of Delicious Magazine while in Budapest because in it they have elected my book Pride and Pudding as one of the best books of 2016! After the hard work creating this book I am of course flattered and beyond happy to get this kind of news! So thank you again Delicious Magazine UK!!

Now on to the news of the day!

This weekend will mark the last Sunday before advent which is traditionally Stir-up Sunday. According to (rather recent) tradition, plum pudding or Christmas pudding should be made on this day. It is a custom that is believed to date back to the 1549 Book of Common Prayer (though it is actually not); where a reading states ‘stir up, we beseech thee’. The words would be read in church on the last Sunday before Advent and so the good people knew it was time to start on their favourite Christmas treat.

It was a family affair: everyone would gather to stir the pudding mixture from east to west, in honour of the Three Kings who came from the east. Sometimes coins or trinkets would be hidden in the dough; finding them on Christmas Day would bring luck and good fortune.

There are a lot of legends and claims made about the origins of the plum pudding. Some say it was King George I who requested plum pudding as a part of the first Christmas feast of his reign, in 1714. George I was christened ‘the Pudding King’ because of this myth but there are no written records prior to the twentieth century to tell us that this king deserved this title.

The first written record of a recipe for plum pudding as we know it today can be found in John Nott’s The Cooks and Confectioners Dictionary from 1723. There is, however, no suggestion that the pudding is associated with George I, the practice of Stir-up Sunday, or the Christmas feast.

In this era, plum puddings were a common companion to beef on festive days; they were eaten before or along with the meat, not after the meal topped with plenty of cream as we know it today. A plum pudding would often be sliced up and arranged under the dripping of a roasting joint of meat in front of the fire.

The ‘Hack’ or ‘Hackin’ pudding (recipe also in my book Pride and Pudding), a relative of the haggis and plum pudding from the north of England, was eaten in the same fashion. It is possible that the tradition of eating a plum pudding with roast beef on festive occasions evolved to it becoming the highlight of the Christmas feast, inspired by customs in the north of England.

By the Victorian era the Christmas pudding was well and truly the symbol of Christmas, although the Christmas tree would soon take its place. Printing methods improved and it became possible to print in various colours so Christmas cards became popular. Many of these depicted puddings as centrepieces on the festive table and cards featured puddings dressed up like little men.

The whole history of plum pudding is too long for a single posting – but you can read more about how it became the food to show your patriotism to Britain in the pages of my book. One thing seems for sure to me, Stir-up Sunday is a fairly recent tradition. But even though it’s not as old as the 16th century reading in the Book of Common Prayer, it has been around since Victorian times which makes it part of traditions today.

This recipe is based on early Plum pudding recipes but it evolved in my kitchen over the years. It really is no trouble at all making it so maybe this year you’ll give that M&S Christmas pud a miss and try your hand at your very own. In my book you’ll also find a war-time Christmas pudding, maybe I’ll share that recipe with you another year – or… get the Christmas issue of Vintage Life Magazine where you’ll find it!

Also listen to the Delicious Mag podcast here > to hear @deliciouseditor Karen Barnes talk about her mother’s recipe for Christmas pudding!

Or take a look at Jamie Oliver’s nan’s recipe here > with Vin Santo.

Hate Christmas Pudding (what’s wrong with you!!) then maybe this ‘Chocolate pudding for Christmas pudding haters’ by Nigella Lawson is your thing! It has hot chocolate sauce. One persons food hell is another person’t delight!

Not sure what to cook for Christmas dinner? I’ll share with you a traditional meal very soon! Here you’ll find some vegetable preparations that could come in handy.

Please note: This text is mostly taken from my book Pride and Pudding – The History of British Puddings savoury and Sweet (Murdoch Books 2016 – Davidsfonds 2015), as is the recipe below.

What you need

Makes 2 puddings using 16 cm (61/4 inch/No. 36) basins (moulds), or 6–7 mini (150 ml/5 fl oz) puddings.

200 g (7 oz) shredded suet
75 g (2. oz) plain (allpurpose) or spelt flour
150 g (5. oz/2. cups) fresh breadcrumbs (no shortcuts here!)
150 g (5. oz) muscovado (dark brown) sugar
150 g (5. oz) currants
150 g (5. oz) raisins
40 g (1. oz) candied orange peel
1 small dessert apple, grated
2 teaspoons mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3 large eggs
150 ml (5 fl oz) brandy or dark rum
75 ml (2. fl oz) stout (beer)
butter, to grease the pudding basins

Prepare the pudding basins for steaming

Generously grease the pudding basin (mould) with butter and cut a circle of baking paper the same size as the base of the pudding basin. Place the paper circle in the basin; it will stick perfectly to the butter. This will make it easier to get the pudding out of the basin.

Spoon the batter into the pudding basin, then cut another two circles of baking paper with a diameter about 8–10 cm (3–4 inches) larger than the top of the basin. Make a narrow fold across the middle to leave room for the paper cover to expand slightly. I like to use two layers of paper. Tie securely around the top of the basin with kitchen string, then cover with foil and tie kitchen string to create a handle so it will be easier to lift the basin out of the pan after steaming.

Now get yourself a pan large enough to hold your pudding basin(s) or, if you are steaming little ones all in one go, a large baking dish. I prefer to use the oven for this as I do not like to have a pot of boiling hot water on the stovetop for 2 hours or more, depending on the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 160C (315F) or the temperature suggested in the recipe.

Stand the pudding basin on an inverted heatproof saucer, a jam jar lid or trivet in the base of a deep ovenproof saucepan or pot.

Pour in boiling water to come halfway up the side of the basin. Cover the pan, either with its own lid or with foil, in order to trap the steam.

Place in the preheated oven and leave for as long as your recipe states. This can be between 30 minutes and 7 hours depending on the size of your pudding. See the recipe below.

When you are steaming little puddings, it is sufficient to place the puddings in a deep baking dish and fill the dish with boiling water once you have put them in the oven. Cover the dish with foil and steam for as long as your recipe states.

The pudding

Mix together all the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then add the eggs, brandy and stout and mix well by gently stirring with a wooden spoon. You can stir from east to west if you fancy it. If you have the time, leave the mixture to rest overnight.

Preheat the oven to 160C (315F). Spoon the batter into the prepared pudding basins. Steam for 3–4 hours for small puddings and 5–7 hours for large ones.

After the puddings are steamed you can either serve them straight away or, if Christmas is still a while off, cool the puddings in their basins, change the baking paper covers for clean ones and tie up. Store the pudding in a cool cupboard and, if you like a boozy pudding, feed it with a couple of teaspoons of brandy or rum once a week. This will also help preserve the puddings.

To serve on the day, steam for 1 hour and serve with custard sauce , clotted cream (see recipe in my book Pride and Pudding) or brandy butter and enjoy.

You might also like

Prune tarts at Tudor court >

Bun and butter pudding >

Kentish cherry batter pudding >

The post Stir-up Sunday, History and Plum pudding appeared first on Miss Foodwise.

Ox heart stuffed with kale, bacon and mushrooms

Regula — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 11:15:15 +0000

The meat of the heart is eaten quite commonly in Peru, but it might surprise some of you that for centuries is was also eaten in England. Beef heart is so unpopular I get mine from a local farm for as little as £3. That is great value for a huge piece of meat. I asked a couple of butchers, some in Belgium and also Borough Market. Beef heart is the kind of cut that doesn’t get sold and that is such a shame.

The flavour and texture of beef heart is like that of a good beefy steak because beef heart is a muscle just like steak is. I find beef heart great in any way it is cooked because it has so much flavour and it is very tender. In Peru they make kebab style roasted beef heart, in England beef heart was usually stuffed with a forcemeat.

A couple of years ago I found a recipe for a stuffed beef heart in Elizabeth Raffald’s book The Experienced English Housekeeper (1769):

Wash a large beast’s heart clean and cut off the deaf ears, and stuff it with forcemeat as you do a hare, lay a caul of veal, or a paper over the top, to keep in the stuffing, roast it either in a cradle spit or hanging one, it will take an hour and a half before a good fire; baste it with red wine; when roasted take the wine out of the dripping pan and skim off the fat, and add a glass more of wine; when it is hot put in some lumps of red currant-jelly and pour it in the dish; serve it up and send in red currant-jelly cut in slices on a saucer.

The recipe was copied later by M. Radcliffe in her A Modern System of Domestic Cookery: Or, The Housekeeper’s Guide (1823) and it was also published in a later edition of Hannah Glasse’s The Art of Cookery made Plain and Easy – A new Edition (1803). The recipe dit not appear in the first edition of 1747. Copying recipes from other cooks was common practice in those days and they were often copied word for word, making it easy to determine their source.

To make this dish slightly lighter I opted to stuff the heart with a duxelles, which is a mixture made with mushrooms, bacon and in this case kale or cavolo nero. If I had caul – a thin lace-like membrane which surrounds the stomach internal organs of some animals – like Raffald suggested, I would have used it as it keeps in the stuffing in nicely and tidy. But if you can not obtain it, some creative string-work will do the trick just fine.

The heart should be a deep brownish red with a large amount of yellow fat on the top. The fat looks a lot like kidney fat – which is suet – though it can not be used as such and is best just discarded. Ask your butcher to trim it for you if you aren’t up to the task, but there really is nothing to be afraid of here and it is actually quite humbling to make use of a heart. It is a beautiful cut of meat and flavourwise it is spot on if you want your dish to have a strong beef flavour. It is not bloody, and it does not have a particular scent. It was very interesting too, to see the blood vessels and such but I must admit I do like to trim meat as I find it a very gratifying job.

Why not try it for your next sunday roast? Leftovers can be pan fried the next day and tucked into a warm pita bread or tossed over a nice salad with either winter greens or summery ones depending on your current climate. In either case try it with a mayonnaise made with lots of chives added to it and blended.

Left: trimming of fat and arteries in process – Right: trimming finished

What you will need

1 large beef heart (mine was 5kg – untrimmed)
180 g bacon
250 g chestnut mushrooms
1 handful of cavolo nero or curly kale, blanched

Method

Preparing the heart

Your butcher might have halved it and removed parts already but usually the heart comes with muscle fat, arteries and blood vessels. This isn’t something to be scared of, it is actually quite beautiful to see what a heart looks like.
Let’s get started. Remove the hard fat, no worries if you cut away a little of the meat, it is safer to do this then to cut into the fat which is tough. Then trim away the two flaps on the top, these used to be known as ‘deaf ears’ and you’ll see why as they look a little like pigs ears. On the outside of the heart you will notice some large arteries and blood vessels, just cut these out.
On the inside, remove the stringy parts.
If the heart still has a piece which looks a bit like an air pipe, remove this also until you end up with two parts of heart without any hard bits left.
No need to completely remove the fat, a little left will be fine and it will give flavour.

Now make the duxelles filling

Boil salted water in a kettle and blanch the kale, then refresh under cold water so the colour remains fresh and beautiful.
Fry your bacon until crisp, I like to use 1/2 cm pieces, and remove from the pan.
While your bacon is frying, cut your mushrooms into small 1/2 cm cubes, roughly, we will not measure it. Now fry the mushrooms in the bacon fat, adding butter if needed, but do not let them get too much colour. Normally we would season now, but as the bacon can be very salty we will do this once we mix everything together.
Chop up your fried bacon into smaller pieces so they are not too much larger then the mushrooms.
Now chop up your kale until the pieces are of a size which is great to mix in with the bacon and mushrooms.
Mix everything together and season with pepper. I don’t think you will need salt, but judge for yourself.
Let this cool.
Place one part of the heart on a plate, if your smart, already place butcher’s twine under the heart so you don’t need to pick it up when the filling has gone in.
Spoon the filling on the heart, then place the other half of the heart on top and tie it with the twine.

Preheat your oven to 150° C

Get a large cast-iron skillet scorching hot, put a generous knob of butter into the pan and a splash of vegetable oil. Carefully place the heart into the pan and fry it about 3 minutes on each side, being very gentle when turning it over.
When fried on each side place on top of a wire-rack into a baking dish and transfer to the bottom part of your oven.
Roast for 40 minutes if you like it medium rare as I have, longer if you like it more done. But don’t let it roast for too long as the meat does need to be pink.

Serve with all the trimmings you would serve for a sunday roast.

A slightly different version of this recipe also appeared on Great British Chefs as I was asked to develop a couple of recipes with unusual beef cuts.

You might also enjoy:
Soyer’s Oxtail soup with suet dumplings >

The post Ox heart stuffed with kale, bacon and mushrooms appeared first on Miss Foodwise.

Winter feasting

Regula — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 12:39:43 +0000

Planning christmas dinner ahead of time

I had it all under controle weeks ago, I only needed to sort out the bird for which I was late. To get a good bird, and with that I mean a bird that has roamed freely and has had a happy life without cruelty, I need to order at the farm over 6 months in advance. And I wasn’t that prepared this year. Getting a turkey, goose, duck or a capon like that is not easy in Flanders. Yes you can walk into a supermarket and get one, but since I don’t know where that bird has been, I tend to try and avoid it. Why? By buying factory farmed meat, you support it. So the number one thing to do if you want to take a stand is just not buying it anymore.

I now have a small turkey in my fridge, from a brand with a good name I’m not going to name. I’m going to treat it like a capon and go medieval this year. For the veg I have done my prep a little while ago, and there are a couple of side dishes which I am doing on the day itself. For us that is tomorrow, we traditionally come together for christmas eve rather than christmas day as we don’t have father christmas coming. Confusingly our father christmas came 6th of december and he is called Sinterklaas or Saint Nicolas. This is a pagan tradition which was adapted by christianity, and in some areas, Saint Nicolas became father christmas and was moved to christmas day. Children get gifts twice this month… imagine if you do not have a lot of money to spend.

But back to christmas and the food that come with it.

The veg prep in advance

Root vegetables.
These are so easy to prepare in advance so you can just finish them off just before serving. Especially if you have no help in the kitchen and the whole family has come to enjoy the celebrations at your house. First things first is choosing your roots, these can be parsnips, celery roots, turnips, celeriac and carrots. Clean and cut celeriac and turnip into dice, quarter thinner ones like parsnip or celery root, and leave small carrots whole.

The best way forward and this will take a little time, is to fry these veg separately because they will each be done at a different stage. If you get your mind set to it, it is actually a relaxing task and arranging all the veg to cool is actually quite pleasant, especially if you are a bit OCD, check my tray. Now leave them to cool, bag them carefully and chuck in your freezer. Then when you need them, defrost in your fridge overnight and glaze them with some butter and stock if you have it just before serving. If you are doing this the day before, you do not have to freeze them of course. Make sure the roots are warm all the way through and place in a warmed serving dish. The full and detailed recipe will be up on the Guardian soon but I think you will manage.

Next up are Brussels sprouts.
Now I am not particularly fond of sprouts, I don’t think they are pleasant to bite into except when they have stewed for hours in a quintessentially Dutch/Flemish dish called Hutsepot. In this dish, potato, roots, and sprouts are stewed with salty meat and sausage. A bit like a cassoulet but without beans and vegetables instead. But it can not be christmas without sprouts, I always prepare them, without fault. So here is an idea to make them a little more fun. I’ve added roasted pumpkin to give a little sweetness, and nuts to bring out the earthiness of the sprouts, and kale because I like it and because it gives a little silkiness and it works like a shawl around the other veg.

I prepped these veg in advance by blanching the sprouts and the pumpkin and then freezing them. Again if you are doing this the day before, you do not have to freeze them. The kale is blanched on the day, then finished off by tossing it in a hot pan with a generous know of butter, salt and pepper. The pumpkin is charred on a grill and the sprouts also tossed in a hot pan with butter. You can add bacon if you must, but some chopped up nuts and whole ones are enough for me.

Celeriac
Another veg that is always on my christmas table. I peel and cube these in advance, blanch and freeze or keep in the fridge until needed for either celeriac puree or soup. I saved you on time to do this in advance and it feels very good when you just have to finish these veg on the day. You feel wonderfully prepared!

Over to the fresh and crisp vegetable sides to make on the day
Kohlrabi is to winter what cucumber is to summer, a refreshing mouthful. I simply peel and dice the kohlrabi and toss them with a very simple dressing made of yoghurt diluted with water and salt and pepper. Then the whole lot is mixed with torn up watercress leaves and basil just before serving. More watercress then basil. It looks pretty and is perfect to bring a little fresh note to the meat and butter heavy table. Keep covered in the fridge until needed.

More roots – fresh beetroot and carrot salad
I can’t seem to get enough of them, but they are extremely healthy. If you can get your hands on multicoloured beets and carrots then use these. Some people just really love this stuff and will empty the plate quite quickly. This salad is made on the day. Just use a food processor or mandolin (careful!) to finely grate the carrots and beets. Cut parsley finely and mix in with the roots. Make a dressing by mixing a little apple vinegar, olive oil, yoghurt and salt and pepper. Now toss in with the roots. If you used more vegetables you might need to double the amount of dressing. Now cover up and place in the fridge until needed, or serve at once.

Beans, for bean lovers
Beans at the christmas table? Why not? I love beans. All too often I won’t have a large appetite after cooking christmas dinner, I will be running around giving people more sauce, more meat, more whatever. So I will end up, not eating meat and enjoying the vegetables instead. These beans are also good the day after for lunch. They are tasty. Vegetarians on your table will also be grateful for these. These are also okay to make a day in advance, or a couple of hours in advance. Soak a cup of white beans overnight and cook until done, let them cool. Finely chop up a half of red paprika, heat up a little olive oil in a small pan and fry lightly with one crushed clove of garlic. This will help it digest better. Chop up a handful of parsley and mix in with the beans, paprika and garlic. Now prepare 1/4 cup of yoghurt with a teaspoon of water and season with salt and pepper. Toss in with the beans, ready.

Mulled wine or Ypocras. (find my recipe here)
You need to make this a couple of days or a week in advance so the flavours can develop. You can even make the base and freeze it. I always make my mulled wine to an ancient recipe for Ypocras, or Hypocras. The spice mixture for ypocras was known as ‘Gyle’ and usually contained cinnamon, grains of paradise, long pepper and cardamom pods. These spices were bruised with a pestle and mortar and then left to steep in the red or white wine overnight or possibly even longer to soak up all the flavours.

Of course it can’t be christmas without christmas pudding if you are British, or obsessed with Britain like I am. But unfortunately it is too late to cook a christmas pudding, this is definitely a task you should do weeks and sometimes months in advance if you like a boozy pudding. I you want to be prepared for next year, you can start your pudding early with this recipe I posted a couple of years ago here >

I’ve written up the vegetable recipes in a more detailed manner for my friends over at Burleigh pottery, these are the links to the pages:
Preparing for christmas part one >
Preparing for christmas part two >

I’m wishing you a happy christmas wherever you are, and I hope to see you over on this blog again in 2016!

Love

Regula x

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