Spoonie-Friendly Ingredients…
I need to simplify my life, particularly the amount of time I spend on my feet. My leg ulcer is out of control, bigger at every dressing change, and the pain is monstrous. Which means changing my kitchen habits.
This is also the reason why the cooking videos I promised have failed to materialise – unfortunately the process adds too much to the time I spend standing.
Among the mixed bag of crapulosity that’s pissing all over my life, losing the use of my right hand is a biggie.
No-one seems to know why with any degree of certainty. My guess is nerve damage from the thick end of 30 years leaning on a crutch, possibly compounded by reduced circulation caused by my calcified and stenotic aortic valve (lots of cramp in hands and feet seem to support this view**), and probably RSI from 20-odd years pounding on a computer keyboard.
**There are two tests which will show how advanced this condition is, one is dangerous (24% risk of stroke, which I’ve already refused), one safe. Guess which one APH insist on!
As you might have read in these pages, for some years I’ve been using polycarbonate crockery and “glasses” because the real stuff, especially earthenware, is either too heavy, or gets broken too often, or both. China is lighter, but more fragile.
The plates and bowls were originally part of my backpacking kit, promoted to the kitchen.
If I say so myself, this, the original version, is a great dish https://ronsrants.wordpress.com/2013/05/18/hake-with-judion-de-la-granja-paella-rice-and-tomatoes/
However, worsening disability requires a simplified version as the prep is just way too much work (and good hake is very hard to get hold of – we ship most of our catch to Spain), so that’s the task for this weekend, using Pollack.
Asda sells decent-quality skinless frozen Pollack fillets at £4 for a 900g bag, so I’ll be using some of that (you need a fish that’s not going to disintegrate in the stew, and I find that cheaper species, like Pollack or Coley, hold together reasonably well. Flavour is OK too – a tad more assertive than Hake, perhaps, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
This was originally inspired
Yesterday evening, hungry but, as is happening increasingly of late, with no desire to eat, I decided to do what I most love to do – of the things I can still do – and that’s create a new recipe on the fly, from what I can find more or less within arm’s reach.
This came about because I’d planned to have a couple of Continue reading
After much dithering and indecision I finally decided they were worth a try.
The indecision was mainly occasioned by the available storage space – i.e., sod all – so the machine had to be a compromise. No point in buying one so large I couldn’t put it away, or so small it was effectively useless.
Its main use is for making soup, particularly smooth soups and, after spending way too much time in the kitchen last week beating ingredients into submission with a blender, and pushing them through a sieve, the main results of which were Continue reading
For those missing out on the dubious joys of this informal series, it usually manifests itself as bottom-of-the-fridge soup. This is a tad different – a bottom-of-the-freezer recipe.
You’ll need:-
300g or so of Alaskan pollack, trimmed, pin-boned and Continue reading
First up, beware of Waitrose hake fillets (those in the white, plastic, bag). Why? Well they’re not bloody fillets for a start, just ratty scraps of fish glued together to look like fillets. They’re shit, they’ll bugger up this dish, but they’re all I’ve got.
So, Judion de la Granja, what the hell are they, I hear someone muttering in the cheap seats. They’re large, plump, Spanish butter beans. Except that the 2 kilos I have in stock turn out to be somewhat smaller than ordinary butter beans, but much plumper. Tastier too. Ah well… Continue reading
Not one I can lay claim to, but watching Christmas with Nigella, or whatever it was called, last night, she made the point that while she likes roasting, she hates scrubbing roasting tins, so uses disposable foil ones instead, and I thought, what a great idea for spoonies. Probably too late for this Christmas though.
So, where do we get them? Continue reading
Ron's Rants... 