For a tea party with 2 of our granddaughters, Carol made a batch of scones based on a recipe in The Cook’s Encyclopedia of Baking. The recipe made 30 mini scones, which were a hit with cherry jam and whipped cream. 2 cups (8.66 oz.) all-purpose flour 1-1/2 tsp. baking powder 1/3 cup sugar ½ Read More …
Hot cross buns are an Easter classic, which I remember from my childhood. This version is adapted from Marie Rayner’s book The Best of British Baking: Classic Sweet Treats and Savory Bakes. The photo shows a half recipe. The only hard part of halving the recipe was including half of a beaten egg (i.e. 2 Read More …
While the family was together after Christmas, Nick asked for a moist and gooey cake. Cape Malva Pudding would have fit the bill, but we had made it for Christmas Eve, so I decided to make Sticky Toffee Pudding, which is similar. This version is adapted from The Quick Recipe by Cook’s Illustrated. It will Read More …
A couple of years ago, in their “Slow Food Fast” series, the Wall St. Journal published a British version of “fish en excabeche”, “Seared Mackerel With Soused Vegetables”, with the oily fish mackerel balanced off by lightly pickled root vegetables and a bitter leafy vegetable. I made three substitutions due to ingredient availability. For mackerel, Read More …
A traditional way to preserve meat and seafood was to cook it and store it in containers (pots) protected from the bacteria and oxygen in the air by a layer of fat. England and Ireland have a number of traditional “potted” dishes, and potted shrimp is a classic. It makes a very nice appetizer or Read More …
This is another variation of the Basic No-Knead Bread from Jim Lahey of the Sullivan Street Bakery and which was popularized in the New York Times. This is an Irish-style brown bread with raisins. Like the other variations, it turned out very well. Total elapsed time on these breads is 15-25 hours, so they need to be started Read More …
A reading assignment for one of my granddaughters involved analyzing a recipe for Irish soda bread. We followed up the assignment by making the bread from the recipe last night, and we enjoyed the bread very much for breakfast this morning. Like most quick breads, it benefits from little handling, so that it is tender, Read More …
This is a very attractive traditional dessert weather. It can be either made as one big trifle or as individual trifles. This is how I made 6 individual trifles based on a recipe in Cuisine, Texas. I was using up some leftover sponge cake although a pound cake would also be good. This version does Read More …
I recently bought several pounds of pork bangers from www.southafricanfoodshop.com and decided to use some of them in the English classic comfort food, bangers and mash(ed potatoes) with onion gravy. Since pan-frying sausages and making mashed potatoes are quite standard, in this recipe I will focus on the onion gravy. This version is adapted from Read More …
This is a variation on a signature recipe from a prominent London hotel, The Goring. They make their omelet with lobster, but since we get good crabmeat here in Richmond, I have substituted the crab. I made this as the hotel does, in individual servings, but I think it could easily be done in a Read More …