Monday, July 25, 2011
Culinary affairs (2)
Another crack at the macaroni the other night.
For the first time since I remember, I had a bottle of chilli sauce to use. I thought it was from Bertorelli but Google says they only do restaurants, albeit of the right flavour. In any event, 99% tomatoes with some chilli flavouring added, so clearly a case for dilution. Started with a couple of coarsely chopped tomatoes and simmered them in rape seed oil for a bit. Added a few similarly coarsely chopped runner beans to provide a bit of textural variety. Simmer for a bit longer. Add chilli sauce. Add finely chopped mushroom stalks then, after a bit, coarsely chopped mushroom caps. Bit of grated 'Tesco yellow' cheddar on the side. Not bad at all, although not as good as the previous attempt. BH been given new instructions regarding purchase of such bottled stuff.
Curiously, BH now much more positive on the whole subject of macaroni than she was a week ago. And I have been reminded that it is much easier stuff to whack up into a quick meal than spaghetti.
And the night after that, our second visit to the 'Dark Horse' at Brading. Not a bad place at all and last night I thought to try their apple crumble. Which, for once in a while, turned out to be a dish which we could reverse engineer, the solution we came to following.
Buy 3 litre tin of chopped apple with sugar. Make up a few pounds of crumble mix. Buy some cartons of Ambrosia custard. All this will keep for some days.
Buy collection of miscellaneous small pots from local charity shop. Need to be more high than wide and about right for a single pudding portion. Buy small jugs and rectangular plates, these last about 9 inches by 4, of a size to hold one pot and one jug in a tasteful way. Off white, silk finish, not the bright white gloss finish.
Suppose that one does an average of ten crumbles a day.
Each morning make up ten crumbles by putting a dollop of the apple in the bottom of a pot and a dollop of the crumble on top of that. Smooth. Bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes or so. Set to cool and then place in the fridge.
When one gets the order, put dollop of the Ambrosia in small jug. Place one of the pots and the newly filled jug in microwave and give them a quick blast. Serve on one of the rectangular plates.
Leave spares in fridge and try to remember to use stock in the right order.
Might be a good idea to prime the pump with 5 extra pots on the first day.
A pudding which can with honesty be described as home made, although island produce might be stretching things a bit. And Ambrosia use too much vanilla for my taste.
For the first time since I remember, I had a bottle of chilli sauce to use. I thought it was from Bertorelli but Google says they only do restaurants, albeit of the right flavour. In any event, 99% tomatoes with some chilli flavouring added, so clearly a case for dilution. Started with a couple of coarsely chopped tomatoes and simmered them in rape seed oil for a bit. Added a few similarly coarsely chopped runner beans to provide a bit of textural variety. Simmer for a bit longer. Add chilli sauce. Add finely chopped mushroom stalks then, after a bit, coarsely chopped mushroom caps. Bit of grated 'Tesco yellow' cheddar on the side. Not bad at all, although not as good as the previous attempt. BH been given new instructions regarding purchase of such bottled stuff.
Curiously, BH now much more positive on the whole subject of macaroni than she was a week ago. And I have been reminded that it is much easier stuff to whack up into a quick meal than spaghetti.
And the night after that, our second visit to the 'Dark Horse' at Brading. Not a bad place at all and last night I thought to try their apple crumble. Which, for once in a while, turned out to be a dish which we could reverse engineer, the solution we came to following.
Buy 3 litre tin of chopped apple with sugar. Make up a few pounds of crumble mix. Buy some cartons of Ambrosia custard. All this will keep for some days.
Buy collection of miscellaneous small pots from local charity shop. Need to be more high than wide and about right for a single pudding portion. Buy small jugs and rectangular plates, these last about 9 inches by 4, of a size to hold one pot and one jug in a tasteful way. Off white, silk finish, not the bright white gloss finish.
Suppose that one does an average of ten crumbles a day.
Each morning make up ten crumbles by putting a dollop of the apple in the bottom of a pot and a dollop of the crumble on top of that. Smooth. Bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes or so. Set to cool and then place in the fridge.
When one gets the order, put dollop of the Ambrosia in small jug. Place one of the pots and the newly filled jug in microwave and give them a quick blast. Serve on one of the rectangular plates.
Leave spares in fridge and try to remember to use stock in the right order.
Might be a good idea to prime the pump with 5 extra pots on the first day.
A pudding which can with honesty be described as home made, although island produce might be stretching things a bit. And Ambrosia use too much vanilla for my taste.
# posted by Jim @ 2:36 AM 
