This afternoon I have stewed some plums, my mother would be pleased. She would stew fruit throughout the summer, apple, plum and pear seasons and these would be stored in kilner jars for use in the winter. Everything was seasonal in terms of food eaten and preparation and preserves for out of season.
There would be pickles, clear brine pickles and I still do these myself. Also pickled cucumber.
I prepare pickled red cabbage all through the year, not just at Christmas as some do. It needs to be pickled and eaten fresh within a couple of weeks or it loses its crispness. So my habit is to buy a red cabbage once per month and pickle it.
I eat meat and often roast a joint of beef, ham or pork which lasts me for many meals and with the cold meat I eat my homemade pickles. In the clear brine I like to do mixed vegetable pickle of whatever is to hand, cauliflower, green beans, shallots, peas.
I also regularly pickle beetroot to eat with salads. This is slow process and needs an alarm set to remember that the beetroot are boiling. I have more than once forgotten they are on and the saucepan boil dry.
My mother mostly used ordinary malt vinegar and black peppercorns for her pickles and a simple dry brine method of salting overnight and then bottling the vegetables 24 hours later. You can also gently boil the vegetables for a few minutes if you want to soften but I use them raw as my mother did and the simple brine method. The vinegar is boiled and steeped with spices which mum simply used peppercorns, some sugar, a little salt and allspice if she had any in the cupboard. (The vinegar is allowed to cool before use for these pickles described).
I prefer to do my cucumber as grated cucumber, peeled, grated coursely and placed in a bowl with salt, pepper and 1 tablespoon of vinegar and a little sugar, cooled and placed in the fridge topped with sour cream or Greek yoghurt.
My mother would also make Russian salad which I think we all miss from Heinz when we could buy it beautifully ready made., tinned. We always had several small tins in the cupboard. Quite why Heinz decided to discontinue it I will never understand. I thought it was popular. To make your own Russian salad is a bit of a variation of the clear pickles described above but with the cauliflower, beans, carrots, and anything around, peas, turnips, etc. potatoes, all boiled to soften. Once cold the ingredients are arranged in layers, seasoned with salt and pepper and covered with mayonnaise. The best mayonnaise for this is your own homemade rather than a Hellmans. I don't bother to make Russian salad now because it is too much for me to do for myself. It is sometimes possible to buy it in the Polish section of supermarkets or Polish grocery shops but it never tastes the same as Heinz.
Mayonnaise recipe mum used was 2 yolks of eggs, 1 teaspoon of French mustard, a little salt, pepper and tarragon vinegar, or star anise infused, and 1 pint of salad oil and 1 tablespoon of cream. I found this written down but I don't remember seeing her buy oil because she cooked with lard. She presumably would buy a very small quantity of olive oil. The yolks and everything else are mixed with a wooden spoon and the oil is then added "drop by drop" then the vinegar and keep stirring all the time. The cream is added at the end and sometimes can have a little cold water at the end, she has added, if it is too thick. This should all be made in cold conditions and if it is hot use a basin of cold water to stand the bowl in whilst beating.
My mother was a good cook and over the years I have noticed that a lot of her food preparation and ingredients were very similar to the food I have eaten whilst travellilng in Eastern Europe. Whilst simple, straightfoward food is still eaten in Russia and countries across Europe it is less so in Britain. I still cook the way my mother did and I am sure I am not alone in this but many generations after me I think have all but abandoned this type of food described here.
My mother also made jam throughout the summer but I don't do this myself mainly for the simple reason that I do not eat enough jam to justify it. I wait until the church fete and buy the odd jar. I always have honey in the cupboard which I purchase from a honey stall on the side of the road near here.
Azerbaijan had many many pickles and honeys and I was in paradise. The meat was well cooked and the salads and pickles spilled over into bottled fruit and herb drinks that we don't even think about to accompany the food.
Your food and especially the pickles sound lovely Rachel! I am going to try your grated cucumber salad this evening. I love stewed fruit and red cabbage. Good traditional and wholesome food. My Mum used to make pease pudding and boiled ham with thin gravy and carrots. Your Mum was indeed a good cook judging by the food she prepared. I bet you could do some thought provoking poems about your Mum and her cooking. x
ReplyDeleteIt was purely coincidental that I found myself stewing plums today and of course, on her day as it is today (see earlier post), I then thought of all the things she used to prepare. All very simple. Boiled ham was a regular for us too. I may write something for her tonight. Thank you Simone xxx
DeleteI am also having the pickled cucumber for tea tonight.
DeleteRows of jars with homemade labels
ReplyDeleteYes, exactly. I have one of my mum's jars with her hand written label. I picked it up just the other day and spoke to her via that label.
DeleteThis is very interesting to me. I enjoy making my own preserves, a few pickles, now and again mayonnaise and Russian salad or Serbian salad now as we have a Serbian in the family. Jams and chutneys of course.
ReplyDeleteMy mother and my grandmother made nearly all our jams, preserved whatever we had in the garden.
I don't know if I'd have been so adventurous in the kitchen if I'd stayed at home. Here's it's make it or do without .
I hadn't thought about pickling so many things. No wonder you like eastern European food.
My mother would often slightly pickle tomatoes and cucumber in vinegar and sugar before we ate them. I had forgotten that.
You write on so many subjects. Always Interesting
My mother took many shortcuts when making her preserves and pickles but they were eaten quickly and did not remain in the pantry for very long. I learned from her by watching.
DeleteWhat I like about Eastern European and Northern and central European food is that boiled potatoes are a staple! In England there is so much dependence on pasta which I don't eat and a boiled potato is despised. as bland! Someone asked me if I had chips in Azerbaijan and I said I never saw a chip nor was offered them. I don't know what happened in Britain and its pride in its own food; went out the window along with everything else British I suppose. However, I see that veganism is declining here. That's a good start. Imagine life without meat, boiled eggs and honey! I went into restaurant in Siberia on my own and was served on a plate a piece of salmon, boiled potatoes and cabbage. It was delicious. I washed it down with some red wine. In England it would probably have been served on a floor tile with a herb sauce and undercooked al dente vegetables.
To read this post of yours pre-tea was a mistake - now I my stomach is rumbling aloud, and my mouth watering at the description of all that lovely, genuine, home-made food!!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy a good quality piece of meat but am not very good at preparing it, unless it's goulash which I love making in the colder seasons. If I were able to make a really good roast or fry a steak to perfection, O.K. would be in paradise, but he loves me enough to marry me without those skills :-)
My Mum is a very good cook, too, and much of what I do in the kitchen I have learned by just being with her in the kitchen and "helping" when I was a child - with the difference that she can make dishes I have never attempted. Seasonal and regional ingredients are important to me, and if I have the choice, I go for organically grown fruit and veg.
My favourite way to eat cucumber is to peel it, slice it in finger-thick slices, arrange the slices on a plate and simply sprinkle a little salt and pepper over it. I often have that as a TV snack.
I learned by watching my Mother but I still make big mistakes and although I find roasting meat fairly straightforward I still quite often check timings in a cookery book and do meat in different ways to my Mother, like everything was always "well done" whereas now I only eat beef medium rare leaning on the side of rare.
DeleteI think cucumber is good in lots of different ways but I do like it roughly shredded in the way I describe and served with Greek yoghurt.