Favourite Recipes from Pine Flat Place August 2012

This month offers a treat. On holiday in May this year, in Madeira, I bought a rather brilliant book for €5.00 at a book festival, half of its original price. It’s a wonderful book called “Secrets of Madeiran and Porto Santo Cooking and it is written by a lady called Zita Cardoso. It lives up to its title. The following recipes are as they are presented in the book, warts and all as it were!

Iced Pudding of Eggs

15 egg yolks

Cinnamon

Lemon peel

Enough cidrão (lemon balm/verbena/lemongrass)

Enough butter

Enough flour

Method

Cook the sugar, water, cinnamon and the lemon peel. Then take it out of the cooker and add the egg yolks. Pour it into the mould without the lemon peel and the cinnamon. Place it in the oven.

The secret in this is the amount of water, (what water?), what you do with the rest of the ingredients, the oven temperature and when do you take it out of the oven?

Moving on...we loved this!

Rolled Meat and Madeira Wine

1 kg of beff (sic)

2 carrots

½ kg of green beans or cabbage

Madeira wine

Bay leaf

Salt

Garlic

Method

Make a sauce with the above ingredients and marniate the meat overnight in a single piece. Put light sauted in butter beans over meat and rolle. Put in oven in the baking tin and bast (sic) with butter. Serve with roasted potatoes in the same pan. (sic)

 This one is great!

Roll of Two Faces

(conventual)

1 Kg of beef

1 Kg of pork

Method

Stuff the meat with chopped vegetables (carrots, beans). Place the meat in the oven.

Join them for becoming just one roll. (sic)

I have to say that was one of the best €5.00 I have ever spent.

The next book is one I have had for some time, It’s a Vegetarian dish from Cordon Rouge, the book from the Red Herring Cooperative based in Newcastle. (Not sure if it is still operating).

Greek Bake

1 packet of filo pastry

Olive oil for brushing/frying

2 medium onions (chopped)

4 cloves garlic (crushed)

700g frozen spinach (defrosted)

Juice of ½ lemon

Salt & pepper

200g feta cheese (crumbled)

225g mozzarella cheese (grated)

300g fresh tomatoes sliced (vine ones or beef heart ones are best)

75g breadcrumbs to coat the tomatoes

 Method

Fry onions and garlic in oil until soft, then add the spinach, and seasoning. Cook over a low heat for 10 minutes, if the mixture is too wet drain the excess moisture off. Take a baking tray the same size as the filo pastry and layer the sheets with a generous brushing of oil between them. Spoon the spinach mix onto the filo pastry and then cover with the crumbled feta cheese, ¾ of the mozzarella and the breaded tomato slices. Sprinkle the remaining mozzarella on top. Bake at gas mark 6, 200°C, 400° F for 15 minutes until, the bake is styarting to brown.

Finally an absolute gem from Freezer Cook (every two months from Home and Freezer Digest, I subscribed to this for years!) 0.80p this one, published in 1978. This is so simple and delicious, it stands well enough to serve at a dinner party, especially those ones you did when you were a bit strapped for cash!)

Mushroom Broth

1 stick of celery

1 small onion

1 oz. butter

8 oz button mushrooms

1 ½ pints of good beef stock

Salt & pepper

 Method

Wash and trim the celery of stringy bits then cut it into tiny dice, peel and chop the onion into tiny dice too. Melt the butter in a pan and add the diced vegetables and cook gently until they are softened but not coloured. Wipe the mushrooms with a damp clothe to remove any compost. Chop them finely and add to the pan and cook for a further 3 minutes stirring from time to time. Pour over the stock, bring to the boil, cover the pan and simmer for 30 minutes, Season with salt and pepper and serve.

(Serves 6)