Southern Goodies

Three recipes from here in the South.  No rebel flags, no Daughters of the Confederacy, just great food.  

Pimento Cheese Balls

For a fascinating history of this quintessential Southern sandwich spread -- Pimento Cheese -- check out

 http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/history-southern-food-pimento-cheese.html.

It turns out Pimento Cheese was invented in the North!

I learned to eat this as a sandwich and cracker spread, but it can be so much more -- the cheese part of mac & cheese, omelet stuffing, hotdog or hamburger topping, and a great grilled cheese, just to name a few...

There are two major schools of Pimento Cheese -- with and without Cream Cheese. I belong to the 'without' school mostly, but admit you get a more spreadable version with at least some cream cheese. Folks also add all sorts of bizarre extra ingredients these days, as you'll see if you go searching for other recipes.

Basic Pimento Cheese

1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1 (4-oz.) jar diced pimiento, drained
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. finely grated onion
1/4 tsp. ground red pepper
1 (8-oz.) block extra-sharp Cheddar cheese, finely shredded
1 (8-oz.) block sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded

Stir together first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; stir in the cheese. Store in the fridge up to a week.

Jazzed Up Pimento Cheese

1/2 cup Cream Cheese

3 (4-oz.) jars Diced Pimiento, drained

1/4 cup sliced Green Onions

1 tablespoon dry Mustard 

1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons Hot sauce

3/4 teaspoon Celery seeds

3/4 teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar

1/4 teaspoon Salt 

1/4 teaspoon Pepper 

1 lb freshly grated White Cheddar Cheese

Pimento Cheese Balls

This past week Sally and I spent a few days in Alexandria, VA and Washington DC with Sally's daughter, who lives and works there. One of the places we went out to eat was the Southside 815 Restaurant on the outskirts of Old Town Alexandria.

Featured on the menu was an appetizer of Pimento Cheese Balls, which sounded fascinating. None of the others at the table had ever had Pimento Cheese, and I figured this would be a good introduction for them.

The balls were made from more of the 'with cream cheese' style of Pimento Cheese, formed into balls, rolled in Panko or other bread crumbs, and then gently deep fried until just golden. They were served with Alabama style White BBQ Sauce as a dipping sauce. Fabulous! Another dish to try replicating at home. Since we don't have a deep fryer, I'll probably make them as small patties and pan fry them.

Other "must go" places to eat in Alexandria includes Bilbo Baggins Global Restaurant, with its interesting, eclectic international menu (go for Sunday Brunch -- the stuffed French Toast is killer, and they also offered Chilaquiles!);  Bertucci's for good classic Italian American fare, and the Asian Bistro for pan-Asian dishes.

Alabama White BBQ Sauce

Back in 1925, Bob Gibson of Decatur, AL started serving BBQ from plank tables nailed to trees in his yard.   Along the way he is credited with inventing this mayonnaise-based White BBQ sauce which has been a north Alabama tradition for over 75 years.   

2 cups mayonnaise1 cup distilled white vinegar1/2 cup apple juice2 tsp prepared horseradish2 tsp ground black pepper2 tsp fresh lemon juice1 tsp salt1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Take the ingredients for a spin in your blender or food processor.  Store in the fridge for upwards of two weeks.

Spicy Grapefruit Grouper

Our friend from Orlando, Melinda, asked me for a grouper recipe that didn't use mango. This is what I came up with.

4-6 Grouper filets - about a pound

1 large Grapefruit - pink is best, but white works well too

1/4 cup diced Red Onion

2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp fresh minced Ginger

1/2 tsp Sriracha Chili sauce, to taste (less is better -- don't over power the fish)

Zest the grapefruit to get 2-3 teaspoons of zest. Curls are nice but julienned is OK. Peel the fruit and pull it apart into segments. Don't be overly neat but don't waste any juice or meat, either.

In a blender or food processor combine the grapefruit, onion, sugar, ginger and chili sauce. Take everything for a spin until you get a not-quite-smooth puree. Taste and adjust for the balance of heat, sweet and spice as desired.

Bring a skillet to medium heat and add the grapefruit sauce. Bring the sauce to a simmer and add the grouper filets. Cover and cook the fillets 6 minutes or so per side, until they just start to flake. Plate on a pool of the sauce, and garnish with pinches of grapefruit zest.

Mojo Chicken, Corned Beef, and Leftovers

An interesting combination of foods this week.  Hope you like them.  

Mojo Pulled Chicken Dinner

This is a really good "taste of the islands" kinda dish.  If you can't find Mojo (that's mo-hoe not mo-joe) sauce locally, you can easily make your own (see below)

8 skinless, bone-in Chicken Thighs

1 ea 20 oz bottle Mojo Sauce (I like Badia tm brand) -- or make your own (see below)

1 cup Jasmine Rice

1 Sazon Tropical packet (Badia tm) or a teaspoon of a Latin seasoning blend plus 1/4 tsp Turmeric

Marinate the chicken in the mojo sauce for at least 6 hours, overnight if you can. Then transfer chicken and sauce to a slow cooker or to an oven proof dish. If using the oven, bake the saucy chicken for at least an hour, until it is shred-able. It's hard to overcook thighs, so more cooking is better. I did mine in our Saladmaster tm 12" electric skillet set to 325F.

When the chicken is done, save the sauce, and pull the meat off of the bones, discarding bones and gristle. Add some of the sauce back into the bowl of shredded meat and give it a toss.

I served the Mojo Chicken with Aroz Amarillo made with a Sazon Tropical packet and Jasmine rice, and a helping of frozen peas and carrots. There are other Yellow Rice packets out there (Vigo tm Brand comes immediately to mind) that can be doctored with a bit of minced red bell pepper if you like.

This meal is between 300 and 400 calories.

Make Your Own Mojo Sauce (from Three Guys From Miami tm):

3 heads garlic

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black peppercorns

1 1/2 cups sour orange juice (In a pinch, use two parts orange to one part lemon and one part lime)

1 cup minced onion

2 teaspoons oregano

1 cup good olive oil, but not EVOO

Mash the garlic, salt, and peppercorns into a paste, using a mortar and pestle (if you're traditional) or a food processor. Stir in the sour orange juice, onion, and oregano. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes or longer.

In a saucepan, heat olive oil to medium hot (~220 F) and remove from heat. Carefully whisk in the garlic-orange juice mixture until well blended.

My Wild non-Irish Dinner

Truth be told, this is not traditional Irish fare. If anything, this would have been an English-overlord-in-Ireland kind of meal. The native Irish mostly couldn't afford beef (or meat for that matter) even corned (pickled) beef.

Still and all it makes a tasty meal. There are two cuts of corned beef brisket -- the flat, and the point. I chose the point as it is usually better marbled and comes out really tender.

This started as a 3 lb corned beef brisket.

The most important part is to not overcook the cabbage as so many generations of Americans have done. It does not need boiling or simmering for even an hour! I steamed the quartered cabbage for 12 minutes to keep the flavor, color and nutrients. Or boil it for about the 8-10 minutes total.

The combination of "smashed" potatoes and turnips -- a.k.a Tatties and Neeps -- gives an ordinarily bland potato dish a nice kick of flavor. Just add a bit of black pepper after boiling the chunk-cut pieces to fork tender.

Serves 3

3 lb Corned Beef

1 head Cabbage, quartered thru the stem, leave the stem butt to hold the leaves together during cooking

2 Red Potatoes, quartered or eighthed

1 Turnip, quartered or eighthed

Black Pepper

In a crockpot or electric skillet cook the corned beef, with the included spice packet, about an hour per pound. In the last half hour of cooking, bring the potato/turnip water to a boil and cook them about 15-20 minutes, until fork tender. At about the same time start the water to steam or boil the cabbage.

Lay the corned beef out to rest a few minutes before slicing against the grain to ensure tender bites. You're not going to have anywhere near 3 pounds of meat from a 3 pound brisket. Roughly smash the potatoes and turnips and dust with black pepper. Cut the butts off the cabbage as you plate it.

I've not done it, but "they" say that making your own corned beef is easy. Next time I see a sale on beef brisket, I'm going to try Alton Brown's recipe for myself. His sure looks a lot better than the $4+ per pound packaged corned beef I looked at (and bought) in the megamart the other day:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/corned-beef-recipe.html

Mango Brulee Dessert

serves 4

2 Mangos

4 tsp Brown Sugar

1/2 tsp powdered Ginger and Cinnamon

1/4 tsp fresh ground Nutmeg or Allspice

1 Lime cut into wedges

Preheat the broiler.

Slice 'fillets' off the sides of mangos. Leave the skin on each fillet. Make diamond slashes in the surfaces. Dust each fillet with a bit of ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sprinkle a teaspoon of brown sugar over each mango filet. Optionally then drizzle each one with 1 teaspoon rum.

Set mango halves on a broiler pan or baking sheet, propping with wrinkles of tinfoil to keep them flat. Broil until tops are light golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Serve with lime wedges.

Leftovers

We love leftovers. You get some really interesting flavor combinations! With the leftover Tatties & Neeps, I made Bubble & Squeak for Sally, and Corned Beef Hash for myself. To each plate I added a serving of the leftover Mojo Chicken for a complete dinner. The tangy-ness of the chicken went well with the richness of the other two dishes.

Bubble & Squeak

This is a classic Brit 'leftover' made from cooked potatoes and cabbage, and any other bits of veg. To both of my dishes I added a small handful of thawed frozen peas & carrots for color and flavor.

Roughly chop and mash everything together into a sort of patty, and fry in some oil, letting the patty almost burn on the bottom before flipping and flattening. Repeat until you get enough browned bits.

Corned Beef Hash

At least one ancestor of Corned Beef Hash is Bubble and Squeak (which can include bits of minced meat). The origins of both dishes dates to the food rationing of WWII and the postwar years in Britain. Cans of corned beef and roast beef were imported from Argentina and Australia. Either version of canned beef was preferred by many to highly salted canned ham (Spam tm and its imitators).  

Dieter's Delight and Other Healthy Eats

We try to eat right.  But both Sally and I need to lose a few pounds.  So we've started a concerted effort to eat even healthier, with more portion control.  

Eating healthy does not mean eating bland flavor-less 'diet food'.  I'm a chef -- adding herbs and spices to good tasting ingredients is what I do. The healthy recipes I give you are gonna taste great and look great as well as be great for you. 

Balancing what you eat. One thing I believe about eating is that not every meal has to be 'balanced' between carbs, proteins etc. to have a balanced diet.  IMHO internally we are our many-time-removed hunter-gatherer ancestors.  Our digestive tract works best if given half a dozen or so "handfuls" of food rather than "three (large) square meals" a day.  That's how hunter-gatherers fed -- a handful of berries here, some legumes there, leftover lion kill a bit later, and dug up roots when you could find them.  

They also gorged to exclusivity on berries or roots or the result of a bison hunt when they were available.  Don't worry about trying to balance every meal, everyday.  It's OK to have an almost all protein meal, or day's worth of meals; as long as in the "medium run" (say a week) you average out your intake by having equivalent meals or days of meals of vegetables, starches, etc.  

The other thing to note is that our ancestors ate "close to the wild".  They didn't make exotically flavored rich sauces (well maybe).  They certainly didn't eat "artifically cheese-flavored food substitutes", or other "better living through chemistry" combinations of things they couldn't pronounce.  

Stay away from massively processed foods, folks.  Fresh veggies, or frozen -- not canned.  Whole meats and fish, not processed nuggets, patties, sticks or grain-filled sausage.  If you must eat sausage (and I love good sausage), make your own lower-fat versions with good ground beef or pork, without added fat, and spices.  The recipes are out there.

Bon appetite!

Dieter's Delight Chopped Salad

Had a revelation the other day. Sally asked me to make a batch of my signature Chopped Salad for her lunches this week. For diet purposes I decided to calculate the nutrition data using my favorite on-line recipe and ingredient nutrition program -- www.nutritiondata.self.com.   I've used it, and earlier iterations, for many years to create Nutrition Data Labels and calculate the values for a wide variety of recipes.

Then I used our Saladmastertm chopper on my standard ingredients and measured out a cup of each raw vegetable.

Zucchini -- one medium

Yellow Summer Squash -- one medium

Jicama -- one medium (Can't find jicama?  Use a turnip.)

Daikon -- about 4" of 3" diameter root (Can't find daikon?  Use regular red radishes)

Sugar Snap Peas -- two good handfuls

Carrot -- two 8" average carrots

Red Bell Pepper -- one each, diced

Apple -- one each, filleted and chopped

Turns out the amounts above come out to almost exactly two pounds of chopped salad. It has everything even 'manly men' could want in a salad -- crunch, sweet, tangy, and tart.

Then I used my old standby nutrition analysis program, www.NutritionData.Self.Com plugged in the ingredients and amounts, and pressed Analyze.

Here's the amazing bit. That two pounds of veggies has a whopping 300 calories in it!! Yeah, that's right, 300 total calories in two pounds of veggies. This is a dieter's delight! A cup of this salad is only 50 calories. And a cup of salad, plus a couple tablespoons of a favorite dressing, combined with a hunk of crusty bread (150 calories) or a chicken breast (250 calories) makes a pretty darn tasty -- and pretty darn filling lo-cal meal.

Speaking of dressings, our new favorites are the Bolthouse tm brand dressings found in the Produce chiller section of your local megamart. They feature yogurt instead of cream, and have many fewer calories than popular brands.  The Ranch is very nice, and I like the Mango-Chipotle for an interesting combination of slightly sweet and tangy.

Of course you can doctor this salad as you like. Three of my favorite tweaks are a cup of sliced Crimini mushrooms, a cup of whole cherry tomatoes, and a dozen large black olives chopped; which brings the total to about 400 calories for the batch (70 calories for a cup).

Panko Fish and Eggplant Stack

Here's another simple, healthy, pretty low cal dinner for you. We've been getting bags of 4-6 oz fillets of frozen Icelandic cod from Costco. Great value for the price. I dredge one fillet per person in masa flour or corn meal, then dip them in egg, and dredge them in Panko breadcrumbs before pan frying in a couple tablespoons of EVOO.  This also wsorks well with Tilapia, a great mild-tasting white fish.

An Eggplant Stack is a flavorful accompaniment to the fish. That's an eggplant sliced into 1" thick rounds. The rounds are sprinkled with a few drops of EVOO before being broiled for 3-5 minutes per side, until golden brown. I stack a couple rounds on each plate, with a spoonful or two of pasta sauce in each layer. In the picture the 'pink' sauce made from half red and half white Paul Newmantm sauces.

Chicken & Mushroom Alfredo

This one isn't bad in the healthy eats department either. This is my take on a Publix Apronstm recipe that called for Italian sausage. I used chicken instead. The Publix recipe nutrition data called this a 400 calorie meal, my chicken version may be a bit lighter -- just don't smother the pasta in the sauce.

4 oz fresh pre-sliced Baby Portabella (Crimini) mushrooms

1 large Leek, sliced into rounds

2 Chicken Breasts

2 oz Monterey Jack cheese

1/3 box Rigatoni pasta

1/2 jar (15-oz) roasted garlic Alfredo sauce

1/2 cup White Wine

Start the water for the pasta. While that's coming to a boil, cook the Chicken breasts with a bit of Cavender's seasoning or an Italian spice blend and a splash of olive oil. When done cooking, cool in your freezer for a few minutes so you can handle them easily.

Cut the meat into bite-sized pieces or slices. In the same skillet, cook the leek until it starts to soften, then return the chicken to the pan. Add the Alfredo sauce, cheese and wine and stir to combine. Heat everything through, then serve over the pasta.

Four Continent Cuisine

A quick trip around part of the world this week.  South America, North America, India and Europe (England any way) for those who are counting.

Feijoada -- Brazilian Black Bean Stew

I was introduced to the concept of this dish one day last week. It sounded good, so I went in search of recipes. Feijoada (fay-zho-ada) is nominally the Brazilian National Dish. Like most such dishes, every cook seems to have his/er version. Basically it's black beans with smoked meats - beef and/or pork -- jerky, ham hocks, bacon, sausage, what have you. 

 Chouriço is NOT the same as chorizo although they are pronounced nearly the same. Chouriço is a Portuguese/Brazilian hard sausage. Chorizo is a soft Mexican sausage that 'dissolves' into whatever you're cooking.  Chouriço is tangy, but not nearly as spicy as chorizo. You can find Chouriço at your local megamart, but not in the Latino ethnic section. If that's not available look for linguiça, another spicy Portuguese  sausage.  Here's my version of Feijoada:

14 oz dry Black Beans

2 whole Chouriço sausage, sliced

2 Chuletas ahumadas - thin, smoked pork chops from my local Mexican carniceria

1 Onion, diced

4 cloves Garlic, mashed

2 Bay leaves

Rice

1 Roma Tomato

Orange sections for garnish

Cook the meats in a large pot first, with onion and garlic until the onion are translucent. Transfer a 1/4 cup of cooked onion to your rice pot, along with the diced tomato, before cooking the rice. Tomato, rice and sauteed onion is how the Brazilians often do rice.

Deglaze the large pot with a bit of water or broth, then add the beans.   Add enough water/broth to cover by an inch or more, plus the other ingredients. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered, until the beans are tender and the liquid is nearly all gone -- 30 minutes or more. Plate with rice and the traditional slices of fresh orange as garnish.

Indian Okra

Indian okra? He said questioningly. Yep. Turns out okra is not just an indigenous Southern vegetable.  Bhindi or okra is a common vegetable in India. Sally and I strongly dislike boiled okra or okra and tomatoes, but do like it breaded and deep fried. We were introduced to a pan-fried okra dish a couple years ago, that was dressed with lime salt, and we both loved it. I've made a version of the dish several times since. Then one day a week or so back I was at our local Indian market and saw a package of Green Mango Powder -- Amchur. It's a staple in northern Indian cuisine and has an interesting tart 'tang' similar to lime.   Knowing that Sally is in favor of anything mango, I bought a box. I thought Bhindi....Amchur.... why not.

1 lb fresh Okra

Kosher salt to taste

Amchur - 1/2 teaspoon, to taste

oil for frying

Cut the tips off the okra, then slice them in half lengthwise. In a med-high skillet or griddle, fry the okra with oil and a bit of salt until very done and carbonized. Transfer to paper towels to drain, then dust with the Amchur powder. Serves two.  Enjoy!!

Easy Chicken and Andouille Jambalaya

"Anything that swims, crawls, walks or flies" is the usual answer to "What goes into Jambalaya?" 

 Jambalaya is basically the Cajun/Creole version of Paella, which is rice cooked up and around a variety of meats and vegetables. But where paella is cooked in a wide, flat pan, jambalaya is cooked in a deeper pot type dish. This time I used andouille sausage (a Louisiana specialty) and chicken. Can't find andouille? Use another spicy sausage but not Italian.

Normally you'd put uncooked rice in the bottom of the pot and then layer meats and veggies on top before adding spices and water to cook the rice up through everything. This time I had leftover rice and chicken instead, so just added the rice and a bit of water to keep things from sticking while everything heated through. Here's what I put in this jambalaya:

3 sticks Celery, chopped

1 large white Onion, chopped

1 large Red Bell Pepper, chopped

4 oz sliced Mushrooms

12 whole Okra, chopped

1/2 cup frozen Corn

4-5 inches (1/2 stick) Andouille sausage, sliced

1 large cooked Chicken breast, cubed

2+ cups cooked rice

1/2 - 1 Tbsp Tony Cachere's Creole Spice Blend tm to taste

Mango, Scones and Clotted Cream

After last week's tea party, I tested a recipe for English Scones which rise better, aren't as sweet, and aren't as buttery as the American scones I'd served. More cake like, but more savory.  But just as tasty in their own way.  For Sunday's lunch with Sally's Mum, I served them split, with some of last year's mangoes and leftover clotted cream.

English Scones

3 cups AP Flour

1/3 cup Sugar

2 Tbsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

8 Tbsp unsalted Butter, softened

3/4 cup Currants or Sultanas

1 cup Whole Milk

2 large Eggs

Pre-heat oven to 500 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut-in the butter until mixture looks like very fine crumbs. Stir in the currants.

Whisk milk and eggs together in second bowl. Reserve 2 tablespoons milk mixture. Add remaining milk mixture to flour mixture and, using a spatula, fold together until no dry flour remains.

Transfer the very sticky dough to well-floured counter and gather into ball. With floured hands, knead until surface is smooth and free of cracks, 25 to 30 times. Form a disk. Using a floured rolling pin, roll the disk into 9-inch round, about 1 inch thick. Using floured 2-1/2-inch round cutter, stamp out rounds, re-coating cutter with flour if it begins to stick. Arrange the scones on baking sheet.

Brush tops of scones with the reserved milk mixture. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake scones until risen and golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes, rotate the sheet halfway through baking. Transfer to a wire rack and cool 10 minutes.

Tea Time

This is my one-year anniversary of this food-blog.  Faithfully each week I've brought you some interesting and tasty dishes from my cuisine.  I hope you've enjoyed my offerings.

For a variety of reasons, including the season finale of Downton Abbey Season 5 this week, Sally wanted to host a Cream Tea for some of our English and Anglophile friends. So yours truly got to work finding ingredients and recipes. Here's the menu we served at 3 PM on Saturday:

Sandwiches

Cold Devil Chicken Mayonnaise

Smoked Salmon

Classic Cucumber

Blueberry Cream Scones

Crumpets

Rich Tea Biscuits

English Teas

Taylor's Yorkshire, PG Tips Decaf

Accompaniments

Fresh Butter, Strawberry Jam, Lemon Curd

Double Devonshire Cream, Cream and Milk

Tea Sandwiches

Rule #1 -- cut the crusts off after you make the sandwiches, otherwise you won't have filled edges.

Rule #2 -- in America use Pepperidge Farms Original White bread. It's properly thin sliced.

Rule #3 -- let the bread sit out for a few hours to 'harden' slightly - makes it much easier to slice.

Rule #4 -- cut into wedges not squares.

Cold Devil Chicken Mayonnaise 

Any dish called "devil" something-or-other is spicy. This is a cold or room temperature dish.  In England, chicken or tuna "mayonnaise" is what we Yanks call 'salad' -- tuna salad, etc.

Cooked Chicken, minced

Tartar Sauce

Celery

Splash of Hot Sauce

I cheated -- instead of a splash of hot sauce, half of the chicken I got from my megamart deli was 'chipotle spiced' to give the dish a kick. The other half was ordinary rotisserie chicken. I bought thick slices of chicken and then diced it extra fine, along with the celery. The Tartar sauce adds a nice touch.

Smoked Salmon 

Use the 'nova', 'Scottish' or 'lox' type smoked salmon, not the dry smoked type from the Pacific Northwest. The dill-butter comes in handy for a lot of things, including vegetables.

1 stick unsalted Butter, softened

1 tsp Chives, minced

1 Tbsp fresh Dill, minced

1 tsp lemon juice

8 oz soft smoked Salmon, thin sliced

Stir together the chives, dill, lemon juice and softened until well combined. Return to the fridge to harden, before using.

Classic Cucumber 

Unsalted Butter, softened

English (not American) Cucumber

Peel the cucumber, cut into thin rounds. Place rounds on paper towels to help remove some of the liquid before making the sandwiches. Butter and a single layer of cucumber. Simple. Surprisingly tasty, if you've never tried them.

Tea Sandwiches -- Top:  Cucumber; Left: Cold Devil Chicken; Right:  Salmon

Crumpets

I'd made crumpets before, but my previous recipe was just OK. Crumpets are very tasty griddle-breads. Similar to, but not the same as, an English muffin, crumpets have more of a yeasty taste. IMHO they're worth the effort to make a couple times a year, anyway. 

 Making the batter and cooking a batch of a dozen or so crumpets takes about 3 hours. The following recipe works really well, and makes about a dozen 3" egg-ring crumpets. 

1 lb AP flour (unbleached), sifted

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 pkt fast-rising active dry yeast

1/2 pint warm milk

1/2 pint warm water

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Put the flour and salt into a large bowl and stir in the sugar and yeast. Make a well in the center. Pour in the warm milk and water, and mix to create a thick batter. Beat well until completely combined and then cover with a towel or cling film.

Leave the batter in a warm place to rise for an hour until it's a light, spongy texture. I like to use the microwave, it cuts down on drafts as well as keeps things at a decent temp.

After the hour of rise, stir the batter well to knock out any air. Yep, sounds crazy, but it works. Now add the baking soda, mstir again, and allow to rise for a further 30-45 minutes.

Heat a non-stick frying pan, or griddle, over a very low heat (325F) with a wipe of oil or butter. Wipe with a paper towel to remove excess oil/butter. Sit the greased crumpet rings in the pan, and leave them to heat up for a couple of minutes.

Pour in enough mixture to fill the rings almost to the top of the 3" egg rings I used, rather than purpose-made crumpet rings. It took a bit less than 1/4 cup of batter per ring.

You could also use rings cut from tuna cans or something similar, but a set of egg rings is pretty inexpensive, and you can find them in your megamart kitchenware section.

The batter will rise a bit during cooking, and you want the crumpets to finish about 3/4" thick. Let them cook until lots of small holes appear on the surface, and the batter has just dried out (like a pancake). This takes 10-12 minutes. Don't hurry...

Remove the rings and turn the crumpets over to cook for an additional 10 minutes on the other side. Low and slow.... remember? Sit the first batch of crumpets on a wire rack and continue cooking the remaining batter. While a batch are cooking, cover the batter and return it to the microwave. That way you'll get a bit more rise.

Serve crumpets warm, generously buttered. If you make crumpets in advance, reheat them in the toaster on low for a minute or so.

Leftover Crumpet slathered with butter makes a great breakfast!

Clotted Cream

Clotted cream is the essential ingredient for a Cream Tea.

I looked all over Fort Myers (Publix, Winn Dixie, Fresh Market) and I ended up buying Double Devon Cream, which my English friends tell me is clotted cream made in Devon, while 'real' clotted cream is made in Wales. Go figure!  If you live near a Whole Foods, they may carry 'real' Clotted Cream.

This 'cream' is really interesting.  And very tasty.  Not sweet.  Rich, almost like butter.  Considerably stiffer than whipped cream. Nearly as thick as whipped sour cream (but not sour).  Do yourself a favor and hunt down some of this stuff.  A dollop on a scone is heavenly.

Alton's Cold-Clotted Cream

Normally clotted cream is created by slow-baking a pan of heavy cream for 6 hours!!! Alton Brown's 'cold-made' recipe would be great -- if you could find ordinary pasteurized cream. All I could find, anywhere in town was ultra-pasteurized, which will not work! Yields 1 cup.

2 cups pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) cream

Set a coffee filter basket, lined with a filter, in a strainer, over a bowl. Pour the cream almost to the top of the filter. Refrigerate for 2 hours. The whey will sink to the bottom passing through the filter leaving a ring of clotted cream. Scrape this down with a rubber spatula and repeat every couple of hours until the mass reaches the consistency of soft cream cheese.

Welsh Skillet Scones

This quick and easy recipe has become my standard scone, made by 'dry frying' in a skillet or griddle, rather than baking. Substitute Zante currents (the original version), raisins, cherries, etc. Makes about 18 wedges.

2 cups AP flour

1/3 cup Sugar

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 tsp Nutmeg

1/2 cup Vegetable Shortening

4 Tbsp cold unsalted Butter, cut up

1 Egg

1/3 cup Milk

3/4 cup Blueberries, Zante Currants, Golden Raisins, Craisins, or any combination.

Set your griddle or skillet to 325F or med-low. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt & nutmeg. Add the shortening and butter and cut into fine granules (I use my fingers rather than a pastry cutter). Add the fruit. Beat the egg and milk to combine. Pour liquid into the flour mix and stir with a fork to make a soft dough. Turn out on a floured surface and give it 10-12 kneads. Cut into thirds. Roll each third into a 6" circle and cut into 6 wedges. Cook uncovered, 3-5 minutes per side, turning once, until GBD.  As you can see, I used blueberries for these traditional Tea treats.

Leftover Scone with a dollop of Clotted Cream makes a rich 'morning after' breakfast treat.

Sally's table setting using some of her Edwardian? era china brought from England in days gone by.

Rich Tea Biscuits

These are biscuits in the Cookie sense, not the Southern Buttermilk sense.  Crisp, mildly sweet, vanilla-ish.  Can be found in the British section of your mega-mart ethic foods.