I Like This Poster
Innocent have been using rabbits to advertise.
The Innocent Rabbit
Why do we like rabbits, when they are so destructive?
For instance, they tend to dig holes in fields, which horses put their feet in and then suffer damage like broken legs.
Give me hares anytime!
A First Risotto
I like risotto, but I’d never made it until last night.
The problem started because, I only had limited fresh food in the fridge and I needed to conjure together something from a pack of smoked haddock, asparagus, sprouts, tomatoes and spring onions. I found this recipe for spring onion and smoked fish risotto on the BBC Good Food site.
The ingredients I used were.
- 500g smoked haddock, cod or trout
- chicken stock, fresh, cube or concentrate, made up to 1.5 litres
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- unsalted butter
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 450g risotto rice
- 1 bunch spring onions, finely sliced diagonally (green included)
- 150g mature cheddar, grated
These quantities make enough for six, but as I’m only one, I made half and froze the other two packs. Will they be OK? Only time will tell.
I should say that the Waitrose risotto rice was a month past its sell-by date and I had to cut the mould off the chess. But then if you are a non-driver in the middle of nowhere, you have to be thankful for small mercies.
The method was as follows.
- Put the fish in a large frying pan. Pour over enough chicken stock to cover, bring to a simmer and cook for 4 minutes. Allow the fish to cool a little in the stock, then skin and flake it. Add any leftover chicken stock to the poaching liquid and keep hot. (If you’re using trout, just skin and flake it and heat the stock).
- To make the risotto, cook the onions in a little butter then add the garlic and risotto rice, stirring well to coat in the butter. Add the hot stock a ladle at a time, stirring each time to bring the starch out of the rice and give the risotto a creamy effect. When the rice is almost cooked, stir in the fish and spring onions. Stir in an extra knob of butter and the cheddar and serve.
The rice took 20-25 minutes to cook, but it was worth it. It wasn’t very difficult to get right either and it used just one frying pan. The latter is always welcomed.
The out-of-date food had no effect either.
Whether the frozen risottos are any good, I do not know.
The Princess of Shoreditch
One of the problems of being a coeliac is that you have trouble with eating on the hoof. Today, I was walking through Shoreditch, just looking at the buildings, when I came across a (gastro)pub called the Princess of Shoreditch.
The menu looked that one or two of the items were gluten free, so I thought I’d go in and see if I could have a meal. I entered and found that they had Aspall Cyder on draught, which is always a welcome sign for me. And probably for a lot of other coeliacs too!
I asked whether the poached cod on the menu was gluten free and this was checked with the chef. I got a friendly thumbs up sign, so I ordered it.
Poached Cod
It was very good and the whole lunch including a pint of Aspall and coffee cost twenty pounds. I’ll go again.
Since I’ve got home, I’ve checked Time Out. They like it too!
A Quick Caserrole
On Saturday night, a quick meal was in order, so we took a tray of vegetables to be baked in the oven from Waitrose and put two small lamb steaks in it and then livened it up with a slurp of red wine. It took forty minutes in the AGA and was delicious.
An Inappropriate Delivery from Waitrose?
Because I can’t drive at the moment, I ordered a load of stuff from Waitrose. There was no problem, but they felt that they’d send me a promotion – A new Hovis loaf!
I suppose I have to be grateful for small mercies.
La Colombe d’Or
La Colombe d’Or at St. Paul de Vence is one of the world’s great restaurants. Not in the sense of the food, which is very good, but in the whole ambience, as you sit surrounded by millions of euros worth of modern art.
The restaurant has hardly changed since we went there all of those years ago. There is some more art and you can stay in the attached hotel, but that is perhaps all. Even the menus are still the same.
The experience was just as good.
A Tax on Coeliacs
Darling has put the tax on cider up significantly.
It may be alright for those who can drink beer! But I can’t!
Cheese: A New Version of the Rook Restaurant?
Cheese, a restaurant in London that serves only cheese, has just opened in London.
I hope it doesn’t have too many echoes of the Rook Restaurant in the Two Ronnies.
Gluten-Free Meals in Holland
When it happened the first time at a cafe near the Watersnood Museum, I just thought it was a nice gesture. But when it happened last weekend, I thought it could be part of an encouraging trend for coeliacs.
Cafe Restaurant Landbouw
But last week at the Cafe Restaurant Landbouw, for the second time I got gluten-free bread with my meal. So it was frozen and had been warmed in an oven or a microwave.
It was a nice gesture, that rarely happens in the UK.
The Anonymous Widower 