Blackberries and Cream with Toasted Oatmeal
When we visit Scotland in the fall it is the season when traditionally everyone tucks into large meals of roast grouse, pheasant or partridge, served with all the trimmings on long oak tables in a draughty dining room, a roaring log fire at one end.Typically, it is nice and warm by the fire and freezing cold everywhere else. But what I enjoy most is walking along the lanes in the early evening before dinner, the hedge rows heavy with juicy blackberries.They taste so much better than the huge, identical cultivated ones that gleam temptingly in the shops. So we fill our baskets with blackberries, staining our fingers a deep purple. Part of the fun is that each berry tastes completely different. Some are scented and refreshing, some have a rich intense flavour and and some are just plain sour. And when the creamy coloured mists descend and the purple hills are silhouetted in the distance we plan this simple blackberry dessert which epitomises the soft colours of the Scottish landscape. It is the perfect end to a gamey meal.
Whip up a tub of thick cream to which you add a glass of Scotch and a large
spoonful of runny honey. Blend together lightly. On a baking sheet spread the
oatmeal thinly in one layer and scatter demerara sugar over it. Roast in the oven
for 5 minutes keeping an eye on it so that it does not burn. Allow to cool. Fold
some of the sugary crumbs of oatmeal into the cream mixture. Spoon into large
glasses, scatter the blackberries on top and use some of the small sheets of glassy
oatmeal to decorate.
And then next day we head off to search for sloes, the fruit of the blackthorn.
One of the most common hedgerow bushes it grows all over Britain and this
year’s harvest of sloes was a bumper one.The bushes are heavily dotted with
inky-blue, almost black, fruit which is inedible raw, but mix it with gin and sugar
and something miraculous happens.We filled our baskets, and with daylight fading,
went home and made our Sloe Gin - something I was definitely not allowed to
try as a child! The result will be ready to drink by Christmas.
Theo Hodges
Theo Hodges was born in Kent. After a degree in Graphic Design she joined J. Walter Thompson Advertising Agency as an Art Director working on accounts such as Rowntrees, Kraft and The Butter Council. While she was at University in Perugia, Italy she started collecting recipes from friends and family. In 1980 she set up her own design agency: Theo Hodges Design Consultants. For many years when they were young Theo, her sister and six cousins used to spend vacations at her Grandmother’s Victorian vicarage in Kent. ‘The thing about remembering childhood’ she says, is ‘there’s a whole lot of oblivion, and then out of it something floats up, quite sharp and clear. Many of the meals I can still see vividly and various recipes of mine were originally from Granny’s kitchen. ‘The kitchen garden was stuffed with raspberries, huge red dessert gooseberries, strawberries, runner beans, peas and much more with the hens in a shed at the back. But Granny only ate chicken breast and runner beans, followed by raspberries and Jersey cream - and therefore so did we. When raspberries were out of season, and in those days the season was much shorter, Granny made Victoria sponge cakes sandwiched with cream and home-made raspberry jam. On this limited but delicious diet we all thrived’. Theo’s mother was an excellent cook as well, and had been taught by the house- keeper at their house in Mougins, South of France. And once rationing was withdrawn in England in 1952 and good, fresh ingredients became available again, she amassed an enormous number of recipes which has formed the basis for Theo’s collection of family desserts.