Wednesday 15 August 2012

Roots And Shoots

roots bookRoots – because Bob picked this book up for £1 in a charity shop in Swaffham on Tuesday [Marion promptly borrowed it and used it to cook Rice And Peas for her weekend guests]

Shoots because Lucy went up to the coast with friends and returned with a bag of samphire shoots for us. [her friends also sent a couple of marrows from their garden]

NorfolkSamphire

Norfolk Samphire has been popular for centuries [even mentioned in King Lear!] The original name was ‘sampiere’ - a corruption of Saint Pierre. It is named for St Peter, patron saint of fisherman, because it grows along the rocky, salty coastal marshes.

Wash it, boil it for 1-2 minutes, then serve it with melted butter and pepper. ‘Poor man’s asparagus’, you eat the fleshy parts and discard the stalk.

We ate ours with some mussels [we’d found a reduced ‘vacpac’ in Lidl] and crusty bread.

You do end up with a huge bowl of shells and stalks tho!

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It took Bob just minutes to prepare the first course. It had taken me considerably longer to prepare the dessert.

Levi Root’s Coconut Rice Pudding – serves 6

  • 250g pudding [short grain] rice
  • 100g sugar
  • 750ml milk
  • 400ml can coconut milk
  • 4 tbsp double cream
  1. Put rice, sugar, milk in heavy bottomed pan, heat gently till milk is simmering.
  2. Simmer rice very gently, stirring occasionally, till thick and porridge like – about 30 minutes
  3. Remove from heat, stir in coconut milk. It will seem soppy but will firm up as it cools. [When cool, cover and put in fridge, if you want to serve it really chilled.]
  4. Stir in the cream, serve.

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I had half a can of coconut milk in the fridge, so made half the above quantities. As you can see, it makes a lot! The picture does not do justice to the amazing, rich, thick, creaminess of this pud. It served us four more-than-adequate portions. I’ll do this one again

[note- the hairy arms in the penultimate picture are Bob’s not mine!]

2 comments:

  1. I have a whole tin of coconut milk in the cupboard...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yum - coconut rice pudding - I think I will be making that in the very near future. I have sent a link to your blog to my Aunt she was with CMS in India and her children when to Hebron. Please accept a 'One Lovely Blog' award from me.

    ReplyDelete

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