Next Food Fad?

Tags

Books, Food, James Woodforde

I have been dipping into ‘The Diary of a Country Parson by James Woodforde, it is a fascinating, well for me at least as history does indeed fascinate me, it is a fascinating account of a very different time for example, this entry from 1763, during his final year at New College, Oxford:

Feb.17.  I dined at the Chaplain’s table with Pickering and Waring, upon a roasted Tongue and Udder, and we went on each of us for it 0.1.9.  N.B. I shall not dine on a roasted Tongue and Udder again very soon.

My grandmother used to press her own tongue and let me tell you it stank to high heaven – in fact even though by the time it had been pressed and cooled it no longer smelt as much as 1% as bad the smell alone put me off ever having it.  As for udder, well I presume it finds its way into dog food nowadays (glad I don’t eat beef sausages as it just might find its way into them too) they didn’t like to waste anything back then it was considered a delicacy and indeed still is in Italy.

As for me I think I can say with certainty that I wont be trying it very soon either, well not knowingly.

Clams with White Wine

Tags

Food, Photography

Fry off chopped onion (or preferably shallots), chopped yellow pepper in some olive oil on a medium heat.  When soft add chopped garlic and chopped chillies, and some chopped plum tomatoes, fry until the tomatoes start to collapse add some black pepper turn heat up and add a glass of wine and once it starts to boil throw in the clams put a lid straight on and stop cooking as soon as the clams open.  Finish off with some shopped parsley and chopped fennel.

I usually serve it with tagliatelle – which cooked in just the time it took me to get a photograph without steaming up the lens – but you could serve it with any pasta or with bread and a salad.

Cheese and Herb Scones

Tags

Food

 

• 8oz Self-Raising Flour
• 2oz Butter Pinch of Salt
• 3oz of strong grated Cheddar Cheese
• 1/2 tsp Mustard Powder
• Large pinch Dried Herbs
• Milk

Sieve flour, mustard powder, and salt and rub in butter till fine breadcrumbs.
Mix in herbs and cheese.
Add enough milk to draw it all together.
Place on a greased tray and bake in moderately hot over (about 220f) for 12 mins.

Three tips:

• cut the butter into small cubes and freeze it for 10 mins before rubbing in.
• use a knife to mix the milk into the dry ingredients.
• shape out into a large round and cut into wedges rather than using a cutter and overworking the off cuts.

Something Different For The Weekend

Tags

Films, Food

Saturday saw the sun shinning as Hubby and I journeyed east to Edinburgh for the Taste of Festival and what a wondrous lot of tastes bombarded our taste buds.  From salmon with wasabi mash, to a new liqueur called kiss a mixture of strawberry and whisky – nuff said; from braised lamb with crushed new potatoes to St Germaine a fantastic elderflowerr liqueur; from sea bass with Thia noddles to glass after glass of free champagne; from antipasti to Xante a pear cognac; from wild boar burgers to Pimms and lemonade.  The list could go on and on but I think you get the picture.  Antony Worrall Thompson proved to be a very witty speaker, don’t know if he does the after dinner speaking thing but I have no doubt he could and would be very good at it, Tom Kitchen made us decide we really did need to get to his restaurant one of these days, and 4 hours just wasn’t long enough.

The something different didn’t stop there, after church on Sunday evening a few of us then went to see ‘Sex and the City’.  We laughed, we cried and we absolutely enjoyed it, you wouldn’t need to have seen the series to enjoy it however if the series wasn’t your bag, Louis Vuitton of course, then neither will the film be.  It has successfully made the cross over to the big screen by staying true to the characters, the style and the storytelling, however it isn’t some attempt to revisit the past, all the characters show the subtle changes that happens with life,  what this film does, and does very well is bring us up to date with Carrie and co now.  I was amazed however when in one shot the boom mic was clearly visible at the top of the screen, surely with the technology nowadays, even if they had only discovered it post production they could have used some computer wizardry to remove it, but then maybe they were too busy looking at the outfits, the bags, the shoes and the jewelry making sure that was right to notice such a utilitarian thing!