Bear Cuisine

StickyToffee Pudding

Aside from tea, this desert may be the best thing the British have given us.  This recipe is from Francis Coulson who is credited with creating this dish. Paula Richardson the pastry chef at the Sharrow Bay Hotel in Penrith, England makes Coulson's cake this way.

( Saveur #88)

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING

(serves 8-10)

The cake

1. 4 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon butter, softened
2. 3/4 cup granulated sugar
3. 2 eggs
4. 6 ounces pitted dates, chopped
5. 1 teaspoon baking soda
6. 1 cup self-rishing flour, sifted
7. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The Sauce*

1. 2 cups double Devon cream
2. 1/2 cup demerara sugar
3. 2 tablespoons black treacle

For the cake: preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 4"x 8" loaf pan with 1 teaspoon of the butter and set aside. Whisk the remaining butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition. Batter will look slightly curdled. Set batter aside.

Put dates and 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water into a medium pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove pot from heat and add baking soda; mixture will bubble up immediately. Once the bubbles have subsided, about 1 minute pour date mixture into batter in bowl and mix well. Add flour and vanilla and mix until just combined. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until firm when touched and a wodden skewer inserted into center of cake comews out with moist crumbs attached, about 55 minutes. Let cake cool completely in the pan. Wrap cake in pan with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 1 day. Transfer cake to the refrigerator to let thaw, then unwrap.

For the sauce: Combine cream, sugar and treacle in a small pot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves, about 8 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and simmer sauce, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Pour half of the sauce over the cake in the pan, cover with foil and warm cake in the oven, 30 to 40 minutes. Slice cake in pan into 8 to 10 pieces. Serve cake with some more sauce spooned on top of each slice.

 

*Since Devon cream and treacle may be difficult to find, I substituted more readily available ingrediets.

Sauce

1. 6 tablespoons butter
2. 1 cup light brown sugar
3. 1 cup heavy cream

Stir all the ingredients together over medium heat until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves.

The Pasty in Minnesota

The pasty is the British version, more precisely the Cornish version, of the uibiquitous meat pie. I love them. When I was in seminary I would wander down to Harvard Square on Saturday morning to the small shop which sold a passable version of them. It provided sustenance before beginning a long day in the library. The original pasty was portable food for the tin miners in Cornwall, who kept them in their pockets and ate them for lunch.

Jane Garmey in Great British Cooking: a Well-Kept Secret tells us that "A pasty is a turnover that is usually filled with meat but may have other fillings. When times were hard and meat was scarce, the pasties were filled with potatoes and called Tiddy Oggies (tiddy being the local name for a potato), not be confused with Priddy Oggies, which came from the town of Priddy in nearby Somerset and were filled with pork and Cheddar cheese. "

I was quite surprised to find a pasty on the menu of the Deluth Grill. Since it was the special that day, I decided to satisfy my curiosity about it.

Indeed, it was a very fine pasty. I quite enjoyed it even though I couldn't justify it by working in the heat of the tin or iron mines for the rest of the day. The question remained: What was a Cornish Pasty doing in a restaurant in Duluth Minnesota?

When the Iron Range opened in northern Minnesota, there was a need for skilled workers. The mines were closing in Cornwall and that left an entire generation of young men unemployed . Learning of the opportunities in Minnesota they emmigrated and, as immigrants do, they brought with them their native foods. There is much debate about who makes the best pasty and what constitutes the true original form of the pie. Folks here take great pride in making them well and I think that no matter whose version you are tasting, you won't go wrong.

This version is from Jane Garmey.

CORNISH PASTIES

These are generously sized and will serve 4 people.

one recipe shortcut pastry

For the Filling

1. 12 ounces chuck steak
2. 1 medium-sized onion finely chopped
3. 1 turnip or 2 small carrots, finely chopped
4. 1 large potato, finely chopped
5. salt
6. freshly ground black pepper
7. 1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Prepare the pastry.

Remove any skin or gristle from the meat and chop it into very small cubes. Mix it the vegetables and season generously with salt and pepper.

Roll out the pastry until it is approximately 1/4-inch thick. Cut it into 6-inch rounds, using a plate or a saucer to measure each circle. Lay the rounds on a flat surface and place an equal portion of the steak mixture in the center of each round in the shape of a little sausage.

Brush the rim of each pasty with a little beaten egg and bring the sides up to meet in the middle over the top of the filling. Pinch the edges together and shape each pasty into an oval mound. Make two splits on either side of the crest so that steam can escape while the pasty is cooking.

Put the pasties on a greased baking sheet and brush the outsides with the remaining egg. Bake for 20 minutes at 400 , reduce the heat to 350 and bake for 40 minutes longer.

Remove the pasties from the oven and serve warm.

SHORTCUT PASTRY

1. 2 1/4 cups flour
2. 1/4 teaspoon salt
3. 3 ounces unsalted butter
4. 4 ounces lard
5. 1 tablespoon confectioners's sugar
6. 1 egg yolk
7. 3 tablespoons cold water

Sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl. Cut the butter and lard into small pieces and mix them into the flour with the blade of a knife until they are well coated. Using your fingertips, rub in the fat until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. Mix the egg yolk with the water and pour into the flour. Mix quickly with a palette knife until it forms a dough. Knead the pastry lightly until it is smooth and has no cracks. Wrap it in waxed paper and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.