Almost there

After nearly two weeks the worst thing about eating up my stock cupboard has been the boredom. I can hardly bring myself to go the kitchen because there's nothing there that's the slightest bit inspiring and I know whatever I make will be pretty much slop on carb.

Without counting any chickens I'm confidently expecting Mr. Stripey Cat to arrive tomorrow bearing fresh baguettes in a bouquet for our breakfast. So, in theory at any rate, tonight's the last night I'll be scraping around for something nice to eat. I thought it was time for some serious foraging.

Everyone eats nettles and I have plenty so naturally a handful of those were picked but I also saw some extremely fat and succulent looking bramble shoots, the sort of fat juicy spears that head to the sky on their way to looping over the fence and rooting elsewhere. I tried a bit raw, you have to peel off the spines of course but it's easy with a thumbnail to get you started, they just rip away. It was pretty good.

And then, what else do I have a lot of at the moment, rhubarb! Also for the pot, a small handful of the Good King Henry (how have I lived this long before appreciating this plant) and the last of the stock potatoes.


Making a curry is too easy to record. I'd have liked to have roasted and hand ground my spices, grated my own coconut and all the rest but I didn't so I can't boast about it.

After the sauce was made and the cubed potatoes softened a little I added the peeled bramble shoots (like asparagus, just take it from above where it breaks naturally), the blanched chopped nettles and a smallish handful of finely sliced rhubarb. I didn't add much of that because I was worried the end result would be too acid but it wasn't a problem.

The bramble shoots were a huge success. They reminded me of drumstick (Moringa oleifera) in curry and I'm half kicking an idea around in my head to cultivate a blackberry stool just for shoot production.

It's been an interesting experiment. I made no promises for any ethical reasons, it was just that I'm too lazy to make the two mile hike to the village for anything less serious than running out of cat food and there was little chance of that, those cats are spoiled rotten.

I expected that by now I'd have a shopping list a mile long and cravings from here to New York but actually the only thing I've even considered putting on a list is bananas and it's not really bananas I want but greasy golden plantain chips. I can't imagine anything less likely to be obtainable in Normandy so that has to be purely psychological. Oh, but I do need some cooking oil that isn't EVO and I've run out of vinegar, except for balsamic.

No Comment

I have enough food for two more weeks, if I eat this every day. Curry tomorrow.

Scraping the barrel

Tonight's concoction was so poor that I nearly didn't blog it. Then I remembered I'd promised, then I discovered that both cameras had flat batteries. I coaxed a little juice out of one of them because I wasn't going to wait any longer for my supper.



Using up some old Brick pastry sheets I decided to make pancake rolls. For filling I used some matchstick potatoes, shredded leeks, some peanuts and a little finely chopped horseradish. I was a wimp and could have used a lot more of the spicy stuff.

The filling was quickly stir fried to take the edge of the spuds and used to fill 2.5 sheets of Brick. I thought I had five. The unwieldy shaped rolls were shallow fried and greasy and tough in consequence.

Still, I'm not hungry any more, which is a good thing.

Only two more days before I can hit the shops, which will be a huge relief even though, had the bomb dropped, there's still food for another couple of weeks carefully managed.

Stripy the Cat

Stripy is a feral cat who was shot and has now found some kind new owners. He has his own blog at stripythecat.

He's no relation but Stripey cats must stick together. Say hello and tell him you heard about him here.

All the best, Stripy.

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb

Rhubarb and yoghurt for supper.

Absolutely no interest in eating or cooking today. Horrible weather, dull day and the bad cats broke a bottle of Oban single malt.

Easy

As previously mentioned, I've no access to the shops for a while, originally expecting 10 days and now it's stretching out to nearer 13 days before Mr. Stripey returns with my car and the freedom to roam. I do have one loaf of made bread still in the freezer but I've promised myself I won't start that until Wednesday, so there's a chance of making it to the weekend.

I still have a little flour and with the help of a starter made last week and kept in the fridge it's been possible to make some pikelets and now this focaccia to eke out my essentials with.

Giving directions on how to make bread is beyond me. I read other people's very detailed recipes and I know I'd never follow them. For me, bread is like art. Either it reaches my expectations or it doesn't. This did. I apologise that these instructions will be no help at all to the neophyte but hope anyone who's made a little bread before will be able to pick up what I'm talking about.

Add enough flour to a wet starter (equal parts flour and water with a pinch of dried yeast, fermented 12 hours in the cool and refrigerated for a week) to make a shaggy moist dough. You'll need some water too and a sprinkle of fine salt. This is a no knead bread, so just use your hands to gather everything together and make a smooth ball to pop back in your bowl. The problem in this house is finding a place to set the dough to rise, there's nowhere warm. In the end I resorted to putting the bowl on a sheltered south facing windowsill outside to use solar energy for my heating.

When the dough has doubled in size, spread it out over a well oiled high sided tin and leave to rest for 30 minutes to an hour. Punch little depressions all over with your finger tips and sprinkle with rosemary and a little sea salt (I used too much). Add a final drizzle of olive oil if you need to, I didn't, and bake in a hot oven until cooked. This took about 35 minutes but my oven isn't great.

Enjoy.

Everything they say about vegans is true...

we are boring, food faddists and everything we eat is no fun at all.



At least, looking at that picture you'd be forgiven for believing that. It's impeccably wholesome, low fat, highly nutritious, low GI and simply terribly good for you but there's no denying that it looks... well, brown.

Tonight's supper is just a little more uninteresting to look at than usual because normally when I make this I include some fat slices of braised mushrooms or some roasted pepper strips to add to the complexity but because I have none of those things at the moment the best I can do is a chiffonade of herbs, wild sorrel, chives and sweet cicely with its lovely light anise flavour. Even so, it's absolutely delicious.

Soak some wheat berries for a few hours and then set them to cook until nice and soft (at least 45 minutes). Don't let the water run out during the long simmer.

Cook some brown or green lentils until they are soft but still hold their shape. These took about 25 minutes.

Drain both, and mix together. Add a couple of cloves of garlic (yes, two or more even!) well mashed with a very few grains of salt. You only need a little salt to start that mashy thing because you'll also be adding a splash of soy sauce and a splash of wine vinegar to taste. That's it. Dressing done. No oil.

If you have them then try the additions, one or the other, mentioned above but this is a meal that stands on its simplicity. A few herbs are always worthwhile.

Eat on your own, with friends or with an irritated audience of vampires. That garlic is strong.

Ackee Fried Rice

Almost didn't blog this evening although this was the dish I had planned since yesterday when I realised I'd have loads of left over rice. The evening wore on and my appetite wasn't great, and even less was my desire to do some more of the same old cooking stuff but eventually I started to get hungry and while rooting around for something more interesting realised that this was as good as it was going to get. I'm glad I thought that, because it's rather nice.

Ackee are the arils of a tropical tree and a staple food in Jamaica, you can read all about them on wiki which will explain that it's almost as exciting as eating puffer fish. Actually, there's little to fear and the ill effects are almost never fatal unless you are already in poor health. My tin, because they are only available in cold climates in a canned form, was a bit past its date. This isn't because it was part of the batch I was given but because we'd been saving it for a special occasion. That moment came tonight!

Fry a little onion in some oil, add some chopped fresh tomato (except I only had tinned), a crushed clove of garlic, a finely chopped green chilli (adjust to taste), some lemon thyme (or ordinary thyme) and some tarragon. You only need to take the rawness away. Add your drained ackee. They are very soft and in order to preserve the look of the dish should just be gently shaken into the sauce.

This is my way of making fried rice which never sticks and always works. Take your day old, refrigerated rice and crumble it over the top of the food in the pan. Break down any lumps and sprinkle evenly until everything is covered. Cover the pan and leave over a low heat for the rice and ackee to heat through.

Then, turn up the heat and stir the rice into everything else. You'll need to be extra specially careful with the ackee but usually a vigorous stir fry action is fine.

Decorate with some finely chopped spring onion greens or chives.

Fried, with rice

I notice from the archives that I had a very similar meal just after I started this blog way back in May 2007 only this time I left out the mushroom pâté, I had it in my lunchtime sandwich instead. Also, instead of sweet and sour I tried to recreate the sort of cornflour and lemon sauce you get on Lemon Chicken in Chinese takeaways but it didn't work too well, more research needed there.

Still, in such beautiful sunshine any meal would be delicious and this was no exception.

Past its best

I should have posted this entry last night but like the good researcher I am I had to wait overnight, just to see if I died of anything I'd eaten! Actually that's not true, it's just that I was lost in a book and forgot.

I've been given a number of tin cans of food which are considerably past their sell by date. However, commercial canning is one of the safest methods of food preservation known to mankind and provided a few simple rules are followed you should be able to use these resources up safely and without contributing to the mounds of food waste that are made every day.



This is a tin of tomatoes, best before the end of August 2007. The first thing to notice about it is that the label is still dry, clean and relatively undamaged. There are no visible dents. I have to say that I don't think the sort of cans with easy lift lids are as long lived as those you have to open with a tin opener, but if everything else checks out you should be fine.



Next check the top and bottom of the can for rust marks or discolouration. This one looks o.k. A few surface marks can be ignored but the main body should be clean. Tip the contents out into a clean bowl (if they're fizzing you can stop now, and just chuck the whole lot out) and rinse the tin.

Examine the inside of the can for damage, discolouration, any dents that weren't visible from the outside. If it's a coated tin like this one then it's pretty easy to see what's going on but on other tins you'll have to look closely to ensure the metal is in good order.

Then turn your attention to the contents. Anything that smells bad, looks a funny colour, has strange lumps or is unexpectedly watery or solid should be discarded. Even if it won't kill you worrying about it will give you a bad night so don't take the chance.



Finally use your rescued produce in a dish that has a good long cooking, ideally something that reaches a boil for a few minutes and then simmers for half an hour or so. I made a leek and tomato soup with my old tomatoes and it wasn't too bad.