Recipe Swap: Cranachan Zabaglione

Happy New Year one and all!  Firstly, I must apologise for my lack of blogging over the past month, it really has been a crazy end to the year culminating, in fact, on Hogmanay (New Years Eve) with my lovely father-in-law having a heart attack!  Thankfully, he is on the mend, but it was a scary few days! 

I did have an amazing Christmas though, the children had a fabulous time and I got to live out my long-held ambition to host Christmas Dinner at my house – with 13 (including baby Cameron) for lunch from ages 6 months to 91!  It was great.  Mum did the starter and my Turkey (a very local bird ordered through the brilliant Devenick Dairy), was delicious.  The best part of all though was the AMAZING brown sugar meringues with whipped cream and lemon curd – the recipes for which came from a cooking demonstration I went to a couple of months ago by Lady Claire MacDonald of Kinloch Lodge on the Isle of Skye. I will post the recipes shortly as they are too good not to share!

At Devenick Dairy getting our Turkey

Back to this entry though, and it is recipe swap time again! Continuing the theme of puddings, the swap recipe this month is for Zabaglione, a traditional Italian dessert.  As she does every month, Christianna over at www.burwellgeneralstore.com chooses a recipe from our current vintage cookbook “The Second Ford Treasury of Favourite Recipes From Famous Eating Places” and we (20+) swappers post our take on the original recipe. Here is mine.

Once again, I thought I’d add a little Scottish twist to the swap and merge the cuisines of two of my favourite countries; something I starting doing when we lived in Florence (where for dinner at Hogmanay I made Haggis Lasagne for our guests - an unexpected success).

Cranachan is a traditional Scottish dessert for which there are many variations.  It is made from cream, crowdie cheese, whisky, honey and oats.  I tried a few versions for the swap, as well as a few different whiskies from my husband’s collection and also a whisky liqueur, however the latter was far too sweet.  On Col’s advice, I settled on The Balvenie Doublewood (12yr), a whisky from the Speyside Region which he tells me has hints of fruits, honey and vanilla!  My resident whisky expert has also advised that it would be best to avoid the smokier, peatier malts of Islay for a dessert like this.

Anyway, I hope you like this fusion of two traditional puddings.  I am very happy with the result and think I will serve this on Burns Night later this month.  

Ingredients

4 large egg yolks

50g Caster Sugar

50ml Whisky

30g Porridge Oats

30g Soft Light Brown Sugar

100-150g Raspberries

Method

Heat up your grill.  Line a baking tray with foil and spread out the oats and brown sugar.  Toast under the grill until golden brown – remembering to keep your eye on them and move them about frequently or they will very quickly burn!  Set aside and keep for later.

Fill a pan half full with water and bring to the boil and then reduce heat to a simmer.

Put the yolks, caster sugar and whisky in a glass bowl (big enough to sit atop the boiling water without touching) and whisk all together with a hand-held mixer.  Set the bowl in the pan of boiling water and whisk constantly until the mixture becomes thick, frothy, pale and creamy.  Be careful not to scramble the eggs!

Allow to cool slightly before adding two or three handfuls of the toasted oats to the mixture and gently and loosely mix in.  Then lightly squash a couple of handfuls of the raspberries in your hand before adding them in and mixing them in too.  (Keep a little of each to decorate).

Spoon the mixture into serving bowls or glasses and refrigerate for around three hours before serving.  Prior to serving, decorate with the remaining berries and sprinkle with some of the toasted oats.

Serve with some lovely Italian cantuccini or amaretti biscuits or some wee Scottish shortbreads.

(Serves 2)

A Treat for St. Andrews Day - Tablet (and Ginger Tablet)

I must apologise profusely for my failure to blog for the last couple of weeks.  A combination of preparing for a day back at work hosting two colleagues from our Nigerian partner company; a house  move; two trips to casualty (accident and emergency) with the children (all is well), and my birthday, made finding any time to blog pretty much impossible!

I did manage to talk at length with my lovely new Nigerian colleagues about food, largely as they found what was on offer here in Aberdeen and at our Hereford HQ, very bland!  I have convinced them to send me some traditional Nigerian recipes that don’t involve the use of a goat head. Also on the work front, my friend and colleague John has also deployed out to Iraq where he is working with another friend Alan, who was my host in Lebanon a few years back – I have been pestering them for some authentic recipes and hoping they bring me back some wee gems!

I got a great haul of cook books and food-related goodies for my birthday.  Among my absolute favourite pressies were the Chocolate Workshop voucher from my wonderful husband, a fabulous vintage cookbook from 1933 from my mum, and two amazing cake stands from my best bud Bexy, which are just crying out for some cakes to be made – watch this space...



My fabulous birthday pressie from my mum



Despite all that has been going on, we are all getting very excited about Christmas.  You can imagine that my two and four year olds are more that mildly hyper about the forthcoming festivities.  I am hosting Christmas Dinner this year for both my family and my husband’s – we’ll certainly have a house full but I have always wanted to do this and am feeling decidedly grown up!  I have also been inspired by all the Thanksgiving recipes posted by Blogging friends in the US, some of which I will definitely be trying on the big day.

Before the delights of Christmas Dinner, my girls and I will be making a lot of our own Christmas pressies.  This is, in part, an economy drive (I am on maternity pay after all) and also an effort to keep the girls entertained and spending fun time with mummy before I go back to work at the end of January.

This week’s recipe is for one such gift (if you don’t eat it all before you get it wrapped) and a specific request from my good friend Karen, who by looking at her lovely figure, you’d never know she has a massive weakness for this amazingly delicious Scottish treat known as Tablet.  Please note that this is not one for making with the children as recipes with boiling sugar rarely are.  I can also advise that even a small amount, if for example, pinched by a slightly naughty two year old, is like providing said child with rocket fuel – a massive sugar high and not advised!

Tablet has a long history in Scotland, it’s neither a toffee nor fudge, but has a unique texture that is completely irresistible.   The recipe I give here is that of my husband’s Granny Forbes (the photo is from her wartime handwritten recipe book).  I did, however, make this with a twist for my dad this past weekend, adding some finely grated stem ginger in syrup and must admit to being delighted with the result.



Granny Forbes Recipe Book



Ingredients

2lbs (900g) Caster Sugar

2 oz (55g) Butter or Margarine

200ml Condensed Milk

200ml Milk

(If you are making Ginger Tablet, you will also need to grate 4-5 balls of stem ginger in syrup, and one teaspoon of the delicious syrup from the jar).

Method

Grease a 20cm x 25cm rectangular tin. Put the Sugar, Milk and Butter in a large saucepan.  Bring very slowly to the boil ensuring and add the condensed milk. Allow to come to the boil once again, and watch carefully for around 20 minutes (or until the colour turns darker), you can stir it during this time.

Remove from the heat and beat vigorously in reverse (original instructions) until it thickens and the residue on the side of the pan looks grainy. 

Pour into the greased tin and allow to set before marking into bars or squares.

(If you’re making Ginger Tablet, add the ginger syrup with the condensed milk but don’t add the grated ginger until you have removed it from the heat, just before you beat it).

Enjoy!