Wednesday, February 12, 2014

I'm sure you're right, Cat. I've got Just One More Row syndrome – and that nice young man has probably never heard of it, for all his modern medical education.

Here's the current state of the Unst Bridal Shawl centre, now half-way through repeat no. 4. Or maybe not. The simplest thing seems to defeat me – I can't figure out how to download it. I'll have to work on that.

Unfond as I am of Olympics, I am tempted by this Dale book of their official Olympic sweater patterns, '56 – '10. I'll probably resist – but then again it might make a nice addition to the Norwegian Sweater section.

And here's a funny one for you, still Olympic-themed, from Esquire. They don't know the difference between knitting and crochet, but that's common enough. It's still funny.

Non-knit

I remember the New Yorker with the Pope making a snow angel on the cover – it ought still to be here, and I ought to be able to find it (and read the story). Thanks.

The only other thing I can think to tell you about is a cookery tip.

I made a nice little sauce the other day where you roast some peppers and some garlic, peel them, process them together, add oil and vinegar. Roasting and peeling peppers is easy – when you take them out of the oven or out from under the grill, put them in a bowl and cover with cling film They collapse, and the skin lifts off effortlessly once they're cool. If you're new to this, I would suggest leaving them in the oven or under the grill a little bit longer than you might think necessary, so that they have quite a few black spots.

The difficulty is then getting rid of the seeds. You're not allowed to hold them under the tap, because that would wash away all the delicious roast pepper juice. It's a slow and messy job.


My tip, which I tried yesterday, is to remove the seeds first. I cut out the stem (leaving the peppers whole) and removed the seed plug and then cleaned inside. There didn't seem to be any reason not to hold them under the tap at that point, before they'd been roasted, so I did. It worked a treat Pretty obvious, but I've never seen a recipe-writer suggest it. Now will Claudia Roden come along and tell me that roasting peppers with the seeds inside is essential for subtlety of flavour?

5 comments:

  1. Glad to hear the Doc had a simple suggestion for the root of your nausea. I had something similar a couple of years ago - ongoing nausea; slightly odd bloods - and ended up having other investigations too (endoscopy, ultrasound etc). All seemed to be fine. In the end I worked it all out myself, when I started taking my antihistamines again and the nausea returned immediately. It took a couple of weeks to wear off - too bad my GP (who had prescribed said drugs) didn't think about it herself, or we might have avoided all those tests...!

    So, good luck with the new regime. Are you watching any of the Sochi games? I find a lot of the skiing/snowboarding a bit dull, even though it ought to be exciting. But it's the curling that gets me - it's slow and ought to be boring, but it's not!! Come on Scotland, I mean team GB!!

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  2. I have rinsed under the tap after roasting, never having been warned against it. This summer I'll try your tip!

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  3. I meant to comment yesterday and say how glad I was to hear that your feeling of unwellness might be solved by simply taking away the med you were on. I clicked on the link to the Dale book and got quite the surprise. The only Dale sweater I have ever knit is the one featured on the cover!

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  4. Gerri2:55 PM

    Well, if you liked the way it tasted and felt happy not to deal with those seeds after the roasting, who cares what Claudia Roden has to say on the matter?

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  5. The sauce sounds delish. What did you use it on?

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