Four Photos - My Fanny

I am enjoying Mr Device's four photo game ( Click to see ) so much, both posting and reading others that I thought I would give it anther go.

As you know I am obsessed with Fanny Cradock and have a lot but by no means all of her cookery books. In 1970 a series of magazines was produced to accompany her TV programs. There were 80 in total and I have all of them in a bound 5 volume set.  Let me share my joy of Fanny.

 

There are another 76 if you would like to see more !

Ttfn. 

PS

4 Shillings and 6d in 1970 would be 22.5 pence today - 0.31 US Dollars

Madam Arcati Cooks the Books #5; Delia Smith - Companion of Honour & CBE

 I can not express the respect and admiration I have for Delia (as a chef she has got me out of trouble many times). In recent times it seems to be fashionable to 'poo-poo' her - but since the early 70s until now with her 'Delia Online (Click)' her work has inspired and taught a nation how to cook fabulous food at home. Just in the UK the sales of her cookery books run to over 21.5 million.

Companion of Honour is a much higher order than that of Dame Commander of the British Empire and she is also has an O B E. but sadly can not be called 'Dame Delia'. I do anyway!

I am lucky enough to be able to have the most amazing butcher's based in Yorkshire that only uses rare and native breed animals that frolic on the Dales. I got a whole Breast of Lamb from them. Didn't know how to tackle it. I looked at loads of my 300 cookery books and online. Only Delia came up with the goods - God bless her. She got me out of trouble again !

Frugal Food 1976;  my edition is 2008

Once again Delia came to the rescue

And Leftovers !

 Flavour was amazing - why don't you give it a go?!

Ttfn

Madam Arcati Cooks the Books #4; Claudia Roden CBE

 Welcome back to the kitchen me dears. Today's delve into the Delargo Foundation Library's cookery book archive: 

Claudia Roden CBE (née Douek; born 1936)  - the Food of Spain; 1st edition 2011; my book is 2012 

Claudia was born to a Syrian-Jewish family in Cairo; she studied in London to become a painter before she became engrossed by the stories and recipes of Britain’s expatriate Egyptian community. She then began researching the first of the dozens of award-winning books for which she is famous.

Her family descended from Jews who had been expelled from Spain in 1492 and her grandmother, Eugénie Alphandary, spoke an old Judeo-Spanish language called Ladino with her friends and relatives when Claudia lived in Egypt.

Claudia Roden was already one of our foremost authorities on Mediterranean, North African, and Italian cooking but in this book she gives us the definitive cookbook on the Spanish cuisine.

It is a huge book covering every region of Spain in detail. It took her years to research and to write and that shows on the page. Her focus is very much on traditional regional dishes and how much do I love that? If, me dears, you would like to know more about the book you can find it here in her own words 

Empanada

This is what Claudia says they should look like. My attempt is below this.

Ingredients correct

Filling and dough correct.

 

I halved the recipe but had forgotten this. I tried to divide the dough into the 4 or 6 pieces as the original recipe and roll them out to 10 cm rounds. I do not have any pastry cutters and did it freehand. I started to run out of dough rather quickly and this is why you see a shoddy mixture of large and small misshapen embarrassments.

They all went into the oven anyway, and they did taste lovely. (Not sure about the egg yolk glaze though)

I had wanted this book for ages and bought it at not a cheap price on Amazon, only to find the last few pages had obviously had a glass of wine spilt over them.

I could have been annoyed, but instead I enjoy knowing that the owner of the book takes the same pleasure in 'Cooking the Books' as I.

I love Claudia Roden because she gives context to her recipes: food and cultural history, geography, genealogy, poetry and jokes in all her books.

This photo of her by Vogue magazine with a goat is one of my favourites! Why they did that I have no idea, but knowing her work it captures a spark and a spirit most wonderful.

Ttfn

Madam Arcati Cooks the Books #3; Mrs. K. F Broughton

Madam Arcati Cooks the Books #3

Here we are again back in the Kitchen with Book number 107 of 297.
Pressure Cooking Day by Day by Mrs. K. F Broughton, first published in 1970 my edition is 1975.

I love my pressure cooker and I love this book. I use and refer to it regularly.
Kathleen Frances Broughton was a hero and a pioneer. She was working with pressure cooking from 1948. Her job was to educate the public on it's use and to create safe wholesome recipes.

During the war she volunteered as a Catering Officer with the Quaker 'Friends Relief Service' click for more info.  working with displaced persons and concentration camp survivors.
In 1948 she joined Prestige just at the time they were working towards the first pressure cookers being introduced into the UK.

This is a very English and a very 1970s Bœuf Bourgignon. It is also easy, quick, reliable and delicious.

We all know you can not add flour into a pressure cooker! but she does and it doesn't burn ! (make sure you completely brown every bit of the meat in a separate pan and Deglaze).

 Sorry about the pink plate, I wish I picked a different colour but that is the plate I always use when dusting meat in flour and yes that is a big table spoon.

I should have finished it in the oven to make it a bit more casserole like but hey, I didn't. This was actually the leftovers I had for my lunch. I didn't take a photo of the finished dish at the time.

Well there it is But there is more ! Mrs Broughton's early work was so important both the booklets for Prestige and Tower pressure cookers used her recipes. Jon remembers a recipe for Chili con carne with afection and bought me this

 And yes It is by Mrs Broughton and is fab but modern taste might need to reduce the sugar and then balance the vinegar.

 The recipes might be, as I have read in reviews terribly out of date and old fashioned compared to modern writers but she did the ground work and all other pressure cooker book writers stand on her shoulders

Ttfn

PS. When I bought this book a few years ago I Googled  Mrs Broughton and found a lot of information about her. Now I can find nothing, not even her maiden name let alone any thing about her early years. If anyone has any information please let me know and I will post it. She should not be forgotten.

 

Madam Arcati Cooks the Books #2; Elizabeth David

 Madam Arcati Cooks the Books #2

Here we are again back in the Kitchen with Book number 92 - 

French Country Cooking by Elizabeth David first published in 1951 my edition 1987

There are chefs who write books and there are cookery writers and then there is Elizabeth David. The Diva of them all.

 Elizabeth David CBE (born Elizabeth Gwynne, 26 December 1913 – 22 May 1992

She was born to an upper-class family but she rebelled against social norms of the day. In the 1930s she studied art in Paris, became an actress, and ran off with a married man with whom she sailed in a small boat to Italy, where their boat was confiscated.
They reached Greece, where they were nearly trapped by the German invasion in 1941, but escaped to Egypt, where they parted.
She then worked for the British government, running a library in Cairo. While there she married, but soon separated and divorced.
In 1946 Elizabeth David returned to England, where food rationing remained in force. An interesting life by any standards and she had not even started her amazing career by then. 

In 2006 the BBC did a biopic - 'Elizabeth David: A Life in Recipes' which was fab and crying out to be made as a lavish Merchant Ivory type Production. With no disrespect she would make Julia Child look like a 'Hausfrau' (and I love Julia Child).

Her reputation rests on her articles and her books, her influence on cookery extended to professional as well as domestic cooks, and chefs and restaurateurs of later generations such as Terence Conran, Prue Leith, Jamie Oliver, Tom Parker Bowles and Rick Stein have acknowledged her importance to them. In the US, cooks and writers including Julia Child, Richard Olney and Alice Waters have written of her influence. 

in writing 'French Country Cooking' she acknowledged her debt to French writers, Edmond Richardin, Austin De Croze, Marthe Daudet known as Pampille, and J. B. Reboul..

Estouffade de boeuf à la Provençale

 And now my attempt to cook it

This is my slow cooker with a liner and not a bin bag and yes that does like someone's hand !

I tried but Elizabeth David wins ! it was nice but not special.

Elizabeth David was an elitist and took no prisoners and her books will not hold your hand and talk you through a recipe. She expected you to know how to cook! but her writing changed the we cook and how we think about food, in this country and around the world!

CBE ! she should have been made Dame of the British Empire but then she did stand on a few feet and did not curry favour from any one.

The Holy Tryptic of the Primary Shrine in my kitchen (she is on the right can you name the others)

Ttfn

Madam Arcati Cooks the Books #1; Polish Recipes

 

Madam Arcati Cooks the Books #1

You may know that apart from the garden my other passion is collecting Cookery Books. The 'Delargo Foundation' has at present some 287 books and a further 195 in PDF format

 I have often thought about using our diverse collection for a blog post but never have. Inspired by a blog chat with Steve. Because 'Steve'  I have decided to give it a bash. Having said that I am aware that if I cook and post from one book a month it will take me 2 years and 4 months to complete.

Lets see how far we get.

We start the ball rolling with book number 255. 'Treasured Polish Recipes for Americans'. Compiled from recipes from Polish women that moved to the USA after WW2 and Edited by Marie Sokolowski and Irene Jasinskiub. First published in 1948, my edition was printed in 2020.

 

I cooked Gołąbki, which translates as little pigeons and they do look similar cooked and on the plate.

 

 Now I was well out of my comfort zone cooking this and the result was beyond rustic. It was lovely however even if they were a bit larger than perhaps they should have been

Ingredients.

 

This was a Turkish flat cabbage which was enormous.

Luckily I have an enormous pot. I was amazed how easy it was to peel off each leaf whole from the blanched cabbage.

 I made 6 big ones, I think 8 or more smaller ones would have worked better. Gawd knows I had enough cabbage and beef - pork - rice stuffing.

This is were I entered into controversy. BACON! Every Polish person said that was wrong, in fact some were outraged saying that no one in Poland would ever top Gołąbki with bacon. 'Well' I told them this is a Polish recipe printed in 1948 so you are wrong! It turns out that bacon was not commonly used except for special occasions. Well, Madam Arcati cooking the the books is a special occasion. I stuck with the American Polish and used bacon and wish I hadn't.

 The bacon was in the oven for so long it wasn't that pleasant to eat and tinfoil would have protected my little pigeons better in the later stages of cooking.

Not the most refined or elegant cooking and presentation but very tasty when served with a good sauce. I used a tomato sauce from this book which used butter instead of oil and was lush.

Hope you found that worth the read and will pop back for next months post. I think I should have a go at something historic next time.

You will have seen this in the background of many of the photos so I will leave you with an image of my shrine to the major Gods of my kitchen.

If you have cooked something interesting I would love to hear about it.

Ttfn