Mostly Concerning Food
It’s been a dramatic week news wise. Tensions mount in Eastern Ukraine as senior German politicians warn of the situation beginning to slide out of control. Here in Britain the country’s terror threat is raised from substantial to severe (are they trying to scare us?) and President Obama lets slip that he has no policy on combatting the threat of “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria. Plenty there for journalists to get their teeth into and of course the main headlines across newspapers, television and radio news has been of a 69 year old pensioner from Shropshire who took a bowl of ice cream out of her freezer during a television cooking programme.
800 irate viewers have risen as one by sending letters of complaint to the broadcasting watchdogs and calling for the return of national service for anyone wilfully defrosting a baked Alaska.
Poor old Iain was left with a sloppy mess to turn into a presentable pudding to be judged by the sainted Mary Berry and the slightly more rotund Paul Hollywood on BBC’s Great British Bake Off. Deciding that the task was beyond him, and feeling the heat of the moment, Iain let it all slide gracefully into the waste bin. The other bakers and the quick witted hosts stood dumb-founded as he then took off his apron and walked out of the tent. It gave us 30 Mel and Sue free seconds and for this alone, I applaud him.
Intrigue grew as it became clear that amiable WI cook Diana had been responsible for removing the ice cream from the freezer and allowing it to melt. Despite Iain’s appearances on flag ship news programmes like the Today programme and Newsnight where he assured everyone that he didn’t blame Diana and the BBC’s assurance that the ice cream was only out of the freezer for 40 seconds, the country has risen in arms. It’s funny up to a point but seldom has the “blame someone” aspect, that has become an unfortunate part of the national psyche, been more evident. Seldom has reality tv seemed so real for some people and seldom has reality seemed so trivial.
As things are panning out the victim appears to be emerging as something of a national hero. There seems a general feeling that he deserves some sort of compensation. Expect him to soon fronting his own talk show and leading the British delegation to re-negotiate recipes for fondant fancies with European ministers in Brussels.
We gathered as a family group and pretty much missed the entire controversy. At the time we were tucking into slices of raspberry and blackberry pie. Steven had made this following the family formula that he makes the sweet course and I look after the savoury and everybody joins in the eating. We enjoy the programme but we don’t actually watch very much of it. It’s the best excuse we have for getting together once a week since the children left home. Our sympathies are with all the cooks this year. They are an exceptionally nice bunch. The task was badly thought out. No cook in the world would set about making a baked Alaska without first having ice cream that is already in a frozen state. The facilities provided for them are inadequate to the task and any chef with a degree of professional pride would be tempted to throw a poor attempt away. We don’t need the hurtful internet comments but neither do we need the moral high ground tut tutting of the judges saying that Iain’s perfectly understandable reaction was “unacceptable.”
A pity the show wasn’t being hosted by the late Terry Thomas. Apart from him finding great fun in the discomfort of the situation he could have said: “Well, I say! the old dear’s behaved like an absolute cad and the young chap should learn to take the bally thing on the chin”.
On the plus side it made the episode more entertaining than usual and Steven’s pie really was exceptional. (I had two slices).
Elsewhere in the Johnson kitchen there was a need to make use of autumn’s bounty. French beans are growing by the bushel, trusses of tomatoes are weighing down the stems and capsicums are resembling overgrown Christmas decorations. I’ve never made minestrone soup before. It’s time to put that right. There are plenty of recipes and none of them suit the ingredients. the closest (believe it or not) come from a recipe book by Gerald Depardieu. He uses celery and carrot and he doesn’t include any onions. I follow suit. The rest of my recipe is as different from his as Middlemarch is from Madame Bovary. My French (bush) beans, tomatoes and pepper go in as does a tin of baked beans and some farfalle broken in halves. It was by some distance the best minestrone I have made!
On Saturday I made a final batch of Cornish pasties for the season and ate three during the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final. It was a good game. Leeds won the match and HP won the battle of the sauces. Which is the correct sauce to put on a Cornish pasty? Brown or red? How about a sausage sandwich? How about a sausage and egg sandwich?
Breadmaking makes a come back this week. I give some of the first batch of dough to T and she turns out some fruit tea cakes. Actually more the smaller version of bun loaf where the fruit and sugar are added before the second prove. She served up the first while we watched University Challenge. It was so good I intended to run downstairs for the camera but couldn’t bring myself not to finish it first. These were for breakfast the following day and were eaten toasted. Simply wonderful.
Second day soup is always better than had been the day before. The salad had all been growing five minutes earlier and the Cropwell Bishop Stilton from Waitrose was just about the best I have ever tasted: the taste being matched by the creaminess of the texture.
An almost perfect day at Newstead Abbey included a visit to the cafe there. The cakes look fine and the tea reasonable. In fact the cakes are poor in taste and texture and at £3 a slice you expect better. The young man behind the counter was pleasant enough but he neither knew what he was serving nor, quite frankly, cared. It is the ideal place for a tearoom with genuinely good, traditional baking and tea served in Staffordshire crockery. Newstead is losing visitors and money by the year. Charging a premium price for an inferior product isn’t going to get tourists flocking. A really good old fashioned tea room would. Doubly disappointed at the standard and the opportunity being missed.
The best meal of the week. Poached eggs and asparagus on toast with a couple of knobs of butter. No need for Hollandaise. This is better.
Bake to Bake Off. By the time I returned to the television room with my camera this was all that remained of 6 cheese and onion pasties. Conversation quietened during the munching. I take this as a sign they were being enjoyed.
The presentation and the glaze on this pie was a treat for the eye.
The combination of tastes and textures was a treat for the mouth. Fresh raspberries and blackberries, the jelly glaze, the perfect crème patisserie, the sweet crunch of the pastry. My pasties were nice but no match for this. Another victory for the pastry chef.
Another first. A Spanish Omelette. Basically a way of using up the onions and potatoes that I didn’t need in the pasties the night before. Add a green pepper from the garden and some eggs from Frances and Steven’s chickens and it was a decent first effort. Not much left over and even that was enjoyed by Jolly.
The third new recipe of the week is Bakewell Tart. My old Good Housekeeping recipe book whichI bought in the 70s need 3oz of cakecrumbs. Apart from the literal I wasn’t quite sure what this entailed so I tried Mary Berry. For once I wasn’t impressed. A Bakewell without any almonds? Seems unnatural to me. So I made up a recipe and it also passes muster for a first attempt. If and when I open a tearoom just outside Newstead Abbey I will have perfected the recipe but until then this will do nicely.
The approach of any new season seems a perfect opportunity for using up the stock cupboard. We had a packet of pecan nuts. We made coffee and pecan cake. I made the cake, T made the butter cream. It was delicious.
The flour and yeast (fresh) came from the local bakery.
Three fine loaves. So easy to make. Such good exercise. Why don’t I make all my own bread? It’s better than anything you can buy in the shops (and I include artisan bakeries in this)*
The challenge to spend £10 for a free newspaper at Waitrose continues. Once again I choose a few treats. This Kiln roasted salmon was a genuine delight. Stewart made his desire to join us known and was rewarded.
The meal finished with a little more of the excellent Stilton.
This was also a finishing things off meal. Pancakes are so very easy and a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream and a sauce made from squeezing a satsuma into a nearly empty pot of raspberry jam made a luxurious crepe. I still prefer them with sugar and lemon.
A simple autumn chutney accounted for two small marrows, beans, tomatoes, onions, spices, chillies and vinegar. The house smelt fantastic!
*In the case of bakeries the word artisan means run by middle class people.