Days in November and baking for Christmas - mincemeat recipe for perfect traditional mince pies

Delicious Christmas mince pies

A typical November day, cold but not freezing, some sprinkles of rain after a deluge the night before, slightly grey but with a hint of sun trying to squeeze through. Christmas baking and lots of past November days floated into my mind.  Funny what acts as a trigger.

Memories of stirring the pudding in one of those big mustard yellow ceramic bowls with the creamy interior.  The youngest in the family stirred last, made a wish and was sworn to secrecy.

The smell of the cake baking, the newspaper wrapped around it singeing and giving off that distinctive smell. (Both my mother and grandmother did this to stop the cake burning at the edges and not baking evenly.)

A warm kitchen slightly steamy but full of glorious promise.  The excitement of the countdown.

I continued on the tradition with my children in the hope that they will continue it with theirs.

Most of the joy of Christmas is the anticipation; but why have all the Christmas baking for just one day or just the week?  Why not enjoy it when you will really appreciate it?  Make some mince pies with delicious homemade mincemeat.


Mincemeat Recipe 

75g dates stoned and chopped
250g currants
250g raisins
250g sultanas
75g cherries
100g candied peel
75g chopped almonds
75g unsulphured dried apricots chopped
4 tablespoons of brandy
150g butter
1 large cooking apple grated
zest and juice of an orange and lemon
150g muscovado sugar
some freshly grated nutmeg
1 cinnamon stick
5 whole cloves

Mix all the ingredients with the melted butter and cover. Leave in a large bowl overnight somewhere cool.  Next day spoon into clean jam jars and cover tightly.

If you don't like a particular ingredient leave it out or substitute with something else. 

This quantity will give you 3-4 large (500g) jars, enough to keep a couple for next year.
 
Using a sweet shortcrust pastry, cut out discs of pastry and fill with some mincemeat, cover with another disc. Dip your finger into a bowl of water and run it around the inside perimeter of the top disc. This helps seal the pastry.  Brush with beaten egg and bake in a hot oven at 180 deg until browned.  Cool and dust with icing sugar.

Everybody Cooks - cookbooks should be about real cooks and not stylized photography

Lovely photo but what IS the cake?

When R.E.M wrote their hit Everybody Hurts they could equally have called it everybody cooks judging by the amount of celebrity cook books on the market.  This market never appears to reach saturation point.  Any visit to a book shop is proof of this. 

All of these cookbooks have one thing in common - stunning, highly stylized photography.  Yes, the food is photographed, but it is in a setting with ribbons, roses and artfully placed props in the frame. Does it actually show you the food or the finished dish? Invariably not or if it does, it does so in soft focus.

I love food and I love cooking and baking but these cookbooks do nothing for me?  I have a few of them, mostly given to me as gifts.  They line a bookcase in my kitchen attracting grease and dust, never admiring glances.  Sometimes I try to find the information I require but more often than not I fail.  Instead I prop up my laptop on the work surface and find what I require on the internet or revert to my tried and trustable old favourites.

Ingredients and equipment

When I use a recipe, I use it as a guideline only, very often substituting ingredients and changing quantities depending on what's available.  I always like to see how the finished product is supposed to look.  For baking this means the texture, the bake, the finish.  For a dish, the consistency - is the sauce thick or thin, what the balance is between meat and vegetables. A picture of the ingredients or the equipment necessary can be useful or step by step photos of the methods used.


Two of my old trustables were published over forty years ago and I still frequently use and reference them.  One has no photos just some little ink sketches, the other has a few photos.  Both use imperial measures.  The recipes always work and I wonder is this because they were written by cooks who knew what they were talking about.  

I wish publishers would start to publish cook books again, written by real cooks and not celebrity chefs, and I use the word chef in the loosest sense of the word. Many of these so called chefs would run screaming out of a professional kitchen. I yearn for a real book written by a real cook and not a celebrity famous for what they look like or who their spouse is.

Ireland's Brighton -- The fashionable seaside resort of Bray filled with bars and culinary treats

Bray

Less than 13 miles from the centre of Dublin is Ireland's original seaside resort.  Bray is a fine town straddling the Dublin Wicklow border. In 1854 the railway was built out as far as, what had been up to this, a sleepy market town and thus sparked a building boom.

The town was transformed into a fashionable seaside resort and it became known as the "Brighton of Ireland".  Today there are still magnificent terraces of houses along the sea front and a lovely promenade with views up to Bray Head.  On a sunny day there is no where better to blow the cobwebs away.

Bray has really become a destination in it's own right with lots to do and see and has some fantastic bars and restaurants.  The Lonely Planet recently listed The Harbour Bar the best bar in the world.  It's cosy, quirky and full of character.  It is also a great live music venue.

There is almost a little Italy developing with restaurants, cafes, gelaterias and even a risto-market selling Italian cheese, charcuterie and coffee as well as pizza, panini, Italian breads and baked goods to eat in or take away.

Pastries and biscuits in the
risto-market

We had a lovely lunch here, the-day-after-the-night-before, a panino and a glass of  "hair of the dog" whilst watching a chef prepare ravioli for the newly relocated restaurant across the road.  Campo di fiori was originally located where the risto-market is now.  It is owned and run by an Italian couple, Marco and Laura from Rome.

There is a Farmers' market in the town every Saturday which is small, but there is an excellent vegetable and fruit stall selling all organic produce from a farm run by the Dominicans in Wicklow town.  They also sell some of their own free range organic pork, lamb and beef.

We bought really fresh fish from a selection of sea bream, hake, langoustines and sole amongst many more while bantering with the Chinese owner.  He supplies a lot of the restaurants in the town and loves to talk.

Bray has lots of little gift and coffee shops perfect for a Saturday morning browse. There are some real gems down the side streets and also some great boutiques. 

When I was a child Bray had degenerated into somewhere slightly seedy and run down. It's former grandeur reduced to has-been status.  My memory of it were dodgems and one armed bandits.  Today it has been transformed into a sophisticated, multi-cultural and cosmopolitan town and I really love spending the weekend here and return feeling as if I have really been away.

Waste not want not - throwing out food in a culture of fear

The best before on this is August 2003

Apparently we consumers throw out on average 30% of the food we buy in supermarkets to the value of €1000 a year. A pretty staggering statistic if it is multiplied by the 1.6 million households in the country. And that is just in Ireland.

I heard a discussion on the radio last evening about the subject.  The most memorable comment was that food is now viewed as something that is dangerous.  Food can poison us, make us fat, give us heart disease or diabetes.  New food safety legislation enforces this belief amongst consumers who have developed a real fear of food. 

Dates on processed food are inspected and if not compliant then the item is binned.  What has happened to common sense and instinct? How did the human race survive before refrigeration and "best before"?


The multiples sell two items for the price of one or buy two - get one free.  The one free is a cost if you end up throwing it out. 

When I was a child I grew up in a household where nothing was wasted and very little food was ever binned.  I remember my mother and grandmother casually scraping mould off jars of homemade jam and marmalade and then passing it around.  Cheese was treated similarly and items in the fridge were sniffed and then pronounced fine. 

Another comment made was that consumers don't plan.  They go grocery shopping when hungry, with small kids in tow, or race around the supermarket after work before collecting the children from the childminder.  Sorry, but having being there and done that, I don't appreciate that comment.  I was never superwoman and most people are not.  Plus it is very difficult not to be swayed by the cunning marketing of two for the price of one, especially when you are on a tight budget.

What is needed is common sense and to trust your instinct. Believe it or not the human race has evolved over time to know instinctively if something is good to eat or is potentially dangerous.  Trust your senses. Use "best before dates" and "use by" dates as a guideline.  Don't buy extra unless you can freeze it or store it. 

€1000 per household per annum is a lot of waste.

I plan on opening the can of soup pictured in August 2013 10 years after it's best before......

The "Eye" in Pig - looking your free range pig in the eye before they land on your plate

Rasher and Sausage, two rare breed Middle White pigs

"A cat will look down to a man. A dog will look up to a man. But a pig will look you straight in the eye and see his equal."
(Winston Churchill)

Meet Rasher and Sausage, two rare breed Middle White pigs.  They are six months old sisters.  I decided I would like to rear pigs a long time ago but it was only last June I took the plunge.  I had never reared anything to eat, although I have had hens and ducks for a good number of years and some of them found their way into a pot.

They are free to range having a walled garden to root about in.  It began as a grassy paddock but it is now mud and stones.  They have a stable to sleep in and can come and go as they please.  They are fed rolled barley, potatoes, fruit and vegetables.

Pigs remind me of small children in that they are alternately fun-loving or petulant and have very particular likes and dislikes when it comes to food.  They have a real "sweet tooth" loving strawberries, melons and grapes in particular.  This pair dislike broccoli, cabbage and turnips, kicking them out of the way.

I know it's not feasible to rear a large number of pigs like this.  They do considerably more "damage" to land than cattle or sheep.  Damage in that they root and rotate the soil so grass does not last long.  However the damage to actual soil structure is minimal and probably aids it ultimately.  In the past they were used to rotivate and fertilize a plot in advance of planting a crop.

Nowadays they are reared intensively, confined in concrete structures with no access to outdoors and unable to root.  Under EU regulations they are not allowed bedding such as straw in order to prevent the spread of disease.  Sows are confined in farrowing crates to prevent them lying on their young.

Intensively reared pork is also fed with genetically modified maize and soy.  The bacon is produced by wet curing, injected with nitrites to prevent spoilage and phosphates to absorb and retain water.  When you fry bacon and foamy white water appears on the pan this is the reason.  The meat is produced from a special breed of pig called a Landrace. The Landrace converts feed to muscle much quicker and more efficiently than the rare breed varieties.  The meat is lean and relatively tasteless due to the low fat content.

Rare breed free range pigs produce a darker coloured, richer tasting meat which contains more fat meaning it has more flavour.  They also grow more slowly taking eight to nine months to reach kill weight as opposed to five and a half for the Landrace.

When I first tasted free range pork and bacon I decided I didn't want to buy meat from intensively reared pigs anymore.  I am lucky that I have the space and the capacity to rear pigs. Because, lets face it. unless you rear your own, it is virtually impossible to buy.

I will have the satisfaction of knowing exactly what my pigs have eaten, the comfort of knowing they had a good life - living it as nature intended.  When the time comes for killing and curing, I intend to do so without phosphates and with a lower salt content than that traditionally used.

For this reason I can look my pigs in the eye.

Put the kettle on - never underestimate the importance of tea to an Irishman

Put the kettle on.  A phrase used every day in every house in Ireland.  Everyone knows it means make a cup of tea.

Are you a Barry's family or a Lyons one?  Or the new kid on the block - Campbell's?

Tea covers all ails - sympathy, encouragement, a little chat, family crises, bereavement or celebration.  What would we do without it? 

Our emigrants ask that Barry's tea is sent to them in their new homeland  but then complain it tastes different.  "It's the water" is the usual explanation. 

But tea tastes different whether you use tea bags or tea leaves.

Whether it's Barrys or Lyons or Campbells.

Whether you put the milk in first or last.

Whether you drink from a china cup or a mug.

Whether you use a tea pot or not.

The Irish drink a higher grade of tea than our neighbours in the UK.  This apparently is because, during the war the British had to make do with a cheaper blend which they then grew accustomed to, and so never changed back once the war was over.

An old favourite is a tea brack.  Often enjoyed by non-tea drinkers.  Try it out - after all it's the time for brack, coming up to Halloween.

Irish Tea Brack

Using a small loaf tin (an old fashioned 1lb tin)

1 mug of hot tea poured over 1 mug full of dried fruit (sultanas, California raisins mixed)
A handful of unsulphured dried apricots chopped (unsulphured are much nicer than the orange ones and are usually available in health food shops)
A handful of whole almonds chopped
A handful of dates chopped
Some grated nutmeg

Soak the fruit, nuts and spice in the hot tea for an hour or until the fruit has absorbed most of the liquid.  Melt 100g butter and add to the tea and fruit.  Add 75g of  brown sugar and two eggs beaten.

Fold in 150g of sieved flour and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.  Pour the mix into the greased tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 160C for an hour approximately or until a skewer comes out clean when put in center of the cake.

This is the most forgiving cake to make, so you don't have to stress over measurements.  I often measure by eye and it always works.

Cut a big slice, butter generously and enjoy with your favorite cup of tea.

The old tradition of the Irish town butchers -- Judge your butcher on the selection of "cheap" cuts and food knowledge

Lean and red meat only in the butcher's shop

The local butcher shop used to be an integral part of every town and village in Ireland and there was usually more than one.  In Northern Ireland very often there was one for each section of the community - The Protestant butcher and the Catholic one. The butcher shop was a monitor of how affluent the town and hinterland was. 

This changed somewhat with the arrival of big multinational supermarkets, particularly in more urban areas.  When I moved to a small rural village in county Meath over 20 years ago, virtually all meat was purchased in the local butcher shops.  I live equidistant between two small villages with a border dividing them.  Despite this the butchers were brothers-in-law and shared an abattoir.   Their meat was second to none.  Then along came all the EU regulations with the subsequent abolition of local abattoirs and the meat changed beyond belief.

Carcasses arrived into the shop all but cut. Suddenly they had no feet, hocks, heads or offal. In many cases it was almost impossible to get bones.  The butcher counter became "lean" literally. The cheaper cuts disappeared.  On display were diced up uber-lean round steak pieces in place of stewing beef, strip loins at the expense of sirloin, mince without an ounce of fat, chicken breasts, loin lamb chops etc.  Fat was banished and the counter was red.

I judge the quality of a butcher shop by the selection of "cheap" cuts available and by this you have a fair idea of the food knowledge of the locals as well.  In a complete turn around, the butcher counters servicing the more affluent/food savvy populations have a better selection of cuts and it is here you will find hocks, shanks, skirts, cheeks and tongues. In "the country" you will also find them in areas where there are large immigrant populations.

In the English Market in Cork, the selection of every cut of every animal is second to none.  Tripe and drisheen are on display in almost every butcher counter.  As well as the English Market, the butcher shops in Moore Street in central Dublin have an amazing display of many old and forgotten cuts and even sell goat for the large African community.

Old cuts nestle with the battered

Cooking the cheaper cuts (it is only in Ireland they are cheap - in France they are the more expensive), requires a bit more skill, time and energy so when you analyze it in more detail they are probably not cheap.  However, they have the most flavor, the best texture and are deliciously moist.  You need to add more vegetables and herbs to make the meal, making them much more healthy than just slapping a load of protein on a barbeque.

I wish my now local butcher shops were not so boring.  I want meat with fat and bone and personality. After all it's time people woke up to the fact that fat is not the enemy we have all been led to believe.  We were rightly led up the garden path by the big food cartels in cahoots with government and even the medical profession.  We need to go back and open granny's old recipe book because in her day there was not half as much obesity, diabetes and heart disease.  They ate meat with personality because the butcher was a butcher and not a slicer.