Old-Fashioned Louise Slice

In 1879, a young man named John Edmonds set foot on the Northern Island Shores of New Zealand. At just 20 years of age, he made the long voyage to a land of promise, leaving behind the gloomy London skies for a new life with his young wife, Jane. Together, they opened a general grocery store and settled into an antipodean lifestyle. He began making his own baking powder to sell in store, and his first batch of 200 tins went on sale that same year.

In 1908, Thomas Edmonds took over his father’s company, offering a gift to loyal patrons with thanks for ongoing custom. It was a 50 page booklet of economical, everyday recipes and cooking hints. Every couple who announced their engagement in the newspaper received a free copy. For the already espoused, housewives could apply in writing to receive complimentary issue.

In 1955 the first Deluxe Edition of the cookbook went on sale. Currently 3.5  million copies of the Deluxe Edition have been printed over the past 50 years. Most New Zealand homes have more than one version.

I have but one.

It’s missing it’s cover and several pages. The remaining pages are well thumbed, dog eared and spattered. The baking section, in particular, has seen many a kitchen. The imperial measurements have hand written metric conversions noted by previous owners. I assume these notations show his or her favourites. One of which, is this, a humble slice.

The very first bite transports me to my childhood… jam slice and cold milk under the mulberry tree.

Old-Fashioned Louise Slice

Slice base
125 grams butter, softened
¾ cup castor sugar
2 large eggs, separated
1 ¾ cups plain flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¾ cup raspberry jam

Coconut topping
2 egg whites
¼ cup castor sugar
1 ¼ cups coconut
½ teaspoon vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 150c.
Grease and line a 30 cm x 20 cm baking tin.
Cream the butter and sugar in a medium bowl until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg yolks one at a time.
Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold through the mixture
Press an even layer into the tin.
Top with a layer of jam.
Whisk egg whites until stiff and add sugar gradually, a little at a time, continuously whisking.
Fold in coconut and vanilla essence.
Layer topping over the jam and sprinkle with additional coconut, if desired.

Bake  for 30 – 35 minutes and let cool in tin.

Serve with a milk moustache whilst sitting under a mulberry tree.

Disclaimer: I am not a fan of supermarket desiccated coconut, so I make my own dehydrated flakes, which is why, in my image, my topping is… well… rustic. If you use smaller flakes or packet coconut, your topping will be a lot more smooth – so be prepared. 

Date and Nut Loaf ~ Vintage Style

Alongside loving vintage cook books comes the love of vintage cookware. On a recent road trip, I came across a genuine vintage Willow nut loaf tin in a country second-hand store.

Mine.

I have many vintage recipes that call for round loaf tin. Date loaf, nut loaf, or date and nut loaf in many guises. I have fond memories of my paternal grandmother, manual rotary whisk in hand, whizzing this up and serving  us rounds slathered in rich creamy butter for afternoon tea.  Her mother used to bake to the same recipe, using aluminium foil and empty food cans. Such luxury was the round nut loaf tin to those that could afford one.

The recipe I have chosen is from The Commonsense Cookery Book, this time, the 1959 release. .

One of the things I love finding in vintage recipes is the quirkiness of the measurements. In the absence of exact science and precise measurements bakers call for today, there’s often reference to a bit of this, a dash of that, or a splash of something else.  ‘Cooking by cups’ was very common through the depression, the recession and the post war years. Cup recipes were easy, easy to remember, easy to manage, and with utensils required kept to a few, easily accessible for most people. This recipe trusts you will understand the needs for a small cup of milk. Yes? 

Date and Nut loaf using a loaf tin: 1959*

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dates
1/2 cup walnuts
2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
Small cup of milk
1 tb butter
Pinch of salt

Method:
Beat butter and sugar to a cream.
Add a well beaten egg.
Add milk gradually.
Add chopped dates and chopped walnuts.
Stir in lightly the flour, baking powder and salt, sifted.
3/4 fill the greased loaf tin and secure both ends.
Stand upright and bake in moderate oven 3/4 hour.

This recipe makes enough for 2 loaf tins. Don’t try to fill in a single bake, your tin will explode.

Serve just as my Nan did – slathered in butter and with a nice cup of tea.

Don’t  mind if I do.

*Reproduced

Breakfast Cookery 1940

I’m meandering through another vintage cookbook. This time, it’s ‘The Commonsense Cookery Book compiled by the Public School Cookery Teachers Association of New South Wales’.

Settle in, for I’m about to cook you breakfast.

Beverages first.

Cocoa,  Sir? Madame?  Please note we only serve real cocoa here, none of that sugary powdered drinking chocolate you’ll find in the next Century. Even good old Bournville will contain additional ingredients once it’s acquired by Cadbury.

Need more of a caffeine hit?

Of course, Sir.

War rationing has commenced, so we are supplementing some of our café de jour with chicory root. I hear it’s very restorative, Madame.

Coffee (No. 2) should give you  a hit.

Please, settle in. Read today’s papers. Take in the scenery.

It takes a while to brew.

No?  A good, old-fashioned cup of tea instead?  You, Madame, like George Orwell, have excellent taste. He says:

“First of all, one should use Indian or Ceylonese tea. China tea has virtues which are not to be despised nowadays — it is economical, and one can drink it without milk — but there is not much stimulation in it. One does not feel wiser, braver or more optimistic after drinking it. Anyone who has used that comforting phrase ‘a nice cup of tea’ invariably means Indian tea.”

Mr Orwell recommends ‘6 heaped teaspoons to every quart’ of water. There are 2 pints in a quart, which equates to three teaspoons of tea to the pint. May I remind Sir, we are on rations, so the tea will be slightly less… strong… than you may be accustomed to.

Ahhh, but we all must do our bit, mustn’t we?

But – we still have bacon.

And eggs from the backyard. Or egg, singular. One egg, one slice bacon. Bacon and egg for Sir?

Madame? Poached egg?

Or perhaps you would prefer steamed? Particularly good for women who are slimming, I am advised.

May I suggest you finish off with some porridge? I’ll have cook set it on the asbestos mat right away, to allow  you time to digest your slice of bacon, egg and a fine, hot brew.

Thank you for dining with us.

*The Commonsense Cookery Book was first published in 1914. This copy, published in 1940, boasts 236,000 issues.

Beef Cuts – What are you Buying?

I’ve been working on ‘not shopping’.

That means reducing trips to any kind of commercial supermarket and concentrating on buying direct from farmers and producers to supplement what we grow ourselves, then ‘top up’ with market visits. It takes a bit of jiggling, but it’s worth it.

Recently, I joined with friends and bought a cow. Well, I only purchased 1/4 cow.  Grass fed, and raised in Kyogle (a small country town in Northern NSW well-known for both beef farming and dairying)  and butchered to our specs. Thank goodness, because although butchering is a skill I’d LOVE to explore, I think starting with something smaller than a cow would be more suitable.

These days, most people are content to swoop into the supermarket, pick up sanitary, plastic-wrapped slabs of meat and swoop back out again. If this is your style, then this post is not for you.

Step away now.

My thoughts are that by shopping in swoop style, there’s probably little thought given to the breeding or background of the animal, the farm, or the conditions in which the animal lived before it became dinner fodder.  And with the current emphasis on ethical eating and looking at where our food really comes from, I don’t personally find this approach well… palatable.

So let me ask you: how much do you know about meat cuts? Do you venture past the topside roast and fillet steaks?

So, in the goal to convert you to anti swoop style shopping, here’s a quickie catalogue of cow cuts.

The prime cuts are the ones best used for roasting. These are the ones you find at eye level in the supermarkets. Rib eye, scotch filet, sirloin, rump. They are the most tender cuts because they from the less used muscles along the back of the animal. The more active muscles, such as the shoulder, flank, and leg will produce beef that is a little less tender, but very flavourful because they have more marbling. Marbling means fat and fat means flavour and flavour means good. But you already know that, right?

Finally, the cuts from the front of the animal – chuck and round and shin – are from body parts that are heavily exercised and do more work. This means they are less tender, and wonderful for slow cooking. Good slow cooked beef gives that incredible mouth feel of soft, almost gelatinous moistness that comes down to one thing: sinew. Sinew breaks down and softens with slow cooking and as the proteins change the result is wonderfully soft meat that pulls apart with your fork.

Since the most tender cuts are the prime cuts and make up only a small proportion of a carcass, they are most commonly sought and usually command a higher price than other cuts. The price usually drops as you move down the animal, with chuck, short ribs, shin, oxtail, cheeks, neck at the bottom of the scale in their sinewy deliciousness.

So, tell me.

Would you be prepared to bulk buy meat?

Do you only buy prime cuts?

And if you were to buy in bulk, what would you do with all the scraggy bits?  Or would you prefer not to even think about it?

Halva Ice Cream

Last week, a group of Brisbane foodies came together for a bit of an ice cream cook off. Or freeze off, if you prefer.

It all started with a tweet (doesn’t it always?) about ice-cream . Halva Ice cream. My halva ice cream.

The inspiration behind this ice cream came from David Chang, who offers halva as an icecream topping. His version of halva is quite a journey from a traditional halva. Pop into Momofuku Milk Bar and you can get a crumbly, peanut-buttery halva sprinkled on your ice cream to try yourself.

I prefer to try for authenticity (sorry, David).

Traditional halva is more than a little bit removed from the pulled sugar, fat and added peanut butter version at Momofuku.

It comes from the Arabic word, halw, which means sweet. It’s origin has been claimed throughout the Middle East, as well as Asia and India. Alan Davidson’s Companion to Food offers reference to an amazing array of halva variants. A little more research tells me the first known, written halvah recipe appeared in the early 13th century Arabic Kitab al-Tabikh [The Book of Dishes], and included seven variations.

It seems one of halva’s most prominent enthusiasts was Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), who was the Ottoman Empire’s longest reigning sultan. Legend says he had a special kitchen built right beside his palace which he called the helvahane [house of halva], where at least 30 varieties were produced.

That’s a pretty impressive pedigree. And it my mind, it deserves a little more respect than pulled sugar and peanut butter.

Halva Ice cream (Thermomix)

Makes 1 litre.

Ingredients:

200g plain halva
3 whole eggs
130g sugar
350g cream
250g milk
seeds of one vanilla bean
Pinch Murray River salt

150g halva variant – couveture chocolate and almond or Vanilla and Pistachio (or half of each)
* For adding after churning. Do not add this in your initial mix.

Ice-creaming it:

Place plain halva in bowl and blend 10 sec/speed 8. Remove from bowl and set aside.
Place eggs and sugar into bowl insert butterfly. Beat 4 min/37°C/speed 3.
Add all remaining ingredients, including blitzed halva and cook for 6 min/80°C/speed 5.

Set aside jug and allow to cook for 30 mins.

Pour into compressor and churn for 60 mins. (If the mixture isn’t set, churn again, I usually need to add another 20 because I don’t wait for it to cool properly!)

While ice-cream is churning, rough chop the remaining flavoured halva. You want irregular shapes, some small, some large.

Pour semi frozen icecream into freezer safe bowl alternating with layers of halva. Finish by sprinkling remaining halva on top, freeze for 24/48 hours before serving.

It’s halva-nly :)

If you’d like to see some photos of the fabulous icecreams shared, type in #IceCreamCabinet on twitter.