Hello!
Despite the rain today it really does seem like spring is well on its way at last and not a moment too soon. The temperature has been in double figures for a few days, it's still light well after 6pm, the magnolia is about to burst into bud and the chickens' eggs are getting bigger and bigger. Everyone looks like they've just emerged from hibernation - pale and confused, squinting uncertainly at the sun when it appears and tentatively swapping skiing gear and woolly hats for lighter jackets and the occasional pair of sunglasses. I even had the roof open on the way to work last week - not for long, mind!
After such a long, hard winter it really makes you appreciate the spring even more. It's time to start sowing seeds in the vegetable garden and to adapt our eating habits to suit the new climate. I'm less inclined to wallow in mash and casseroles than I was a month ago and more towards crushing new potatoes with chives, olive oil and lemon to accompany some juicy lamb or roast pork and spring veg. Salads have suddenly become more appealing than hearty soup for lunch. Sophie Dahl made such a delicious one on her new TV show this week, with ribbons of yellow courgette, shaved fennel with its frondy tops, slices of orange and mint, to go with creamy globs of fresh buffalo mozzarella on garlicky toasted sourdough - my kind of lunch if a bit summery for March.
Today I'm waiting for British Gas to replace our meter and never one to waste an opportunity when stuck at home I applied myself to the kitchen, went through the cupboards and decided to make a proper chocolate fudge-cake to while away the time. The icing is the key to the fudginess and for this you need evaporated milk heated and simmered with light brown sugar, then off the heat you whisk in butter and dark chocolate. Once cool it's a gorgeous smooth, thick, dark mixture with which to slather your moist, dark sponge. Of course it can be eaten as a teatime treat with a cuppa, or you can warm slices up (20 seconds in the microwave should do it) and serve it with cream or ice-cream for pudding. Yum!
In the last few weeks I've been searching for a new cooking job. It's an eye-opener visiting different kitchens I can tell you! Some of them make the awkward little galley kitchen I'm used to seem like a gleaming multi-roomed palace - how some of these places can exist like they do I've no idea. And some of the food being served in this day and age sends me all agog. I had a trial shift in a country pub this week and though the chef was a totally splendid chap I have to report that the food being served from a vast menu was definitely not of the splendid variety. Fanny Craddock might even be spinning slightly in her grave at the salad which accompanied the crispy duck. It was my job to assemble the salad upon which the duck would sit. Radicchio, raw peppers and red onion, cucumber, tomato, grapes, coleslaw, avocado and strawberries, were arranged in the bowl. I think I'd rather eat sauteed Chick Crumbs. I was aghast a) at the ingredients, b) that people ordered it c) that people actually ate it. Am I missing something here?? Thence to the apple crumble. The apples were tinned and the crumble mix involved an unbranded soft margarine. The garlic butter for the garlic bread also had seen no actual butter and was full of indeterminable dried herbs. The liver and bacon and microwaved veg was pure school dinners (except our school dinners were much better). The steak and kidney puddings were assembled with the cooked meat and gravy and the raw suet pastry into their little plastic basins and then nuked for 10 minutes - well you can imagine what they looked like when they emerged, a sort of flabby greyish beige - but fortunately the liberal cascade of bisto over the top disguised the truth, at least until the first bite was taken ...
Extraordinary! Or maybe I'm just a frightful snob (if so, I'm proud to be such). Luckily I have found a position at a splendid country inn where gorgeous, generous, stylish home-cooked dishes are cooked with gusto and integrity and where fruit is incorporated in a much more appropriate manner. The shepherds pie is full to the brim with chunks of roast lamb and rich, glossy gravy, the chocolate cheesecake with raspberries is about 4 inches deep, the rhubarb crumble is fresh and zingy. The kitchen is very mini indeed, but it's a small price to pay under the circumstances.
Wondering what to have for tea - whatever it ends up being, it will be totally bisto, marg and strawberry-free...
Happy cooking!
AMT
