Food traditions

Back in September, when Rosh Hashanah fell on a 90 + degree day and I was preparing Matzoh Ball soup, Brisket, Roast roots and the like. I began to contemplate our food traditions. Clearly, what many consider the traditions of Rosh Hashanah here in the North East of the US are based on the Jewish immigrants of the 19th Century who were escaping the persecution, pogroms in the Slavic Eastern European States. By late September in Northern Europe it was probably starting to get quite cold, and what was available were roots: Beets, carrots, turnips.

Whereas if you were a Jew from the Middle East your food and Holiday traditions probably erred toward, Humus, eggplant, falafel and the like featuring a lot of pomegranate, dates and figs. In fact at one point a few years ago I was given a Syrian Jewish cookbook and asked to find a menu for Rosh Hashanah within it. All suggestions were declined as non traditional. Thanksgiving I tend to be rather ambivalent as I had no family food tradition involved with it. Some friends traditions I was not familiar with: Mashed sweet potato with marshmallow or in an orange with marshmallow. I did not entirely understand adding sweet to sweet. Our Thanksgiving is based on Num’s family traditions of which there are a few, and we use his Grandmothers recipes. Dinner rolls, cornbread dressing which makes me think of a rich polenta; green beans, mashed potatoes. I have been to a few different Thanksgivings and the menu’s are all quite similar with perhaps differences in seasoning and cooking. Rather like the British and Christmas. I always want to add Succotash as it is So American and may be one of the foods that we still eat based on Native American food.

I am taken back to the first time I took Num to the Isle of Wight to visit my parents. I am sure you know I had been telling Num how my mother was a much better cook than I, and what he might expect. Mum always cooked all my favorite foods when I went home , as I am sure most mothers do. I want to say that I ate and loved everything my mother made, although that was not necessarily so. Simon always wanted Steak and Kidney pudding, whereas I wanted a traditional roast, Lamb or Chicken being my favorites, and then all the vegetables that went a long with them. When Num and I went out that afternoon, mum was roasting a chicken. All afternoon I was thinking and looking forward to this roast chicken, and even beyond to the soup she would make for lunch out of the carcass the next day. Roast chicken, herb stuffing, bread sauce, greens, roast potatoes and parsnip, mashed carrot and swede, gravy. Arriving home, I could smell the meal, but there was something else. As we sat down to eat, Mum had made garlic roast potatoes for a change, instead of regular roast. I felt my bottom lip stick out and start to quiver as if I was 8 years old. Mum looked at my face and explained she and dad liked them for a change! Me too, but I can make those any time and what I had dreamed of was my mums roast potatoes... This Christmas I had set my mind on making more of a mum Christmas. Truthfully, Simon does a better job. Roast turkey, I bypassed the herb stuffing for Num’s corn dressing. Bread sauce, Greens, Roast squash, mashed potatoes - the american potatoes do not roast as well as some of the older breeds from England like a King Edward. I even got a small Christmas Pudding from Myers of Keswick, along with their Cumberland sausage meat to stuff the rear cavity with. We bought out the flamng Christmas pudding along with Brandy butter, for Johnson our nephew, to show him how we Brits celebrated Christmas.

Now it’s time for Soups made from the Ham bone. Minestrone; Black bean just in time for the bitter cold. Turkey and vegetable pot pie, Turkey soup. I have just put the Black eyed peas in to soak. Num will cook them tonight and bake corn bread. A new tradition for me. I have assumed this tradition came to America with the slaves. Black eyed peas are so old they are in the Bible and mentioned for good luck. I imagine that our ancestors the Hunter Gatherers carried the food/seed with them as they left Africa along with our DNA... Our oldest food tradition?! Happy New Year!

Christmas newsletter "06, Vanilla Fudge

good cateress, newsletter. Nov/Dec 06 When I started to write the newsletters I knew the November and December would be the hardest to write, as they are my busiest months. So I have decided to combine them. As a caterer any sense of joy for the Christmas season is lost, but in my teen years I still had it. I need to write a little explanation here, about where I am writing about. For the most part it will be the Isle of Wight, and in particular the River Medina area from Cowes up the river to Newport. My cousin Diana, an archivist, has traced my mothers family back to the 14th Century; we are all christened, married and buried in the four parishes along the river, Cowes, East Cowes, Northwood and Whippingham. It is still for the most part a beautiful river valley although Cowes and East Cowes continue to grow along it, but much of it is unchanged for centuries. Pastoral farm land for the most part, with a public footpath that runs along the East bank.

As I write this in my office in Harlem I can look up at the wall above my desk filled with Victorian prints of the river, Whippingham Church, Uncles house in Cowes, but mostly the river from different angles and I am transported back to my roots. My parents, my aunt Janette and uncle Murray in a variety of partnerships and singly had the pub called The Folly Inn on the river. Originally, The Polly, a working barge in the 17th Century which had been swept aground in one of our notorious sou’westers, presumably during the equinox high tides and it had never been able to re-float . At some point it had become an Inn and so it remains. When Murray and Janette had the Folly in the 60’s, while doing some renovations they had discovered that the original hull was still fairly intact and had installed Plexiglas in the floor so you could see it. Further renovations had removed all that, but in the attic there were still parts of the original deck.

Also living on the river were the Cundall family. Pam and Allan with their sons, Robert, Colin and Philip ran sailing holidays on their boat the Rene Phillippe. The Rene was a large wooden motor boat, I thought she went to Dunkirk, but everybody tells me I am wrong. People came from around the world for the sailing holidays and Pam's amazing cooking. It was a wonderful life for all of us, particularly the children. We lived on a tidal river, played around on boats, Simon fished and so dug for rag worms for bait in the river silts at low tide - he was always being rescued from the gooey sucking mud. There was a copse behind the Folly for us to play in, during the Spring there were

Come early December their would be an invitation from Pam to help her make sweets/candy as Christmas presents. Some years the Rene would be tied up along the jetty, but one year I do remember rowing out to the Rene. Pam and Lucy, my mother would have worked out all the ingredients ahead of time, and of course, what I would be doing, my job was to show up. I always showed up I loved this day. One of m favorite things, was candy making. Fudge, coconut ice, truffles, marzipan fruits, chocolate corn flakes. Anything with sugar and butter.We started with fudge. As the sugar melted into the condensed milk,the tangy air of the river faded as the sweet smell pervaded the boat. I had to stir almost continuously to stop the sugar from burning onthe bottom of the pan; something that with Pam's gentle reminders never happened, but when I was alone frequently did. This was a job that called for patience, something I didn't have much of, as I stirred and watched, stirred and waited for ‘soft ball’ phase to be reached. Pam would talk to me, distracting me from my impatience with a small chore here and there that could be done during the stirring. Then without warning we were there. The smell would change. It was exciting pouring the molten mixture into trays to cool, ready to be cut into squares. Of course, I wanted to try it hot from the pan, burnt fingers and certainly scalded tongue followed. My next sweet was coconut ice. I enjoyed making it but I could never quite get my mind around laying the pink and white on top of each other, I wanted them to be side by side. Chocolate and cream turning into ganache for truffle, with each year a different flavor. Sometimes chopped apricots, always some liquor. It was put away in the fridge to solidify ready to be scooped with a melon baller and rolled in cocoa. By now the portholes were running with condensation from the steam. The water lapped against the boat as the tide turned. The following week we would get together again. Pam was very creative and had found small trays to pack our sweets on, with colored doilies as a liner and sprigs of holly with berries from the copse.

It looked and felt like Christmas.I really enjoyed these times, but one year I stopped helping Pam, I forget why, I was a teenager and it probably seemed unimportant. But I never stopped making sweets. For a brief moment in my early twenties I decided that was what I would be a sweet maker. After all I would make fudge, coconut ice and sell it to my friends. My then boyfriend, older and wiser than me, said the words that I have subsequently used on many occasions. “You will have to make an awful lot of sweets to make any money,” Its true but homemade sweets, jam, cookies and cakes are really the nicest gift to give and receive. Old fashioned Vanilla fudge 1lb Sugar 2oz butter 300 ml Magnolia (evaporated milk) vanilla essence Grease a tin 6inch x 6inch. Put the sugar, butter and magnolia in a large heavy based pan, heat gently until the sugar has dissolved and butter melted. Bring to boil and boil steadily to 240 F or soft boil stage, stirring frequently. Remove the pan from heat to cool surface, add the essence and beatuntil mixture becomes thick and creamy and grains form - minute crystals. Pour into tin. Leave until nearly cold and mark into squares with sharp knife. When it is firm cut into squares. Merry Christmas Happy Hannukah Beautiful New Year