I do not have good recipe posts for you this week. Tonight is going to be pasta with prosciutto and radicchio except I couldn't get radicchio so it's, uh, cauliflower and that is a very different meal. Yesterday's lunch was just cake. Delicious Betty's ginger cake, admittedly, but it's really poor showing for a cookery blog.
And last night, I made the sausages and root veg dish which Kate did succesfully in this post.
I love a recipe that does two things with one instruction: grate a load of veg, then turn half into slaw and half into roesti. Except I didn't read the recipe very well, and I merrily grated potato in with all the other root veg, which as it turns out is not what you do to the half of the mix that you want to have as a raw slaw. So it was double roesti, but very soggy and not potatoey enough.
The sausages were nice, wild boar ones from the market. And I did use the oven well, for some roast plums I need later in the week. But it was unstellar.
Basically, I'm not thinking about cooking properly. I'm worried about lockdown, politics (various nations lalala), terrorism, my neighbours (downstairs have just sold their place, but lockdown means there's trouble about moving in, and it's cold), Christmas loneliness, my folks (not good at winter, isolation and boredom), work (which is an extension of several of the above), my brain (which is an extension of ALL of the above). It's a lot. Dammit, no wonder I can't follow a recipe. And I shall have cake for lunch if I want to.
ETA: dinner was hideous but very tasty. A bag of dark green leaves wilted into, roasted purple cauli, strips of prosciutto, pasta, creme fraiche, lemon, parmesan, mustard. Sometimes pasta + veg + invention is the way.
Have all the cake you need. (And some veg now and again, too, obvs, but you know that.) It's all a lot.
ReplyDeleteI have so much veg. But also so much cake. And yes, so much to think about sometimes it helps to have something trouble-free.
DeleteSometimes, you just need to eat cake. Maybe get some carrot cake so it can be the veg element as well.
ReplyDeleteI still need to eat cake. Hey ho. It's been a long day for us all, I reckon.
DeleteA cookery blog means it's about food and cake is food. Therefore logic decrees that cake, especially Betty's ginger cake is a perfectly valid subject, and beside everything, it's cake!
ReplyDeleteWild boar sausages sound delicious. I remember years ago making sausage rolls with wild boar sausages from Sainsbury and it didn't work. Sausage rolls seem to need plain pork sausages. But fancy sausages on their own, and especially with mash give the flavour a chance to shine. Hmm, reminds me I have some venison sausages in the freezer that I must dig out.
As for all the worries, that's what's this blog is for - mental health as well as culinary health - get it out there and don't let the worries fester. We may not be able to do anything about most of them, but a sounding board is always a good thing.
It really was very good cake. And using it up means I could open the parkin for tonight, which is as it should be.
DeleteThe sausages were a bit too exciting for this - I think plain mash would have been better. But very tasty all round. Venison sausages sound brilliant. I hope you enjoy them!