April recipe: Rhubarb pie

Rhubarb is the first fruit* to be harvested in spring.  It usually appears around April, conveniently just after the last of the stored apples have gone.  It can be used in many of the same recipes as cooking apples, such as pies, tarts and crumbles.  Rhubarb goes particularly well with a hint of ginger, which adds a warm spicy note to the rhubarb’s tart flavour.

Rhubarb pie is easy to make, and can be served either hot or cold.  Here’s the recipe.

Rhubarb pie (serves 4-6)

Rhubarb filling

1 lb (approx 450 g) rhubarb

2 oz (approx 50 g) granulated sugar

2 Tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoons) syrup from a jar of preserved stem ginger (optional)

Pastry

5 oz (approx 150 g) plain flour

1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) golden icing sugar

2.5 oz (approx 70 g) butter

1.5 oz (approx 40 g) lard

Grease a shallow heatproof pie dish.  I use an oval dish about 7” by 9” (about 18 cm by about 22 cm).

Wash the rhubarb stalks and trim off the ends.  Slice the stalks into pieces approximately 1 inch (approx 2.5 cm) long.

Put the rhubarb pieces in the pie dish. Sprinkle the granulated sugar over the rhubarb.  Add the ginger syrup if using, and stir to mix.

Rub the butter and lard into the icing sugar and flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add 1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) cold water and stir to mix.  The pastry should form a soft dough.  If the pastry is floury, add a little more water.  If it is sticky, add a little more flour.

Roll out the pastry thickly on a floured work surface until it is about the same size as the top of the pie dish. 

Cover the fruit with the pastry.  Trim the edges.  Roll out the trimmings and cut into pastry leaves to decorate the top of the pie, if wished.

Brush the pie with milk and sprinkle with a pinch of granulated sugar.

Stand the pie dish on a baking tray, in case any juice bubbles out of the pie during cooking.

Bake in a moderately hot oven at about 180 C for about 35 minutes until the pastry is golden brown.

Serve hot or cold, with custard, cream or ice cream.

 

*I think rhubarb may technically be classed as a vegetable, since it’s the stalks that are eaten. ‘Fruit’ typically refers to a fleshy casing surrounding the seeds of a plant. However, in the kitchen rhubarb can be used in many of the same recipes as cooking apples or other sharp-flavoured stewing fruits, so from a culinary perspective it behaves like a fruit.

April recipe: Mulligatawny soup

This spicy soup is simple to make, and its warming taste and bright colour help to cheer up a cold, wet day – which can be useful in chancy spring weather. You can vary the spices according to taste and availability, or use curry powder if you prefer.

Like chutney and kedgeree, the unusual name ‘mulligatawny’ is a legacy of empire, an Anglo-Indian dish whose name derives from the Tamil word ‘milagutannir’, translation ‘pepper-water’.

There are many variations. I have seen mulligatawny made with chicken or lamb, sometimes with rice. This is a vegetarian (vegan if you use vegetable oil instead of butter) version based on red lentils. It freezes well, so you can make a double quantity and freeze half for later use. The recipe below serves two as a main meal with bread, or four as a first course.

Mulligatawny soup
1 onion
Half a red pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 oz (approx 25 g) butter
0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) ground ginger
0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) cumin
0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) coriander
0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) turmeric
2 teaspoons (2 x 5 ml spoons) tomato puree
Approx 6oz (approx 150 g) tinned tomatoes
4 oz (approx 100 g) split red lentils
1 oz (approx 25 g) raisins
0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) demerara sugar
1 pint (approx 500 ml) vegetable stock or water


Peel and chop the onion. Wash the red pepper, remove the seeds and chop into pieces about 0.5 inch (approx 1 cm) square. Peel and crush the garlic.
Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Fry the onion, red pepper and garlic gently in the butter for a few minutes until softened and starting to colour.
Stir in the ginger, cumin, coriander, turmeric, tomato puree and tinned tomatoes. Cook gently for a minute or two.
Add the lentils and raisins and stir well so that the lentils are coated in the tomato and spice mixture. Add the stock and sugar and bring to the boil.
Season with salt, turn the heat down to low, and simmer over a low heat for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour until the lentils are soft.
Serve hot with bread.
Can be frozen.

April recipe: Hot cross buns

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns
If you have no daughters, give them to your sons
One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns

--Traditional rhyme

Another version uses ‘one ha-penny, two ha-penny’, ha-penny meaning half a penny. The variant I know was evidently coined in more inflationary days :-) I have no idea of the significance of the line about daughters and sons, if indeed it has any beyond a convenient rhyme and scan. Feel free to speculate.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest recorded use of the phrase ‘hot cross bun’ is in 1733:

Good Friday comes this Month, the old woman runs With one or two a Penny hot cross Bunns.

--Oxford English Dictionary

It seems likely to me that some form of enriched sweet bread baked to celebrate a spring festival goes back a lot further than 1733, though in the absence of evidence you can choose your own favourite theory about the origin of the recipe and the significance of the cross. Wikipedia has a few to choose from. It would be terribly prosaic to suggest that two intersecting cuts across the top of a loaf may have started out as a convenient way of dividing it into four pieces.

There are as many variants of hot cross buns as there are cooks. You can vary the dried fruit (some recipes even substitute chocolate chips), you can vary the spices, you can glaze the buns with honey or icing, and the cross can be marked with pastry, flour-and-water-paste, icing or simply slashed with a knife. Take your pick. Here’s my recipe, and a happy Easter to you when it comes.

Hot cross buns

Half a cup (about 2 fluid ounces, or abut 50 ml) tepid water
1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) granulated sugar
2 teaspoons (2 x 5 ml spoons) dried yeast*
1 lb (approx 450 g) strong white flour
2 oz (approx 50 g) light brown soft sugar
2 oz (approx 50 g) butter
2 teaspoons (2 x 5 ml spoons) ground mixed spice
0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) salt
2 oz (approx 50 g) sultanas
1 oz (approx 25 g) currants
1 oz (approx 25 g) cut mixed peel**
1 egg
Milk to mix

Dissolve the granulated sugar in the tepid water and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside in a warm place for about 20 minutes until frothy on top. (If using the kind of dried yeast that needs no activation, follow the instructions on the packet).

Mix the light brown soft sugar, flour, salt and spices in a bowl, and rub in the butter. Stir in the dried fruit and peel.

Pour in the yeast liquid, then the beaten egg. Mix well. Add milk until the mixture forms a soft dough. (If it is floury and flaky, add a little more milk. If it is sticky, you have added too much milk; add a bit more flour).

Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and knead for a few minutes until smooth.

Put the dough back in the bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and leave in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour. It should roughly double in size.

Knead again for a few minutes, then shape the dough into 12 buns. Place the buns on a greased baking sheet so they are just touching. Make two intersecting cuts with a knife on the top of each bun to form a cross.

Cover with a damp cloth and leave to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour.

Bake in a hot oven, about 220 C, for about 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack. If liked, brush the tops of the warm buns with honey to make them sticky.

Serve warm or cold, with butter. Any left over will keep for a day or so in an airtight tin, or can be frozen.



*This is the kind of dried yeast you have to activate in warm water before using.
**Cut mixed peel is the UK name. I think it may be called ‘candied citrus peel’ or similar in the US..

April recipe: Sweet and sour chick pea fritters with stir-fried cabbage

Stir-fried green cabbage goes well with the sweetness of the pineapple in the sauce. Chinese cabbage works especially well, but ordinary green cabbage is also fine. This dish also goes very well with a green lettuce salad, but in April I still have a while to wait for lettuce from the garden (especially in a late spring, as it is this year).

If you remember to soak and cook the chick peas in advance (or if you use tinned ones), this is a quick meal to cook. The fritter batter keeps well in the fridge for two or three days, so if you want a smaller quantity you can just fry as many fritters as you want and keep the rest of the batter for later. The batter will separate during storage (which looks alarming the first time it happens); just stir it thoroughly with a spoon and it will soon go back to normal.

Serves 4.

Sweet and sour chick pea fritters with stir-fried cabbage

6 oz (approx 150 g) chick peas
4 oz (approx 100 g) plain flour
1 egg
0.25 pint (approx 150 ml) water
1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) soy sauce (optional)

1 onion
1 green pepper
Approx 1” (approx 2.5 cm) cube root ginger
1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) cornflour
1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) tomato puree
1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) wine vinegar
12 oz (approx 300 g) tin pineapple pieces in juice (NOT in syrup)
Approximately 0. 5 pint (approx 300 ml) water

Approx 1 lb (approx 450 g) green cabbage or Chinese cabbage
1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) soy sauce
1 Tablespoon (1 x 15 ml spoon) cooking sherry

Soak the chick peas for 6-8 hours or overnight. Cook in boiling water until tender (usually about 1 – 1.25 hours). Drain. (Or you can use tinned chick peas; follow the cooking instructions on the tin)

Wash, trim and finely shred the cabbage.

Mix the egg, flour and soy sauce (if using) to a thick paste. Gradually mix in the water to make a smooth batter. Season with salt to taste, and leave to stand for half an hour or so if possible (not necessary if you’re in a hurry).

Peel and chop the onion. Peel and shred the root ginger. Remove the seeds from the green pepper and chop.

Fry the onion, pepper and ginger gently in cooking oil in a small saucepan until starting to colour.

Stir in the cornflour and mix well.

Pour in the contents of the tin of pineapple including the juice, followed by the water. Add the wine vinegar and tomato puree. Bring to the boil, and leave to simmer on a low heat while you make the fritters.

Stir the cooked and drained chick peas into the batter.

Heat cooking oil in a wok or frying pan. Drop spoonfuls of the chick pea batter into the hot oil and fry over a medium heat until golden brown on the underside (2-3 minutes approx). Turn the fritters and fry the other side. When cooked, lift the fritters out of the oil and keep warm while you fry the next batch of fritters, either on a tempura rack over the wok if you have one or in a low oven.

When all the fritters are cooked, add the shredded cabbage to the wok and stir fry for 2-3 minutes over a high heat until starting to wilt. Stir in the sherry and soy sauce and cook for another half-minute or so.

Put the fritters on a warm serving dish or plates, pour the sweet and sour sauce over them, and serve with the stir-fried cabbage and noodles.

April recipe: Sultana cheesecake

This recipe has a somewhat convoluted provenance. I’ve seen a dish that’s obviously a close relative billed as “Yorkshire Curd Tarts”, but I was first given the recipe by an acquaintance in Bedfordshire, and in any case I’ve modified it myself since then. I suppose I could call it something like “Yorkshire or Bedfordshire Curd Tart, With East Anglian Modifications, And Using Cream Cheese Instead of Curd Cheese Because You Can’t Find Curd Cheese Anywhere These Days…”, but while that might be accurate it could be considered somewhat less than adroit. Sultana Cheesecake is at least short and reasonably descriptive.

I mostly make it in spring, partly because dairy produce traditionally came back into season in spring so it feels right, and partly because it can be served either warm or cold according to the weather.

Here’s the recipe.

Sultana cheesecake

Buttercrust pastry
3 oz (approx 80 g) plain flour
1.5 oz (approx 40 g) butter
Cold water to mix

Filling
1 oz (approx 25 g) caster sugar
1 oz (approx 25 g) butter
4 oz (approx 125 g) cream cheese
0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) plain flour
1 egg
2 oz (approx 50 g) sultanas

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Gradually add a small amount of cold water and mix until it forms a soft dough. If it’s floury and flaky, add a little more water, if it’s sticky you’ve added too much water so add a little more flour.
Or you can buy ready-made pastry if you prefer.
Roll the pastry out to a circle and line a greased tart dish approx 6–7 inches (approx 15–18 cm) diameter.

Cream the caster sugar and butter together until light and fluffy.
Beat in the cream cheese, flour and nutmeg.
Beat in the egg.
Mix in the sultanas.
Pour into the pastry case and level the surface.
Bake in a moderately hot oven at around 180 C for about 25 to 30 minutes until the filling is set and golden brown.
Serve warm or cold, with cream if liked.

I expect to get 6 slices out of this quantity, but it depends how big a slice you like.
Keeps in the fridge for 3–4 days, if it gets the chance.

If you want to add a slightly festive touch, you can soak the sultanas in a tablespoon of rum or brandy for a few hours beforehand.

If you don’t like sultanas, you can use raisins or currants instead.

Eosturmonath (April): the early English calendar

Before they converted to Christianity and adopted the Roman calendar, the early English (‘Anglo-Saxons’) reckoned time using a system of lunar months. Each cycle of the moon, probably from full moon to full moon, was a month. The year began at the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. There were two seasons, summer, when the days were longer than the nights, and winter, when the nights were longer than the days (See my earlier post for a summary of the early English calendar.)

The fourth month of the year, corresponding approximately to the Roman and modern month of April, was called Eosturmonath. Bede, writing in 725, tells us:

Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated “Paschal month”, and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Paschal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.

--Bede, On the Reckoning of Time, Chapter 15. Translated by Faith Wallis.

“Paschal” is the Christian festival called Easter in modern English. Evidently someone had been following Pope Gregory’s advice to the early Christian missionaries sent to the English! Pope Gregory advised Bishop Mellitus:

The temples of the idols in that nation ought not to be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed; let holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, and relics placed. For if those temples are well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God; that the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have been accustomed. And because they have been used to slaughter many oxen in the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for them on this account, as that on the day of the dedication, or the nativities of the holy martyrs, whose relics are there deposited, they may build themselves huts of the boughs of trees, about those churches which have been turned to that use from temples, and celebrate the solemnity with religious feasting, and no more offer beasts to the Devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating.

--Bede, Book I Chapter 30

So who was Eostre, the goddess who gave her name and her festival to the Christian Easter?

Kathleen Herbert says that ‘eostre’ in the Germanic languages means ‘from the east’ and is cognate with the word for ‘dawn’ in several Indo-European languages including Greek, Latin and Sanskrit (Herbert 1994). The Old English season of summer, when the days are longer than the nights, begins at the spring equinox, and Eostre’s month would be the first month of summer. This would be consistent with Eostre as a goddess of the dawn and the coming of the sun, an altogether kinder and gentler image than the goddess of the previous month, Hretha.

If Eostre’s festival was also associated with the return of life in the spring, this may have helped her feast merge with the Christian festival of Easter, which celebrates the return of Christ to life. (See Lucy Ann White’s post on some of the traditions associated with Easter). It may not have been at all difficult for people to carry on celebrating the return of sun, light, warmth and life, with a different name attached to the associated deity.

References
Full-text sources available online are linked in the text.
Bede: The Reckoning of Time. Translated by Faith Wallis. Liverpool University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-85323-693-3.
Herbert, Kathleen. Looking for the Lost Gods of England. Anglo-Saxon Books, 1994. ISBN 1-898281-04-1.


Edit: The next post on this blog will be on or around Saturday 24 May.

April recipe: Curried chick peas with fried bananas

Many beans and pulses seem to work particularly well in spicy dishes, and this dish is a good example. It's sweet and spicy without being especially hot, and you can vary the spices to suit taste and availability. I use frozen chopped tomatoes (almost the last thing left from last year's garden produce by the time we get round to April), but tinned tomatoes will also work. Incidentally, it happens to be a vegan dish.

Curried chick peas (serves 2)

4 oz (approx 100 g) dried chick peas
Half a small onion
0.25 teaspoon (0.25 x 5 ml spoon) ground cumin
0.25 teaspoon (0.25 x 5 ml spoon) ground coriander
0.25 teaspoon (0.25 x 5 ml spoon) ground ginger
0.25 teaspoon (0.25 x 5 ml spoon) turmeric
0.25 teaspoon (0.25 x 5 ml spoon) garam masala

Soak the chick peas in cold water overnight. If you don't have time to do this, put them in a pan with plenty of cold water, bring to the boil, remove from the heat and soak for one hour.
Rinse three or four times, put in a saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to boil, and simmer for about 1 hour 15 minutes until the chick peas are tender. (Or you could use tinned chick peas, in which case you will need about 8 oz. Read the instructions to see if you have to do any preparation).
Peel and chop the onion.
Fry onion gently in oil until soft and starting to turn golden.
Stir in spices.
Add the cooked chick peas and enough of their cooking liquid to about half-cover them.
Cover the pan and simmer for around 15 minutes while you cook the fried bananas to go with them (see below).
Season with salt and pepper, and garnish with chopped parsley. Serve with rice, and fried bananas or a salad.

Fried spiced bananas and tomatoes (serves 2)

Half a large onion
1 clove garlic
1 piece of root ginger, about 1” (about 2.5 cm) cube
4 oz (approx 100 g) tomatoes
2 bananas
0.5 teaspoon (0.5 x 5 ml spoon) turmeric

Peel and chop the onion.
Peel and shred the root ginger.
Peel and crush the garlic clove.
Peel and slice the bananas.
Chop the tomatoes (you can peel them if you like, I never do).
Fry the onion and ginger in oil until the onion is soft and beginning to turn golden.
Stir in the garlic and tomatoes and fry gently for 1-2 minutes.
Add the sliced bananas and the turmeric, season with salt.
Fry gently another 2-3 minutes until the banana is soft.

Serve with curried chick peas (above) and rice.

April recipe: Stem ginger biscuits

Ginger has been used in cookery for thousands of years, and is also supposed to have all sorts of health benefits. How much truth there is in this I have no idea – and I’m not about to conduct a meta-analysis to find out – but I like ginger anyway. So here’s a recipe for ginger biscuits (cookies) that uses ginger in two forms, preserved stem ginger and ground ginger. These are simple, quick to make (and even quicker to disappear), and the ingredients are available all year round.

Stem ginger biscuits

4 oz (approx 100 g) butter
2 tablespoons (2 x 15 ml spoons) golden syrup
1 oz (approx 25 g) sugar
2 oz (approx 50 g) stem ginger
6 oz (approx 150 g) self-raising flour
1 teaspoon (1 x 5 ml spoon) ground ginger

Chop the stem ginger into small pieces (about half the size of a raisin, or whatever size you prefer).
Put the butter, syrup and sugar in a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted and the sugar dissolved. Remove from the heat.
Stir in the flour, ground ginger and chopped stem ginger. Mix thoroughly. It should form a soft dough that leaves the sides of the pan clean.
Put teaspoonfuls of the mixture onto a greased baking tray, spaced about 1 inch (approx 2-3 cm) apart to allow room for the biscuits to spread as they cook. I usually get about 30 biscuits out of the quantities given, but you can make the biscuits larger or smaller according to taste.
Bake at about 180 C (approx 375 F) for about 15 minutes until the biscuits are golden brown and set.
Remove from the tray and cool on a wire rack.
Store in an airtight tin. If they get the chance, they keep for up to 2 weeks.

If you can’t get stem ginger, you can use crystallised (candied) ginger instead. If you don’t like pieces of ginger in biscuits, you can miss out the stem ginger and use 2 teaspoons of ground ginger.