In an age of the finest this, the freshest that, the most sustainable/seasonal, it's easy to forget that food wasn't always this way. In the olden days, when food was simply fuel chefs were in the kitchen not on the telly, we ate out of tins.
Now, I love tinned food. With the exception of peas, which are rank. I have many happy memories of eating entire tinned meals on holiday with my dad and sister in Wales - tinned tuna, tinned potatoes and tinned carrots. To this day I love love love tinned carrots and tinned green beans. If you're feeling low on a Friday night, a tin of rice pudding (eaten cold, straight out the can) is just the ticket. Beans (eaten cold, straight out the can) and spaghetti hoops (eaten cold, straight out the can) are still some of my favourite things. A friend of mine, whose family is so genteel she used to be told off for pronoucing garage as garridge, has fond memories of her mother offering tinned peaches and evap for pudding. Which I also love. And my father in law has a thing for those tinned puddings you boil for hours. Also which I love.
Which brings me to my subject, in a rather roundabout way. Sometimes we just forget that old fashioned, simple things can be nice. I think I mentioned Jelly Whip a while ago - a pudding served by a friend of my mum's. I thought I'd have a go at this on Saturday night while Glutton Boy was out, and very delicious, in a kind of muted, manage your expectations kind of way:
take one small can of evaporated milk and leave in the fridge for a couple of days.
in the morning, whip it up in mixer until thick and creamy
Make up a packet of jelly, any flavour and add to the evap.
Whip until thoroughly mixed and creamy again.
pour into a serving dish and leave for about 3/4 hours.
The top of it becomes all moussy and the bottom half like creamy jelly. It won't win any prizes or anything but, at a push, when the shops are all out of hand made profiteroles, it isn't half bad.
Lots of love
GG
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
It's not all about the benjamins
It's been a bit of a red letter day chez Glutton. I've had an uncharacteristically successful day in my other life as a PR supremo/dogsbody and, best news of all, darling GluttonBoy's new job has been confirmed. Now darling GB is much more brilliant than he thinks and due to a horrible mix up not of his making found himself out of work in the middle of January.
He currently works in food retail (lucky for gluttons like us) an, luxury food not being an especially robust sector currently, it's taken him a bit of a while to get a new role. Actually, only six weeks but it is a bit of a confidence-sapper.
Why am I telling you this? We've had to be super-clever and keep a beady eye on expenditure lately, which isn't easy for those of us of a greedy disposition. Luckily, the slow cooker has been earning its keep and we've cut down massively on waste, which is a good thing from lots of perspectives. And while it will take us a few months to get back on a firm financial footing, I'm going to try to keep up some of the good habits. It's not as if we've eaten crap, or beans on toast. But if we've had a roast it's been pork belly rather than leg of lamb. And that kind of food is actually delicious if cooked in the right way. So, from me to you, here's some really obvious tips on saving money while still being a greedy glutton:
He currently works in food retail (lucky for gluttons like us) an, luxury food not being an especially robust sector currently, it's taken him a bit of a while to get a new role. Actually, only six weeks but it is a bit of a confidence-sapper.
Why am I telling you this? We've had to be super-clever and keep a beady eye on expenditure lately, which isn't easy for those of us of a greedy disposition. Luckily, the slow cooker has been earning its keep and we've cut down massively on waste, which is a good thing from lots of perspectives. And while it will take us a few months to get back on a firm financial footing, I'm going to try to keep up some of the good habits. It's not as if we've eaten crap, or beans on toast. But if we've had a roast it's been pork belly rather than leg of lamb. And that kind of food is actually delicious if cooked in the right way. So, from me to you, here's some really obvious tips on saving money while still being a greedy glutton:
- Forgotten cuts of meat - pork belly (actually not that forgotten at all but worth banging on about how delicious it can be. Mmmm, crackling), pork cheeks (even if they do look like testicles), brisket, lamb breast, chicken thighs, chicken wings.
- Big packs of veg seem cheap, but they only are if you'll genuinely use them.
- Big shops, not small ones - right next door to Glutton Towers is a Tesco Express which I started popping in to on a daily basis, rather than getting a big shop from Sainsburys. Of course they only stock the most expensive cuts of meat (chicken breasts, steak, steak mince) and perfect veg in multipacks. None of your economy nets of mis-shapen courgettes here. Some weeks I get our weekly shop down to £50 for two, including ground coffee by the truckload and a fair bit of meat. A strict shopping list is the key!
- Go veggie for two days - makes a fair bit of difference to the food bill/planet/your colon
- Embrace the basics range. Ok, I won't buy basics mince or sausages. But canned tomatoes, cleaning products, chicken wings, vegetables, jelly(and I'm going to share a jelly delight with you later in the week) noodles, soft cheese (only if being used to stuff a chicken breast), ground coffee, stock cubes are fine. There are probably loads more and it is often just a packaging issue.
And with that, I'm off to celebrate with a steak and a bottle of sparkles.
Lots of love
GG
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
An update
So, who ever said 'the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there' probably didn't realise just how right he was. And that person had not just had a butterscotch Angel Delight.
Now, it's not as if I haven't had one in years. I probably have one every few months. But intoxicated by the excitement of buying 3 for £1 in Poundland I've have been literally whipped into a frenzy. And you know what, it isn't as nice as I remember. Much more watery, much less butterscotchy and also, I notice, much more prone to kind of melt into a sloppy, separated mess which, to be frank, puts me in mind of what happens when the cat eats something she shouldn't.
I also notice you no longer need to put it in the fridge. It also doesn't get so solified with whipping. Has something changed? I can only assume that namby-pamby food fascism has led to some fairly fundamental structural changes. Well whatever that chemical was, that has been taken out, I'm calling on Kraft to put it the fuck back in. You can make Smarties those new boring, less bright colours. You can make orangeade less orange. You can make pink shrimps less pink. You can even call cigarette sweets 'candy sticks'. But don't mess with Angel Delight!
Until next time
GG
Now, it's not as if I haven't had one in years. I probably have one every few months. But intoxicated by the excitement of buying 3 for £1 in Poundland I've have been literally whipped into a frenzy. And you know what, it isn't as nice as I remember. Much more watery, much less butterscotchy and also, I notice, much more prone to kind of melt into a sloppy, separated mess which, to be frank, puts me in mind of what happens when the cat eats something she shouldn't.
I also notice you no longer need to put it in the fridge. It also doesn't get so solified with whipping. Has something changed? I can only assume that namby-pamby food fascism has led to some fairly fundamental structural changes. Well whatever that chemical was, that has been taken out, I'm calling on Kraft to put it the fuck back in. You can make Smarties those new boring, less bright colours. You can make orangeade less orange. You can make pink shrimps less pink. You can even call cigarette sweets 'candy sticks'. But don't mess with Angel Delight!
Until next time
GG
Monday, February 21, 2011
You can't escape your background
So food is a strangely politicised element of our lives. Where you shop, what foods you buy - all means you are judged, put in a demographic group, assumed to have certain views or beliefs. Waitrose Woman is, after all, very different from Tesco Mum. Or so shops/politicians would have us believe.
I am, and always will be, a Sainsbury's Girl. It's were, largely, we shopped when I was a child, it isn't the cheapest or the most expensive, and in the main I think it is nice. I know Tesco is a bit cheaper, Morrison's is closer and Waitrose has better quality, but it will always be Sainsers for me. But that doesn't mean I'm not partial to a Findus Crispy Pancake or too. And this is where it all goes a bit strange.
If you think back to when you were a child, we all ate some odd food. My mum was a bean-loving hippy who didn't like us eating shop-bought cakes etc. But I still remember eating KFC and Angel Delight. Even people who were taken on holiday to France and given Fruits de Mer as children remember the odd bit of yellow breaded on their plate. But, if you listen to a bunch of thirty somethings now, you'd think Fish Fingers were only enjoyed ironically and sausages were always gourmet.
So I say, it's time to reclaim the reconstituted. And I don't mean reformed ham that hasn't seen a pig in years or Barbie-shaped turkey bits. That's just plain wrong. But the foods that seemed exciting and futuristic. That your cousins-who-were-allowed-fizzy-drinks would have and we would sometimes have on special occasions. Because food wasn't always Finest, hand-reared, sourced from Tuscany. Once it was just food.
My list would include:
Viennetta - but only the original flavour
Angel Delight - I'm sure you used to be able to get more flavours. Peach for one. And raspberry...
Those chocolate mousses that had swirls of cream on top.
Smash
Potato Croquettes or Noisettes
Frozen mousses that took ages to defrost
Tinned fruit cocktail. In syrup.
Findus Crispy Pancakes
Tinned ravioli
The theme seems to be: canned, frozen or will keep for years. Bliss.
Until next time
GG
I am, and always will be, a Sainsbury's Girl. It's were, largely, we shopped when I was a child, it isn't the cheapest or the most expensive, and in the main I think it is nice. I know Tesco is a bit cheaper, Morrison's is closer and Waitrose has better quality, but it will always be Sainsers for me. But that doesn't mean I'm not partial to a Findus Crispy Pancake or too. And this is where it all goes a bit strange.
If you think back to when you were a child, we all ate some odd food. My mum was a bean-loving hippy who didn't like us eating shop-bought cakes etc. But I still remember eating KFC and Angel Delight. Even people who were taken on holiday to France and given Fruits de Mer as children remember the odd bit of yellow breaded on their plate. But, if you listen to a bunch of thirty somethings now, you'd think Fish Fingers were only enjoyed ironically and sausages were always gourmet.
So I say, it's time to reclaim the reconstituted. And I don't mean reformed ham that hasn't seen a pig in years or Barbie-shaped turkey bits. That's just plain wrong. But the foods that seemed exciting and futuristic. That your cousins-who-were-allowed-fizzy-drinks would have and we would sometimes have on special occasions. Because food wasn't always Finest, hand-reared, sourced from Tuscany. Once it was just food.
My list would include:
Viennetta - but only the original flavour
Angel Delight - I'm sure you used to be able to get more flavours. Peach for one. And raspberry...
Those chocolate mousses that had swirls of cream on top.
Smash
Potato Croquettes or Noisettes
Frozen mousses that took ages to defrost
Tinned fruit cocktail. In syrup.
Findus Crispy Pancakes
Tinned ravioli
The theme seems to be: canned, frozen or will keep for years. Bliss.
Until next time
GG
Monday, February 7, 2011
Entertaining in Peckham
So we're firmly in our new flat and I have to say, we've been cooking up a storm. The kitchen may be tiny, but it's constantly in use. And it makes me wildly happy to know that MY kitchen is the heart of MY home. Or our home, really.
January is always marmelade month. I start full of enthusiasm and then, halfway through chopping peel finely, I start swearing never ever to make it again. This year was different. I made it. And I ate it. And I loved it. Sorry if this is old news, but the bitterness underneath the sweetness is a real pleasure. Not easy, not obvious, but definitely pleasing.
The girls came over for sunday lunch. And, as Glutton Boy would surely say, I bit off more than I could chew. With a veggie amongst the four of them, our meals tend towards the meat-free side and are, it has to be said, ever so slightly competitive, in a good way. Lovely Plenty from Mr Ottolenghi, while complicated, didn't let me down. We ate:
caramelised garlic tart with wensleydale cheese (hate goat's cheese) which was sweet and shart and soft and crispy and savoury and also looked quite fancy-pants.
Beetroot wedges with a relish of roast red peppers and slightly spicy tomato. I forgot to swirl in the greek yoghurt but it looked super-beautiful and jewelled pink and red. Was also sweet and sharp and I could have eaten it all day
Onions stuffed with tomato and feta - looked like little roast testicles but pleased to report tasted all lovely.
Now I recognise that proper food writers have lots of ways to describe their food and usually 'lovely' doesn't get used that much. But I'm not a proper food writer and it was lovely.
Pudding was a Baileys tiramisu - thanks Nigella! (was also lovely).
We've also had people over midweek (which I never normally do), and that's been a different kind of fun. The slow cooker has been invaluable for this - an all-day bolognese, all meltingly umami-ish and savoury seems to hit the spot well. And, I've discovered a lovely (oops!) easy pudding courtesy of Carnation, which I'll share with you:
whip 1 can Carnation condensed milk with 150ml double cream until thick ish.
Add the finely grated zest and juice of four lemons. Whisk again until proper thick.
Spoon into little glasses and chill.
Yummo.
I'm serving this next week, but making some meringue nests to pipe it on to, get me. It also occured to me that if you made a cheesecake-style biscuit base of gingernuts, this would make a nice filling for it. There. A little gift from me to you.
The meringue nest people are getting meatloaf to start. Stuffed with eggs, wrapped in bacon. No graces in Peckham that's for sure.
And Vicky B would say (who is a long way from meatloaf and condensed milk), in love and light...
GG
January is always marmelade month. I start full of enthusiasm and then, halfway through chopping peel finely, I start swearing never ever to make it again. This year was different. I made it. And I ate it. And I loved it. Sorry if this is old news, but the bitterness underneath the sweetness is a real pleasure. Not easy, not obvious, but definitely pleasing.
The girls came over for sunday lunch. And, as Glutton Boy would surely say, I bit off more than I could chew. With a veggie amongst the four of them, our meals tend towards the meat-free side and are, it has to be said, ever so slightly competitive, in a good way. Lovely Plenty from Mr Ottolenghi, while complicated, didn't let me down. We ate:
caramelised garlic tart with wensleydale cheese (hate goat's cheese) which was sweet and shart and soft and crispy and savoury and also looked quite fancy-pants.
Beetroot wedges with a relish of roast red peppers and slightly spicy tomato. I forgot to swirl in the greek yoghurt but it looked super-beautiful and jewelled pink and red. Was also sweet and sharp and I could have eaten it all day
Onions stuffed with tomato and feta - looked like little roast testicles but pleased to report tasted all lovely.
Now I recognise that proper food writers have lots of ways to describe their food and usually 'lovely' doesn't get used that much. But I'm not a proper food writer and it was lovely.
Pudding was a Baileys tiramisu - thanks Nigella! (was also lovely).
We've also had people over midweek (which I never normally do), and that's been a different kind of fun. The slow cooker has been invaluable for this - an all-day bolognese, all meltingly umami-ish and savoury seems to hit the spot well. And, I've discovered a lovely (oops!) easy pudding courtesy of Carnation, which I'll share with you:
whip 1 can Carnation condensed milk with 150ml double cream until thick ish.
Add the finely grated zest and juice of four lemons. Whisk again until proper thick.
Spoon into little glasses and chill.
Yummo.
I'm serving this next week, but making some meringue nests to pipe it on to, get me. It also occured to me that if you made a cheesecake-style biscuit base of gingernuts, this would make a nice filling for it. There. A little gift from me to you.
The meringue nest people are getting meatloaf to start. Stuffed with eggs, wrapped in bacon. No graces in Peckham that's for sure.
And Vicky B would say (who is a long way from meatloaf and condensed milk), in love and light...
GG
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