curiouswombat: (Bake on)
[personal profile] curiouswombat
The challenges at [livejournal.com profile] tolkien_weekly recently were based on the ingredients for mulled wine.

This cried out to me for Recipe Fic. And so each of the seven drabbles features a particular dish - and is followed by the recipe for the dish.

The main character is simply described as an un-named young elf in a kitchen - those who have read the Returnverse might like to know that it is Tharhîwon. If you remember who he is you will understand his thoughts from the beginning - but if you don't, I will explain a little more at the end.




Cinnamon

Placing the curled bark into the mortar, ready to grind it into a powder, the young elf remembered how thrilled his teacher had been to find this spice so readily available here.

As he added the cinnamon to the other ingredients, already in the earthenware bowl, he could hear the well loved voice as if the owner stood beside him.

“Form it into a roll and leave it somewhere cool to firm up. Then cut into slices, letting them drop into the sugar.”

As the biscuits baked the warm aroma filled the kitchen, and once again he was an elfling...



Recipe for Cinnamon biscuits

(I think Tolkien characters speak English as a default, rather than American – but for Americans, these are cinnamon cookies, not the things you call biscuits – and I would call a plain scone! But I have added cup measures.)

2 level teaspoons ground cinnamon
4 oz (1/2 cup) sugar
6 oz (3/4 cup) butter
8 oz (2 cups) plain (all purpose) flour

Cream butter and sugar, add flour and cinnamon. Form the dough into a 'sausage' and chill it in the fridge for at least an hour.
Pour extra sugar onto a piece of paper, and cut the sausage into slices (about 0.75cm thick) so that each slice falls into the sugar. Place on a baking tray, sugar side up, bake at 200C (400F) for about 10 minutes.

(You can use granulated, caster or golden granulated sugar, or even demerara for the topping.)

.......................


Ginger

It was said that an aroma could transport you instantly, unbidden, to the past. For him, a warm kitchen always brought back loved voices and faces, but individual spices might take him to any number of scenes.

Cutting the creamy root to fit into the stoneware jar, before preparing the syrup, he was conveyed not to a memory of any sweet delicacy but, rather, he thought of a dinner table, serving bowls piled high, and the first time he tasted his teacher’s favourite chicken dish.

It was not the sting of the raw ginger that brought tears to his eyes.



Recipe for Chicken with Preserved Ginger

Courtesy of Delia Smith… Although I don’t think my elf would have added the yoghurt.


4 chicken breasts
4 pieces of preserved stem ginger, finely chopped
4 dessertspoons preserved stem ginger syrup (from the jar)
2 teaspoons grated fresh root ginger
Vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, crushed
a knob of butter
4 fl oz (120 ml) dry cider (This is English cider – so alcoholic, not just apple juice)
2 tablespoons natural yoghurt
4 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5, 375°F (190°C).

Start off by heating the oil in a medium saucepan and soften the onion and garlic in it for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the chicken breasts in a medium roasting tin. Then pierce the chicken with a skewer or small sharp knife in several places, this is to allow the ginger to seep down inside.

Now spoon the ginger syrup over the chicken, rubbing it in with your hands.

Next, sprinkle the grated root ginger over and rub that in as well. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then pour the onion, garlic and oil from the saucepan over, and place a small knob of butter on top of each one.

Bake the chicken in the oven for about 25 minutes, basting it with the juices about halfway through. When it’s cooked, remove the chicken to a warmed serving plate, then place the tin over direct medium heat. Add the cider and chopped stem ginger, stir and let it bubble down to a syrupy sauce.

Then, off the heat, stir in the yoghurt. Pour the sauce over the chicken and sprinkle with the spring onions.

....................

Strawberry kisses

Strawberries. His friends said strawberries made them think of kisses for, in their woodland, the strawberry dell was a favourite place for kissing.

This dish he thought, adding wine, would surely work just as well.

And then he picked up the mace and his thoughts went elsewhere.

The first time he met mace in the kitchen he had questioned the name, for his tutor had told him a mace was a dishonourable weapon used by the enemy.

His teacher had said he knew nothing of that sort of thing. But the look in his eyes had told a different story.



Spiced Strawberry Compôte

2 cinnamon sticks
2 cloves
2 cardamom pods, cracked
2 blades mace
750ml/1⅓ pint red wine
1 vanilla pod, split
1 dried chilli
200g/7oz caster sugar
1 fresh bay leaf
1 orange, zest and juice
500g/1lb 2oz strawberries, hulled

Preparation method
1.Tie the cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom pods, mace and dried chilli up in a small piece of muslin.
2.Bring all of the ingredients except the strawberries (including those in the muslin), to the boil in a saucepan. Boil for 10 minutes, then set aside to cool for 30 minutes.
3.Strain the liquid into a clean saucepan, add the strawberries and simmer for 2-3 minutes, or until the strawberries are soft. Carefully strain the liquid back into the, cleaned, first saucepan and set the strawberries aside.
4.Continue to boil the liquid until the volume has reduced by two-thirds. Pour the liquid onto the reserved strawberries, cover and set aside to cool. Chill in the fridge overnight.
5.To serve, spoon the compôte into glasses or bowls and serve with shortbread biscuits, and cream to taste...

....................

Pepper Cake

“Why is it called pepper cake when there is no pepper?” he asked, when they first made it.

“Ah, well, a long time ago they thought of any hot spice as pepper,” his teacher explained. “And you could likely use pepper – but I was taught ginger and cloves; that’s how we do it in my family. Then eat it with cheese to celebrate every birth.”

He paused. “We used to make it often. But no call now. So we’ll do it for your begetting day instead.”

Which was why he made one today – it would have been his teacher’s birthday.




Old Yorkshire recipe for Pepper Cake

12 oz plain flour
4 oz brown sugar
1 teaspoonful baking powder
1 oz spice*
12 oz treacle
4 oz butter
3 beaten eggs.

*Spices traditionally used were one or more of the following; ginger, powdered cloves, all spice, caraway or coriander.

Sift the flour, baking powder and spice into a bowl. Warm the treacle, butter and sugar together and add it to the dry ingredients. Add eggs, bake for 2 hours at 325F. (Traditionally it was baked as a ‘thick round cake’)

..................

The Right Tool

The little grater was really too small for his hands. There were larger ones, more suited to an elf, for sale in the market; but this one had been made for his teacher by Gimli and so it had a symbolism of its own.

As he grated the nutmeg into the mixture he found himself singing the same, unelflike, song his teacher sang whenever he made this cake.

“I had a little nut tree,
Nothing would it bear,
But a silver nutmeg
And a golden pear…”

He smiled as, across the kitchen, the old dwarf tapped his foot in time.


Pear Upside Down Cake

• 4 Over Ripe Pears
• 4 oz Butter
2 Eggs
1lb Self Raising Flour
10 oz Light Soft Brown Sugar
250ml Milk
1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

1.Melt 4 oz of the sugar and 2 oz of the butter in a pan and pour into a 20cm (8inch) square cake tin (I put a circle of baking parchment into the tin to make it easier to turn out).
2.Peel and core the pears removing any bruised bits and place on top of the butter and sugar mixture.
3.Preheat the oven to gas 4 (180C, 165C fan-oven or 350F). In a bowl sift the flour, nutmeg and cinnamon.
4.In a separate bowl mix the eggs with the remaining sugar. Melt the remaining butter and mix this into the egg and sugar mixture along with the milk. Pour this mix into the flour and mix well. Pour or spoon the batter over the fruit and pop into the oven for between 40-50 mins.
5.Once cooked turn out onto a large serving plate to allow the syrup to drip over the sides of the cake.
6.Serve warm with cream or custard or eat cold the next day with a cup of tea.

........................

Making meringues


He nipped enough sugar from the loaf, and began pounding it to make it fine enough. Then he separated the eggs before whisking the whites. He grinned and, as taught, inverted the bowl over his head – what a mess the first time he did that…

“Hours in a barely warm oven to dry out, then time to cool. Whip the cream… too much time for naught but a bite of air, I reckon, but some folk like them.” his teacher had said.

“He’s an elf!” Adar replied. “He isn’t short of time.”

But, oh, their time together had been fleeting.


Cream Meringues

For the meringue
8 free-range eggs, whites only
200g/7oz white caster sugar

For the filling
400ml/14fl oz double cream
2 tbsp icing sugar

Preparation method
1.For the meringue, preheat the oven to 100C/200F/Gas ¾. Line a baking tray with baking parchment. You may want to draw circles on the paper to help keep your meringues the same size.
2.Place the egg whites into a clean glass or metal bowl and whisk until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed.
3.Gradually add the sugar and continue to whisk until stiff peaks form when the whisk is removed. (You might want to test by inverting the bowl over your head… but there again you might not!)
4.Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a large plain or star nozzle.
5.Pipe into 16 small rounds onto the prepared baking tray.
6.Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.
7.Turn the oven off but leave the meringues in the oven for at least another two hours.
8.When crisp, remove from the oven
9.For the filling, whisk the cream and icing sugar together until soft peaks form when the whisk is removed. Use to sandwich the meringues together in pairs.


.................

Mulled wine

He was very young when he sailed from Ennor. Parentless; Valinor his best hope of surviving. Here he was nurtured and loved by Lord Elrond’s household; especially by Frodo, for hobbits, too, needed family.

Only when his teacher arrived, for those last few years, did he understand the need to remember every lesson in the kitchen.

“As long as you think of me and Mr. Frodo when you cook,” he said, “that’s our immortality.”

The wine was ready. He poured out three glasses, passed one to Gimli, one to Legolas.

“A toast,” he said. “To Adar Frodo, and Uncle Sam!”


Mulled Wine

2 clementines
1 lemon
1 or 2 cinnamon stick
1 (1 in) piece of ginger, peeled and sliced in two
small handful of whole cloves
150g sugar
500ml water
2 bottles red wine


In a large pan, boil the 500ml water and dissolve the sugar in it. Add the wine then the zest of the two clementines. Slice one and add it to the pot. Stick about 15 cloves into the other and put it in. Zest the lemon into the pot, slice the body in two and add. Now add your stick(s) of cinnamon and ginger.

Keep on a very low heat. Do not boil it, just heat it gently. To serve, either ladle straight into glasses – or sieve if you don’t want any bits in it!


..................



Tharhîwon is the name of 'The Winter Elfling'. He arrived in Valinor just after Bilbo died, when Frodo was lonely, and still in mourning. Although Tharhîwon was cared for by all the elves, he became Frodo's adopted son in much the same way as Frodo was Bilbo's; hence 'Adar Frodo'. His 'tutor' would be an elf, but his 'teacher', here, is Sam.

I think, though, that he would have been taught the cinnamon biscuits by Frodo -- they are something to make with small children!



Enjoy the drabbles - and try the recipes!

Date: 04/02/2014 09:03 pm (UTC)
elsaf: (Default)
From: [personal profile] elsaf
Can I use molasses as "treacle"? The Pepper Cake looks interesting.

Date: 04/02/2014 09:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
To be honest I've never cooked with molasses - it is not a common ingredient in Britain. I gather they are fairly similar except that treacle is a little more bitter.

But I would think it should work as long as it is dark, and sticky. I read somewhere that it should be molasses with as little sulphur as possible to replace treacle - I don't know if that makes sense to you or not!

Date: 04/02/2014 09:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] tx-cronopio.livejournal.com
oh, those were lovely!

Date: 04/02/2014 09:32 pm (UTC)

Date: 04/02/2014 09:54 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] clodia-metelli.livejournal.com
This is a lovely set of drabbles, and what looks like a lovely set of recipes. Bookmarked!

Date: 04/02/2014 10:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you - it was really interesting finding the right recipes for each prompt.

Date: 04/02/2014 10:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] suzll.livejournal.com
Love these!

Date: 04/02/2014 10:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you! They were really fun to write.

Date: 04/02/2014 10:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] just-ann-now.livejournal.com
I was looking for a mulled wine recipe this past Christmas - I'll bookmark this!

Date: 04/02/2014 10:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Then you can think of elves as you drink it...

Date: 04/02/2014 10:52 pm (UTC)
gillo: (Default)
From: [personal profile] gillo
Why do I now have a mental picture of an Elvish Sue Perkins?

I enjoyed all of these.

Date: 04/02/2014 10:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Sue Perkins would make a pretty good elf...

Thar is probably taller though!

And thank you.

Date: 04/02/2014 11:59 pm (UTC)
hhimring: Estel, inscription by D. Salo (Default)
From: [personal profile] hhimring
Nice to see them in context now!

Date: 05/02/2014 08:29 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you. I often do drabbles in sets because it is actually easier - once you have an idea for the first one you don't have to think so hard about the rest. And this time of pulling them together is always good!

Date: 05/02/2014 12:57 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Oh, good to see Tharhiwon again, the story of his trip to Aman and his life there with Frodo would be interesting.

We do have unsulphered (sp) molasses over here, it is a little heavier than treacle.

Communication with printer is fixed and what a performance that was, why don't people listen when you explain things to them! Geeks! Can't live with them can't live with out them!

Recipes look interesting, will have to try some, when I am off my diet, that is. Darn blood pressure!

Huggs,
Lynda

Date: 05/02/2014 08:33 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
There are hints - but sometime I may well go back and look at that period more closely.

Glad you've got the printer sorted - it is so annoying when the technology refuses to speak to itself!

I've lost about 18lb over the last year or so, and my blood pressure has gone back to normal.

Date: 05/02/2014 03:34 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Well the Atenolol (Tenormin) and the hydrochlorothiazide seem to be working, I have skinny ankles now. Though we had to cut the Atenolol in half as it lowered my pulse rate, also my pressure too much.

So trying to loose some weight and get some exercise should help. Getting bronchitis in January didn't help though and I still have the stupid cough. I have cut out bread as much as possible and am watching what I eat and no nibbles, other than my banana!

So that's my story!

Huggs,
Lynda
p.s. Maturing is the Pits!

Date: 05/02/2014 01:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] heartofoshun.livejournal.com
These are terrific. I want to try the cinnamon biscuits and the pepper cake (I am hoping that molasses will work--I don't know were to get treacle--I might be able to find it--I do live in NYC).

Date: 05/02/2014 08:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
I have made the cinnamon biscuits for as long as I can remember - but I have to admit that the pepper cake is from the Castle Museum in York and I haven't made it - I think it will be very solid as there is no raising agent. I must try it myself, too.

Date: 05/02/2014 02:08 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sulien.livejournal.com
These drabbles are absolutely lovely, thank you for sharing them! And all of the recipes look interesting too, I'm definitely going to have to try them. I have an especial weakness for hot mulled wine after having been stationed in Germany and getting to enjoy glühwein at Christmas markets, so I will be making this every year. :)

Date: 05/02/2014 08:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
I do love mulled wine. We can buy it ready mulled in bottles over Christmas, and so I have been known to just warm a glass up when I get home from work on cold days.

Date: 05/02/2014 02:34 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] samtyr.livejournal.com
Ooh, lovely! Thank you for sharing these -- I am going to be experimenting very soon. :)
Edited Date: 05/02/2014 02:34 am (UTC)

Date: 05/02/2014 08:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
I am thinking that a main of chicken and ginger, followed by strawberry compote with ginger biscuits, would be rather good!

Date: 05/02/2014 07:21 am (UTC)
ext_11988: made by lmbossy (Default)
From: [identity profile] kazzy-cee.livejournal.com
Yum - now I'm hungry. The Scandinavian languages use the word pepper for ginger spice.

Date: 05/02/2014 08:40 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you, and oh - that's interesting! I love such snippets of information.

Date: 05/02/2014 09:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dougalsservant.livejournal.com
Oh that was so clever! And I think I want the chicken with ginger tonight, or maybe tomorrow. D

Date: 05/02/2014 01:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you! The chicken and ginger is a Delia and so works every time.

Date: 05/02/2014 11:08 am (UTC)
kathyh: (Kathyh reading)
From: [personal profile] kathyh
Those were completely adorable... and I feel like trying all the recipes!

Date: 05/02/2014 01:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you. I've not made the pepper cake - but the rest of them work!

Date: 05/02/2014 04:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] wormwood-7.livejournal.com
These were lovely. Both drabbles and recipes. Some of that mulled wine is just what I need on a dreich Edinburgh afternoon (being freelance can be dangerous)...

Date: 05/02/2014 05:57 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you. Mulled wine would be just right in this current weather. Although the cinnamon biscuits and a mug of hot chocolate would be pretty good, too.

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