May time — nuts and clouts
WALPURGIS Night and May Day are past so we can get on with spring. My beloved baby turnips and fresh garlic have appeared in the market and our own unbeatable asparagus and new potatoes will be here in a trice. I cooked the little turnips as an accompaniment to duck last week and they were excellent. I was brought a haggis from Scotland by our dear production editor, Christopher Howse, and shall use the little dears to cheer it up. Simply peel and parboil them, then finish off gently sautéing in butter with a scrap of garlic until golden and juicy.
I noticed they have now taken to selling turkey mince in Sainsbury's and doubtless other supermarkets — they all seem to follow each other's new whims. I created the following concoction out of curiosity and found it remarkably good, and it certainly produces a very reasonable sup- per or picnic dish.
Turkey loaf
1 lb turkey mince 1/2 lb turkey livers 1/2 lb best quality sausage meat 10 grams of dried porcini mushrooms — or 1/4 lb fresh mushrooms 3 plump cloves of garlic 10 juniper berries 1 medium onion 1/2 teaspoon each of sage and thyme A crushed bayleaf 1/4 pint of good poultry stock Salt and pepper 1 egg Streaky bacon
If you are using the porcini mushrooms, soak them in a little warm water and milk for 30 minutes. Place the mince and the sausage meat in a large bowl. Chop finely or process the liver, mushrooms, garlic, juniper berries, onion, herbs and bayleaf. Add to the mince. Season with salt and quite a lot of freshly ground pepper, crack an egg into the mixture and moisten with the stock. Squish everything together until well and thoroughly mixed. Transfer to a terrine or loaf tin (91/4 x 51/4 x 23/4 inches) lined with streaky bacon and bake in a preheated oven at Gas 4, 350F, 177C for 75 minutes. Serve hot with bread sauce and cranberry jelly if you like, mashed and puréed potatoes and delicious spring greens or leave to get cold and use as a rough pâté. Another offering from Catherine David- son of Glasgow: an original and interesting soup made from aubergines which I have adapted. The flavour is light and re- freshing, an excellent summer soup and a change from a watercress or vichyssoise.
Chilled aubergine soup
2 large shiny aubergines 2 pints of good chicken stock 2 onions 2 tablespoons of lemon juice 4 cloves of garlic
11/2 pint of double cream or Greek yoghurt
Parsley, chives or coriander leaves, mace, cinnamon 4 tablespoons of olive oil
Cut the aubergines into chunky dice, sprinkle with salt and leave in a colander or sieve for an hour to drain. Fry the chopped onions in the olive oil in a large saucepan until just browning. Add the garlic crushed with a wooden spoon, the drained and squeezed aubergines; mix well, cover and cook gently until soft. Heat the chicken stock with a pinch of mace and a cinnamon stick, then pour into the aubergines and simmer for about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and season to taste. When cool enough, re- move cinnamon stick and put the soup through the blender. When cold stir it into the cream or yoghurt.
Here is another version of the Adult Chocolate Cake from Esther Engel Saltz- man of Boston, Mass, USA, with nuts on.
10 eggs, separated 2 cups finely chopped walnuts (16 fluid oz) 14 dessertspoons of caster sugar 6 oz good plain chocolate
Preheat the oven to Gas 3-4, 350F, 177C. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water, then allow to cool. Beat the egg yolks and sugar until very thick and creamy, stir in the chocolate and fold in the nuts. Whip the whites of the eggs until stiff, then fold gently into the chocolate mixture. Turn into a greased 10-inch spring-sided pan, bake for one hour until the centre springs back when lightly touched. Cool in pan. Eat plain or decorate at will. By the way, to avoid the separation I spoke of in M. Lambton's cake, it is quite all right to beat the egg mixture into the chocolate rather than gently folding.
Jennifer Paterson
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