A step back in time - Danish Peasant Girl with a veil

Its been a busy old week with one thing and another; and this evening I decided to nip into town as it was late night shopping in the Queensgate Centre in Peterborough.  So I duly tottled off after work into town.

I went to several places before I descended on M & S to get one or two bits on the food front and I also investigated the magazine rack at M & S.  I ended up buying  the Good Food Magazine Christmas 2017 edition as a result.

I have not done much since we got back in but I did drag my magazine out and started to peruse the same.  I always browse through carefully to see if there is anything new to try or a different article that inspires me or just basically a different take on things.  Imagine my surprise when I found a recipe entitled Maidens in the Mist.  Oh I thought that sounds interesting  - a different pudding for the repertoire.  As I began to read the small print  it said "Maidens in the mist.  Also called "peasant girls in a veil"  Funny I thought I know that recipe!

In my time it was called "Danish Peasant Girl with a veil".  It was a very new recipe then.  When I was sixteen and taking my practical on cooking (I was with the County Examiner for the practical side of the exam [only so many of us were chosen to be observed]).  We had each received different questions of what to do mine had been something along the lines.  You have an elderly relative coming to stay to recuperate with you.  She is a little weak and needs building up.  What would you propose to feed her for her first meal with you.

It had to be a three course meal.

I started off with a very small prawn cocktail, then did roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, and veggies and then a very new recipe  "Danish Peasant Girl with a veil".  At that time the recipe used white breadcrumbs, but you can in effect use either.  Its a lovely light pudding.

Apparently so rumour has it (and I gleaned this information from younger students at the school) I had apparently come top in the practical exam.  It was never confirmed to me but by the mere fact that younger students who I did not know too well were coming up and saying this to me there must be something in it somewhere down the line.  Apparently from what the youngsters were saying I had been held up as a good example of how to do things correctly at that particular time when it came to cooking and had passed with flying colours with the County Examiner.  I will never know but I did pass my cookery exam.

I had had previous experience of cooking and looking after patients and my brother and my Dad.  When I had just turned 15 mum had been taken seriously ill and diagnosed with "Primary biliary cirrhosis" which was thought at the time of diagnosis to be a disease of the liver. At the time of diagnosis mum was told that they really could not do much and that the longer she could hold on the better chance she stood. In reality they have now found out that it is actually a disease of the auto immune system which manifests itself in the liver and can ultimately lead to liver failure and they have tracked it down to a faulty gene.  The condition does not manifest itself with everyone which complicates matters a little.   At the time of diagnosis by the pioneering Liver Specialist Dr Professor Carne (mum was one of his patients) there were only four diagnosed patients in the country with the condition.  Mum was given an option in reality die or have a liver transplant.  She opted for the liver transplant and that lasted 25 years.  However the primary biliary cirrhosis came back and they found a whole host of patients with this condition ended up with the problem back.  That is when they stopped doing liver transplants for this particular condition, but by then they had newer more effective drugs and a far better understanding of the condition generally.  According to the Consultant my issues are related to mum's problems but have not come out in the same way.  Very fortunately from my perspective as it really is a most horrible disease.

At the time of my mum's emergency admittance to Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge I was taking exams and looking after my 12 year old cheeky brother and my Dad was going to visit mum every night in Cambridge and not getting home until about 10:00am each night.  He walked into a cooked meal every night (my brother and I having had ours earlier).  I was looking after the house, my brother, my Dad and sitting exams.  However we did this  between us pulling together without any outside assistance. Thanks in part to my Dad insisting that I should learn to cook and be in the kitchen with my mum to help with the cooking as part of my pocket money as he did not want me to not be able to cook in later life. How times have changed.  I was lucky that I was taught proper cookery and all the different disciplines which gave me a very in my view imperative life skill which meant I could feed myself and others properly.  Today they are not taught half of what they need to know and I think that is an absolute tragedy. 

As many of you know mum lost her battle a couple of years ago with the liver failing after 25 years.  But they were 25 precious years we would not otherwise have enjoyed with her.  For that we are eternally grateful.

Anyway I have gone off track again.  The meal I cooked at school I brought back home well the bulk of it and it was warmed through for tea that night. I was only 16 at the time of the exam and reading the recipe for "Maidens in the Mist" or "peasant girl in a veil" really did take me back to happier less constricting days, just for a moment to a more innocent time and lets just say that there was not anything left afterwards.  They mopped everything up.  However to this day I have never made "Danish Peasant Girl with Veil" even though we all liked it.  I think I will have to remedy that and make that again soon.  Will post the recipe shortly.

Is there a particular recipe that takes you back in time to a particular event or incident in your life or was it memorable for other reasons.

Love to hear from you.

Pattypan

x

P.S. I shall pop the recipe up but here is a link on the Lakeland website which is the same recipe more or less and yet again called something different.

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/r80715/Danish-Apple-Pudding