Welcome to the Autumn Equinox Tarot Blog Hop, in which our wrangler has given us the theme “Tarot Characters and Sacred Cooking” and asked us to choose a character and try to find out what they would cook at Harvest Time. Before I proceed, here are the navigation links for this Hop:
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I was going to use the opportunity of this blog to unveil the final card of the Major Arcana: Temperance. It seemed rather apt given the time of year as we reach the balance between daylight and darkness, the cusp between summer and autumn.
Unfortunately, it has been such a busy time for me lately that I just hadn’t had the time to photograph the card. Consequently, I decided to resort to plan B and revisit the King of Pentacles.
My particular King of Pentacles is, as I’m sure you recognise, Henry VIII, a man of quite mighty appetites and very little self-restraint (not unlike Queen Victoria in that respect). It seems that, to paraphrase, with absolute power comes absolute gluttony, since nobody dares rebuke the sovereign. You might say that I have gone from balance, to its complete antithesis. That said, there is a strong link to feasting and you can read about my adventures in Tudor food (with recipes) on my main blog here.
Anyroadup, it seems that despite the link with cooking, dear old Henry really doesn’t fit with my theme of balance. This left nothing for it but to quickly snap something for Temperance and press on with the original theme and here it is….
So what would Temperance cook? Something balanced, of course. I can’t think of anything better than some Polish Plums in Chocolate (ลliwki w Czekoladzie). Dark chocolate to release feel-good serotonin in your brain and plums (prunes) for the, umm, other end. Here’s the recipe:
Plums in Chocolate
Approx. 35 large (Californian) prunes
3/4 glass of vodka or rum
200g good quality dark chocolate
Method:
- Soak the prunes in the alcohol overnight in a covered bowl.
- The next day, pat them dry with kitchen paper.
- Break up the chocolate and melt in a bain marie or a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water.
- Coat the plums individually with the chocolate and leave to set on baking parchment. Refrigerate to speed up the process.
- Enjoy! ๐
Alternatively, you can buy them ready made in most Polish Delicatessens and some of the larger supermarkets in the World Food section, (*whispers* but those don’t have alcohol in them any more).
Well, I hope you like my last minute Temperance and the recipe. Please leave a comment below before you continue to the next blog…
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Alcohol with desserts is lovely. My wife made some truffle-esque things a few years ago and had a rather liberal hand with the liquor she added. She forgot how much she added to the batch and after noshing her way through about six of them a few weeks later realized that she was going to sit down and not get back up again for the rest of the evening LoL
I would be really curious to see Temperance from this deck, it looks very lifelike, reminds me of the vision tarot in many ways.
First of all, YUM!! Second, I’m giggling that Temperance is giving us alcohol soaked fruit. But it does sound like the perfect balance!
Now I know what to do with the rest of my honey vodka! Love the notion of Temperance blending the vice and the virtuous foods.
Temperance the great bartender… ๐ these prunes sound lovely, I might give it a go for our anniversary! Thanks Ania for the recipe!
Sounds like a perfect balance between what one loves and what one needs. Sounds like something I will definitely be trying. Many thanks!
Love your choice of a Temperance recipe ๐ Are you creating a deck?
Yes, if you go to the home page you can look at all the cards so far ๐
Love the last-minute Temperance!
Thank you ๐
“Prunes for the other end” hahahahaha!
Loving his majesty, of course, but T reminds me too much of Lady Justice. Any possibilities for the mixing of elements part of T? Meanwhile, plums in chocolate seems the best mix of elements to keep one’s systems at both ends happy.;)
Yes, I had planned to have water in one of the panniers but hadn’t been able to find a suitable (or appropriately sized) vessel, hence the last-minuteness of it. I am also aware that I have used scales in other cards, but keep returning to them (and bought them) for this card, which is all about balance.