EVERLASTING SYLLABUB -- ROYAL BABY BLOG

The recipe comes from Elizabeth David’s pamphlet Syllabubs and Fruit Fools (which also includes some delicious Scottish specialities).   She traces the history of syllabubs back to the seventeenth century.  The simplest of all was a pastoral affair, a picturesque treat for town visitors to the country; a milkmaid would direct a stream of new warm milk into a bowl of spiced cider or ale.  After a while a light curd formed on top, with a delicious whey underneath. 

The more solid syllabub, the kind we eat today – the Everlasting Syllabub as opposed to the milkmaid’s simple affair of milk and cider – also goes back to the seventeenth century.  In grander kitchens, cream and wine were used, though Sir Kenelm Digby, in The Closet . . . Opened, his notebook of recipes which was published after his death, in 1699, does remark that concentrated fruit syrups could be substituted for the wine.  They should be on the tart side, ‘very weak of sugar.’

For 4-6

8 tablespoons (4 fl oz) white wine or sherry

2 tablespoons brandy

Pared rind and juice of 1 lemon

60 g (2 oz) sugar

300 ml (1/2 pt) double cream

Nutmeg

PUT the first three ingredients into a bowl and leave overnight.  Next day strain the liquid into a bowl and stir in the sugar until it has dissolved.  Still stirring, pour in the cream slowly.  Add finally a grating of nutmeg, beat the syllabub with a wire whisk until it holds its shape – do not go on too long, or too vigorously, or the cream will curdle and separate into a buttery mass.

Spoon the syllabub into small glasses or custard cups – there is enough for four to six people – and keep in a cool place (if possible, not the refrigerator) for two days or more.  Of course they can be served straightaway, but it is usually more convenient to make puddings in advance and this one keeps well.  ‘A nice sprig of rosemary or a little twist of lemon peel,’ can, as suggested by Sir Kenelm Digby, ‘be stuck into each little filled glass.’ Serve with almond or sponge biscuits.

Elizabeth David

From Jane Grigson, English Food, London, Ebury Press, 1974.

Carl Carlton: Everlasting Love (Link)

A NEW LEAF

“A number of rare or newly experienced foods have been claimed to be aphrodisiacs. At one time this quality was even ascribed to the tomato. Reflect on that when you are next preparing the family salad.”

-Jane Grigson

“It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato.”

 -Lewis Grizzard

We purchased some fine and interesting tomato plants yesterday from Pete's Produce in Westtown. This should be a really great tomato summer.  I've only posted photos of these three, the Pink Brandywine, the Striped German and the Green Zebra.  I'm extremely excited about the (previously unknown to me) Brandywine Suddeth, described as the "most delicious tomato of all."  They're all planted now and are cheering this rainy, slightly chilly, gray morning.

QUINCES 2X (JANE GRIGSON)

 

Quinces Baked In The French Style (Coings Au Four)

Allow one for each person. Peel and hollow out the cores of six to eight quinces, being careful not to piece through the bottom of the fruit.  Sprinkle each one with lemon juice as you go.  Stand the quinces in a buttered gratin dish.

     Mix together to a cream 150 g (5 oz/2/3 cup) caster sugar, 100 g (3 ½ oz/scant ½ cup) lightly-salted or unsalted butter, and 3 generous tablespoons (1/4 cup) of whipping cream or double cream.  Stuff the quinces with this mixture – if there is some left, add halfway through the cooking.  Top each quince with a level tablespoon of sugar and bake at gas 5, 190 degrees C (375 degrees  F) until the quinces are tender.  Serve with cream and sugar.


Note:  Baked quince was Sir Isaac Newton’s favourite pudding.

Quince Vodka

A long time ago I wrote that quinces made everything delicious.  ‘Yes,’ replied one reader, ‘but first catch your quinces.’  And he enclosed a recipe for quince vodka, for those who can only bag a couple.

     Allow the quinces to become really ripe and yellow.  Wash them well, rinsing away any grey fluff that might remain.  Then grate them – peel, core and all – and put them into a litre bottling jar (1 ¾ pint/scant 4 ½ cups).  Add 60 g (2 oz/ ¼ cup) caster sugar.  Fill jar with vodka (or rum, gin or brandy for that matter).  The jar need not be full, but the fruit must be covered. Close tightly.  Leave in a dark place for at least two months.  Taste, and decide whether to leave for another two months or longer – it improves with time, and much depends on the quality of the quinces in the first place which can vary from year to year.  Add extra sugar if you prefer a liqueur sweetness; train off the liquor into a clean bottle.

From Jane Grigson's Fruit Book.

What a beautiful piece of fruit of such rare quality, like William Blake's extrarordinary 1795 rendering (color print with pen, ink and watercolor) of Isaac Newton as "divine geometer."   Yesterday we drove north from sweltering, parching heat into slightly less sweltering, parching heat.  Around dusk, a cooling storm erupted, scaring the daylights out of one of our dogs and reanimating the other, who is recovering from a malady and seemed actually to welcome the lightning, thunder and excitement.  The quince vodka pictured above, borrowed from the Baroque In Hackney blogger, who in turn borrowed it from The Quince Tree, looks exactly right for this climate, mood, breeze and moon.

READY FOR SUMMER: RED CURRANT WATER (FROM JANE GRIGSON'S FRUIT BOOK)

 

Red Currant Water

A refreshing drink on a hot day.  Processor liquidize ½ kg (1 lb) red currants with ½ litre of water, adding 2 good tablespoons (3 tbs) of sugar.  Put through a sieve, pressing on the pulp but not putting too much through.  Taste and add extra sugar if you like:  the flavour should be strong.   Store in the refrigerator.  Serve with ice cubes and soda water, adding gin or vodka if you like, as a cooling long drink.


    Why we do not make more of these waters in the summer I do not know:  cherry water and raspberry water do very well, especially if you add red currants to the fruit to sharpen it.  The thing is to drink them fresh, within a couple of days.  They can be stored in the freezer for longer periods , of course, but they take up quite a lot of room – if you have this in mind, reduce the quantity of water in the recipe.


From Jane Grigson's Fruit Book.  London, Penguin, 1982.  

Just for the record, this is ACravan Blogpost # 1,000!  Happy First Day Of Summer!

Wild Mushrooms On Toast (Jane Grigson - The Mushroom Feast)

 

Girolle or chanterelle mushrooms

Years ago during a period when I was unhappy about what I was doing professionally, I found some personal compensation when we moved into a splendid penthouse apartment in an old Brooklyn Heights skyscraper with panoramic East River views of Manhattan (including the Verazzano Narrows Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, and what modern New Yorkers remade of John Marin’s lower Manhattan skyline) and our first brand-new kitchen with good appliances.

Because I wasn’t enjoying my work, I unconsciously determined to take pleasure in something else and we spent a lot of time learning to cook and exploring food and wine subjects.   

Along the way, I discovered Jane Grigson’s excellent, beautifully written books (Mrs. Grigson continued in the culinary/literary tradition forged by the still incomparable Elizabeth David), including The Mushroom Feast, which contains the following excellent recipe for girolle (also known as chanterelle) mushrooms on toast.   The recipe’s appeal is obvious, I think, but especially for me because I basically live on things I put on toast.

Jane Grigson 

Mrs. Grigson’s recipe calls for 2-3 pounds of chanterelles, which at today’s prices makes this a very expensive dish to prepare.  Therefore, I would like to note the obvious, i.e., you can prepare this dish successfully either as written or instead using a mixture of chanterelles and/or any other types of mushrooms, including domestic cultivated mushrooms, in any combinations that strike your fancy.  

It’s a very simple, earthy but elegant recipe and very, very good.

Jane Grigson's Girolles on buttered toast

"In spite of undeniably good recipes like the girolles a la forestiere which follows, or the delicious flavor of chicken and girolles together, I still think that the best way of eating them is the simplest one of all.  If you choose biscottes in preference to bread, you will agree with me, I think, that this recipe combines crispness and beautifully flavored chewiness, both set off by butter, black pepper and some parsley.

Serves 4

2-3 pounds girolles

Butter

1 clove garlic finely chopped

Salt, freshly ground black pepper

Parsley, chopped

Well buttered biscottes, or rusks, or toast

Girolles on buttered toast

Trim off the earthy part of the girolle stems, then wash the caps quickly but carefully, and drain them well.  Cook them in several tablespoons of butter, adding the garlic.  Keep the heat high, once the mushrooms begin exuding their juice – some people drain off this liquid, and complete the cooking of the mushrooms in fresh butter.  It very much depends on how wet or dry the girolles are, which again depends on the season in which they are picked.   The answer is to drain off the liquid if it doesn’t evaporate before the mushrooms are cooked; they must not be allowed to stew to leather.  Season with salt and pepper, sprinkle with parlsey, and serve on biscottes, rusks or toasts immediately."

ACravan Notes:

1.    1. The forestiere recipe Mrs. Grigson mentions above, which also appears in The Mushroom Feast,  is very similar to this one, but contains new potatoes and smoked bacon cut into strips. It is excellent.

2.   "The girolle or chanterelle of French cooking.  Dried, in food shops, or canned, but common in deciduous woods, where it shows up yellow as apricots against green moss.  It smells of apricot too.  The beauty of the color is matched by the beauty of its form, a curving trumpet, with delicate ribs running from the stalk through to the under edge of the cap like fine vaulting.   Fry in butter with chopped onion or shallot, garlic and parsley.  Delicious in sauces and with eggs.  An incomparable flavor.”    (Jane Grigson: The Mushroom Feast, Penguin, London, 1975.)