Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘other sides to this life’ Category

Tunnelling for truffle pasta…

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, tagged , , on November 12, 2013| 21 Comments »

Doing the tunnels is the only option.

There is no escape if you are driving from southeast France to Tuscany.

IMG_9870

The tunnels thread through the Ligurian hillsides that slope down to the Mediterranean water’s edge. Some are just a few hundred feet long, others a mile or more. We count them for fun and tally 136!

IMG_9720

It’s the slow lane for us on the last leg of our annual journey to Tuscany and the olive harvest.

There are some great sea views,  if you’re not driving. It can feel a little ‘hairy’ at times, as a big black beetle-like vehicle–you wouldn’t call it a car–hurtles past, followed closely by a purring, predatory Porsche.

Sunday morning and we’re making for a little bar/ristorante in Marina di Carrara called Ciccio. We found it by chance years ago–as sometimes happens with the favourite places.

The restaurant looks onto the port from where the historic Carrara marble–still being cut out of the hillside–is shipped.

IMG_9737

The cranes and modern lifting machinery make us wonder–in both senses–how Michelangelo transported the huge marble block back to Florence and the workshop where he fashioned the David.

IMG_9743_3

Meredith has the seasonal ‘special’ in mind–freshly made spaghetti in a cream sauce with black truffles. She had it once years ago and has never forgotten it.

Today the truffle is the rare white variety (though perversely a browny pink in colour).

Then it’s ordered–for both of us. (I decide to live dangerously and indulge!)

IMG_9728_2

Meredith is delighted, though she says when we’re back in the car ‘On the whole I think I prefer the black truffle best…’ Well…!

IMG_9730

We head off back to the autostrada, truffled out but happy the tunnels are behind us.

IMG_9750

Marble mountain

Read Full Post »

Broccoli Parmigiani + tomato sauce

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , on November 7, 2013| 14 Comments »

Betsy Webber–who attended my cooking workshop in May–recently commented that this was one of her favorite dishes. Thanks Betsy for reminding me!

We are having it for lunch–I had just enough tomato sauce left over to make it work.

I’ve been looking forward to trying it again for a couple of weeks.

It heralds the new season we are glorying in here.

Comfort food for the new chill.

An autumn/winter replacement for the Italian classic–Parmigiana Melanzane.

Here it is with a slice of sweet potato and some baba ganoush.

450gms/1lb broccoli–broken up into florets

4 tblsps tomato sauce*

parmesan cheese–freshly grated

salt and pepper

  • Steam the broccoli florets until they soften–but retain a bit of crunchiness.
  • Put them in a bowl and pour over two tablespoons of olive oil and season.
  • Heat a grill pad to hot.

  • Char the the florets lightly and remove.

  • Oil a shallow oven proof dish and spread some tomato sauce over the base.
  • Cover this with a layer of broccoli florets and season with salt and pepper.
  • Sprinkle over some parmesan.
  • Repeat the process finishing with a layer of parmesan.

  • Dribble olive oil over the top.
  • Heat the oven to 200C/400F.
  • Pop in the dish and bake for 15 minutes.

  • It should come out sizzling!

*Tomato sauce

3 cloves of garlic – peeled and finely sliced

4 tbsp olive oil

2 x 800 g/28 oz tins tomatoes – drained of their juice

salt and pepper

  • Fry the garlic gently in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan but do not let it brown.
  • Add the broken up tomatoes and the salt and pepper.
  • Cook on a high heat, stirring frequently to prevent burning, and watch out for splattering!
  • (Use the biggest wooden spoon you have!)
  • Cooking time is about 20 minutes.
  • When little red pock marks appear, making it look as though the surface of the moon has turned red, you know it is almost there.
  • The sauce will have reduced considerably and thickened, with very little liquid left.
  • Add the last two tablespoons of olive oil, taste and check the seasoning.

 

We decided that Betsy’s right–it’s delicious!

Read Full Post »

Wallander and diabetes

Posted in Diabetes, other sides to this life, Robin Ellis, tagged , , , , , , on November 4, 2013| 19 Comments »

DSC03246

In 2006 I worked on an episode of the Swedish TV version of Wallander, playing an American professor suspected of killing his wife. (Meredith couldn’t resist a visit to the set!).

It was an entirely enjoyable experience working with a fine cast and crew in Ystad on the southern tip of Sweden where the stories are set.

No hint was given in our episode that Kurt Wallander (played definitively by Krister Henriksson) was diabetic. Perhaps the production company decided not to go down that road.

A pity in my view.

Henning Mankell, author of the Wallander books, explained in an interview in The Daily Telegraph why he’d made his hero diabetic:

“I wanted to show how difficult it is to be a good police officer. But after, I think, the third novel, I spoke to this friend of mine and asked what sort of disease I could give him. Someone who leads the life he does. Without hesitating, she said: ‘Diabetes!’ So I gave him diabetes and that made him more popular. I mean, you could never imagine James Bond giving himself a shot of insulin, but with Wallander it seemed perfectly natural.”

I’m reading The Troubled Man at the moment–the last in the nine-book series.

It is as much a character study of his vulnerable and flawed detective as a thriller–an absorbing read.

Wallander is in his early sixties, divorced, living alone and full of foreboding and gloom about his future.

He doesn’t take care of his diabetes, which is Type 1.

He’s overweight, eats haphazardly and takes little exercise. At one point in the novel he has a hypo (hypoglycemic–low blood sugar–blackout) and nearly dies. He’s discovered naked and unconscious in the shower by his daughter, also a police officer, worried when she is unable to reach him by phone.

She has recently given birth to his first grandchild and is keen that he lives long enough to know his granddaughter and vice-versa.

Shocked into action by his narrow escape, he starts to take more care of his condition.

Henning Mankell doesn’t elaborate further on the condition, but saddling his main character with this disease of-the-moment works well and stealthily provides readers with helpful information, even if that wasn’t the author’s intention.

DSC03239

being wired for sound just before making a run for it!

For the record–my character is arrested, after a car chase, on the Oresund Bridge that links Denmark and Sweden.

800px-Øresund_Bridge_-_Øresund_crop

“OK Gov, it’s a fair cop!”

Read Full Post »

Chickpea and fennel soup

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , , on October 30, 2013| 21 Comments »

IMG_9604

 

Yesterday I found myself fancying chickpea soup.

There was a bottle of chickpeas three-quarters (300gms) full in the fridge.

We had plenty of onions, a couple of carrots, some celery and two  fennel bulbs in the crisper.

I put a third of the chickpeas in the small blender bowl with some of their liquid and whizzed them smooth.

Soffrito/battuto (what’s the difference?!*) next–the engine room of the soup–to give it some oomph.

So I chopped up 2 smallish onions, a couple of garlic cloves into small dice and sweated them in four tablespoons of olive oil in a medium saucepan for 20 minutes.

While the soffrito was softening I chopped the fennel into larger dice.

I added the chickpeas–mashed and whole–to the pan and stirred it well together.

Then in went the fennel dice and added a small stem of fresh thyme.and two bay leaves

I squeezed a scant tablespoon of tomato concentrate from a tube in the fridge, stirred it into the mixture and added a pint/500ml of vegetable stock and a tablespoon of chopped parsley—next time I’d add this to the soffrito.

Seasoned well with salt and freshly ground black pepper, brought it all up to the simmer and nearly forgot to add a small piece of the rind of parmesan cheese–cooked it all on for about 20 minutes until the fennel had softened.

We swirled some olive oil into our bowls, ate it slowly and sighed!

*A battuto is a pile of chopped raw ingredients, in this case just vegetables but sometimes it involves smoked or green bacon.

It becomes a soffrito when the pile is cooked slowly in oil, fat or butter as the base of a soup or a casserole.

This serves 2/3 or 4 at a pinch.

Read Full Post »

A trip to Spain and a plate of tripe!

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Poldark, Robin Ellis, tagged , , , on October 28, 2013| 58 Comments »

For the past few days I’ve been holed up in bed with the “lurgie” (a tummy bug).

In a reversal of roles, Meredith has been cooking and caring (she was ill first)–serving up simple, delicious, restorative vegetable soup and scrambled eggs.

Yesterday I had stomach enough to read a brilliant piece in The Observer newspaper by food writer Jay Rayner challenging people’s reluctance to give a second try to food they have detested eating (or in my case, the thought of eating)–tripe for instance.

Unknown-3

It transported me back nearly 35 years to Madrid.

RobAnghorses_2

Angharad and I were in Spain to promote Poldark, which was proving enormously popular there.

At that time there were only two TV channels–and the other one was devoted to parliamentary debates.

The visit was an extraordinary experience.

Two thousand plus fans at the airport to welcome us. We were mobbed everywhere we went–it felt momentarily like being a Beatle. (Nobody waiting for us at Heathrow on our return, however….)

Years before Angharad had spent some months in the city au pairing for the family of a well known psychiatrist–a friend and professional colleague of her father Professor Lynford Rees.

Her return had a particular resonance for her and the Spanish family.

To celebrate, they threw a lunch party for us at their home.

It was a moment of peace, an escape from the craziness of the celebrity culture that was new to me and which I was finding both exciting and at times hard to handle.

(At one point, the tabloid johnnies were crowding me with questions about how it was that at the age of 35 I wasn’t married. Angharad–sensing the danger of an explosion–whispered in my ear, “Smile, Robin, for heaven’s sake, SMILE!”.

The party was delightful, of course, except for one detail: The main dish was tripe in tomato sauce.

Unknown-2

Photo found on the Internet–but strongly resembling the dreaded dish.

Tripe, I’m told, is a delicacy in Spain–and cooked by an expert (I have to take Jay Rayner’s word for it) it’s delicious.

I eat most things–growing up in the fifties, fussiness about food was not encouraged in our house. The starving children in India featured often at meal times when a reluctance to polish off the last crumb was shown. My mother never tried tripe on us though.

I remember looking down at the plate I’d been offered and after a moment mastering feelings of politeness, guilt and hunger, turning discreetly away from the crowd and parking the plate of offal, untried, behind a palm tree.

There have been moments since–in Florence for example where street stalls selling steaming piles of tripe are a regular sight–when I have thought about giving it a second try. So far I have managed to resist the temptation.

Anyone else willing to own up to a food phobia?

Read Full Post »

Butternut squash gratin–revisited

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , , , , , on October 21, 2013| 9 Comments »

Autumn is the season of squash.

IMG_4325

This is an early post I found on a mining the past exercise last week.

I cooked it again and the recipe didn’t disappoint–in fact we finished the lot as we’d done way back in February 2011.

Butternut squashes dress modestly in light fawn leaving their showier cousins in orange and red to hog the limelight around this time of year–Halloween and Toussaint.

Under the skin though they show their true colors.

IMG_9540

A wonderful autumn glow emerges, mustardy yellow–warming heart and body–as in the soup below (recipe here).

squash4img_5430-1

“What’s on the menu today?”
“Gratin of one of us”
“Scary–after you, ClaudeI”

This is delicious–I’ll stick my neck out.

We had it with some seasoned quinoa (sautéed onion, garlic, a small chili and a little steamed broccoli) last night for dinner and finished the lot.

The recipe is adapted from one in The New York Times*, which in turn was adapted from a recipe in a cookbook by a legendary American food writer**, who most likely adapted it from something he ate in a restaurant in Provence***, which was probably invented by the grandmother of the restaurant owner****–who had passed it on to her daughter*****.

In other words it’s a version of a traditional seasonal gratin dish.

It can be eaten as a vegetarian main course as we did last night or as an accompaniment to a roast chicken or lamb chops–for instance.

for 4

1kilo/2 lbs of butternut squash–peeled, deseeded and cut into small chunks

4 cloves of garlic–peeled and chopped small

1 generous tablespoon of wholewheat breadcrumbs

1 generous tablespoon of parsley--chopped

1 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves

salt and pepper

3 tablespoons of olive oil

set the oven to 190C/375F

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and turn them over and over mixing them thoroughly together and remembering to season well with the salt and pepper.

Tip into a roasting tray or better still an earthenware ovenproof dish.

Roast in the middle of the oven, for about an hour and a half–(the time depends on the size of the chunks)–so it comes out nicely charred on top.

* Martha Rose Shulman

** Richard Olney–author of Simple French Food

***, ****, ***** All three names lost in the mists of time!

Read Full Post »

Cat Tales

Posted in other sides to this life, Robin Ellis, tagged , , on October 19, 2013| 41 Comments »

Five cats at the trough this morning.

Head cat, Pippa– (no messing!)

IMG_8658_2

Beau (always first in)…

IMG_2053

Ben (politely patient, knowing his place in the pecking order (low), tip-toes round the bowls.)

IMG_7333

and Lucien, who stomps around like a grumpy member of a fusty old London Men’s club finding his favourite chair is occupied by someone he’s never seen before and worse–a female.

On a dark night he does a good impression of “Bill Sykes“.

IMG_3912

Bill Sykes was never so cosy!

The “newcomer” is Blackie, who is gradually becoming an in-door cat after years of nervous coming and going pit stops–mostly out-doors.

IMG_8654

Blackie’s a cat with no tail but a lot of oomph.

IMG_9137

She has survived six or seven years in the relative wild–too nervous to put her head down indoors for longer than an hour or two.

Something is changing though–perhaps with age, sleeping rough every night through the seasons is losing its charm.

In summer she’d arrive for a quick snack with insect bites all round her eyes.

IMG_9515

It has been slow progress, but close encounters in the tomato patch have helped.

There’s a small bench there, perfect for an early morning cogitation/rumination, after a bit of weeding and watering.

This summer Blackie and I have spent some serious time together.

She appears from nowhere, entwines me in elaborate leg embraces, chatting away anxiously about something.

These early morning approaches have gradually calmed into more of a companiable, “Hi, how’s it going?” greeting, as she jumps lightly onto the bench beside me and nudges my arm.

This morning she “knocks” on the back door and enters at a pace, ate a little, jumps into her chair of choice and watches, unconcerned, as the others arrive.

IMG_9517

An indoor cat with rights like theirs.

We’ll see. The arrival of winter may settle it.

Later in the morning, I open the backdoor for Pippa; she’s off for her post-breakfast constitutional.

There below the step is Blackie, tucking into elevensies.

“Whoops!”

Pippa looks at Blackie for a long beat. She decides to lean forward and give her a nudging nose kiss. She then steps aside and down and saunters away.

Blackie enters and hops onto her favored chair and hunkers down again.

“Wow!” No Pippy hissy-fitting–things are changing round here.

A five cat household–oh my!

Read Full Post »

Courgette tortino

Posted in Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , on October 17, 2013| 11 Comments »

Another last “hurrah” for the courgette-zucchini!


IMG_8924

Two of the three I used for this dish came from our vegetable patch–even in mid-October the last surviving zucchini plant is turning out courgettes–and perfect specimens they are. Almost a pity to cook them!

However they made a light and creamy lunch!

IMG_9491

This is adapted from a recipe in the excellent Italian Vegetarian Cookery by Paola Gavin.

4 eggs

6 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves of garlic–peeled and chopped

1tbsp parsley–chopped

salt and pepper

3 medium courgettes/zucchini–passed through the thin slicer of a food processor.

1oz/25gm wholewheat breadcrumbs

1 oz/25gm parmesan–grated

Heat the oil in a large pan.

Add the garlic and parsley and cook, stirring, for less than a minute.

IMG_9481

Mix in the courgettes…

IMG_9483

and cook until they wilt and take on a bit of color.

IMG_9485

Turn off the heat and let them cool.

Tip the pan a little to drain off some of the oil.

Heat the oven to 190c/375f

IMG_9486

Break the eggs into a bowl and whisk.

Add the breadcrumbs and grated cheese and mix thoroughly.

Season well with salt and pepper.

Add the courgettes to the egg mixture and blend carefully.

IMG_9487

Oil an oven dish and pour in the mixture.

IMG_9489

Cook in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes.

It should be nicely browned on top; but check after 20 minutes–ovens vary and you don’t want to lose the creamy interior; inserting a knife through the top, will help you judge.

This was taken half-way through lunch!

IMG_9492

We had it with new season’s broccoli–lightly steamed.

A friendly meeting of summer and autumn.

Read Full Post »

Ginger and diabetes

Posted in Diabetes, Food, other sides to this life, Recipes, tagged , , on October 13, 2013| 30 Comments »

ginger-getty-590tm-220811

Meredith sat by the log fire last night, sipping a cup of ginger tea* wrapped in woolly jumpers and a blanket.

(*Peel and chop a small knob of ginger, put it in a cup or mug and fill the container with hot water. Let it infuse for a short time.)

IMG_9464

She is developing a cold–no doubt about it!

Today’s she’s in bed.

I bought more ginger this morning and there’ll be chicken broth “on tap”.

Ginger infused in hot water–just that–is delicious and good for relieving the symptoms of colds.

It can also has beneficial effects for people with diabetes.

The British Diabetic Association (Diabetes UK) recently published a piece extolling the virtues of ginger and its uses in connection with the condition:

Ginger can help with glycemic control, insulin secretion and cataract protection

Glycemic control

A study published in the August 2012 edition of the natural product journal Planta Medica suggested that ginger may improve long-term blood sugar control for people with type 2 diabetes.

Researchers from the University of Sydney, Australia, found that extracts from Buderim Ginger (Australian grown ginger) rich in gingerols – the major active component of ginger rhizome – can increase uptake of glucose into muscle cells without using insulin, and may therefore assist in the management of high blood sugar levels.

Insulin secretion

In the December 2009 issue of the European Journal of Pharmacology, researchers reported that two different ginger extracts, spissum and an oily extract, interact with serotonin receptors to reveres their effect on insulin secretion.

Treatment with the extracts led to a 35 per cent drop in blood glucose levels and a 10 per cent increase in plasma insulin levels.

Cataract protection

A study published in the August 2010 edition of Molecular Vision revealed that a small daily dose of ginger helped delay the onset and progression of cataracts – one of the sight-related complications of long-term diabetes – in diabetic rats.

It’s also worth noting that ginger has a very low glycemic index (GI). Low GI foods break down slowly to form glucose and therefore do not trigger a spike in blood sugar levels as high GI foods do.

Other health benefits

Ginger has been used as an herbal therapy in Chinese, Indian, and Arabic medicine for centuries to aid digestion, combat the common cold and relieve pain.

Its powerful anti-inflammatory substances, gingerols, make it an effective pain reliever and it is commonly used to reduce pain and swelling in patients with arthritis and those suffering from other inflammation and muscle complaints.

In fact, ginger is said to be just as effective as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, but without the gastro-intestinal side effects.

Other medical uses of ginger include treatment of:

  • Bronchitis

  • Heartburn

  • Menstrual pain

  • Nausea and vomiting

  • Upset stomach

  • Diarrhoea

  • Upper respiratory tract infections (URTI)

Update a day later:

The patient announces she slept better and would like some chicken broth and two eggs scrambled on toast for lunch followed by another infusion of GINGER.

“With pleasure, Madam!”

Read Full Post »

Hervé’s ancestors…

Posted in other sides to this life, tagged on October 11, 2013| 18 Comments »

I finish my walk this morning and begin stretching against the cemetery wall.

I see Hervé our neighbor in the cemetery with a hoe in his hand.

“Just attending to my ancestors before the rain,” he says.

By  November 1st–All Saints Day–the cemetery will be covered in flowers both artificial and fresh.

Chrysanthemums are prominently on display.

IMG_2860

Hervé is turning over the earth of the smaller of two plots–a narrow rectangle with a stone cross at its head.

IMG_9455

“My Grandfather,” he says “died in 1941. I was one year old.”

“And your father?”

He points to the adjacent plot which is twice the size and relatively more recent and has a granite tombstone at its head with clearly visible gold embossed lettering.

“Died 1941–I was two years old.”

“I seem to remember you telling me that he died in an accident…?”

“Yes–hit by a cow.”

“In those days,” he says, “people would go to market in Realmont [a distance of 12 kilometers] or even Albi–[25 kilometers] to buy their cow(s) and walk them back home. Took them the best part of a day.”

“My father had bought his cow for a daily supply of fresh milk–it was the second year of the war in France– and was walking it back to the hammeau [hamlet] when a lorry passed by too close, hurling the cow into my father and killing him. The cow survived. ” Hervé says.

His mother was left with seven children to bring up on her own.

“It was hard.”

Hervé is retired now from the bank in Castres where he spent his working life. He and his wife Maité, live in the house opposite the one in which he and his six siblings grew up.

“Strange isn’t it,” he says “So much less traffic on the roads those days than now and my father died in a traffic accident.”

“Ironique…” I say.

“Bonne continuation et dit “bonjour” a Maité.”

“Le meme a Meredith.”

He was right about the rain–coming down in sheets just before lunchtime.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »