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 Amanita
Muscarinia (highly toxic but beautiful) |
| October 2008 | |
| I've had the misfortune to be engaged in fairly intense studying for my exit exams so unfortunately the website has had to take a back burner. I have been eating, just not writing. | |
| It just occurred to me tonight what a loony recipe the pumpkin gnocchi is; amaretti biscuits, garlic, parmesan and sage. The usual accompaniment of not so dry German wine is equally baffling in its alchemy. Just divine. | |
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It is difficult to ignore a butcher who
displays his meat in a window, especially one so proudly adorned with
ribbons, rosettes and all. This is a decent chunk
of shin that I initially cooked in a wee chalet in Aviemore. Half a pint
of badger ale, some onions and dried field mushrooms, and christ knows
what else. On the first outing I fried some Orange Birch Bolete
mushrooms, which were as my field guide suggests, 'excellent', and
strangely reminiscient of Boletus Edulis- strange because no
other boletes I've eaten taste like B. Edulis. On doing some further
research however, the orange birch bolete seems to be a very tricky
fella to identify, and some closely related species seem to cause some
gastric upset. Not exactly in the same league as the Destroying Angel,
but probably best avoided in future- a shame. The second outing I added some butter beans (shown) and served with cheesy polenta. (not my picture) |
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Two awesome puds below, making use of excess and
stale bread The left is my first ever Brown Betty, from the National Trust Puddings Book which was thankfully reprinted recently, glossy pics and all. It consists of layers of fried bread crumbs (fried with sugar and butter until crunchy) and sliced apple which is then baked. I put a 'spoke' of star anise in the frying phase and used demerara sugar. |
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On the right is our pal bread and butter pudding with
the slight twist of using Agen prunes soaked in brandy, as well as a
dash of vanilla essence. I didn't use cream to make the 'custard' mix as
I feel this should be a light but bulky dish- you want to eat lots of it
with a dessert spoon, not a teaspoon. You can always go all Simon and
adorn with cold pouring cream. I also don't see the point of making it
with brioche, just silly really. Brioche is a third butter to begin
with, therefore missing the point of thickly buttering plain bread. As
the name suggests BREAD and BUTTER, durrrrr. At a push I may use fruit
bread but any decent half stale bread should suffice.
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