Category: food

Odd Stuff

Sockses and boxes…

‘That’s odd’, odd one out, odd numbers….a word I’ve been hearing all day long. It started with odd sock day – no doubt intended to promote an acceptance of difference (following on from that kindness Assembly the other day). It ended with an Oddbox on the doorstep. I love my Oddboxes. They can contain some pretty weird stuff and I enjoy working out what to do with it all. The contents are not necessarily weird in themselves – this week we had aubergines, carrots, swede, peppers, potatoes, spinach and beetroot as well as choi sum and celeriac. The fruit was mango, oranges, persimmons and apples. Ah, yes, the apples – I had to add that mug to give an idea of scale. There are 4 gi-normous apples – the one in the picture weighs 511g – well over an Imperial lb! My 2 young grandchildren squealed with delight and carried it off to show their mother. But I understand that Waitrose might be less enthusiastic – and that is the point really. Oddbox ‘rescue’ fresh food that has been over-produced and is now surplus to supermarket requirements or just doesn’t meet standard sizes or have the unblemished appearance we apparently insist on. When the ‘oddness’ is exotic, the Oddbox team helpfully provide clues (and recipes!) to help you deal with it- persimmon chocolate dessert on the cards right now…

Just attacked (a slice of!) one of those apples – crisp, juicy, DELICIOUS! Unusual, but not odd at all.

Blogvember 4

Spent a lot of the day editing product photos for Etsy – probably the most boring task, not a patch on spinning stuff and actually making things…

And then I decided to try and recreate the ‘plat d’attente’ from the rather upmarket restaurant we ate in in Troyes. It was a delicate little pumpkin cream pot, which came with a few other tasty bites to wake up your appetite before the first course. (I always appreciate these touches – in fact the main course is consistently my least favourite part – I’m definitely a tapas natural.)

I wanted to use these quickly. Usually they sit around for weeks. I claim it is because they look so beautiful on display. Other people seem to think it is because they are a faff to prepare….But anyway, Oddbox was reproaching us, claiming that an annual 16,000 tonnes of pumpkin get wasted over the Halloween week and urging us to draw on, and then eat, our pumpkins next year, rather than carving them and letting them rot. Hmm.

I took a photo of the result, in terrible light. And I can’t improve on the picture because the food is now all eaten up. It wasn’t a bad attempt, given I had no idea of the ingredients, beyond the pumpkin. For anyone interested, I whipped some double cream till nearly stiff, then added a couple of spoons of Philadelphia cream cheese, two slightly fierce little red chillis off my window sill plant, the flesh of that green and white squash in the photo (previously microwaved till soft), plus nutmeg and black pepper. All just whizzed together. On top there are some toasted hazelnuts and a sage leaf from the bush in France that provides us with our signature Christmas stuffings. I would like to say it was a triumph – but I couldn’t taste a THING, just a faint burning sensation from the hot pepper. Thanks, cold. Bad timing. If I’d realised my smell/taste had completely disappeared I would have hung on a couple of days longer. Other people were pretty impressed though – and there isn’t a scrap left.

Do let me know if anyone tries it!