Posted by kathryn in Blogging, Recipes: eggs, Fruit and Recipes: pudding

I grew up in the UK in the 70s and 80s, a time way before Jamie, Nigella, Gary, Ainslie, Rick, Gordon et al started redefining British food. This was the time of roast dinners, semolina pudding, Victoria sponges, steak and kidney pie, toad in the hole, gammon and pineapple. A time when kedgeree was exotic, pasta was a weird “foreign” meal and Angel Delight was considered sophisticated.

In talking to my mum about the spices she used when I was growing up, I think her spice collection would have consisted of six jars – cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, mixed spice, mustard powder and Keen’s curry powder. Spices were rarely used and when they did feature, it was in isolation – a little bit of cinnamon in the biscuit mix, a sprinkle of nutmeg on top of rice pudding, some cloves in the apple pie. Spice mixtures were pre-ordained, generic blends, bought from the supermarket. Mixed spice (a mixture of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice) was occasionally used in baking (for which the recipe would always be called Spiced biscuits / cake / scones) and also at Christmas in the mince pies and Christmas cake. All curries were made with Keen’s curry paste, no other flavouring was considered.

During the conversations with my mum she wrote:

Cloves were big actually; always used with apple, pushed into ham before baking, studded into onions before making stock or bouillon. Very daring people would use mustard powder when cooking with cheese, ie welsh rarebit, cheese scones. English cookery relied so much on meat or fish with veg, spices just didn’t figure.

My mum was and still is, a fantastic cook and I certainly wasn’t deprived in any way. In our house meals were always home-cooked; the house was often full of the aromas of a cake baking or an apple pie in the oven; mum cooked vegetarian food a lot (very way-out at the time); she watched our nutritional intake; we were well fed.

Mum also worked hard to give us a sense of what good food looked and tasted like. While my brother and I weren’t always receptive to her teachings, I think I’m really fortunate to have had this upbringing. My mum taught me about food and cooking, she sent me on the path to my current career.

I didn’t really become aware of the potential of spices until well into my 20s. I had my first Indian meal at the age of 20, dragged along by my then-boyfriend, I was convinced I wouldn’t like Indian food (a fact he still reminds me of). And yet it was a revelation. I loved every moment of that meal and I still remember the absolute shock and amazement at how food could taste. This was unlike anything my Anglo taste buds had ever been exposed to.

However, it was only in my late 20s that I started to “get” spices a bit more. I realised that curries weren’t made from a homogenous powder, but instead their flavour came from the blending of a number of indvidual spices. It was at this time I became aware of what different spices smelt and tasted like and began experimenting for myself.

Cut to now and spices are substances I use every day. If making a curry, I wouldn’t dream of buying a generic powder when I could use the individual spices. I’m starting to learn how different cultures use spices in different (and also similar) ways. In my small, narrow, six-shelved pantry, where space is a premium, one whole shelf contains spices. My spice palate is still young, but it’s developing.

This month’s Spice is Right is hosted by Habeas Brulee and her topic is family spice blends. Unlike previous months, this had me completely stumped. I mean it makes sense, now I think about it, but I’d never considered before that families might have their own spice blends, ones that are handed down from parent to child. This just didn’t happen in the UK when I was growing up.

Since talking with my mum about spices and the food she cooked while I was growing up, I’ve been thinking more about the subject of family spice blends. We don’t have one at the moment, but to update one of the generic blends from my childhood, may well be a neat and relevant way to straddle both my mum and mine’s cooking knowledge and heritage. This might be the beginning of our own family spice blend, a starting point from which we could continue to blend and refine.

I’m too much of a spice snob (now) to touch Keen’s curry powder, so I went searching Ian Hemphill’s Spice Notes for advice on developing the mixed spice blend, used so often during my childhood. It’s on this that I’m basing the new spice blend. It still contains the core group of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice, but these three are tempered, extended and made more complex by the addition of coriander, ginger, cloves and cardamon.

To make this into a true family blend, I have to give some to my mum and we both need to use it over a period of time, in all sorts of recipes. Richard has to taste it, as does my dad and brother. Only then will we know whether we really like it, whether it’s better than the generic mix and also, if we want to make any changes to it. So, this is a family spice blend in its very early infancy, who knows where it will go from here.

A new mixed spice

• 5 teaspoons ground coriander seed
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon cardamon

Mix together and use whenever you would use mixed spice.

I used this spice mixture in the following recipe which was taken from David Scott’s The Penniless Vegetarian. I bought this book years and years ago, when I’d just moved out of home, just become a vegetarian and was slightly penniless. It’s full of good, slightly old-fashioned, hearty wholefood cooking.

Plums in spiced custard

I made this recipe using tinned plums (shock, horror?), although of course fresh ones would be fine. The original recipe used 1/4 teaspoon of mixed spice and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, but I’ve bumped this up to 1.5 teaspoons of the spice blend above. I’ve also changed the honey to maple syrup (just because I love it) and increased the quantity slightly (the original used 2 tablespoons of honey). While whisking the egg whites and cooking the whole thing in a bain-marie might seem like a bit of a hassle, it’s actually quick and easy and makes a tasty and reasonably healthy dessert. Serves 4.

• 450g fresh plums or an 825g tin
• 200ml natural yoghurt
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 large eggs, seperated
• 1.5 teaspoons new mixed spice blend
• 2 tablespoons flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a shallow, ovenproof dish.

Halve and stone the plums and place cut side up, in a single layer at the bottom of the dish.

In a seperate bowl, beat together the yoghurt, maple syrup, egg yolks and spices.

In another clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gently fold a spoonful of the whites into the yoghurt mixture, to loosen it, before folding in the rest of the whites. Do this slowly and not too vigorously. Spoon this evenly over the plums and top with the almonds sprinkled over.

Stand the dish in a roasting tray and pour enough water into the tray to come halfway up the side of the dish. Cook in the oven for 35 – 40 mins, or until the custard is cooked and its golden brown on top.

• Scott, David, The Penniless Vegetarian , Rider, London, 1992.

16 October, 2006