Friday, July 27, 2012
Soups (concluded)
The mixed fish soup turned out very well, to the point that BH had some for tea, despite the heat.
Simmer some white potatoes, cut into about 2 cubic inch lumps, for about 15 minutes. Add maybe 2 ounces of finely slivered white cabbage, including stalk. Simmer for a further 5 minutes. Meanwhile gently fry some Sainbury's finest back bacon (probably not smoked) cut into 1cm squares in some butter (brand not important). Add that to the potatoes etc. Gently fry the piece of smoked haddock and the piece of fresh cod, skin down, to the point where the skin detaches. Flake and add that to the potatoes etc. Simmer for a further minute and serve. Very nice it was too, with the two of us doing the three pints in a sitting.
Then this morning off to Loyld's to get the large FIL prescription, against his return from hospital, to find that his gluten free bread had been included on the prescription, this despite, as I found out later, BH carefully scoring that item out on the repeat prescription form. This because we read somewhere that it cost the NHS about twice as much to do it this way as it would cost us to buy direct, over the Internet, from their supplier. Now as it happened the bread part of the prescription had not arrived, so I thought about cancelling. But why would you do that said that chit, it doesn't cost you anything if you get it from us.
I then left to walk off the 15 minutes or so it was going to take to assemble the rest of the order - and to ponder what to do about the bread. How long would it take to explain to the chit that we could rather pay £10 for the bread ourselves than have it free from an NHS which had had to pay £20 for it? And take a lot more flapping about while it was at it. On the return straight, I decided that it was my duty as a citizen to explain this to the chit and to get her to try and cancel the order - which had almost certainly not left the bakery up north at that point. Entered the shop with a stern demeanour to be greeted by a maturer dispenser who took in the stern demeanour at a glance and cancelled the bread order without bothering with the impending lecture.
This triumph of the will called for macaroni from Italy (preferably the fluted stuff) with pink sausage (from Poland), a dish last savoured in Norfolk (see 10th July). As it happened I already had the sausage, the onion and the basil. So off to Alio's for the fluted macaroni, where my choice of something called sedani grandi from Poiatti of Sicily (http://www.poiatti.it/) (headquartered perhaps 80km west by south of the Corleone of Godfather fame) was duly applauded by Alio himself. Inter alia, the stuff was said to yield a pleasant aroma when cooking, unlike the more basic product from Sainbury's. I have also learned that the sedani bit of the name of this particular pasta doubles as the word for celery - with the look of the stuff indeed being suggestive of that vegetable, at least once someone has noticed the suggestion for you. Cooked it for ten minutes, not being sure about the aroma as I was simmering the onion in some butter and basil at the time. Maybe the kitchen aroma was more to do with the basil. All turned out very well with the 10 ounces of sedani grandi sliding down our two throats in one sitting.
Simmer some white potatoes, cut into about 2 cubic inch lumps, for about 15 minutes. Add maybe 2 ounces of finely slivered white cabbage, including stalk. Simmer for a further 5 minutes. Meanwhile gently fry some Sainbury's finest back bacon (probably not smoked) cut into 1cm squares in some butter (brand not important). Add that to the potatoes etc. Gently fry the piece of smoked haddock and the piece of fresh cod, skin down, to the point where the skin detaches. Flake and add that to the potatoes etc. Simmer for a further minute and serve. Very nice it was too, with the two of us doing the three pints in a sitting.
Then this morning off to Loyld's to get the large FIL prescription, against his return from hospital, to find that his gluten free bread had been included on the prescription, this despite, as I found out later, BH carefully scoring that item out on the repeat prescription form. This because we read somewhere that it cost the NHS about twice as much to do it this way as it would cost us to buy direct, over the Internet, from their supplier. Now as it happened the bread part of the prescription had not arrived, so I thought about cancelling. But why would you do that said that chit, it doesn't cost you anything if you get it from us.
I then left to walk off the 15 minutes or so it was going to take to assemble the rest of the order - and to ponder what to do about the bread. How long would it take to explain to the chit that we could rather pay £10 for the bread ourselves than have it free from an NHS which had had to pay £20 for it? And take a lot more flapping about while it was at it. On the return straight, I decided that it was my duty as a citizen to explain this to the chit and to get her to try and cancel the order - which had almost certainly not left the bakery up north at that point. Entered the shop with a stern demeanour to be greeted by a maturer dispenser who took in the stern demeanour at a glance and cancelled the bread order without bothering with the impending lecture.
This triumph of the will called for macaroni from Italy (preferably the fluted stuff) with pink sausage (from Poland), a dish last savoured in Norfolk (see 10th July). As it happened I already had the sausage, the onion and the basil. So off to Alio's for the fluted macaroni, where my choice of something called sedani grandi from Poiatti of Sicily (http://www.poiatti.it/) (headquartered perhaps 80km west by south of the Corleone of Godfather fame) was duly applauded by Alio himself. Inter alia, the stuff was said to yield a pleasant aroma when cooking, unlike the more basic product from Sainbury's. I have also learned that the sedani bit of the name of this particular pasta doubles as the word for celery - with the look of the stuff indeed being suggestive of that vegetable, at least once someone has noticed the suggestion for you. Cooked it for ten minutes, not being sure about the aroma as I was simmering the onion in some butter and basil at the time. Maybe the kitchen aroma was more to do with the basil. All turned out very well with the 10 ounces of sedani grandi sliding down our two throats in one sitting.
# posted by Jim @ 11:30 AM 
