It was one of those nights. The neighbour had promised me lemons for lemon honey and cordial and so I popped in only to find that they had some friends staying.
Well one drink led to another drink and the husband was called to come from home and join every one for dinner. Homemade vegetable soup, which had been bubbling away on top of the wood burner, followed by vegetarian lasagne. I must admit I looked at the makings of the lasagne, which I spotted on the top of the stove when I arrived, didn’t look very attractive but I was proved wrong. The flavours were wonderful layered and intense and when I got home I asked the husband if he had liked it. He had two helpings. And he had no idea that there was no meat in it. The top was covered with loads of stringy mozzarella cheese which I find has little taste without being mixed with other cheeses but texturally it is wonderful and the strings always cause some merriment when the dish is served.
I had asked the husband to bring down the left over meat pie we had had the night before but it looked rather paltry when he arrived so I popped it into the back of their fridge. I will rescue it when I pop down later to deliver some cordial this morning.
A few weeks ago I stayed the night with the daughter before travelling on one of those hideously early flight to Australia to visit the grand children and their parent. I took one of those mysterious cooked Chinese ducks that you see hanging in the window of the local Chinese restaurants. They look so glossy, ebony in fact, rather like the polished woodwork on a boat. But the heads being left on make then look rather as if they have been lying on the road for too long. Somehow, when the duck is stuffed into a white crinkly plastic bag with no protection from dust and germs, the whole exercise becomes even more foreign. But I have never managed to cook a duck that has tasted so exotic as this is such a wonderful excuse to have the experience at home without the hassel.
Anyway I digress. That evening we tore of the chunks of grey flesh into bite size pieces and chopped up some of the skin to make an avocado, melon and spring onion salad with my secret Asian dressing. This dressing is so good that I used to make it at Christmas as give it away as part of a little hamper of homemade goodies.
I insisted that the daughter put the carcass in the freezer for me so that I could take it home when I returned from Australia. So, after considerable nagging to get the ‘thing’ out of the freezer, I took the creature home a couple of weeks later. I simmered it for two hours with lots of soy sauce, spring onions, ginger, a little palm sugar and a diced carrot and of course water to cover. After the beast had cooled I stripped off the remaining meat, of which there was surprisingly a lot, sliced the skin finely, put the liquid back on the stove to reduce by half and then poured the flesh. I left this to cool and then put it in the fridge for the fat the solidify. The next morning I skimmed of the layer of rich yellow fat, to be used later in the week for roast potatoes. I have been enjoyed the rich duck soup for lunch for the last two days. It is dark, velverty and comforting and a testament to not wasting anything.
My mother had a thing about chicken carcasses. Before she died or rather before Alzheimer’s crippled her capacity to function as the inelegant, vibrant and wonderful human we remember her as, the only dish she could make was Chicken and Asparagus. A concoction, with her diminished mental capacity, became a wonder to behold and somewhat scary. As Mother made this offering quite often there was the resultant quandary as to what to do with the left over carcasses. It was inevitable that these offering were prepared on a Friday and the rubbish was collected on the following Thursday and then there was also the problem of flies and smell. So the darling put them in plastic bags and when I went to clean out the flat, when I moved her into a more supervised care environment ,I found twenty three of the little gems wrapped up in white plastic shrouds stuffed in her little fridge freezer.
I will write more about my mother and Alzheimer’s in a blog of its own as I feel that this is not only warranted but could take time and thought to get across the true meaning and value that she added to so many lives.
vegetarian lasagne
meat pie
avocado, melon and spring onion salad
secret Asian dressing
Chicken and Asparagus
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