First Blood (Pudding) Part I

First Blood (Pudding) Part II

New foods

Q: Why don't you like liver?
A: It's offal.


I have this theory that certain foods seen as regional delicacies are the product of having tons and tons of something around - collard greens, for example. Other things are just cheap or unwanted, like chitlins. In fact, lobster used to be seen as a less-than-premium food.

" In colonial America servants negotiated agreements that they would not be forced to eat lobster more than twice a week.” 

And some stuff is a delicacy because it's rare or hard to produce - ortolan.

I guess blood pudding falls in the category of "having tons of something around". There's a couple of liters of blood in a pig, if that link is correct - figuring 65 ml/kg and a pig weight of 50-75 kg.

anyway. Waitrose sells blood pudding, so we got one.

I had no idea how to prepare or serve the thing, honestly. Wikipedia is your friend in these cases. First we tried a couple of slices cold. British sausage is unusual for me in that it has fillers besides meat in it - this obviously had some kind of grain and onions in it. Turns out it was barley.  So the texture was not quite like a cold cut or deli meat. Kind of squishy meat-dough. Jed was NOT into this. He spat it out and signed "all done!" almost instantly.

Wikipedia says that it's also eaten fried. I abide by the cooking axiom that anything bad can be improved by frying in butter, and anything good becomes better. So into the cast iron pan it goes!

This was much better, actually. The pudding turned from a dark brown to actual black, and Jed and I liked this more. The consistency improves a bit, although now that one is not thinking about the texture one can focus on the flavor, which is a bit.. I dunno how to exactly describe it. Doesn't taste like blood, exactly, but there is a certain tang to it that's closer to organ meat.

Speaking of organ meat, I was looking for something to go with the cabbage and potatoes last night, and I found pigs' liver was pretty cheap. I've tried liver a couple times and never been that excited about it, but there's always a first time. And Jed is too little to know that he's defying the cliché about kids hating liver.

I tried just frying it quickly in butter, and then dredged some in matzoh flour and salt. The breaded ones were better, but honestly I don't have a taste for meat that pungent. Also, as it cooled the texture went downhill fast. I might do some research on making paté and see if that's a better route. Jed of course pounded the stuff. Jen very graciously tried a bite, but was not a fan either. So Jed also had liver and eggs for breakfast.

Strong flavours were the order of the day, as we picked up another snack at the store. It's a tangy spread, full of vitamins, and was fed to German POWs in Britain; I am unsure of whether or not that violates any of the first three Geneva Conventions. We're talking about this stuff:

 

 

Marmite covered rice cakes. 2 out of 3 Brennemans in this house approve. I like nutritional yeast on popcorn, and this has kind of a similar taste, only slightly more "toasted". Fun fact: Marmite was originally made from yeast supplied by the Bass brewery. 

 

My research has revealed that the New Zealand Marmite is different from British Marmite, AND that in the sordid history of yeast-based spreads there was a "Guinness Yeast Extract" that "could also be used as an emergency gravy without any addition except hot water for diluting."

The mind boggles as what could constitute a gravy emergency.

Breakfast - Ox Tongue, Onion and Eggs with Sweet Potato

Today's breakfast:


Pan-fry 3 slices of ox tongue in butter. If, for some reason, you don't have ox tongue in the fridge, deli slices of ham or roast beef will suffice.

I picked up the tongue at Waitrose - it is kinda crumbly and marbled, not tough at all. The flavor, while not precisely gamey or offal-y, is definitely there, but less pronounced than smoked bacon. There's no salt in this because the meat was already salted. if you use an uncured meat then you may want to add some.

While the ox tongue is frying, chop up an onion, then toss that in the pan. I added a pinch of black pepper.

As this cooks. grate up a sweet potato and heat a teaspoon of oil in another pan. I used a vegetable peeler to create small strips of potato, then tossed them with vegetable oil. When the teaspoon of oil is hot, but not smoking, add the potato to the pan.

Turn down the heat on the onion, and add eggs to the pan. Guesstimate based on the size of the pan - you want the egg to cover most of the bottom of the pan, but not all of it. I scooted the onions to the side of the pan with a spatula, added the eggs and put on a lid. Let this cook until the eggs are firm, but the yolks are still runny.

Give the sweet potatoes a good stir, and monitor both pans - in a minute or two they should both be done.

Red Bean and Bacon soup

Extrapolated from a recipe in the Gourmet Cookbook

• 1/2 pound lean bacon (about 8 slices), cut into 1/2-inches pieces, as garnish
• 1 finely chopped onion, about the size of a tennis ball
• 3 large garlic cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
• 2 ribs chopped celery
• 2 chopped carrots
• 2 cans kidney beans
• 2 cups chicken broth plus, if desired, additional for thinning the soup
• a 16-ounce can chopped tomatoes.
• 2 shots medium-dry Sherry
• salt and black pepper to taste
• sour cream

This recipe can be vegetarian - just omit the bacon and cook the onion in butter. For vegans, cook the onion in oil and use tofu sour cream.

I cooked the bacon in a cast-iron casserole until crisp, then transferred the bits to a bowl lined with paper towel. The chopped onions went into the pan with the bacon grease, then after they were golden I added the garlic. stir well and then add the cumin, the bay leaf, the oregano and the cayenne. Let cook for five minutes, then add the chicken broth, the carrot and the celery and beans. This simmered for bit while I ran around after the kid. Basically let it go until some of the liquid is cooked off, and then add the tomatoes, sherry and salt and pepper. I used a lot of black pepper, probably about a tablespoon and a half.

If there's more than an oz or two of liquid in with the tomatoes, you may want to drain it off and add it if more liquid is needed.

 After adding the sherry, salt, pepper and tomatoes, simmer for five minutes, then dish into bowls and top with sour cream and bacon.

Thursday on the Heath

 On the Heath

 Looking out over the city

On the walk back

Baking (Banana) Bread

 - From The Hummingbird Bakery

270g / 9.5 soft light brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar)
2 eggs
200g / 7oz peeled bananas, mashed - I did slightly more.

280g / 10oz plain flour

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 tsp ground cinnamon (I did 1 1/2)
1 tsp ground ginger (I did 1 1/2)
140g unsalted butter, melted
(I added the seeds from two cardamom pods)

Grease a 23x13cm loaf tin and dust with flour. Preheat the oven to 170C / 325F

Put the sugar and eggs in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat until well incorporated. Beat in the mashed bananas.


Add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger to the sugar mixture. Mix it thoroughly until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated into the egg mixture. Pour in the melted butter and beat until all the ingredients are well mixed.


Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth over with a palette knife. Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour or until firm to the touch and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool slightly in the tin before turning out to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Notes: I did two batches. The first was as noted, the second I added a cooking apple and a fistful of walnuts, chopped into pieces about the size of the eraser at the end of a pencil.

I didn't melt the butter in the first batch, instead chopping it into small cubes and then working it in the flour.

The dark brown sugar has a higher moisture content, and may require a longer baking time - I checked with a wooden skewer and then gave it an additional 15 mins.

Baking Bread

I'm a big fan of trying the recipes on the back of the box. The success of the King Arthur Flour brownie recipe made me a convert. And, by the way, if you haven't tried making those yet, I highly recommend that you do so.

So I picked up some Hovis yeast at the Atlanta Food and Wine in West Hampstead. According to someone on the internet:  "The word "Hovis" was invented by London student Herbert Grimes in a national competition set by S. Fitton & Sons Ltd to find a trading name for their bread, which used a patent flour that was rich in wheat germ. Grimes coined the word from the Latin phrase hominis vis – 'the strength of man'. "

I just liked the look of the packaging.

More ingredients:

and they had this recipe on the back:

500g / 1lb strong white bread flour
25g / 1oz butter

1 1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp Hovis fast action yeast

300 ml / 10 fl oz water

2 tsp sugar to give added flavour and thicker crust (optional)

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and salt. Rub in the butter, then stir in the yeast.

Stir in the water and mix into a soft dough by hand

Knead for about 5 mins in an electric mixer with a dough hook, or turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 mins by hand.

Shape dough, place in greased 2lb tin or on baking tray

Cover with a clean, damp towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size.

Uncover, and bake in an oven preheated to 230C (450F) for 30-35 minutes.


My adjustments to the recipe:

I used 400g strong white bread flour and 100 g plain white flour. Definitely add the sugar - who doesn't like thicker crust and added flavour?

I did not knead it nearly as much as recommended, instead opting to let the dough rise for 3 hours, then divided the mass in two and put it in two loaf tins, greased and floured. I scored the top down the middle and let rise again until almost double, then popped them in the oven. They looked done after about 25 mins, but I left them in the tins on a rack on the counter until they were just warm, then turned them out onto the rack and let them finish cooling that way.