Wednesday, 14 May 2014

BONES..

No, Dear Readers, I am not talking of hers or mine but 'Butchers' Bones'.

She has a charming friend, a very glamorous Lebanese, who is much too young to have grand children of over twenty. Their friendship is such that 'if you are passing and want tea or coffee, ring the bell'. 

Today she did that and was immediately swept into the cosy kitchen and offered "what do you want, have you eaten, etc, etc", I hope that you do know or have friends like this, because they are 'food for the soul' type of friends.

Yabba yabba, they always have lots to chat about but the reason she had gone to see her friend was to give her a sachet.

Myra had very sweetly previously given her a small packet of Lebanese Seven Spice, the packet had come in from a German Importer, when she rang them to see if she could get some, the price was very high.

This morning after taking Rebecca to school she jumped a bus to the market as she thought "Huh, I bet my guys in Fulham could get or might even have this stuff in stock" and off she went to see her Jordanian market friend.

"Absolutely, we have and sell this, what size packet are you looking for, ours is 50g and in a vacuum pack, it is 99p" he said. She took one for Myra (leaving the price label on it).

A quick trip into PoundWorld got her ten of their marvellous moth-proof clothes bags, such a great product.


Back on the bus, off at our stop, a very short walk and ting-a-ling on Myra's door bell.

She had her coffee, then produced the sachet saying "Lookie lookie, what I have found for you" and gave it to her friend, whose face was a study!

"Where did you find this, when can we go, do they have everything?" she said "yes" to everything and then mentioned the magic words "and also this marvellous grain called Freekeh".

This elicited a squeal of delight and a huge smile, Myra said "Oh, that is such a great memory of my childhood, I adore it, cooked with stock of any kind and with vegetables or meat or fish".

She was asked to stay for a late lunch but declined as there was still work to be done and last but not least, there was a small grey person waiting for her late lunch.

We had beef stock with our Freekeh, with slivers of Hamburg parsley, celeriac, dried barberries, two chopped cloves of garlic and some sumac spice.

Three cups of cold water to one and a half cups of Freekeh, gently to boil and left to simmer, two very lean pork loin chops were gently pan fried. Two steamed beetroots and a dollop potatoes, sliced into creme fraiche with just picked chives. 

What a magnificent lunch! You see what I mean, Dear Readers, about why I prefer eating Human food instead of dried seed and nuts aka Bird food.

I ate off the side of her plate, having several beak-fuls of everything, I am very partial to steamed beetroots, but am banned from being anywhere near the sitting room because there is a white carpet and yellow upholstery. (think about it!)

But it is those bones that really do it, you can, of course, cook Freekeh in plain water but with stock from beef, chicken, fish, lamb or pork bones it has the magical ability to unlock your jaw and for you to eat like a python! It is SO tasty.

We are having a little doze, much like a python would after eating, then she will go back and finish the sitting room, she is on the final furlong, the end is finally in sight. 

She will make his bed today, then all that has to be done is the dusting, which she will do early on Friday morning.

Back to my favourite subject.. Food.

Bones, Dear Readers, shame upon your butcher if he does not offer them for sale or give them to you when he has boned out a piece of meat for you and shame upon you if you buy your meat from an anonymous super market when there are great butchers to get 'proper' meat from.

Buy bones and make stock, reduce it, then freeze it in ice trays and keep them in a box or a bag so you can add them to your dishes. 

No: chemicals, false tastes, msg. Just proper food.

Slurp.

GeeGee Parrot.
May 13th, 2014.

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