Addison Embroidery
at the
Vicarage

Aubergine and blueberry brownie

Today we had the final, final farewell meal for family members off to a job working for the British Council in Beijing. Lots of fresh  salads with a mushroom pithivier and chicken breasts stuffed with tarragon and goat’s cheese – meant we could indulge in something special for dessert (with which we don’t normally bother). I thought I’d  try out another of the crazy Harry Eastwood’s vegetable cakes* with a view to assessing its possibility as a church biscuit. Aubergines are a great favourite of mine and given the fun to be had  from having people guess at the unlikely ingredient, I settled on an aubergine brownie, based on Harry Eastwood’s recipe for ‘Heartache Chocolate Cake’. An internet trawl revealed that quite a few people have successfully adapted this cake recipe to make brownies. To be a bit different, I added a small carton of blueberries which were in danger of being forgotten about at the back of the fridge.

2 small whole aubergines (c. 400 g together)

300 g best  dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

50 g cocoa powder

60 g ground almonds

3 medium eggs

200 g clear honey

2 teasp baking powder

1/4 teasp salt

1 tbsp Amaretto liquer

a small punnet of blueberries

 Line a 20 cm/8 inch square tine with baking parchment.

Aubergine and blueberry brownie

Preheat oven to 180ºC/350ºF/ Gas Mark 4  (no temperature given for a fan oven, I set mine at 160º C which may have been too low.)

Puncture aubergines quite a bit using a skewer and then place them in a bowl covered with cling film. Microwave on high for about 8 minutes until the vegetables are cooked and looking limp. Set aside until the aubergines are cool enough to handle (but still warm enough to help melt the chocolate) and then skin them and either purée in a blender or mash well with a fork. Now add the broken pieces of chocolate, stir well and leave until the chocolate has melted.

In a large bowl, whisk up all the other ingredients for a minute or so and fold in the melted chocolate and aubergine mixture. Gently swirl in the blueberries.The whole mixture can then be poured into the prepared tin and put in the lower part of the oven for 30 minutes (until a skewer pierces the cake and comes out clean — well, cleanish).

Remove cake from oven and allow to cool for 15 minutes  before turning it out on to a wire rack and removing the parchment. Sieve a little cocoa powder over if desired.

All went well for me until I tried to remove the brownie  from the tin and on to the wire rack. It remained somewhat sloppy even after sitting in the fridge for 15 minutes or so. At this point I decided we would have it in bowls with fromage frais – more pudding than cake. And very delicious it was too. (I much preferred the aubergines to my previous vegetable brownie attempt using beetroot.) It was so very rich all was not eaten yesterday and when I tried it today – cold from the fridge – it kept its shape better and was EVEN MORE DELICIOUS. And so it should for this was a veery expensive recipe with 300 g of very good dark chocolate. For several reasons – all of which will be obvious, I shall not be making this for church, but I may well make it again when the family are here over Christmas as it is just that bit different and very special. The blueberries didn’t hold their shape and unless you knew they were there made just a slight contribution to taste – but just occasionally there was a little explosion of blueberryness which was delightful. I would probably not add them again – now cherries might be a different matter.

*Harry Eastwood: Red Velvet Chocolate Heartache (published by Bantam Press 2009).

Viyella dressing gown with embroidered sleeves (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

I made this dressing gown for myself before I had my first baby, fondly imagining that a neck frill was flattering,  the fabric was sensible, soft and warm and that full embroidered sleeves with buttoned cuffs were elegant yet practical for life with a small baby. I did of course soon discover the reality of motherhood. What had I been thinking?  The garment was a disaster for a new mother – the frill not only irrelevant but also irritating, the sleeves were too long, too full and too embroidered, the belt was a reverse gordian knot (i.e. it kept coming undone) and  the fabric rapidly looked like an overworked tea towel, damp, dirty and  discoloured. Wisely, I washed it, put it away and never wore it again – it was never really me … especially the frill (a frill? – I ask you) – a serious mistake.

Viyella dressing gown with embroidered sleeves (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

I now realise I should have copied my mother’s ancient midnight blue velvet dressing gown as it always looked good and washed like an obliging garment should. I think I loved this item of clothing more than anything else ever and in the seventies I wore it everywhere, but mostly as a maxi coat, summer or winter. Unfortunately cycling around Oxford in it and wearing it with clumpy suede sling back platforms shredded the hem to ribbons which in the end no amount of patching could restore to even a shadow of its former glory. That dressing gown too I washed and put away . I should throw it out but I  just can’t bring myself to. Perhaps I will get it copied and wear it as a dressing gown but I’ve never seen any cotton velvet that looked  as supple and soft and capable of withstanding all that rough treatment – although come to think of it I don’t expect I shall ever wear it to ride a bike!

Viyella dressing gown : detail of embroidered sleeve (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

For some reason I found myself packing it for our Cornish holiday and after daughter No 2 had put on a couple of  embroidered shirts for me to photograph, she found the dressing gown heading her way too. At this point I should apologise to her as she feels my photographs aren’t the most flattering of her ever taken, though exhibiting great maturity of character and generosity of heart she appreciates the point is to show the clothes and not her. (And that probably makes me a dreadful mother of a near saintly daughter – at least part of which is true…) In future I shall try not to leave photograph taking until 6am after a sleepless night. (Tousled hair is nevertheless appropriate for a dressing gown and the bags under her eyes she complains of aren’t visible in these pictures but perhaps that’s too much information.)

Viyella dressing gown with embroidered sleeves (hand embroidered by Mary Addison)

When I was thinking about this post I spent quite a bit of time researching celadon because I have always thought the green of the fabric reminded me of  those green-grey ceramics (minus the dull gloss of the ceramic glaze, if you see what I mean.) The real colour is I suppose somewhere between the two greens in the photographs above; the embroidery in silk twist is also a bit different in real life as it  has more depth of colour than is apparent. in the photos. Curiously, the design of the embroidery also had a ceramic origin but, hunt as I have (both in books and on the net), I can’t find the Korean jar with the design that inspired me 30 or so years ago. I did, however, find other Korean pots with equally strikingly simple designs and I think I may play around with one or another to produce a design to embroider over a stain on an all white dress belonging to daughter No 1 – no intellectual endeavour is ever entirely fruitless!

Hand painted Korean platter

Coincidentally in Cornwall, daughter No 2  gave me this most lovely Korean ceramic platter which had travelled half way across the world in her hand luggage – greater love hath no daughter than to fly long distance with a handbag full of something unwieldy that she knows her mother will love… especially as the underside is celadon green!

Korean ceramic platter: detail of flower painting