A Cook's tour of my family.....a few recipes

 A Cook's Tour of my family:

Frances Walton (1904 - 1991)

 

My Gran, my Dad’s mom, was a teacher.  After eloping, she and my grandfather immigrated to South Africa from the UK in 1930s, and lived for most of my father’s childhood, in Kimberley.  They moved to Cape Town, where Gran taught English and History at St Josephs in Rondebosch.  She was a grand cook and used to create memorable feasts.  I remember scrumptious roasts, mushrooms that I can’t quite match in flavour and deliciousness and her famous Jellied Fruit!  This is her Ginger bread recipe – indulgent and gooey.  Best served warm with butter.

 

GINGERBREAD

45g butter

1 cup syrup

½  cup sugar

2 cups flour

2 eggs

1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons ginger

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup boiling water.

 

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C

I checked the recipe...still delicious!!

In big pot, melt butter, syrup and sugar.

Beat in eggs,1 at a time

Add dry ingredients.

Add boiling water.

Pour into greased/ lined loaf tin.

Bake for 35 min.

 

 

 

Jean McLeary (1908 -1984) 

I always thought my Mother's mom was a ballet teacher - I have so many happy memories of prancing around her flat when I was little.  In real life, she worked as a secretary at St Cyprians School. My favourite food memory of her (apart from our special tea afternoons with a silver teapot and china cups and saucers...) is of sausage rolls.  Tiny, delicate bites of deliciousness.  Here is the pastry recipe which I use for sausage roll, quiches, pies ....

PASTRY

2 ½ cups flour

Pinch salt

250g margarine

Yolk of an egg

2 teaspoons brown vinegar in 1 cup water (will only use some of this…)

Rub marg into flour and salt. Add yolk.

Add vinegar water little bit by little bit until the pastry is doughy.

Refrigerate for 1 hour

Rollout and use as needed. (Bake at 200 degrees for about 15 min.)

 

Esther Hudson  (1900 - 1983)

I didn't know Esther Hudson, Andrew's grandmother.  He has told me of happy Sunday mornings jumping- on -the- bed at the Grandparents house.  (So unlike any behaviour I would have associated with his family!!!)And traditional Sunday lunches.

Andrew's Mom put together a file of recipes for him when he moved out of home, and we use that file almost weekly.  This is one of Esther recipes I like:

Esne Spencer (1933 - 1997)

(Her name is a combination of Esther and Neil - her parents.  Unique perhaps?)

Andrew's Mom was a wonderful cook.  She did such elaborate things as debone a chicken to stuff inside a turkey! She baked a lot - I remember that the cookie jar was always full of homemade biscuits. All her recipes were neatly typed up and filed - she was a very organized person.  Sadly she died too young aged just 63.  She had longed for a daughter (her 3 sons are lovely people and she was exceptionally proud of them) - I wish she could have met her 3 granddaughters.....she would have doted on them. 

The recipe I use most is her pizza recipe - tweaked a bit because I am lazy. (I don't make the tomato mix topping - I smear on tomato paste....)

Betty (Elizabeth) Walton (1934 - 2018)

My Mom was also a teacher. She did a year of relief teaching in London, and then worked in a variety of schools in Cape Town, from Woodstock to Bishops.  She taught at Rustenburg for a bit while my sister and I were pupils there.  My mom threw memorable parties for us when we were kids - and always, food played a pivotal role in our many family celebrations. 

Mom and nourishment are phrases that go hand in hand for me.  I miss her terribly.  She made fruit cakes for us as adults, to celebrate birthdays, Christmas, and everything else.  I thought the recipe was a secret until one day she gave it to a friend.  So, I asked for a copy too.  It became a bit of a joke between us.

MUM'S 'SECRET' FRUIT CAKE RECIPE

500g mixed cake fruit

1 cup sugar

125g butter

2 eggs

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

pinch salt

1 cup water

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons mixed spice

 1 wine glass brandy

Nuts, cherries, etc optional

Place fruit, salt, sugar, butter and water in saucepan and boil for 5 min.  Cool slightly. Add Cherries, nuts if want. Add flour, spices and bicarb.  Add eggs one at a time.  Mix well. Add brandy. Bake in lined and greased cake tin at 160 degrees C for about an hour.  Serve with love on all special occasions.

A peek inside our pantry

 

 

 

It was time to turn up the heat this morning.  I haven't had a kitchen food bonanza day for quite some time.  Before covid, I used to do a lot more baking and cooking- for family birthdays or special occasions or for friends coming round for tea. I miss all that - the careful thought of who likes what, which flavours complement each other, the savoury versus sweet elements, some fresh fruit to cleanse the palette.  I miss the noise, the laughter, the chaos of big get-togethers, even if they are hard work.  

We are going on a picnic tomorrow, so I decided to have my kitchen day .  I started by making some pastry.  I used my Gran's recipe, written out for me by my Mom and given to me at my kitchen tea over 30 years ago.  There is a history of love in that recipe. While the pastry was chilling, I made the rock buns - scone-like dough with raisins, and iced with a lemon butter.

As it is a Saturday, the house was empty - it is archery day.  But the kitchen was filled with the presence of so many people. The quiche recipe is from an ex work colleague.  The rock bun icing reminds me of a  friend, because we used to joke about our lack of perfection on the fairy cakes made for the preschool our daughters went to.  The buns themselves make me think of Great Aunt Edna, because they are her favourite.  

Our kitchen has a few unusual quirks:  some years ago, we wrote our favourite recipes on the pantry wall, for example. (One of Son's friend's asked if we had run out of paper.) The jars that we keep the sugar, flour, cornstarch (etc) are all labelled with not only the contents, but also things like "respect", and "important conversations that bring awareness."  The vanilla essence jar is labelled "gender." These were placed there by Daughter  as part of of  presentation she and the Plus committee put together for  school.  The labels can stay:  I rather like using 2 cups of "Normalizing taboo subjects" in my cake when the recipe rather boringly calls for regular flour.

Food has always been  a language in itself :  The thoughtfulness of a meal when you are ill, celebratory cakes, welcome-home favourite dishes, successful and umm - unsual-   experiments of flavours....,playful cake decorating with kids.....so many moments are defined by flavour.

 For me, when people have brought me food, I take it as a huge act of love - someone telling me they will nourish me and look after me when I am unable to do so for myself or my family.  I know the time and cost sacrifice involved in cooking, and in cleaning up afterwards.  It is an unspoken way of shouldering a weight, by taking on more work to lessen the load for someone else.

DJ Opperman, a South African poet, wrote about the memories of aromas and foods in Sproeireen . 

My nooi is in ’n nartjie,

my ouma in kaneel,

daar’s iemand..iemand in anys,

daar’s ’n vrou in elke geur.

 It doesn't translate into English very well, but it is about how  fragrances remind him of women in his life.  I remember when I was in my thirties, I had baked a gingerbread (a soft gooey loaf of deliciousness - my other Gran's recipe) and offered a slice to a young salesman who had come to discuss some building we were thinking of doing.  He told me he liked our house - the smell and atmosphere (he said) reminded him of his much loved Grandma.  That compliment aged me a lot!

 The picnic is packed.  Dishes done. Tea and coffee flasks prepared. It is time for an adventure!