Mark Setchfield shows you how to cook up a memorable sweet treat that is sure to spark some nostalgia, and whisk you back to some fond, food memories
Nothing sparks memories more than a childhood dessert. I remember myself and my sister spending hours in the kitchen baking cupcakes, biscuits and scones. Not all our efforts were successful. But we were eight and nine, respectively, so our efforts were appreciated, or so we thought.
Mum ran the kitchen with military precision. Everything was cooked from scratch, we never ate frozen ready meals, and no deliveries ever entered our house.
Secretly, I longed for the kind of food I ate when visiting my friend after school on a Friday. His mum used to serve us a steaming bright orange liquid, ‘Heinz tomato soup’, served with stacks of heavily buttered sliced white bread. This was a particular favourite of mine. I knew my mum would never serve this. She of course made her own version of tomato soup, and without sounding ungrateful it never looked or tasted like its heavily preserved tinned counterpart.
It was Friday night and I had just got paid! I chose to celebrate the weekend with my first Chinese takeaway.
Leaving home at the age nineteen, having my own money and the freedom to eat whatever I wanted, I did just that. Online ordering wasn’t a thing back then.
It was Friday night and I had just got paid! I chose to celebrate the weekend with my first Chinese takeaway. I knew nothing of Chinese food, but I headed into the restaurant with confidence and looked at the menu. There must have been over 150 different dishes, rice this, noodle that, sweet and sour everything. I had no idea what to order. I like chicken, so I read out some random numbers that contained chicken and hoped for best.
Heading back to my college digs, I was excited about my first takeout experience. Removing the lids from the mysterious foil containers I was hit by the sweet smell of yet another orange molten liquid. It’s safe to say number 065 on the menu maybe wasn’t the best choice. Not able to use chopsticks, (a technique I mastered many years later) I plunged a chicken ball into the orange lava. It tasted hot, spicy, sweet and orangey. I wondered how you make food that bright. Not finding my first experience enjoyable or tasty, it was many years before I ordered my next takeaway!
Removing the lids from the mysterious foil containers I was hit by the sweet smell of yet another orange molten liquid.
So back to the kitchen, the ‘junior chefs’ decided in advance for our afternoon ‘cooking session’. We had a limited repertoire of dishes. A firm favourite was upside down pineapple cake, with sticky glace cherries and thick syrup. Surprisingly, after many attempts, we became pretty good at it.
Now, all grown-up, I now have my own well equipped kitchen. Using the same basic recipe as back then, I’ve updated the pineapple upside-down cake recipe, substituting fresh pineapple for the tinned fruit and added a little spicy twist with stemmed ginger. I now manage to make a lot less mess and have lost my desire for bright orange food. Apron on, let’s spark up some nostalgia?