The secret of a great bread and butter pudding is to steer clear of fluffy, white, mass produced bread and find a loaf that actually “remembers” what it is to go stale after a day. This version is full of eggs, cream, butter and syrup, and bears no resemblance to the mean spirited stodge that many might cringingly remember from boarding school days.
1 baguette, or similar loaf, one day old, slightly stale
300 ml milk
300 ml cream
4.5 T sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 cup sultanas
Ground cinnamon
Toffee
100 g butter
100 g caster sugar
1/3 cup and 1 T golden syrup
Butter a 12 cup capacity oven dish. Prehet oven to 180 C. Slice bread very thinly and place a single layer in the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with ground cinnamon and scatter with sultanas. Repeat until there are four layers and all the sultanas are used. The dish should be about two thirds full. Depending on the size of the loaf, you may not need all the bread. Whisk together the cream, milk, sugar and eggs and pour over the bread. Leave to soak while making the toffee.
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This is easy, easy. No cooking required just a fabulous piece of fish and help from a pair of eyebrow tweezers to remove its fine bones. Be sure to use a fairly mild white vinegar (we used Delmaine’s Tarragon Vinegar) as the paintstripper variety kills the fish’s flavour.
Ingredients:
1.5 kg salmon fillets
500 ml mild white wine vinegar
1 litre water
4 cinnamon sticks
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
5 bay leaves
1 tsp white peppercorns
3 dried dried chillis, split
2.5 T maldon sea salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 large or 2 medium onions
Remove skin and fine salmon fillet. Set aside. Combine remaining ingredients, except the ground cinnamon, in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, then gently simmer for ten minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool, completely, to room temperature. Peel and finely slice onion, in a deep stainless steel or glass dish, pour in some of the brine. Put in a layer of salmon. and cover with a portion of the onions, sprinkling them with some of the ground cinnamon. Repeat until all the salmon, ground cinnamon and brine is used. Lightly weight the fish to ensure it is submerged and cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for three days before use. Serves six, or as an entree, 8-10. Accompany with a salad of boiled potatoes and lima beans or with other vegetables or salad.
Meringues are universally popular, easy to whip up (let your cakemixer do the donkey work) and look pretty good on your best crystal or silver.
Preheat oven to 120 C
3 egg whites
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
Whisk egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Still whisking, slowly add caster sugar, ensuring it is dissolved before each addition. When all the sugar is beaten in, and the mixture is firm and glossy, add lemon juice and cinnamon. On baking paper-lined trays, either pipe or spoon mixture into piles and bake for one hour and 20 minutes. Turn oven off and leave meringues to cool in the oven. When completely cool, store them in an airtight container until needed. To serve, sandwich meringues halves together with chocolate filling. Makes 15.
Chocolate Filling
120 g dark chocolate
1/3 cup cream
1 T brandy
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
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Use this compound butter with chicken. Slip it under the skin either of a whole bird for roasting or individual breasts. This amount is enough for one bird or six breasts.
125 g unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 T balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup roughly chopped fresh basil leaves, firmly packed
Heat two tablespoons of the softened butter in a small pan. Add the cinnamon and cook, stirring, for several minutes. Remove from heat. When cool, place in a food processor bowl with the remaining ingredients and process until smooth.
A classic, but nonetheless wonderful, dish prepared with a mediaeval-inspired flavour combination of red wine, fresh rosemary and cinnamon. Serve with double cream, mascapone, vanilla custard, whipped cream or plain yoghurt (If you thighs are sending out Mayday signals).
500 g mixed dried fruit (pears, peaches, apricots, figs, nectarines, pineapple)
Water
1 cup caster sugar
300 ml red wine
3 cinnamon sticks
1 sprig fresh rosemary
Cover fruit, barely, with cold water and soak overnight. Next, day, combine fruit, soaking water, wine, sugar, cinnamon sticks and rosemary in a large pot. Simmer gently until fruit is tender - about 30 minutes. Let cool. Serve at room temperature, or slightly warmed, with ice cream or any of the accompaniments menthioned earlier. Serves 6-8.
The Indonesian name for cinnamon means simply ’sweet wood’, although it is not the wood but the bark that contains the flavour. The neat little rools that you find on the supermarket spice-rack are the innermost layer of this bark, which is scraped off, cut up into squares, and allowed to curl up naturally. In cooking, the rolls or quills should be removed before the dish is served.
The secret of a great bread and butter pudding is to steer clear of fluffy, white, mass produced bread and find a loaf that actually “remembers” what it is to go stale after a day. This version is full of eggs, cream, butter and syrup, and bears no resemblance to the mean spirited stodge that many might cringingly remember from boarding school days.
