COOKBOOK
Some family meals for the modern age
What a smart mix of Utopian fantasy and culinary reality is “The River Cottage Family Cookbook” (Ten Speed Press, 2008; $32.50; 100-plus recipes), the fourth in a series named for the farm of its British co-author, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Written with Fizz Carr, a farmer and animal welfare advocate, the book has the appropriate tone and information to capture an audience of adults and ’tweeners. Together, they can learn to bake bread, plant salad gardens and shop for free-range meat. It looks like fun, with interesting bits of history contained in 10 ingredient-driven chapters.
That’s no minor accomplishment. Granted, the authors live on farms with their families in rural England. But directions for food-related activities have been composed with modern family life in mind.
In fact, modernity is one of the reasons why this cookbook comes at a key time. Parents who are raising children in the 10-to-14-year-old age bracket probably have had less contact with sources of real food than their parents or grandparents did. “The River Cottage Family Cookbook” attempts to reestablish simple practices: the whys and hows of kneading dough and ways to make sausage and butter at home.
Recipes are written in a real-time format so that preparation steps are clear.
Some dishes are decidedly British; custards and jellies and creamy fish pie might not play to American palates. But the recipes that feature sugar and honey, milk and chocolate are bound to satisfy.
In a way, it’s a small shame that the book cover and so many photos inside depict the authors’ children cavorting in culinary ways. The basics of food production are covered so well here that anyone, not just those blessed with offspring, should feel welcome to dive in.
Will a family schedule bound by soccer practice, music lessons and allergy shots be able to fit in every River Cottage activity? Unlikely. There are no rules about how many projects should be tackled. However, this month might be a good time to jump in and try a few.
Making butter at home
Butter is very easy to make yourself. Until the 19th century, nearly all butter was made at home, in churns with paddles or plungers.
Anything that stirs or agitates cream in a steady, regular way will eventually turn it to butter. People have made butter sitting in a rocking chair with the cream in a jar on their lap. Feel how the cream thickens as you shake it, and wait for the sudden, satisfying slosh as it turns into butter.
You will need: very cold heavy cream; a large jar with a tight-fitting, screw-top lid; a mug; a wooden board and a wooden spoon.
Take the cream out of the refrigerator and let it warm to room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Pour just enough cream into the jar so that it fills no more than one-third of the jar. You need to leave plenty of air space so that the cream can really move around.
Screw on the lid tightly. Shake the jar up and down and all around so that the cream bounces against the lid. It’s important not to stop shaking until the butter starts to form. First, you’ll feel the cream slop around in the jar; then you’ll notice that it stops slopping and goes silent. At that stage, you just have whipped cream. Keep shaking; it might take 10 to 30 minutes.
When you hear a big lump sloshing around in a thin, watery liquid, you’ve got butter. The liquid is buttermilk. Carefully open the lid and pour the buttermilk into a jug; wash the lump of butter under cold running water.
Fill the jar you were using halfway with fresh, cold water. Return the lump of butter to the jar; swirl it around in the water, then carefully drain the water away. Repeat until the water is clear.
Put the butter lump on the board and press down on it with the back of the wooden spoon (or use your hands) to force out any buttermilk still inside. This is important, because any buttermilk left inside will make the butter go sour. You can now wrap your homemade butter in wax paper and refrigerate it. Or eat it straight away.
