The Cook Book

MULLED WINE

1.1 litres/2 pints [4 cups] Red Wine
3 Cinnamon Sticks
6 Star Anise
6 Cloves
3 Oranges, sliced
3 Lemons, sliced
150g/5oz [1/2 cup tightly packed] Brown Sugar

1.  Bring all of the ingredients to a simmer in a saucepan.  Continue to simmer gently for 6-8 minutes.  Do NOT boil.
2.  Pour into (6) heatproof glasses

OK.  So I was looking through The Family CookBook (my late mother's Christmas gift, given several years ago) and found her/our recipe for Fruit Cake.  The only major problem is that this recipe - and several others, as well - gives the oven temperature as "slow oven"....no actual temperature setting with numbers

Obviously, these directions are kind of old; some of the recipes are from well over 100 years ago.  I figured that maybe some of you might have come across the same difficulty, so I've put together a Conversion Chart. 


Very Slow Oven
     250*F
     120*C

Slow Oven
     300*F
     15O*C
     Gas Mark 2

Moderately Slow Oven
     325*F
     165*C
     Gas Mark 3

Moderate Oven
     350*F
     175*C
     Gas Mark 4

Moderately Hot Oven
     375*F
     190*C
     Gas Mark 5

Hot (Quick) Oven
     400*F
     205*C
     Gas Mark 6

Very Hot Oven
     450*F
     230*C
     Gas Mark 7

Extremely Hot Oven
     500*F
     260*C
     Gas Mark 8-9
 

Spicy Pumpkin soup - Chinese style

Peel and dice in medium chunks enough pumpkin for your soup - depends on family/freezer size.  Crush garlic, dice onion.  I added a choko (Buddha's hand - fo shuo gua, because it looked lonely in the fridge).

Parboil in milk - or stock - enough to just cover vegetables.  Process in food processor, adding - here's the Chinese bit! - your favourite flavour of the chili sauces you find in the condiments section.  Mine has peanuts and other stuff in it.

Return to stove, add more milk, reduce until your reach the desired thickness for soup.

Serve with a swirl of thick, pure yoghurt.

Chantilly Cream

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preparation:

In a large mixing bowl, beat the heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla extract together on high speed until soft peaks form in the mixture. Chill any unused Chantilly cream.

Easy Chocolate Mud cake

1 1/2 cups Hot Water
250g Butter
200g Dark cooking Chocolate (I just used dark chocolate from the corner store)
1/4 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, beaten lightly
2 tsp vanilla essence (thanks mum )
1 1/2 cups S-r Flour

Melt butter, sugar, chocolate, cocoa, vanilla and hot water over a low heat.
When cooled add flour and eggs, mix well. The mixture will be VERY runny.
Pour into a 30cm lined cake tin, cook for 1 hour and 15 min at 150c.
Allow to cool for 5 minutes before turning out.
When cool sprinkle with icing sugar (not necessary)
Serve warm or cool with cream or ice-cream.

Thanks Bugs!

Just made Moroccan spicy shrimp...it was excellent and can definitely be made in China.

1 lb. shrimp--peeled and de-veined.
4 tbsp. olive oil
2 small spicy peppers, chopped
1tsp. cumin seeds
1tsp. paprika
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1tbsp. ginger, peeled and chopped
coriander and salt (optional)

Heat the oil with the peppers and garlic. Add the cumin and ginger. Stir for a couple minutes. Add shrimp and paprika and coriander. Stir constantly for about 5 minutes.

Get some good bread to mop up the tasty oil when you're finished eating.

This is an on-topic thread for recipes adapted to or developed in China.

Whole wheat oatmeal cookies
I think this recipe meets the criteria! My mother made oatmeal biscuits every week so when I came across this recipe in the blog of a Dutch guy in Shenzhen I had a look.

He starts off with:
"Today I made whole wheat oatmeal cookies according to some recipe I found online. They tasted good and are very healthy, so I wanted to recommend them here. They were also quite easy to make with ingredients easily available in supermarkets in Shenzhen."

So far so good. Then ......
"I could only not buy vanilla and baking powder in any of the supermarkets nearby, so I had to leave that out. Besides that, all ingredients are quite easy to buy in China. Perhaps I will order some vanilla next time on Taobao. Instead of baking powder, I added a bit more baking soda and some lemon juice (the acid needed to make the soda do it's work). I also decided to add less brown sugar than in the recipe, because most Chinese don't like it too sweet. I added lots of raisins and almost a whole apple instead."

Most of the rest of the process seems straightforward - if you have an oven, etc, etc - and the recipe can be found on:
 http://www.startinchina.com/china/recipes/whole_wheat_oatmeal_cookies.html




 

Project Gutenberg (www.gutenberg.org) has several cookbooks; a title search for "cookbook" turns up four.

One is the White House Cookbook, from the chef there in 1887. I have not tested any of its recipes, but it looks like a goldmine for anyone who misses North American dishes.

Stovetop Mac and Cheese
(This recipe isn't mine, it is actually Alton Brown's. I'm a macaroni and cheese lover but making the homemade stuff can be a bit of a hassle if, like many in China, you don't have an oven. While I do have a smallish oven now, in my pre-oven days I searched high and low for a Mac and Cheese recipe that did not involve baking. This one is excellent and if you can get cheddar cheese where you live, then you can make this recipe no problem. I usually leave out the hot sauce because the Chinese stuff doesn't have the proper taste and I never buy imported hot sauce. Also, make sure you get evaporated milk, not condensed milk!).

Ingredients
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
4 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
6 ounces evaporated milk
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon kosher salt
Fresh black pepper
3/4 teaspoon dry mustard
10 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
Directions
In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente and drain. Return to the pot and melt in the butter. Toss to coat.


Whisk together the eggs, milk, hot sauce, salt, pepper, and mustard. Stir into the pasta and add the cheese. Over low heat continue to stir for 3 minutes or until creamy.

At looong last, here is my recipe for Pancakes.  Sorry for the delay




HOMEMADE PANCAKES / GRIDDLE CAKES

Sift together : --

2 cups Flour
3 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt

Add : --

2 Eggs (well beaten)
1 3/4 cups Milk
4 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil

Mix well.  Drop by spoonfuls onto slightly greased hot griddle.  When bubbles appear, turn cakes over and brown other side.  Do NOT turn a second time. 

Serve with Butter and your favourite Syrup.

KEEP YOUR PAN ON A MEDIUM-HIGH HEAT.
Too High a temperature will burn your cakes. Too Low will cause sticking


** Notes on Bunny's Adaptations **

I like to mix 1/2 cup Wheat or MultiGrain Flour with 1.1/2 cups White Flour.  I also add 1-2 teaspoons of Ground Cinnamon.
I think that adding 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract to my Milk + Eggs blend is delicious. 
Another interesting addition is 1-2 mashed Bananas.

Experiment.  It's FUN !!

Thanks Bunny! I was just thinking about making homemade pancakes this weekend.

Just in time for Good Friday baking....



(Mrs.Lily Fisher's) HOT CROSS BUNS

2 pkts active dry Yeast
1/2 cup warm Water

Sprinkle yeast over warm - NOT hot - water.  Let stand 5 minutes.

1/2 cup Sugar
1/2 cup soft Butter
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
1 teaspoon Vanilla
3 Eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup Currants
1/2 cup Raisins

Combine the above ingredients.  Stir in the yeast.  Blend thoroughly.

Gradually add in --
5 cups Flour

Beat well after each addition.
Turn onto floured board.  Let rest 10 miniutes.

Knead dough until elastic.  Place in oiled bowl.  Brush top with oil.
Cover.  Let stand until double in bulk.

Punch down.
Shape pieces of dough into small buns.
Place on greased baking pans.

Brush tops with (melted) Butter.
Using Scissors, cut a cross [X] on top of each bun.
Let rise until puffy.

Bake @ 375*F until golden brown [20-25 minutes]
Remove to racks.
While warm, fil crosses with Icing Sugar + Water Combination.

Makes 3 dozen -- can also be made into loaves

Holly jolly merry Christmas 

Grandma Squirrel's Home-made Pfeffernutzen

4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 1/2 cup butter
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup finely chopped almonds (remember to remove the skin from the almonds before chopping)

Mix the dry ingredients.
Mix butter and sugar and whip until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, whipping unitil smooth and creamy.
Add dry ingredients, 1 cup at the time, whip vigorously.
Add almonds.
When dough is not sticky any more, roll into 1 inch balls and place on baking tray. Bake in pre-heated 250 degrees Celcius oven for 11-14 minutes. Remove and lett cool. Put in air-tight container. They are best after waiting for a day or two.
 

Another Christmas doozy

Risalamande (only spelling accepted by the High Grand Royal Language Council of the Glorious Kingdom of Denmark.  )

Take some rice, how many cups depend on how many people who intend to feed.
Put rice in pot, preferably a non-stick teflon pot.
Add whole-milk, again, quantity depends on eaters. 1 cup milk per one cup rice is the norm + 1 extra
Set the cooker on low-medium heat and stir frequently. I recommend non-stick pot so as to avoid the milk burning. This will take a while, so arm yourself with an audio-book or something like that.
When the concoction has turned into a sticky, greyish substance that one usually associates with "Oliver Twist", take off heat and put in fridge. Let the porridge get completely cold.
Then make a large batch of whipped cream, de-skin and chop about 500 grams of almonds, make sure they are all chopped in some way or other. Keep one almond to the side, untouched and whole.
De-seed 2 vanilla pods.
Mix whipped cream, chopped almonds and vanilla into cold porridge. Then add whole almond. Put back in fridge. Then go buy a present, like a book or a cup or something small but useful.
When Christmas dinner is upon you, let your guests eat until they can't move. Then bring out the risalamande. The purpose of the dish is that, whoever finds the whole almond wins the present. Now, to make it more fun, you have to hide the fact you have the almond, thus causing your fellow diners to eat more of the white stuff. When they have risalamande coming out f their nose and one or two may need the hospital or last rites, then you proudly produce the almond and claim your present. Everyone will hate you but they will be too stuffed to beat you up and the next day everyone will be convinced that granpa got the almond

Bon Appetit

*bump*