Variety

Variety - "a number of different types of things, especially ones in the same general category." Dictionary.com

"Variety is the spice of life"

It's late in the day so, in spite of the fact that a blog entitled Variety might actually be a quite an interesting idea, today I'm just doing a bits and pieces kind of post. A variety of things - recipes, information, disvcoveries ... But isn't it interesting how many proverbs and sayings are food related? The above rather glorious photograph focussing on spice is certainly eye-catching - well it's a hook - and just think of how long it took to set it up - sourcing all those different spoons and spices, arranging them just so ... I wonder how many times they scattered stuff around, decided it wasn't right and then scattered it all again. How long did it take to put this spice next to that ...? It's not something you just click at with your iPhone is it? It's all exactly just so.

The world of food of course is much more various than just spices - and herbs - or even spoons - but we are talking about the spice of life - And spice is what lifts food from the mundane to the other worldly.

And today - in the prosperous societies of today anyway - so much variety available and viewable everywhere is completely overwhelming really. It makes choice impossible sometimes.

So yes a post on Variety sometime perhaps. For now a few short bits and pieces.

Tate and Lyle's lion

Tate and Lyle's refinery was near my home in East Ham, down near the river; and one year my school - it must have been high school however - went on an excursion there. I confess all I remember is the massive mountain of sugar that we viewed somewhere in the factory. But nevertheless that visit, and nostalgia for its golden syrup in that classic green tin that we always had in our pantry made me note down this from Rachel Roddy in her preamble to her recipe for this luscious looking Almond and lemon spiced treacle tart, in which she tells us that the story of the lion (somewhat gruesome really):

"began in 1881 when the Scottish businessman Abram Lyle set up a sugar refinery in London. The process involved extracting juice from sugar cane, then boiling down this juice and moulding it into sugar loaves, which could then be grated as required. One of the byproducts of this process was a bitter, molasses-brown treacle, which was initially sold as animal feed, but later, thanks to the work of the chemist, further refined into a viscous, sweet syrup nicknamed “Goldie”, which was stored in barrels and distributed to staff and friends. Over time, though, seeing its popularity, the partially inverted refined syrup was given the name golden syrup and packaged in tins that remain so familiar: dark green with a dead gold lion swarmed by bees. It’s an image from Samson’s Riddle in the book of Judges, in which Samson, returning to the lion he has killed, finds that bees have created a honeycomb in the carcass, which also gives rise to the words on the tin, “out of the strong came forth sweetness”, and reminds one of Lyle’s strong faith."

No more however, for in 2024 - at which time:

"The famous green and gold tin holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest unchanged brand packaging and hasn't been altered since 1883."

The company changed the dead lion for a rather perkier one - shown above. Unless you buy your Golden syrup in a tin - they have kept the dead lion on the tin. I don't even know whether we can get the Tate and Lyle version here - easily anyway.

Blue cheese rinds

I'm not a lover of blue cheese, although I did once make a Delia recipe for Spinach and ricotta lasagne with pine nuts which contained a small portion of blue cheese, which did indeed lift it into a whole new sphere of good taste. But here we have Tom Hunt - The Guardian's waste not man telling us that we can use blue cheese rinds to make a vinaigrette.

I searched to see if anyone else had thought of this, but in spite of finding several who made vinaigrette with the actual cheese, there were none who used the rind. But why not because unlike Parmesan whose rind is hard, or others that are waxy, blue cheese rind is sometimes really part of the cheese itself - like Brie - or else so crumbly - as in the Spanish blue chees above, that I guess there is not much difference. There was no picture of the actual dressing in the article, but there was a picture of the Bitter leaves with blue cheese vinaigrette that he used it for. He does say that: "blue cheese rind is a flavour bomb that can be a little intense by itself" but when mixed with crême fraïche, honey, mustard and olive oil it adds that funky touch that is very trendy right now. Go for it if you like blue cheese.

Parisian gnocchi

This came from Deb Perelman's Smitten Kitchen in which she presented an Instagram video of herself in Paris at the home of David Lebovitz, where he made her Parisian gnocchi. Why Parisian you might say? Well they are made from choux pastry and so the little 'gnocchi' are then cooked in a béchamel sauce. The video is short but a tiny bit annoying, as it spruiks her kitchen casseroles, and his book My Paris Kitchen in a rather coy way. You can find the recipe however on The Bon Vivanter website. Different in that the 'gnocchi' are crunchy as well as soft and cheesy.

The world's longest tiramisu

A short time ago in London a team broke a Guinness world record - the longest tiramisu.

Why? one asks. Because it's a fun challenge I suppose - but also I suppose - if you think about it seriously - so very decadent. Last stages of the Roman empire stuff - excess to the nth degreet. But yes fun. The link is to a short video from The Guardian - but there are other videos too. I wonder how on earth they managed to cut it into eatable portions and how would you eat it anyway. Did they give some to the homeless out on the streets? So many questions about this.

Best miso recipes

From a recent Happy Foodie newsletter came this list of miso recipes. Happy Foodie is the newsletter of Penguin's cookbook division and there are recipes from many of their top writers. The one shown here is Giant mushroom and sesame roll with salsa verde from Ixta Belfrage's book Meczla, which I keep meaning to try sometime when I'm feeling brave in not worrying whether people like mushrooms or not.

I'm putting this in however, because like me you may want to know some good recipes using miso because, again like me, you may not really know how and when to use it as you know with something like parsley or sage or mustard or any of the other flavour boosters that we all know about because we grew up with them. The recipes cover all bases, savoury and sweet, mains and sides ...

Cramaillotte - dandelion jelly

You may not have a field of dandelions such as the above, so this is probably not for you but if you have a lot of dandelions - and I mean a lot - then you too can have a go at making this jelly sometimes called dandelion honey. It comes from the Franche Comté in the East of France and is apparently easy to make. I found it on the Gastro Obscura website - I get their newsletter too - and the writer - Anne Ewbank - made some which set without hours of trying to get it to set apparently:

"The final jelly needed no pectin or gelatin to solidify. Just boiling flowers, sugar, and sliced citrus together was enough to create a preserve thick enough to stand tall on toast."

And the taste? - "like a rich marmalade with an undertone of floral bitterness ... golden springtime on a spoon."

If you are thinking of doing this however - I doubt you are - be careful that your flowers are not sprayed or come from somewhere near a road and all the polution from passing traffic - or passing dogs too! A bit too hazardous perhaps. But interesting and a testament to the ingenuity of the poor.

YEARS GONE BY

May 19

2025 - Tartiflette

2024 - A sort of French heritage

2023 - Nothing

2022 - Nothing

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - No whisk, no mousse

2018 - Lucky dip - khobz

2017 - Nothing