Comfort food for England fans - Banana Butterscotch Pudding

Oh, England.  Oh, boys!  What happened?

The dedicated readers of this blog will know that I'm not too fussed about football.  Still, it's a pity when England has 'flattered to decieve' (as my husband likes to say) yet again.  I really am sorry though, as I tend to romanticise about old Blighty, being so far away from home.  It's true that sometimes, even in this beautiful city of Cape Town, indeed one of the most beautiful and picturesque cities in the world, I still think about the vast green land of England, even long for the grey skies in my worst bouts of homesickness.  But one of the things I think England really has to be commended for,undisputed, is the wealth of literature and the host of literary giants that have been born and nurtured within it's shores.  The English may not play great football anymore, but people, make no mistake, they have one of the best literary traditions in the world!!

What on earth am I talking about?  Well, as a prelude to the recipe I'm including in this post, I would like to cite C.S.Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia.  When I made this Banana Butterscotch Pudding last week, not only was I thrilled that this is a quick and easy self-saucing pudding (I mean, a pudding that  makes its own sauce - what more could you ask for??) but it made me think of Lewis' Chronicles and I smiled to myself, thinking how the author would incorporate a pudding like this into the book.  For those of you who don't know, C.S. Lewis writes about such English characters such as Peter, the strapping young man that England would have been proud of in the days of both World Wars, going off to battle, fighting bravely, and somehow always managing to come home victorious, in time for tea, and usually a few crisply burned sausages and home baked bread too.  I imagined, while sampling some of the pudding I had made, that the quotation would go something like this:

"They marched homewards from the battle, exhausted but jubilant.  Their worries about provisions for the way back were nullified, as Mrs. Squirrel had managed to prepare a Banana Butterscotch Pudding from the Bananas that Sgt. Monkey had hunted for them, and from the cane of a kind Sugar-Fairy they chanced to meet on their travels through the Forgotten Forest.  As they made camp that evening under the stars, Peter sat, deep in thought about about everything that had passed recently, how his life had taken such a drastic change so quickly, and he felt excited and nervous at the same time about his next meeting with Aslan.  Lucy handed him a bowl of Mrs. Squirrel's Banana Butterscoth pudding, and as he took his first bite, he suddenly felt as though he was back home in London.  The sweet warmth of the pudding melted into his tired mind and body, and he soon fell into a much needed deep sleep."

I had a lot of time to think about this, as you can see.   Whip up this pudding, England fans (or anybody, indeed) and reminisce about 'better days'.

Taken from the July issue of Your Family magazine.

Ingredients: 

For the pudding
210 ml cake flour
pinch salt
140ml castor sugar

1 tbsp (15ml) baking powder

1 mashed banana
1 cup (250ml) milk
90ml melted butter
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence

For the topping
140ml soft brown sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) golden syrup
1 cup (250ml) boiling water

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.  Lightly grease a 2.5l baking dish.
- Sift the flour, salt, castor sugar and baking powder together.  Add the banana, milk, butter, egg and vanilla essence and whisk until well combined.  Pour into the prepared baking dish.
- For the topping, place the brown sugar, syrup and water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil.  Carefully pour the boiling mixture over the pudding, then bake for 40 mins (time varies according to your oven) until it's cooked through when tested with a skewer.

Good with custard.  Great with créme fraiche.  Amazing with vanilla ice cream.

Welcome to South Africa, world! Milk Tart recipe

Wooooo hooo!!!  The Fifa World Cup has come to South Africa!  The atmosphere's electric!  People are going crazy!  The traffic going into town is completey choc-a-bloc!  There's so much noise!  Yippee!

Alright, alright.  I'll settle down.  In fact, for those of you reading this that know me personally, you're probably confused already (that's if you didn't pick up the note of sarcasm).  I'm not remotely interested in football.  I was the weird girl in school because I didn't support a team like everyone else, and I once got chastised badly for pretending to support Turkey in a previous world cup match against England, in a very English high school.  Sorry, I'm just not very patriotic when it comes to sport (if ever).  I have dual nationality (British and South African) and I have nothing against either country, nothing at all.  I think that every country has it's beauty and charm.  I just fail to get excited about a bunch of highly overpaid men kicking a ball around trying to get it into a net.  I have no problem if you want to play the game to keep fit etc, but I can't really understand why people obsess over watching it.  All the time.

Take South Africa, for example. A country that straddles the 1st and 3rd world border,quite significantly.  On the weekends, my husband and I (along with his brothers and sister in law who totally run the project) go to a township in Cape Town called Delft. Here, only a mere 15 minutes drive from the safe and comfortable leafy suburb in which I live, is a vast area where people live in poor excuses for houses.  We're talking corrugated iron roofs, thin board-like walls, and in the area called Blikkiesdorp (small tin town) people live in so-called residences that resemble what you and I call a porto-cabin.  A mobile toilet, except, it's supposed to be a house.  They share a toilet with 5 other 'houses'.  The area's infested with crime.  Children can't go to school because it's become risky to walk. Most people have no other means of transport, meaning that unemployment is also rife.  How is this World Cup benefiting those people, and countless others?

Anyway, I'm digressing.  The football tournament is here now, and even if I'm not interested in the sport, I can still be a good host and welcome our foreign visitors into this beautiful land.  Welcome, visitors!  Enjoy your stay in South Africa.  Enjoy soaking up our gloriously diverse culture and eating our unrivalled sumptuous cuisine.  And here's my little offering - for the next few weeks, during the World Cup, I propose to 'pepper' my blog with what I'll call South Africa's Best Bakes (although some may not be bakes at all, as we're rather good at fridge desserts and deep fried things as well).  I'm kicking off now (haha-the irony) with Milk Tart (Melktert).  I think the first time I can remember having this was when my sister-in-law Ziemie made it for us when she was just a newlywed.  I thought it was fabulous then, and I have a soft spot for it because my Dad loves custard tarts, and this is pretty much the same thing.

This recipe has been slightly adapted from the original recipe in the Capetonian housewife's bible, Boeka Treats.


Ingredients:

Base:
125g butter
125ml (1/2 cup) caster sugar
1 small egg (or 1/2 large egg)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
250ml (1 cup) self raising flour
250ml (1 cup) plain flour

Filling:
400g (1 tin) condensed milk
1tsp vanilla essence
Pinch salt
9 eggs (yes, 9)
3 1/2 cups boiling water
3-4 pieces stick cinnamon
3-4 pieces crushed cardamom
30 ml (2 tbsp) butter

Method:

Biscuit base:
- Cream the butter and sugar.
- Add the egg and vanilla and mix.
- Sift in the flour to form a firm dough.

Filling:
- Line a pyrex dish (25x35cm) with the biscuit base dough, breaking off peices of dough and pressing it onto the the base and sides of the dish.  Refrigerate.
- Pour condensed milk into a bowl, add the boiling water, butter, cinnamon and cardamom. Add vanilla and salt.
- Allow to cool.
- Beat the eggs and add to the cooled off mixture. Mix well.
- Take out the lined dish from the fridge.  Strain the egg-milk mixture into the lined dish.  Sprinkle the top with a little ground cinnamon.
- Bake at 180 degrees until it's set (about 45 mins).

Enjoy!