Huckleberry Pudding

From "As We Like it" Recipes by Famous People edited  by Kenneth Downey  (Arthur Barker, London 1950.) Famous people included Joyce Grenfell, Georgette Heyer, Leslie Charteris, Douglas Fairbanks, Christopher Fry, Celia Johnson Vivian Leigh, Richard Mason, Charles Morgan, Ivor Novello Laurence Olivier, Wilfred Pickles, Freya Stark, Richard Rogers, Eleanor Roosevelt ,Katherine Hepburn, Enid Blyton and Clementina Churchill. The book has a forward by Edwina Mountbatten of Burma and she writes that every penny from the sale of the book will go to the funds of the Returned Prisoners of War Association.

There is much mention of rationing and tinned food but in this recipe from America's first lady whipped cream is called for with the huckleberries. The recipe is very similar to the British one for Summer Pudding - made with blackberries, black and red currants, raspberries etc., In that the soaking tends to be overnight and a good weight on top is advised. The bread should not be completely juice sodden, and a piebald appearance is favoured.

HUCKLEBERRY PUDDING

Cut crusts from slices of white bread. Line bottom and sides of casserole or china bowl (size and quantity dependent on number to be served). Pour in cooked and sweetened huckleberries to cover bottom, then add another slice of bread and more huckleberries, alternating until the dish is filled. Put in ice-box for several hours so berry juice will soak through bread. Serve with plain or whipped cream. 
Eleanor Roosevelt.

Make Mine with Marshmallows

Some recipes from the 1939 marshmallow cook book Make Mine with Marshmallows.  The booklet was produced by the Angelus Campfire Company and the company continues today as Doumak in Bensonville near Chicago. The original marshmallow, a delicacy enjoyed by the Pharaohs in 2000  BC, was based on the marshmallow plant. The modern variety is simply corn syrup, sugar, dextrose, water and (the magic ingredient) air. Doumak have a website about the history and manufacture of marshmallows. Here are 3 recipes from this excellent cookbook.


CAMPFIRE MARSHMALLOW MERINGUE

1 quarter-pound package (16) Campfire Marshmallows
1 tablespoon milk
2 egg whites
¼ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Place marshmallows and milk in saucepan. Heat slowly, folding over and over until marshmallows are half melted. Remove from heat and continue folding until mixture is smooth and fluffy. Allow to cool. Meanwhile, beat egg whites until they hold a peak. Slowly add sugar, beating constantly. Add salt and vanilla extract. Blend lightly with marshmallow mixture and spread on pie in swirls. Brown in broiler or hot oven (450 degrees F.) for ½ minute or until tips of meringue swirls are golden brown. Sufficient to top 1 filled pie.
Lemon, Orange or Lime Meringue: Follow above recipe, substituting 1 tablespoon desired fruit juice for vanilla extract.

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COLA MARSH ICE

1 ½ quarter-pound packaqes (24) Campfire Marshmallows
2 cups cola beveraqe
⅛ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Place marshmallows and 2 tablespoons cola beveraqe in saucepan. Heat slowly, foIdinq over and over until marshmallows are half melted. Remove from heat and continue foldinq until mixture is smooth and fluffy. Cool sliqhtly, then blend in remaininq cola beveraqe and lemon juice. Pour into tray of automatic refriqerator and freeze, stirrinq two or three times durinq the freezinq period. Serve firm as an ice or somewhat melted as a dessert which is both sipped and spooned. Garnish with curled lemon rind and fresh mint sprays. Serves 5.

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MINT MALLOBET

1 ½ quarter-pound packaqes (24) Campfire Marshmallows
¾ cup hot water
½ cup fresh mint leaves, cut fine
½ cup cold water
¼ cup lemon juice
3 drops qreen food colorinq
2 eqq whites
1 tablespoon suqar

Place marshmallows, hot water and mint in saucepan. Heat slowly, foldinq over and over until marshmallows are half melted. Remove from heat and continue foldinq until mixture is smooth and fluffy. Allow to cool, then blend in cold water, lemon iuice and food colorinq. Chill. Beat eqq whites until they hold a peal. Slowly add suqar, beatinq constantly. Blend liqhtly with marshmallow mixture. Pour into tray of automatic refriqerator and freeze, stirrinq twice durinq the freezinq period. Serve as a dessert ice or as a meat accompaniment. Serves 6.

River and Joaquin Phoenix - young vegans

Found - a vegan book from 1987 Pregnancy Children and the Vegan Diet by Michael Klaper ( Gentle World inc., Florida.) An interesting slightly out dated book but still of great interest because of the vegan children on the cover - the late teenage heart-throb River Phoenix, his sisters Liberty and Summer Phoenix, and his brother Leaf who changed his name to Joaquin Phoenix (same row, right) and is thankfully still with us.

The jolly gap toothed kid at bottom left is Ocean Robbins, son of John Robbins of the Baskin Robbins dynasty and author of the groundbreaking Diet for a new America. The story of the Phoenix family is told at River Phoenix's Wikipedia entry.

 The parents were hippies of the 1970s, ex Children of God, who had become vegans at a commune in South America. When they finally got as far as Los Angeles top child star agent Iris Burton spotted River, Joaquin and their sisters Summer and Rain singing for spare change in Westwood, and was so charmed by the family that she soon represented the four siblings. At jot we are keen on recipes - here is one from this excellent work:


TOFU EGGLESS SALAD

2 12 oz cakes of tofu
2 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon oil
2 small onions, diced
2 celery stalks diced
Half teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
6 tablespoons nutritional yeast

In a medium size bowl, mash the tofu add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate to keep cold. Delicious with salad or as a sandwich. Serves 4.

Macaroni Cheese by Wilfred Pickles

From "As We Like it" Recipes by Famous People edited  by Kenneth Downey  (Arthur Barker, London 1950.)  There is much mention of rationing as in this recipe from Wilfred Pickles. Rather forgotten today but at one point his shows on BBC Radio and TV attracted millions. He also appeared as the grumpy father in Billy Liar (1963).

Macaroni

Here is the recipe I promised you: in these days of shortage of meat this is a recipe which is easy to make and all of the food is unrationed.

First, steam some macaroni in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes, then make a white sauce with grated cheese. Put this cheese sauce over the macaroni, fry some rings of onions crisp, grill some tomatoes and serve with hot, dry toast. And by gum it's grand!

Wilfred Pickles and his wife Mabel

Cherry Cake by Enid Blyton, Mulled wine by Evelyn Waugh

From "As We Like it" Recipes by Famous People edited  by Kenneth Downey  (Arthur Barker, London 1950.) Famous people included Joyce Grenfell, Georgette Heyer, Leslie Charteris, Douglas Fairbanks, Christopher Fry, Celia Johnson Vivian Leigh, Richard Mason, Charles Morgan, Ivor Novello Laurence Olivier, Wilfred Pickles, Freya Stark, Richard Rogers, Eleanor Roosevelt ,Katherine Hepburn, Enid Blyton and Clementina Churchill. The book has a forward by Edwina Mountbatten of Burma and she writes that every penny from the sale of the book will go to the funds of the Returned Prisoners of War Association. There is much mention of rationing and tinned food  but Evelyn Waugh goes for an extravagant and slightly incapacitating mulled wine in full Brideshead fashion.

Mulled Claret (for six persons)

Take six bottles of red wine (it would be improper to use really fine Bordeaux, but the better the wine, the better the concoction.)  Any sound claret or burgundy will do. 1 cup full of water; 2 port glasses of brandy; 1 port glass of ginger wine; 1 orange stuffed with cloves; peel of two lemons; 3 sticks of cinnamon; one grated nutmeg.

Heat in covered cauldron. Do not allow to simmer. Serve hot and keep hot on the hob. Should be drunk at the same temperature as tea. 
To be drunk during and after luncheon in February or after dinner on any winter evening. 

Enid Blyton's recipe is for a fairly simple and economical  Cherry Cake for the children…

This is a cake my own children love, and is easy to make when children come to tea.

Ingredients:

Half pound of margarine. 3 eggs. 6 ounces castor sugar.6 ounces cherries. 6 ounces flour. A few drops of vanilla essence.

Method: Beat the margarine and sugar till soft and creamy, drop in eggs one by one and beat well in between each. Add flour gradually, and lastly cherries and flavouring. If too stiff, add a little milk. Bake in a moderate oven to start, and then drop to Regulo 3. It takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to bake.

This is just as nice with fruit instead of cherries, or ginger cut up it is excellent.

Half the quantity makes a nice little cake for tea, but only takes 3/4 to 1 hour to cook.

Snail recipe

From Les Boissons et Liqueurs economique by Etienne Ducret (Paris, c 1890.)
This was sent in by loyal jotter and foodie RR.

A recipe for snail syrup.
First: pound together very finely:500 grammes of snails and 500 grammes of sugar ; then, pass this paste through a fine sieve.
Second: combine 500grammes of sweet almonds; 150 grammes of bitter almonds. Pound them with 500 grammes of sugar and 125 grammes of water. Dilute this paste in 825 grammes of water. Strain vigorously.
Third: add to this emulsion your mixture of sugar and snails that you dissolved in a bain marie on a low heat.
Fourth: when the sugar has melted add a certain quantity of orange flower water.
For consumption and bronchitis, 3 to 6 teaspoonfuls of this syrup is recommended per day.

Only ingredient missing------puppy dogs’ tails. Incidentally, M. Ducret (1829 – 1909), as well as being a gastronome (he also wrote a book on patisserie) seems to have been a literary hack in fin de siècle Paris. His book contains several recipes for absinthe.

Rook fuddling made easy

To Fuddle Rooks
Cocculus Indica berrys 2 Ounces. 4 Glasses of Geneva. Crush the Berries & steep them & the Liquor together for 2 Days, then steep barley in that Liquor & lay it where the Crows frequent.

Evidently from the spelling and paper used (a scrap rescued from an autograph collection), this is an eighteenth century recipe. Because it mimics the effects of alcohol, unscrupulous brewers often used Cocculus Indica berries to adulterate beer. Unfortunately, the berries are rather poisonous. The scientist Frederick Accum exposed the scandalous practice in his groundbreaking work,Death in the Pot; a treatise on the adulteration of food (1820).

Consider your rooks (or indeed crows) well and truly fuddled !! Or dead.[RH]

Platos Venezolanos - Lobster Margarita

A Venezuelan Cook Book put out by Creole Petroleum Company (published in New York about 1959) - illustrator unknown but not unlike Warhol of that period (see Bookride) A 20 page pamphlet. Not impossibly scarce. The lobster dish is the centre spread. Best washed down with something from Louis Roederer..

Here is a lobster dish with an incomparable flare and fillip to the Venezuelan sauce that will earn for any woman the distinction of being the "hostess with the mostes'." We think you'll agree that any descriptive adjectives would only be superfluous and could not really begin to do justice to the wonderful succulence of this dish.

Lobster Margarita • Langosta Flambée Margarita

4 pkgs. frozen lobster tails
1/4 c. butter or margarine
1/2 onion, minced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 c. flour

3/4 c. canned beef consommé
1/2 c. apple juice or cider
juice of 1/2 lemon
dash of Angostura bitters
2 tbs. chopped parsley
2 egg yolks
3 c. cooked rice
1/4 c. rum
parsley sprigs to garnish

Put lobster tails in cold water which has been salted. Heat until water comes to boil, at which time the lobster tails are done.

  Meanwhile, melt half of the butter or margarine in a saucepan and sauté chopped onion and garlic until tender. Add remaining butter, seasoning and blend in flour. Now stir in beef consommé, apple juice, lemon juice and bitters and heat. Stir constantly until thickened and smooth. Add chopped parsley.

  Lightly beat egg yolks with a fork, add a little of the heated sauce to the yolks, and then stir them back into the sauce. Simmer, stirring for 2 or 3 minutes.

  Rinse lobster tails, remove from shell and cut in half crosswise. On a Iarge round platter, make a wreath of hot cooked rice, fill center with lobster.

  In a small skillet, heat 1/4 cup rum, remove from stove, carefully, ignite and let burn until flame almost disappears. Now top lobster with hot sauce and finally pour burning rum over all. Garnish with parsley sprigs and serve at once. Serves 6.

 

Coffee Log / Coffee Universities

One of many Nescafe cake recipes (John Bull magazine, London  1958). Instant coffee is still used for cake flavouring...in fact in some kitchens that is what is now kept for.

Below that is the actual editorial matter which would have compelled Nescafe to advertise - to the right it shows 3 early coffee houses including the Turk's Head in Cambridge - so popular that nearby pubs suffered. One Cambridge professor declared that a man could pick up more useful knowledge in a coffee-house than at university - a claim I have heard made for the original Peet's in Berkeley!

Coffee Log

One swiss roll, Nescafé mocha icing, browning or brown colouring, chopped pistachio nuts, sprig of holly or a robin. Beat in sufficient browning to make the Nescafé mocha icing similar in colour to tree bark. Cut a slice off the swiss roll and mash it with a fork, form into shape of a small stumpy branch. Place on top of the swiss roll near to one end fixing it with a little icing. Spread the surface with icing and cover the round joins at each end of the roll with icing. Mark with a fork to resemble tree bark. Decorate with pistachio nuts and holly or a robin.

    MOCHA ICING.–2 level teaspoonfuls Nescafé, 2-3 oz. margarine, 2 level tablespoonfuls cocoa, 8 oz. icing sugar, 2 tablespoonfuls hot water. Beat all the dry ingredients to a cream gradually adding the water.

Mulk Raj Anand 'Curries' 1932

An early work on the subject. The author gives the names of two London suppliers of all the ingredients used in the book - Stembridge in Cecil Court  and C.A. Naidu in Lexington Street, Soho. Anand begins with a tribute to Norman Douglas "...with that subtle irony and happy wit characteristic of him, Mr. Norman Douglas once declared that 'Curry is India's greatest contribution to mankind.' Those whose lucky star has bought them under the spell of Mr. Douglas will understand the sense in which that epigram is true. I laughed heartily when I read the statement...'

Mulk Raj Anand also quotes Aleister Crowley:-

'...Curries with their vast partitioned platter of curious condiments to lackey them, speak for themselves. They sting like serpents, stimulate like strychnine; they are subtle, sensual like Chinese courtesans, sublime and sacred, inscrutably inspiring and intelligently illuminating, like Cambodian carvings.'

Here is a simple recipe from Anand


DAL (LENTILS)
1/2 lb. lentils
1/2 oz. butter
1 small onion (sliced)
1/2 teaspoonful of black pepper
1/2 teaspoonfulred pepper
1/2 teaspoonful powdered turmeric
Salt to tatse.

Carefully pick the stones out of the dal and soak for about an hour in a panful of cold water. Put it to boil in a panful of boiled water. Sprinkle in some salt and turmeric and stir. When the lentils are tender, fry the sliced onion in melted butter with black and red pepper in a different pan. Pour this fried mixture into the pan containing the dal to the consistency of porridge over a gentle heat. Take care while putting in the butter to keep the lid partly on so that the liquid does not fly back to your face and hands.

A simple dal that might be improved with frying a small amount of cumin seeds and some chopped garlic. The orange dal needs no soaking, but some lentils require much longer than an hour and stones can still be found.