Frosted Baked Apples, Victorian Christmas Favourite. Gluten-free

There are so many traditional sweets based on apples and eggs which were served in the Christmas period, some recipes we have dating back to the Elizabethan period. Amongst them were the poetically named 'Snow Pudding', 'Apple Florentine', 'Dish Of Snow', 'Snow Cream' and the notorious 'Apple Hedgehog' the bane of cooks and hostesses alike and no doubt the cause of many a nervous breakdown in the kitchen. This latter, a fiendishly difficult and spectacular party centrepiece was finally abandoned by the Victorians as being 'too laborious' but I am going to attempt it in mini version. Another similarly spectacular dish was 'Pommes Flambantes' aka 'Blazing Apples' aka 'Apple Yule Logs' which as the name suggests involves a pyrotechnic element. Hopefully I will get around to this dish too.

Here though I'm going for the less spectacular, much less time-consuming but never-the-less delicious 19th century party favourite, Frosted Apples. This was a sort of 'poor man's' or rather happy cooks version of 'Apple Hedgehog' and here I'm making them with a quick-bake French meringue.

INGREDIENTS

(makes 20)

10 small apples. Again I'm using a couple of cider apple varieties from our orchard, which by now have ripened on the trees to a pretty decent 'cooker' even almost dessert level but still with an agreeable tanginess which balances the sweetness of the meringue. Seen above with their attendant mistletoe make for a very seasonal feeling!

For the Stuffing:

20 raisins
Seville Orange Marmalade, see my recipe link below.

For the Meringue:

3 egg whites

75g - 3oz of blonde cane sugar
A little raw cane sugar (rapadura)

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 190°C or 375°F 

METHOD 

Wash and halve the apples horizontally. Remove the core and pips, turn the halves over and remove the stalk and calyx. Place in a heat-proof dish

Seal the gaps left by the removal of the two latter with a raisin.

Use a teaspoon to stuff the apple halves with the marmalade.

 

VARIATION:

This recipe is also delicious with my previous baked apple filling (see link below).

Pour in 3-4 tablespoons of cold water around the base of the apples. This will stop them drying out before they are cooked through, it will also mean they will part-steam and be juicier but still hold their shape.

Cover the dish with baking parchment and place in the middle of the oven for around 25 minutes.

Whisk up the egg whites to form stiff peaks. Gently fold in the blonde cane sugar. Cover the filling of each apple with a generous layer of meringue 'frost' and sprinkle with rapadura.

Place in the oven on the top shelf. Cook for 5 - 15 minutes. Check after 5 to see if the meringues are the required golden colour.

Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Best wishes from Normandie,
Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2017

Mediaeval Cider Syllabub Float. Festive Fare Gluten-free Recipe

Since Mediaeval times and right up to the end of the 17th century syllabub was a drink rather than a dessert. It was also a love token offered by dairymaids and milkmaids to potential lovers and was therefore and possibly by association, a favourite beverage for farmers and farmworkers in the fields at harvest time. The recipe was seemingly simple with the few ingredients readily available on the farm, the skill was in making it. In original form it was a 'direct from the cow' recipe and although I can hand-milk, stopping the cow from putting her proverbial foot in it or kicking the whole thing over, would certainly put me off attempting it.

The recipe below is from 'The Experienced English Housekeeper' by  Elizabeth Raffald and was published in 1782. Apart from the clue in the title, she cleverly glosses over the hard part! In earlier versions the cow was milked directly into a bowl of crab apple verjus, sugar or honey. Made, as the name suggests, mainly from pressing unripe grapes or in English cookery,  crab apples, verjus was a popular Mediaeval cookery ingredient. It was preferred to vinegar or lemon as a condiment or for déglaçage, as it didn't conflict with accompanying wines. In recent years verjus has enjoyed a renaissance, particularly in contemporary organic French and American cuisine, where it is used in vinaigrettes, sauces and marinades and for the same reason. It also fits well into the ethos of organic because it uses fruit thinnings, which would otherwise be discarded.

INGREDIENTS

(makes 18-20 or more dependent on the shot glass used)

FOR THE SYLLABUB

½ a lemon
1 - 2 tablespoons of rapadura or blonde raw cane sugar
50ml or 2 fl oz of dry farm cider
150ml or ¼ a pint of raw crème fraîche épaisse*, whipping or thick cream

FOR THE CIDER FLOAT

An additional 360ml or just over 12 fl oz  of dry farm cider

*This is cream which has been left to stand and cool after full cream milk, such as A2 raw Normandy has been run through a separator. We got up at the crack of dawn to go and film the process at our local organic dairy farm, where we also helped making cider.

The Cider film is below, if you'd like to see the fun we had in making it!

You may be looking at the above list and thinking sooo simple. Well, not so because with organic quality raw products the depth of flavours is incredible. This is the irony of organic raw materials, which by their very method of production and lack of subsidy, will cost more than those of industrial farming but you do not need a whole host of extra costing ingredients, aromas and additives. If you use raw cane sugar (rapadura) the flavour will be even deeper than if you use the blonde cane sugar, the colour will change also. I like to add the raw cane sugar later as then the crystals remain intact and you get a delicious toffee taste and aroma to the syllabub. Experiment with the recipe, that's what cooking is all about!

METHOD

FOR THE SYLLABUB

In order to permit this depth of flavour to fully develop, it is best to allow at least an hour for the ingredients other than the cream (and rapadura raw sugar if you are using that) to rest and infuse. However, if this is a last-minute party-effort do not worry, just make sure you have enough left over to enjoy by yourself the day after, when it will be richer, glossier and most indulgently delicious.

Squeeze the juice from the half lemon and remove the outer layer of peel.

Add the sugar and the cider and if possible leave for at least an hour to infuse.

Incorporate the cream with a hand whisk or electric beater, just until it forms into 'leaves' or peaks. Do not over whisk!

Here if you compare the photos you'll see the difference in shade and texture to a syllabub made with rapadura.

FOR THE CIDER FLOAT

Fill the shot glass to around half way to two thirds up with chilled cider.

Add a good heaped teaspoon or more of syllabub.

Decorate the top with a fruit or similar.

Serve with a spoon and/or swizzle stick.

The cider float can be drunk in the way of an Irish Coffee, either by spooning out the topping or by a gentle mixing in of the topping.

Either way it is delicious.

You can make this in a non-alcoholic version by substituting clear apple juice for the farm cider.

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge! In the meantime here's the cider making film:


All the best,

Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2017
 

Belgian Endive Barges with Cargoes of Red Gold Tunisian Salad. Gluten-free

There are so many descriptions in literature of famous cargoes, river barges and sail boats filled with gorgeous jewels and silks, gold and peacocks. Perhaps the most well known are Shakespeare's description of Cleopatra's meeting with Mark Antony on the Nile and the historic voyage of the Queen of Sheba or Saba to meet with King Solomon. Here I take my inspiration from both to create something that is fun and delicious for the festive buffet table.

I always like to use fruit in my salads but here is  a Tunisian salad that uses only fruit and furthermore, two that are refreshingly light and juicy and a great foil to the other more substantial fare I've already uploaded to the groaning board.

And here's a poem that fits the food in its first and second stanzas! John Masefield's Cargoes: 

'Quinquireme of Nineveh from distant Ophir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine,
With a cargo of ivory,
And apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.

Stately Spanish galleon coming from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the Tropics by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds,
Emeralds, amethysts,
Topazes, and cinnamon, and gold moidores.'

 

A FOREWORD ON BELGIUM ENDIVES

There are two ways of growing these with the familiar one being to regrow or rather to force the chicons indoors. It is usual to place the tap roots, with the tops cut off, in a free-draining pot or similar (I use an old stainless steel washing machine drum) and cover with a dark cloth or tarpaulin. This produces pristine white/gold, or if I use radicchio, beautiful red and white striped Belgium endive. However, the other way is to cut off the tap roots and replant outdoors and cover with a layer of soil and then a tarpaulin. Many people don't like this idea as endive de terre or earth chicory, as they are known here, are often sold in their natural rather more grubby state to differentiate them from the other kind. This is a shame because actually they are much sweeter than the indoor kind and as they are smaller, eminently suitable for use in the above recipe!

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE BARGES

(makes 20)

20 Belgium endive leaves (2 - 3 chicons)
2 - 3 small oranges or mandarins

The seeds (and arils aka juicy outer seed casing) from 1 small pomegranate

10-15 pistachio nuts

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE

2 dessert spoons of olive oil
1 dessert spoon of balsamic vinegar
½ teaspoon raw cane sugar (rapadura)
½ teaspoon mixed spice
½ teaspoon turmeric
¼ teaspoon paprika
Extra spice for decorative sprinkling

METHOD

Place the leaves on a plate or serving dish.

Slice the peeled citrus fruits finely and cut each slice into half.

Place two halves in each of the 'barges'.

Add the pomegranate and the finely chopped pistachios to the cargo (reserving some of the latter for later).

Mix the ingredients of the vinaigrette together. Put a little of each in the barges.

Sprinkle the remaining spice and nuts over the whole dish and serve immediately. Otherwise keep chilled but add the sprinkle of spices just before you bring the dish to the table.

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2017 

Stuffed Cherry Tomatoes à la Bonne Femme. Gluten-free

Stuffed tomatoes are a standard classic French pre-takeaway takeaway and interestingly are slow rather than fast food. Every traiteur and charcuterie has them in season as a ready made dish to take home and heat up. Most butchers' shop in France make one daily ready-made hot dish and stuffed tomatoes à la bonne femme is again a seasonal favourite. I've always thought how interesting it is that many countries, France is just one, maintain this old tradition and link with the past, when people didn't necessarily have ovens or maybe wanted an oven-baked meal without going to a restaurant. I really loved, when I was in Portugal, seeing people, mainly the elderly coming to restaurants with their fish, bought straight off the boats and getting them, cooked on a restaurant's barbecue. What better way to get a good nutritious hot meal and a chat!

Here I'm using cherry tomatoes and these make great hot savouries in a bite sized edition!

Cherry tomatoes are very easy to grow in a small space in a container or hanging basket. If you have a greenhouse or a window sill you can keep them producing right up to the first frosts. Tomatoes are perennials, so with care you can keep the plants from year to year.

TEMPERATURES

Preheat the oven to 200°C or 400°F

INGREDIENTS

(makes 16)

16 cherry tomatoes

1 small red onion finely chopped

1 chipolata sausage or equivalent in sausagemeat

½ teaspoon herbes de Provence

Butter, coconut or your chosen oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper

METHOD

Rinse and dry the tomatoes.

Slice off the top of each to make a lid and set these to one side.

Using a teaspoon, carefully remove the inside of each tomato.

Sauté the red onion until it begins to soften. Add the chopped interior of the tomato and let this simmer briskly until it loses most of its liquid. 

Split the skins of the sausage  and add the meat  to the pan and cook these until the sausagemeat has browned and the sauce has thickened.

Add the herbs and mix well.

Using a teaspoon stuff each tomato with the filling and place on a buttered tray.

Put a 'lid' onto each tomato.

Place in the oven for 10 minutes or until the cherry tomatoes are cooked.

Allow them to cool slightly if you are taking them straight to the table. Tomatoes hold their heat too well!

Enjoy!

All that needs to be said now is Bon Appėtit!

Hope to see you here again for another recipe from my 100 Gluten-Free Organic Party Foods Challenge!

All the best,

Sue

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©  Sue Cross 2017