It's Friday and the Cupboard is pretty bare
Tonight I'll be in Ballydehob Community Hall watching The Culchie & The Kiwi cooking up a storm. I had planned to make some of my Black Pudding Swirls to do something different on my table, but guess what, the Puff Pastry that I thought I had in my freezer isn't there, so I'll have to think of something different! A conundrum which sent me back to my cookbooks for inspiration. I'm still waiting! The White Pudding & Bacon Brioche isn't an option to me either as I have no eggs until later, and there's no cheese in the fridge! The basics I use on a regular basis are gone and one of the joys of living in rural Ireland is that I can't just take a run (literally) to the nearest shop.
These are the reasons that many of my recipes are either make ahead or use minimum ingredients for maximum flavour and goodness. Sometimes, like today, it's a challenge but Black and/or White Pudding Croutons were a case in point of necessity being the mother of invention: soon after we launched our pudding in December 2006, I needed to reheat some homemade soup for lunch before going shopping. In the house, there was enough soup for two - Willie & me - and two slices of bread to go with it. I'm in the kitchen preparing my list and heating the soup, when Willie appeared in the doorway with a cheery 'there's enough soup for one more, isn't there.' This was purely rhetorical and he and our visitor left me to figure out how to turn soup for two into soup for three. I couldn't even dress it up with grated cheese (none in the house that day either). So I grabbed the frying pan, one drop of oil, put it on the hottest flame, and cut some of our black pudding into croutons. As soon as the drop of oil started smoking, I tossed in the pudding and continued tossing until they were crispy all over. For the sake of form, although our pudding is low fat, I put the croutons onto a sheet of kitchen roll before putting a few in each bowl of soup just before serving. The remaining croutons I put in a bowl and placed on the table alongside the artfully sliced and arranged slices of bread. At the end of lunch, I had empty soup bowls; an empty crouton bowl; and the bread was still sitting there!
Until next time
Avril
These are the reasons that many of my recipes are either make ahead or use minimum ingredients for maximum flavour and goodness. Sometimes, like today, it's a challenge but Black and/or White Pudding Croutons were a case in point of necessity being the mother of invention: soon after we launched our pudding in December 2006, I needed to reheat some homemade soup for lunch before going shopping. In the house, there was enough soup for two - Willie & me - and two slices of bread to go with it. I'm in the kitchen preparing my list and heating the soup, when Willie appeared in the doorway with a cheery 'there's enough soup for one more, isn't there.' This was purely rhetorical and he and our visitor left me to figure out how to turn soup for two into soup for three. I couldn't even dress it up with grated cheese (none in the house that day either). So I grabbed the frying pan, one drop of oil, put it on the hottest flame, and cut some of our black pudding into croutons. As soon as the drop of oil started smoking, I tossed in the pudding and continued tossing until they were crispy all over. For the sake of form, although our pudding is low fat, I put the croutons onto a sheet of kitchen roll before putting a few in each bowl of soup just before serving. The remaining croutons I put in a bowl and placed on the table alongside the artfully sliced and arranged slices of bread. At the end of lunch, I had empty soup bowls; an empty crouton bowl; and the bread was still sitting there!
Until next time
Avril
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