My pork pies. Let me nom them at you.

[desperance]

I didn't get to nom pork pie yesterday, on account of going to town in the morning, working in the Lit & Phil till lunch-time then meeting up with Gail for fish & chips, wine and speaking. And more wine.

Then I came home and made, oh, about ten pounds of marrow chutney. (If anyone close at hand wants a jar of marrow chutney...?)

This morning, I put my preserving-pan to soak in vinegar (ahem: a little enthusiastic, perhaps, with the drunken boiling yestereve...) and went to town, and worked more; but this time I came home and nom-nom-nom'd with a will. Half a pie is better than no bread. And no, the cats did not get the other half, though they had major ambitions in that direction. Next time a bit more with the flavourings, I think, and I need better technique for introducing this utterly delicious meaty jelly into the pie, but still. Nom-nom-nom.

And in mid-afternoon the nice UPS guy brought me books. Books! I has the Del Rey Book of SF & Fantasy, edited by the omnipresent ellen_datlow; and I has Catie Murphy's "The Queen's Bastard", by mizkit; and both of these make me happy. Also I have time to read, I have just declared it. Tho' as it happens I'm currently reading something else, for blurby purposes.

I just went out to buy my regular 10kg sack of rice - and came home with a 5kg sack of rice, for about the same money. Gloom. It's true, then: no more grainy bargains.

Never mind. I have rice, and prawns, and my own beansprouts. (Does anyone know what beans they use, to make commercial beansprouts? I used mung beans, and the results - tho' delicious - are not the same...)

Comments

[time-freak.livejournal.com]

It had never crossed my mind to know what type of beans 'they' use for bean sprouts. So now I may have to look it up!

And I want a pork pie.

Nomnomnom

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Mung beans. Little greenies. Easy to sprout in a glass jar with a canning ring and mesh (like plastic window screening) covering. Cheesecloth and a rubber band would do as well, but gets soggy. You have to keep them in the dark and rinse them once or twice a day.

Some years back, I got into sprouting. I'd take bean-like things, soak them overnight, and see what happened. My favorite turned out to be lentils, just ordinary grocery store lentils -- they get crunchy and spicy. Wonderful for salads or folded into hummus for crunch.

[deborahjross.livejournal.com]

Oops, just realized you'd already tried mung beans. Maybe I'm wrong... or they just need to sprout longer?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Actually I think you're right and I'm wrong: all my researches suggest that mung beans are the commercial variety. Just, commercial sprouts are big long fat things, and when I sprout mungs I get little whippy sproutings, that don't get fatter even after the full six or seven days that is suggested as the maximum time needed.

On the other hand, I haven't been doing them in the dark & warm (I erroneously thought they might like light). I shall try again...

PS

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Also, I am now so going to try lentils...

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

What does it say that when I see the phrase "pork pie" I think of Buster Keaton's hat?

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I can't figure out what marrow is. A vegetable? The insides of a bone? I'm trying to imagine chutney made from either, and failing.

Signed, Hopeless Cook from San Francisco

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Take the little green thing that you call a zucchini and we call a courgette; let it grow into a big green thing that you might well call some variety of squash. We call it a marrow. And it makes really good marrow-and-ginger jam, and really good chutney (with tomatoes and apple and ginger again).

[athenais.livejournal.com]

That sounds yummy, though I've never eaten anything like it.

ETA: Squash in chutney, I mean. I've eat squashes of many varieties.

[gauroth.livejournal.com]

I have happy, greedy memories of my mother's marrow and ginger jam. The recipe was from the 1952 Good Housekeeping Cookbook, whose spine fell off and was repaired with turquoise Fablon (sticky-backed plastic). Yes we did watch 'Blue Peter' a lot!