Sunday, July 22, 2007
Back from hols
Back from a couple of weeks in Pembroke; Tenby to be more precise. An excellent resort doing just the sort of thing resorts should do. Beach, cliffs, castles and churches.
Interesting bacon experiences. The indoor market butcher in Carmarthen (where a good deal of Welsh was being spoken and not just for our benefit) sold three sorts of ethnic bacon. A large white rolled affair tied up with string, 95% fat, maybe six inches in diameter. Then another 95% fat job which was a rather strong yellow colour and which came in irregular lumps of about 10 cubic inches. And then some streaky bacon. This last came in an ordinarily bacon shaped lump and he carved us four slices with a boning knife - none of your bacon slicers here thank you. The couple behind us explained that the lady of the couple liked to smell it cooking and the husband liked to eat it - an arrangement which suited everybody. We thought we had scored a real bacon coup until we came to cook the stuff. Smelt good cooking, looked good cooking, but tasted extremely salty - to the extent that only the BH could manage it. And what is more, strange brown powder, insoluble in fat - oozed out of it during the frying. Did much better as a flavouring for vegetables - cabbage or lentils than as a sandwich.
So finding a butcher in the indoor market in Tenby who also sold ethnic bacon we tried the white stuff (this time in a bacon shaped lump, three months in the curing) - which it transpired was surprisingly edible uncooked. We fried it chopped and stirred it into pre-cooked baby green lentils (see above) where it did very well. He could also say on which day and where the lamb which went into his lamb cutlets had been slaughtered.
Just for the record the ethnic butcher in question was a German from somewhere near Saarbruken who happened to have wound up in Tenby through the cooking trade - which perhaps explains why his way of cutting cutlets was a bit crude compared with the men of Cheam. But they tasted good.
Took along a large bag of broad beans which lasted out until the last day. Not all that pretty by then and no longer young broad beans but entirely edible. Did rather well in a bacon and cheese flavoured white sauce.
First two visits to the allotment since return. Lifted the remaining potatoes and managed quite a low spear count. Perhaps the best crop ever, both in terms of size and quantity. Just the odd albino among the red desiree. Onions had died off without drying, it having been so wet (unlike Tenby which was not bad at all. Only one seriously wet day and several really hot days). Now lifted and drying out in the garage. Perhaps the worst crop ever, both in terms of size and quantity. BH picked the first of the season's blackberries, picking perhaps a couple of pounds. Half of them being tray frozen in the freezer as I type.
Something has knocked over the teazles. Wouldn't have thought it was the rain so I guess it must be my friend the deer getting his own back for the fruit trees having been enclosed. On the other hand he is leaving the leaf beet alone. Maybe he can do better at this time of year.
Interesting bacon experiences. The indoor market butcher in Carmarthen (where a good deal of Welsh was being spoken and not just for our benefit) sold three sorts of ethnic bacon. A large white rolled affair tied up with string, 95% fat, maybe six inches in diameter. Then another 95% fat job which was a rather strong yellow colour and which came in irregular lumps of about 10 cubic inches. And then some streaky bacon. This last came in an ordinarily bacon shaped lump and he carved us four slices with a boning knife - none of your bacon slicers here thank you. The couple behind us explained that the lady of the couple liked to smell it cooking and the husband liked to eat it - an arrangement which suited everybody. We thought we had scored a real bacon coup until we came to cook the stuff. Smelt good cooking, looked good cooking, but tasted extremely salty - to the extent that only the BH could manage it. And what is more, strange brown powder, insoluble in fat - oozed out of it during the frying. Did much better as a flavouring for vegetables - cabbage or lentils than as a sandwich.
So finding a butcher in the indoor market in Tenby who also sold ethnic bacon we tried the white stuff (this time in a bacon shaped lump, three months in the curing) - which it transpired was surprisingly edible uncooked. We fried it chopped and stirred it into pre-cooked baby green lentils (see above) where it did very well. He could also say on which day and where the lamb which went into his lamb cutlets had been slaughtered.
Just for the record the ethnic butcher in question was a German from somewhere near Saarbruken who happened to have wound up in Tenby through the cooking trade - which perhaps explains why his way of cutting cutlets was a bit crude compared with the men of Cheam. But they tasted good.
Took along a large bag of broad beans which lasted out until the last day. Not all that pretty by then and no longer young broad beans but entirely edible. Did rather well in a bacon and cheese flavoured white sauce.
First two visits to the allotment since return. Lifted the remaining potatoes and managed quite a low spear count. Perhaps the best crop ever, both in terms of size and quantity. Just the odd albino among the red desiree. Onions had died off without drying, it having been so wet (unlike Tenby which was not bad at all. Only one seriously wet day and several really hot days). Now lifted and drying out in the garage. Perhaps the worst crop ever, both in terms of size and quantity. BH picked the first of the season's blackberries, picking perhaps a couple of pounds. Half of them being tray frozen in the freezer as I type.
Something has knocked over the teazles. Wouldn't have thought it was the rain so I guess it must be my friend the deer getting his own back for the fruit trees having been enclosed. On the other hand he is leaving the leaf beet alone. Maybe he can do better at this time of year.
# posted by Jim @ 8:46 AM 
