MetaChat REGISTER   ||   LOGIN   ||   IMAGES ARE OFF   ||   RECENT COMMENTS




artphoto by splunge
artphoto by TheophileEscargot
artphoto by Kronos_to_Earth
artphoto by ethylene

Home

About

Search

Archives

Mecha Wiki

Metachat Eye

Emcee

IRC Channels

IRC FAQ


 RSS


Comment Feed:

RSS

16 June 2007

Summer pudding. One of the achievements I am most proud of is that I can cook. And I cook very well.[More:]Now this might not be a big thing to many of you, but I grew up in a household where we ate beans on toast for tea three times a week, egg on toast three times a week and fish fingers and chips on Friday. Occasionally a tin of stew with powdered mashed potato.

I was never hungry, but there was no variation, except at Christmas when we would have egg & chips for Christmas lunch. I actually enjoyed school dinners, and had it not been for them, I would never have eaten fresh meat, fruit or vegetables.

Explanations: My dad drank, most of the money went on booze, not luxuries like proper food. Also, we lived in the Midlands, so we had 'breakfast, dinner and tea' not 'breakfast, lunch and dinner'.

So, I taught myself to cook after I left home, and I'm pretty good at it, I think. I love food, love buying the ingredients, love preparing it, love eating it, love serving it to friends ...

Anyway, I got home on Wednesday afternoon and went to the supermarket. I needed to clear some space in my tiny freezer compartment and so moved out the remains of a pack of frozen summer berries (raspberries, currants, etc.). So I decided to use them in a summer pudding, which I made yesterday and refrigerated overnight. I had just enough berries to make two little individual puddings. I used hardly any sugar - I like the berries to have that bit of tartness.

I'm eating one now, with a big dollop of thick Greek yoghurt on the side. The taste and smell is absolutely wonderful.

Mmmmm ...
This is a fun thing for me, too. I've enjoyed introducing my Other Half to various fresh and ethnic foods. I made a really good variation on Italian mozzarella salad last night!

Greek yoghurt is da bomb. You can make fresh mango lasse with it.. delicious..
posted by By the Grace of God 16 June | 11:24
That looks delish. *cough*dinner-at-essexjan's*cough
posted by chrismear 16 June | 11:35
I think a barbecue round mine one Saturday afternoon would be do-able this summer, if we don't have enough meetups to go to already in London.
posted by essexjan 16 June | 11:46
Oh how lovely! And the little plate and everything! (*admires vastly*)

A long, long way from beans on toast, that's for sure.
posted by kat allison 16 June | 11:47
Great. Now I'm hungry. Thank you so much. >:(


Actually, it looks delicious!
posted by Memo 16 June | 12:01
Wow. That looks so very, very good. Very.

I was never a cook at all. My mom was/is a fantastic cook, and I loved that and wasn't moved to get into it very much. I had my roles, like making the salad dressing, or other minor creative efforts that I felt like taking on... but wasn't really interested in cooking at all.

Then I married my first husband. He was/is a fantastic cook, who loved to show off his skillz... so, seriously, until I was well into my 30s I pretty much didn't touch a pot or pan (except for washing). After I left him (wonderful, brilliant, exceptional person - except for all the lying, cheating and also the cheating), I finally started trying to cook, like an infant trying to walk, kinda.

And now I love it! I also love it that mr. taz also likes to cook, so I don't always have to be responsible. And he's also a great cook, with a good instinct. I'm lucky with cooking men.
posted by taz 16 June | 12:10
The plate is one of two I picked up at a boot sale about a year ago. It's Royal Venton Florettaware, from the 1930s. I think the two plates (the pink one with the summer pudding and a yellow one which appears on the top right-hand row of the florettaware site) cost me less than a pound.
posted by essexjan 16 June | 12:13
Mmmm, summer pudding, soooo tasty.

I went to Sainsbury's today and, because I was bored, mooched around the frozen foods section (somewhere I virtually never go) and noticed that they're now selling frozen chopped herbs. How very strange.
posted by TheDonF 16 June | 12:20
a 'boot sale'?!

plz to explain. and that looks really, really fabulously tasty.

i learned to cook out of self-preservation, at the age of around six or seven. i was a latchkey kid and it was that or endless cold bologna sandwiches and mac n cheese.

i am so endlessly lucky with the mister. he not only enjoys cooking, but we have the same exact likes and dislikes. we make a fantastic team in the kitchen, if i do say so myself.

even my roommate, who worked as a professional chef, has been known to step aside and give us the reins.
posted by lonefrontranger 16 June | 12:38
Boot sale.
posted by essexjan 16 June | 13:12
mmm, summer pudding indeed. I miss England! I think I'm going to make one and pretend I'm on the other side of the pond, hanging out with ej.
posted by scody 16 June | 13:17
Looks mighty tasty, essexjan.
posted by paulsc 16 June | 13:38
It's really very easy to make and so worth it. I remember introducing some American friends to it at a London restaurant a couple of years ago and it was like the scene in 'When Harry Met Sally', the sounds that emanated from our table.
posted by essexjan 16 June | 13:54
I'm going to be completely honest. That does not look the least bit appealing to me.
It is purple and gooey and messy and smushy. (This is probably because the only concept of "pudding" that I have in my poor American brain looks like this.)

However, that wouldn't stop me from eating it. From what I can pick up from the recipe, it seems like it would taste wonderful.

You get an A+ for presentation too!

And can I just say I love MeCha for sharing all these recipes? I try and bookmark/save them when I come across them. The next step is actually trying to make them.
posted by CitrusFreak12 16 June | 20:43
Heh, CitrusFreak, I'll never forget the look on an American friend's face when she ordered treacle pudding in an English restaurant and got a steamed sponge cake with hot syrup and custard instead of a little pot of creamy goo.
posted by essexjan 16 June | 20:46
Hmm...I was in a restaurant in Canberra where I remembered that chocolate pudding had been listed on the menu at the end of the meal--I asked for the chocolate mousse...luckily there was someone who knew what the Yank meant. Chocolate ANYTHING is fine as long as there isn't a puddle of raspberry coulis dumped over it. Also, pudding=any dessert in the UK rather than just one type.
posted by brujita 17 June | 00:00
Fancy a maggot lolli? || I find this strangely fascinating.

HOME  ||   REGISTER  ||   LOGIN