Cooks Course ’09: Steamed Pudding

Ok so as you’ve guessed, I’ve pretty much got no life so here I am still at the keyboard! Well here’s another good Cooks Course recipe! Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 180g self raising flour
• 100g sugar
• 100g margarine
• 2 eggs
• 40ml milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 x empty 450g jam tins
• 3/4 cup golden syrup

Put all the flour, salt and sugar into a bowl and rub the marge in well. Add the beaten eggs and a little milk. Mix well.

Grease the tins and put 1/3 cup golden syrup in each.

Pour the mixture equally into the tins and stand them in a pot containing 3cm of water and steam them for 3/4 hour.

Serve with custard or cream.

Cooks Course ’09: Harvest Loaf

Hi Again!!!

So heres the next recipe from last weekends Cooks Badge course which myself and Jon thought was pretty decent. Its called the Harvest Loaf, its quiet sweet but in the good way for a bread!

Ingredients:

• 120g margarine
  

  A Harvest Loaf (which I stole from a rival weblog hehehe!)

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 340g mixed fruit (aka. cake mix)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1 3/4 cups bread flour

Simply beat all the ingredients together well and pour into a greased bread pan. Place it in a Dutch Oven (remember to raise the dish from the bottom to prevent burning) and bake it over hot coals for about 1 1/2 hours. Enjoy!

Can Scouts Cook…..?

Hey all!!!

So this last weekend myself and Jon went through to staff on Cooks Course at Hawequas. Needless to say, as always something tends to go wrong the day before and we ended up taking the journey there and back in a car that was 3 sizes too small, had suspension as low and James’ standards and of course had a million and one plastic bits to fall off everytime the the road got bumpy! But we made it there and back, with most of my car still intact and with only some of our dignity lost along the way!

Not exactly a restaurant kitchen!

The weekend went pretty well. Only some of the 5 3-course meals we ended up inspecting were partially raw or burnt, and as an ex-scout we both already had stomaches of cast iron and bowels of pure titanium. So the indigestion was only slightly bad……. No, I’m being cynical! The standard of the food was really high and I’m totally suprised that the same scouts who manage to present raw dough at every Gordons Shield have managed to come up with some icredible meals! Well done guys! Check out out the photos here!

So looking back, we though it would be a cool idea to put up some of our favourite meals on the blog. We aren’t going to say whos we thought was the best, just the recipes! These recipes come straight out of the Cooks Course material, so if there is an uncited source, I apologise in advance!

Butternut Soup:

• 500g Butternut
• 2 tablespoons margarine
• 2 onions
• 45ml flour
• 1 teaspoon mild curry powder (although I’ sure more was used on the day)
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 500ml chicken stock
• 500ml milk
• salt & pepper

Fry the onions in butter until soft. Add butternut and stir to coat with butter and onions. Cover and cook for 5min. Stir in flour, curry powder and spices. Add stock and milk and bring to the boild whilst stirring continuously. Allow to simmer for 15-20min. Liquidise and adjust seasoning.

P.S. Don’t eat this if your Italian. (Long story)

More recipes will go up in the next few day! Cheers!

The Elands of Cooks 2009

Jan Ellis Pudding (Malva for Manne!)

Howdi all!

This personally is my favourite dessert! And the best part is that it’s really easy to make in a Dutch Oven/Potjie Pot over the coals on camp! Give it a shot!

Basically, Jan Ellis Pudding is Malva but without any vinegar in it (which makes sense coz who really wants vinegar in a dessert?). This is truly South African dessert and it gets its name from Jan Ellis, a Springbok rugby player in the 60′s and 70′s who holds the record for being the most capped Springbok ever (38 caps).

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

• 200ml self-raising flour
• 1 egg
• tablespoon apricot jam
• 65ml milk
• 65ml sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch salt

Syrup Ingredients:

• 125ml boiling water
• 125ml cream (not whipped)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 125ml butter
• 125ml sugar
• tablespoon apricot jam

Method:

First disolve the baking soda in the milk. Then mix all the other pudding ingredients together. Then this is well mixed, add the milk mixture and work out the lumps. This can then be poured into a bread dish and baked in a Dutch Oven on coals for about 20-30min, or in an oven at 180C for 30-40min.

All the ingredients for the syrup can be mixed in a small pot and simmered.

When ready to serve, the syrup can either be poured over the whole pudding and left to soak (the pudding should dissolve slightly) or it can be poured over the individual slices. Serve with custard or ice-cream!

Enjoy!

Deep-Fried Pizza

Hi All!

In keeping with the Scottish ‘Braveheart’ theme of the upcoming Roberts Trophy, I thought I’d post some interesting Scottish recipes. Starting with Deep-Fried Pizza!

This may sound strange for those who haven’t tried it before, but apparently it’s really good. Start off with a plain pre-cooked pizza of your own choice (usually plain Margherita or mushroom pizzas are used) and freeze it. Once it is frozen simply deep-fry it for a minute or 2. Doing this with individual slices is much easier. No batter is required, but another variety known as ‘Pizza Crunch’ is fried in batter and if very popular in Fife.

This modern tradition began in the 1970′s and deep-fried pizza is now common in most chip shops throughout Scotland. This is usually server as a ‘supper’ portion with 2 or 3 slices and a portion of chips. Other varieties include a ‘pizza sandwich’ where the chips are placed between the pizza halves. The ‘Salt’n'Sauce’ variety smothers it with salt, vinegar and HP sauce and is popular in south-east Scotland.

In Scotland, this meal is usually served with a softdrink called Irn-Brew, which as far as I can tell is sort of a crossbreed between our Coke and Sparletta Iron Brew.

Give it a shot and let us know your opinion!

Mountain Dew Chicken

Heres a favourite we’ve tried a few times! Give it a shot!

Ingredients:

1x Whole Chicken

1x 340ml tin Mountain Dew (or Fanta Pineapple)

2x apples

2x pears

5x apricots

2x large potatoes

1/2x butternut

1x tin pineapple

carrots

ground ginger

mixed herbs

cinnamon

cooking oil

Method:

Preheat Dutch oven on fire, with a layer of cooking oil on the bottom. Turn Mountain Dew can on its side and poke it with large holes, then put herbs, cinnamon and oil into it and insert it into the chicken. The chicken can then be rubbed with seasoning and placed in the Dutch oven. When the mixture in the tin starts to boil (you will hear bubbling) its time to add your chopped fruit and veg. Try layer it so that the potatoes and carrots start off on the bottom and the pineapple on top, with everything else in between. Mix this regularly and dont worry about spilling the Mountain Dew. It should take about an hour.

Enjoy!