Just when I had given up finding a similar recipe, I came across this recipe in an old recipe book my grandmother used.  Its long since lost its cover so I have no idea of the origin of the book or the recipe.  Grandma had no notes beside it and I don’t remember her making it.  So at this stage its going up untried on askmumnow.com

If you make this do let me know how it turns out because I really want these recipes to be ‘tried and true’

Ingredients

1 kg packet mixed fruit
250 gms butter
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup water
1 can sweetened condensed milk (400gms)
1 tablespoon vinegar
2 tablespoons sherry or brandy
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground cloves

Method

1. Prepare a 22cm square or round cake tin. Grease the base and sides and line with the whole tin with cake baking or greaseproof paper
2. Cut the paper to fit the base and then cut strips to line the sides of the tin. Brush the paper with a greased pastry brush or a knife that has been dipped in cooking oil.  Put prepared tin to one side until you are ready to mix the cake
3. Heat the oven to 170° C
4. Put mixed fruit, butter soda and water into a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Allow to cool
5. Add condensed milk, vinegar, sherry/brandy and vanilla essence
6. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and ground cloves and gradually add to the fruit mixture
7. Put into the greased paper lined tin and bake at 150º for 2 hours.
8. Check after 90 minutes that the top isn’t burning.  If the fruit is starting to look dark brown or even black, cover the top of the cake with a double sheet of greaseproof or baking paper
9. Check with a skewer or very thin bladed knife. If the blade/skewer comes out clean the cake is cooked
10. When cooked, leave the cake to cool in the tin before turning it out

Traditional Christmas cake icing consists of an almond paste covered with a smooth white icing mixture.  Check out how to do it here.

If you like almonds, you can decorate your cake by placing almonds over the top of your cake before you cook it.  Then you have an attractive cake that doesn’t need to be iced.

When puddings were part of an every-day dinner, this was a staple pudding in student flats when lemons were available.  Sometimes the sauce was solid or at other times it was very runny.  It was always very lemony and everyone enjoyed it no matter how it turned out.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1½ cups castor sugar
3 eggs
3 tablespoons self-raising flour
1½ cups milk
Juice and zest (grated peel) of 2 lemons
hot water
extra margarine or butter for greasing the dish or dishes

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C in fan oven)
2. Grease 4 ramekins (Small oven-proof dishes of about 1 cup size) or 1 x 1 litre oven-proof dish
3. Beat the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon or electric beater until pale and fluffy
4. Separate the eggs and add the egg yolks to the butter and sugar and mix well
5. Add the flour and milk alternately (that is, add 1 tablespoon flour and stir it in, then add ⅓ of the milk and stir it in.  Repeat until all the flour and milk is added) and beat until you have a smooth batter
6. Using a clean beater, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.  This will look a bit like meringue –but not cooked
7. Fold the egg whites into the batter
8. Add lemon juice and zest and stir to combine
9. Pour into prepared ramekins or one larger dish
10. Half fill a high sided baking tin with hot water and place the filled ramekins or dish in the tin. The water should come halfway up the side of the ramekins or dish
11. Bake for 30 minutes for individual ramekins or up to 1 hour for a larger dish
12. When cooked the puddings will be set and browned on top
13. Carefully remove from the water bath and serve.

Serves 4.

Notes:

The reason you need to cook this pudding in a water bath is because it is basically an egg custard that will curdle if baked too quickly.

The water bath slows the heating process so that the protein in the egg mixture doesn’t get overheated and doesn’t cook too quickly

This old family favourite has been in the Edmonds Cookery books and is also a staple offering at many city cafes now..

Ingredients

125 gms butter, softened
100 gms (1/3 cup) sugar
250 gms (2 cups) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy
2. Sift flour, baking powder and ginger together
3. Mix into creamed mixture
4. Press dough into a greased 20 x 30 cm sponge roll tin
5. Bake at 190°C for 20-25 minutes or until light brown
6. Ice while hot with Ginger Icing
7. Cut into squares when cool. Makes 24 squares.

Ginger Icing

Ingredients

50 gms butter
125 gms (½ cup) icing sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¼ cup crystallized ginger cut into small pieces

Method

1. In a small saucepan combine butter, icing sugar, golden syrup and ginger
2. Heat until butter is melted, stirring constantly
3. Spread evenly over the hot cake mixture
4. Sprinkle the crystallized ginger over the icing.

Now falling to pieces, Grandma’s black recipe book is full of memories – the handwriting of various women in the family, the names of people who provided recipes such as Mrs Waymouth’s fruit cake, Edna’s sponge.

These recipes were often tasted at a formal Sunday afternoon tea and recipes swapped afterwards.

Likewise leeks or turnips with white sauce!

However a smooth creamy cheese sauce can enhance other foods or as a major component of lasagna.  The art of making it from fresh individual ingredients instead of out of a packet is actually quite easy.

It is based on the following white sauce recipe and it doesn’t take very long to make.

You do need to concentrate all the time though. Don’t go off and leave the sauce to cook on its own.  I can promise you it will go lumpy if not watched and stirred constantly till it thickens.

White  sauce (the basis for Cheese Sauce – see Variations below)

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter or margarine
2 tbsp plain flour
1 cup of milk
¼ tsp salt

Method

1.     Melt the butter or margarine in a saucepan.

2.     Add the flour and salt and stir until it is bubbly.

3.     Add one-third of the milk and stir all the time until the sauce boils and thickens

4.     Repeat this twice until all the milk is added.

5.     If you keep stirring the sauce constantly until it boils, you should get a smooth creamy sauce

Variations

To make a cheese sauce, add ½ cup of grated cheddar cheese after you have taken the saucepan off the heat.  This is important because if you keep cooking the sauce after you add the cheese, the sauce will become tough and stringy.

If you want a particularly tangy sauce use tasty or well matured cheese.

To make a larger quantity, simply double the amount of all the ingredients.  It pays to annotate the recipe with the new doubled amounts as it is so easy to double some and not all the ingredients – and this can have a devastating effect on the end result!

A cheese sauce for lasagna needs to be a bit thicker so it doesn’t run everywhere when you serve it, and I suggest you use 3 tbsp butter or margarine and 3 tbsp flour to 1 cup milk.

If you end up with a lumpy sauce, or if your sauce has curdled, you can either beat it with an egg beater or you can put it into a sieve and stir it over a bowl until the smooth sauce falls into the bowl.  (You might want to do this out of sight of guests or even the family!)

It is a great comfort dish for winter evenings and can be served as a meal in itself or as an accompaniment to a meat based meal or a vegetables casserole such as Ratatouille.

Ingredients

1-1 ½ potatoes per person
water for boiling
salt to taste (no more than 1 tsp per saucepan of potatoes)
1 cup cheese sauce
1 cup grated cheese
½ cup dried breadcrumbs
Method

1. Heat oven to 190ºC
2. Peel potatoes and slice in half or quarters crossways
3. Put the cut potato pieces into a saucepan and just cover the potatoes with water and bring to the boil
4. Cook until tender – about 15 minutes. Prick with a fork to test for tenderness  (Don’t overcook or you’ll end up with a messy mushy bits of very soft potato)
5. While the potatoes are cooking, make the cheese sauce
6. When the potatoes are cooked hand have cooled down a bit, cool enough to work with, slice the potatoes into ½ cm slices
7. Arrange the slices in a serving dish
8. Cover with cheese sauce
9. Sprinkle grated cheese and breadcrumbs over the top and heat in the oven until hot through and the topping has browned. This might take 10-15 minutes but watch the oven so the topping doesn’t burn.

Ingredients

1 medium to large potato per person
1 tablespoon yoghurt per potato
Spices (eg, paprika or ground chilli) or fresh herbs (eg, thyme, parsley)

Method

1. Wash and scrub potatoes, leaving skin intact
2. Place potatoes in the microwave
3. Cook for 3 minutes for one medium sized potato and 5-6 minutes for 2-3 potatoes
4. Squeeze the sides gently to check if they are cooked.  If they feel soft all round then they are ready
5. Remember that the cooking time will depend on the size of the potatoes and the power of your microwave so you may need to check your times carefully with your own microwave
6. Remove from the microwave and place on a serving platter or individual plates
7. Cut a cross in the top of each potato and squeeze the sides until the potato pulp fluffs up through the opening
8. Spoon a dollop of yoghurt on the fluffed up potato and sprinkle with herbs or spices
9. Serve with a meat dish and cooked vegetables or salad
10. Alternatively you could serve these baked potatoes with a vegetable casserole such as ratatouille.

Ingredients

1 medium to large potato per person
1 tablespoon yoghurt per potato
¼ – ½ cup grated tasty cheese per potato
Spice (eg, paprika or ground chilli, ground coriander or cumin seeds) or fresh herbs (eg, thyme, parsley)

Method

1. Heat oven to 200ºC
2. Wash and scrub potatoes, leaving skin intact
3. Place potatoes on an oven tray or rack and put into the oven
4. Cook for 35-45 minutes depending on number and size of potatoes. Four or five large potatoes will take 45 or even 50 minutes
5. Squeeze the sides gently to check if they are cooked.  If they feel soft all round then they are ready
6. Remove for the oven and cut a slice off the top of each potato
7. Scoop out the potato flesh into a separate bowl
8. Add grated cheese and yoghurt and mix well
9. Spoon the cheese mixture back into the potato skins
10. Sprinkle with herbs or spices
11. Serve immediately as a meal in itself or with a salad or a vegetable casserole such as eggplant casserole (Ratatouille)

Cheese and bacon baked potatoes

Chop up one cooked rasher of bacon per potato and add to the potato and cheese mixture before spooning the mixture back into the potato skins.

Mashed potatoes are quite versatile and can be service in different ways.  For example, you can pile them into a middle of the plate and ten flatten the pile ready to serve meat on top. You can use them to make pies that need a potato topping such as cottage pie or shepherds pie.  You can add grated cheese (always winner with children who maintain they don’t like potatoes!)

Here’s a recipe for plain mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

1-1 ½ potatoes per person
water for boiling
salt to taste (no more than 1 tsp per saucepan of potatoes)
1 tablespoon milk per potato

Method

Peel potatoes and slice into even-sized pieces no smaller than 5cm

Put the cut potato pieces into a saucepan and just cover the potatoes with water and bring to the boil.

Cook until tender – about 15 minutes. Prick with a fork to test for tenderness  (Don’t overcook or you’ll end up with a messy mushy bits of very soft potato).

Drain immediately and add milk to the saucepan

Using a potato masher (show picture), mash the potatoes until smooth

Notes:

If you steam potatoes they will absorb less water and keep their shape better.

Prepare the potatoes just as you are ready to cook them.  Don’t leave them sitting around soaking, because they will absorb water and los vitamins and minerals

The method for boiling new potatoes is the same as for old potatoes. The only difference is that new potatoes don’t need to be peeled because the skins are soft.  This is great as there is more fibre in the skins and that’s ‘good for you’!

Ingredients

1-1 ½ potatoes per person
water for boiling
salt to taste (no more than 1 tsp per saucepan of potatoes)

Method

1. Wash potatoes to remove any excess soil
2. Leave whole of cut unpeeled potatoes in half or into quarters if they are very large potatoes
3. Put the potatoes into a saucepan and just cover them with water and bring to the boil.
4. Cook until tender – about 15 minutes. Prick with a fork to test for tenderness  (Don’t overcook or you’ll end up with a messy mushy bits of very soft potato).
5. Drain and serve immediately.

New boiled potatoes are delicious when  knob of butter is tossed through the hot cooked potatoes just before serving.

You can also add a sprig of mint to the water while the potatoes are cooking or add chopped mint or other herbs before serving.

Ingredients

1-1 ½ potatoes per person
water for boiling
salt to taste (no more than 1 tsp per saucepan of potatoes)

Method

Peel potatoes and cut in half or into quarters if they are very large potatoes

1. Put the cut potato pieces into a saucepan and just cover the potatoes with water and bring to the boil.
2. Cook until tender – about 15 minutes. Prick with a fork to test for tenderness  (Don’t overcook or you’ll end up with a messy mushy bits of very soft potato).
3. Drain and serve immediately.

If your cholesterol level allows, stir in 2 teaspoons butter or margarine per potato and some (say 2 teaspoons) chopped fresh herbs before serving.