pumpkinstrokemarrow

Three culinary events to report. First, the BH has discovered or possibly invented a liquid form of bread pudding. Take stale bread. Add milk, sugar, butter and sultanas. Maybe some other dried stuff. Warm through and serve. It should be fairly thick. More or less the ingredients of bread pudding less the egg. Much quicker to prepare and tastes surprisingly similar. Good gear in cold weather.

Then yesterday a simple little cow chop, served with white rice and crinkly cabbage for lunch. Cow chop being a one-rib version of fore rib. Weighed in at about four pounds and cooked for a little under 2 hours at 180C. Very good it was too, although nothing like the cow chops we had in Florence, made from a very similar cut of beef. The main differance in cutting being that they leave the thin end of the chop rather longer, a bit like one of our lamb cutlets, large size.

And started off today with the first of three Craster kippers from Waitrose - a purchase on Wednesday, when we did not venture out as far as Mr S. at Kiln Lane. A little bigger than Craster kippers usually come and grilled was a little strong. May try simmering the next one. Came in an interesting foil sealy - if that is the name for a square envelope of foil, sealing up your fish on the counter. Amongst other virtues it was said to significantly reduce fishy smells in one's refridgerator. Must tell the man from Hastings about them. Perhaps he can install the necessary contraption in his van somewhere.

Yesterday evening tried a train for the first time since the snow. All seemed to be well and got to the Queen Elizabeth Hall in time to take a little refreshment before the concert. Pleased to find that the irritating in-foyer platform was not occupied. That is to say we were not warmed up for our concert by some young people whacking out some of their stuff. Went to the concert for the Chopin preludes which I have not heard live before. Surprised that it took the first half of the bill but found that the answer was that most of the people there had gone for the Couperin and Ravel, which, interleaved, made up the second half. Quite a few young French people turned out to hear this young French pianist and the one in front of us at any rate was something of a pianist himself, even if the young lady leaning gracefully on his shoulder was not. The Ravel was something I had never heard of before called 'Couperin's tomb' - although I learn this morning from Wiki that tombeau might better be translated as memorial. I think the idea was that the six movements of the tomb were interleaved with five, six or seven (depending on the detail of the interleaving) peices by Couperin, in order to show how Ravel drew on the French Baroque. Unfortunately I was too mean to buy a programme (at £4) and I cannot now found out what it was I heard, let alone in what order, the relevant entry having already been deleted from the South Bank web site. But I do find that I have a boxed set of Couperin on the shelf, so I think I shall have to crack it open - because I liked the second half a lot better than I was expecting to. Even if the Ravel sounded rather jazzy at times.

Good to go to a live concert again as I quickly forget how much better they are than my elderly hi-fi. One is in the temple for an occasion, rather than lolling about on one's sofa. The quality of the silences is quite differant. One gets a much stronger texture to the music. The dynamics are much better. I wonder if all this is as true with music which is composed for the CD, in a recording studio.