Crumbles!

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drmoss_ca
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Crumbles!

Post by drmoss_ca »

This morning I have done a couple of things whilst dealing with realtors and lawyers (it seems my dearly beloved has bought a property which floods into the basement. The seller, the realtor and the home inspector didn't quite notice.....)

Obviously, we need some comfort food. So two things to report, one of which is a vegetable side dish, and the other a dessert. There is a splendid Lebanese pizza and fish & chip joint in Pugwash (extra points for all who remember Captain Pugwash). So as one does, occasionally we rely on their cooking rather than their own. Last night it was offered that the Boss might buy a "family pack" on the way home, and one acquiesced, as one does. Turns out she ate most of the chips in the twenty minute drive to Tatamagouche, but what can one say? Such things happen the best regulated families. So fish and a remarkably few chips were eaten last night. The consequence unknown to you poor onlookers of my disastrous life, is that a 'family pack' means about eight bits of fried fish, but only enough chips for two portions. So what shall I do with the wreckage in the second fridge? There's fish aplenty, but what will go alongside it?

So, this paragraph contains the first piece of knowledge that may benefit others. Needing some vegetables to go with the fish, and knowing that the local supermarket (I'll be completely honest: Foodland supermarkets are a subsidiary of the Sobey's supermarkets run by the hated Sobey family. They are hated as every single frickin' vegetable and fruit sold in Foodland could only be sold in the 'ENJOY TONIGHT: 50% OFF" bins of an actual Sobey's store. We get shit. You don't buy anything outside a can you don't want to cook on the spot. Maybe best before leaving the parking lot. I really hate Frank Sobey and his evil descendants) will be unable to provide any fresh produce, I used a spaghetti squash. Yes, fried fish is orangey-brown, and the chips are yellow, so why the hell would one choose yellow spaghetti squash? It's what I had. Sometimes cooking is about making the best of what you have. So let's prepare it. Few people know that spaghetti squash has the ribbons of vegetable matter arranged around the long axis. So cut it into 1" rings, and bake in a 400º oven for 40 minutes. When cool, use a fork to scrape out the stringy flesh from the skin, and having done that add some black pepper, salt, nutmeg (yes! Really, just a pinch) and a good chunk of butter. Just before serving, throw in a good handful of flat leaf parsley (aka Sicilian parsley) and that will salve the colour monotony problem. Mix it all up and thank me later.

So, the oven was still hot and I had a little energy left. I knew there were some elderly strawberries in the fridge, and the boss had come home with a dozen lovely peaches. This is the right time of the year for peaches, delicious fresh and certainly capable of supplying the filling for a pie or a crumble. Let's take a 9x9" oven dish, and slice about four or five peaches into it. Then add the strawberries, sliced into quarters. Add two or three tablespoons of sugar and press the result down into a sweet and fruity mess:

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Then we take two cups of rolled oats (not instant, steel cut or any other kind, just the whole rolled grains) and mix then with a cup of brown sugar and half a cup of butter or oil, and we mix them together rather intimately and spread them on top of the fruit:

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Now we should bake the dish at 400º for about forty minutes, at which point it looks like this:

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and this can be served with custard. Having been brought up on Bird's Custard, known to the French as crème anglaise, I have to say that the instant custard sold in the UK these days (recognise it by the fact you are supposed to add boiling water and nothing else) is far too yellow, and far too sweet. Use the stuff in a large tin, add milk and about 2/3 the sugar suggested, bring to a boil and cool immediately. This will turn out as remembered, though you might get to the same point with cornflour, milk, sugar and an egg yolk. At this point it may not matter that one's new basement floods in the rain, and there are lawyers to deal with. Food is what matters most, and good food can be made almost anywhere with very little knowledge, skill or experience. Just a small effort and all will seem better.
"Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
Pierre-Simon de Laplace
EL Alamein
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Re: Crumbles!

Post by EL Alamein »

You gotta do what you gotta do. Looks delicious, by the way.

Nice burners you've got there.

Chris
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Re: Crumbles!

Post by brothers »

I couldn't make it but I would darn sure eat it!
Gary

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drmoss_ca
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Re: Crumbles!

Post by drmoss_ca »

EL Alamein wrote: Thu Sep 05, 2019 6:52 pm You gotta do what you gotta do. Looks delicious, by the way.

Nice burners you've got there.

Chris
Disgraceful, aren't they? The problem is I know this oven well by now, and how long things take. I'm going to have to get used to a new oven in the other house, should it be ready in my lifetime, though I'll cope happily with having an induction cooktop.
"Je n'ai pas besoin de cette hypothèse."
Pierre-Simon de Laplace
EL Alamein
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Re: Crumbles!

Post by EL Alamein »

My first thought was "How old is that range?" I haven't seen burners like that in decades.

I can definitely relate to dealing with a known oven, I do it too. Even though ours was new 14 years ago age has set in and the engineering of obsolescence has taken over.

Meanwhile my mother's 50 year old electric range marches on (burner's only at this stage as she's forsworn cooking in the oven anymore due to her age).

In the end nice work dealing with it and producing scrumptious goodies in the process.

Good luck with the new house and it's kitchen.

Chris
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