R is for Rusks

Some of you will now be in a very happy place thinking about rusks. In fact, I suggest that before you read any further you make a hot milky beverage of your choice to enjoy with a rusk while you read.

The rest of my readership will fall into the category of uninitiated in the way of the rusk and are probably thinking "why is she writing about baby teething biscuits that do nothing but cause a mess and turn to musk" right now.

Well, prepared to be enlightened.

Rusks are the anglicised term for beskuit a traditional biscuit in South Africa that you have for breakfast, they are designed for dunking...nay... soaking in your morning tea or coffee.  You definitely cannot eat them dry or you are likely to break a tooth and that will really spoil your day. Of course you don't just have to keep them for breakfast either, they are great as a snack with a hot drink any time of the day,

So why am I eating rusks? Well, here comes a bit of background for those that don't know me so well.. my dear husband is from South Africa I have been enjoying rusks for a good 6 years now, and whilst you can buy the big brand Ouma Rusks over here in the UK they are massively marked up so they became a bit of a treat that we would always bring some back after a trip or visiting family would cram packs into their suitcases.

But then I realised that actually, maybe it was time it was only after our visit in December 2013 that I decided to step out, be brave, and make my own.  And you may not think it, but it is a big deal as the rusks that we buy when in South Africa aren't a mass produced product but something that a ladies bake up at home and sell at the local corner shops to supplement their income and they are faultless...and delicious...and when they hold such a central place in your families heart, trying to replicate them is quite a daunting task.


But what is a rusk in baking terms? Essentially they are is a bread based dough that is baked twice so in a way very similar to biscotti.  Some recipes call for yeast, some don't. It really is totally dependant on the type of rusk you are after. Once you make and prove the dough you separate it into balls, pack it into a tin and bake. Once baked you tear the pieces apart and put them back into the oven at a very low temperature to dry out (preferably overnight)

So I returned home with a few cut out recipes from magazines as well as looking up a few online recipes to see what they had to say and then every Sunday for about 4 weeks, I made rusks.

Now some batches were much more successful than others, the one I tried to make with yeast was alright but possibly in trying to be clever and cook it in my large square stone baker it didn;t quite work. I should have rather used several smaller loaf tins so the dough in the middle wasn't undercooked...if they were judged on Great British Bake Off they would definitely get the Paul Hollywood prod of disaprovement.  I also used 100% whole wheat flour in an attempt to make it healthier but that also didn't quite work. In subsequent batches I still used it but only as 30 or 40 % to plain white flour.

I then moved on to the more breakfast type rusks, the ones where one or two will set you up for the morning but a third would just be too much. With these I really could go to town on what when in; seeds, ground nuts (like almond and coconut which in turn reduced the wheat content), museli. They were also a simpler bake as there was no proving to do it was very much a case of mix the wet and dry ingredients together and bake. These proved to be much closer to the ones that we bought when in South Africa and are still my favorite ones to make, the recipe was from another blog called Under the Blue Gum Tree and I highly recommend following the link if you want to try it.

 Due to our moving house in March I started packing up the kitchen in late February so my weekly stashes of rusks came to an end.  I also have to admit to getting a little frustrated with my Little Giant as he had just started walking and had a tendency to like turning the oven temperature knob....so two batches instead of "drying" actually got baked to a crisp and burnt raisins are really not nice.  Thankfully the oven in our new kitchen is higher and I also have a baby gate to keep the Two Monkeys out while I am cooking so I really have no excuses not to start making them again.

So put away your Rich Teas (or Marie Biscuits), hide the Hobnobs and ditch the Digestives, when it comes to dunking biscuits in your tea or coffee...you need rusks in your life.  I know that writing today's post has made me quite hungry for some so I am making sure the ingredients have gone down on my shopping list for this weekend!

M is for Marrow

And this isn't just any old marrow, this is a whopper of vegetable that was gifted to me by my Mother who got it from who knows where. Unfortunately "Olivia and the Giant Marrow" doesn't quite have the same ring to it as "James and the Giant Peach" but there is still a story to tell none-the-less

My problem was, I hadn't a clue what to do with it. Now I don't mean in terms of I didn't know how to cook a marrow as I have vague memories of having baked marrow stuffed with spicy rice as a child and could probably replicate that to one degree or another. But at the same time the same memories also tell me that stuffed marrow gave me really bad gas and that is not at all attractive so that option was quickly crossed off the list.

So whilst I could have cooked it, it was more the sheer size and quantity of said vegetable that put me at a complete loss as to what to do, in fact, I found it quite intimidating having this cucurbita (fancy new word I found) sitting on my worktop glaring at me to use it each time I went in the kitchen.

So I reached out to friends on twitter for some help and the responses ranged from turning it into rum -not helpful, a cake - intriguing but not convincing, or jam - bingo!

So jam it was and after a quick search via Google I came across this simple recipe on the River Cottage website which matched up to the quantities of marrow I had. I wish I could say that I leaped into action there an then, after scribbling a quick shopping list (lemons, preserving sugar and root ginger) but it took another few days before I made it to the supermarket with The Two Monkeys in tow feeling über productive and positive because after a week of having this behemoth of a vegetable glaring at me I was finally going to use it.

On returning home, I got the boys settled The Two Monkeys down to eat their lunch (which I like to think gives me about 15 minutes to do something but in reality its about 5) and returned to the kitchen. Having donned my apron, grabbed my biggest pan and cleared some space I laid out my ingredients to do a "before" shot.

Looks good doesn't it. Very country kitchen. But that was when production came to a screaming halt...and why? Because I had no jam jars. None. Zilch. Because in my infinite wisdom I had the previous evening made tangy plum jam with some of the first fruit off the tree in our garden and used up all the empty jars I had. Talk about school girl error!

So I put my ingredients in the pan which sat on the stove not getting cooked Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I was reluctant to buy brand new jars so had scoured some of the charity shops on Monday but to no avail. Wednesday arrived and so did my Mother along with a hoard of empty jars, this is it, I thought...but no, I ran out of time during the day and I was not going to sacrifice watching Great British Bake Off for an overgrown courgette.

It was Thursday (yesterday) that I finally got to cut into the giant légume. I cut it into slices, scooped out the insides and (leaving the skin on) cooked with a little water but mostly letting it steam in its own juices in the pan.

 Now my thinking behind leaving the skin on was that it would be easier to separate the flesh from the harder skin and on that count at least I was right. The recipe that I referred to above also suggested squeezing the excess water from the marrow which I dutifully did as I removed the skin.

 This however, is where it started to go wrong.

Once I had plonked what remained of the marrow back into the pan it looked rather pitiful, I mean I had expected some reduction but not that much. I added the sugar, lemon zest and juice and the ginger as directed but chose to use fresh ginger over ground or crystallised ginger. I chopped and bruised it to release the oils and then added it to cook with everything else.

But it just didn't look right. Not only did the it just become really pulpy without the natural fluid from the marrow that I had squeezed out, there seemed to be nothing for the sugar to bind with in. It looked lumpy and not at all appetising for spreading on toast or having on a cracker with a really stinky cheese. So either I was meant to end up with more marrow in my pan than the recipe suggested or, and this is my thought, I should have ignored the squeezing instruction.

But what to do now? I am not a chemist and felt, not for the first time with this whole marrow debacle, at a loss.

I did what any normal, sane individual would do.

I added yellow plums.

Now you may be thinking "What?" but my logic went as follows; its similar in colour and these also had a fairly dryish flesh. I had lots of them. As some were still a little under ripe they may add a nice tang to pot which to be quite frank tasted like a zesty ginger stew, the marrow adding bulk but little flavour. And did I mention that I had lots of them?

Yup... please excuse me while I go off topic but I have to tell you about the plums. One of the joys of having a garden is that we now have a plum tree and whilst they are not the sweetest or most flavoursome, I am all about the free fruit and also my Little Giant loves them and will do everything he can to get at the windfalls. So far I had made a crumble, a first pick tangy jam, plum tarts, as well as de-stoning and freezing approximately 4kg and have given various neighbours 500g punnets of them. And there are still more to be picked.

So, back to the jam, why not add them? It couldn't hurt to try right?

Right! After 5 minutes boiling with the plums in the mix I could already see the difference in volume and the consistency looked a lot better too. I continued to cook it at a simmer for another 20 minutes stirring occasionally so the sugar wouldn't catch, but it still did a bit but that's OK because it added a nice bit of colour. I was so pleased to have rescued the jam as I hate waste and I was loath to throw it away.

But now all is said and done I have learnt my lesson, if I am ever offered a marrow in the future I will politely decline and change the subject :)