It's not a secret to a number of the authors on this blog that I work for Parliament; thankfully I'm in one of the jobs that can be done practically seamlessly from home, but I worry about my front-line colleagues whose jobs can't...
Once a year, we have Parliament Week; it's usually around Bonfire Night (not coincidentally) and if you're a teacher or a youth leader, some brilliant resources are provided by our colleagues in public engagement. One of the nice things is that some events are also organised for staff so teams can show colleagues what they do, and the Catering team's events have (predictably) been some of my favourites. I went on a tour of the Parliamentary kitchens with the head pastry chef several years ago, looking at the utter madness of cooking in the labyrinth of tiny underground spaces stuffed with state-of-the-art fridges belting out heat etc. - even in the afternoon of a non-sitting Friday, two tiny patissières were darting round each other like ballet dancers getting something frighteningly complicated ready for an evening event.
Anyway. Another event I went to was on the history of banqueting in Parliament - and after the talk we were all issued with teenyweeny olive-pip-sized bowls, and ushered into the other room where there was food. We had Coronation chicken for the 20th century, I remember not what for other centuries; but there was pearled spelt for the 16th century, and it was a revelation. I don't mind pearl barley; but this was chewy, and poppy, and tasty, and made eating fibre feel like a tasty, tasty thing to do. The stuff I had was just a plain boiled-in-stock accompaniment to the other things, but wow.
It's not that easy to get round here. I'm reduced to Amazon and buying 3 packs at a time. Here's how I cook it. The nice thing is that it's vegan if you don't add the cheese (I love the cheese, but it's very nearly as good without). This, again, makes 2 nights' dinners or a dinner and a big packed lunch.
So for a start; chop up an onion. This is one where I use my Mini-chopper (oo-er) tiny food processor. I like it fine for this recipe. And then I remembered that the first stage should be scissoring up some dried mushrooms into small pieces and soaking them in boiling water for at least an hour. Oh, and you need to boil a kettle and make at least a pint of stock. Better to make a litre if you have a larger jug.
So all went on hold while I did that and then smacked myself around the head for a while. (Not a necessary step; yesterday really wasn't a good day other than an unexpected milk delivery from Katie!) Added a couple of tablespoons of oil to the pan; onions, couple of tsps of thyme, the mushrooms, stew slowly for a bit.
Add 150g of pearled spelt; fry it for a bit just to get it covered in flavour, and then start doing the Risotto Thing - glug of stock, stir it round, let it cook (you don't have to pay it as much attention as risotto rice), repeat. Keep tasting but it will take a minimum of about 35 minutes... it needs to be kind of creamy and while the spelt needs some bite to it, it needs to be tender all the way through.
Grate about 3 oz of pecorino or parmesan. Stir about half of it into the speltotto; scatter half the rest over it; put the rest into a pot for the second helping...
Oh, and if you don't want it exactly the same second time round, chuck in a handful of frozen peas/sweetcorn/peppers if you have them.
Depending on the outcome, I may be feeling like a fraud after Saturday; I've been a Sainsbury's delivery pass customer since there was such a thing (knackered shoulders, don't drive, live in a village) and they opened up a very limited number of slots for Saturday. So we'll see what they have...
Hope everyone's staying safe...
Once a year, we have Parliament Week; it's usually around Bonfire Night (not coincidentally) and if you're a teacher or a youth leader, some brilliant resources are provided by our colleagues in public engagement. One of the nice things is that some events are also organised for staff so teams can show colleagues what they do, and the Catering team's events have (predictably) been some of my favourites. I went on a tour of the Parliamentary kitchens with the head pastry chef several years ago, looking at the utter madness of cooking in the labyrinth of tiny underground spaces stuffed with state-of-the-art fridges belting out heat etc. - even in the afternoon of a non-sitting Friday, two tiny patissières were darting round each other like ballet dancers getting something frighteningly complicated ready for an evening event.
Anyway. Another event I went to was on the history of banqueting in Parliament - and after the talk we were all issued with teenyweeny olive-pip-sized bowls, and ushered into the other room where there was food. We had Coronation chicken for the 20th century, I remember not what for other centuries; but there was pearled spelt for the 16th century, and it was a revelation. I don't mind pearl barley; but this was chewy, and poppy, and tasty, and made eating fibre feel like a tasty, tasty thing to do. The stuff I had was just a plain boiled-in-stock accompaniment to the other things, but wow.
It's not that easy to get round here. I'm reduced to Amazon and buying 3 packs at a time. Here's how I cook it. The nice thing is that it's vegan if you don't add the cheese (I love the cheese, but it's very nearly as good without). This, again, makes 2 nights' dinners or a dinner and a big packed lunch.
 |
| Nearly went without; but as expected the pecorino was absolutely fine 2 months+ after best before... |
So for a start; chop up an onion. This is one where I use my Mini-chopper (oo-er) tiny food processor. I like it fine for this recipe. And then I remembered that the first stage should be scissoring up some dried mushrooms into small pieces and soaking them in boiling water for at least an hour. Oh, and you need to boil a kettle and make at least a pint of stock. Better to make a litre if you have a larger jug.
So all went on hold while I did that and then smacked myself around the head for a while. (Not a necessary step; yesterday really wasn't a good day other than an unexpected milk delivery from Katie!) Added a couple of tablespoons of oil to the pan; onions, couple of tsps of thyme, the mushrooms, stew slowly for a bit.
 |
| Sludgy but delicious... |
Grate about 3 oz of pecorino or parmesan. Stir about half of it into the speltotto; scatter half the rest over it; put the rest into a pot for the second helping...
Oh, and if you don't want it exactly the same second time round, chuck in a handful of frozen peas/sweetcorn/peppers if you have them.
Depending on the outcome, I may be feeling like a fraud after Saturday; I've been a Sainsbury's delivery pass customer since there was such a thing (knackered shoulders, don't drive, live in a village) and they opened up a very limited number of slots for Saturday. So we'll see what they have...
Hope everyone's staying safe...
Mmm, I've rather come around to spelt too. I've never done as quite such a risotto substitute, but this sounds excellent. Definitely with cheese though. Always. Bless it.
ReplyDeleteAnd very glad you've got a sniff of help with shopping. Things are much better here in terms of supply, just inconvenient and potentially risky. Which I will take, but still, ugh.