Liptauer Cheese

This was the first thing I started making for our recent Eurovision party, being skilled at planning ahead I bothered to read the recipe card sometime before the party started so this got the chance to rest for the couple of hours it specifies. Lots of things seemed to go wrong with this, the quantities seemed off, I seem to remember reducing the amount of capers and thanks to a shopping omission didn’t add the chives until a lot later. When I first tasted the dip it struck me as one of the least appealing things ever – the potential of the separate parts had combined to form a disgusting looking and tasting goo. It was horribly sharp and I considered going off-recipe simply so as not to horrify my guests, but was utterly lost as to what would sort it out, so shoved it in the fridge as if the fridge was magic and would somehow transform this mess into something edible.

Russian Fish Pie

Last October I made a fish pie, and then lost the recipe card so never blogged it. Yesterday I found the recipe card, handily tucked between the pages of The Pauper’s Cookbook. I can’t remember much about the preparation of this pie, but it was jolly good – here’s the recipe, finally:

Saturday Bonus Pie

Here’s a picture of the Russian Fish Pie I made a few weeks back. I would blog it but I’ve lost the recipe card it’s from. All I can say is it involved puff pastry, smoked haddock, fresh parsley and a simple roux and it was delicious.

(Yes, I did burn it a little. It was still GREAT.)

Puffed by Alix

Brandy Snaps

Another Alison Burt I’m afraid. I really must diversify my resources a little,  but Alison does seem to offer a range of initially ace sounding recipes, which yes, usually turn out terribly, but there’s a point during the recipe choosing process where doing a Burt seems to make sense. I don’t know whether at some point I’ll start remembering how badly Alison Burt recipes turn out before I start cooking, but right now, that lesson is not yet learned,  so here’s how things went with the brandy snaps recipe…

Cherry Cobblestone Cake

For a barbeque at the weekend myself and Sarah had a vintage cake bake-off. The rules – bake an individual cake (ie no cupcakes) from a vintage recipe, release both cakes simultaneously on the BBQ attendees, and the first cake to be finished wins.  Sarah has already written hers up here, and I must congratulate her as the bake-off winner as her cake was polished off fastest. I feel compelled to point out that her cake was smaller than mine, and next time we might have to think a bit harder about the rules! (nb – am not bitter).

The cake I chose to make was a Cherry Cobblestone Cake, from my current favourite recipe resource, the Alison Burt Super Saving Recipe Cards (note to self – use other recipe books).

Gougére with Chicken Livers and Courgettes with Herbs

Two recipes from Alison Burt’s Super Saving Recipe Cards (first seen here in a spectacular cake fail) which I made together on Good Friday for my dinner. A gougére is savoury French pastry with cheese, and can be small like these or larger with a filling. Alison Burt’s recipe is for a larger gougére with a mix of liver and veg in the centre. The picture shows the dish tastefully arranged against a bit of red cloth, which is quite restrained compared to the presentation on the other recipe cards. The food photographers must have got bored by the time they got to the Pastry and Pies section. The food itself looks like someone was (neatly, admittedly) sick into a baguette.

Chequerboard Cake

This recipes comes from a box of recipe cards I got from a charity shop in Camden for £3 called Alison Burt’s Super Saving Cookery Cards, published by Hamlyn in 1975. I was in two minds about buying them as I’d been at the car boot previously and had a lot to carry home already. But, heck, I’m glad I made the effort, as they’re kind of amazing. It’s a collection of around 200 cards, divided into categories like Budget Entertaining, Oriental Cookery, Scones and Teabreads, Ice Cream Desserts. The recipes are mainly quite sensible but some of them are wonderfully tacky in a vaguely Abigail’s Party way (Kipper Pizza, anyone?), and all of them are depicted on the front of the recipe card with a picture, occasionally featuring some odd set dressing (Dutch macaroons are displayed in tiny ceramic clogs and arranged around a windmill). I haven’t found much online about Alison Burt – Alibris have a few cookery titles by someone of the same name, looks like she did a few cookery titles. There’s enough intriguing recipes in this box to keep anyone going for a lifetime, but I decided to make something from the Special Cakes section: