Platinum Pudding or Platinum Jubilee Pudding, British Summer Pudding, Rhubarb Crumble and Rice Pudding

 

The Union Jack flags are flying in Oxford Street and the streets of London, England, very jolly. To celebrate the Jubilee people all over the world will be making the Jubilee pudding. This follows the tradition of creating dishes for VIP occasions. Victoria sponge was invented for Queen Victoria. Coronation chicken was created for the coronation. Windsor soup is another great British recipe.

Platinum Pudding is shorter and neatly alliterative. The full name is Platinum Jubilee Pudding.

The ingredients include lemon Swiss roll and amaretti biscuits. (Amaretti biscuits are Italian biscuit, small, crunchy, with almonds.)

(More shortly. I'm saving this because some of yesterday's posts have disappeared.)

Summer Pudding

Another great British pudding to look for is summer pudding. It has a casing of white bread turned red by the ingredients. The stuffing is mixed red fruits .

Summer pudding ingredients from Wikipedia.

Apple crumble is an easy pudding. Crumble is so easy. You don't even need to roll out the pastry. Just spread tiny lumps all over the top of the fruit. You might need to stew the fruit first.

If you want to buy from supermarkets in the UK, popular summer puddings are apple crumble, rhubarb crumble, and rice pudding.

Rhubarb crumble from Tesco. Two pounds ninety.

Perfect Puddings

To sum up, for a celebratory meal you could have Windsor soup, coronation chicken, and Platinum pudding. Alternative British desserts are Summer pudding, rice pudding, bread and butter pudding, rhubarb crumble, apple and blackberry crumble, from supermarkets. A simple old favourite you can make is trifle. For something more unusual, my family's favourite, Queen of puddings, which has meringue on top. 

For tea time, the Australian and New Zealand favourite is Pavlova. Named after the dancer who visited Australasia, this dessert is a hard circular plate size white meringue with a raised edge and sunken centre making a base or bowl for summer fruit such as red strawberries. 

By the way, the Marks and Spencers strawberries in London, England are at their best already. Red, juicy, flavoursome. The traditional English way of serving strawberries is with cream. 

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum_Pudding

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:British_puddings

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/shop/fresh-food/chilled-desserts/puddings-crumbles-and-pies

https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Queen_of_Puddings

Ascot in Berkshire - the fashion fun, and covering in the sun

Ascot Stand. Photo from Wikipedia.

Problem
When to go and what to wear?

Answers
The event is on for a week, until Saturday 23rd 2018. A member of my family went on Ladies Day, yesterday, Thursday.

Dress Code
Ladies
Hats for ladies are compulsory. Dresses must have straps.

The late Mrs Shilling, never forgotten, was famous for her hats. And the Shilling hat shop. Hats cost more than a shilling.

Gentlemen
Men must wear collared shirts and ties, not bow ties, and suits, matching jackets and trousers (which Americans call pants).

In the Royal Enclosure men wore morning suit (tail coat) and top hats. That is the most expensive area and probably invitation only.

The Ascot website tells you what you ought to wear. I always take an extra wrap in case I have to be more covered up or end up in an air-conditioned car or building or it gets chilly in the evening or overcast. Take a wrap and/or some sunblock if you are going to be uncovered in the sun for several hours.

Food
You can take a picnic, but must eat it in the car park. Once inside, you can buy fish and chips and ice cream and Pimms to drink, which is not overly alcoholic, just as well in the sunshine with ladies tottering around in high heels.

Morrisons own brand spray is £3. Ambre Solaire used to be the sunblock everybody relied upon in France.

Speaking of sun protection, you can buy sun protection clothes if you are more of a sports participant, hiker, and traveller rather a fashionably dressed watcher.

Timing
Like many big events, you need to consider that there could be long queues (lines) to drive in and out of the area.

You are allocated a colour-coded car park. My family member followed the blue square signs all the way from Hayes to Ascot.

The royal procession is at 2 pm and the first race is at 2.30. The end race is at 5.30. Afterwards, there is singing for an hour.

Horse Race and Betting
Acot is a horse race and you can bet on which horse will win. You might have one person betting on the favourite, another on an outside horse, to double the excitement and your chances of winning. A bet can be as low as £10. You could study the form of the horse or just pick a name you fancy.

Useful websites
Stradivarius wins gold cup and picture of H M The Queen pretty in pink.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/horse-racing/44535705

https://www.ascot.co.uk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascot_Racecourse

https://www.craghoppers.com/sale/ Sunny weather clothing
visitbritain.com
visitengland.com

Author
Angela Lansbury

Getting your Ten Vegetables and Fruits At Home and Overseas

Tea time fruit and yogurt. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
How do you achieve five vegetables a day, seven or ten, at home or travelling?

Answer
At home this is easy:
Ten pieces of fruit and vegetables, not difficult if you are vegetarian and cutting out sugar. Even if you aren't:

Breakfast:
Three pieces of fruit mixed into yogurt or muesli including apple and sultanas and one more fruit in season. If no fruit is in season, add tinned prunes. Plus freshly made orange juice, that's four for breakfast.

Some people prefer to make up a mixed fruit or mixed votable juice. You can make it up in bulk and eat or drink a little every day.

You could also have a banana milkshake for breakfast or your eleven o'clock break. Or mix yogurt and milk with mango to make a mango lassi.

Elevenses
Add an apple for elevenses, five. You are half way there, and two meals and a snack to go.

Lunch
For lunch: two or three vegetables such as tomatoes and carrots and lettuce for lunch; that's three, plus apple tart or pear tart, or fruit fool or puree, that easily another four so you have reached nine.

Tea
If you had either an apple or fruit juice for tea that's ten.

Dinner
However, if you have not had four of those items, have vegetable soup, meat or quiche or pizza and two vegetables with dinner, such as broccoli and peas. For dessert, follow by strawberries and cream.

Fruit and vegetables are not so expensive if you have a garden and grow apple trees. We should all go back to growing apples in gardens, allotments for those in flats, tomatoes in window boxes, mushrooms in dark cupboards.

Stories
I started serving fruit salad for dessert when my late father was suffering from late onset diabetes.

Later, another close family member had cancer treatment and we read health articles all day every day for weeks. We looked at the cancer websites, the World Health websites, the NHS guidelines. We went back to their sources: respectable sites with academic studies of large numbers of people, over years, and shorter studies, with control groups. I read about comparisons of migrating populations such as Japanese women going from Japan to the USA and getting different diseases showing that it was not inherited but to do with lifestyle or diet.

Prunes
At first we were not keen on prunes but needed them for some reason. (Was it that chemo made you constipated?) Within a few weeks, we had found that they provided interesting contrast in colour and a touch of sweetness.

(We also cheated on the 'fresh' idea by adding ginger in syrup or maple syrup.

In Singapore we have not managed to find tinned prunes. We have added a carton of apple juice to dried prunes but it comes out at three times the price.

Travelling
The simplest way to stick to your edit is to carry a Tupperware or similar box containing two pieces of fruit for a snack or to add to lunch. I find an apple and a banana are the most convenient. I sometimes cut the apple in half and remove the core and slice it into segments like an orange. Other good fruits for travelling are seedless grapes, and red and green grapes. You can have them all at once, or sneak the odd one or two into your mouth as a pick me up.

Speaking of citrus fruit, oranges are heavy and messy, but tangerines have easy peel skin, weigh less, and make less mess.

Hotel and Restaurant Breakfasts
Opt for half a grapefruit. Add prunes. Orange juice.

Hotel or Restaurant Lunch
Lunch time, again look for a fruit starter such as melon, melon and ham, avocado pear, tricolore (Italian for three colours) which is the three colours of the Italian flag, white cheese, red tomatoes, green avocado. Try meal and two vegetables, a vegetarian option. Two of you can share one meat and vegetable dish and one vegetarian dish. Pizza? Try a pizza with tomatoes and / or pineapple (often called Hawaiian).

Ask for a fruit dessert. If none, pop out to the local supermarket.

Cakes and biscuits
If you must have tarts and cakes, the French apple tart (tarte Tatin) with an apricot marmalade glaze; pancakes with jam and fresh fruit, apple tart, apple crumble, durian cake, "Jaffa" cake with orange spread. You can simply take any three fruits or vegetables and look at recipe websites for ideas from around the world. Other favourites are carrot cake and blueberry muffins.

Cakes, Biscuits and Tarts List
Apple Crumble
Apple and Blackberry crumble
Apple pie
blueberry muffin
Carrot Cake
Fruit fool
Fruit Pavlova
Mincemeat pies / tart
Plum pudding (Christmas pudding)
Stuffed Dates
Summer Pudding
Tarte Tatin

Fruit
Fresh pineapple is cheap in the UK. In the UK in summer you can often find summer pudding in supermarkets or on restaurant menus. Summer pudding contains two or more red fruits, such as red currants.

Another British favourite is apple crumble, or apple and blackberry crumble. For a change, you might like apricot crumble.

Here's a list of fruit you might find in your nearest shop, either fresh or tinned, or frozen.

FRUIT
apples
apricots
bananas
blackberries
black currants
blueberry
cherries
dates
durian
figs
gooseberry
grapefruit
grapes
greengages
guava
kiwi fruit
lemon
lime
mango
melon
orange
passion fruit
peach
pears
plums
prunes
pumpkin
quince
raspberries
red currants
satsumas
star fruit
tangerine
watermelon

Also add herbs such as mint.

Drinks:
Banana Milkshake, mint tea, black currant cordial, lemon tea, mixed juice (two to four fruits such as apple, orange, pineapple, star fruit watermelon) watermelon.

VEGETABLES / Herbs for flavouring
artichoke
avocado
beans
bean sprouts
cabbage
carrot
cauliflower
chives
courgettes
green beans
lettuce
Mange tout
mint
mustard and cress
olives
onions
parsley
peas
peppers (green, red, yellow)
pickled cucumber (gherkin)
snow peas
spinach
spring onions
squash
string beans
tomato
watercress

Fancy fruits
You might also try fancy fruits, exotic fruits, when travelling. Mangoes. Durians. Guava. Passion fruit.

Decoration
Use mint, individual small fruits such as sliced strawberries, mint, edible flowers such as rose petals.

Tips
Look at the reduced price sections of supermarkets in the UK and Singapore for bargains, sometimes all day, sometimes evenings.
Look for the cheapest fruits. For example, in Singapore bananas are very cheap.

The Chinese in Singapore eat green vegetables such as Pak Choy. Fruit and vegetables are likely to be cheaper and more unusual varieties will be available in Little India or the wet markets on the edge of the island near the HDB (state housing). Fair price supermarket is cheaper than HillV2 and Jasons.

Tinned prunes can be bought cheaply in supermarkets in London and carried to Singapore.
More information from:
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit

Angela Lansbury, travel writer.

Huntingdon and Godmanchester Hotel and Restaurants

Huntingdon and Godmanchester are either side of the River Ouse, a delightful bit of old England. I was told that The Ouse is pronounced to rhyme with cows (not ooze).The location is about thirty miles north of Stevenage, where I often visit The Wine Society. (The Wine Society is in the next post.) As we drove around Godmanchester, we passed buildings in several styles, Georgian style sash windows not he front of the Old Bridge Hotel, thatch, black and white Tudor.

Huntingdon's Bridge Hotel
We looked at four restaurants, one in a creeper-clad hotel at Huntingdon, called The Bridge because it is on the bridge over the river Ouse with a garden backing onto the river. The traffic noise rather spoils the garden, but the inside is delightful. If you want a morning coffee in elegant surroundings, with a wine shop and the opportunity to stay for a rather pricey set lunch or dinner (see my earlier post), I recommend the Bridge Hotel where we stopped on a previous occasion.

On my more recent trip we looked at three restaurants in Godmanchester, recommended by somebody who lives in nearby St Neots. The Godmanchester restaurants are The White Hart, The Black Bull and The Exhibition.

The Black Bull

We peered into the Black Bull at just after noon. They had not yet opened and the menu was not visible outside. We could have gone on line and checked but we drove on as we had two more to see.

The Exhibition

A choice of the restaurant or the bar area. Bright and welcoming. The menu included chicken with mash potatoes and I like chicken and potatoes, so I was tempted, but we had one more place to see.

The White Hart
The building has lots of interesting features. The fireplace. The columns behind the bar.

The bar menu choices included a green curry with rice. Then we saw the restaurant and preferred the larger menu. I chose the cheapest option, lasagne. The best part of my main course choice was the wonderful garlic bread which was on a round roll resembling a bagel without the hole, tasty, chewy and moreish.

The duck was pink and I was offered some but gave it back.

Duck with green beans and sliced potatoes. The best part of this dish was the sliced potatoes in layers.

The vegetables served with all main meals were unremarkable but a good choice of colours.

At the back you see the garden, another restaurant room for private dining. The ladies toilet has pretty flowers and lovely modern fittings. A pity somebody has broken one of the three toilet door handles.

Dessert was the high spot - summer pudding.

Coffee came with brown sugar cubes and an After Eight or similar chocolate covered mint.

 Photos by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

As Dr Samuel Jonson once described a place to his biographer, 'Worth seeing but not worth going to see'. The Michelin food guide has its own variation on this idea, worth a detour but not worth a special trip.

The main course portions were huge, enough to fill us up without a starter. We had to take some home to leave room for dessert. As I was already full my companion vetoed the diet-breaking cheesecake option in favour of the summer pudding.  A great choice. Not that I could compare it with any of the other items. On second thoughts, yes, it is worth going to eat the dessert. 

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author and speaker. See my other posts, my other blogs, follow me here and on Facebook, link to me on LinkedIn, see me speaking about Restaurant Etiquette on YouTube, and check out my books on Amazon and Lulu.com

Rainbow Cake in Singapore, Rainbow Cocktails in London, or make your own cake and juices

Rainbow cake, Singapore.
More details of restaurant and recipe later. It's in the HillV2 complex ground floor.

This is a great treat for a holiday, birthday or special occasion. Also a centrepiece for a party.

I forgot the name of the restaurant where I saw this cake. Fortunately, as usual I had taken the photo of the food with a copy of the menu (or name card) as a reminder. Dean and Deluca, in HillV2, 4 Hillview Rise, Singapore.

Here's a guide to rainbow cakes all over Singapore, with the warning that some places sell out early in the day. (Don't they have a chef on site who makes another when the cake is three quarters sold out? Don't they have a second cake in the freezer which can be brought out?)

http://www.ladyironchef.com/2014/01/rainbow-cake-cafe-singapore/

Want to make it yourself?
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3028705/rainbow-cake

I am keen on natural colours and different flavours. Why would anybody recommend food colouring? The BBC's trouble-shooting or FAQ site warns cooks that natural colours might fade during cooking. But too much food colouring can give an unpleasant flavour. Back to natural ingredients. In summer with fresh fruits abundant and cheap, a good time to make juices and flavoured cakes.

English Summer Pudding - red fruit
In England in summer many restaurants will be offering summer pudding, encased in a simple white bread outside, contrasting with the most, succulent strongly flavoured centre filling of red summer fruits such as red currants, raspberries, strawberries and blackcurrants. You could make a two or three decker summer pudding with two or three contrasting colours, red fruits, green kiwi, and another.

Australian and New Zealand Pavlova - Rainbow effect
Australia and New Zealand have as their national dish the Pavlova, a meringue with a high bowl ending and mixed fruits in the centre. At home or for a party you could create a rainbow effect in the middle simply with contrasting colours of fruits, cut into circles or semicircles, laid in lines. If you want a hotel or catering company to do a summer dessert for a party or wedding, you could ask them to create a rainbow effect Pavlova.

Another version would have concentric circles, perhaps with strawberries around the outside of the meringue. At home, or for a charity event, even a small child could create the pattern, if an adult washed and cut the fruit, and ensured the child washed their hands!

Rainbow Cake
Singapore's rainbow cake is dense, not light like a Victoria sponge, because you want the layers to hold their shape.
Good. I've always been disappointed by sponge cakes which disappear in the mouth like Candy Floss (one of the great culinary disappointments of my childhood. I must admit to liking solid foods such as suet pudding).
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-make-our-rainbow-cake-frequently-asked-questions

Contrasting Colour Cocktails
In London you can get rainbow cocktails at a Chinese restaurant in Harrow. The price of the cocktail was as much as or more than our main dish, but the highlight of the meal.

I first saw these made at a French wedding (our au pair girl Caroline nee Jouy, married name Mention. I've hunted for her all over the net). The colours settle due to the different density but you simply have to pour them in the correct order.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Rainbow-Shots/

One recipe suggests 1/4 oz of each of
Creme de Cacao,
Creme de Violette,
Yellow Chartreuse,
Maraschino,
Benedictine,
Green Chartreuse and finally
Brandy.

Seven ingredients. If you have a well-stocked cabinet you probably have two or three already. If you don't have all the ingredients, you could make yourself a Christmas list and ask each member of the family to buy you one of the ingredients (or all buy a bottle for each other).

A simple sandwich drink of three contrasting colours could be equally amusing. (Nobody actually wants to drink all these different flavours. In my experience it's just a muddle and too much alcohol. You just want to see it.)

There's some simple scientific way of finding out which order to use the drinks you already have by looking up the number. Anybody in your family with a scientific or methodical mind could do it.
An alternative version

Rainbow Juices in Contrasting Colours
You don't like alcohol? You are driving? You want non-alcoholic drinks for health freaks or a children's party, or drivers early in the day?

You also find a mixed fruit juice will separate out into contrasting colours. This happened to my juices at The Tanglin club Tavern restaurant in Singapore.

Or just make a selection of teeny tumblers or throwaway plastic cups with juices of three different colours different colours. I saw this done at the Grove Hotel north of Watford for a Jaguar car test drive organised by Spire. Orange from oranges and carrots. Green from kiwi fruit. Red from watermelon or mixed red fruits.

Can't be bothered to make your own juices? Want a detox? Health food shops and internet suppliers can provide bottled juices. Here's just one of several I found on the net, from the USA.
http://www.rainbowjuices.com

If you are in Singapore, one of the delights is that most shopping malls in buildings with multi-storey shops have a food court in the basement or on the top storey, or both, with at least one juice bar serving juices.

Kiosks serving juices is also becoming a trend in shopping malls in London, England. You will find them in suburbs such as Harrow and Watford, as well as the big, famous malls. If you are planning a shopping trip, most shopping malls have websites so you can check the names of the restaurants and juice bars. Then check the outlet websites for their food, drinks and prices.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author, speaker.

Oh to be in England now that summer pudding's here

The British all go to foreign countries in Summer and the foreigners all come here. What's there to see and do in England in summer?
You can sit outside at pavement cafes now that smoking is banned indoors so pubs and restaurants and cafes have outdoor areas sometimes with a few smokers but if you are lucky none.
A favourite British pudding in summer is Summer pudding? It's easy to make:

. Or buy it from Waitrose.

Summer means (turning off the central heating and putting away boots and coats with fur collars).

Summer clothes in Britain means low neck topics and bar shoulders or spaghetti straps.

Surely that applies everywhere. No, in Asia many girls don't have a décolletage or are conservative and the Chinese cheongsam has a slit sided skirt with a high neck top and bare arms. 

Sunhats have brims and caps have bigger sun visors and sunglasses are sold in supermarket. 

Suburban gardens and garden centres have roses. Watering the lawn, involves using sprinklers, hoses, or watering cans, until a long dry spell imposes a hosepipe ban. 

Picnics are popular and iced drinks. Adults enjoy Pimms No 1. Salads and fruit salads are popular. 

Packing for holidays, means remembering insect spray and fly killer and sting relief.

You are slimming to get into swimsuits therefore eating fruit salad, but I am kidding myself it’s OK to eat summer pudding. 

Favourite summer recipe in restaurants and hotel restaurants: summer pudding.

You can make this easily at home:
Line a bowl with (sliced white) bread (fresh or stale) and fill it with fruit juice and/or sugar syrup over red fruits or mixed fruits. Use the red syrup to colour the bread red, ideally by soaking overnight. 

Fruits for summer pudding: for example - redcurrants, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, white currants, blueberries. Optional serve with cream or yogurt.

You can make it with frozen fruit.
Several recipes are on the web from the BBC and others.

PS
My title is a parody of a poem by Robert Browning (7 May 1812-12 Dec 1889). The poem is entitled Home-Thoughts From Abroad, starting Oh, to be in England Now that April's here. You can see the full text in Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Thoughts_from_Abroad

Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.