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!
SpinningStreak 