The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Dessert Cookbook

 Way back in 2010, long before the Amazing Race, long before any cookbooks, and the afternoon before their first appearance on television, Lucindaville was begging everyone to watch the Fabulous Beekman Boys.  We just knew they were going to be stars. 

A mere three years later after a marriage, $1,000,000, a mercantile, two television seasons, and a lot of cheese; they have not one but two cookbooks. Whod'a thunk it! 

So here we are three years later and EVERYONE is writing about the Beekman Boys.   Seriously they are in more magazines than Kate Moss.   So we are going to keep it short and sweet, like The Beekman 1802 Heirloom Dessert Cookbook.

1. The book is beautiful.

2. The photo are beautiful.

3. The recipes are old-fashioned -- excuse me, HEIRLOOM...yet,

4. they seem very modern (much like the boys themselves).

5.  It's dessert!  Buy a copy.

It is mid-September and still 90 degrees!   Make this:

Honey Ice Cream

2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup honey
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons cornstarch

In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine 1 1/2 cups of the milk, the cream, honey, orange zest, cardamom, and salt and bring to a simmer.

In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch into the remaining 1/2 cup of milk.  Add to the simmering cream mixture and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute, or until thickened.  Let cool to room temperature.

Transfer mixture to an ice cream machine and process according to the manufacturer's directions.  Serve right away or transfer to a freezer container and freeze.  If you like, serve with a drizzle of honey.

Now, guess who is going to be on the cover of Popular Mechanics?

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Mrs. Bridges' Upstairs, Downstairs Cookery Book

Today we are featuring a television tie-in cookbook, Mrs. Bridges' Upstairs, Downstairs Cookery Book.
As you may know, Upstairs, Downstairs recently received a makeover. Returning to 165 Eaton Place gave a new generation a look into one of the best loved British television series of all time. And thanks to DVD, one can watch all 68 episodes from the 1970's to catch up to the new series. With a copy of this cookbook, one can cook exactly as Mrs. Bridges did for the Bellamy family.

The fictional cookbook is presented as the actual cookbook of Mrs. Bridges, even featuring a dedication to Lady Marjorie Bellamy. The recipes were pulled from many Edwardian cookbooks to give it that authentic feel. Alas, it does not always feature the dishes one can see being served in the show, which might be its biggest flaw.

When I need a recipe for spotted dick recently, (check out the reason and the "dick" at Lucindaville.) I turned to Mrs. Bridges and she did not disappoint.

Spotted Dick

4 oz flour
4 oz suet
4 oz breadcrumbs
2 oz sugar
5 oz currants
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Sieve the flour , salt and baking powder. Add the suet, finely grated, the breadcrumbs, sugar and currants. Mix into a stiff dough with water. Wrap in a floured cloth, then tie into a ball and boil. allow at least 2 1/2 to 3 hours' boiling. Turn out and serve with Custard Sauce.

If you are totally enamoured of British historical drama, do add this book to your collection, even if you don't make spotted dick.

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The Three Chimneys

When you write a cookbook blog, you often find that you are the recipient of cookbooks that your friends bought on a whim. I know this sounds bizarre, but there are some people out there who see no need whatsoever for a thousand cookbooks to peruse. Well their loss is my gain.

Recently, I gained a lovely cookbook from my friend Nanci. Several years ago, she and her husband took a whirlwind trip to Scotland. While they were there, they had dinner at the famous restaurant, The Three Chimneys that was vote one of the world’s top 50 restaurants.

Being dutifully impressed, and filled with vacation largess, they not only ate at The Three Chimneys, but they also bought the book. Recently, without ever having to visit the Isle of Skye myself, I became the inheritor of the cookbook.

Shirley Spear, the cook at The Three Chimneys began her career as a journalist. The job took her to London where she met her husband. As with any journalist living in London, she couldn’t wait to go back to Scotland and open a restaurant. Sure, after being named one of the 50 best restaurants in the world, one might think it was a great idea, but for many years it seemed like a huge catastrophe. But Shirley was determined to make the local ingredients of the Scottish countryside a source of culinary pride.

Shirley succeeded.

Now, along with the gift of this cookbook, I also received the menu from 16 August 2004, the night Nanci dined there. I really wanted to start with the Loch Dunvegan Lobster & Langoustines with Peashoot, New Potato & Quail Egg Salad, Lemon & Olive Oil Vinaigrette but alas, the recipe was not included so I went for dessert.

Whisky and Lemon Syllabub with Skye Strawberries

250 ml fresh double cream

Finley grated rind and juice of 1 large lemon

125 g castor sugar

1/2 a measure or I generous tbsp. of your favorite whiskey

Whisk all the ingredients together until holding just form.

Spoon on top of fresh strawberries.

Eat and enjoy.

Did she really have to tell us to enjoy? Now I feel the need to re-visit Scotland. And eat langoustines and syllabub and…

Thanks, Nanci!

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Recipes Of All Nations

Many cooks of the thirties, including Elizabeth David, were enamored of Countess Morphy's Recipes Of All Nations. There is very little known about Countess Morphy, though many believe she is a "countess" in that same way Prince is a "prince", that is in name only. Still the Countess knew how to collect recipes. This rather massive tome contains over 800 recipes from 29 countries.



This copy bears an introduction by the well-known 1950's television cook, Philip Harben. Harben states that while he has not cooked all 800 recipes, he has cooked over a dozen and boldly states, "I have never found Countess Morphy once to be in error."



There is a large section on Creole cookery and more than one person believes that before she was the "Countess", she was Marcelle Azra Hincks or maybe Forbes from New Orleans. Her section on Creole recipes features a calas recipe. This is a great old New Orleans recipe that is making a bit of a comeback in cooking circles.

Calas (Breakfast rice fritters)

These delicious breakfast fritters or cakes were sold by the old Creole negro women, and their familiar and harmonious street cry of “Bel calas, bel calas, tout chauds!” was heard in all the streets of the French quarter at breakfast time. They went their daily round carrying on their heads a covered wooden bowl containing the hot Calas – picturesque figures they must have been, with their brightly coloured bandana tignons or head-dress, their blue check dresses and their spotless white aprons. The negro cooks would dash out to secure the freshly made hot Calas, which were eaten with the morning cup of coffee. The following is the traditional recipe for Calas:

Ingredients: ½ a cup of rice, 3 cups of water, 3 eggs, 3 tablespoons of flour, ½ a cup of sugar, about 1 oz or a little under of yeast, lard or oil.

Method: Put the water in a saucepan, bring to the boil and add the rice. Boil till the rice is very soft and mushy. Remove from the saucepan and, when quite cold, mix with the yeast dissolved in warm water. Set the rice to rise overnight. In the morning, beat the eggs thoroughly, add them to the rice, with the sugar and flour. Beat all well and make into a thick batter. Set aside to rise for another 15 minutes. Have ready a deep frying pan with hot oil or lard, drop into it 1 tablespoon of the mixture at a time, and cook till a light golden colour. When done, remove them from the fat, drain well by placing them on a sieve or in a colander, sprinkle with sugar and serve very hot.

My copy of this book was used exclusively for the Austro-Hungarian recipes. (There are notes and checks.) This seemed to be a favorite. The "paprika" here refers to the actual pepper so the Countess should have translated it as a Pepper Salad.

Paprika Salat (Paprika Salad)



The paprikas are either boiled or baked till tender and served with salad dressing made of 2 tablespoons of oil to 1 of vinegar, salt, pepper, and a little sugar.

AS you can see, there are just more countries than we have time for here.

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Dolly's Dixie Fixin's

“I cook like an old mountain woman.”

Today’s joint venture with Famous Food Friday at Lucindaville is none other than Dolly Parton. I bet you didn’t even know she could cook. Sing yes. Act and write and run a theme park, yes. But cook? Well, she watched her Mama feed 12 kids in a tiny cabin, so some of that cooking had to rub off.




Dolly gathered up a whole bunch of recipes and wrote a cookbook, Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s. The cookbook is filled with her Mama’s recipes as well as recipes from family and friends. There is a section on Christmas and other celebrations. Sections on barbeque, breads and sweets. Also, there a section called Road Kill that feature… not road kill, but recipes from some of Parton’s favorite roadside eateries like the Loveless Café and Mama Dips.

“…the two things I require in all my homes are a great kitchen and a chapel.”

Dolly’s Dixie Fixin’s follows the time-honored tradition in the South of gathering together collections of recipes to raise money for a church or a junior league. Parton’s cookbook raises money for a project close to her heart, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. In 1996, Parton began giving away books to children to spark their love of reading. She had a simple idea, give children, regardless of their family income, a book of their own every month. Parton personally sent a book every month to every child in Sevier County, Tennessee. The books begin with The Little Engine That Could and end, the month the child goes to kindergarten with, Look Out Kindergarten Here I Come. Needless to say, the idea caught on and before long there were Imagination Libraries popping up everywhere.


Like Dolly, food and reading are two of my favorite things.



Here is an appropriately titled recipe from Dolly. According to Parton:

“…when I stopped hoeing corn and working in the fields and moved to Nashville, I grew quite a bit larger. I was so fat, when I hauled ass I had to make two trips.”

These bars couldn’t be any sweeter. Just reading the recipe will make your teeth hurt.

Hello Dolly Bars

8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Pour the butter into an 8 by 8-inch baking pan. Spread the graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of the pan. Arrange the chocolate chips over the crumbs, followed by the coconut and pecans. Pour the condensed milk over the pecans. Bake until golden, about 20 minutes. The bars will not look like they’re cooked; they need to cool on a rack to firm up. Cut into bars once they are cooked.

I’m sure if you eat a big ol’ plate of these, you, too, will have to make a couple of trips to haul ass. And, if your community is looking for a fine project for children, look into the Imagination Library.

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Cooking In Provence

I know, I know, I don’t need another cookbook about Provence. There are clafouti, and moules and tomato tarts, oh my. Still, there has never been a Provence cookbook I didn’t love and Alex Mackay’s Cooking In Provence is no different. I can’t help myself, but French food just looks better than any food on the page. How is that possible? I don’t know, but it is a fact. Rather than palaver on, take a look at the food.

and

and

Oh yeah, here is the recipe.

Coeur A La Crème

350 g (12 oz) fromage frais
200 g (7 oz) caster sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
250 g (9 oz) raspberries
300 g (10 1/2 oz) or 2 large punnets, of either raspberries, strawberries or red currants, or a mixture
100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) double cream or crème frâiche (optional)

Line a heart, or any perforated mould – the base of a small colander would do – with a layer of muslin. Mix the fresh cheese with half the sugar and the lemon juice and spoon it into the muslin and mould, being careful not to crease the muslin too much. Tap the mould against the table a few times to knock out any air bubbles and leave to drain for at least 2 hours.

Mix the first 250 g (9oz) raspberries with the remaining sugar and 100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) water in a small pan. Bring to a boil, purée and strain, and mix the remaining fruit.

To serve, unmould the cheese heart, warm the berries in the coulis and help yourself to the double cream.

I think coeur a la crème is a wonderful, and lovely dessert. It is quite easy to make and tasty. I am resolving to make it at least twice this summer!

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Thanksgiving 101

Rick Rodgers has done several of these "101" type books. Thanksgiving was such a big thing in my family, that I have a hard time imagining anyone who can't throw together a turkey, dressing and pie. I forget that there are a lot of people who don't know exactly how to get it together. There are several basic cookbooks for this and Rick Rodgers' Thanksgiving 101 is a good choice.

I thought of this book because of a conversation I had with someone who never cooks. She mentioned a pumpkin roll thing (she didn't really have a name for it) but the second she started talking about it I knew exactly what she was talking about.

I don't know where this recipe originated, I think perhaps it is a standard "Libby's Pumpkin" recipe, but it has become a popular Thanksgiving dessert. As with so many things that have become "popular" this dessert had been subjected to many a horrific interpretation. So many times it looks particularly inedible. Rodgers has dressed up the recipe a bit, adding a nice "spiked cream" and some nuts. (As you know I generally have an aversion to nuts, but I do rather like walnuts so I am letting this slide.)

Pumpkin-Walnut Roulade with Spiked Cream

1 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup canned solid pack pumpkin
1 teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 cup (3 ounces) finely chopped walnuts

Confectioners' sugar, for sifting

Filling

Two 3-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons minced crystallized ginger


Spiked Cream

1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons dark rum or brandy, optional
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts, for garnish
2 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger, for garnish



1. To make the cake, position a rack in the top third of the oven and preheat to 375° F. Lightly butter a 10 X 15-inch jelly roll pan. To line the bottom and sides of the pan, cut a 12 X 16-inch piece of parchment or waxed paper. At each of the four corners, cut a diagonal slash about 2 inches long. Fit the paper into the pan, folding the cut ends over each other at the slashed to form neat corners. Lightly butter and flour the paper, tapping out the excess flour.

2. In a large bowl, using a hand-held electric mixer set at high speed, beat the sugar and eggs until light in color and texture, about 3 minutes. (The mixture should form a thick ribbon that falls back on itself when the beaters are lifted about 2 inches from the bowl. It must be stiff enough to support the weight of the dry ingredients.) Stir in the pumpkin and lemon juice.

3. Sift the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cloves onto a piece of waxed paper. With the mixer on low, gradually beat in the flour mixture, scraping the sides of the bowl as needed. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan, being sure to reach into the corners. Sprinkle the batter with the walnuts.

4. Bake until the center of the cake springs back when lightly pressed with a finger, about 15 minutes. Sift confectioners' over the top of the cake. Place a clean kitchen towel over the cake, then top with a baking sheet. Holding the baking sheet over the cake, turn the cake upside down and invert it onto the towel on the baking sheet. Carefully peel off the paper. Place the paper back on the cake. Using the towel as an aide, roll up the cake and cool completely.

5. To make the filling, in a medium bowl, using a hand-held electric mixer at medium speed, beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla until combined. Gradually beat in the confectioners' sugar until smooth.

6. Unroll the cake and discard the paper. Spread the filling evenly over the cake and sprinkle with the crystallized ginger. Re-roll the cake (you won't need to use the kitchen towel) and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until the filing is firm, at least 1 hour. (The cake can be refrigerated for up to 2 days.)

7. To make the spiked cream, in a chilled medium bowl, using a hand-held electric mixer set at high speed, beat the cream, confectioners' sugar, optional rum, and vanilla until stiff. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a large open star tip, such as Ateco Number 5.

8. Transfer the roll to a long serving platter. Garnish the cake with swirls of the whipped cream, and sprinkle with the walnuts and crystallized ginger. To serve, cut the cake diagonally into thick slices.

Now, I know everyone (well, not everyone, but the ONE who gets stuck in the kitchen cooking all this food) gets rushed during this time of the year, but if you are going to the trouble of making a "homemade" dessert, do make it look edible! A last minute dusting of 10X can do wonders for cattywhompus jelly roll!

Check out Rick Rodger's web site.

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