Always thinking of the next meal...
When Neil and I got to know each other, I told him when celebrating I like to drink champagne mixed with orange juice. “Oh, you mean Buck’s Fizz,” he said. At that moment I gave him a blank look, which quickly turned into a worried expression, wondering if he’s from planet Cuckoo. A few years down the line I now know what it is and found out Neil is saner than me. Worrying, isn’t it?
In today’s rat race there are so many ready-made desserts and sweets on shops’ shelves that the fresh produce section gets automatically shunned when people are choosing a dessert. Yet the possibilities of fruit desserts are endless. This recipe, if you can call it that, is simple and suits every occasion, even a dinner party.
Dark green, pale green, gray, orange, yellow, white, red, knobbly, smooth, ridged, small, enormous, round, oblong or ovoid. Ah yes, you know it is autumn when pumpkins start appearing at your local supermarket in all shapes and sizes. They are so versatile in cooking and yet I know few Britons who have even tasted it.
A meal is never complete without a dessert. Never. When the last crumb and dollop of sauce has been scraped from plate my tongue yells out “What’s next?!?”. Craving something sweet I’ll scour the pantry, looking for some bright-coloured wrapped candy. But alas, it is never there.
The Spanish Tortilla is not to be mixed up with the Mexican version. This omelette is one of the Spaniards’ staple foods. Stacks upon stacks of them are in the fridge compartments of supermarkets, ready to eat. In tapas bars they are cubed and speared on cocktail sticks, served with drinks. It can be eaten hot, it can be eaten cold, it is just so versatile.
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One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how easily tomatoes grow here in the UK. For four years in a row we’ve had bumper crops of tomatoes. With Gabriel’s arrival this year our vegetable plot got grossly neglected and our poor tomatoes missed out on the tender loving care they needed. Yet we harvested kilos of them ever week. There was a slight problem though, I didn’t know what to do with them! I needed a solution quick. It would have been an awful shame to let premium quality organic tomatoes go to waste.
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Avocado and grapefruit is just one of those classic combinations in a salad. The seriously rich and green taste of the avo is extremely well complemented by the sweet and fruitiness of the grapefruit. There is no need for salad dressing either, because more than enough grapefruit juice would have accumulated while you were in the process of peeling and segmenting the citrus fruit. Since grapefruit possesses the same qualities as lemon, it will keep the avo from turning brown. To prepare the spinach leaves you use the technique the French call “en chiffonnade”, “chiffon” meaning rags. (In Michelle language that would mean “to raggify”.) Take a few leaves at a time and roll them into a tight cigar before finely cutting. The leaves unroll into tiny, delicate “rags”. The lightness of the salad is unreal and would make an excellent starter.
The beauty of salads is that they are so easy and (usually) quick to prepare. It is very difficult to go wrong, since most of the time there is nothing to cook. What’s more you don’t need a lot of ingredients to put a salad together and if you don’t have the components to make your own salad dressing, you can simply reach out for a jar of mayonnaise or ready-made salad dressing. Yet again this is a more substantial salad that can also be served as a main course.
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When I was about 4 years old my mother made finger foods for the church on every odd Sunday. These are one of the recipes she made. Like any typical kid I especially wanted to help her make these blobs of chocolate heaven. Constantly I was told to keep my fingers out of the sweet, thick mixture but how could I resist? At least I got to lick the pot out afterwards. During sermons all I could think about was my “sjokolade jungle oat koekies”, wishing the dominie (reverend) would come to a conclusion. Any conclusion, even if we all burn in hell I simply didn’t care for as long as I could eat my “koekies” first I will die happy.
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