week 41 - Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook

 

After roast lamb shoulder with onion sauce the previous Sunday, this week it was roast pork. And, again keeping with the theme of local ingredients, the meat - a piece of rolled loin - was bought from W Lindsay in Cockermouth. And it was roasted with apples from the one of the two apple trees in the back garden of the holiday cottage we were staying in. 

The other apple tree was weighted down with cookers, so I also rustled up a Scandinavian apple charlotte for pudding. Like a proper domestic goddess. Served in what a subsequently realised was probably a crystal fruit bowl, found hidden in the back of a cupboard.

The recipes were from the wonderful Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook, also found in the back of a cupboard. First published in 1970, it features such wonders as chicken in aspic and turkey in aspic.  Never too much of a good thing. The most fascinating chapter, and certainly the one ltat has aged the least well, is based around pasta, rice and noodles; with recipes for noodles with a kidney sauce, with added tinned sweetcorn; cold rice salad with tongue and oranges; and , for desert, chocolate shell pudding (pasta shells in a sauce made of cocoa powder); and apple macaroni pudding (yes, apple puree with macaroni).

I have included pictures of both dishes I cooked, just to show the glorious wonder of technicolor. Lord alone knows how they made the food look quite so radioactive, but I would hazard a guess plenty of - subsequently banned - e numbers were involved. Luckily our dishes were artificial colour-free. Still garnished with plenty of curly parsley, though.

Celebration pork - adapted from the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook

2kg pork loin - rolled or on the bone

Vegetable oil

8 eating apples - cored if you'd like- I couldn't find a corer, so didn't bother

curly parsley

Pre-heat the oven to 220c

Dry the pork skin and score, if it hasn't already been done by the butcher.

Rub a little vegetable oil in the skin, salt generously and roast for 25 minutes

turn the heat down and roast for another 40 minutes

Place the apples around the pork and cook for a further 40 minutes

If after this time you don’t have tooth-scattering crackling, carefully remove the apples, turn the heat up again and check every 5 mins until the skin has crackled.

I served it with carrots, lashings of gravy and colcannon - shredded leeks and cabbage cooked in butter and mixed through creamy mashed potatoes. And a baked apple per person. Three if you're the Ewing.

Scandinavian Apple Charlotte - adapted from the Hamlyn All Colour Cookbook

2½ cups cooking apples, peeled and cored

2-3 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp butter

1-1½ tbsp brown sugar

1 cup bread crumbs

½ cup fresh whipping cream

grated chocolate to decorate

Roughly chop the apples and place in a pan with the sugar and a tbsp of water. 

Cover the pan with a lid and place it over low heat.

Cook apples until they break down into a lumpy puree, stirring occasionally. Add a splash more water if needed

Let the cooked apples cool down completely.

Gently heat butter in a frying pan over low heat.

Add the bread crumbs and mix.

Increase the heat to medium and the breadcrumbs and stir constantly till they become golden brown and are crispy. This takes longer than you think, as you want them to be very crisp, but be careful they don't burn.

Add sugar and mix well. Let the mixture cool down.

Whip the cream in a large bowl until it reaches soft peak consistency. 

Place a layer of apples in the bottom of a serving bowl (or four individual glasses)

Add a layer of crumbs, followed by another layer of apple puree and then another layer of crumbs.

Top with the whipped cream and decorate with chocolate shavings.

Refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours before serving.