"various items not important enough to be mentioned individually." Oxford Languages
Christmas approaches and begins to dominate, so life starts to get compartamentalised into doable lumps. And so it is with today's post. Sundries - a few things not important enough to warrant an entire post.
I think in my head sundries refer to things associated with dressmaking - cottons, buttons, zippers, and the like, because I think back in the days when I made my own dresses and frequented material shops - remember them? - there was a section called Sundries, where you found all those other things. But of course sundries, these days are more likely to be the things you find in $2.00 shops or at the supermarket checkout.
Where does the word come from? Well I looked up etymonline which said:
Middle English sondri, from Old English syndrig "separate, apart, special, distinct, characteristic," all now obsolete or dialectal; from sundor "separately, apart, asunder" (see sunder) + -y (2). Compare Old High German suntaric, Swedish söndrig "broken, tattered." The meaning "several, various" is attested from late 14c.
Which sort of implies that the thing in contention has been separated off from where it might otherwise belong. Which I suppose the $2.00 shop and the supermarket checkout sort of do.
Moving on.
Elote
I may have 'done' this before, which is why I'm demoting it to the status of a 'sundry' here. I recently bought yet another cookbook - Now and Then by Tess Kiros, and in her chapter om the food of Mexico was this lovely photograph of Elotes asados. It's almost not a recipe. Basically you barbecue your corn cob, then when it's cooked you cover with crema espesa, sour cream or mayonnaise, lots of cheese, and a big squeeze of lime. It was also in my list of potential oddments, so when I saw this lovely picture I decided to remind you all of a summer treat again.
Croissant butter
This is not butter for croissants, or even buttery croissants, but a kind of butter made from croissants. I came across it in the Guardian newsletter, where Tamal Ray gave us this recipe. What you do is tear up some croissants, soak them in butter and sugar, bake in the oven and then whiz in a food processor with white caramel chocolate and a little bit of vegetable oil. Apparently it will keep for ages.
What do you do with it? Well spread it on croissants apparently. And give it as a gift, though you might have to explain it. Weird eh?
Pickled cherries with prosciutto and burrata
From the Coles Magazine. I saw this and thought what an impressive but easy platter for nibbling at before dinner this was. The cherries are just mixed with vinegar, oil, sugar and salt and the rest is pretty obvious. They also told you how to make caramelised walnuts to complete the picture
Storing leftover ham
The same magazine had this advice for keeping your leftover Christmas ham fresh:
"Soak a clean pillowcase or tea towel in 4 cups water and 2 tbs white vinegar. Wring out excess liquid, then use it to cover the ham and place in the fridge. Repeat the soaking and wringing every couple of days."
Sounds good to me. I generally keep it in a cotton bag, but I never thought of the soaking thing. It sounds suitably old-fashioned and effective.
And there's always leftover ham. Which of course is not a problem. There are heaps of things you can do with leftover ham - besides just eating it of course.
Anothe Coles recipe - this time a little more complicated but hardly. I won't be making this one because I'm not into blue cheese, but I can see that they might well be a good idea. And they do look pretty.
Last one from Coles - and I may well try this one. Appropriately cool for an Aussie summer Christmas and also pretty simple. A slice of watermelon, fetta whipped with sour cream and lemon juice plus thinly sliced cucumber and fennel.
Agua fresca
I came across the notion of agua fresca on a reddit thread recently. Maybe it was the watermelon. Anyway - it's Mexican and very suitable for the Australian summer. Fruit, plus water, plus lime juice and a sweetener - sugar, honey ... Blend - maybe add some soda water for sparkle. Experiment.
Sort of still on the subject of those sundry nibbles you might offer before a Christmas feast, here is one from Ottolenghi. Very, very simple. Just dip your cauliflower florets in his mustardy egg mixture, then into panko crumbs and cheese and fry. Yum.
Ottolenghi and Woolworths
Did you know you can now get some of Ottolenghi's home brand spice mixtures in Woolworths? Well some of them, and they don't always seem to be in stock. Plus they are expensive. But then I guess they would make good Christmas presents, and because they now make their own brand of spice mixes, some of his more recent recipes have them in the ingredient list. So if you can't get it or don't want to pay that much money, you will have to guess what's in it. They sort of say on the label, but not how much, etc. Enterprising. The man must be a multi-millionaire by now.
YEARS GONE BY
December 21
2023 - Nothing
2022 - Excess
2021 - Nothing
2020 - Brandy snaps
2019 - Nothing
2018 - Not tiny or local at all
2017 - Gravlax or gravadlax, skin on skin off, beetroot or no beetroot, 24 or 48 hours, rinse, don't rinse
2016 - Heinz baked beans
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