Pete’s Food Corner: Parkin!

Pete Moody grew up in Delph and also lived in Diggle and Uppermill before going up to Lancaster to study English in 1996.

He taught himself to cook from the backs of cereal boxes, Chinese whispers and Youtube, deciding the long hours, crippling financial difficulty and a snooker-player complexion were preferable to a teaching career. He is currently starting up a restaurant in Shrewsbury.

Parkin? Fine!

Remember, remember, the fifth of November? I do. I remember standing in drizzle in a field behind Palin Wood Road, in Delph, next to a triangular pile of burning furniture, bracken and ‘found’ objects of questionable origin.

I remember the words of my dad: “Just don’t tuck your cords into your wellies or a firework’ll definitely go down your boot!” How right he was.

I remember parents drinking liberal quantities of a clear liquid with no label on the bottle and the fireworks getting closer to travelling horizontally than vertically.

I remember ‘tater pie, I remember bitter toffee and I remember sodastreams but mostly I remember parkin. A dark, sticky, gingery cake that stuck to the roof of your mouth in a most pleasant way.

I remember forgetting about it for years then finding it on the menu of a restaurant I worked in recently, simply called ginger bread.

‘THIS IS PARKIN!’ I mumbled through a mouthful while dancing from foot to foot as colleagues looked on, bemused.

I wasn’t quite right as traditional Yorkshire parkin contains oatmeal – but we’re not in Yorkshire, right? This is, verbatim, the one I found, if I remember right:

Grease and line an oblong tin that’s about 12″x8″x3″ and you’ll have enough for fifteen people.

Warm 2pts milk, 1lb black treacle, 1lb golden syrup and 1lb dark brown sugar together in a pan, stirring occasionally until they start melting together.

In a big bowl mix together 4tsp baking powder, 2lb self-raising flour, 6 heaped tsp ground ginger, 4tsp cinnamon and 4tsp mixed spice.

Pour on the warm milk mix and stir well. Beat 4 eggs and add, mixing well again then pour into the tray and bake at 170C until a knife comes out clean.

Remember to trim the edges and keep to one side. It goes very well with bed, a brew and a book.