Harmony was a Hairspray

I was a mod once. It lasted about 6 weeks. I had the jacket, the make-up, the glaiket expression.  I listened to The Jam, The Who and early reggae. I wore badges with Quadraphenia and bullseyes, curled my lip and looked downwards at all times.   I cut my hair to resemble a chipmunk.   Smiling was out, sulking was in.   My twin sister decided, at the same time, to become punk-like.  She cut of her hair except for the huge spike that fell over her eyeballs, vision being secondary to fashion and trend.   Who knows what she listened to, I sure wasn't interested.   She donned a deliberately dumb stare and I a glazed one. 

We shared a room.  

Harmony was a hairspray; it only existed as a fine mist, making tangled angles out of hair teased to stick straight out or flattened to your skull, the cloud of residue leaving you with a persistent cough and damage to the ozone layer.  

 Channelling my inner mod.....maybe a little young still.

We ate stovies with corned beef, mince and tatties, beanfeast.   My mum was progressive; she liked to experiment.   The main success was mince curry, using leftover mince, spices and rice.   We felt sophisticated, eating noodles or pasta before every household had them as staples.   I tried to experiment and would spend hours in the kitchen, determined to make a nice meal for everyone and coming up with a bowlful of mush, not fit for the poor, poor cat.   I was a terrible cook.

Back then, I thought the more ingredients you put into a dish, the better.   It never really worked out that well.   To this day, I see a recipe with three ingredients and my first thought is "how could that taste as delicious as they say?".   Luckily, experience is a wonderful thing.   I realise that simplicity, in all it's form, is usually the most effective way of getting a wonderful plate of something scrumptious.   And it's cheap too.   What more could a tight, Scottish, thrifty shopper ask for?   Free food?  Free booze  World peace?  

So, in honour of that, here are a few recipes I made last week that are limited in ingredients, time and cost but bursting with taste.   Or so I / we think anyway.

Pasta Fromage with écrimage croustillant....aye, hen, we know it's mac n' cheese!

 

 Macaroni Cheese

Ingredients for 6:

Approx.  50g of pasta per person or more if you prefer

A large knob of butter

Tablespoon of plain flour

Milk

Grated cheddar cheese, four big handfuls

Actual measurements really don't matter in this recipe, don't be alarmed!   

Boil a large pan of boiling, salted water and thrown in your macaroni or pasta of choice.   The only pasta that doesn't go with this, in my opinion, is spaghetti or strand type pastas.   Leave to boil for the recommended time, usually around 10 minutes.   The sauce will take no more than this to make.

Place the butter into a pan and melt over a medium heat.   Once completely melted and starting to froth, add the tablespoon of flour and start to stir.   It will froth and change colour.   Keep stirring for a minute then, with your free hand, add a splash of milk.   Don't stop with the wooden spoon though.   If you have to use your free hand to hold the handle of the pot, don't worry.   Stop stirring, add the milk and then start stirring again.   The roux (lumpy mixture) will feel thicker as it all comes together in a lumpy paste.   This is fine.   Add another wee drop of milk and stir vigorously.  It will stay lumpy until about the fourth or fifth drop of milk and start to resemble a sauce.   Just keep stirring, stirring, stirring......   

Keep adding milk until you have a white sauce of a fairly thick, creamy consistency, like double cream.   It shouldn't be too much though as the simmering will thicken it up as will the cheese.   Once you are happy with your consistency, turn the heat down and let it simmer very gently  for a minute.   Then add the cheese a handful at a time and stir until it has melted into the sauce.   You can turn the heat up a bit if it is taking too long.   Once all the cheese has been incorporated, simmer gently for another minute and that is your basic cheese sauce.

Below are the optional ingredients including seasoning:

Freshly grated nutmeg

White ground pepper

Pinch of salt

1-2 slices of bread blended with a handful of cheddar cheese to make breadcrumbs

Tablespoon Parmesan grated (optional)

A sprig of thyme (optional)

 

I always add a good grating of nutmeg and a few shakes of the white pepper to my sauce.   Taste it first before adding salt as different cheeses have different salt levels.   I always use unsalted butter so tend to need a pinch.   Drain pasta and pour into cheese sauce, not the other way around.   If your cheese sauce pot is too small then add some of the pasta to the cheese sauce then pour that back into the rest of the pasta and mix well.

If making a crusty topping, I blend bread slices with a handful of cheddar.   I mix in a few leaves from a sprig of thyme which is probably entirely unnecessary but I love the taste nonetheless and sprinkle it on top of the mac and cheese which has been placed into an ovenproof dish.   I sometimes add a tablespoon of Parmesan but since I'm advocating less is more, forget about it!   Bake in a medium to hot oven until top is golden brown.   Watch happy faces devour the entire tray.

 

Use the sauce to cover cauliflower, potatoes...great if thinly sliced, covered in the cheese sauce and topped with the crust and baked in a hot oven....nachos, bread or dough balls.

Chicken Cous Cous

Ingredients for 6:

Cooked chicken, leftover or breast/thigh etc.  Approx. 1oz per person.

Cous Cous

Chicken stock

Spring Onion x 2

Cucumber

Cook the cous cous as per requirement on packet: I place a knob of butter into a pan, add 5oz cous cous, stir and cook over a gentle heat for a minute and then add 5oz chicken stock, stir and take off heat.   Leave it for five minutes to soak up the stock and then place back on heat, stirring for a minute or two.   Take back off the heat.   I like to add a squeeze of lemon and a little freshly ground black pepper.

Chop the chicken, season and add to the cous cous.   Chop the spring onions finely and dice the cucumber, adding both to the cous cous.   You could add a few, thin slices of red chilli if you like it with a bit of heat; I like to add this to the chicken stock to infuse and soften.

Serve up hot or cold.

 

Spaghetti with smoked salmon

Creamy Spaghetti with Smoked Salmon

Ingredients for 2 or one greedy person like me:

Spaghetti

Small onion, finely chopped

Olive oil

1 garlic clove, finely sliced (optional)

Handful chopped smoked salmon

Tablespoon cream

Boil spaghetti as per normal.   Cook onion in olive oil; do not brown, stir gently from time to time, adding a tiny drop of water if the onions are cooking too fast.   Add garlic when onions are almost soft.   Cook for a further minute over a low heat and add the tablespoon of cream and smoked salmon.   immediately take of the heat.   Add cooked and drained spaghetti to sauce pan and if you happen to have a handy lemon quarter, squeeze it all over and then mix/toss well.   If you prefer it a bit richer, add a few cubes of cold, unsalted butter and leave to melt.   Grind a lot of black pepper over dish.   Place in bowl and, safe in the knowledge that no-one will want any because they don't like smoked salmon, eat in front of the tv until gone.

Tea in the House

I arose on Saturday morning incredibly early after only a few hours sleep to catch the train to the bus station. I met Graeme, my friend who was coming with me and we caught the T in the Park bus to Balado, an abandoned airstrip near Kinross and Perth. By the looks of some of the passengers, the party had obviously started early, possibly from the night before, with vast quantities of alcohol being consumed...this was the 9am bus...not by me of course, I'm beyond such revelling...but it was fun to watch the carry-on and listen to the spontaneous sing song that broke out now and then and the cheer when the bus pulled into our destination.

We were met by hundreds, if not thousands of people littering the area outside T in the Park with beer bottles, rucksacks, boxes of wine, discarded wellies and themselves. It looked like many had camped there from the Friday night, no doubt waiting for their weekend tickets to become eligible, waiting for friends or trying to buy a ticket from passers by or touts.

We entered through the hospitality entrance, thanks to the wonderful Mairi and Gary who had got me the tickets and entered a nice, quiet field with a huge bar, enormous T in the Park chair (think Alice in Wonderland size) and clean toilets. Relief. The field was filling up by early afternoon but the bar remained accessible, we could always find a seat and the music coming from behind the giant sized radio was excellent leading the entire filed to break out into spontaneous song, particularly when Sweet Caroline was played!

After burger and chips and a pint of Tennent's lager (mines was a shandy!) in the Balado Bar and Lounge...it has to be the first meal at a festival...we entered the main area and explored. It was a sight to behold; there was an amazing flag art installation which looked just brilliant blowing in the wind, a huge blue Toblerone pointed stage tent which turned out to be King Tuts Wah Wah Hut and hundreds of other food, drink and music emporiums which made Balado Airfield Scotland's fifth largest city for that weekend.

The sun shone beautifully and all the girls rocked the Kate Moss look: a multitude of welly designs, mainly Hunter (the kind the Queen wears) with the shortest of skirts or shorts, tanned legs and quirky make-up. The lads were in a variety of cheeky t-shirts, costumes and dresses...yes, dresses. There is something about the British male that just loves any excuse to dress up in as feminine a way as possible. They all appeared so comfortable, especially the crazy guy in the fur coat, apron, fishnets, blonde wig, eyeliner and huge sunglasses.

I never got his name but along with his friend the fireman, they were the funniest double act of the festival. They plonked down beside us and regaled us with tales of their disaffected relationship and encounters at T in the Park. Their long suffering friend Heather was glad of a reprieve and after apologising for leaving them with me, danced away to The Ting Tings...which we missed most of, listening to their patter instead...but I laughed so much, it was worth it. The fireman told us that the day before he was dressed as Peter Pan and how he got really annoyed that people kept mixing him up with Robin Hood; he pointed to his sword and asked them all "Does that look like a bleedin' bow and arrow?".

We saw a succession of amazing acts but in some ways (many will disagree), the best was Bjorn Again, a tribute Abba band who started off the Saturday by getting the entire audience to it's feet, singing and dancing. Whoever booked them deserves a medal...ingenious. It got everyone ready for more. The best act of all however, amongst a lot of great acts, was Seasick Steve...."I'm lyin' there in the glass, in the GLASS, in the grass". He was funny, self-deprecating and talented..."see this? (holding up a guitar with three strings).."this is a three stringed piece of s%^&" and then began to play it beautifully, then did the same thing with an an actual stick with one string.

I was delighted to see Squeeze play and hearing them sing the classic 'Up the Junction' live was a highlight of the weekend. Paolo Nutini and Elbow were really good of course although the lead singer of Elbow was talking rather a lot of mince to cries of "sing already, ya numpty!" and Lady Gaga left me perplexed. A huge crowd descended on the NME stage to watch Lily Allen but the sound was awful (not due to her singing) and we left after a short while.

On Sunday night, Snow Patrol were delayed because the Blur singer was rushed to hospital but yet managed to be ok in time to come on stage late. We saw some of Snow Patrol but missed Blur as we had to get the bus home but I'm guessing he may have gotten a hard time from the crowd as many did not believe the story being fed.

But enough of the music...this is a food blog after all. If I had to score the food I'd give it ten out of ten. I think there may have been a problem with the noodles from a particular establishment however as the entire festival site became Noodle City; noodles littered everywhere, as far as the eye could see. Apart from the usual festival grub of burgers, fish and chips, falafel, chinese food and donuts there was Healthy T; they served homemade stovies, porridge, hog roasts, fresh seafood from Loch Fyne, smoked-in-front-of-your-eyes kippers from Spinks, sushi, stone baked pizza, noodles and freshly cooked pasta, to name but a few.

After our burger and chips and several performances, we headed over to Healthy T for some good Scottish fayre. I started with Cullen Skink, a fish and potato soup and then a salmon roll: freshly cooked pink salmon in a wholewheat bun with falafel mayonnaise and salad leaves in a lovely dressing. Truly delicious. Graeme went for the stovies which they inexplicably served with beetroot and oatcakes...we think because they'd bought plates with three sections and for no other reason...but Graeme said it was good. As the weekend progressed, I had a hog roast roll with crackling and mustard...wish I'd seen the apple sauce first...a smoked kipper, spring rolls and donuts with milk chocolate dipping sauce. This weekend was worth it for the food alone.

Now that I'm home, all I crave is a cup of tea in the house, the Sunday Papers and a lazy day. All have been provided, along with bacon rolls and a small antipasti for lunch. Thank you, husband.

Drive by posting...

...because I'm going out to see a band, have a few drinks and enjoy the setting sun. I made roast chicken for the kids tonight, along with rice, roast potatoes, roast carrots and steamed green beans. I did not partake of the chicken however, oh no...I instead opted for a lovely undyed smoked haddock fillet, smothered in pesto (got lots to use up!) with a medley (ooh, get me!) of salad vegetables, fresh leaves, rice and a pesto dressing. I've taken pictures to prove it!

Picture and recipe posting to follow....I know my friend Agnes was looking for a fish recipe from me so this might be the one although lemon sole works better.

I finally shopped today having not needed to because of the weekend's festivities and the remaining food. I spent £36.79 today and that included, along side dinner, lots of fruit, salad, juice, ice lollies (Skinny Cow triple chocolate lollies, 90 odd calories per bar......mmmmmmmmmm), mousse, yoghurt and nutella.

Have a wonderful Friday night!