Cooks' Corner

[David Nicholson]

Bottled bilberries produced in Poland are available in the UK but are totally devoid of flavour. I have fond childhood memories of my Mother's bilberry pies made from berries picked from the moors above Huddersfield. When we lived in Bury (before our move to Devon) we used to pick bilberries from the moors above Holcombe Brook but the kids had usually eaten the lot before we got home.

[Maggi Young]

For Scots, bilberries are called blaeberries ..... delicious, though we seldom have them dried, forthe reasons given by David!

Stephen, I would have tried your salad, but half way through collecting the ingredients I became quite exhausted and had to lie down to rest.......

[Paddy Tobin]

Helen,

That hat you are thinking about is not a "trilby" by any chance.

On wild fruit - wild strawberries are delicious at the moment. It takes a lot of collecting as they are so small but the flavour is very intense.

Paddy

[maggiepie]

Paddy, I think I was thinking of Burberry, or maybe even Bilbo Baggins!!
The mind plays strange tricks as one ages!!
Speaking of dried bilberries of which there's not much chance me finding, dried cranberries are very nice sprinkled over a greek salad.
Well, the salad started out as a greek salad but now the list of what goes in it is almost as long as Stephen's list ( just kidding)

[Lesley Cox]

You just HAVE to try this. It's very good indeed either with tea/coffee or in a lunchbox or after dinner instead of dessert.

It tends to be quite firm but the cherries keep it moist. It's a loaf rather than a cake and I usually spread a little marg on the slices. Roger eats his without. The recipe is from an old Marguerite Patten cookbook "Book of Cakes and Baking."

Farmhouse Loaf Cake.
5 ozs margarine (butter is better) 6 ozs plain flour
5 ozs caster sugar                     1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs                                     3 chocolate flake bars
3 ozs ground almonds                 2 ozs glace cherries

As always, I adapt. I do 1 1/2 quantities to fill a larger tin and I
always use more cherries (proportionately) and an extra flake bar or two
                                              ( or I eat one)
                                              
Cream marg and sugar together till soft and fluffy. Beat in lightly whipped eggs. Fold in sieved flour and BP then add halved cherries, crushed flake bars (leave some big bits) and ground almonds. Put into a greased loaf tin approx 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches and cook at 375F for about 20 mins then reduce to 350F until cooked.

I grease the sides of the tin but use baking paper on the bottom. It also pays to put a piece of aluminium foil over the loaf for the last half of cooking otherwise it tends to overcook on top before being cooked in the middle. I start it at 350F then take that down slightly.

Cool on a wire rack. The one in the picture has half and half ground almonds and ground hazelnuts. It smelled wonderful as it cooked. Tastes good too, nuttier than the original.





edit by maggi.... adding the recipe in a pdf for easy downloading for your files....
right click on the title below and "save as".....

[Ragged Robin]

Or may be Bill's beret  

Lots of deliciously sweet wild cherries ripe and ready to pick - the astonishing thing is the birds have passed them by...why?

Any ideas for cherry recipes   ?

[Ragged Robin]

Can't believe that you have just read my mind Lesley about cherry recipes    What are the chances of that happening at the speed of light???

[Lesley Cox]

Those look fabulous. Cherries are my all time favourite fruit - well apart from apples, oranges and a crisp pear.

The cherries in my loafcake are glace of course but I should think fresh or perhaps stewed cherries would do as well and make for a juicier loaf. Then there's Helen's recipe too.

[Paddy Tobin]

Ah, Lesley,

I'm rolling about laughing here - was reading through the list of ingredients for your farmhouse loaf, all seemed normal enough until I came to the three chocolate flake bars and then later read that you will add another one or two.

Are you sure that this isn't a chocolate cake being called something else so as to disguise the fact that you like lots of chocolate. I feel it would be easier to simply purchase a good quality chocolate and then eat it rather than cooking it at all or diluting it with other ingredients.

To be truthful, I would go straight away and try out the recipe but sweet things are temporarily banned in the house - the lady of the house wishes to shed some pounds! However, she did make a big batch of strawberry ice-cream yesterday. I'll have to eat that all on my own.

Paddy

[Anthony Darby]

Bottled bilberries produced in Poland are available in the UK but are totally devoid of flavour. I have fond childhood memories of my Mother's bilberry pies made from berries picked from the moors above Huddersfield. When we lived in Bury (before our move to Devon) we used to pick bilberries from the moors above Holcombe Brook but the kids had usually eaten the lot before we got home.

I'm with you lad. Many an time I'm had a bilberry pie cooked with Yorkshire Bilberries. Best fruit on the planet. Beats your blueberries any day! I remember walking along a track following the 5000' contour line on John Crow Peak in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica. We had just walked under a group of rhododendrons the size of the oaks that Seven Oaks in Kent doesn't have any more and the aim was to find Jamaican bilberries. We could only just reach them as they grow on trees out there. The berries certainly added flavour to our breakfast cereal, but I'm not sure they we worth the effort?

[Lesley Cox]

You do me wrong Paddy. I add the extras if I'm doing one and a half times the original quantity of the WHOLE recipe. But yes, we all know that the lady from Aberdeen is not the only addict on the Forum. I'm working on a "cake" to celebrate her 10,000th post but haven't perfected it yet. The attemps are doing my shape no good at all. It is a very plain cake, made from only chocolate, caster sugar, eggs and butter. I may well die of a cholesterol related condition before I get to post it.

[Paul T]

Lesley,

She's up to 9976 posts at present, so you'd better get to it on the cake-perfecting. 

[Paddy Tobin]

Lesley,

Why cook it at all? Serve a good quality chocolate as bought!

Big fruit pick here today: last of the strawberries, a basin each of loganberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants. Most are going to the freezer but strawberries on a cream sponge cake (no chocolate).

Paddy

[Martin Baxendale]

It is a very plain cake, made from only chocolate, caster sugar, eggs and butter. I may well die of a cholesterol related condition before I get to post it.

Sounds like a chocolate mousse, Lesley. Are you having problems with it holding together? If you're avoiding flour, how about just a hint of ground almonds? Oh dear God, I'm off to find some chocloate!   

[Lesley Cox]

So you're addicted too Martin?

Paul I'm getting worried about it in case it's not ready in time. Will have another go this afternoon, after home from a visit to my solicitor about a complaint against me and my employer, (for racism, for God's sake!) t the Human Rights Commission, from a person who wanted to trade at Otago Farmers' Market and was declined. What he wanted to sell was fresh dates, imported from Saudi Arabia. Refused to accept that dates couldn't by any stretch of the imagination be called a "local" product, or even from NZ. He is Saudi himself, so bring out the race card.)

Paddy, until Maggi removes the "Cake Maker in Chief" soubriquet from my avatar, I feel I must perform on occasions.