Two Fat Ladies, that comic turn, combined with music hall act, and serious food historians in the television food world, both sadly now gathered to the great Aga in the Sky, are out on DVD, and I've been watching them with great amusement.
I borrowed their cookbook, too, though very little of what they cook would actually make an appearance in this kitchen. It's a lot about meat and lard and butter and other such stuff. But now and then there's an item that's worth pursuing.
Before I do that, though I wonder if you noticed the 88 on Jennifer's motorbike registration number? did you know, I didn't until just now, that in Bingo 88 is called Two Fat Ladies! just a little footnote to the panoply of Western history here.
Anyway, I decided to make a brave attempt at using up even more of the corn in the freezer before the new farmshare year starts, and made their Corn, Crab and Cilantro Fritters.
Left Clarissa, right Jennifer the owner of the motorbike and sidecar in which they tootled all over the UK cooking and having adventures.
Great fun to make, and not sure they were quite worth it. Next time I might go easier on the cilantro and jolt the crab a bit with Old Bay Seasoning, if there's a next time. Canned crab, nothing else available.
Anyway, I now have several meals' worth of them in the freezer as well as the lunch I had today. They don't look as pretty as in the magazines, because my food stylist once again failed to show up, but they are definitely very edible.
I ground a pound of barley into flour and now I have another type to choose from. Barley has a great flavor, sort of nutty and deep, not at all a neutral flour.
Here you can see the oil shimmering in the pan, a tip from Jack Bishop to tell when it's really hot enough but not ready for the smoke alarm
And here's the first side, cooked less than a minute, corn works fast
I used it to make corn fritters, still working out of the freezer, and the pressure's on. The batter for the corn fritters worked for two days, and I found it was just as good the second day. Barley holds up well. You don't need much in this recipe, so I have plenty more for other dishes.
I have a personal goal each year to finish up
all last year's farmshare before this year's gets under way. This means my meals continue to be amazingly healthy and veggieful. Lunch was a bowl of pumpkin/cabbage soup, followed by corn barley fritters. And there was a bit of chocolate after that.
The fritters are simple, Craig Claiborne's, not half as fussy as the America's Test Kitchen ones I made a while back, and, in fact, just as good. Egg, corn kernels, bit of flour, seasoning, then sauteed in the cast iron trusty pan. They're supposed to be deep fried but that's something I never do, and find sauteing works just as well anyway.
Claiborne is supposed to be, or have been, this fancy dancy food person, feuding and posing and all the shenanigans that go with the High End Food World, but his recipes in fact are very doable and down to earth, made for actual people to cook, not test kitchen cooks.
Ever since Sue mentioned that the crazy quilting group of which two of my commenters in here are members, anyway, them, talk about my blogs, I've been sort of stunned, to think I'm providing them with raw material. You just never know. And here I was thinking I was talking to myself most of the time. It's great to know I'm not!
Now I wonder if they'll make corn fritters, or just say, well, how about that..
This month's Bite Club, the cookbook book club, is looking at America's Test Kitchen, and I hauled home my loan copy of their Big Cookbook, weighs a ton, and is really an encyclopedia, and decided to try their Corn Fritters as my sample to bring in.
They want heavy cream, which I don't use, so I subbed good homemade plain yogurt, the corn was very fresh when I froze it, complete with its milk, that sticky stuff that tastes good but sticks your hands together when you're processing the ears, ew, and the minced shallot was freshly minced, good cornflour, good ap flour, large egg (for once, usually I use medium). Even had cayenne pepper in the house, amazingly.
So I'm trying it out on Handsome Son when he comes to visit this evening, and had to do a test drive of one fritter, seen here drying on a paper towel, to see how it went. Pretty good, if I say so myself. We'll see what his verdict is when he tries them. And it will be a test of how well the batter sits in the fridge for a few hours. If there are any leftovers, I'll try freezing them, a further test.
So this month I hope to have some actual food to bring in and share. I'm also going to bring in my back copies of the Test Kitchen magazine, and a few Marthas with recipes, to give to anyone who would like them to keep.
This evening is the monthly Board meeting of my embroidery guild, and we're really up against our demographics. What with our aging membership, though we have received joyfully a couple of younger members, most people are either not able to drive at night, or are not very well themselves, or are caregiving a spouse.
All this really cuts into their ability to take part, even with the best will in the world, and they definitely have that. Currently our doughty Nominating Committee, founder members of the group, in fact, are trying to assemble a slate of incoming officers to replace the terms ending in December. My term as president is one of them. And other people are struggling with their tasks, for the reasons I said above, and might not be able to succeed themselves for another term. Sooooo, what will be will be.
We are still wonderfully productive -- trip to Winterthur on Sunday in place of the usual general meeting, Holiday Party in December, special exhibit open in a private home for us in January, your humble blogwriter teaching paper jewelry in February and on and on, exhibit of all our work in August, all set up. And we've done great outreach, teaching classes to kids, public stitch ins, all that.
But fewer people available to fill the needs, so everyone's stretched thinner, so we'll see what happens.
Meanwhile I've been staving off sad thoughts by a massive burst of activity in the kitchen. I made yogurt last evening, and owing to a lack of planning on my part, had to stay up till midnight before I could put it in the fridge, didn't add seven hours to the equation, doh, then this morning made about half of it into yogurt cheese, currently draining in the fridge, and the rest in individual containers just to eat. The texture is really lovely, using one per cent milk.
And I use yogurt in many places where heavy cream might be used, and the cheese where cream cheese might come in. It's tangy and very good. And the whey that comes off the cheese making goes into squash and other golden colored soups, sparks them up lovely.
Tomorrow night Handsome Son is coming over to do various good things for me in the house, and I'll feed him a very nice menu. He doesn't read much in here, so I won't spoil the surprise if I say he's getting a bowl of squash/cabbage/tomato soup which had yogurt whey added and is great, beautiful reddish gold color, then corn fritters, adding in some finely chopped sweet pepper, using my lovely farm corn and peppers from the freezer, no pic yet, I'll make them tomorrow night, and then a helping of the oat apple crumble, which I talk about below. I think he'll go home happy.
And this morning I made toasted almond flour, from a box of slivered almonds I toasted five minutes at 350F, then once all cool, reduced to flour, or to ground almonds, in my coffee mill. Useful for anywhere a nice almond flour is required. Pancakes. Cake. Desserts.
Also made Martha's really good oat apple crumble, which took all my this week's supply of apples, and some of my homeground oat flour, now here's one I don't mind referring you to the recipe for, since it's really good. It looks like this:
and if you fancy making it, go here
So food is good in many ways, for your spirit as well as your general health! I like very much making basic things such as yogurt and flour and soup, all that sort of thing. Too bad I don't have a setup for making wine..