August 17, 2015

Sunny Morn Sandwich + Bonus Treat!

August 17, 2015/ Blair Cowan

Well, it's taken me almost six months, but I've realised something unexpected about the recipes from the box. For the most part, the recipes I've made so far are either completely the same as recipes today, with no substitutes necessary, or they are like the 'Bonus Treat' recipe we had for breakfast this weekend, where 2/3 of the ingredients are substitutes because the original either no longer exists or I can't purchase it here in Scotland. Obviously, I knew that I'd have a lot of substitutions, alterations, and tweaks to make to the recipes in the box, but I assumed incorrectly that most recipes would have one (or maybe two at most) substitutions. I wasn't anticipating recipes like this one that required so many substitutions I lost count. But the alterations are the fun part-- I've been brainstorming ways to adapt the salad recipes I keep finding for weeks because I can't get my hands on Ranch or Blue Cheese or French dressing.*

So when I found these two recipes in the box-- one of which is really just 'marmalade on toast,' of course I thought I was in for an easy ride with no substitutions at all. But then I read them both a little closer and realised 'bonus treat' was indeed going to require some ingenuity. Plus, then I remembered that San Francisco was responsible for starting an entire artisan toast movement a couple of years ago, and so I decided these recipes were going to be awesome. And I was right.

When my dad was visiting a few weeks ago, he tried to explain 'date bread' to me. He claimed it was a squishy, dark bread that you had to squeeze out of a container almost like a thick paste-- and based on the picture that accompanies this recipe for 'bonus treat,' I think that must be exactly what the recipe called for. However, as it's no longer the 1960s (much though Donald Trump wishes it was), I can't buy that kind of bread so I used Soreen to make this. If you're in the UK, you probably already know the wonders of Soreen, and I totally recommend this recipe. If you're not over here and have never heard of Soreen, it's a 'fruited malt loaf' made with raisins and malt extract. It's a thick, super dense, dark and chewy loaf of bread with a rich, fruity flavour. Obviously, it's delicious. Since it's made with malt, though, it's full of sugar so probably not an everyday kind of breakfast food. Evidently other flavours besides grape/raisin exist, but this is the only type I've ever seen since moving here. Usually Soreen is eaten with a smear of warmed butter, but for our purposes we had it with cream cheese and plum butter, instead of the currant jelly that the recipe called for. No currant jelly around here, so I used Polish plum butter, which is my current favourite condiment and I put it on everything.

So in the interest of not boring you with two different toast recipes this week, here I present them to you together. Next time you're brainstorming something new to accompany your weekend brunch, give one of these a try-- you won't regret it.

*Grocery stores here do sell something called 'French dressing,' but it's a vinaigrette-type thing, not the red stuff like in the US. I'm not complaining, as the Scottish version is not only less suspect looking than the American stuff, but also more similar to what actual salad dressing tastes like in France. So the fact remains: American-style salad dressings are just not to be had over here.

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five for the 'bonus treat,' 4 spoons out of five for the 'Sunny Morn Sandwich,' partly because it wasn't a sandwich and partly because it's just an incredibly stupid thing to write an entire recipe explaining.

The recipe:

Sunny Morn Sandwich

the directions:

Spread cream cheese on toast.
poon marmalade in a circle in the middle of toast to look like the sun.
Eat it with a cup of hot coffee and a crossword puzzle.

the ingredients:

Slice of your favourite bread, toasted to your preferred degree of brown
Cream Cheese
Marmalade (coarse shred is obviously best, but I'll forgive you for using the fine-shredded stuff)

THE RECIPE:

Bonus Treat

THE DIRECTIONS:

Slice a thick piece of bread.
Spread it with cream cheese.
Add jam and enjoy.

THE INGREDIENTS:

Malt loaf or other date/raisin bread
Cream cheese
Polish plum butter, currant jam, or similar

August 11, 2015

Oops I Totally Forgot Cheesecake, or, Simple, Classic Cheesecake

August 11, 2015/ Blair Cowan

Oops. I am just the worst, you guys. I forgot to post July's cheesecake of the month recipe. This is particularly alarming for me because I have SO MANY cheesecake recipes to get through that if I just run around skipping them all willy-nilly like this I am never going to get through all of them.

So here's the 6th cheesecake recipe I've tested for this blog. That means I've been doing this for almost 6 months, which is a pretty exciting feat in itself (but more on that later). This one made me nervous before I even started cooking it. For one thing, it's way more complicated than the last cheesecake recipe I made (my favourite one to date). And for another thing, Eleanor had written in the upper corner of the recipe card 'Emma's-- heavy cheese, real good.'* What does that even mean?

This recipe is dated from the 1940s, so this is one of her earliest recipes and definitely the earliest dated cheesecake recipe in the box... which is evident when you read the ingredients and the first one is 'pot cheese.' Judson and I have had a blast making hypothetical guesses about what pot cheese could actually refer to-- my favourite guess is that it's actually an abbreviation for 'potato cheese,' though the idea that it's marijuana-infused cheese did, of course, come up in conversation.

Another option for best accidental selfie I've ever taken.

Luckily, my dad came to visit recently and was able to provide us with a good answer. In case you, too, are in the dark about this, pot cheese is a 'dry-curd' cottage cheese, usually distinguished from other cheeses because it has no added salt. Having never seen this at a Scottish grocer or cheesemonger, I asked my dad for comparable products and upon his advice, I decided to use ricotta, fearing that drained cottage cheese would prove too grainy and not smooth enough. Since this recipe includes a bit of flour to help soak up any excess moisture, ricotta seemed to be the best option, though next time I might try mascarpone mixed with drained cottage cheese, just to see how it works.

Like a lot of her favourite recipes in the box, the more she liked a recipe, the fewer details she included on how to make it. I guess this makes sense-- if you make a recipe all the time, you only need the basics and you'll surely remember the rest, but it definitely makes my job interesting to try to figure out her intent. There are no instructions for how to make this-- the only instructions say to strain the cheese 'and cream,' then there is a note to use the crust recipe from the Sunshine graham cracker box, which is helpfully also included in the box (or, at least, the Nabisco pie crust recipe is included, so I used that, with the obvious substitution of digestive biscuits for graham crackers). And also I got nervous about using 1 ½ pounds of cheese, so I cut the recipe in half. So pretty much I broke all of my own rules about making no substitutions and following the directions to the letter, but I think you'll agree it was both necessary and worth it.

*Upon further investigation, it is completely possible that the card actually reads 'Enormous-- Heavy cheese, real good.' If so, I guess it's a good thing I cut the recipe in half.