Reto Cookbooks - Are You Hungry Tonight?

A couple of weekends ago I was visiting my folks, I had the ultimate lazy Sunday and stayed in my PJs and glutinously watched The Food Network all day, to watch a Nigella Lawson marathon. I am a huge fan of her kitsch wonderfulness and I was in retro overload when she cracked out a recipe from "Elvis' Favourite Recipes, Are You Hungry Tonight?" The recipe she made was a Fried Banana and Peanut Butter Sandwich. I think it possibly had a gajillion calories in it, but it did look super yummy!  

I love this recipe book! The cheesy pictures of Elvis surpass all the cheese that is needed for the recipes in this book. My favourite picture has to be Elvis with his guitar with the lady covered in bananas, you just don't get entertainment like that anymore. The last recipe in the book takes up 9 pages! And if you follow those 9 pages you will create The Royal Wedding Cake, this was the cake that was created for Elvis and Priscilla when they got hitched. This is apparently the exact recipe that their wedding cake was made to, so if you have a spare 20 pounds of flour and 500 hungry mouths to feed you could try to recreate this 6 tiered beast. 

Inside this book there were some random recipe cards. I thought the first one was funny, how to make a 'Layered Fruit Salad', the recipe instructions basically tell you to chop fruit up and layer it, then serve. The Lasagne recipe card is fabulously dated, I especially love the bottle of wine in its veneered cover. 

I can't wait to try out some of these recipes! 

Happy Retro Cooking!
Much Love
Kirst

Gluten Free Rhubarb Bread & Butter Pud.

I had some Yorkshire forced Rhubarb kicking about in the fridge and it needed to be used up before it went over so i decided that it was pudding time. I chopped up the rhubarb and stewed it with a little sloe gin. Next I added some fresh grated ginger and raisons, then just let it simmer quietly and cook down so the rhubarb turned into a thick syrupy mess. I tasted it and added 1 tablespoon of Demerara sugar just to sweeten it up a touch. 

After I had made my rhubarb compote I had a forage around the kitchen cupboards to try and figure out what to make. I decided to make a quick custard, this was actually pretty easy, I have tried to make custard in the past and have stuck to recipes religiously but all I have ended up with is weird, eggy lump broth. So this time I took a deep breath, cracked an egg and whisked it with a couple of tablespoons of caster sugar. I whipped it until it was really frothy, whilst I was doing this I had a cups worth of milk in a small saucepan on the hob warming. When my egg and sugar mixture was frothy and the milk was just below the boil I poured the milk onto the egg gradually and whisked like crazy so it didn't curdle. I transferred it back to the small saucepan and heated it gently and kept whisking. It did threaten me with turning lumpy but I whisked like my life depended on it, no curdles for me today! After that I added a large flourish of nutmeg. 

I spooned the compote into two ramekins then tore a small slice of brown gluten free bread into each one to cover the rhubarb. When that was done I poured over the triumphantly un-lumpy custard, pushed any rogue bread so it was submerged then left it to rest for about an hour. When it was pudding time I cooked them in the oven on 180 degrees fan for about 20 minutes. 

This was super yummy, I haven't had bread and butter pudding since well before I found out I was gluten intolerant, so it felt like a real treat. I think I might try a marmalade flavour one next. I also realise I shouldn't really call it bread AND butter pudding because I didn't add butter but I can be a dessert maverick sometimes.

Hope you are having a great Saturday <3

xkx