I started this entry a month ago, as confinment restrictions were lifted. Finally, France is offically open (except for the borders) and the terraces across the city were full yesterday evening.
Towards the end of last week I started seeing adverts on social media for local restaurants that are now open for customers to order a take-away meal, and as a result I’ve been thinking about my own work.
Let me be frank- I am loving being able to stay home, but we live in a very comfortable beautiful place, so it’s easy. I dread that moment when the rat-race recommences, and my days are a blur of school trips, work, the school trip home, and then the return to work, so you can understand why I’m (mostly) as content as a meerkat basking in the morning sun of the Kalahari.
I’ve spoken about my work a fair bit, so you know that it’s an Irish pub. We serve good food- we take pride in our fait maison credit, even so far as making spaetzle when necessary (although X wasn’t too chuffed with my attempt, so I leave it for him to do when he can be bothered.) Obviously working in this environment has been the source of many challenging and entertaining moments in my life, and I take immense pleasure in sneaking my cultural experiences onto the culinary palate of the frenchman.
I think I bring a margin of eclectism to this french kitchen and I’ve been able to offer up a great variation on our Chefs Burgers: Lamb Burgers with a version of delicate harissa; a type of Shakshouka and a fried egg with a Beef patty; a pavé of salmon with a lemon fennel slaw- although perhaps the latter was not such a win. My next suggestion for the Chefs Burger will be a Surf ‘n Turf Burger: a beef patty topped with tempura battered prawn, accompanied by a peri-peri sauce as well as a genuine tartare sauce.
I’ve suggested a bobotie for the plat du jour once, but it was a quiet week, so I ended up converting the spicy mince into samoosas to serve as an entrée. Also, I tend to bastardise bobotie to something that my Afrikaans forefathers would not recognise. (I actually dislike bobotie due to boarding school, so I’ve come up with my own- very complicated- version of it).
However, I have made my mark with our Malva Pudding.
Because obviously.
French desserts are all about egg, cream, vanilla, seasonal fruit and chocolate. Or roughly that anyway. To try to explain to my European colleagues exactly what Malva Pudding is difficult. For the English and Irish, they know Sticky Toffee Pudding, but there isn’t anything really similar that we can compare it to for the French.
When trying to explain it to customers, the conversations go like this: “a dessert originating from the French corner of the Cape Winelands, it’s like a cake. But it’s served warm. And it’s sticky and syrupy all at the same time. You really just need to try it”.
Many years ago, someone I don’t know randomly contacted me to ask about the origins of the humble Malva Pudding which is notably a well recognised South African dessert.
The History of Food is not a subject at college, so naturally I turned to Google and only pearl of info I could discover is that it came out of the kitchens of the Boschendal wine estate restaurant, it’s name also suggestively linked to sweet wine and geraniums.
Scoot forward 15 years since that conversation, Google serves up a greater number of hits regarding the origins, but the bottom line does still refer to Boschendal wine estate.
Given this tenuous link to France and its own association to the best wines in the world, it makes sense that I can propose this dessert on the menu at the restaurant I work in, and when all the feedback is wrapped in praise, it warms my heart knowing a little part of home has found it’s way onto the French culinary palate.
Oh, the responses I get have been by far and large THE most uplifting moments in my job, as a South African chef in the French kitchen of an Irish Pub.
We’ve had customers that don’t live in Strasbourg, but when they have reason to stop in the city while travelling (from the South of France), they now stop at Kelly’s for Malva Pudding.
2 days before I was put into lockdown, we had a particularly busy Friday night at the pub, and I was meeting 2 new South Africans to the city, so I happened to be in the restaurant when a table paid the bill and left. They must have seen me in my uniform, so as they left, they pulled me over and thanked me for the (Malva) dessert <<C’est magnifique>> . How much of a buzz was that?
Malva Pudding
6-8 people
Ingrediants:
250ml Cake Flour 125ml Milk
45ml Smooth Apricot Jam 30g Butter
100ml Sugar 5ml Bicarb of Soda
1 Egg 1ml Salt
20ml Vinegar
Sauce Ingrediants:
375ml Cream 200ml Sugar
15ml Smooth Apricot Jam 125g Butter
1ml Salt
Method:
· Preheat the oven to 180°.
· Mix all the sauce ingredients together, bring to the boil and simmer, stirring all the time for 2 minutes.
· Cream the butter and sugar together until light and creamy, add the egg and beat until light & fluffy
· Beat in the Jam.
· Dissolve the Bicarb of Soda in the Milk
· Sift the flour and salt, and then add to the mixture alternately with the milk
· Lastly add the vinegar and mix thoroughly.
· Spoon the mixture into a greased 2l oven proof dish with a lid. Pour over half the sauce
· Cover with a lid or foil and place into the hot oven. Bake for 30 minutes.
· Remove from oven, pour the rest of the sauce over and bake uncovered for a further 15 minutes until the center of the pudding is cooked, and the sauce bubbles around the sides.
Serve hot
As usual, here is a printable version.
Side note: I’ve altered my method for work in order to accommodate reheating it to serve it, and instead of using all the sauce when I bake it, I now make a caramelised sauce that I use half of when I bake it, and I store the rest in the fridge. I bathe the cake in the sauce to reheat it, and I can’t help but wonder if something of a caramel beurre salé twist might make it more recognisable to the French. There is certainly something in this idea for a gastronomique restautant perhaps! I can picture a deconstructed plate, with a seductive lash of caramel sauce, a generous sprinkling of fleur de sel de geurande with a little apricote compote and a dark caramelised slice of le gateau de cap. Can you picture that? As it is, I’ve had the opportunity to make individual Malva Puddings once, and they worked out really nicely. I lined my jumbo muffin pans with baking paper and reduced the cooking time so if you try it this way, be aware that the smaller it is, the shorter the cooking time will be. See below for some Instagram based photos of a CupCake recipe. I use a large muffin tray- it’s not worth making them in regular sized cupcakes.
I have a couple of extra days off before I go back to work. Any particular requests for my favourite recipe or tips?
Pinot, Bretzels, and Cathedrals 