The Bourbon Era

by Mandira Moitra Sarkar

Boarding school mealtimes were memorable in more ways than one. We would file into the large Refectory four times a day usually famished and sit down at long allocated tables - about 15 to a table organised by age. Groans of despair could be heard from all around almost immediately - those meals were probably the worst I have ever eaten - cold, congealed and tasteless.

However to compensate for being away from home for over 9 months and make meal times more palatable our mothers armed us with survival kits at the beginning of each term - amazing Tuck Boxes! These were large tea crates crammed with gorgeous home-made goodies which we unpacked and stored in the large deep wooden cupboards or wire mesh cages dotted all around.

Tuck rules were strict and even 30 years later remain indelibly etched in my memory. You were allowed to take out certain things during specific meals -no idea when or who had set these up but we faithfully followed them - a bit like the gospel lessons.

Breakfast allowed you cheese, butter, milk powder, the ubiquitous "Bournvita" etc to make that watery liquid and soggy sponge squares passed off as milk and bread more palatable whilst lunch and dinner allowed pickles, squash and fruit that was stored in the wired cage in the corner. (Fruit usually lasted a week into term).

Tea times were a lot more flexible - that's when the cakes, biscuits and other treats made an appearance. Everything that was taken to the table at tea time was supposed to be passed around which meant that usually by the second or third week into term we were back to the meagre bread and butter rations served as staple. After that we did have some sort of saviour in the form of Radharani stores where generous parents had a tab running for their perpetually hungry children.

The store proprietors knew this and kept both prices and service equally high. At the age of eight, this offered us great freedom of choice that we exercised unwisely and I for one remember large bills my mum signing off at the end of term before embarking on our long journey back home. The sole contents of those hugely inflated bills consisted mainly of chocolates, Bourbon biscuits and "jhal chips " all of which had zero nutrition but 100% taste. However even today chocolate filled "Bourbons" remain a firm favourite so here goes ... As in those days - both the nutrition content and taste remain unchanged!

Ingredients: 

250 gms plain flour

125 gms unsalted chilled butter

125 gms caster sugar

2 tbsp golden syrup

50 gms cocoa powder

1tsp soda bicarb

3 tblsp milk

Filling: 75 gms unsalted butter

125 gms icing sugar

15 gms cocoa powder

 Method: Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Combine all the biscuit ingredients in a food processor until lumpy and then tip on a work surface and bring together. Roll out dough on a sheet of parchment keeping it rectangular and dusting with flour. Trim to approx a 23 x 30 cm rectangle.

Cut into 3 even strips and then at 2.5 cms. Mark five dots on each. Chill for 30 min. Bake for 25 min, carefully remove and separate the biscuits. Leave to cool. Make the filling by combining all the ingredients and sandwich the biscuits together. Stays for five days if you can manage to keep it that long!

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My name is Gowri Mohanakrishnan and I'm a tea planter's wife. I started this blog because one of the things that I wouldn't want us to lose in a fast changing world is the tea story - a story always told with great seriousness, no matter how funny - always true (always), maybe a tall tale, long, or short, impossible, scary, funny or exciting but never dull.
 Happy reading! Cheers to the spirit of Indian Tea!

Meet the writer: Mandira Moitra Sarkar

'I consider myself a true Chai Ka Baby. Apart from being born in tea, I am probably one of those few people whose grandfather was in tea and whose parents were actually married in tea . So the groom, bride, best man, wedding, honeymoon, children etc. etc. were all from tea!!! I have had three proper homes in tea - parents, grandparents and Mama ( maternal uncle) all being tea planters in addition to friends. I currently live in leafy Surrey in a chai inspired colonial home ( I think so at least!) with my car mad husband and very grown up teenager. After 17 years as a management consultant, I finally started Surrey Spice which aims to bring proper Indian food inspired by the regions, seasons and festivals of India. Apart from cooking , I love to travel and am a passionate blogger - and still live (mentally) amongst the verdant tea bushes of Assam.'

Here are links to more stories by Mandira on this blog : https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/search/label/Mandira%20Moitra%20Sarkar  
https://teastorytellers.blogspot.com/p/mandira-moitra-sarkar-cooks-up-story_6.html
Read about Manidra's Kitchen here: https://www.facebook.com/MandirasKitchenSurrey/