The melt has begun followed by a freeze. The hubs gave me a lift to the bus stop today as my "electric skateboard" (as the garage call it) turns into an ice skate when it freezes. (And I was never any good at iceskating) On the one passable way out of the village we came a cross a huge lorry who was trying to get up the lane to deliver some feed to a local farm. The lane is not fit for HGVs and has a restriction on it. At the best of times it is single lane with passing points. But a big lorry in icy conditions. We advised him to turn back as chaos would ensue.
Sometimes it's weird being with the hubs as we think the same thing, choose the same food in a restaurant. Today I had brought out with me a cookery magazine so I could look at recipes on the train. This was a 1994 edition of the BBC Vegetarian magazine that has One Pot Wonders on the cover. On the cover is a perennial favourite of ours - vegetarian bourgignon. It is easy to make - especially in a slow cooker - and rich and yummy too- especially on a cold day. We even had it at our wedding, as an option. On the way down the lane I asked hubs what he fancied for dinner and, yes, he asked for veggie bourgignon with dumplings!
I bought the veg from Barnsley market. There is something about asking for veg and receiving them in brown paper bags which feels more authentic somehow. Perhaps it's me being pretentious. The downside is that when you get home, you see the greengrocer has slipped in two huge woody parsnips that you wouldn't feed to a horse!
Is it true that the rest of Europe think of parsnips as cattle fodder?
Back at home, the hub had made a second Pisco Sour - this time with less cane syrup. I prefered it.
Made the bourgignon to recipe, but had run out of garlic and I swapped in Sheffield's finest Henderson's Relish for veggie Worcestershire Sauce. It contains mushroom, carrots, shallots, celery, parsnips and herby dumplings in a red wine, bayleaf, tomato, Henderson's relish stock.
I went out into the garden where it was snowing quite heavily. It was hard locating the herbs under the drifts. The thyme still had snow on it, and the sage had collapsed under the weight.Dinner went to plan and was served with fluffy mash.
Though I have a ricer, I prefer my sturdy Rosle masher. I use mashers a lot, for mashing pumpkin, celeriac, swede, carrots as well as potatoes. I never used to find mashers strong enough, and even the stainless steel ones that you buy in most stores distorted under pressure.
A few Christmas Eves ago, the hub and I were staying at his parent's holiday bungalow in Scarborough on Knipe's Point (another story.) As we do not like Christmas shopping, I persuaded him to come to York with me and we would get it done all in one day. We'd do a bit of shopping, stop for a drink, carry on a bit, etc. As alcohol was involved, we caught the train. In York, I came across this emporium of a kitchenware shop laden with things that I never knew I needed. I carefully examined all the potato mashers, for strength of handle, size of head, two connectors to the handle to avoid it dostorting. Eventually I decided the Rosle looked the toughest, and took it to the cash desk. It was rung in and it was £35! I couldn't really afford it at the time but was too embarrased to say so.
Today, I love using it. It is a wonderful piece of kit and hopefully will last me forever. How can one be so attached to a potato masher?
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