Small fry

4 days ago
5 min read

small fry - "somebody or something that is not considered to be important" Cambridge English dictionary

Well the entire blog is not important - it is to me I suppose - but not to the world in general. Which could of course be said of any number of things from what Prince Harry is doing now, to what anybody thinks about what you are wearing today. So on a dreary and somewhat angst ridden day I am turning to small things to make me reflect on this and that.

So small fry in foodie terms, most probably means something like Jamie Oliver's Fried whitebait shown here - simply dusted with flour and - for a slightly cheffy touch - crushed fennel seeds, then fried in oil and served with lemons and a dill mayonnaise. Yum. Just don't think too much about eating an entire creature in, at the most, two bites - with your fingers. After all, elsewhere in the world they eat fried ants and cockroaches don't they? Shall I ponder on why, in fact we humans eat animals of all kinds here. No. I'm not up to it today - maybe another time. Suffice to say we are eating vegetarian tonight, but I do like fried whitebait. A very ancient kind of food I'm guessing - as soon as they discovered that heating some kind of fat was a great way to cook.

Disappointment

Another topic for a much more in depth and philosophical post, but not up to it today. Suffice to say that this is the very disappointing result of my attempt at pasta with romanesco. last night that I wrote about yesterday in great anticipation. I'm sure that pasta with romanesco can be delicious. I have made several orecchiete with broccoli dishes which have been at least very pleasing, and pasta with romanesco is basically the same thing. I hasten to say that this was perfectly eatable, but pretty bland and mushy. One mistake was to forget that I had taken the gnocchi from the freezer earlier in the day and so they had thawed somewhat. I hastily refroze them but even so they had stuck together and also softened considerably, and so they disintegrated somewhat whilst cooking. The romanesco was soft, but honestly - a bit tasteless. The sausage/red wine - half a glassful - I would say on the other hand were too much. I used two sausages. I think one would have been better - and no red wine. The grated Parmesan made it look a bit better, but alas the blandness of the look equated to the blandness of the dish. Think I will try roasting the other romanesco for something else - a tart perhaps.

Leftover mint sauce

I don't have six half empty jars of mint sauce like these, like the man who sent this plea to Anna Berrill of The Guardian:

"after an online purchasing blunder, my larder now contains six jars. How can I make use of them apart from serving roast lamb every Sunday from now until the crack of doom?"

I do have one however, from our recent roast lamb. And I was rather pleased with one use for it - stirring some into a small bowl of yoghurt to serve with Jamie's Crispy roast lamb flatbreads - a dish worth making by the way - if you have leftover roast lamb. Or beef, or chicken ...

But back to what to do with leftover jarred mint sauce. Well one of Anna Berrill's contributors Kate Young stated the obvious I suppose by saying:

"start treating that surplus mint sauce as an ingredient instead, however, and your life will be a whole lot easier."

So what are some of the suggestions - and are they more brilliant than mine? Well one of them was sort of mine - but with cucumber - tzatziki: “Mix mint sauce and cucumber into a bit of Greek yoghurt, then add lemon juice and fresh mint to taste,”

Other suggestions? Add to pea soup just before the end of cooking and blitz it in with the peas. Lamb mince sausage rolls. A glaze for fried halloumi - brush it on near the end of cooking. Toss boiled potatoes "in a mixture of oil, mint sauce, capers and fresh herbs while they’re still hot." For a roast chicken: "brush with a mix of chopped preserved lemon skin and fresh chilli, maybe some toasted cumin and coriander seeds, and that all-important mint sauce for the last 15 minutes of roasting". All of which should surely stimulate a few ideas.

Waterless chicken soup

It's one of those viral Instagram things which The Guardian pointed me too with this brief bit at the end of one of their recent posts:

"The idea is to very slowly braise chicken, vegetables and seasoning in a tightly lidded pot so that they cook in their own flavourful juices, which turn into a very concentrated soup. Despite the silly name, this somehow makes sense."

I think it's based on a Chinese way of cooking chicken and creating a kind of chicken essence. Quite why all the Instagram pictures that I found on Google Images, left the chicken in very large pieces I don't know. This was just one of the very many. I guess if you have a slow cooker it's a good idea.

Anchovy oil salsa verde

This comes from one of Tom Hunt's waste not want not columns. It's really just a recipe for this salsa verde - based on one by Giorgio Locatelli, but it's also a reminder that you shouldn't throw the oil from a can or jar of anchovies away, as it's flavourful and can be used anywhere that you want a somewhat hidden burst of that umami taste, without signalling the anchovies that somebody might hate. Like in tomato sauce perhaps. Don't over do it though.

Loaded bags of crisps

Over there in the good old UK the Guardian tells us there is current trend - mostly in pubs for serving your bag of crisps - chips to the Australians - with various things poured on top of the crisps in an opened bag. I wonder who dreamt that one up. Someone in New York they seem to think. This one is brie, fig jam and thyme. There are others.

A couple of Coles recipes

Just to finish off. There's often a recipe or two worth considering in the Coles Magazine - here are two from this month's edition from their seasonal citrus section. Not very original I suppose but pretty tempting looking - Persian-style spiced orange chicken and Orange and bitters delicious