Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Pate, Obituaries,Allotment
February 15th 2011
Using the recipe that was sent by Kit in summer 2006, I have just cooked and re-cooked a pate. Without the acute accent pate looks completely wrong, but there's nothing I can do about it on this computer. I couldn't find pigs liver in Tesco so lamb's liver was used. I had trouble mincing it through the pasta machine and I wonder whether this was due to it being the wrong type of liver or the wrong mincer which is meant to be versatile. I used a number of anchovies and lots of bacon but after cooking in a bain-marie for hours it still seemed rather raw and very salty. I cooked it again for forty minutes in the oven without the bain marie and I'm waiting for it to cool down. If I have to throw the whole lot away, I willo at least have learned what to do or not do next time. Does it matter that it wasn't pigs liver?
As I explained in an earlier blog, I have been fortunate to be introduced to or reminded of authors whose works I have subsequently greatly enjoyed in the obituary column of the Guardian. I discovered Stuart Kaminsky in this way. Considering the large number of books he has written and the filmscripts to which he contributed, I am surprised that he is not better known here. He has four detectives based in different cities including Moscow where Porfiry Rostnikov is based. Toby Peters is his detective in LA/Hollywood and is possibly the least interesting of the four. Lew Fonesca is based in Florida and is a rather odd chap but the best is Abe Lieberman who is actually in the police department. Food plays no part in these novels except with Abe always wanting food which is denied to him for the sake of his heart by an over-protective wife.
American crime fiction cotains very little reference to food though in James Sallis's Turner series, there is mention of cooked racoon! This is another writer I discovered through Amazon shopping which seems as good a way as any of finding new or possibly old authors that are not well known here. Some of these books can be bought second hand for one penny so you don't lose much even if you feel they are unreadable when they arrive. I had thought that the latest Kate Atkinson ' Started Early,Took My Dog' would be OK but I abandoned it after about thirty pages when it became far too silly. I was also irritated to such an extent by the latest William Boyd novel/thriller that I gave up about half way through. It seems that recognised writers can often produce a real dud so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that Jacobson won the Booker Prize for 'The Finkler Question' which is in my view much inferior to 'Kalooki Nights' or 'The Mighty Walzer'. Perhaps the jury awarded the prize as much for his past work as for the latest novel.
In spite of the racoons, the 'Turner ' trilogy is rather different from most crime stories and I am now going to read some of his others. I know that Ed McBain was around for a long time and also published many others under a different name, but I have recently enjoyed the '87th Precinct series which are interesting because one gets to know most of the detectives working in that precinct rather than just one main character as for example Harry Bosch in the Michael Connolly series.
I realise that in a few months I will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the blog and I think I will reveal then whether I have actually lost any weight. The allotment is rather quiet at present and I have only recently returned to it because of the long cold wet winter but it is under control now and I will be ready to plant seeds as soon as some warmth comes. I still have leeks to harvest and I am hopeful that the perpetual spinach will perk up. There is a lot of purple sprouting brocoli which will be ready to eat in a few weeks and I hope to get a crop of asparagus
for the first time this year.
I am planning to resume this blog on a regular basis from now on; I have more time available. New ideas for detective fiction/ crime would be welcome.
Using the recipe that was sent by Kit in summer 2006, I have just cooked and re-cooked a pate. Without the acute accent pate looks completely wrong, but there's nothing I can do about it on this computer. I couldn't find pigs liver in Tesco so lamb's liver was used. I had trouble mincing it through the pasta machine and I wonder whether this was due to it being the wrong type of liver or the wrong mincer which is meant to be versatile. I used a number of anchovies and lots of bacon but after cooking in a bain-marie for hours it still seemed rather raw and very salty. I cooked it again for forty minutes in the oven without the bain marie and I'm waiting for it to cool down. If I have to throw the whole lot away, I willo at least have learned what to do or not do next time. Does it matter that it wasn't pigs liver?
As I explained in an earlier blog, I have been fortunate to be introduced to or reminded of authors whose works I have subsequently greatly enjoyed in the obituary column of the Guardian. I discovered Stuart Kaminsky in this way. Considering the large number of books he has written and the filmscripts to which he contributed, I am surprised that he is not better known here. He has four detectives based in different cities including Moscow where Porfiry Rostnikov is based. Toby Peters is his detective in LA/Hollywood and is possibly the least interesting of the four. Lew Fonesca is based in Florida and is a rather odd chap but the best is Abe Lieberman who is actually in the police department. Food plays no part in these novels except with Abe always wanting food which is denied to him for the sake of his heart by an over-protective wife.
American crime fiction cotains very little reference to food though in James Sallis's Turner series, there is mention of cooked racoon! This is another writer I discovered through Amazon shopping which seems as good a way as any of finding new or possibly old authors that are not well known here. Some of these books can be bought second hand for one penny so you don't lose much even if you feel they are unreadable when they arrive. I had thought that the latest Kate Atkinson ' Started Early,Took My Dog' would be OK but I abandoned it after about thirty pages when it became far too silly. I was also irritated to such an extent by the latest William Boyd novel/thriller that I gave up about half way through. It seems that recognised writers can often produce a real dud so perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that Jacobson won the Booker Prize for 'The Finkler Question' which is in my view much inferior to 'Kalooki Nights' or 'The Mighty Walzer'. Perhaps the jury awarded the prize as much for his past work as for the latest novel.
In spite of the racoons, the 'Turner ' trilogy is rather different from most crime stories and I am now going to read some of his others. I know that Ed McBain was around for a long time and also published many others under a different name, but I have recently enjoyed the '87th Precinct series which are interesting because one gets to know most of the detectives working in that precinct rather than just one main character as for example Harry Bosch in the Michael Connolly series.
I realise that in a few months I will celebrate the fifth anniversary of the blog and I think I will reveal then whether I have actually lost any weight. The allotment is rather quiet at present and I have only recently returned to it because of the long cold wet winter but it is under control now and I will be ready to plant seeds as soon as some warmth comes. I still have leeks to harvest and I am hopeful that the perpetual spinach will perk up. There is a lot of purple sprouting brocoli which will be ready to eat in a few weeks and I hope to get a crop of asparagus
for the first time this year.
I am planning to resume this blog on a regular basis from now on; I have more time available. New ideas for detective fiction/ crime would be welcome.
