Please welcome today's guest author, our friend Elizabeth J. Duncan. A former journalist and college professor, Elizabeth is the author of two mystery series – the brand new Shakespeare in the
Catskills and the well-established, multi-award winning Penny Brannigan books set in
North Wales. Elizabeth is the 2013 winner of the Bloody Words Light Mystery
Award (aka the
Bony Blithe), a Canadian national juried award given annually for a light mystery.
Elizabeth is
launching a new series – Shakespeare in the Catskills - featuring costume
designer Charlotte Fairfax. And Elizabeth’s dropping by the kitchen today with a
little something that might have come right out of Mrs. Shakespeare’s recipe
box.
In Shakespeare’s day, the nobility loved their
meat and sweets, while less prosperous folk had to make do with a diet of grains
and vegetables. Guess who lived longer?
Anyway, there’s not much call today for
suckling pig or roast swan, so we’re making a remarkably easy yet decadent
sweet called a fruit fool, which uses just four ingredients. This quintessential
English dessert made with a ribbon of stewed or pureed fruit and cream started
showing up on Elizabethan tables in 1598, around the time Shakespeare was
writing The Merchant of Venice and arranging the financing for the Globe
theatre.
Original versions of the dessert were made
with gooseberries, but you could make it with it any fruit. For summer,
raspberries or strawberries are lovely, blended with a complimentary flavour of
yogurt.
For fall, try folding in an apple/cinnamon
blend, or cranberries.
I made mine with frozen rhubarb from my
garden.
When you’ve tasted the fruit fool, you’ll
be making much ado over practically nothing!
The
rhubarb fool
Two cups rhubarb, fresh or frozen
¼ cup sugar
half cup of whipping cream
Individual serving container plain or
vanilla Greek yogurt
 |
| Four simple ingredients make a fruit fool |
Combine the rhubarb and sugar and cook over
medium heat, about eight to 10 minutes, until mixture is soft and stringy, but
some pieces remain. Drain and cool, reserving liquid. You can do this in
advance.
Whip cream until it forms soft peaks, then gently
fold in container of yogurt. Then, gently fold in drained, stewed rhubarb.
Serve in glass containers, topped with a few spoonsful of the reserved rhubarb liquid
and garnish with a sprig of mint (I used springs of rosemary here and that works too).
Enjoy and please come by and say hi to Elizabeth today! Remember that the delicious debut of An Untimely Death is November 10th. Don't miss out on this treat.
