The Kitchen Corner

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXX, 19 December 1936, Page 12

The Kitchen Corner

SOME MORE SEASONAL RECiPES Appended arc some additional seasonal recipes, a number of which are given in response to requests by correspondents:—

YOUR CHRISTMAS PUDDING A VARIED SELECTION Surely no tradition of the national cuisine was ever more faithfully observed than the eating of Christmas pudding. That no doubt is why the range of recipes is so wide. Under the one title of “Christmas pudding” eacli home cook has her special recipe suited to the tastes and requirements and economic status of her family. Roval Plum .Pudding Her Majesty, Queen Mary, has permitted the publication of the plum pudding recipe prepared by the Palace Chef. Mr Ccrard. The ingredients arc: lib currants, lib sultanas, lib stoned raisins, soz minced apples, lib breadcrumbs, lib beef suet, Gjoz candled peel, Boz flour, 3oz Demerara sugar, 5 eggs, Joz grated cinnamon, Joz grated cloves, Joz nutmeg, J teaspoonful pudding spice, J gill brandy, J gill rum, 1 pint beer. Boil 4 hours. Dickens’ Plum Pudding One pound currants, lib breadcrumbs, lib' raisins, lib sultanas, Jib figs (finely chopped). Jib candied peel, 1 nutmeg (or less), 1 teaspoon ground mace. Jib chopped almonds, G eggs, ljlb chopped suet, 1 glass whisky, rum or brandy, sugar to taste, and enough flour to bind the pudding together. The cloth must be scalded and thoroughly floured, and the pudding boiled from six to seven hours.

Apple Christmas Pudding This is included for the delicious flavour given by unusual ingredients: ■Jib flour, lib breadcrumbs, lib suet, jib apples (peeled and chopped), Jib raisins, Jib currants, Jib sultanas, 4oz candied peel, 2oz preserved ginger, 2oz dried figs, 2oz almond kernels, Jib sugar, grated rind of one orange and J lemon, 1 teaspoon mixed spice, 5 eggs, 1 wineglass brandy (or milk), J teaspoon carbonate soda, J teaspoon salt. Prepare ingredients, and mix and boil for 6 hours.

Steamed Cherry PuddingTwo eggs and their weight in butter, sugar, and flour; i teaspoon baking powder, 1 dessertspoon rich milk, a little almond essence if liked. Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add well-beaten eggs, sifted flour and rising and milk. Then stir in lib of fine ripe cherries—blackhearts for preference —which have been stoned. Turn into a well-buttered mould, and steam for two hours. Serve with cream, or with rich custard sauce.

“Baby Puddings’! Christmas being the children’s festival, some mothers make two different pudding mixtures, one, for the kiddies. having the following ingredients: Take gib fine breadcrumbs, Jib chopped dates, juice of two oranges, Coz brown sugar, 4oz of shredded suet, one teaspoonful of ground cinnamon, two eggs, one teaspoonful of salt, three tablespoonfuls marmalade. Prepare the fruit and mix all the dry ingredients together. Stir in the marmalade, the orange juice, and the two eggs well beaten. Mix well and let it stand for a few hours. Then turn into buttered moulds or smallish cups .and steam for 1A hours. The other mixture is rather rich, literally stuffed with fruits for the older people.

Christmas Pudding Take lib each of flour, currants, sultanas and candied peel, lib each of brown sugpr, suet and seeded raisins, two large apples, half-dozen prunes, grated rind of two lemons, jib sweet almonds, 31b breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoor.ful each of cinnamon and salt, halfteaspoonful ground ginger, a little nutmeg, six eggs, one glass brandy, a little milk.

Prepare the fruit and put raisins, apples (peeled and cored), candied peel and prunes (soaked and stoned) through the mincer. Blanch and chop thp almonds and grate the lemon rinds, chop the suet very finely, sprinkling it with some of the flour. Sieve the flour, salt and spices into a iarge basin, and add the other ingredients. Mix thoroughly, and make a well in the centre. Pour in the eggs, well beaten, and mix from the centre outwards, adding cnougfi milk to make all of such a consistency that the mixture will drop off the spoon. Cover and leave for 24 hours. Add brandy and .mix again. Take some wellgreased basins or moulds and fill twothirds full with the mixture. Cover with a greased paper and then with pudding cloth. Put the puddings injp a large saucepan of boiling water which reaches about half-way up the side of the basin, and steam from six to eight hours, according to size. Give each pudding a second and shorter steaming before serving. Turn out on a hot dish and wipe off any mpis.tiirc round the sides. Pour a glass of brandy round and set it on fire before the pudding is placed on the table. Serve with sauce.

Eggless Puddings .Some tested recipes for eggless puddings are:— (1) One cup breadcrumbs, 2 large tablespoons sago (soaked overnight in sufficient milk to cover), J cup sugar, 1 cup raisins. 2 tablespoons butter, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, dissolved in boiling water. Mix with sufficient milk to make fairly moist. Boil for 3 hours. (2) Two cups flour, 2 cups currants. 2 cups milk, 2 tablespoons butter or good dripping, 2 tablespoons treacle, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda. Mix well and steam for two hours. (3) Two cups flour, 1 cup seeded raisins, 1 cup currants. 1 cup sugar, half a nutmeg, a litle lemon peel. 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda, 2 tablespoons butter. 2 cups boiling water. Mix butter, soda, and boiling water together. In a separate basin mix all the sifted dry ingredients well together. Blend the two mixtures, add the fruit, and leave to stand overnight. If it is not left to stand the pudding will not be a success. Jellied Plum Pudding'

One level tablespoon gelatine (soaked in J cup cold water), 1 cup milk. 1 teaspoon each essence vanilla and orange, pinch salt, 2 tablespoons cocoa. J cup raisins, J cup chopped dates, J cup chopped walnuts, J packet cutup figs, -J cup sugar, whites 2 eggs. Warm milk in pan, add fruit. When hot, add cocoa and gelatine, salt, sugar and whites of eggs slightly beaten. Lastly heat thoroughly but do not boil. Put in mould to set. Serve with cream.

CRISP BISCUITS FOR THE AFTERNOON TEA 1 TABLE j Oaties Two cups rolled oats, ;; cup flour, J cup butter, I cup sugar, 1 teaspoon treacle, £ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, 1 small cup chopped walnuts, a few seeded raisins. Mix oats, flour and sugar; melt butter and treacle, and stir them in, then add soda dissolved in 2 tablespoons of boiling water, also chopped nuts and raisins. Drop on to a greased tray, and bake , in a slow oven for 30 minutes. j Brown Biscuits i Six ounces butter, J cup sugar, 1 j cup flour, 2 cups rolled oats,' 1 teaspoon treacle, golden syrup, or honey, i teaspoon salt, 1 level teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, 2 tablespoons boiling water. Put butter and treacle in a saucepan and melt them. Dissolve soda in the boiling water, and add to saucepan. Mix flour, oats, and sugar together, pour in the butter mixture, and blend well. Drop in small spoonfuls on to a. greased oven tray, leaving room for spreading. Bake in a slow oven for 20-25 minutes. Coconut Biscuits Eight ounces self-raising flour, j teaspoon salt, 1 egg, 3oz butter, 3oz sugar, A tablespoons coconut,, a few drops essence of lemon. Sift flour, sugar, and salt, rub in butter, add I coconut and beaten egg, and mix to a | dry paste. Roll out about hall’ an inch thick, and cut into rounds or fancy shapes. Brush with egg or milk, and sprinkle with a little coconut and crushed sugar from candied peel. Bake for 15-25 minutes in a moderate oven, j Champagne Biscuits j Four ounces butter, 1 cup sugar, ; pinch of salt, 2 cups flour, 1 rounded teaspoon cream of tartar, 1 level tea- j spoon bicarbonate of soda, 1 table--spoon desiccated coconut, a very little ! milk, 1 egg. Rub butter into sifted i flour, rising, and salt. Add sugar and i coconut, then well-beaten egg, and j sufficient milk to make a stiff dough. Turn out on to a floured board, roll very thin, cut into biscuits, and bake j in a moderate oven till light brown (about 10 minutes). Chocolate Biscuits Eight ounces flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, pinch of salt, 1 table- j spoon grated chocolate, 4oz butter, 4oz j castor sugar, 1 egg. Sift flour, baking 1 powder, and salt. Add sugar, and rub j in butter. Melt chocolate, cool slight- j ly, and add. Mix into a dough with [ the beaten egg, and a little water if necessary. Roll out, cut into shapes, brush with beaten egg, and place a , piece of blanched almond on top of each.

Mincemeat In preparation for the Christmas season it is time that the mincemeat I be made. The following is an ecoI nomieal recipe, but one that you will jlike: lib chopped apples,' Alb raisins, : stoned and quartered. Alb tinely-chop- ; ped suet, 2oz chopped candied peel, 1 | saltspoon grated nutmeg, ;,*lb currants, washed and picked, jib castor sugar, juice and grated rind one lemon. Mix all these ingredients well together, and , keep in closely-covered jars in a coo), dry place.

Christmas Cake One pound flour, lib butter, lib sugar, lib raisins, lib sultanas, lib cun unis, Jib mixed peel, .jib almonds, add ginger and figs if liked, 12 eggs, wineglass of brandy. Beat whites of egg;; separately and add to butter. Beat yolks with sugar and add to mixture. Finally (lour and fruit. Bake in a steady oven for 31 hours. Beef and Ham Sausage Half-pound minced raw beef. Jib bacon, minced. Jib breadcrumbs, 1 egg, gait, pepper, nutmeg. Mix the beef and bacon; flavour the breadcrumbs with one teaspoonful of salt, half a teaspoonful of pepper, and a little grated nutmeg. Add this to the meat, and mix with a well-beaten egg. Form the mixture into a neat thick roll, and fold and fasten a pudding cloth round it. Place in a saucepan of boiling water, or in the stock pot if you happen to be making stock, and lot it simmer for 2 hours. Take it up and remove the cloth while it is hot. When cold brush over with a glaze made of dissolved gelatine coloured with meat extract. This sausage is very savoury, and keeps well for some days in a cool place. Bananas au Gratin Melt some butter in a piedish, add a little salt and paprika. Slice some bananas into the dish, and turn them over and over in the butter. Cover them with breadcrumbs and a sprinkling of grated cheese. Dot with butter and cook gently for about threequarters of an hour. Almond Macaroons Eight ounces Hour, 1 level teaspoon baking powder, Goz sugar, 2 egg yolks, 6oz butter, and a few blanched almonds. Method: Cream butter and sugar, beat in egg yolks, add flour with sifted baking powder. With floured hands roll into small balls, and put on cold oven tray—allowing room for spreading —press half almond on each ball. Cook about 10 minutes in medium oven. Gas oven: Heat at 12, and cook at four. Chinese Chews One cup dates, 1 cup chopped walnuts, 3 cup flour, J cup sugar, 1 dessertspoonful of melted butter, J teaspoon baking powder, pinch of salt, 1 egg. Method: Mix together the flour and baking powder, the dates (cut up small), the walnuts and sugar. Add the beaten egg and the melted butter. Bake in a flat meat-dish for half to three-quarters of an hour. When cooked, turn out, sprinkle with icing sugar, and cut into squares while still hot. Trifle About half dozen stale sponge cakes, jam, J pint custard. J pint cream, 1 dessertspoon sugar, loz almonds, 2 or 3 cherries, few macaroons.

Cut the sponge cakes in halves, spread thickly with jam, put them into a deep dish, piling them as high as possible, placing macaroons and a few chopped almonds between each layer. Sprinkle the sherry over. Make the custard and when cold pour it over the cake. Sweeten and whip the cream. Decorate the trifle through a cream pipe. Ornament with strips of almonds and cherries cut in rings.

Tea Cakes Tested recipes for tea cakes (which should be served hot, with plenty of butter) are:— (1) Two ounces butter (1 rounded tablespoon), 1 egg, Boz flour, £ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda, 4oz sugar, 1 gill milk, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, pinch of salt. Sift flour, salt, and rising together several times. Beat the egg. Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add the egg, and mix well. Add the milk gradually, then sifted dry ingredients. Bake in a well-buttered tin, in a moderate oven, for about half an hour. (2) With cinnamon: 2oz butter, 3oz castor sugar, 1 gill milk, pinch'of salt, Boz self-raising flour, cinnamon, 1 large or 2 small eggs. Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten egg, reserving a little of the white. Then add milk, and, lastly, sifted flour and a pinch of salt. Mix well. Bake in a greased tin in a moderate oven for half an hour, having very low heat for the last 15 minutes. Brush over with white of egg mixed with icing sugar. Chocolate Petit-Fours Four ounces icing sugar, 1 tablespoon cocoa, 3oz ground almonds, 1 egg white, and loz walnuts, teaspoon vanilla, few glace cherries. Method: Beat egg white quite stiff, add remaining ingredients, roll into small balls, put hole in centre, and place cherry in each, and bake in cool oven. Gas: Heat at 12, and cook at two for 15 minutes. Electric: Heat to 250, and cook with top and bottom off.