Monday, December 08, 2008
Feeding time
Started off Sunday with kippers from the Isle of Man, via one of the fish stalls at Kingston market. No dye, grilled, but not too dry. Not large, but very satisfactory. Kingston market also boasted one of those German markets which seem to be popping up everywhere. Are they all German? Are there any left in Germany? Amongst other things a sausage stall where we bought one of those roast smoked bacon lumps and a rather fine looking lump of bacon sausage. Have yet to try either. We have now bought the roast smoked bacon lumps from a Portuguese delicatessen, a Polish delicatassen (sklep?) and a German market. They all looked the same, so maybe they all had 'Made in the Republic of Ireland' printed in very small letters inside the wrapper somewhere. So much for ethnic shopping.
Later that day moved onto a 6.5lb peice of fore rib from Cheam. Cooked it for 2 hours at 180C and it was just about right: brown outside and pink inside. Being somewhat nervous about opening the oven when roasting meat - the loss of heat confuses the cooking time - I don't usually go in for roast potatoes - which I have never really got the hang of anyway - but on this occasion I did do roast parsnips. Take one parsnip, Exminster variety and about 2lbs in weight, cut into lumps about four inches long and one inch square. Fry briefly in dripping (I don't butter my parsnips for these purposes) in the frying pan, then transfer to the roasting dish about 30 minutes before the end of time. This way one gets the roasting dish in and out of the oven in about 30 seconds, without losing the time it would take to baste the parsnips in-situ. Serve with crinkly cabbage and white easy-cook rice. Plus a couple of bottles of Tarragona casa reserva from Lidls for £3.49 a pop, including wire around the bottles. Or was it Aldis? I have got completely stuck on keeping the two places into two compartments. Irrevokably locked into one.
Had the beef cold yesterday so made some gravy. Did not have the stock from the roasting dish which had been chucked, so cooked up some corn flour in beef dripping. Added some ground black pepper (much better result with a pestle and mortar, rather than one of those rotary jobs. Bashing the corns releases the active ingredients in a way that simply cutting them up does not). Added the blood which had oozed out of the joint the day before and had by then more or less congealed. Added some water from the nearly cooked potatoes. Turned out rather better than I expected. Cold beef very good, although I imagine younger people might be rather put off by all the inedible bits and peices breaking up the meat. All too obviously from an animal rather than MacDonalds. All seems to show much more when served cold rather than hot.
Having difficulties of our own with banks at the moment, interested to read about the lady who has been receiving someone else's bank statement for the last 10 years or something. According to the DT, the bank has apologised but is not confident that it can do anything to stop the statements turning up to the wrong address. I find this rather hard to believe, so I wonder what the true story was. It seems unlikely that the thing is a complete fabrication.
And then there was story about the pedantic council and the lady parker. It seems that the lady parker stuck her pay and display ticket inside her windscreen. Some time later it falls off, before the visit by the regulator. She issues a parking ticket. She (the nosey parker) appeals, loses and elects to pay her fines in 2p peices or something. Now I'm sure she had her bit of fun taking her wheelbarrow around to the town hall cash office, but was it all really necessary? I know the rules say that the parking ticket must be displayed to be valid, but surely there is a bit of room for common sense. No-one was disputing that she had bought her ticket - although no-one was saying that she had produced it from the floor of her car in evidence either. So why not just waive the fine?
My impression is that the revenue regulators riding the SouthWest trains are quite sensible about this sort of thing. If you appear to be honest, or even to be dishonest but with some particle of remorse, or at least good manners, they give the benefit of the doubt. They only prosecute - which while possibly deterring, must be a major expense and bother - as a last resort.
Maybe Surrey parking regulators are a bit like the police with guns. New toy which they have yet to learn to use responsibly.
Later that day moved onto a 6.5lb peice of fore rib from Cheam. Cooked it for 2 hours at 180C and it was just about right: brown outside and pink inside. Being somewhat nervous about opening the oven when roasting meat - the loss of heat confuses the cooking time - I don't usually go in for roast potatoes - which I have never really got the hang of anyway - but on this occasion I did do roast parsnips. Take one parsnip, Exminster variety and about 2lbs in weight, cut into lumps about four inches long and one inch square. Fry briefly in dripping (I don't butter my parsnips for these purposes) in the frying pan, then transfer to the roasting dish about 30 minutes before the end of time. This way one gets the roasting dish in and out of the oven in about 30 seconds, without losing the time it would take to baste the parsnips in-situ. Serve with crinkly cabbage and white easy-cook rice. Plus a couple of bottles of Tarragona casa reserva from Lidls for £3.49 a pop, including wire around the bottles. Or was it Aldis? I have got completely stuck on keeping the two places into two compartments. Irrevokably locked into one.
Had the beef cold yesterday so made some gravy. Did not have the stock from the roasting dish which had been chucked, so cooked up some corn flour in beef dripping. Added some ground black pepper (much better result with a pestle and mortar, rather than one of those rotary jobs. Bashing the corns releases the active ingredients in a way that simply cutting them up does not). Added the blood which had oozed out of the joint the day before and had by then more or less congealed. Added some water from the nearly cooked potatoes. Turned out rather better than I expected. Cold beef very good, although I imagine younger people might be rather put off by all the inedible bits and peices breaking up the meat. All too obviously from an animal rather than MacDonalds. All seems to show much more when served cold rather than hot.
Having difficulties of our own with banks at the moment, interested to read about the lady who has been receiving someone else's bank statement for the last 10 years or something. According to the DT, the bank has apologised but is not confident that it can do anything to stop the statements turning up to the wrong address. I find this rather hard to believe, so I wonder what the true story was. It seems unlikely that the thing is a complete fabrication.
And then there was story about the pedantic council and the lady parker. It seems that the lady parker stuck her pay and display ticket inside her windscreen. Some time later it falls off, before the visit by the regulator. She issues a parking ticket. She (the nosey parker) appeals, loses and elects to pay her fines in 2p peices or something. Now I'm sure she had her bit of fun taking her wheelbarrow around to the town hall cash office, but was it all really necessary? I know the rules say that the parking ticket must be displayed to be valid, but surely there is a bit of room for common sense. No-one was disputing that she had bought her ticket - although no-one was saying that she had produced it from the floor of her car in evidence either. So why not just waive the fine?
My impression is that the revenue regulators riding the SouthWest trains are quite sensible about this sort of thing. If you appear to be honest, or even to be dishonest but with some particle of remorse, or at least good manners, they give the benefit of the doubt. They only prosecute - which while possibly deterring, must be a major expense and bother - as a last resort.
Maybe Surrey parking regulators are a bit like the police with guns. New toy which they have yet to learn to use responsibly.
# posted by Jim @ 10:51 PM 
