Sharing food with friends makes it so much better

I was in the kitchen at home the other day, looking for a treat with my tea and discovered a Baci chocolate, the perfect little nibble.

It turned out to be not only a tasty treat but an inspiration. You see, a Baci comes wrapped with a special message on the subject of love and/or friendship. The message this time was: “Friendship brings great happiness with little gestures.”

So true, it is the little things that make up the fabric of our lives.

This is another reason I became a foodie—sharing a small treat with someone can lead to all kinds of wonderful experiences.

I first discovered Baci’s on my first trip to Europe, discovering the world at the grand old age of 18. My first foodie friend, a captivating young woman from South Africa, introduced them to me and I have to say they are still one of my favourite treats.

A Baci has a hazelnut crème filling that is sublime, and for extra excitement there is a whole hazelnut just under the chocolate coating.

The messages they contained were exceedingly powerful when read while strolling the streets of Rome, arm in arm with my new friend, dreaming of international romances and happy-ever-after endings.

As I got older, the notion of comfort food became a more common thing with friends. I guess, as life progressed, the problems seemed bigger and so a correspondingly serious dose of food was needed to work out a solution.

Thankfully, I had a friend who was a master at such things – fruit crisp being one of them. She had the magical touch for just the right amount of crunch and sweetness in the crumb topping, and her inspired combinations of fruit were full of exotic flavours and the cheery taste of summer sunshine. It was just the thing to cheer you up when you were blue, or to spur you on if you were waffling on some big idea.

Cooking together with friends is a wonderful thing to do, and you really know when you have a special connection if you can create magic in the kitchen. In the early days of my special friendships, food was shared in those rare visits or more often by sending recipes to each other.

I am lucky both these girlfriends and I have been able to cook together over the years, making some fantastic meals that have been shared with our families over and over as we remember the good times and great flavours.

We live in different parts of the world, but as soon as we enter each other’s kitchens, the tea pot goes on and it’s like we just walked in from down the street.

I don’t have the fruit crisp recipe, as there isn’t one written down. My friend Sue says she just “feels it,” but here is a recipe from South Africa that is a national favourite. I copied it from the piece of airmail paper my friend sent in a missive long ago. I still have it between the pages of one of my cookbooks.

My friend Merle claimed it never missed with the menfolk (wink-wink, nudge-nudge as they say in the UK where she now lives, happily married).

So here’s to good friends, new and old, and the good food shared amongst them. May we always find a reason to keep sharing our happiness with tastes and recipes.

Ultra Divine Cape Brandy Pudding (serves six to eight people)

250 g dates, stoned and finely chopped

1 tsp baking soda

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1 cup sugar

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

250 mL walnuts or pecans, chopped finely

2 eggs, beaten

Sauce:

1 cup sugar

1 tbsp butter

1/2 cup plus 1 tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup brandy (next to this she wrote “Yahoo!”)

Divide dates into two portions and put into separate bowls. Add baking soda to one and pour boiling water over it. Allow it to cool.

Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs thoroughly, one by one. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into creamed mixture.

Add dry portion of date and nuts, mixing well to blend.

Stir in baking soda-date mixture – mix thoroughly.

Turn into large ovenproof dish and bake at 180 C (350 F) for 45 minutes or till golden brown on top and knife inserted in centre comes out clean.

Prepare sauce by heating sugar, butter and water together in saucepan five minutes. Remove from stove and stir in vanilla and brandy.

Pour sauce over pudding as it comes out of the oven. Serve hot or cold with whipped cream.

(I have poured the sauce over each serving too, which also works well.)

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.