Back in the Kitchen Again!

September 9th 2014- New Beginnings....and an Old Fruitcake

Today I finally got round to sorting out all my recipe books. I found a host of long lost treasures and am looking forward to getting into them again. Some of them I'm not so sure about but I just have't got the heart to get rid of them and so they will just be part of my ever growing collection. I confess that have a really bad recipe book habit, I blame Amazon!

Among the treasures I found were recipes that were written down by my mother on scraps of paper, recipe cards and the backs of some books that belonged to her. My mother passed away 32 years ago so they really are treasures. She was a very keen baker so there are lots of recipes for cakes and biscuits as well as some very retro ideas from the 60's and 70's. I would really like to get them into some kind of order...another project to add to my list.

My other passion is photography, and thankfully food and photography are a match made in heaven, so I would like to use this blog as a springboard to developing and growing my skills, both as a cook and a photographer.

I called this blog Back in the Kitchen because I started it 5 years ago after I had surgery on my back and hadn't cooked for 6 months prior to the operation. The blog marked my return to good health and to the kitchen again.

Five years on and I am fortunate enough to have two kitchens, one here in Manchester and one in my apartment in Jerusalem.  So this blog will record my food adventures both here and there, hopefully reflecting the differences in styles and the impact of much more seasonal cooking in Israel on my repertoire.

I am looking forward to re-starting this venture again and hopefully keeping it going this time.

Today I decided to bake a fruit cake, something my mother always did when it was coming up to Rosh Hashana, she made it the rest of the year too, but I always remember long days of baking in her kitchen before the festival. My father was always very partial to her fruitcake, which was particularly light, not like a heavy English fruit cake at all. I have combed my old recipes but alas can't find the fruit cake but I did find something very similar in an old cookery book of Mum's. Alas the book has no name because both the front and back cover have come off, the pages are yellowing and my guess is that the book dates from the early 60's because I remember Mum using it when I was a little girl.

The recipe is very simple and I am copying it as I found it in the book.

LIGHT FRUIT CAKE

6oz margarine (I used Tomor soft )
6 oz sugar ( I used golden caster)
4 eggs (I used large)
9oz flour (I used white self raising)
1/2lb mixed dried fruit
I also added 1 tsp vanilla essence

Cream margarine and sugar well. Add eggs and flour gradually. Add fruit last. If a little stiff, a drop of milk can be added. Bake in oven for about 3/4 hr. Reg No 4 (which I calculated to be 350 F or about 180 C)
Mrs F Casket

I remember Mum showing me how to add the eggs, one at a time, with the mixer on slow at first then fast, adding a couple of spoons of flour in between each egg, to stop the mixture from curdling. I used a round cake tin, which I greased and then lined with baking paper.

GOLDEN BUTTONS

When I was learning to cook, the doyenne of  Anglo Jewish cuisine was Evelyn Rose. Most households had at least one of her compendiums on the bookshelf. Her magnum opus, The Complete International Jewish Cookbook has literally fallen to pieces in my house. Yet another of Mums' cookbooks, it was where she looked to add sophistication to her repertoire, egged on by me. In the baking section of the book there is a delightful selection of biscuit recipes. They work like a dream, my only criticism is that the recipes make a lot less than stated, so where she says a recipe makes 30 biscuits, reckon on 20, unless you like tiny bite-size morsels. If you need more, just double up the recipe. I made a batch of Golden Buttons this afternoon and they are delicious with a cup of tea. Please don't be tempted to make them with margarine, unless you are vegan, they really need the butter to work properly.

3oz (75g,3/4 cup) self raising flour
3oz (75g,1/2 cup) caster (superfine) sugar
3oz (75g, 1 cup) porridge oats
3oz (75g, 6tbsp) unsalted butter
1 level tbsp golden ( corn) syrup
1tbsp milk with 1/2 level teasp bicarbonate of soda ( baking soda)

Put flour and oats into bowl. Bring sugar, butter and syrup slowly to bubbling point, stirring all the time to dissolve the sugar. Immediately add the bicarbonate of soda and milk, then onto the dry ingredients. Leave for 10 minutes. Roll into 3/4in (11/2 cm) balls and arrange well apart on greased trays. Bake in moderate oven ( Gas No 5, 375F, 190C) for 10-12 minutes or golden brown.

 The Complete International Jewish Cookbook by Evelyn Rose