Hot Chocolate Wine

Fancy a hot toddy made with port and really dark chocolate?  The Georgians certainly did, but usually for breakfast.  The Georges had their own chocolate kitchen at Hampton Court Palace, with their own chocolate maker.  The Royal chocolate maker for George I and II was Thomas Tosier, who basically did the fancy stuff while the navvies did the hard work of roasting and grinding the cacao beans into cakes of pure chocolate.  Has nothing changed?:=)  The head chef gets all the glory...

cacao pods (image Wikimedia Commons)

As part of our course, we were provided with this recipe for hot chocolate, which you can make with milk or water but for the King's breakfast, port was often the chosen liquid.  Lucky tipsy King!  This is actually a great drink for after dinner.  You could feed it to your guests (or naughty children) and knock 'em out.

Serves 4:


ingredients:

600mls of port 

130g. dark chocolate at least 80% cocoa solids - I used 85%

40g. caster sugar

15g. rice flour or use plain flour if that's what you have


Method:

Pour the port into a small saucepan

Break up the chocolate and slip them into the saucepan of port

Add the sugar and the flour

Whisk all well together

Place on low heat for 5-10 minutes till it heats and thickens slightly; keep whisking now and then while it heats

When there are small bubbles around the edges, take it off the heat - make sure you don't let it boil

Whisk again and serve in small cups

You can add a dash of cream if you like

ingredients - they suggest you use 100% cocoa solids 

adding the chocolate to the port

whisk in the sugar and rice flour

heating and whisking the hot chocolate 

ready to pour out that lovely hot choc port  

smooth, very warming and very alcoholic 

delicious and ready to drink   

Mr P. and I have done our best to drink it all up by ourselves.  He is out tonight so I guess I will have to drink the rest myself.  Poor me.
  

This recipe is from the Cook's Dictionary (1726) by John Nott.

my cacao pod doodle

A - Z Guidebook: New Norcia Western Australia

The Monastery at New Norcia

New Norcia is Australia's only monastic town, founded in 1847, and a fabulous place to visit.  The buildings are beautiful, though the countryside around is very dry and sparse. The monks go quietly about their business, tending the gardens and olive grove, making olive oil (which you can buy when there has been a good harvest).

You can also buy New Norcia wine, Port, Shiraz and Liqueur Muscat here.  The grapes are grown in a local vineyard, and turned into wine in the Swan Valley near Perth.  They then mature it in the old wine cellars under the Monastery.  There is a bakery with 2 wood-fired ovens, both over 100 years old.  This is operated by a private company under an agreement with the Benedictine Community.  And happily you can buy bread, cakes, biscuits and pastries from them.

If you get to W.A., take a drive to New Norcia and check it out. You can even go on retreat here, or stay in the local hotel.  Well worth a look.


Feel free to join in with Tiffin Fiona in this monthly look at travel snaps.  We are onto the letter N!

Jumbals

Jumbals, or jumbles are spicy, boiled and baked biscuits.  I have never made a biscuit like this before so I was feeling a bit trepidatious.  This recipe is from The Good Housewife's Jewel (1596), so obviously it has been a success for over 400 years.   Some of my fellow students said it was a disaster, and others claimed to like them so I guess I had a 50/50 chance.  Let's see how I went.

ingredients 

ingredients:


2 eggs

100g. caster sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp caraway seeds

1¾ - 2 cups of plain flour

rosewater to brush the ends

icing sugar to sprinkle over the top


Method:

Break the eggs into a mixing bowl and beat well with a whisk or fork

Add the sugar and beat well together

Throw in the spices and mix together

Now add the flour a bit at a time till you have a firm dough - (you may not need all the flour)

Pat it into a firm dough then flatten it out on a board or surface

Cut into 8 equal pieces, then cut each piece into 2 long strips and twist together to form a braid or make a crescent shape

Brush the ends with rosewater

Gently drop them into a pan of boiling water till they float to the top

Take them out with a spider (large slotted spoon-not the arachnid variety.  Oh go on, try if you must!)

Place them on a cloth to dry

Now lay them on a greased baking tray

Sprinkle with more rosewater and some icing sugar

Bake at 160C for about 20 minutes 

Take out of the oven and sprinkle with rosewater and icing sugar

Turn the oven up to 170C for about another 15-20 minutes till they are hard and golden brown

Take them out and sprinkle again with rosewater and icing sugar

If you remember to do it, turn them over several times during the baking process


Notes:

Some of the students baked theirs for 2 hours.  Wow I was amazed. I guess they were like little rocks by that time.

The copious amounts of icing sugar were my idea, and the constant throwing over of the rosewater was also my idea - they just told you to brush it on the ends once

The recipe says to use aniseed but I didn't want a savoury biscuit so I used just a wee bit of caraway seeds with the cinnamon

whisking the eggs

whisking in the sugar and spices  

start adding the flour to the eggs  

Johnny stirring in the flour with his broken hand   

turning into a firm dough    

patted into a firm doughy ball    

flatten and cut into 8 pieces     

ready to be boiled then baked  

boiling the weird little jumbals  

and out of the oven all baked  

sprinkled with rosewater and icing sugar  

These turned out rather hard and chewy; but good for dunking.  I liked the rosewater and icing sugar.  Not sure I would go for the aniseed/caraway version.  



Original recipe
Thomas Dawson, Good Housewife’s Jewel (1596)
Take twenty eggs and put them in a pot, both the yolks and the white: beat them well. Then take a pound of beaten sugar and put to them, and stir them well together. Then put to it a quarter of a peck of flour and make a hard paste thereof; and then with aniseed mould it well and make it in little rolls, being long. Tie them in knots, and wet the ends with rosewater. Then put them in a pan of seething water, but even in one waum. Then take them out with a skimmer and lay them in a cloth to dry. This being done, lay them in a tart pan, the bottom being oiled. Then put them in a temperate oven for one house, turning them often in the oven.

okay so it's my wonky blue egg doodle - so?  

Apparently eggs were smaller in the late Tudor period; who knew? Smaller chooks perhaps?  So they suggest you halve the amount in any recipe before the 1930's. Crumbs, did chooks suddenly go on steroids then?

Capon With Oranges

Okay not really capon, which is a castrated rooster of 3 to 6 kilos. These are definitely not easily found in my local grocer's.  But you can find large chickens.  Remember the old days when a 1.5 kg chook was considered pretty large?  Not anymore; this chook that I bought recently was 1.58kg, and was labelled as small.  

the small chook

An article I read on the Good Food page said the place to buy capon was in France. Well sure I'd love to but!  So I had to make do with my small chicken from Woolies. Once again this recipe is from my History of Royal Food course.  The original recipe can be found in the Good Housewife's Jewel (1596) by Thomas Dawson.

my youthful helper

I had a 14 year old helper with me, who was on school hols so had a bit of free time.  As these recipes are a tad scant on details, Johnny, hubby and I went over the recipe trying to work out what we had to do.  I think I just lucked into doing it right; well fairly right.

look at those sunny oranges 

Basically, you poach your chook in stock; make an orange and red wine sauce, and serve the chicken in the sauce.  The course notes say it is very simple, but when you are guessing how to do it...



ingredients:

1 large chicken - say from 1.8 to 2 kg

2 litres of good quality stock - I used chicken but the recipe says to use mutton and marrow bones, or lamb

300 mls of red or white wine - historically it would have been white

3 - 4 oranges, peeled and sliced thinly (the recipe suggests 6-8 for a large bird) - keep approx. 2 tbs of the peel for the sauce

6 tsp sugar (you may want to add more)

a handful each of thyme, parsley and rosemary shoved into a muslin spice bag

1 cinnamon stick

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1 - 2 cloves

1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs for the sauce (optional)


Method:


Place the bird into a large pan

Pour in the stock over the bird - don't worry if it doesn't cover it completely

Let it simmer for at least 45 minutes - make sure it is completely cooked through by sticking a thermometer into it to check it is at 60C, or by pulling a bit of flesh from the middle to check it is done

Put it aside while you make the sauce

Take several ladlesful (about 260mls) of the beautiful, aromatic stock and tip into a medium saucepan

Add the wine, the orange slices and peel, sugar, the herb bag and the spices 

Reduce the spicy wine mixture at a fast boil for 20+ minutes 

Remove the herb bag

If using the breadcrumbs to thicken the sauce, add them now

Pull the bird apart, and put the pieces into the sauce

Serve with spiced potatoes, or perhaps rice or cous cous


Tips:


Turn the bird over once or twice during the poaching so that the whole bird gets well covered with stock.  I basted it now and then too for extra moistness

Don't go wild with the orange peel;  I added way too much at the start; it was bitter so I had to add more sugar.  So just add the 2 tablespoons and check if you want to add more

simmering the chicken in the stock 

peel and slice the oranges   

ladling out the stock ready to be reduced with the wine, oranges and spices  

herby bag goes into the pan of stock,wine and oranges  

sorry, a bit hacked due to checking for done-ness

stirring and reducing the sauce    

reducing the sauce  

the poached chicken going into the reduced sauce 

serve with spiced potatoes   

finally you get an orangey, spicy, winey chicken dish

This flavoursome dish would have been enjoyed by the wealthy Elizabethans.  Capons would not have been eaten by Ye Olde Local Peasants, and only the rich could afford oranges and spices. 


Here is the original recipe for your perusal:


Original recipe
Thomas Dawson, Good Housewife’s Jewel (1596)
Take your capon and set him on the fire as before with marrow
bones and mutton, and when you have skimmed the pot well, put
thereto the value of a farthing loaf, and let it boil till it be half boiled.  Then take two or three ladlesful of the same broth and put it into an earthen pot, with a pint of the same wine aforesaid. Peel six or eight oranges and slice them thin, and put them into the same broth with four pennyworth in sugar or more, and a handful of parsley, thyme and rosemary, together tied. Season it with whole mace, clove, and sticks of cinnamon, with two nutmegs beaten small. And so serve it.



You see what I mean?  A wee bit difficult to decipher.  But we had great fun making it and eating it.

my orange doodle

Tarte Owt Of Lente - Or Tudor Cheese Pie

Tarte Owt of Lente - well, let's just call it Tudor cheese pie - is an interesting and surprisingly tasty dish.  As part of the online History of Royal Food course I am doing, we are tackling historical recipes like this one.  Yep I know it sounds weird, but we make the recipes, post up our photos and discuss how they worked out.  It is fun, I promise you, and tasty :=) 

very cheesy, golden and tasty  

   
The recipe suggests we seek out any pre-1600 cheeses; the varieties not the actual 500 year old specimens.  Sadly there are not that many ancient cheeses lurking at my local grocer, so I made do with a vintage tasty block cheese.  And it turned out very well I am glad to report.  The recipe is short on instructions; we are told to use a shortcrust or other pastry. No directions given; we just have to figure it out for ourselves.  So here is my version, using a Maggie Beer pastry recipe.   



ingredients:


pastry:


200g. butter, chilled

250g. plain flour

125 ml sour cream



filling:

100g. tasty block cheese - they suggest Cheshire if you can get it, cut into chunks

150 ml cream

1 egg

salt and pepper to taste

1 apple or pear, very thinly sliced 

milk or egg yolk to glaze the top


Method:

Pastry:

Dice the butter and throw into a food processor with the flour

Pulse till it looks like breadcrumbs

Spoon in the sour cream and pulse till it starts to form a ball

Tip the pastry into a large bowl and just bring it together with your hands if needed to get that ball shape

Wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 20 minutes


Filling:

Either chop up the cheese and pound in a mortar and pestle, or take the easy way and throw the chunks into a food processor

Whizz or pound till it starts to form a paste

Add the cream and egg and whizz or pound again - it should be a spreadable paste at this stage

Season with salt and pepper; not too much salt as the cheese is salty

Now take the pastry out of the fridge, and cut off one third

Roll out the 2/3 piece of dough and line your pastry tin (or form it into a tart case if you think your pastry will stand up by itself.  I used a pie tin as my pastry was very short and floppy

Make sure the bottom layer is quite thin

Spread on the filling and the sliced fruit

Roll out the smaller piece of the pastry for the lid very thinly

Place it over the filling and brush with milk or egg yolk

Put it into a 220C oven for 30-40 minutes depending on your oven


Serve with a green salad and perhaps some roasted potato chunks


Notes:

The original recipe states you can use a soft curd cheese like quark or ricotta, though I think it may be too soft to form a good paste

Use a mix of Tasty and parmesan for a good flavour

I had no sour cream so I used yoghurt - about 110 mls plus 15 mls cream and a splash of lemon juice (maybe a scant teaspoon)

I used a metal pie tin with an 18cm base (24cm. across the top). This tin conducts heat very well so the pie cooked in 30 minutes

Roll the pastry out between 2 sheets of baking paper as it is very short and sticky

The original recipe doesn't include the fruit; that's my addition. Some of my fellow students said it was a very salty dish, so I thought adding the spiced pears I had just been given would go well in it

pastry ingredients  

whizzing the pastry in the processor  

all wrapped up for the fridge   

roll it out between 2 sheets of baking paper   

spread it out in your tin  

filling ingredients   

ready to blitz the filling  

blitzed into a cheesy paste

spread the filling on the pastry base   

lay the sliced fruit on top of the filling   

lay the pastry lid over the top of the filling and give it an egg/milk wash   

bake for 30-40 minutes at 220C or till golden 

Oh I forgot to tell you why it is tarte owt of Lente; it's because you can only eat these things - eggs, cream and cheese when it is not Lent.

my pie tin doodle

My Sunday Photo 3 July 2016

gorgeous orange trumpet creeper 

We went for a country drive yesterday and came upon this exquisite creeper sunning itself across an arch overlooking the small country town of Boonah.  The bees were buzzing, the sun was shining and the sky was a stunning blue.  Hubby and I just stood there amazed at the sheer beauty of it all.  It was starting to get cold as the sun was about to go down in an hour or so.  We had just been to a Winter Harvest Festival in the nearby tiny town of Aratula, where we found lots of wonderful produce.  This time of year is just so beautiful in sunny Queensland, when we have cloudless, clear blue sky days and cool nights.