Another Food Blog

I was given a bottle of this Tuscan red, but the ‘bottle’ was 1.5 litres, or in other words a magnum.  It’s a deep red wine made with a blend of different grapes, sangiovese up to 70 percent, and cabernet and other varieties up to 30 percent. The grapes are fermented separately since they ripen at different times, and are blended toward the end of fermentation, which is then done in small wooden casks.

It’s a very fruity wine with tones of cherry and spice, but at 13 percent is not as strong as some of the New World reds.  It’s quite mellow and has a nice bouquet to it, too.

I made a fruit compote of apples and plums, but this time I added blueberries.  While the apples and plums (unpeeled) give a nice texture, I thought blueberries would add both colour and a taste kick.  I was right.  First of all they coloured the fruit to that of beetroot.  It made it much more interesting to eat.  Secondly, they gave a tang to it, a sharp edge of flavour that it previously lacked.  Thirdly, for those interested in such things, I believe blueberries add a health ingredient by mopping up ‘free radicals’ – whatever they are.  I thought it made my fruit compote much more appetizing., and I ate it with half fat crème fraiche.

I usually make this dish with monkfish, but I saw this tuna steak and thought I’d try a new version.  I cut the tuna into pieces roughly the size of two fingers , wrapped a bacon rasher around each, and secured it with a wooden toothpick.  I set them on foil in a baking tray and baked them for about 12 minutes, turning them once.

I pricked a baking potato and rubbed olive oil and sea salt into it and set it to bake for an hour, just on a rack by itself.  Finally I sautéed some mushrooms and green pepper in oil and butter.  It worked, with the salt and fat from the bacon adding taste to the tuna.  I actually prefer this done with monkfish because I like their texture better (more chewy). But this was nice enough and I drank a South African chenin blanc with it.

I made up the recipe for this, but it pays more than a nod to the cuisine of Provence.  I heated up half a can of plum tomatoes after rough chopping them, and a little extra water.  I added the rest of my jumbo prawns and mussels, plus some onion, lightly fried, and sliced courgette.  I seasoned with herbes de Provence (typically thyme, savory, rosemary, fennel and basil) and more black pepper, then added chopped mushrooms and simmered for between 5 and 10 minutes.  Finally, just before serving, I added a few drops of Tabasco sauce to give it some heat.  This was very quick, but most excellent; so much so that I think I might serve it at a dinner party sometime soon.

What do you do with cold goose?  The answer is that you freeze some slices of it wrapped in foil; it comes out very fresh after defrosting.  The rest of it you eat.  Easiest are goose sandwiches and goose salad.  I make sandwiches on wholmeal bread.  After the spread comes apple sauce, then the pieces of goose, and then sea salt.  Goose salad is very straightforward.  My salad had lettuce and cherry tomato, raw purple onion, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds and small pieces of cheese, and chopped raw mushroom, all with a light Caesar dressing and a shake of Mrs Dash original herb mixture.  The goose slices were sprinkled with sea salt and had a Bramley apple sauce alongside.  Cold meat and cold goose are about the only foods I eat with salt; I mostly use salt substitute the rest of the time, but cold meats cry out for the real thing, especially cold goose.  And sea salt crystals give an intense flavour burst in the mouth that really enhances the meat.

I decided to try a different pastry for a seafood quiche.  I zapped 2 oz of oats in the blender to turn it into a powder.  I mixed this with 2 oz of plain wheat flour and about half an ounce of soy flour.  I used goose fat as shortening to make it really succulent.  Obviously with so little gluten the dough did not cohere as ordinary wheat-flour pastry does.  Nonetheless I managed to line a quiche dish with it, after years of practice when I was myself on a gluten-free diet.

I lined it with cheese and put in strips of salmon, mussels and prawns plus seasoning, and an egg and goat’s milk with creamed spinach filling.  It had about half an hour in the oven, covered with foil after the first 15 minutes.  The result?  It was strange.  The pastry was among the shortest I’ve ever made, rather like the biscuity base of a cheesecake.  I managed to lift it out in quarters with a spatula, and it held together, but only just.  It crumbled in the mouth.  It was actually very tasty, and the filling brilliant, but next time I do pastry like this I’ll add a level teaspoon of xantham gum to the pastry to make it stick together better.

Wiki tells us that the plum pudding’s association with Christmas goes back to mediaeval England, with the church’s decree that the “pudding should be made on the twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity, that it be prepared with thirteen ingredients to represent Christ and the twelve apostles, and that every family member stir it in turn from east to west to honour the Magi and their supposed journey in that direction.”

I’d intended to complete my Christmas lunch with traditional plum pudding, but the goose was so filling I had to leave it until later in the day.  Then I had an easy time of it.  Instead of making a pudding weeks in advance, wrapped in muslin, and steaming it for hours, I bought one in.  If you buy the top of the range ones from the supermarkets, they are close to what suppliers like Fortnum and Mason offer.  I’ve had F&M before, but this one was from M&S.  Furthermore, I microwaved it, following instructions to give it a minute, rest it a minute, then give it a further 40 seconds.  It was fine.  My hand slipped slightly as I was pouring the dark rum over it, leaving it awash with rum.  Even after I’d lit it and watched the blue flame dancing, there was still plenty of rum in it.  I used a white sauce and a scoop of soy ice cream on it, and can report that it was completely delicious.

An omelet is quite a good way of using up leftovers.  In this case it was what was left of the vegetables I had with my goose on Christmas day.  I added some chopped up plum tomatoes and then warmed them up in the microwave.  I sliced up some leftover roast potatoes and fried them while I made the omelet.  I used two eggs, beaten up, in a very hot pan, folding the egg towards the middle and tilting the pan to let liquid egg cover the gaps, to make it fluffy.

While it was still pretty runny on top I added the vegetables and folded it over.  It made a nice lunch, even if some of the vegetables did tip out of the sides as I flipped it onto a plate.  The sweet potatoes were not burned, although they seem to be blackened in the photo.  I added salt substitute and black pepper to season.