The Little Library Café
Words by Kate Young | Photography by Tom Jacob
In 2014 Kate Young captured the minds of both foodies and literary fans with The Little Library Café, a blog filled with inventive recipes inspired by her favourite works of fiction. Five years and two books later, Kate is still whipping imaginary dishes into reality. Here, she serves up a creation based on a dish from her most-loved book, Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle.
When I feel particularly homesick, I re-read I Capture the Castle. Grounding, comforting and endlessly reassuring, it’s a practice that roots me, offering a home whenever I am most in need of one. Cassandra Mortmain’s witty, warm and open-hearted narration in Dodie Smith’s 1948 classic is so familiar to me that revisiting it feels like dropping in on an old friend. I have long identified with her – not least her love of treacle pudding, the joy of being ‘gloriously bloat’, and the splendor of roast chicken and bread sauce.
Roast Chicken in Bread Sauce
Serves 6
"I’m a big fan of bread sauce. When planning a Sunday roast in winter, it’s exactly what I want on the table beside a chicken: comforting and rich, with the warmth of nutmeg and bay. In summer, when it’s too hot for bread sauce, I prefer roast chicken with plenty of bread served alongside it instead. This creation lands somewhere in between – a chicken roasted in milk and spices, with bread for dipping."
"I’m a big fan of bread sauce. When planning a Sunday roast in winter, it’s exactly what I want on the table beside a chicken: comforting and rich, with the warmth of nutmeg and bay. In summer, when it’s too hot for bread sauce, I prefer roast chicken with plenty of bread served alongside it instead. This creation lands somewhere in between – a chicken roasted in milk and spices, with bread for dipping."
What you will need:
50g salted butter
1 whole chicken (1.6 – 2kg)
1 brown onion
1l milk
3 bay leaves
5 cloves
1 tsp grated nutmeg
10 black peppercorns
10 sprigs of thyme
Baguette, or another crusty bread, for serving
How to Make it:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Melt the butter in a roasting dish or saucepan that will snugly fit the whole chicken. Brown the chicken all over in the butter, and then place breast-up in the dish.
2. Cut the onion in half, peel it, and add it to the pan. Pour in the milk – how much you need is going to depend on the size of your dish, but you’re looking for the milk to cover at least half of the chicken. Add the bay leaves, cloves, nutmeg, peppercorns, and thyme.
3. Place a lid over the dish, and transfer it to the oven. Cook for an hour, and then remove the lid. Roast the chicken for another 30 minutes.
4. Rest for at least 15 minutes before bringing the whole dish to the table alongside bread for dipping into the milk.
Kale and parmesan salad
Serves 6
What you will need:
200g kale
30ml olive oil
Juice of a lemon
Pinch of salt
50g pine nuts
75g parmesan cheese
How to Make it:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Tear any woody stems from the kale, and chop it very roughly. Toss it in the olive oil and lemon, and season with salt. Spread out in a roasting dish, and transfer the tray to the oven.
2. Roast the kale for 30 minutes, tossing a couple of times, until it is crisp. Tip onto a serving plate.
3. Toast the pine nuts in a pan over a low heat until golden. Pine nuts will almost inevitably catch when your back is turned, so keep an eye on them. Sprinkle over the kale, and then finish the salad with finely grated parmesan.
Carrot and Fennel salad
Serves 6
What you will need:
3 carrots
10 radishes
1 large-headed fennel
Handful of parsley leaves
1tsp cumin seeds
DRESSING
2tsp cider vinegar
1tsp Dijon mustard
2tbsp olive oil
Black pepper and sea salt
How to Make it:
- Julienne the carrots, and finely slice the radishes. If you’re close to eating, you should shave the fennel with a vegetable peeler too, but if the salad is going to hang around for a little bit, do hold off and add it last minute, or it will turn brown.
2. Make the dressing in your serving bowl. Pour the vinegar into the bowl and whisk in first the mustard, then the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and then toss the vegetables through the dressing.
3. Toast the cumin seeds over a low heat until fragrant, and then add to the salad along with the parsley. Toss and serve.
Coconut Treacle Pudding
Serves 6
"I have lived in England for more than a decade now, but it only takes a single bite of an Anzac biscuit to send me straight back to my first home: Australia. This is a classic English treacle pudding made to taste like my childhood – thanks to some desiccated coconut and a handful or two of rolled oats. Nostalgia, it appears, tastes of Anzac biscuits."
"I have lived in England for more than a decade now, but it only takes a single bite of an Anzac biscuit to send me straight back to my first home: Australia. This is a classic English treacle pudding made to taste like my childhood – thanks to some desiccated coconut and a handful or two of rolled oats. Nostalgia, it appears, tastes of Anzac biscuits."
What you will need:
150g butter, plus another teaspoon for greasing
200g golden syrup
60g rolled oats
90g plain flour
2tsp baking powder
20g desiccated coconut
Pinch of salt
2 eggs, beaten
How to Make it:
- Grease a one-litre heatproof pudding dish, and place a disc of greaseproof in the base – it’ll make it easier to get the pudding out later. Pour 80g of the golden syrup into the base of the dish.
2. Put the butter and the rest of the golden syrup into a saucepan, and melt them together over a low heat. Leave to cool.
3. Blitz the oats until fine, and then mix together with the flour, baking powder, coconut, and salt.
4. Stir the beaten eggs into the cooled butter and golden syrup, and then add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix to combine, and then pour into the pudding bowl.
5. Place a piece of greaseproof paper over the top of the bowl, and then seal with a sheet of foil. Secure it on with a piece of string to ensure that the dish remains waterproof.
6. Pour an inch or so of water into a saucepan big enough to hold the pudding bowl. Put a plate or a folded tea towel in the base of the pan so that the bowl has something to rest on and doesn’t touch the pan as it steams.
7. Bring the water in the pan to a simmer, then lower the bowl in. Put a lid on, and steam for two hours. Keep an eye on the water level, to ensure it doesn’t boil dry.
8. After two hours, leave the pan to cool for a couple of minutes, and then lift the dish out and peel the foil and paper off. Run a knife around the edge of the pudding. Place a serving plate over the top of the bowl, then flip and jiggle until the pudding drops down. Serve immediately with cream or custard.