Taking Tea with Tolkien, Part I

Satisfy your inner hobbit with this traditional hearty high tea recipe, reblogged from Recipewise.co.uk... Steep a pot of English Breakfast and visit their site for helpful step by step instructions.  Cheers!

As a child and living so close Tolkien might perhaps have been a fan of the properly made and commercially sold Melton Mowbray Pork Pie. There really is no other pork pie quite it’s equal. Melton, in Mowbray, Leicestershire, is the area located from where these famous Victorian pies were first sold (from the 1830′s). Made with a hot water crust pastry and proper pork ‘jelly’ this would have been a firm favourite taken at tea. Today, when people say pork pie, this is the standard pie they think of. We would make a large, round, hand-raised pie for this, following the recipe given.

Melton in Mowbray is a small market town located in north Leicester, central England; an area also famous for its Stilton Cheese. Although made earlier in the local rural farms in Mowbray the first of these now famous pies started to appear commercially in the 1830′s and have been on sale ever since. Under European Law only pies made within a designated zone around Melton, and using uncured pork, are allowed to carry the Melton Mowbray name on their packaging, (if sold commercially). The most traditional, and the best Pork Pies sold in Melton are still the hand-made and hand-raised ones, as given in the Victorian recipe below. The pie pastry, when freshly made (unlike a long-life shop bought pie) is fantastic, crispy on the outside and soft and yielding on the inside, from being soaked in the stock. A stock (to form the clear jelly) is always added to the hand-cut pork pie filling after baking, it is added because the meat expands during cooking and shrinks on cooling, leaving a gap under the pie lid.

The Original MELTON MOWBRAY PORK PIE Recipe

This recipe comes from a collection of local and regional recipes handed down within families who lived and worked in Leicestershire, many dating from the 1800s, via ‘Country Dishes’ by Barbara Hargreves (Ed.) published in 1962.

To make 1 pie: The Crust. 3/4 lb plain flour, 6 oz lard, 1/2 teaspoonful salt, 4 fluid oz water.

The Filling: 1 lb pork (failing flitch, use shoulder, and if bought buy 1 1/4 lb (625g) to allow trimming) 1 level teaspoonful salt, 1/2 level teaspoonful pepper, 2 tablespoonfuls water.

The Crust. Put lard and water in saucepan and bring to the boil to melt the lard. Meanwhile weigh and sieve flour and salt, then pour lard and water (while still boiling) over the flour and mix well. Knead well by hand. Leave to cool about and hour but during this time knead once or twice. The dough must not get really cold otherwise it will crack and crumble. Turn onto floured board. Flour mould (the traditional Leicestershire pie mould is wooden, but a 2 lb jam-jar will do), put crust on top of mould and shape it from the top some way down the sides. The crust should be about 1/3 inch (1cm) thick. Leave to set for 20 minutes, then turn crust of mould and trim with scissors.

The Filling. Mince the meat on coarse knife of mincer or chop finely with a knife; add salt and pepper and mix in, add water and mix again. Press meat well into corners of pie, filling within 3/4 inch (2cm) of the top. Make the lid out of the pastry trimmings, press the edges together. Cut round to neaten off – this cutting also helps to bind the top and sides together. Castellate the top with thumb and first finger, make one hole with a skewer and decorate with stars or leaves.

Cut a length of greaseproof paper about 1 inch (2.5cm) higher than the pie, wind it round the pie making sure it goes right down the bottom, and stick it together with flour paste. This holds the pie in position. The pie need not be baked on the same day – in fact it is improved by standing overnight.

To cook, put the pie on a sandwich tin with 1 inch (2.5cm) edges – allowing plenty of room around the pie – and place on baking tray. Cook at 350 degrees F (180C) for the first hour, then turn oven to 300 degrees F (160C) and give pie another 45 minutes. The sandwich tin will re-absorb the fat. When the pie is nearly cold make a small hole in the top and add jelly. The jelly is made from bones and rind, just covered with water, simmered for 2 hours, then strained and seasoned. It should be poured into pie 1 hour after it comes out of oven.

Light as a swan feather, the dessert fit for a ballerina

Pavlova is a meringue-based dessert named after the Russian ballet dancer Anna Pavlova. It is a meringue dessert with a crisp crust and soft, light inside. The name is pronounced /pævˈloʊvə/ or /pɑːvˈloʊvə/, unlike the name of the dancer, which was /ˈpɑːvləvə/ or /ˈpævləvə/. The dessert is believed to have been created in honour of the dancer either during or after one of her tours to Australia and New Zealand in the 1920s.

The following listed as the "best" pav recipe, from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients 

• 3 egg whites
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 pint fresh strawberries

Directions

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Draw a 9 inch circle on the parchment. An easy way to do this is to draw around the outside of a 9 inch pan with a pencil.
• In a large bowl, beat egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar gradually, while continuing to whip. Make sure sugar is completely dissolved. Mix together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the cornstarch; lightly fold into meringue with lemon juice.
• Spread a layer of meringue to fit circle on parchment, approximately 1/4 inch thick. With remainder of mixture, pipe or spoon swirls around the edges to form a shallow bowl shape.
• Bake at 300 degrees F (150 degrees C) for 1 hour. Turn off oven, but leave meringue in oven for an additional 30 minutes. When cool, the meringue should be hard on the outside, and slightly moist on the inside.
• In a large bowl, combine the cream and half a cup of confectioners sugar, and whip until thickened. Decorate with fruit of your choice; strawberries are excellent.

Nutritional Information
Servings: 12
Amount Per Serving Calories: 186
Total Fat: 9.3g
Cholesterol: 34mg

Here is the link showing how to build the gorgeous swan pav shown 

The nationality of its creator has been a source of argument between the two nations for many years, but formal research indicates New Zealand as the source. The dessert is a popular dish and an important part of the national cuisine of both countries, and with its simple recipe, is frequently served during celebratory and holiday meals.

Origin

Research shows the recipe originated in New Zealand.[6] Keith Money, a biographer of Anna Pavlova, wrote that a hotel chef in Wellington, New Zealand, created the dish when Pavlova visited there in 1926 on her world tour.

Professor Helen Leach, a culinary anthropologist at the University of Otago in New Zealand, has compiled a library of cookbooks containing 667 pavlova recipes from more than 300 sources.[6] Her book, The Pavlova Story: A Slice of New Zealand’s Culinary History, states that the first Australian pavlova recipe was created in 1935 while an earlier version was penned in 1929[2] in the rural magazine.

The Australian website "Australian Flavour" gives the earlier date of 1926 for its creation, suggesting that Home Cookery for New Zealand, by Australian writer Emily Futter, contained a recipe for "Meringue with Fruit Filling". This recipe was similar to today's version of the dessert.

It has been claimed that Bert Sachse created the dish at the Esplanade Hotel in Perth, Australia in 1935. In defence of his claim as inventor of the dish, a relative of Sachse's wrote to Leach suggesting that Sachse may have accidentally dated the recipe incorrectly. Leach replied they would not find evidence for that "because it's just not showing up in the cookbooks until really the 1940s in Australia." (However, a 1937 issue of the Australian Women's Weekly contains a "pavlova sweet cake" recipe.) Of such arguments, Matthew Evans, a restaurant critic for The Sydney Morning Herald, said that it was unlikely that a definitive answer about the pavlova's origins would ever be found. "People have been doing meringue with cream for a long time, I don't think Australia or New Zealand were the first to think of doing that."

The first known recorded recipe named "pavlova" was published in the fifth Australian edition of Davis Dainty Dishes in 1926. However this "pavlova" recipe was not meringue based, but was instead a multi-coloured gelatine dish.

A newspaper article from January 1927 claims an American ice-cream was named after Pavlova: "Dame Nellie Melba, of course, has found fame apart from her art in the famous sweet composed of peaches and cream, while Mme. Anna Pavlova lends her name to a popular variety of American ice-cream." Preparation and consumption

Pavlova is made by beating egg whites (and sometimes salt) to a very stiff consistency before folding in caster sugar, white vinegar, cornflour, and sometimes vanilla essence, and slow-baking the mixture, similarly to meringue.

The major difference between the pavlova and a large meringue is the addition of cornflour, which results in the pavlova having a crisp and crunchy outer shell, and a soft, moist marshmallow-like centre, unlike meringue which is usually solid throughout. The consistency also makes the pavlova significantly more fragile than meringue. Because the Pavlova is notorious for deflating if exposed to cold air, when cooking is complete it is left in the oven to fully cool down before the oven door is opened.

Pavlova is traditionally decorated with a topping of whipped cream and fresh soft fruit such as kiwifruit, passionfruit, and strawberries. Factory-made pavlovas can be purchased at supermarkets and decorated as desired. A commercial product is available that includes pre-mixed ingredients for baking the meringue shell, requiring only the addition of water and sugar.

Leftover decorated pavlova can be refrigerated overnight, but the dessert will absorb moisture and lose its crispness. Undecorated pavlova can be left overnight in the oven, or for several days in an airtight container, to be decorated when ready.

In culture

World's largest pavlova -- Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum in Wellington, celebrated its first birthday in February 1999 with the creation of the world's largest pavlova, named "Pavzilla", which was cut by the Prime Minister of the time, Jenny Shipley. This record was broken by students at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Hawke's Bay, New Zealand in March 2005. Their creation 'Pavkong' stretched 64 metres long in comparison to Te Papa's 45 metre long pavlova. In August 2010, chef Aaron Campbell displayed a 50 square metre rugby-themed pavlova, with the Bledisloe Cup in the centre, in the ChristChurch Cathedral in Christchurch, to raise money for the official charity of the All Blacks.

NZI advertising campaign -- In 2007, insurance company NZI ran a humorous series of television advertisements in New Zealand highlighting what are locally considered to be historic New Zealand icons being adopted elsewhere, including the pavlova playing on its status as a common feature of the friendly trans-Tasman rivalry. NZI's parent company is Australian owned.

[fact source: Wikipedia]