h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yoo hoo Shazz, i seem to feel a sense of déja vu here!

I am about to inherit a load of green tomatoes, so am embarking on the chutney. I doubt very much that the froggies have heard of pickling spice, their version of chutney is so bland you could wean babies on it! (Grown men faint at the smell of Branston!) So, to make my own, what would you recommend? I have cloves & cinnamon sticks, nutmeg etc.

What do you reckon to throwing in a few chopped chillies? And maybe some garlic?

Sorry i haven't been much in evidence lately, very busy moving, i am now nicely installed in my little house (same email as before; i may even actually get round to sending people the latest gossip soon!) plus getting the expo together, being clever, i decided to do both these things at the same time.

So now time for a bit of quiet domesticity before the next crisis rears its inevitable head!

How's life in clogland?

Terri & Yoda

Hi Terri

Sorry - been neglecting my homepage recently whilst knee-deep in emulsion and gloss paint!

Peppercorns, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, dried chillies (or fresh chillies but very sparingly!), cinnamon or allspice, ginger (preferrably a little root ginger) and bay leaves should do the trick. I hate garlic so wouldn't ever put it in but I don't see why it wouldn't work.


Good to hear that things are going well. We've still been having a bit of a struggle making up for the months of TM having no work but it looks as if we can almost see the wood for the trees now thank goodness.

As I said, I've been busy decorating and generally doing lots of gigs during the summer. We are off to England at the beginning of Oktober for Ellie Marie's christening, then think we may well hold the next Dutch meet around Hallowe'en time.

Before that I have to pose nude (but covered in body paint!) for the Het Kasteel calendar... I really must need my head examining!

After weeks of no mobile due to speaker problems it has finally been returned to me so the old number should work again.

shazz

God, you sound to be just as mad as me!!!

This is why we need to mull quietly over our chutney, whilst secretly contemplating nudity & paint, c'est normale pour les femmes d'un certain age n'est pas?

OK, i went ahead & did it with what i had lying around.

And the same goes for making the chutney.

No ginger, but lots of garlic (I do NOT believe you don't like garlic!!! Are you a or wot!)

Lots of chilli & peppercorns, coriander seeds; mustard seeds, cloves, cinnamon, cumin seeds...& the ingredient....a friend came over last year & brought with her 5 litres(!!!) of HP sauce, so a hefty dollop of this, which turned it all brown & authentic looking immediately!

Simmered it for bloody ages, banishing poor Yoda upstairs so i could have the windows open (she is now relegated to "flat cat" status, poor thing) but it seems to have turned out well. Like the spicy version of Branston.

I am now hunting for the recipe for pumpkin pie which i seem to recall i may have sent you? Certainly i posted it on hootoo & caused a minor battle amongst staunch yankee types who maintain it must be sweet, whereas us euro types prefer the savoury version!

Anyway, s are all over the place & cheap so i want to make my pies, if you have the recipe i posted, PLEASE copy it here, i can't find the bloody piece of paper!

with painting, i shall embark on thatstage next!

zdt

Your wish is my command!

Stuff you need

one large pastry case
600g of pumpkin
one large onion
olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
100g of parmesan
2 eggs
150g of crème fraîche
20cl of stock (made with a vegetable bouillon cube)
How you do it:

Chop pumpkin and onion into half inch chunks
Gently fry together until starting to soften
Add stock, simmer until soggy mush
Mix with all the other stuff
Pile into pastry case
Bake at about 180°C - 350°F, Gas Mark 4 - for about forty minutes

The Dutch have gone civilised. I can get HP sauce in our local supermarket now - and even something which vaguely resembles malt vinegar.

shazz - indeed I am a which must be why I don't like garlic!

Surely using the words "Dutch" and "civilised" in the same sentence is some sort of oxymoron thingy?

Mind you, i did have an interesting discussion with a frogman yesterday about Amsterdam, he rated the cheese very highly but thought the redlight district was incredibly sordid (i resisted the temptation to say "well why did you visit it then?")

Mercy buckets for the pie recipe,which has now been scrawled upon another scrap of paper, no doubt to get lost once more! If you ask me VERY nicely, i might entertain you with the recipe for "How to cook rice" from Mickey, which involves activities more usually confined to Amsterdam's redlight district!

zdt*domestic godless*

So, how did the pie go? Only a month until Hallowe'en so you'll have a use for the skins too!

I'm off to the UK for a few days next week for the christening of Ellie Marie then back to complete the decorating before the Dutch Meet kicks in.

shazz