Custard in its most simple form is a mixture of eggs and milk, gently heated so that the eggs can provide the necessary thickening. Possibly around since Ancient Rome, but certainly finding its groove in the Middle Ages, the word “custard” is thought to come from the French word “croustade” meaning pastry crust, because custard was frequently baked into tarts. But custard has a variety of guises. Freeze it and you have ice cream. Put it in a crust with savory flavorings and you have a quiche. It serves as the base for creme brûlée, chocolate pudding, flan, and creme…
Pudding&Mess Posts
Mrs Harris Goes To Paris The always wonderful Lesley Manville stars as Mrs. Ada Harris, a widowed char woman in 1950’s London. When she becomes smitten with a gorgeous Dior dress at the home of a client, Mrs Harris sets her sights on having one of her very own. Eventually, the stars align and Mrs Harris finds herself in Paris, at the iconic House of Dior, where she immediately ruffles a few feathers. Turns out Dior is run by a rather snooty bunch who are certainly not interested in dressing the likes of Mrs Harris. But a lovely gentleman steps…
The classic Pimm’s Cup No.1 has a longstanding reputation for being a fun and flirty summertime party goer. It’s a smash hit at Wimbledon and an elegantly dressed guest at garden parties and the odd polo match (not that I can personally attest to this). It charms everywhere it goes with its low alcohol content and light and fruity taste. Pimm’s is a gin based spirit made with a mixture of herbs and spices with a fruity, slightly bitter kick, in the vein of Aperol. It was created by Englishman James Pimm in 1823, when he was searching for something…
~How To Find Love In A Bookshop Veronica Henry When her father dies unexpectedly, Emilia Nightingale finds herself in charge of the bookshop he owned and operated for thirty years, nestled on the main street of a charming English village in the Cotswolds. The book weaves the stories of several customers including Sarah, the owner of the village manor house, and quiet and shy Tomasina who runs a pop up restaurant out of her tiny cottage. Unsurprising and predictable it may be but it’s heartwarming, has a bookshop makeover (I’m a pushover for makeovers), a wedding (sort of) and lots and…
Kedgeree is a dish swiped from Indian culture during the days of the British Raj. It appears to be derived from an Indian dish, khichri, which was made with onions, rice and lentils. In England, in its purest form, kedgeree is a curried rice combined with smoked haddock and egg and it became quite the breakfast item for the upper classes in the Victorian Age. Think of our friends at Downton Abbey enjoying an early morning gallop through the dewey countryside, returning to a chafing dish of Kedgeree whipped up by dear Mrs Patmore, to be devoured alongside deviled kidneys,…
~Longbourn Jo Baker Named after the house in which the Bennet family lived, this is a sobering portrayal of what must take place behind the scenes in order to make the household of a respectable family run smoothly. A world where something as simple as an afternoon walk in spring upstairs, requires an afternoon of cleaning muddy boots downstairs. And how an evening excursion to a ball creates all manner of excitement and giddiness for the young ladies attending, but also creates a mountain of laundry and sewing and patience for their servants who must make it all happen – not…
~Never Let Me Go Kazuro Ishiguro In the late 1990’s Kathy H, 31, narrates the story of her two closest childhood friends and their days at Hailsham, a boarding school set in the quiet isolation of the English countryside. It was a privileged school, we are told, and its students understood that they were special. And while it is a classic coming-of-age story, it takes place in a world built on unsteady ground, where things don’t quite add up. The narrative unfurls gently with hints of this and glimpses of that: an odd scene, a suggestive word, a strange question.…
Rivals For anyone not familiar with Jilly Cooper, she is an iconic writer of naughty, glitzy-glam romance novels full of rich privileged people behaving very, very badly. Escapist reading at its finest. Rivals is the televised version of her book of the same name and let me tell you, this show starts as it means to go on — with a couple having sex in the bathroom on Concorde and reaching that critical moment just as the plane breaks the sound barrier. Subtle this show is not. The overall plot goes something like this: Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) owns a…
Recipes For Love And Murder Maria is a food columnist for a small local newspaper in South Africa when her editor, Hattie, informs her that the paper is demanding an advice column. Maria pivots and becomes Tannie (Aunty) Maria dispensing advice each week, and cheekily managing to include a recipe designed to help cure the problem at hand. When Martine, the writer of Maria’s first letter, turns up dead, Maria does some sleuthing, aided by Jessie, the newspapers young and ambitious journalist who longs to sink her teeth into stories more serious than the fluff pieces she’s relegated to. The…
It just ain’t an English Christmas without mince pies. And these mince pies are really, really, easy. Why? How? Well, because these mince pies are made with store bought pastry and a jar of store bought mincemeat. To be fair, I don’t think I have ever made my own mincemeat, but I generally do make my own pastry. However, I recently discovered that Trader Joe’s frozen pie crust is delicious — which is a huge compliment coming from someone who is not, as a rule, a huge pastry fan. With sweet desserts I will generally make a sweetened pastry crust…