Saturday 3 October 2009

Whoops - All Gone !


Chef's Perks. August's five pounder from the expedition North has been eaten. Cooked on a fire of Ulmus procera Salis, this little critter was gone in minutes. Less is more - plain boiled new potatoes and a simple salad with a dash of Hollandaise and a slug of white Burgundy for accompaniment. My memory's clogging up a little but I reckon it'd be around '84/'85 that I excused myself from a quiet pre-dinner drink and stepped into the kitchen to prepare a beef stroganoff for a few friends around for dinner at Diplo Hall. Finding myself alone with two pounds of the most beautiful Hereford fillet, resting at room temperature, a pint of cream, half a dozen plump field mushrooms picked that morning, some delicate spanish onions, a basket of fresh spinach and a fine bottle of Cote de Rhone I got a bit carried away. It was perhaps half an hour later that an anxious, hungry and concerned guest came to join me and check on progress. Alas he was too late. Without so much as firing up the stove or touching a kitchen utensil, the lot was gone - I did my best impression of a puppy that'd been caught eating the furniture but to no avail. All's well that reaches the finish line etc and much Weetabix was enjoyed by all. As you can see there's enough fish left here to go around. MORE APPETISERS !

6 comments:

Toby Savage said...

I fully understand. The natural and obvious thing to do.

Peter Ashley said...

Glad you left the eyes, they'll see me through the week.

Diplomate said...

Peter - if you're going to trot that one out every time a fish appears I'm going to stick to eating meat and fat.

Peter Ashley said...

Sorry.

Rupert Paul said...

Assuming you could solve the inevitable problems of storage and time travel, what would be the best way to cook an Iguanadon? I'm particularly torn over whether to leave the giblets in.

Diplomate said...

not to sure about Iguanadon giblets - I seem to remember a regular treatment with Monitor Lizards involved gralloching the beast and grinding up the giblets complete with intestine and stomach contents into a paste which was served as a dip for chunks of fresh baked damper bread - sort of outback gentleman's relish.MORE GIBLET !