Monday 24 October 2016

Boi's II (Married) Men

I think Fanny Cradock was a frustrated wedding planner. She was forever banging on about 'suitable' things to make, and ways to decorate your own home 'simply' for the reception. She was determined to plan it, even if you didn't ask her to. She tells us she had recently decided to give a reception for someone or other which was 'one of those occasions Johnnie and I were driven almost hairless', which doesn't sound like the most glowing of references does it? My dear blogging pal, Cakeyboi, recently got married to Disneyboi on a trip to Canada. They are having their reception soon back home, but sadly I am unable to make it, as I will be away. I'm gutted. Perhaps they'd benefit from some of Fanny's advice instead - no need to thank me Cakey, Disney and anyone else planning a big bash, just call it my wedding gift to you...

Fanny Cradock Wedding Recipes

Fanny insisted that she catered the wedding without any hired help whatsoever. It simply wouldn't be fair to those of us that cannot hire any help for her to do so. So she didn't. She only had the help of her army of assistants, who were already on board I imagine. No need to hire any more. Fanny's wedding plans are all based around Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed and Something Blue. I do hope Cakey and Disney are paying attention to this. Don't hire any help. There are more detailed suggestions to come.

Fanny Cradock Wedding Recipes

For something old, Fanny insisted an old tradition be revived. A Receiving Arch. Presumably to be received under. Essential for a wedding. She gives detailed instructions on it's construction. Diagrams and plans. For something new, it's an idea to have two cakes - a three-tiered one and a fancy nancy French one, a Croquembouche. Fanny borrows an idea in the shape of making a third cake, or set of cakes, for the Bridesmaids. Seemingly it's a good trick, as they too will become brides one day and will remember your kindness by asking you to cater their wedding too. The gift that keeps on giving. The something blue is a homemade ice-bucket for the champagne, made by filling a plastic bucket with water, coloured blue, frozen (if you can find a freezer large enough), removed from the bucket, hollowed out ready for the bottle to be inserted. And then melts all over your impressive table, presumably?

Fanny Cradock Wedding Recipes

Fanny is full of helpful advice that I am sure Cakey and Disney will be pleased to have. 'Continue whipping until very stiff' are excellent words of encouragement in themselves for newly-weds, but Fanny also suggests that you 'neaten off your blobs and stud them with glacé cherries' just to be sure. Fanny continues with her words of wisdom. 'Just line them all up, and go down the line and PUSH, PUSH, PUSH' and if need be 'spread all over and right down to the base of each side, before you slip them in.' Fanny reassures us that 'when it comes to filling and clapping together in pairs' that there is nothing to it really, 'no skill, just patience and a steady hand'. Indeed Johnnie 'always steadies his hand with the other and supports his elbow on the table.' So fear not Cakey and Disney, all will be well.

Fanny Cradock Wedding Recipes

This advice may not suit all however, especially those challenged by temperature control. Fanny says 'if by any chance you suffer from hot, moist hands' you can forget about doing it yourself. The 'excessive palm moisture will penetrate' seemingly and everything will just stick. No-one wants that, especially at a wedding. So there we have it Cakey and Disney, all the advice you will ever need for a perfect wedding reception. Fanny does warn though that 'after a while the skin on your finger-tips will become hard', so take extra care won't you? She's talking about the Croquembouche, clearly. You knew that though, right? Enjoy the reception!

Fanny Cradock Wedding Recipes

Thursday 13 October 2016

We're Clear of Yesteryear Cheer with Premier Beer Pioneers at the Frontier + Edinburgh Craft Beer Revolution Festival ticket giveaway

Fanny tended to leave the drink choices to her husband, Johnnie. After all she was too concerned by the busy housewives in the kitchen to concern herself with drinks. That was The Man's Domain. Or at least it was... Things are changing... You may say there is a revolution brewing. In Edinburgh at least. There is an actual Edinburgh Craft Beer Revolution Festival happening in November. I chatted to one of the organisers, Richard Servanchx, to find out just how much things have changed? I asked him if beer was still just 'for men'?

"Perfect timing for this question! My girlfriend, Lisa, hosted a women-only beer event at the Caledonian Brewery and it was a real success! Beer is not only a mans' drink and the 'hipster' movement is one of the reasons for the change. The way to serve craft beer, and the different fruity aroma coming from the Hops really opens this complex drink to women", Richard tells me.

Fanny Cradock Edinburgh Craft Beer Revolution

Complex with a fruity aroma? Sounds just like Fanny really. Fanny liked to match a tipple with her food, but she preferred wine mostly. Beer was reserved to be served with curries typically in the 1960s and 1970s at least. Have things changed much? What's your 'perfect serve' in food terms to match with food?

"Beer is becoming more and more popular nowadays, as you can see in the drinks menus around Scottish restaurants. Even as a French rep in Scotland, I sometimes match my cheese with a good craft beer and it is delicious!" Richard begs me not to send this interview back to France, for fear he will be banned. I'm sure there are no French readers so he will be safe. Ahem.

Fanny Cradock Edinburgh Craft Beer Revolution

Craft beers just weren't around in Fanny's day. There were three kinds of beer that people drank in the 1970s, in Scotland at least - Tennents Lager, McEwans Export or Sweetheart Stout. Things have changed from those days of warm cans adorned with cold-hearted, scantily clad, crafty women, haven't they?

"I did not know those were beer, I thought they were just water with added aroma! The USofA was one of the first countries to push the craft beer concept, they still are more than five years ahead of us! I agree that marketing has changed, with trendier packaging, but I really think it is more the vision of the beer that has evolved!"

Fanny Cradock Edinburgh Craft Beer Revolution

Scotland seems to have gone bonkers for artisan and heritage products - we are all tripping over our sourdoughs to bake with ancient grains - do you think it will spill over into the beer world? What trends should we watch out for?

"Craft brewers love to experiment, they are already using some special ingredients such as chipotle, lavender and rye - that's what makes this drink so interesting and complex. The possibilities are infinite, I trust the creativity of those young brewers to make it happen. The Scottish Craft Beer market is already booming, more and more breweries are working with distilleries to create some unique Scottish craft beer!"

Fanny Cradock Edinburgh Craft Beer Revolution

Edinburgh is pretty much back-to-back festivals throughout the year these days, what makes the Edinburgh Craft Beer Revolution Festival so special? What should we all go? What can we expect when get there?

"A lot of women, as it's a women drink now," jokes Richard. "Seriously, the festival is run and organised by beer enthusiasts, where the only goal is to showcase amazing beers and to socialise with passionate, open-minded people. You can expect fantastic beers to suit every taste, unique food to pair it with - not just curries, but burgers and specialities such as Scoff's Cullen Skink in a Bun! And, of course, a lot of entertainment such as pub quizzes, arcade games, Giant Twister and so much more... You need to come and see for yourself!" Did someone say Giant Twister? I'm there...

Fanny Cradock Edinburgh Craft Beer Revolution

Well, if like Richard you are gagging for a decent beer - he chooses Big Raspberry Dog Chew from Fallen to quench his thirst - and you fancy winning a pair of tickets to the Edinburgh Craft Beer Revolution for yourself (thanks to Lanyard Media), simply fill in the rafflecopter thingy with your details and so on (it will pick the winner) and leave a comment below letting me know which beer you are most looking forward to trying... Good Luck! Lanyard will send the prize directly to the winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Tickets are on sale now at www.revolutioncraftbeer.com
Online tickets from £10
On the door tickets from £10
Tickets include festival entry, a Craft Beer Revolution branded glass, a £2 beer voucher and entry to masterclasses. A donation to Brewgooder’s #DrinkBeerGiveWater can be made when booking tickets online, which helps provide clean water to over 1,000,000 people. 

Thursday 6 October 2016

Broadly, A Green Bean Scene

Some of the things that Fanny cooked have just not survived into our stylish, state-of-the-art kitchens. Some of the things are perhaps just a little too retro to be considered cool or chic today. Some of the things don't seem to be required any longer in our modern lives. Some of the things have perhaps disappeared for good reason. Some of the things were probably already seen as 'old hat' by the time the partwork was produced in the 1970s. Some of the things just wouldn't have been retro, cool, or worth remembering even then. But, Fanny loved them. One of those such things is aspic.

Fanny Cradock Broad Bean Tartlet

You just don't see it pop up on menus any more. Nowhere. No TV chefs are clambering to bring it back. No-one is desperate to give it a make-over or in any way keen to reintroduce it to our table. Not a mention. Essentially it's a flavoured stock, set with jelly and poured over meats and vegetables to keep them sparkling and fresh, and often including elaborate designs. What's not to like? It sounds so much fun. I have no idea why aspic is not back, back, back. On every menu. Every buffet table. In every kitchen.

Fanny Cradock Broad Bean Tartlet

Fanny uses it to keep things looking bright and appealing, of course. And what could be more appealing than the broad bean. I love them. So green and fresh looking, they are most vibrant of the beans. Once you release them from their 'overcoats' that is. While they are still wearing those, they look dull and unappealing. Fanny's idea is to make a flan to show them off to their max, all nestled closely together in their shortcrust pastry case. We know the recipe by now, so Fanny merely refers to it in the past. Quickly pulled together and blind baked, all ready to be fancied up.

Fanny Cradock Broad Bean Tartlet

Fanny insists we steam our broad beans. She may have insisted that they be freshly picked from the garden, and if I had a garden I would have pursued this insistence. Instead, I insisted on visiting the local supermarket, and found some lovely looking ones lurking in the freezer. They steam well. I have hidden an egg in the boiling water underneath, which bubbles away while the steaming takes place. Even fancier ideas from Fanny are afoot.

Fanny Cradock Broad Bean Tartlet

Fanny piles the luscious green beans into the pastry cases, and makes little decorations to look like flower petals from tiny little slices of tomato and the hard-boiled egg white, efficiently cooked. It's quite fiddly work. Fanny asks that we chose our favourite aspic, or cheats aspic, and cover the flans gently. My favourite of course contains no gelatine, instead a simple flavourless jelly made from Agar flakes. The finished flashy flans have flair and form. The 'aspic' makes them shimmer. It all seems much more exciting than simply some broad beans in pastry. That alone is surely enough reason to Bring Aspic Back? Ah, but then there is the taste...

Fanny Cradock Broad Bean Tartlet

Monday 3 October 2016

Be Kind To Your Vegetables

Fanny Cradock has rules. Not guidelines. Commands. Laws. She insists that readers follow her every move, chapter and verse. No deviation. As per regulation. Especially when it comes to simple things. Like vegetables. Fanny grows her own produce, wherever possible, so she knows exactly what produces the best and worst results. Her fundamental formula for success is fairly well documented. Fanny liked to water her own garden with, erm, her own water. Madam's Tonic. Yes. A natural sprinkler system. It produced the best results.

Fanny Cradock Spring Vegetables

However her criteria for vegetables need not to stretch to us modelling that. Her ruling is that, like her, we are simply able to recognise on sight the 'duds' that some shops sell. Fanny's maxim is that even at the worst greengrocers, it is hard to find leathery spinach, overgrown rhubarb and giant new potatoes. Vegetables are gorgeous in spring and early summer, Fanny says, and her only prescription for success, apart from her natural fertiliser, is that they should be cooked with kindness. Never boiled. That is a ruling. That would be cruel.

Fanny Cradock Spring Vegetables

She sets a precedent with spinach, for example. It should be flung in a hot pan and wilted. The job should be done in eight minutes, by decree of Fanny. Just enough to draw out the natural water content, of which there will be much. A panful of spinach juices will run free, leaving only the smallest amount of spinach when Fanny's direction is followed. Perhaps you might want to cook it slightly longer if you picked your spinach from Fanny's garden.

Fanny Cradock Spring Vegetables

Fanny serves her spinach by statute too, either 'en branche', in full leaf, or 'en purée' which is simply rubbed through a sieve. It is raised to great heights though with the addition of some cheese and a little cream, often served as a separate course by the French. They simply would not make a course from boiled vegetables, not with their palates. The French collect the juices from the spinach, as they recognise that they will contain the highest flavour. If boiled, this would mean slinging the best away. As in Fanny's bathroom regimen, presumably. Although, it may be more sanitary to boil in Fanny's case.

Fanny Cradock Spring Vegetables

Fanny knows that she is always ramming French edicts down our throats. Her best guide for vegetables is English however. The Steamer. She claims it is a virtuous pastime, and valuable too if you can stack it correctly. The French may call this 'trucs' but we would simply know it as a 'tricks'. Like boiling rice in the pan, and having carrots steaming above, with cabbage leaves above that. The carrots should be mashed up and served simply, ruffled up with a fork, with a blob of cream added. The cabbage leaves will be happiest stuffed with the rice and a simple sprinkle of, erm, paprika. You were worried there, weren't you? Stick to Fanny's rules in the kitchen, if not the garden, and be kind to your vegetables.

Fanny Cradock Spring Vegetables