In the galley with Old Weather

[Randi]

This started as a private discussion, but we had so much fun we decided to share it and invite everyone to join in!

Randi:
Wed Dec 16th, 2020 is Chocolate Covered Anything Day

Joan/AvastMH:
A long time ago you could go on gourmet chocolate weekends which featured Oxford. We had a number of small chocolatiers at the time. The Saturday night spectacular meal was at the Randolph Hotel and featured chocolate in every course. When asked about the main course it transpired that the Brussel sprouts came with dark choco sauce.
I didn't rush to book on the next trip.

Randi:
I love Brussel sprouts, but I'm not sure about the combination.

Caro:
Nothing can redeem Brussels sprouts in my opinion.

Michael:
Many years ago the Purves family had gathered for our Christmas Dinner. The menu was always the same, and always featured Brussel Sprouts. In those days, my mother was rather a traditional English cook who grew up in County Durham. If it was a vegetable, you boiled it hard for at least 20 minutes, or maybe longer.
Anyway, when my mom was dishing out the supper, one of my sisters, I forget which one but probably Jill, said, "Please, no Brussel Sprouts for me." My mother said, "We always have Brussel Sprouts," but didn't put any on Jill's plate. Then my other sister said, "Please, none for me, either." My mom was shocked. "Well, at least your dad likes them." "Actually, Robbie, I don't," he said. "Well, for that matter, neither do I, but we always have them," she said.

Randi:
My grandmother was not English, but she did take that approach to vegetables.
Mom was a very good cook and did not believe in overcooking vegetables.

Joan:
Vegetables had one fate in our house. They were all condemned to boiling-to-mush, except the spuds which were always perfect. One year Dad decided to try out a new fangled recipe where the Brussels were fried with chestnuts in butter. What a transformation...loved by all, praised to the heights! Until the next day when many windows had to be left open on a very bitter day. It didn't put us off...that was how we had sprouts from then on....yummy on the day and windows open for Boxing Day

Randi:
That sounds wonderful!!! Recipe?
I usually cut them in half and sauté+steam (pan covered) them in olive oil. Sometimes I add parsnips and carrots or sweet potatoes. I have been tempted to try doing it with butter!

Michael:
Mary does a similar thing. Cut them in half, steam them for five minutes then saute them in butter or bacon fat (sorry, Randi) for five minutes. Sometimes she adds cashews instead of chestnuts. The latter are hard to find here.

Randi:
Bacon fat, or a bit of bacon, sounds very tempting!

Bob:
Wow, OW cooking. Maybe we need a new forum topic? I roast the beasties, with olive oil, coarse salt, pepper and cumin. Hot oven until crispy on the outside.

Joan:
Bob- that's a new way of doing them. I'll try that.
In the meantime here's the Arthur recipe. If you like the bacon idea add about 4 ounces (100 gm) of finely chopped streaky bacon.:
Serves 4
2lb brussels, 1lb chestnuts (weighed in the shell, 3 oz (75gm) butter.
Prepare the brussels by cross-cutting the bottom. Boil and shell the chestnuts. Put the butter in a frying pan and heat until just bubbling. Add the brussels and chestnuts (and bacon if using ). Turn the heat down fairly low and put a lid on the pan for 5 minutes, then remove the lid, increase the heat a little, and stir every minute or so to brown everything (takes about 10 minutes).

I like the idea of the cashews Michael Certainly saves boiling your fingers to peel the chestnuts. We had two finger-boiling sessions each year. The first was skinning the almonds for the Christmas cake around early November, and the second was the chestnuts on Christmas day. Happy memories - although painful at the time

[Michael]

Just because it is Christmas...

About 50 years ago, my mom gave me her recipe for Christmas Cake. And, about the same, I got Max Ferguson's recipe for Christmas Cake. Max Ferguson was a much loved CBC announcer who had an afternoon music program, filled with music and chats with his sidekick, Alan McPhee. And then, around 1985, I got Margaret Getty's recipe for Christmas Cake. My mom's cake is a traditional Christmas cake from northern England, and I make it most years. It's the only one Mary likes. Max's is more like a nut and fruit loaf. It has hardly any flour, and it's a wonder it holds together. Max said it's not any good until it has aged about two years and he was right. Margaret Getty's cake is a wonder. Margaret was the wife of the Premier of Alberta. For many years, I made all three recipes, for a total of seven cakes. Once I had a supply built up, I cut back to making them every two years and then every three. I haven't made any now since 2014, and I just started a Margaret Getty cake from 2013. Even at seven years old, the three cakes are still wonderful. I will probably have to start baking again in 2022.

When I was in the Whitehorse Community Choir I would bring half of Margaret Getty's cake to the Christmas Party which we held after the last Christmas concert. That cake was always eagerly waited for, so much so that when I put two of them up for a fund raising auction, one cake went for $100 and the other for $80. If you want a really luxurious cake, this is the one for you. The longer it ages, the better it is. I soak each cake in 1/2 cup of navy rum, wrap them in cheesecloth and baker's paper and then inside two tightly closed plastic bags. I used to freeze them, but now I just store them in boxes in the basement.

Code: Select all

Margaret Getty’s Christmas Cake

1½ lb halved glace cherries	6 eggs
2 lb diced fruit mix	3 cups sifted flour
1½ lb ready-cut peel	1 tsp. baking powder
½ lb citron peel slivered	½ tsp. baking soda
½ lb glaced pineapple cut in thin wedges	2 tsp. cinnamon
2 lb seedless raisins (5 ½ cups)	1 tsp. allspice
½ lb golden raisins (1 ½ cup)	½ tsp. mace
1 lb currants	½ tsp. ginger
½ lb split blanched almonds	2 tsp. instant coffee
¼ lb broken pecans	1 tsp. salt
1 cup butter	½ cup honey
1 cup brown sugar	2/3 cup apricot jam
2 tsp. vanilla	1 cup rum or brandy
2 tsp. lemon rind

In a large bowl, combine washed and dried raisins, currants and ½ cup of rum. Let stand covered for 24 hours.

The next day, combine prepared fruits and nuts and the rest of the rum ( ½ cup). Let stand 1½  hours. Then mix with raisins and toss well with ½ cup of flour.

Cream butter and sugar until light. Add vanilla, lemon rind and blend. Add eggs one at a time. Mix well. Set aside this butter mixture. Then blend honey and apricot jam. Set aside.

Sift flour (2½ cups) and spices together, set aside. Alternately add flour and jam mixtures to butter mixture. Add fruit and stir well so all fruit is coated by batter.

Place cake in a well-greased pan lined with 2 to 3 layers of brown paper.

Bake in slow over at 300F until done, a knife inserted comes out clean.

Baking times: for 4-inch pan, 2 to 2½ hours; for 6-inch pan, 3 to 3½ hours; for 8-inch pan, 4 to 4½ hours. If browning too fast, cover with brown paper.
I use 2 hours for a loaf pan. This recipe make enough for three.

Wrap cake in cheesecloth soaked in rum or brandy. Keep this cloth moist. Store in an airtight tin. (I use about 1/3 cup of rum for each cake. I wrap my cake in cheesecloth, then heavy aluminum foil and then in a heavy plastic bag with the air removed and tied tightly closed.) 

Keep in closed containers until soft, then store in a cool place or in freezer.

[studentforever]

My mother used to make Christmas cakes as presents for elderly family and friends. A North country recipe from her grandmother. You have to make them in October really (Stir up Sunday is too late) then you invert them, prick the base and trickle over spirit of choice. Then wrap until required. While I was doing my PhD mum had elbow problems and I made 12 cakes in aweekend. She wanted a similar mix for her golden wedding cake and I couldn't find a tin until about 10 days before the event. I was working so I 'borrowed' a syringe from the lab and injected the cake (about 1ml per stab as needle withdrawn) everyone said how lovely and moist it was.

PS I like sprouts, plain but cooked for no more than 10 minutes.

[Caro]

Good thinking with the syringe, Ros.
I make my cakes three months before Christmas, puddings two months before.
However, I could be tempted to try Michael's cake recipe right now. I've got a new bottle of rum.

PS I still don't like sprouts.

[Michael]

I had a friend in Whitehorse who used a syringe, too. I'm tempted to try it when I next make some cakes.

[jil]

I'm definitely wishing that I hadn't decided not to make a cake this year. Perhaps I should start next year's now!

I love sprouts although I haven't got any for Christmas dinner. I've had them several times in the last few weeks and as I had the oven on I tried them in a small casserole dish with some butter, bit of water, salt, pepper and crushed juniper berries. They were really nice.

For Christmas (as well as the roasted veg) I've got some braised red cabbage (with onion, apple, port and various spices). I did a batch last week and froze some, the rest was great as a stew with added chestnuts.

[Randi]

Yum!

[AvastMH]

The family Christmas pudding recipe includes Barley Wine as the preservative and it works very well. I might have told this story before. We used to make up about 10 x 2lb puddings at one go. They were cooked in Nana's old 'witches cauldron' that took up all of the stove top. And all of the gas rings were lit under it, at low level after coming to the boil. The puds cooked all night long. They were in white china pud basins with greaseproof paper and old cotton rag tops tied tightly with string. Once cooled they went into the cupboard in mum and dad's room. No pudding that was less than a year old was considered ready to eat. One got lost which nearly caused a panic but another old one was found. Some years later the lost pudding turned up hidden well away in some old pillow cases. It was 7 years old. I will never forget the blackness, the richness of the smell, and the depth of flavour. It was beyond compare. Bliss

[Randi]

I don't remember hearing it, although you may have mentioned something about Christmas puddings.

[Randi]

I finally got chestnuts
Brussels, parsnips, and chestnuts fried/steamed in a butter and olive oil mix.
Good!
I might add sweet potato next time.

[Michael]

[AvastMH]

What time's dinner please Randi!?! I'm inviting myself

[Randi]

Sunday, 6pm

[Michael]

What's the wine pairing???

[Randi]

Tea.

[AvastMH]

Tea.

I'm on it ...

[Randi]

Let us know when it's ready

[Michael]

[AvastMH]

Let us know when it's ready

OK

[Randi]

U.S. Navy's Soft Sugar Cookie Recipe from WWII, and How to Make it at Home

Sometimes even Sailors have a sweet tooth, and for anyone who has ever wanted to eat like a Sailor in the U.S. Navy during World War II, now you can do so. NHHC recently posted, on its YouTube channel, the Navy’s 1945 recipe for soft sugar cookies. Communication and Outreach Division’s Tom Frezza hosted the video. “I have a few different editions of the U.S. Navy's cookbook and it was during quarantine, so I was looking for something to do and something that we could share with the general public,” he said. “And, well, at the beginning, everybody was cooking at home and I figured, why not break out the cookbook and actually try some of these recipes and make some videos that we could share with the public and see what people thought, and make it so that they could make these at home, as well.” Frezza said he picked soft sugar cookies because its “probably one of the easier ones to make.” It’s likely the reason why Navy cooks often made sugar cookies for dessert. Not only does Frezza explain the recipes that he makes from the Navy cookbooks, he also makes the foods themselves—after scaling down the recipes to more manageable amounts. Most of the original recipes are for about 100 portions. For more, read the article. To learn how to make the cookies, click here.