Tuesday, November 28, 2006
What's for afters?
November 28th. 21.35
Nice try, gardener, but I'm afraid that crepes with spinach and ricotta won't qualify. There's just too much other stuff in that dish to allow it as a cheese course or meal. Of course Brunetti is one of this blogger's favourites as food is a major aspect of his life. If only his wife weren't such a smart arse with attitude. Still, she seems to be a reasonable cook. Incidentally, we do not know who gardener might be but we welcome comments from Brunetti readers.
I think we must close the discussion on whether cheeses such as Stilton or Dolcelatta contain blue or green (its blue actually) and some grapes do seem to be quite blue. There is a plum called Kirkes Blue and another called Bullace which is quite blue.
Talk of pancakes makes me realise that 'Puddings' are sadly neglected in detective fiction except with Brunetti. I always used to think that a meal should have at least two courses. The pudding in school dinners was an absolute essential at a time when one was always hungry and could never get big enough portions. I would even eat the 'jam tart pudding with custard' which was always ruined by a light sprinkling of dried coconut flakes which, apart from their unpleasant taste, left one with that odd feeling in ones mouth for which there is no proper descriptive noun, but is of an odd dryness that slows down the swallowing process which is barely overcome with lashings of rather watery school custard. Ever since that time I have made the avoidance of coconut one of the cardinal rules about puddings.
Another of my rules for puddings is to avoid things that have been made by first melting down bars of chocolate and then adding pints of double cream and egg whites in a vain attempt to make the dish less sickly. This seldom works and I usually regret eating those dishes and will not prepare them. Of course most puddings- or sweets as they are of course known- usually contain a fair amount of sugar and/or pastry or sponge and are not at all suitable for the serious dieter.
A third rule is to avoid adding nuts to the dish as they always seem to add a dryness that is unwelcome and sometimes a feeling that something has fallen into the dish during preparation that wasn't supposed to be there. Nuts are fine as a snack but not as a pudding. I don't really count fruit on its own as a pudding which must require more effort than holding it under a tap.However fruit plays a major part in most of my favourite puddings and in today's selection apples and plums are often interchangeable and sometimes should be mixed:-
81. Rice Pudding (see recipe in a previous blog)
82. Plum Pie with custard ( thick skin on custard essential)
83. Plum/Apple Crumble with cream AND custard
84. Apple tart (hot) with Vanilla icecream
85. Apple Strudel
86. Lemon Meringue Pie
87. Creme Brulee
88. Bread and Butter Pudding
89. Queen of Puddings
90. Raspberry Cheesecake
It often adds to the quality of a crumble to use several different varieties of apple to obtain different and interesting textures and sometimes I add pears if available and dried peach. I am very fond of pancakes both sweet and savoury but they missed selection by a whisker.
Today I ate all I could of the stew which was not improved by the addition of the allotment rat and consigned the rest of it to the bin mainly because I was bored with it. Stews without mashed potatoes or baked potatoes to mop up the gravy don't seem quite right.
Although I no longer like Frank Keating's articles in the Guardian ( he's become just a bit too matey with sporting celebrities) he may have put his finger on England's lack of rugby success when he details the meals eaten by the English threequarter Noon. For breakfast on the match day he ate " Fruit and Fibre, poached eggs, beans on toast, protein shake, juice, yogurt, fruit and green tea." for lunch, only three hours after breakfast and three hours before kick-off, he ate "Pasta, toast, eggs, beans, jacket potatoes, boiled chicken and yogurt." I am sorry that I just cannot believe that such a diet is likely to lead to any zip or sparkle on the pitch. I am amazed that all the sporting boffins and advisors have fallen for that sort of dietary advice. I think I should be be brought in as advisor or possibly even the next coach.
Nice try, gardener, but I'm afraid that crepes with spinach and ricotta won't qualify. There's just too much other stuff in that dish to allow it as a cheese course or meal. Of course Brunetti is one of this blogger's favourites as food is a major aspect of his life. If only his wife weren't such a smart arse with attitude. Still, she seems to be a reasonable cook. Incidentally, we do not know who gardener might be but we welcome comments from Brunetti readers.
I think we must close the discussion on whether cheeses such as Stilton or Dolcelatta contain blue or green (its blue actually) and some grapes do seem to be quite blue. There is a plum called Kirkes Blue and another called Bullace which is quite blue.
Talk of pancakes makes me realise that 'Puddings' are sadly neglected in detective fiction except with Brunetti. I always used to think that a meal should have at least two courses. The pudding in school dinners was an absolute essential at a time when one was always hungry and could never get big enough portions. I would even eat the 'jam tart pudding with custard' which was always ruined by a light sprinkling of dried coconut flakes which, apart from their unpleasant taste, left one with that odd feeling in ones mouth for which there is no proper descriptive noun, but is of an odd dryness that slows down the swallowing process which is barely overcome with lashings of rather watery school custard. Ever since that time I have made the avoidance of coconut one of the cardinal rules about puddings.
Another of my rules for puddings is to avoid things that have been made by first melting down bars of chocolate and then adding pints of double cream and egg whites in a vain attempt to make the dish less sickly. This seldom works and I usually regret eating those dishes and will not prepare them. Of course most puddings- or sweets as they are of course known- usually contain a fair amount of sugar and/or pastry or sponge and are not at all suitable for the serious dieter.
A third rule is to avoid adding nuts to the dish as they always seem to add a dryness that is unwelcome and sometimes a feeling that something has fallen into the dish during preparation that wasn't supposed to be there. Nuts are fine as a snack but not as a pudding. I don't really count fruit on its own as a pudding which must require more effort than holding it under a tap.However fruit plays a major part in most of my favourite puddings and in today's selection apples and plums are often interchangeable and sometimes should be mixed:-
81. Rice Pudding (see recipe in a previous blog)
82. Plum Pie with custard ( thick skin on custard essential)
83. Plum/Apple Crumble with cream AND custard
84. Apple tart (hot) with Vanilla icecream
85. Apple Strudel
86. Lemon Meringue Pie
87. Creme Brulee
88. Bread and Butter Pudding
89. Queen of Puddings
90. Raspberry Cheesecake
It often adds to the quality of a crumble to use several different varieties of apple to obtain different and interesting textures and sometimes I add pears if available and dried peach. I am very fond of pancakes both sweet and savoury but they missed selection by a whisker.
Today I ate all I could of the stew which was not improved by the addition of the allotment rat and consigned the rest of it to the bin mainly because I was bored with it. Stews without mashed potatoes or baked potatoes to mop up the gravy don't seem quite right.
Although I no longer like Frank Keating's articles in the Guardian ( he's become just a bit too matey with sporting celebrities) he may have put his finger on England's lack of rugby success when he details the meals eaten by the English threequarter Noon. For breakfast on the match day he ate " Fruit and Fibre, poached eggs, beans on toast, protein shake, juice, yogurt, fruit and green tea." for lunch, only three hours after breakfast and three hours before kick-off, he ate "Pasta, toast, eggs, beans, jacket potatoes, boiled chicken and yogurt." I am sorry that I just cannot believe that such a diet is likely to lead to any zip or sparkle on the pitch. I am amazed that all the sporting boffins and advisors have fallen for that sort of dietary advice. I think I should be be brought in as advisor or possibly even the next coach.
# posted by Bob @ 1:34 pm 
