A Little Slice of the Black Country

It was so beautiful this morning when I awoke at the ungodly time of half past 6. Even though it was raining and my curtains were but a crack open, the sun sent shimmers of its warm delight and rainbow flecks onto my wall. And for once I genuinely did not mind getting out of bed. 

I have no doubt in my mind that this had a great deal to do with the fact that I knew I was finishing University today. And regardless of how well I had done in the essays I finished scribbling last night, or the looming dread of the marking of my dissertation it was going to be a good day. And it very much was. I write to you here today as a free woman. With my late night email reminder floating around in my head “Remember how tired you are right now. If you ever have to do essays again do not leave it this late, my eyeballs are exploding”, I quite like leaving myself notes. I’m going to be honest I’ve never been the ‘get-essays-in-before-they’re-due’ type but something about how tired I was made me realise how I am never going to do that again...well, more so the other times. It’s a pity it’s right at the end of my University career.

Okay, well firstly I shall start off with an apology, I’m going to be honest, I’ve written over 20,000 in general academic-related stuff since I last posted. And once you get into that referencing mindset it’s difficult to get back to the creative (Field, 2011). So apologies for the laborious wait those who follow.

To carry on with a past post though, the cheesecake went down very well. I think it did any way (I was a little tipsy at the time) but, I’m very, very glad. I’m not very experienced with cheesecake-making and this was literally the easiest thing. I’d even say it's easier than baking a cake, other than faffing a bit with the lemons, I did make a very big cheesecake though and I had to use 7 lemons. I know, my face just melted with sourness too but it was a perfectly balanced cheesecake. Thank you very much Once Upon a Thyme.

 

So back to the food. The other day I finally made mawa/mava cakes. I say finally because I’ve been meaning to make them for over a month but completely underestimated how much time they would really take up...it turns out alot. I’m gonna be completely honest, I spent the best part of an hour attempting to grind cardamom pods down to powder, it’s a complete pain in the ass. Never do it. If you can help it, buy ground, for your own sake.

Also as awesome as those cakes were they are very time consuming, the mava itself (which is a reduction of evapourated milk and cream) took up over an hour of my afternoon just constantly stirring. If you’re going to make these little beauties, make sure you have an entire afternoon. So with the slap bass of “Take the Power Back” in my ears and the citrusy smell of cardamom stuck to my fingers (after getting angry at their lack of cooperation and attempting to crush them with my bare hands like the hulk), I waited for them to cook their sorry asses into submission. Worried deeply in case they didn’t work. Thankfully they did though, and got hoovered up in no time. Must be a good sign. I also have some bad news as I have lost my phone along with all my photographs many of the exciting culinary expeditions I tried in the last month and a bit are lost too. So I have no visual records for the time being. So here’s a different photo of what mava/mawa cakes look like with a better camera than I have. They do look rather unassuming but they are deceptively beautiful.

I am a giant mava cake.

Right as a little theme I thought it’d be nice to do a bit of a locally themed post because I do love where I come from, warts and all.

I take you back in my tardis to the realm of my dear home of Black Country some yonder years ago. If you are reading from abroad then let me introduce a place you‘ve probably never heard of. It’s a quaint little place in the Midlands of England full of meadows and cascading streams. I kid it used to be one of the most prosperous industrious regions of the UK in the Victorian era and famed for the many steel factories and chain-making. Exciting, I know but all parts of culture is intertwined with culinary patterns. There are bits and bobs of tales saying that the name originated from when Queen Victoria came to visit the area and the air was so black with smoke she refused to leave her carriage and pulled down the blinds. But it was more likely the hefty seams of coal that vein the soil making the ground black. I think I prefer the shunning of Vic if I’m honest but hey ho.

Anyway the wonder that is Boney Pie (or Boony Pie if yow’m from mar neck of the woods). I can honestly say that everyone I have met has never even heard of Boney Pie, so I am undertaking the assumption that it is a Black Country exclusive phenomenon. It is the wonderful art of boiling bones of pig or various other animals and getting all the scraps and bits and bobs off in some sort of stock. Boiled meat I know sounds delish so far. And ultimately sticking it in a thick crust of pastry and filling it with seasoned jelly.

While this is actually a pork pie it looks exactly the same from the outside...it’s a pie.

Now while it sounds like a bit of a glorified pork pie it is so much better than that if you get the seasoning right. It has been cooked on occasion in my household namely by my eldest sister who has quite a hand for a chicken variety and though it’s not a staple it is very much an appreciated part of regional culinary delights. I have to say the stereotype is with Black Country food that is a...debatable at best in comparison to other accepted UK cuisines. I won’t overtly disagree I did come across a recipe from a Black Country cookbook called Groaty Dick, which I was originally not in too great-a hurry to try, but it turns out it is an awesome stew. This is just the tip of Black Country cuisine, there’s so much more, but the few dishes I’ve mentioned are some of my favourites. This just goes to show, there are a few hidden gems here in the Midlands, but more on that later.

Whilst i’ll steer clear of the recipe for Boney Pie for now, as I am aware that boiled meat is not most of you reader’s cup o’tea. I will come back to recipes a bit later with a little adaptation on a vintage recipe. It is no secret that most traditional Black Country cuisine is not exactly easy on the gut, and if you fancied a bit of old-school glamour, it probably won’t do you any favours trying to squeeze into your girdle.

Like most people who enjoy their food give me a choice between a passed-down journal or crumpled recipe book, full of notes, and a thousand page encyclopaedia about food and I will always choose the crumpled pages. You know when you hold that book in your hands that it has been through generations of families and proof-testing and adjustments scribbled in ikea pens, kohl pencils or anything to hand when you’ve discover that accidentally adding an extra tablespoon of sugar or extra egg made that cake perfect. Food should be an heirloom from parent to child just as much as a piece of jewellery or blue eyes. And why not? A person has spent their entire lives cooking for their family and friends, and perfected certain talents along the way, why should that not be given to younger generation? I can say that if I ever have children, they are going to hate me because I’m going to bequeath unto them my monster collection of cookery books and journals.

I digress yet again, I really do apologise I’m a little scattered today, I go ontowards my aforementioned adaptation. Here before you is the vintage recipe of this post, and though I am aware this dish isn’t exclusive to the Black Country, I know it’s quite an important part of many people’s upbringing:

Black Country Fill Belly

AKA Bread pudding

Serves a good 6 people if not more

500g stale bread

200g brown or granulated sugar

250g mixed dried

3 eggs

30g butter

2 teaspoons mixed spice

Milk

OPTIONAL – Pastry

OPTIONAL - Jam

NB - the original recipe calls for 100g of suet, but as many people don’t really eat it anymore or you’re on a diet, leave this out or substitute it for brown bread crumbs, but neither are really necessary.

- Also, I’ve made a few changes to the original, but it’s still a pretty standard recipe.

- Soak the bread in a little milk, squeeze to get rid of moisture and flake with a fork.

- Add all the other ingredients and mix well.

- Here’s where you can choose. Either you can put this mix into a greased baking tray dotted with bits of butter OR (do this) you can layer a nice deepish pastry case with a good layer of jam and fill it up with this mixture and bake it in the oven for both ways, on low for about 2 hours or until brown.

- This pudding does kind of make its own custard, what with the eggs and all, but I’m all about the custard so make some up and go to town.

Bread and butter pudding is just a nice, simple recipe, no fussing, nothing extravagant if you don’t want. It’s just nice.

It is times like this where I reminisce about school (as with a previous post about flapjacks) and remember to my primary school days and this fascinating cake that I have never come across since. Though my memory is hazy, I vaguely remember this lovely little square of cake that tasted what I imagined a ten-fold thick slice of shortbread would taste like, covered in horrific, amazing cheap sugary custard. I have searched, oh how I have searched to try and find something that resembles this fond memory, but alas. It is neither shortcake nor normal shortbread but thickened and I swear I even had a dream about it not long ago. Darn you, you shall evade me for now little cake but I will find you one of these days. For now, I bid you goodnight. But I shall be back very soon, with a hopefully found phone and some more culinary yummies.

Peace

JR

Prospective Cheesecake

Now, as much as I love my food, I would like to think that there's alot more to me then just cooking, I do and very much enjoy other things in my life. Just to let you know that i'm deeper than a fat cake-filled puddle! Now, in the mindset of this, I would like to mention that I really really should not be writing this post, as I have several assignments that are clawing at my toes trying to drag me under the table into the realms of proverbial hell. But aha! I say to them good day to sirs, you shall not ensnare me today! Well...they will, but not quite yet, i'm not ready to reside myself to my bedroom, lock the door and bang out two thousand words. Not a euphemism!

            So in the spitits of today, I shall explore the world of the cheesecake. I mention it today as I am making one tomorrow and I thought it apt to do research, like any good little enthusiast, into the product that I would be making. So a little history lesson, stick with me, it will bear rewards! Now as popular as cheesecake is in the modern times we live in, you wouldn't think that it originated in ancient Greece, there's no exact date, but it has been noted down that something resembling cheesecake was fed to Olympic athletes in about 775BC. However, the first recorded cheesecake wasn't a little later, 5th Century BC to be accurate, and the times of Aegimus. Now this amazing physician helped create the first document and guide to creating cheesecake, thankyou very much.

           As is with food, everyone likes to take something awesome and give their take on it, so it's not a big deal if you say there are literally dozens of different types of cheesecake across the globe, and I don't mean just flavours, you could probably reach that number just in the Cheesecake Factory, but different ways of making it. Some make it with sponge, others with crushed biscuits, and the somewhat controversial ideas of whether a cheesecake should be baked, chilled, or frozen. In my personal opinion I couldn't care less about what's "right", there is no right" way of doing things, just loads of different ways...and sometimes wrong ways if it goes catastrophically wrong and ends up running everywhere. Style it out, style it out.

          I quite like researching this because not only do you just learn about assembling ingredients, you kinda learn a little science too, adding rennet to casein and coagulating it (like the Swedish variation) seems very complicated in comparison to mixing cream cheese with some lemon and leaving it to set in the fridge. As this is only a short mini post, and I need some sleep, I shall be brief. I may have found a pretty amazing recipe. Here is a picture. If it goes down well I will ask the kind donator of said cheesecake if I can post the recipe on here too!

This very obviously does not belong to me! I have kindly borrowed this from Once Upon A Thyme (which you can visit if you like, the url is on the picture)

Thankyou very much potentially!

Peace
JR

A Very Vegetarian Evening

When I think about it, as much as I hate the horizontal rain, and the epic winds (especially today), I really like living in Wales. I'm just on the edge of Snowdonia, so I get the best of both worlds, I get beautiful mountains and the sea all in one teeny package. And being the hopeless romantic that I am I don't half indulge my inner needs by being late for many things by staring at the cap clouds over the mountains near my house. I say this only because I was sad walking home that I couldn't see the sky, or any interesting clouds. I'm not what you would call a blue-sky thinker (not the corporate rubbish, actual blue sky!), I love the sun, but there is something really quite hypnotising about clouds. I can't bring myself to say that I enjoy a completely blue sky without one single little cloud there. I don't have the willpower, they're just that awesome! Anyone who knows me reading this will understand how much I go on about clouds, and how many times I have been late to meet people because of it (punctuality, one of my many *ahem* undeniable qualities). After losing my best friend in a car park for a good while because i'd been talking to her one minute, got inifinitely distracted and began taking pictures of clouds the next, I guess it can get kinda annoying.

There is a relevance I promise, though I don't usually bore people with my day to day ramblings (nobody wants to hear that) it is sometimes nice to understand, to a certain degree, where the inspiration for my food comes from. Without sounding pretentious of course! I was thinking about stylised food, about beauty, essentially. The food magazines and books that you buy that are plastered with all this sexy looking food, it's beautiful, yes, but if/when you recreate it and it goes horrificly wrong (as many of my endeavors have) and it doesn't look as pretty, you get this kind of sinking disappointed feeling. And that's no fun. Obviously it directly correlates to all the airbrushed covers (blah blah blah i'm not here to talk about feminism!), but you still come out of reading Good Food or a book that a Michelin star chef has written feeling seedy and dirty like you've visited a brothel. Well, I do at least. 

You dirty, dirty bitch!

Just a thought. Moving on...

Slight change of plan, I was meant to be talking about Oriental food in this post, but in light of recent conversations I decided to change it. I apologise, I will make up for it soon though!

I went out for a meal not too long ago at this nice looking place, and I had a brief conversation with some of the people I used to work with about my blog, and the lack of vegetarian food that I write about. I'm sorry to any veggies reading this. So I shall dedicate my somewhat belated post to the heroes of vegetarian food. As a person who loves vegetables, I very much appreciate their versatility and beauty of them, and how much they are neglected when it comes to shop-bought vegetable food. If you don't like or can't eat cheese or quorn, you're pretty much screwed when it comes to possibilities from supermarkets unless you create your own stuff. So I shall indulge my vegetarian nature and leave you with some lovely recipes. 

Now, I watched a cooking programme by Nigel Slater not too long ago, and he mentioned about the amount of people that don't like cauliflower, and i'd genuinely never noticed until then, and now I can't stop. 

 If you're lucky enough to live in quite a diverse area, that sells loads of different types of vegetables, then you can afford to play around with different types of cauliflower, romanesco if this crazy beautiful green one that looks every so slightly like a fractal or the purple ones that look like they've been injected with liquid funk. But the humble white cauliflower is the one I always use, and it's just as lovely. And before you even think about chucking the leaves from the outer bit, don't you dare! People always throw them away, but if they're young you can make half onion-half cauliflower leaf bhajis and they are absolutely gorgeous.

So if you tried boiled "boring" (it actually pains me to say that cauliflower is boring because I love it) as a child, maybe try something a bit different to change it up a bit.

Spiced Sesame Cauliflower.

Enough for 4-6 as a side dish

1 head of Cauliflower

1 large White onion

1 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper

 1 Tblsp Sesame seeds

1 Tblsp Sesame oil

2 cloves Garlic

Half a thumb sized chunk of fresh ginger, about 1"

1 a chilli

Pinch of dried chilli flakes

Seasoning 

Olive oil.

NB - Now, before we start - this isn't mind blowingly spicy for me, but spicyness is obviously down to personal taste, so if you don't like things too hot, take out the chilli flakes, and maybe you use only half a chilli, but still keep some in otherwise it loses it's warmth and it dulls the flavour.

- This is super easy, cut up your onion into standard half rings, and warm up a fairly deep frying pan to a medium (that has a lid!), with olive oil, and fry your cumin seeds until they start to crackle and release some kicking scents. - Then add your onions, turmeric and a pinch of salt and cook until your onions are golden, add the chillies, chilli flakes, crushed garlic, sesame seeds and grated ginger. If you're using chillies, leave the seeds in, when you've got a mix of textures and you want heat, what's the point in taking them out!

- Add your cauliflower, cook, covered with the lid, for about 5 minutes, until soft but not mush.

- Serve hot with a sprinkling of fresh coriander.

I do like spicy cauliflower recipes. This one is really simple and isn't too crazy on hard to find ingredients, which is nice sometimes! I never had this kind of thing when I was little, I used to have the traditional way, steamed or boiled with a bit of butter over my grandad's house, who grows the most amazing vegetables may I add.

As lovely as aubergine and squash is, they're not top of my list when it comes to vegetables, if i'm being entirely honest, i'm not a massive fan of aubergines unless it's heavily spiced of in some kind of baba ghanoush/mutabbal. 

I'm actually gonna go with my old school favourite. I rarely eat chilli nowadays with meat, and unless you have a lovely hunk of braising beef lying around (which most of us don't, that may be a little odd), this is utterly perfection for me. It's rich, it's spicy, it's very hearty and there's nothing I like more then getting an entire bag or cheap salted tortilla chips and going to town on it!

Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients, most of it is spices as you can see, they should be in your stock cupboard, because you need spices in your life! 

This is most definitely freezable! Freeze it in portions if there's not 6 or more of you and take it for lunch or a quick meal during the week.

You're lucky, i've never given this recipe out before!

Jessi's Secret Recipe Chilli

Serves - the 5000 (or 6 - 10 hungry people!)

2 red onions

1 red pepper

1 - green pepper

3/4 cloves of garlic

1 medium sized - medium heat chilli

1x can of Kidney beans, drained (unless bought in chilli sauce)

1x can of Cannelini beans, drained

1x can of Pinto beans, drained

1x can of Black Eye beans, drained

1x can of Baked beans

2x cartons (about 1kg-ish) passata (sieved tomatoes)

About 1 quarter- 1 half a bar of good quality dark chocolate

1 Tablespoon of each:

Cumin

Ground Coriander

Paprika

Oregano

1 Teaspoon of each:

Chilli flakes

Cayenne pepper

Olive Oil

Seasoning

Wholegrain rice and Tortilla chips to serve

- This is very much a leave to cook, and it really gets better with age!

- Chop the onions, the pepper, the chilli, and crush the garlic all ready to cook.

- Heat up a relatively deep sauce pan to a low-medium heat, with a good glug of olive oil and fry the onions until softened, then add the peppers, cook together until the peppers have begun to soften, turn down the heat to low, and add the garlic and chilli. Don't burn the garlic!

- It's just a case of chucking everything in now. Add all the other ingredients bar the chocolate and stir.

- Cook for a good 3 hours until everything starts to reduce and the sauce begins to thicken, stirring once every half an hour or so.

- Add the chocolate and stir it in, and cook for a further hour or so. 

- Serve piping hot with tortilla chips and wholegrain rice.

[picture to be added soon!]

You lucky, lucky souls!

That recipe is actually one of my favourite recipes of all time, it's super healthy (bar the small amount of chocolate) and it's ridiculously cheap. In harder times I have actually made one batch of this last me nearly 2 weeks! Hooray for spending less than 5 pounds for almost a fortnight of food. Suck on that students! Also, even if you're not vegetarian this is so yum you won't miss meat (Honestly! I've tested this out on even the most devout meat eaters!)

I hope you've enjoyed the revised edition. I will get round to exploring the Orient a little more soon. But i'm getting rid of prospective topics, as it's cheesy...and I forget...and i'm fickle. I'm very open to suggestions for next week/fortnight's edition!

Just on a parting note. I will very soon be at my first 1000 visitors to my blog, and with my few-and-far-between loyal readers, hopefully it will be sometimes soon after this is posted. So a big thankyou that you have seen something in this that is worthy of your time to read :)!

Peace

JR