Food & Drink
Cooking...
with Mrs Simkins
Cumberland Rum Butter for Christmas and Christenings Cumberland rum butter is a real Christmas treat – there’s nothing like watching a spoonful slide and melt over your Christmas pudding or slipping a sliver or two under a mince pie lid. Whilst the most well-known ‘hard sauce’, brandy butter, is a fairly light affair and can be whipped up from brandy, butter and icing sugar, Cumberland rum butter is much more complex, and full of potent festive flavours: dark brown muscovado sugar, Caribbean rum and plenty of spice in the form of nutmeg. Rum butter was once fed to expectant and nursing mothers in the Lake District, to ‘keep their strength up’ and was a vital part of Cumberland christenings and visits to new babies and continues in some families today. Usually eaten spread on oatcakes, coins were left in the empty butter bowl. Plenty of coins sticking to the sides and bottom of the
150g salted butter, slightly softened Up to ½ a nutmeg
bowl predicted wealth and good fortune would ‘stick’ to the child as it grew. Obviously, it behoved guests not to scrape the bowl too clean, but to leave it fairly sticky in the baby’s best interests! Families often kept a special bowl for serving rum butter and many beautiful butter
Mum’s Kitchen... This is my granddaughter Evie’s favourite at Christmas! This lovely tasty salad has festive elements in it and makes a lovely change from all the traditional Christmas fare. Cranberry and Green Lentil Salad Ingredients: 150g dried cranberries Juice and grated zest of 2 small oranges 3 x 410g tins green lentils, drained and rinsed
Bunch parsley, chopped 4 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar Method Soak cranberries in orange juice and grated zest till plump. Mix together lentils and parsley, reserving some parsley to sprinkle on the top. Add to cranberries and orange juice
bowls have been passed down through the generations. As the saying goes: Butter for goodness, rum for spirit, sugar for sweetness and nutmeg for spice. Ingredients for a 425g (15oz) jar 175g Muscovado sugar 100ml dark Caribbean rum
For best results, steep the sugar in the rum overnight. The next day, heat gently, stirring frequently until the sugar is completely dissolved: avoid boiling. Cool. Beat the butter until creamy and gradually work in the rum and sugar mixture. Grate in a lavish amount of nutmeg and stir thoroughly. Pack into a sealed sterilised jar. Note Tightly covered, this keeps brilliantly in the fridge or a cool larder, for months and is absolutely beyond delicious spread on toasted crumpets: no need to butter first with normal butter obviously! It’s also wonderful on pancakes. Or toast. Or tea cakes, scones, gingernuts, digestive biscuits, rice pudding, your weekend porridge, baked apples, Dorset knobs . . . . Check out Mrs Simkins’ website for more Christmas recipes MrsSimkins.co.uk twitter.com/mrssimkinscooks
with Diana Holman CIDER AND APPLE JUICE Farmhouse cider, also Ashmead's Kernel juice. 3 litre takeaways, £10 each. Cider by Rosie, Winterborne Houghton, DT11 0PE. Tel 01258 880543
and mix well. Whisk olive oil and vinegar together and pour over. Season lightly and sprinkle with reserved parsley. 39
