Recipes from The Archers
Angela Piper has played Jennifer Aldridge in BBC Radio 4's programme The Archers for a phenomeonal 49 years.
So, when it comes to putting together a cook book collection for the world's longest-running radio soap she is without a doubt the perfect lady for the job.
Angela wrote the first of the books more than 15 years ago - but what prompted the project?
'I basically thought how lovely it is that the programme goes into everybody’s homes and everybody sort of pictures the characters,' remembers Angela.
'That's the magic of radio after all, they picture the character in their own imagination, their own heads.
'So I thought, you’re listening to them, you’re hearing their voices, you’re imagining them but how lovely it would be if you could actually know what it’s like and taste what it’s like in Jill’s kitchen for instance, with Linda Snell or with Clairre Grundy cooking something nice and homely.
'It gives another dimension and it then excites another of the senses and I thought what fun that would be.
'I love cooking, I live in the countryside, I cooked for my children and my grandchildren and I think the kitchen is the hub of the home.
'It’s a lovely feeling isn’t it when you go into somebody else’s home and you can smell the scones cooking?'
The Archers, now in its 62nd year, has recently been criticised for becoming "too racy" - what does Angela make of this I ask? Well scandal nothing new to this grandmother she reminds me.
'45 years ago Jennifer had her illegitimate child, that was utterly scandalous and it was even discussed on the late night television satirical programmes,' recalls Angela.
'The headline in one of the broadsheets was ‘Jennifer expects by kind permission of the Director General’ and somebody had written all across waterloo bridge ‘Doris Archer is a prude’ because obviously her granny was absolutely horrified, as indeed would most of the country be, that someone from a middle class family would do such a thing.'
So what does she think is the enduring appeal of the programme?
'A lot of people have said you’re our friends coming into our house,' she muses. 'I think its a certain amount of fantasy but is so knitted together so cleverly...'
And is there anything more she wants for Jennifer?
'She has had an interesting life and she’s had her flings with her ex husband Roger... Actually I’d like to know what has actually happened to Roger, because we don’t know, is he dead? Where is the man? The philandering man, where’s he gone?'
Well while we're pondering just where he is, here are three recipes to take you right into the heart of Ambridge.
The Archers Cook Book Collection by Angela Piper is published by David and Charles and is priced £14.99.
We don’t eat much bread, so this is a good way of using up the remainder of the loaf.’ says Mum. ‘Nice, this is,’ said Jack, smacking his lips. ‘Who’s made it? Jean-Paul?’
SERVES 4
Method
Spread the bread slices with butter and marmalade and cut into triangles. Grease a 2pt (1.2l) pudding basin and arrange the bread in layers, sprinkling each layer with currants, and finishing with a layer of bread.
Beat the eggs and milk together, add the grated lemon zest and pour over the bread. Leave to stand for an hour.
Sprinkle the top of the pudding with the sugar and the cinnamon before baking in a preheated oven at 325°F/160°C/Gas 3 for 50–60 minutes.
The top should be crusty and golden brown. Serve with cream or custard. (If the eggs are separated and the whites folded in later, the pudding will be almost soufflé-like.) Sprinkle sugar on custard to prevent a skin forming.
Debbie, my darling daughter, runs much of the farm in Hungary I’m sure with amazing skill, success and satisfaction. Oh if only I could see her happily married though.
Makes a 23cm (9in) cake
Method
Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF/Gas 3. Grease and line a 23cm (9in) round cake tin.
Break up the chocolate and melt it in a bowl set over a pan of hot water, making sure the water is not touching the base of the bowl.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, add the melted chocolate and beat until smooth. Add the beaten eggs, whisking well. Sift together the flour, cocoa and cinnamon and fold into the mixture.
Fold in the nuts, ginger, pineapple, apricots, candied peel and raisins and grated orange zest. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface.
Bake for 1 hour, then reduce the oven temperature to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas 2 and bake for a further 1½–2 hours until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.
To serve as a Christmas cake, cover with almond paste and ice as usual.
Makes 8
Method
Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas 2. Grease 8 x 10cm (4in) diameter, loose-bottomed, fluted tartlet tins.
Chop the red pepper and aubergine into 1cm (½in) pieces, and mix with the onion. Put the vegetables into a roasting tray and drizzle with a little olive oil.
Toss the vegetables to coat them, then put in the oven for about 30 minutes, turning occasionally so that they don’t catch. When they are soft, remove from the oven and put to one side to cool slightly. Turn the oven temperature up to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas 4.
While the vegetables are cooking, roll out the pastry on a floured surface to 5mm thickness. Using a pastry cutter that is slightly larger than the tartlet tins, cut out the rounds of pastry. Press into the tartlet tins and refrigerate for 20 minutes, before baking blind until the pastry is golden.
Beat the two eggs together, and use a little to brush the bottom of the tartlet cases to prevent them going soggy. Add the egg yolk, milk and cream to the remaining beaten eggs, mix thoroughly, and then pass through a sieve into a jug.
Season well. Scatter pieces of the roasted vegetables into each pastry case, and then pour over the egg mixture, being careful not to overfill the cases. Cut the goat’s cheese into 5mm slices and lay a slice on the top of each of the tartlets.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 15–20 minutes, until just set and the egg filling is golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, before carefully turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
So, when it comes to putting together a cook book collection for the world's longest-running radio soap she is without a doubt the perfect lady for the job.
Angela wrote the first of the books more than 15 years ago - but what prompted the project?
'I basically thought how lovely it is that the programme goes into everybody’s homes and everybody sort of pictures the characters,' remembers Angela.
'That's the magic of radio after all, they picture the character in their own imagination, their own heads.
'So I thought, you’re listening to them, you’re hearing their voices, you’re imagining them but how lovely it would be if you could actually know what it’s like and taste what it’s like in Jill’s kitchen for instance, with Linda Snell or with Clairre Grundy cooking something nice and homely.
'It gives another dimension and it then excites another of the senses and I thought what fun that would be.
'I love cooking, I live in the countryside, I cooked for my children and my grandchildren and I think the kitchen is the hub of the home.
'It’s a lovely feeling isn’t it when you go into somebody else’s home and you can smell the scones cooking?'
The Archers, now in its 62nd year, has recently been criticised for becoming "too racy" - what does Angela make of this I ask? Well scandal nothing new to this grandmother she reminds me.
'45 years ago Jennifer had her illegitimate child, that was utterly scandalous and it was even discussed on the late night television satirical programmes,' recalls Angela.
'The headline in one of the broadsheets was ‘Jennifer expects by kind permission of the Director General’ and somebody had written all across waterloo bridge ‘Doris Archer is a prude’ because obviously her granny was absolutely horrified, as indeed would most of the country be, that someone from a middle class family would do such a thing.'
So what does she think is the enduring appeal of the programme?
'A lot of people have said you’re our friends coming into our house,' she muses. 'I think its a certain amount of fantasy but is so knitted together so cleverly...'
And is there anything more she wants for Jennifer?
'She has had an interesting life and she’s had her flings with her ex husband Roger... Actually I’d like to know what has actually happened to Roger, because we don’t know, is he dead? Where is the man? The philandering man, where’s he gone?'
Well while we're pondering just where he is, here are three recipes to take you right into the heart of Ambridge.
The Archers Cook Book Collection by Angela Piper is published by David and Charles and is priced £14.99.
Good Old-Fashioned Bread And Butter Pudding
We don’t eat much bread, so this is a good way of using up the remainder of the loaf.’ says Mum. ‘Nice, this is,’ said Jack, smacking his lips. ‘Who’s made it? Jean-Paul?’
SERVES 4
- 6 thin slices of white bread, crusts removed
- 2oz (55g) butter
- 2tbsp marmalade
- 2oz (55g) currants
- 2 whole medium size eggs and 1 yolk
- 20fl oz (1pt/600ml) milk grated zest of
- 1 lemon 2oz (55g) demerara sugar
- 1tsp cinnamon
Method
Spread the bread slices with butter and marmalade and cut into triangles. Grease a 2pt (1.2l) pudding basin and arrange the bread in layers, sprinkling each layer with currants, and finishing with a layer of bread.
Beat the eggs and milk together, add the grated lemon zest and pour over the bread. Leave to stand for an hour.
Sprinkle the top of the pudding with the sugar and the cinnamon before baking in a preheated oven at 325°F/160°C/Gas 3 for 50–60 minutes.
The top should be crusty and golden brown. Serve with cream or custard. (If the eggs are separated and the whites folded in later, the pudding will be almost soufflé-like.) Sprinkle sugar on custard to prevent a skin forming.
Debbie's Favourite Rich Fruit Chocolate Cake
Debbie, my darling daughter, runs much of the farm in Hungary I’m sure with amazing skill, success and satisfaction. Oh if only I could see her happily married though.
Makes a 23cm (9in) cake
- 225g (8oz) good-quality plain chocolate, chopped
- 225g (8oz) unsalted butter
- 225g (8oz) light soft brown sugar
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 250g (9oz) plain flour
- 25g (1oz) cocoa powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 115g (4oz) walnuts, roughly chopped
- 115g (4oz) almonds, roughly chopped
- 115g (4oz) crystallised ginger,
- 115g (4oz) ready-to-eat dried pineapple, chopped
- 115g (4oz) ready-to-eat dried apricots, chopped
- 55g (2oz) candied peel, chopped
- 175g (6oz) raisins grated zest of
- 1 orange
Method
Preheat the oven to 160ºC/325ºF/Gas 3. Grease and line a 23cm (9in) round cake tin.
Break up the chocolate and melt it in a bowl set over a pan of hot water, making sure the water is not touching the base of the bowl.
Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, add the melted chocolate and beat until smooth. Add the beaten eggs, whisking well. Sift together the flour, cocoa and cinnamon and fold into the mixture.
Fold in the nuts, ginger, pineapple, apricots, candied peel and raisins and grated orange zest. Turn the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface.
Bake for 1 hour, then reduce the oven temperature to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas 2 and bake for a further 1½–2 hours until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.
To serve as a Christmas cake, cover with almond paste and ice as usual.
Roasted Vegetable and Goat’s Cheese Tartlets (pictured top)
Makes 8
- 1 red pepper, deseeded
- half an aubergine
- 1 red onion, peeled and diced
- olive oil
- packet of shortcrust pastry butter, for greasing
- 2 eggs 1 egg yolk
- 150ml (5fl oz) milk
- 150ml (5fl oz) double cream
- 150g (5oz) goat’s cheese log (rind on)
- salt and pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF/Gas 2. Grease 8 x 10cm (4in) diameter, loose-bottomed, fluted tartlet tins.
Chop the red pepper and aubergine into 1cm (½in) pieces, and mix with the onion. Put the vegetables into a roasting tray and drizzle with a little olive oil.
Toss the vegetables to coat them, then put in the oven for about 30 minutes, turning occasionally so that they don’t catch. When they are soft, remove from the oven and put to one side to cool slightly. Turn the oven temperature up to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas 4.
While the vegetables are cooking, roll out the pastry on a floured surface to 5mm thickness. Using a pastry cutter that is slightly larger than the tartlet tins, cut out the rounds of pastry. Press into the tartlet tins and refrigerate for 20 minutes, before baking blind until the pastry is golden.
Beat the two eggs together, and use a little to brush the bottom of the tartlet cases to prevent them going soggy. Add the egg yolk, milk and cream to the remaining beaten eggs, mix thoroughly, and then pass through a sieve into a jug.
Season well. Scatter pieces of the roasted vegetables into each pastry case, and then pour over the egg mixture, being careful not to overfill the cases. Cut the goat’s cheese into 5mm slices and lay a slice on the top of each of the tartlets.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 15–20 minutes, until just set and the egg filling is golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tins for 5 minutes, before carefully turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.