I walked into my local Irish bakery yesterday to get a little nibble and to waste a few minutes out of the cold while the girls and I waited for our train to the city. The Celtic Crust makes wonderful scones - the best I've had on this side of the Atlantic - and excellent Irish Soda bread and mediocre everything else. While the girls and I studied the display case, a gentleman in front of us in line ordered "one Eccles cake". Hmmm. Here was something new. What is an Eccles cake? Never heard of that before. The sign in the display case said it was made of "puff pastry, raisins, and brown sugar." It looked like a round flaky tart dotted with raisins and sprinkled with sugar. Interesting.
Then the gentleman who had just ordered one started talking. To me. He was obviouly English and said he used to live in Eccles and knew a thing or two about Eccles cakes. These examples that I saw before me, he said, were a very near approximation of the original. Fancy that - a newly discovered pastry and the world's leading authority on it, all in one accidental encounter - I had to have one.
So how was it? Well it was flat and flaky, sweet and rather sticky and it had plump sweet raisins sandwiched in between the sheets of pastry here and there. It was tasty and certainly sweet, but not an instant favorite. My curiosity was completely satisfied, however, and I went on my way content in the knowledge that once again I had left no new food item go by untasted.
For the history behind,and recipe for, Eccles Cakes follow this link (take particular note that the cakes were banned by the Puritans "due to their juicy and exotic richness" : http://www.salford.gov.uk/living/yourcom/salfordlife/aboutsalford/salfordlocalhistory/localhistory-eccles/ecclescakes.htm
4 comments:
Hey there, if I had, hypothetically, purchased some brussels sprouts (for the first time ever) and wanted ultimately to toss them in olive oil and perhaps herbs de provence or something and then saute or fry them or something like that, would I have to blanch them first? Also, what does blanch actually mean?
Thanks!
Hi Kizz,
First off, you should trim them. Cut off the bottom and remove the outside leaves on each one. Sounds like a bit of a pain, I know, but it is necessary.
Second, yes I would blanch them. Blanching means to submerge in boiling water briefly - usually not long enough to cook completely. For example, you would blanch broccoli for about 1 minute if you wanted to use it in a Chinese stir fry that way it would just need to finish cooking when it got to the stir fry and you wouldn't have to over cook everything else in order to get the broccoli cooked enough.
I did brussel sprouts like this last week. I dropped them into boiling water for about 2 minutes. I took one out and cut into it and tasted it to see how far along the cooking had gone. In this case Ii decided that I wanted the brussels sprouts more cooked because I didn't think they would cook that much in the saute.
Then right before I served them I melted butter in a pan and added about 1/2 teaspoon of Hungarian paprika and stirred that into the melted butter. I cook the paprika for about a minute and then added the brussels sprouts and sauteed them for another 2-3 minutes.
Hope that helps,
sara c.
OK, that sounds doable. Maybe tomorrow night I'll try that. Thanks!
OK, another question. Roasting veggies and including broccoli? Good idea? Bad idea? parameters? Cauliflower, too?
OK, technically that's a ton of questions but at least it's just the one theme.
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