Monday, November 07, 2011
Curly Kale
One of the products of the farmers' market on Sunday was a head of curly kale from a couple of ladies who might possibly have had something to do with growing the stuff. A rather orgo. looking pair selling all kinds of interesting stuff. I prepared the kale by coarsely cutting up the leaves and chopping the more serious stalks into two inch lengths then splitting lengthwise. Stalks boiled for around 12 minutes, leaves on top for 6 minutes. Very nice they were too, served with pork belly in a little stock cube stock baked underneath some onions and potatoes. This was more convenient today than the boiling bacon which I remember as being the traditional Irish accompaniment to the stuff; we shall have to try that next time we lay our hands on some.
There was some debate about whether kale was a relative of the turnip with FIL holding out for relative of the cabbage. I can now record that he was right, but that I was not that far wrong. Cabbages come under brassica oleracea while turnips come under brassica rapa. With brassica being a genus of the brassicaceae family, mustards to you or I.
Thus fortified I am now in a position to notice another product of us baby boomers entering the death zone. That is to say another book by a lady about the dubious joys of old age, in some ways like that noticed a few weeks ago on 27th September by Anna Funder. This one is called 'Wasted Morning' by Gabriela Adameșteanu from Rumania which has been translated by Patrick Camiller, a versatile chap who also does French, German, Spanish and Italian. A handsomely produced book from the Northwestern University Press, probably my first book from this particular lot.
A tale woven around the sometimes coarse reminiscences of two old ladies connected by habit, one working class and one from the former middle class. A story amongst other things of the trials and tribulations of Rumania and Rumanians through the first sixty years of the last century. Which I found fascinating, knowing next to nothing about the place beforehand. Had to resort to atlases - the Polish Army Atlas doing a very nice two page spread on what was then a sister country in the communist fold - and to Wikipedia to keep afloat. Names were a bit of a problem, as they are in Russian novels, and a cast list at the front would be a useful addition to any future edition.
A quite incidental by product was getting to know about some fairly horrific air raids during the second war on the oil fields of Ploiești, horrific in the sense of the number of air crew killed. But, nevertheless, something which had to be done.
A good read, worth every penny. Next stage is to find out whether my Rumanian neighbour has heard of the thing. The author is said to be famous in her own land.
There was some debate about whether kale was a relative of the turnip with FIL holding out for relative of the cabbage. I can now record that he was right, but that I was not that far wrong. Cabbages come under brassica oleracea while turnips come under brassica rapa. With brassica being a genus of the brassicaceae family, mustards to you or I.
Thus fortified I am now in a position to notice another product of us baby boomers entering the death zone. That is to say another book by a lady about the dubious joys of old age, in some ways like that noticed a few weeks ago on 27th September by Anna Funder. This one is called 'Wasted Morning' by Gabriela Adameșteanu from Rumania which has been translated by Patrick Camiller, a versatile chap who also does French, German, Spanish and Italian. A handsomely produced book from the Northwestern University Press, probably my first book from this particular lot.
A tale woven around the sometimes coarse reminiscences of two old ladies connected by habit, one working class and one from the former middle class. A story amongst other things of the trials and tribulations of Rumania and Rumanians through the first sixty years of the last century. Which I found fascinating, knowing next to nothing about the place beforehand. Had to resort to atlases - the Polish Army Atlas doing a very nice two page spread on what was then a sister country in the communist fold - and to Wikipedia to keep afloat. Names were a bit of a problem, as they are in Russian novels, and a cast list at the front would be a useful addition to any future edition.
A quite incidental by product was getting to know about some fairly horrific air raids during the second war on the oil fields of Ploiești, horrific in the sense of the number of air crew killed. But, nevertheless, something which had to be done.
A good read, worth every penny. Next stage is to find out whether my Rumanian neighbour has heard of the thing. The author is said to be famous in her own land.
# posted by Jim @ 8:33 AM 
