The wonderful things about being an obsessive, which I only have a mild claim to be, is eating the same pudding for four, five, maybe even six days straight, is not something of a hardship. Now, it would definitely be more fun to spend oodles of time cooking lots of different things, having them consumed by a table-ful of hearty farmers (n.b. could be male or female farmers) come in from a day's work, kicking mud off their boots at the door and smelling of the nice parts of the countryside (elderflower hedges, blue sky and lark's breath - that sort of thing), smacking their chops and slapping their bellies as all recline post-chomp-fest in their reclining kitchen chairs (someone seriously needs to invent those). Perhaps someone would pick up a folksy instrument and begin playing a song of ye olden times. We would hum and remember Old Betsy, Harrowing Dan and Bob the fishman, gone on to a better place. Whole days could be spent planning these idyllic e'entime dinners - huge pies, majesterial roasts, gigantic tarts (singger) and all with LASHINGS of Double Cream. There would also be an aga. I would have rolled up sleeves and a permanent streak of flour on my face, just to show that I too was a hearty member of the scene.
But, alas, this is not my life. But if anything were to be a consolation, it would be this chocolate cake. A fairly standard flourless affair but containing some of the top things in the World. Chocolate, Butter and, when I serve it, Extra-Thick Double Cream (heart-attack, I hear you say? I have a method for off-setting, like carbon emissions offsetting. It's about as logical as offsetting anyway). 10 seconds in the microwave and a scattering of pomegranate seeds and Ooh, heaven is a place on earth.
In other news - success on Soya Mince Bolognese number II!
Amazing what can be done with coriander. I used to hate it so much and then - Lo! - the light, the truth, the glory and all things in the world manifestly well-ordered. Granted it may have been its strong flavour that made soya mince rise up from the depressence of cardboard-tasting death and masked the STILL persistent taste of pot noodle. But it done good, and esp with the fresh chopped up cherry tomatoes (evidence of my own megalomania, I've started believing what I wrote about cherry tomatoes below, and now can't quite look at them in the same way. I'm pretty sure it was guilt I was feeling when I was chopping them up. Or maybe that was just memories of bygone festival antics triggered by the EVER PResent smell of bastard pot noodle...).
Did a lack of parmesan this time make all the difference? I think perhaps so. I wonder if anyone else regards parmesan as a social nicety rather than very much the Requirement for all pasta-type dishes?
But, alas, this is not my life. But if anything were to be a consolation, it would be this chocolate cake. A fairly standard flourless affair but containing some of the top things in the World. Chocolate, Butter and, when I serve it, Extra-Thick Double Cream (heart-attack, I hear you say? I have a method for off-setting, like carbon emissions offsetting. It's about as logical as offsetting anyway). 10 seconds in the microwave and a scattering of pomegranate seeds and Ooh, heaven is a place on earth.
In other news - success on Soya Mince Bolognese number II!
Amazing what can be done with coriander. I used to hate it so much and then - Lo! - the light, the truth, the glory and all things in the world manifestly well-ordered. Granted it may have been its strong flavour that made soya mince rise up from the depressence of cardboard-tasting death and masked the STILL persistent taste of pot noodle. But it done good, and esp with the fresh chopped up cherry tomatoes (evidence of my own megalomania, I've started believing what I wrote about cherry tomatoes below, and now can't quite look at them in the same way. I'm pretty sure it was guilt I was feeling when I was chopping them up. Or maybe that was just memories of bygone festival antics triggered by the EVER PResent smell of bastard pot noodle...).
Did a lack of parmesan this time make all the difference? I think perhaps so. I wonder if anyone else regards parmesan as a social nicety rather than very much the Requirement for all pasta-type dishes?
(soya mince is improved)
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