British food!

[fenchurch]

Our next-door-neighbors, M and T, have been in Europe (first Denmark and then visiting T's parents in the UK) for the past three weeks, so we've been watching their cat and their house. No big deal... they'd actually borrowed our cat waterer and cat feeder, so it was mostly just a matter of going over and spending time with the cat and making sure she wasn't too lonely.

Well, M just stopped by to say thank you and to drop off a basket filled with British foods and a cookbook!! It's James Martin's Easy British Food, which she thought I wasn't likely to have. They both know that we love British food, and actually find it a bit funny (the first time M came over to see our new kitchen, she was looking at the cupboards, opened one and said "Hey! You're American, why do you have Mushy Peas?!?").

The rest, though, is filled with odds and ends, mostly some of T's favorites, apparently, and a few things they'd never seen available in the US... there's some Bramble and Apple preserves, Apple Chutney with Westcountry Cider, Jaffa Cakes (which I can actually get locally, they're just expensive), Cadbury Bournville chocolate (I love this stuff), a small tin of Cadbury Drinking Chocolate (which I usually have to mail order), Thornton's Vanilla Fudge, a Chocoholic Flapjack and a Chocolate Orange Flapjack from the Devonvale Bakery, Moore's Dorset Biscuit Assortment, and a package of Tesco Shortcrust Pastry Mix.

I'm in British food heaven!

Comments

[sunnyd-lite.livejournal.com]

Yummy! *begins to wonder what's home for dinner*

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

Ugh Jaffa cakes. Things of evil.

Bournville is too sweet for me.

[queenofattolia.livejournal.com]

Heh. You sound exactly like me -- people always look at me funny when I start singing the praises of prawn cocktail and cheese-and-onion crisps. I have fifty thousand British cookbooks from which I actually cook. I love Eccles cakes and flapjacks (I have the best recipe -- they're exactly like the ones they sell in Harrods). And even though game birds and large honking English-style roast beef...things scare me, I love bread sauce and Yorkshire pudding and crispy roasted potatoes and parsnips AND Brussels sprouts.

Dang. If only it weren't 98F here now...

[corellian-sugar.livejournal.com]

Yay for British food! I'm envious! Have fun with your stash!

[julietvalcouer.livejournal.com]

Does it happen to have a recipe for treacle tart in it?

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Yeah it does! But I haven't had time to transcribe it yet. I'm going to have to set a reminder for when I get back from Idaho, if you don't mind waiting a bit longer.

[julietvalcouer.livejournal.com]

Not at all! This sounds like a book I need to have on my Amazon wish list.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

Okay, I finally remembered that I still needed to send you the recipe! Sorry 'bout that!

This is really designed for simplicity and quickness, so it's not likely to be the best recipe out there.

Treacle Tart

butter, for greasing
500g (18oz) ready made sweet pastry
plain flour, for rolling
about 400g (14oz) golden syrup
125g (4.5oz) fresh breadcrumbs
2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
whipped cream, to serve

(BTW, I'm assuming you know what golden syrup is, but it's generally not easy to find in the US. They carry it sometimes at Cost Plus World Market (http://www.worldmarket.com/index.htm) and I've found it from time to time at our local British grocery store and at a local Indian grocery store. It's worth getting if you can find it, although I've heard from some of my British friends in the US that it's possible to substitute light corn syrup, though the amounts are usually a bit different.)

1. Preheat the oven to 350F, and butter a 14 inch ovenproof tart tin.

2. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface until very thin and, using the tart tin as a template, cut around the dish, allowing enough to go up the sides of the tin. Place the disk of pastry in the bottom of the dish and up over the sides. Prick the base with a fork, and bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly golden. Remove from the oven, and lower the oven tempreature to 275F.

3. In a bowl, mix together the golden syrup, breadcrumbs, eggs and lemon juice and zest. Once combined, spoon into the pastry case and bake at the reduced temperature for 50-60 minutes.

4. Trim off the edges of the pastry, and cut the tart into portions. Allow the tart to cool slightly before serving. It is best eaten warm, with a spoonful of whipped cream.

Serves 10

[(Anonymous)]

Lol, don't worry, it had slipped MY mind, too. With my limited experience of it, golden syrup is rather midway between honey and baker's glucose in texture--it's just not as liquidy as corn syrup, though that or molasses (or possibly molasses lightened with light corn syrup) would be my suggested substitute.

[julietvalcouer.livejournal.com]

Gah. That was me.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

I guessed! Yeah, I'm not sure what the good substitute would be. Golden syrup is, essentially, glucose syrup (the stuff I usually find is generally listed as being condensed cane syrup). I happen to think that corn syrup tastes awful, so I was rather pleased to discover a potential alternative.

[julietvalcouer.livejournal.com]

The one time I've handled it, it stretched and stuck like baker's glucose, but it was a honey-gold color. Baker's glucose is clear. Also a pain. Hideously sticky and hard to measure, but it's an invert sugar so it's good in syrups to keep it from recrystalizing. As is honey, suggesting it might not be a bad substitute.