Durban - Tattered and stained handwritten books of recipes, often carefully arranged by the owner and passed down through the generations, come to mind as you leaf through My Granny’s Pantry, a book published by Jacana.
It is written by Margaret Wasserfall and is based on the food and flavours of her childhood in the age of the family grocer, when people grew their own veggies and kept a clutch of laying hens.
Her South African cook book is based on a recipe book inherited from her Scottish grandmother, Irene Hopkins, and is full of family photos and hearty family meals.
Omeshnie Naidoo provides an extract.
Haddock pie
500g smoked haddock fillets, cut into small pieces
2 large free-range eggs
250ml milk
2 sprigs parsley, finely chopped
1.25ml black pepper
30g butter
In the late 1940s and 1950s a fish smoker in Mowbray, Cape Town, made legendary smoked haddock. It was known simply as Mowbray haddock and was sold by many local fish mongers.
The smoker closed years ago but smoked haddock is freely available in all today’s supermarkets.
Preheat the oven to 160ºC . Butter an ovenproof dish and arrange the smoked haddock in it. Beat the eggs and milk and season with the parsley and pepper. Pour this mixture over the fish and arrange a few knobs of butter over the top. Stand the dish in a baking tray of cold water. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes or until it is set.
Pickled mushrooms
500g pine rings or medium-sized open champignons
1 large onion, finely diced
2 bay leaves
10ml black peppercorns
1 clove garlic
5ml whole allspice
10ml coarse sea salt
125ml water
60ml white wine vinegar
When working with vinegar, use a non-reactive vessel such as cast-iron or enamelled pot. Place all the ingredients in a pot and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and leave to simmer gently for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Strain the liquid into a separate container and set aside. Working quickly, pack the mushrooms into sterilised jars and pour the hot pickling liquid into each jar, filling the bottle to the neck. Leave to cool, then cap and place in the fridge for a few days before eating.
Gone with the wind
1 packet red jelly
1 cup boiling water
100g sugar
125ml Old Brown Sherry
250ml orange, lemon and grapefruit juice mixed
1 tin Ideal milk
125ml cream
Almonds to decorate
This dessert is as light as air and voluminous, so it is great to serve when you are entertaining.
The recipe calls for a mixed cup of orange, lemon and grapefruit juice. Don’t be tempted to leave the grapefruit out, as it adds an intriguing note and brings the flavour alive.
Leave the unopened tin of Ideal milk in the fridge overnight. When it’s cold, it froths better and gives greater volume.
Dissolve the jelly in the boiling water and add the sugar. Once cold, add the Sherry and fruit juice. Beat the Ideal Milk until stiff and add to the mixture. Pour into glass bowls and place in the fridge to set. Once set, decorate with whipped cream and chopped almonds.
Mr Martin’s ice cream
600ml full-cream milk, scalded
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 tbsp flour
Pinch of salt
½ cup sugar
Pour the milk and vanilla essence into a large saucepan and scald the milk. Wait for the first bubbles to appear on the surface. Do not boil the milk or your ice cream will split.
Meanwhile, beat the eggs, flour, salt and sugar to form a thick, creamy mixture. Slowly add half the scalded milk into the creamed egg mixture while whisking briskly. Then pour the mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the scalded milk, whisking as you do so. Place the saucepan back on the stove and cook gently until the custard coats your wooden spoon.
If you have an ice cream churn, pour your custard into this and begin to churn, otherwise place your custard in trays in the freezer checking frequently.
When the ice cream is half frozen, take it out the freezer, place in a bowl and whisk until smooth.
Repeat this at least twice, then cover and leave to freeze.
Creamed beetroot
6-8 small beetroot
15ml olive oil
1 onion, sliced
15ml flour
125ml milk
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
Boil the beetroot until soft, then slice thinly and put aside. Cut in slices, then those slices into strips. Heat the olive oil and gently fry the onion until it is soft and transparent. Do not brown. Stir in the flour and mix thoroughly before adding the milk while stirring rapidly.
Simmer for a few minutes to allow the flour to cook. Add the sliced beetroot and cook for 5 minutes adding salt and pepper to taste. Add the vinegar and serve the dish as a vegetable with roast meat.
Onion parcels
6 to 8 large pickling onions
3 large potatoes, freshly cooked
30ml butter, as well as some extra butter for dabbing on parcels before baking
1 egg, well beaten
Enough flour to make a scone-like dough
Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Skin the onions but leave the root end intact to keep the onion together. Boil the onions in salted water until just soft.
Meanwhile, make the potato crust by mashing the potatoes while they are still warm. Add the butter, salt, pepper and egg to the potatoes. Add the flour and mix into a stiff dough. Roll this out and cut as many rounds as you have onions; a 98mm cutter is the best for this exercise. Put a cut round of dough in the palm of your hand and place an onion on the round. Close your hand gently and press the dough around the onion. Leave a space about the size of a R2 coin for the onion to show through.
Place on a greased baking tin and brush each parcel with melted butter and a little salt and pepper. Bake until nicely browned and serve hot with any roasted meat. - The Mercury