Market, Breakfast.

Saturday morning, Matt nipped over to the Kitchener market to pick up the lamb’s kidneys I had ordered. I asked for 24 and got 26 so I was very pleased as they weren’t sure they could do that many for me anyway. Saturday night we had a lot of leftovers although no pork so we defrosted steaks. Matt bought some more flat beans in the morning too although I still had a few left. I guess a number of people are going to say yuk about the kidneys, but I was brought up with them and love them, devilled, in sherry sauce, fried with bacon and eggs for breakfast, yummy. My father was a great gourmet and loved all kinds of things which you rarely hear of people eating any more. We often had herrings and kippers for breakfast of course, but we also had things like salted belly of pork or sliced brisket (I guess what would be known as corned beef here – no I don’t mean the canned stuff) and then of course there was black pudding. Delicious stuff. These days in Canada, if you find black pudding, it is almost fat free and does not taste the same. We managed to find a butcher in the UK who made real black puds, delicious if not all that healthy for you.

Sunday night we had Devilled Kidneys for supper, I know some of you are busting to get the recipe, LOL, so I am going to post it tomorrow. Talking to Matt whilst eating our kidneys, which were delicious by the way, I started remembering that a couple of hundred years ago, they would have been served for breakfast along with lots of bacon, scrambled eggs, maybe lamb chops, etc. all of which would have been in chafing dishes on the sideboard waiting for the guests and family. Those were the days. Of course there would have been all the fish dishes, various meats as I mentioned above not forgetting porridge with lots of cream to go with it. Not many people ate their porridge with sugar in those days, like my dad, it would have been a sprinkling of salt, I never liked that.

These days we would be way too fat (well we are anyway) with breakfasts like that, but they thought a 3 mile walk was close by and of course they rode horses a lot too, lots of exercise which we don’t get today. Looking for a suitable picture I kept finding breakfasts with Heinz Baked Beans on the plates, these were certainly not served in those days, they wouldn’t have been available anyway. This is a very modern thing and I personally cannot imagine anything worse for breakfast. We certainly never had anything like that although, as a kid, shortly after the war, I was sometimes fed baked beans on toast for my supper before being sent off to bed – dinner being served later of course.

Now to fatten you all up, I thought this recipe looked absolutely delicious so I had to share it  with you.

Blueberry Sour Cream Torte

By Dana Treat
WebMD Recipe from Foodily.com

The thing about having people over to our house is I can’t just make dinner. I have to make dessert.
Sunday night is casual at our house, so rather than flipping through the wrong baking books, I immediately turned to The Greyston Bakery Cookbook. Sometimes desserts just call to me and this time it was this Blueberry Sour Cream Torte.

I had my doubts about this one. Going in, the crust seemed awfully dry and like it was going to be too tall. The torte took much longer to bake than the 45 minutes given in the recipe and when I pulled it out, I still wasn’t sure the top was going to be set. I got impatient to take photos before it got dark, so I released the springform pan before it was completely cool. As a result, I had some blueberry leakage. But none of it mattered once I’d tasted it. The crust was perfectly crisp (not soggy at all – even with all that wet stuff on top), the blueberries burst in our mouths, and the topping was creamy and just a bit sour. Another winner from this terrific book.

The recipe says to serve this with vanilla ice cream or a small dollop of sour cream sweetened to taste with maple syrup. I made blueberry frozen yogurt which tasted wonderful with it. Before you take the collar off the springform pan, I would run a thin knife around the sides, just to make sure you don’t have anything stick.

Ingredients

For the crust
1½ cups flour
½ cup sugar
½ cup ground almonds
1½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
½ cup butter (1 stick)

For the Filling
4 cups fresh blueberries
½ sugar
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ cup cornstarch

For the topping
2 egg yolks
2 cups sour cream
½ cup sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a 9″ found springform pan and line the pan bottom with a parchment paper round. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, almonds, baking powder, and salt. Using a pastry blender or two knives, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until it forms coarse crumbs.

Press the mixture onto the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, until the crust is golden. Remove the pan from the oven and set it aside to cool on a wire rack. Reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF.

Prepare the Filling
In a medium saucepan, toss the blueberries with the sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, cinnamon, and cornstarch. Cook over medium heat until the blueberries are bubbling and beginning to burst, about 3 to 5 minutes, stirring gently several times. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.

Prepare the topping
In a medium bowl, combine the egg yolks, sour cream, sugar, and vanilla. Mix until well combined.

Finish the Torte
Spoon the filling over the crust. Spoon the topping evenly over the filling and smooth it with a rubber spatula.

Bake for 45 minutes, or until the topping browns and appears to have set. Set the pan on a wire rack until completely cool. Release and remove pan sides.

Total Servings: 12

Nutritional Information Per Serving

Calories: 376
Carbohydrates: 49.8
Cholesterol: 72mg
Fat: 18.7g
Saturated Fat: 10.3g
Fiber: 2.2g
Sodium: 175mg
Protein: 4.6g

Have a great day