Feast!

There has been some good eating this weekend.

I made scones. Without a doubt one of the finest simple pleasures, eating one with jam and cream. Or with cream and lemon curd which also works very well.

Yesterday I went to a barbeque / bonfire in Todmorden. Hywel had brought skewered pepper and haddock pieces. The fish had been brushed with lemon juice, olive oil and crushed coriander seeds. How deliciously simple. Amy had brought some of her home-made haw blossom wine, which was a delicate pale pink and tasted a bit like rose. That was a joyful sip or two. I had brought some halloumi cheese as my contribution and then I wondered how well paneer- which holds its shape quite well- would take to being barbequed. It would have to be marinaded first of course. Amy said she had made her own paneer. We talked about making our own tofu. I omitted to tell her what a disaster mine had turned out, but failed to tell her that I tried to make it from scratch i.e. from soya bean. It was so laborious that by the time I had soya milk I was fed up.

Then today there was a feast to close the Manchester International Festival 2009. Five mini-courses all under one tent. Course 1 was a cold almond and garlic soup, a bit like a white gazpacho. Course 2 was some Rogan Chicken - basically a curry. Course 2 was Szechuan boiled pork dumplings, which, the programme said, had been boiled thrice. I speculated it might be to get as much of the starch out of the covering as possible, leaving it with a springy chewy texture. They came with a lovely dipping sauce of soy, garlic, chilli with sesame seeds floating in it. This was easily the tastiest thing, or maybe because it was what I was least likely to have tasted. Course 4 was Reggae Reggae Chicken, and I was surprised to find cardomom and rotli with what was supposed to be a Caribbean dish. Then my accomplice suggested that courses 2 and 4 got swapped round. Course 5 was a summer pudding with Chantilly cream. I know they used brown bread in the pudding because its bran content makes it sweeter than white bread, but I didn't really like that.

Anyway, it's given me some ideas, that's the main thing.