Cooks' Corner

[Maggi Young]

Yes, John,  hundreds of patrons ill after eating at the Fat Duck..... HB claimed none of it was to do with the food.........

[Arykana]

There is several tipical Hungarian recipe:

http://arykana.lapunk.hu/?modul=oldal&tartalom=883822&
http://arykana.lapunk.hu/?modul=oldal&tartalom=884956&
http://arykana.lapunk.hu/?modul=oldal&tartalom=886472&

[Paddy Tobin]

OK Arykana,

Something from this evening's dinner:

Plums are in season here and this is my favourite plum recipe:

Cut plums in half, remove stones, place in baking dish on top of sprigs of rosemary. Put about a half teaspoon of brown sugar on each plum and drizzle brandy onto them. Bake for 15 - 20  minutes at 180C. If very ripe they will take just the 15 minutes; harder plums may take the 20.

While plums are in the oven, cut jest from two limes. Mix this with a tub of mascarpone (250g) and a dessertspoon of icing sugar. I sometimes add the juice of one lime and then add an extra spoon of sugar.

Warm some honey - I do this in the microwave. Put plums onto plates/bowls, drizzle juices from baking dish over them, drizzle with honey and serve mascarpone on the side. [Discard the rosemary, by the way]

From the sounds of spoon on bowl it seems that Mary likes them when they are cold as well!

A simple and delicious recipe.

I now need to look up a variety of apple recipes as apples are ripening here and I am picking loads everyday.

Paddy


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

[Arykana]

I will try this plumm recipe and waiting for a the apple recipes!

[johnw]

Edit by Maggi: the following few posts transferred from elsewhere!

By the way, John, I lifted two large wheelbarrow loads of Harlequin Pink Fir Apple today - now, I bet that makes you jealous! I could hollow out a book, OK a big book, and send on a few.

Paddy

Wait a minute Paddy, I seem to have missed a critical word - Harlequin. Tell me more. Is it a sport of the Pink Fir Apple or simply the correct name?

johnw

[Paddy Tobin]

John,

This is the name under which Mary bought them earlier in the year and it is, indeed, a new variety of Pink Fir Apple. It was distributed here in Ireland by "Mr. Middleton" and though quite expensive it was very productive, great crop, good quality and escaped blight which touched British Queen and also Golden Wonder.

It is not my favourite potato as I prefer a floury rather than a waxy spud.

Is it a toss up between potatoes and snowdrops? You can't eat snowdrops!

Paddy

[johnw]

Paddy - I spent most of the morning at work researching UK and Irish potato varieties, none of which seem to be here.  Apparently your Harlequin is a cross between Charlotte & Pink Fir Apple.  I am  more intrigued by Charlotte itself for salads but prefer floury ones for main courses. Which do you think is the best of the flouries? Should this be in cooks's corner?

johnw

[Paddy Tobin]

John,

We feel it is very hard to beat British Queens for an early potato and Golden Wonder for maincrop. Both are floury and delicious. Golden Wonder store excellently. Kerr's Pinks are another favourite and are particularly good for baking. These three also grow well in our conditions.

A  few years ago we grew a big selection of old Irish varieties, some dating back to the mid 1800s. It was interesting to try them but they would not replace our present varieties. Many of them would have been prone to blight and could be touch and go to succeed in any season. One of the old varieties we tried was "Lumper" which was the commonly grown potato at the time of the Irish famines in the 1840s. It produces big, odd-shaped tubers, not particularly tasty, and it was a martyr to blight so, as you can imagine, with my garden by the river it had little chance of succeeding. Our nightly heavy dews, regular mists and fogs are simply perfect for blight. The newer varieties have been bred to be more resistant to blight.

Paddy

[johnw]

Our nightly heavy dews, regular mists and fogs are simply perfect for blight. The newer varieties have been bred to be more resistant to blight.
Paddy

Paddy

Sound like our climate as well.  Lumper would go down in a flash.  I must see if British Queen and Golden Wonder are in the trade here.

Thanks for the advice.

johnw - +19c at 21:50 and it feels cool.  Now bracing for a graze of Hurricane Bill at the weekend.

[Stephenb]

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?

There are masses of bilberries in the woods now and few people seem to pick them these days (there was more competition 15-20 years ago). Cycled 30 minutes from home up into the woods and this was the result of 45 minutes picking with a Norwegian berry picking scoop. Then a quick look for fungi and 15 minutes later I had this haul of Chanterelles.  Isn't life grand  

The cycle back down the hill went very quickly with the extra load on board...

[Paddy Tobin]

Stephen,

The picking scoop certainly seems a great idea for the bilberries as they are so small to pick individually. I must say we have never cooked with them. They were always a berry to be eaten while being picked.

Paddy

[Maggi Young]

A very satisfactory harvest for your day, Stephen 

[Arykana]

What is the bilberry?? can you subscribe for me, please??
Looks like elderberry

[Maggi Young]

Bilberries.... or as we say in Scotland, blaeberries- are fruits of Vaccinium species.
This may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilberry

[David Nicholson]

Stephen, if you are making a bilberry pie please send me a virtual slice, I'll make my own custard