The Trough

What’s cooking grandma is a great site by Human Beans for those of us without grandparents. I’m not sure everyone else’s family has the same taste as mine, I think tradition can be an acquired taste.

There are some great quotes from each cook that hint at how the stories were passed on, 50 year old books and grand children helping out in the kitchen. It’s like story telling I suppose, you just have to be there to watch and learn through osmosis. The site has lots of traditional recipes, but not so many to overwhelm you.

Every chef has been named by their grandmum names: nana, grandmother, grandma, gran… They have a very relaxed approach to making their dishes, not worrying to much about its presentation but more on the satisfaction of the food. They lead you through each recipe with those soothing, wise voices.

It’s great to see the family’s appreciation afterwards. Yum.

http://whatscookinggrandma.humanbeans.net/

A good bunch of parsley, thyme and mint

So I thought I’d test out a few of these Tudor recipes over the weekend. One of which was a sauce vert, a little like salsa Verde and though it tastes great and was also quite strong it was used to mask the strong flavour of (not so fresh) fish.

You use a good handful of chopped green herbs (I used mainly parsley with a little of what ever else I could find).

Add some cider vinegar to a small bowlful of white breadcrumbs and leave them to soak for 10 minutes.

Start bashing the herbs with a pestle and mortar with a squashed clove of garlic. Then mix in the bread crumbs with a bit of salt. It turns into a gooey paste.
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I took so much in from this visit that I’m not sure where to begin. To begin with we walked along the entrance track to the main gates. It was the bank holiday friday and we were surrounded by tourists. Its not often you get the chance to feel like a visitor in your own city, but we were stood in the rain with cameras around our necks and looking at leaflets about Henry and his eight wives.

Making pastry

We walked towards the kitchen and saw the usual plastic men, flame styled flickering lighting and plastic fishes flopped over barrels (apparently they are made of thermo-plastic that you can just microwave and drape in the desired form to make them look realistic). Sound effects of bubbling stews and synthetic smells of beef.  We arrived in the pastry production area, surrounded by dark green ceramic and eggs.

We spoke to the chefs, who explained a million and one things about their findings. The had previously been involved in reenactments and had been hired by the palace for their enthusiasm to learn so much about the subject.

During Tudor times they used pastry as a cooking vessel more than edible treat. They would remove the ‘lid’ of the pie and continue to cook from the base until the pastry broke, when it could then be fed to the pigs. I suppose metal could leave quite the flavour if it were used to cook with. It does make me wonder why they didn’t just use ceramic?
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Common Ground 8th April 09

Though I’d share this article about joint land ownership. A friend pointed out to me the other day as it mentions community-owned land used for food growing. Really great to see how people can groups together and invest in their surroundings . A guy named Phillipe Castaing wants to set up a site in Brixton. (strangely enough there is another guy named Phillipe Castaing on Linkedin  who works with Monsanto…)

To see the full article click here.

I’m off to see a rather fitting film tonight called Winstanley about 17th Century group called ‘Diggers‘ who tried to create an area of land that they could sustain them selves on. Its amazing to think that they did this on common land in Surrey and such a shame to know that it no longer exists. I’m sure the film will still be an inspiration.