Retro Food For Modern Times

11
May
2020

Quince Blancmange

I’m fairly sure that Quince Blancmange was invented when someone put the names of the most old fashioned fruit and the most vintage of desserts through a random generator to see what came up. It could have been worse. We could have been eating Medlar Junkets. or Whortleberry Possets. BTW…just in case you are writing an academic history of quince blancmange don’t quote me on that origin story! For everyone else? That’s how it happened. Other people will tell you that blancmange originated in the Middle Ages and used to contain chicken and other meaty treats. That it moved from savoury to sweet in around 1600 and that the name is a portmanteau of the French words for white (blanc) and to eat (manger). And I’m not saying that they are wrong. “Quince” blancmange however? Random name generator. For sure. 100%.

Quince are one of the weirdest fruit around! If you are not familiar with them, they are those bright yellow fruit that look like large misshapen pears that you might see in your greengrocer in autumn. When you cut them open the flesh is white and so, so sour and a little bit bitter. But when you cook them that flesh becomes a glorious deep pink to dark red and sweet.

And blancmange? Is pretty much jelly / jello with cream or milk mixed through it. Who knew!

So, I bought a quince because I didn’t really read the recipe first and made the assumption that quince blancmange would contain quince. I mean stands to reason right?

Hmmm….wrong. The quince blancmange recipe uses the quince jelly you buy to eat with cheese. Now, for some reason we had a shit ton of this in our fridge. Well, one of them was Fig paste but for the purpose of the blancmange, it was all the same. I have no idea why we had so much of this. I suspect they came in hampers or were freebies with something because the only other time I have ever cooked quince was to make my own membrillo which is the proper name of Spanish Quince paste and we have been eating that. Delicious too I might add! If you do make it, a little splash of vanilla essence in the quince mix does not go astray. Trust me on that one.

Quince blancmange is so easy to make.

First, tip your paste into a sauce pan, add water and melt that jelly down. Taste. Add sugar if needed, or if already very sweet a dash of lemon juice. Add a splash of vanilla too. Then, turn off the heat, allow to cool slightly and stir through the cream. This looked so pretty as it made a beautiful marbled pattern. It was very soothing moving the spoon through the swirls of colour…

Then add some gelatine pour into the mould and you are done!

Quince Blancmange

Print Recipe

A fruity dessert that tastes better than it looks!

Yield: 6 1x
Category: Dessert

Ingredients

Scale

200 grams Quince Jelly
100 grams water (Plus moe for gelatime)
1 tsp Vanilla extract
4 Gelatine leaves
Sugar, to taste
Lemon juice, to taste
250 ml Cream
Berries to serve (Optionaal)

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

Add the quince jelly to the water in a small saucepan and simmer over medium heat until the jelly melts.
Add the vanilla.
Taste and add sugar and / or lemon juice to taste.
Remove from heat. Stir through the cream.
Soften the gelatine leaves in a little cool water, then removeand squeeze out the excess water. Stir the gelatine into the warm cream andquince mixture.
Pour into a mould and chill until set.
To serve, invert the mould and garnish with the berries.

If I did not now know this was quince flavoured I would not have guessed that was it was. And I don’t think that was because of the figs because it did not taste overly figgy either. It tasted generically fruity sweet. The Quince Blancmange was much nicer to eat than it was to look at. Because it looked revolting. Really bad. It reminded me of being back in school and seeing a picture of some lungs with all the arteries and veins running through it.

Spot the Difference

So, not fail but not a total win. I probably will not make this exact recipe again but I am definitely going to experiment with blancmange a bit more to try to bring out the actual flavour of the fruit. I wonder if it would have been different if I had used fresh quince instead of the jelly?

Have a great week friends and stay safe!

06
May
2020

Tijuana Sunset and Buenos Noches – Two Evening Themed Cocktails

categories: Cocktail, Mexico, Tequila

Ola people of the internet! Today we are celebrating all things Mexican with a couple of cocktails, the Tijuana Sunset and the Buenos Noches both from Cantina. Regular readers would know what I have set myself a task to cook through this book by the end of the year. Readers from the way back would know that this book and I have a troubled past. Too cheffy, too complicated, too many hard to find ingredients have been my complaints of this book in the past.

Let’s kick things off early in the evening with..wait for it…we need some sort of fanfare…ah…here he is…

Da da dadada…TEQUILA!

The Tijuana Sunset

This is billed as “A sophisticated take on the tequila sunrise”.

Okay fine. But IMHO, the only thing that makes a tequila sunrise any good is that gorgeous ombre effect of the grenadine and the orange juice. And if you are going to call that drink a sunset then that ombre effect needs to run the opposite way to the sunrise right?

Well, it is totally missing from the Tijuana Sunset so I guess the way the gradient goes is immaterial right?

Now, bear in mind I made both of these drinks in iso at a time when even generally easy to come by ingredients were scarce on the ground. Blood orange juice was an impossibility. I decided to sub in Blood Orange Soda instead of Blood Orange Juice and Soda. Did this affect the colouring? Possibly. However, as there is no picture in the book I suspect that they also did not get that beautiful colour array.

Looks may be one thing but taste is another. And when it came to taste the Tijuana Sunset was OMG….100% delicious!!! 😍😍😍. Tangy from the lime, a little sweet from the soda, a nice kick from the tequila and the touch of salt was GENIUS. I loved this so much I immediately made another which I garnished with a little slice of jalapeno. This made it even better!

I loved the Tijuana Sunset. I just wish it had a different name so there weren’t those expectations of what it was going to look like!

Wait up. Hold on. Do you think that by making the claim that it is a “sophisticated” take on the Tequila Sunrise that the authors are trying to say that the beautiful orange to deep red shading is somehow unsophisticated? Are they making fun of my love for a drink that looks pretty as well as tasting delish?

OMG…see what this book does? It makes me crazy! Or maybe that’s life after what now…seven weeks in iso?

Buenos Noches

Now this one looked the biz! It is a Mexican take on an Irish Coffee which is a drink I hold dear. And on paper it sounds delicious. Chilli infused tequila, cinnamon infused coffee…sign me up!

Okay, so truth be told. This was one of the worst things I have ever put in my mouth. Particularly because I had to wait 3 days for the tequila to infuse with the chipotle.

I actually cried after tasting this. Which I admit is an extreme reaction. But, at the moment, when our lives are so restricted, something that I was looking forward to for THREE days and which turned out to be a bitter disappointment might actually be worth a tear or two.

I felt this was bitter and flat. It lacked any sweetness to counteract the bitterness of the coffee and the heat of the chilli and had no zestiness to bring the bitter and hot flavours together.

I’m calling Goodnight Irene on the Buenos Noches.

But here’s that recipe. Just in case you have really repressed emotions and need to cry over something dumb instead of the horror that is the world as we know it.

Have a great week! Stay safe!

02
May
2020

10-Minute Autumn Salad

categories: Chestnuts, Salad, Vegetables

Autumn is truly here. Most days are bright and sunny days but with a little chill in the air to let you know that winter is on its way. The nights are getting cold and darkness is falling a little bit earlier each day. It is very pretty when I am out on my daily walk with the dogs. And it is perfect weather for an Autumnal Salad.

Autumn salad not only makes the use of one of my favourite autumn ingredients, chestnuts but the colours of the dish are meant to resemble the colours of autumn.

One of the paradoxes of living in iso is that, just when I have more time to cook, half the time I can’t be bothered. I feel like I can’t remember a time when I didn’t feel anxious or scared. And whilst I am trying to enjoy the pleasures of the little things such as the turning of the leaves, TBH, a lot of the time I just want to sleep and/or play mindless games on my phone. Another weird thing is that I am sleeping more than ever but constantly feel tired.

Anyway, for the days when I am feeling blah, this salad is a lifesaver. Not only does it only take around ten minutes to prepare but Autumn Salad looks so colourful and pretty, is healthy and can be varied to fit what you have in the fridge or what you feel like eating on the day!

Back in the days before the ‘rona I used to regularly stock up on little vacuum packets of roasted chestnuts from the Japanese department store Daiso. I usually have a few of these in my pantry to make this salad and other things requiring chestnuts. I used my last pack to make this one so, for future rounds, it looks like I will be roasting my own chestnuts! Good thing they are in season! This will take this recipe out of the 10-minute realm but it will be worth it!

The Recipe

The original recipe for the Autumn Salad comes from the May 2003 Delicious magazine. The basic recipe is this:

However, the joy of this salad lies in the variations.

Make it vegetarian

Substitute the Proscuitto for Blue Cheese (This is my favourite).
Throw in some chopped up pears if you like. Fresh or dried, both a great!

Make it vegan

Substitute the Proscuitto for Roast Pumpkin or Sweet Potato

You can serve this Autumn Salad on its own or for a larger meal, it is fabulous with a baked potato, loaded with butter and chives,

That’s me done for today. Stay safe!

22
Apr
2020

Name Plates: Steak Diane

categories: Name Plates, Steak, United States of America

Hello people of the internet and welcome to another edition of “Name Plates.” This is where we take a look at the real-life people behind our favourite meals. Today we are looking at the classic American dish of Steak Diane.

What is Steak Diane?

Steak Diane is a panfried steak served with a sauce made from the pan juices from the steak, cream, brandy and Worcestershire sauce. Of course there are thousands of variations on this but if we hone it down to it’s core, this is what makes a Steak Diane.

Back in the day, the steak was dramatically flambeed at the table! No wonder it became so popular. Who doesn’t love a bit of theatre with their meal! How many over zealous patrons ended the night with burnt off eyebrows do you think? But hey, nothing speaks of a good night out like first degree burns right?

I did not flambe my sauce because I am a total klutz and the world is already going to hell. I don’t need to be setting my kitchen on fire as the cherry on top of that particular pile of woe.

It tasted pretty good regardless!

Who Was Diane?

There are hundreds of theories on the Diane that inspired the sauce which inspired the steak. One is that it was named after the young daughter of Chef Beniamino Schiavon who “invented” the dish at the Drake Hotel in Manhattan in 1948.

Another theory has the dish evolving from the Roman times where plates of game meat were often given in honour to the Goddess of the Hunt, Diana. Over time and in France, these became known as dishes prepared “a la Diane”. Soldiers stationed in France in World War I took versions of these dishes home and over time, Venison a la Diane became good old Steak Diane.

I actually believe that, in all probability, this is the origin of Steak Diane.

My Preferred Origin Story

I wanted to raise a less familiar theory, one that I found on this website.

Let’s take a little trip in the Wayback machine to London in 1938, specifically Mayfair, and even more specifically to a restaurant called Tony’s Grill. Head chef at Tony’s was the eponymous Tony Clerici.

September 30 1938 was a dark day for Alfred Duff Cooper (yes, I know he has a dumbarse name but bear with me on this, he’s one of the good guys). The Munich Agreement which allowed Hitler to “annex” Czechoslovakia was signed that day. War was averted but for people like our boy Duff, this was only giving licence to that Nazi madman.

He and his friends gathered at Tony’s Grill for a dinner and some talk of doom and gloom. I can almost guarantee that the phrase “thin end of the wedge” was used. More than once. Ditto “slippery slope”.

Recognising that the group were not in their usual jovial (ie big eating, big drinking, big tipping) mood, Tony Clerici wanted to inject some joy into the evening. He did so by preparing a dish in honour of Duff’s beautiful and glamourous wife, Lady Diana Cooper.

And voila, Steak Diane was born!

Is this the face that launched a million steaks? I really hope so!

Can we all forget about the other origin stories and enjoy Steak Diane as a celebration of anti-fascism?

The Recipe

I used the Steak Diane Recipe from the Australian Women’s Weekly Retro Cookbook. And I must say….I think I got a pretty close resemblance!

Here’s the recipe. I added a tsp of Dijon Mustard into my sauce as well as it appeared in a number of Sauce Diane recipes I looked at, even though it is not contained in the recipe below.

Variations

As with many of these classic recipes there are a millionty one recipes on the interwebs. Here are some variations to type not ingredients to the sauce:

Steak Diane Pie….ooh yeah, this is going on my winter bake list for sure!
Chicken Diane….just in case we want a change from steak!
And here’s one for the vegetarians…Mushrooms Diane

Modern Day Diane

As ever, I get to choose a modern-day person to whom I would dedicate a Steak Diane. This one was possibly the hardest one yet. The early runner was Diane Lane, who starred in one of the movies that shaped my childhood, The Outsiders. I ADORED the book of this film. Sodapop Curtis was one of the first loves of my life and I cried a river or two when (spoiler alert) Johnny died. Diane Lane is perfectly cast as the beautiful Cherry!

However, in the end, Diane Keaton pipped her at the post. What is not to love about Diane Keaton? She is an outstanding actress, a style icon, a director, producer, photographer, real estate developer…is there anything she cannot do? If anyone deserves an eponymous steak it is surely she.

The above picture is a scene from The Godfather which is our current film club pick. I am going to try to watch 1 (tonight) and 2 (tomorrow) before our meeting on Wednesday. Good thing I have my reduced working week day off on Wednesday in case that plan goes awry! I have never seen any of The Godfather films so this is a real knowledge gap for me. Such a knowledge gap that I had no idea that Diane Keaton was even in it! Okay, I have 6 and a half hours of movies to watch so I need to get moving.

Have a great week. Stay safe and stay gold!

21
Apr
2020

Peach Melba – Dining with The Dame 2

categories: Desserts, Dining With The Dame, Peaches

Welcome to the second chapter of Dining with the Dame which is all about cooking the food found in the novels of Agatha Christie. Today we are delving into Agatha’s second novel The Secret Adversary which features the classic Peach Melba. I was planning to make Peach Melba for a “Name Plates” post down the track but The Secret Adversary pipped it at the post!

The Secret Adversary

The Secret Adversary is Dame Christie’s second published novel (1922). It introduces “The Young Adventurers” Tommy and Tuppence to the reading world. I have a real soft spot for Tommy and Tuppence. They are both a little displaced, not to mention broke after the WW1 where they worked as soldier and nurse respectively. Seeking excitement and cold hard cash they place an advertisement in the paper offering their services “No unreasonable offer refused”.

This leads to a tale of hijinks involving fake names, American millionaires, missing cousins and state secrets, and of course a criminal mastermind evil genius! It all ends happily and with the sound of wedding bells in the distance for Tommy and Tuppence!

If you do not fancy reading the book there is a made for tv adaptation from 1983 which, at the time of writing is available on Daily Motion.

There is also a more modern version set in the 1950’s starring David Walliams as Tommy and Jessica Raine as Tuppence. I have only been able to see the trailers for this on You Tube as I could not find it to buy / rent anywhere. It looks good but I think moving it to the 1950’s will change some of the dynamic of the book. One of the most moving images in the book was that returned soldiers unable to find work after the war would go from door to door selling poems!

The Covers

I find it odd that not many of the old style covers feature Tommy and Tuppence. My favourite here is the pulp fictionesque cover on the top right. I also like the red, black and white one bottom left and the middle bottom one that references the sinking of the Lusitania.

My least favourites are middle left where the secret adversary seems to be an overgrown fly. Who let Jeff Goldblum in? I also think that the mask in the bottom right one looks a little bit like Vincent Price.

The Recipe

“On second thoughts I prefer The Picadilly. It’s nearer”

…

“Is this a new brand of humour? Or is your brain really unhinged?” inquired Tommy.

“Your last supposition is the correct one. I have come into money and the shock has been too much for me. For that particular form of mental trouble an eminent physician recommends unlimited hors-d’œuvre, Lobster a l’américane, Chicken Newberg, and Pêche Melba”

Peach Melba combines peaches, fresh raspberries and raspberry coulis with vanilla icecream. So simple! So delicious!

Peach season was pretty much over when I made this so I used tinned peaches. Fresh poached peaches would be amazing!!!! I also added in some almonds for a bit of crunch but essentially I used Nigella Lawson’s Peach Melba recipe.

Other Food Mentioned in The Secret Adversary

Have you read The Secret Adversary? What did you think of it? Which is your favourite cover? I am really enjoying these old style mystery stories whilst in iso. Book 3 is back to Poirot for a murder mystery set in France. Ooh la la!

Have a great week. Stay home, stay safe!