Dating someone who escaped an abusive relationship is sometimes heartbreakingly funny. Today we were chopping veggies for pasta and she turned around and said quite aggressively “I CHOP MY VEGGIES TOO SMALL. I KNOW. I’M A CHILD.”
And I’m just looking at this bowl of veggies chopped to the perfect size for enjoyable veggie pasta consumption going “oh he was weird about veggie size huh? And he bullied you about it didn’t he.”
Anyway we had a little reassurance session about how she may eat her veggies however she likes because it’s her damn food and also, coincidentally, I think that’s the perfect veggie size for pasta.
No real point to this post apart from, I’m glad that waste of oxygen is far away from both of us. And hit me up if you want the recipe for really really really good veggie pasta with cream and prosciutto.
Supermarkets Hate This One Weird Trick: Using The Secrets Of Our Ancestors To Harness The True Potential Of What We Eat
Or; Tatt talks about stews.
Cost of living crisis being what it is, I've been thinking about cheap cooking a lot recently, and I wanted to share my absolute best technique for making a Lot of food out of some cheap meat. Stews are great because you maximise the flavour of the meat but don't actually need that much protein, and it works best on cheaper cuts of meat. This is probably pretty obvious to many people, but I was never taught this in school so maybe others weren't either.
I have a bunch of recipes that are made like this (french onion lamb stew, chicken cacciatore, lentil and chorizo soup), but the recipe below isn't for any one of these, it's more a template to follow with whatever you have to hand.
Anyway, recipe(kind of) below cut:
You can make a good stew with basically any combination of ingredients, as long as you have some from each category:
Protein
Get a cheaper nastier cut with a lot of connective fibre, something that can stand up to stewing. I like chicken thighs for a faster meal, or something like chuck roast/gravy steak if you can let it all cook for a few hours. If you have any spare bacon that can add a lot of flavour too. You can even use sausages if you're extra sneaky - just don't stew them, add them back right at the end when you're about to serve.
Veg
Onions are the essential vegetable. I love onions. I'd also add some combination of garlic, celery, carrots, parsnip, corn, tomatoes, peas, olives etc, depending on what the vibe of the dish is and what you have on hand. Tinned is great for these purposes. Chop it all up small-ish.
Liquid
Water will work, but for the best flavour add stock or booze. Red wine is traditional with red meat, white wine with white meat. Brandy can be good here too. Stock cubes/powder are fine, we're not cooking for Gordon Ramsay. Sauces (soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce), vinegars or even fruit juice can also jazz up some plain water.
Bulk
The forgotten category. This is what makes your meal filling and hearty. There's a lot of options here, but I really like dried red lentils because they're super easy to work with, absorb flavours and keep forever on the shelf. Beans or grains like barley are also a good choice.
(potentially optional) Seasonings
Depending on what you've added already you may not need any extra flavour (if you've gone heavy on the sauces, for instance) but salt and pepper are good basics, and fresh or dried herbs or spices are good too. One of my favourite little extras is preserved lemon, which I make myself at home.
Method
Heat pan. Add a little oil. Place meat in pan, leave it alone until it un-sticks voluntarily, turn it to another side, repeat. Don't worry if it's not cooked through, we'll get back to that later. Right now we're building up a layer of gunk on the bottom of the pan.
Add more oil, then add onion and whatever other veg you're using here. My basic rule of thumb is if it's fairly dry (eg onions, garlic, carrots, parsnip) then it should be added now. If it's wet and/or needs less cooking (tinned tomatoes, tinned corn, olives) add it later. Fry it in the gunk. Your dried spices go in now too, but don't leave them dry for too long or they'll go bitter.
Pour in liquid and scrape the gunk off the bottom of the pan into the liquid. This is called deglazing. Add your meat back in, any wet veg, your bulk (the more dried bulk you add, the more liquid you'll need to add so it can be absorbed), and any fresh herbs. Cook for a while, I'd say 20-ish minutes minimum. Basically until your meat is nice and tender.
And there you go. You can make a massive MASSIVE pot of this and freeze most of it. Give a pot to your mate who's struggling to pay bills. Club together with that mate to both chip in for a mega bulk bag of onions, a bulk pack of lentils, and the cheapest meat you can find, and each make something different, then swap some containers. Two meals for the effort of one!
This obviously isn't the cheapest meal in the world, nor is it the fastest or the easiest. But it is pretty cheap and easy, and the more you make it, the cheaper and easier it becomes. You'll get faster at chopping onions, you'll learn some good flavour combinations, and you'll build up a collection of ingredients little by little. Soon you'll already have a half-used bag of dried lentils, a tin of oil, some jars of spices and sauces, some tins of tomatoes or chickpeas you bought when they were on special at the shops... Once you've got your pantry set up for this kind of cooking, the only thing you'll need to buy is some meat, and maybe a few carrots or a bottle of wine.
Basil will walk up to me and ask to be tucked under an arm. He’ll hover politely until I get the message and raise my arm for him to slide under. He is the BEST cat.
I have recently discovered that my beloved has been taking photos of me when I was asleep because I "look cute". This makes me feel a lot better about taking photos of her when she's asleep because she looks cute.
This is a 28x70” crazy patchwork shawl, mostly velvet scraps I inherited from my grandmother. I bought very little for this, and used backing fabric and embroidery thread from my stash.
It’s very hard to photograph nicely, especially in indoor light - the velvet and occasional satins don’t play nicely together, and I think the colours look better in real life. I’ll try to get some better photographs in natural light when I’ve sewn down the last pieces and bound the edges.
It’s quite imperfect - some pieces are wrinkled, there’s small gaps, my stitching is uneven. But I really don’t mind, I still love it and I think it matches the slightly hectic mood of the garment. And ultimately I did this project entirely for my own amusement, not to impress anyone or for a specific event. I had so much fun making it, and I can’t wait to wear it with the green dress I made years ago.
Hi! On my poll about folktales where tears turn to pearls you mention knowing a Greek story about twins whose tears turn to pearls and who spawn poppies where they walk. Would you happen to know where I could find it? My first search came up empty and I'd love to read it!
To be honest, the only place I've ever seen it is a small, battered book of Greek fairy tales on my aunt's bookshelf. I have no idea if it's genuinely Greek or a confection made up by an English publisher, and I have no idea where it fits into the greater scheme of Greek fairy stories, although I've seen some vague chatter online that some elements align with an Arabic fairytale, possibly from the 1001 nights.
I've texted my aunt to ask her about it, if she has any ideas I'll let you know!
