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

Do Americans know about crumble? (you do, obviously, Vix).

Make as if making pastry - ie rub flour and butter together to form crumbs. Add some sugar to the mix, but don't add liquid (so don't bind the crumbs into a dough).

Take a baking dish. Put some fruit in it - possibly cooked. Apples are the default, possiby with added blackberries. Rhubarb is superb (But nobody else eats that, do they?). Gooseberries, apricots, plums...

Add sugar to taste.

Cover with a deep layer of topping. Bake in a moderate oven until slightly golden. Serve with yer traditional pie accompaniments. Custard, ideally - but that's a Brit thing again. (Not to be confused with 'frozen custard' - which is not the same thing by any stretch of the imagination).

You *can* add ground almonds - or even meusli - to the topping, but such fripperies are unnecessary.

I've had crumbles before, though I don't remember them being called that. I had one with spiced apples over it. I can't eat anything with nuts, so no almonds or meusli for me. But they are tasty!

I, incidentally, make a wicked home-made custard.

You can't have crumble with something over it!

Surely the whole thing crumble is that the fruit is underneath???

I don't like to eat anything crunchy, so I flip things around so that the crunchy bits are either mixed in, or on the bottom and thereby saturated with the syrupy stuff.

It's not crunchy. You'll have to make one and experience it. Think of it as 'ethnic'

You can get tins of Ambrosia Devon custard at Stop and Shop International aisle I love that stuff. I've never made custard from scratch...I used to try and make Birds Custard but it always turned out lumpy...

As for the hot and sour soup with which I intend to get another engagement...*chuckles* I got most of the ingredients yesterday with the exception of the dried black fungus..(tree ear) couldn't find any -or straw mushrooms either...I found tinned and that was it...shall have another look today...

I came across a recipe the othr day without the tree ears. I guess the essential components are then vinegar and the pepper (and the thickener and egg)

A hippy salad I made the other night:

Cube/ chop some fruit. I used Papaya, Mango, Ugli Fruit (aka Tangelo - peel, cut in two across the equator and separate both halves into segments). I guess you could also use melon, watermelon or pineapple.

Toss lightly with some cubed, crumbly, white cheese. I used Caerphilly. Wensleydale or Lancashire would be fine. Feta is probably sharper than I'd want - but it might do in a pinch.

Pour over a little vinaigrette (I added some lime juice to mine).

Dry-fried some seeds in a hot frying pan - ie toss 'em in a hot pan and keep 'em moving. Let them pop and become golden. but take care not to urn. When they seem done, decant them straight into a bowl so they don't continue to heat. I used a mixture of Pumpkin seeds, sunflower, linseed and hemp (I told you it was a hippy salad )

Take some leaves of cos or romaine lettuce, schred and arrange in a circle on each plate. (Optionally) Then arrange some rocket around that.

Around the outside, arrange some quartered fresh figs.

Then place a mound of the fruit, chese mixtute in the centre, and top with a handful of seeds. Finally...

...piece de resistance. Take a ripe, red pomegranate and cut in half. Ho;d the cut side over the salad and repeatedly thwack the skin hard with the back of a knife. With a bit of luck the seeds/flesh should fall out.

Obviously various variations are possible on this basic theme.

Well, I had beans on toast for lunch.

Heinz beans that I found..

I melted some cheese on the top, and added a splotch of HP sauce that I also found in the international aisle.

Now...HP sauce is an interesting beast. It's actually an anglicisation of an Indian chutney/pickle.

What I do sometimes is to take some tamarind pulp (see note) and blend it with some dates, chilli, fresh mint and fresh coriander/cilantro (and salt to taste). It's a good accompaniment to stuff like pakora.

A note on Tamarind. It's sold either in Asian stores, either as rectangular blocks resembling dates that have been squidged together and wrapped in cellophane, as a pre-prepared paste. If buying the latter, to prepare it, break off a lump and soak in hot water. Press the resulting pulp through a fine sieve. A plastic sieve is best - it can stain metal. The leftover seedy, fibrous bits are good for polishing brass! The pulp can also be mixed with iced water and sugar to make a refreshing summer drink.

Tamarind should not be concused with 'tamarisk'. The latter is a species of monkey. Any confusion can result in severe embarassment at zoos - and even more so in Asian supermarkets.

I have easy access to both kinds of tamarind (as well as fresh and dried ones) as my neighborhood has a fair-sized Asian and Hispanic population. There isn't much I have to work hard to find.

I'd never thought to make a drink of the leftover rind, but I am going to try it next time I make Pad Thai. Thanks!

Not the rind. The pulp itself. Also...if you can find pomegranate molasses, that makes a gorgeous drink. V. inexpensive also.

I also make a cold potato dish with tamarind. Simply mix some salad-sized chunks of cooked potato with some tamarind pulp, chopped onion, green chilli and coriander/cilantro. It's one of those dishes that's greater than the some of its parts.

Never confuse a peccary with a pessary either. Again, embarassing at the zoo...even more so at the pharmacy.

Some of the ingredients that you mention I've never even heard of!

I forgot to mention that I made the Hot and Sour soup on Friday gone...it was a hit!

I tried it and Geo thought it was good tho

I never did find black tree ear fungus, or fresh straw mushrooms so I had to used tinned straw instead.

You need to get yourself down to a decent ethnic neighbourhood.

I had a shock the first time I visited a Chinese supermarket in Liverpool. Hanging up were these things which looked like HR Giger frying pans. They turned out to be 'duck bacon'. What you do is you gat a duck, remove all the bones, flatten it and cure it. (Well, I say 'cure' it - but I doubt it feels very well afterwards). You're left with a disk of the body and a long 'handle' sticking out.

Anyway...speaking of unusual ingredients - I've just been reading a book called 'Ant Egg Soup' - a foodie travelogue about Laos. Apparently you can buy tinned ant eggs via the web!. Most of the recipes are fishy/meaty (or anty/froggy)...but I made this last night to accompany a Laksa:

'Green Papaya' salad.

Here, raw turnips can be substituted for green papayas. If you sauce them right they taste the same. Apparently.

Peel the turnips, slice and cut into matchsticks.
With a mortar and pestle, pound a good sized clove of garlic and a bird's eye chilli (the kind that makes you go ) with some salt.
Pour the juice of a lime over the turnip shreds. Chop up the rest of the lime, add it to the mortar and pound some more.
Tip the mortar contents into the turnips and muddle around with the pestle.
You're meant to add some fermented fish kind of stuff A2309645 - like Vietnamese/Thai fish sauce - but I just used a pinch of sugar and MSG.
You can also bash in some cherry tomatoes, but I didn't bother.

I've an idea for a promotional product for the Laos Tourist Board. They should sell T-shirts that say 'My folks went to Vientiane and all I got was this Laotian T-shirt'

Weird things bought on a trip to my local Chinese cash-n-carry:

- Vegetarian Mock Duck. (I like this stuff. It's made out of braised gluten and is very nice stir-fried with pineapple.)
- Licorice-flavoured salt-pickled dried sour plums, as featured in my entry A3100168
- Various squidgy packets of semi-identifiable pickled vegetable.
- Easter Bunny prune flavoured candies
- Green tea marshmallows with red bean jam filling
- Vegetarian fried lobster (a packet of bizarre, crunchy, chewy snack food)
- A Korean spirit called shoju, 'bamboo-filtered for extra clarity'.

I also saw frozen pigs' uteri - but I didn't buy any of those.

It's strange - Food all looks pretty familiar all the way through Europe, all through the Middle East and through India. Then, from Burma onwards, it suddenly turns into wierd s--t.

Have you ever had Brazilian food?

The spices in those are funky on the palate that's for sure!

I love Brazilian food. Columbian food is awesome, too!

No matter how weird it is, I'll try anything (anything meatless, anyway) once. If it's yucky, I might not finish it, though.

I'm going to need some fresh ideas for meals now that the weather's warming up. We'll want to avoid using the oven (especially as I'm on the third floor, have a flat roof, and have central air conditioning), and would prefer "lighter" fare for the most part. Especially me- the heat of summer tends to kill my appetite.

So, any suggestions? I made a wuick curry Tuesday night with plantains and sliced mangoes, with green chilies, green Thai curry paste, a bit of coconut milk, fresh cilantro, fresh grated ginger, and sliced onions. It was hot as HELL!! Poor K was such a trooper, though, and cleaned his plate... even if his eyes were watering so he could barely see his plate.

I know a great recipe for Fricasee de Lapin . Mind you, it's pretty expensive...

Seriously, though...although it's still fairly dreich in these parts, I guess it's almost the salad season. How about my version of the classic Salade Nicoise?

Top and tail some French beans and steam (until slightly tender, but still some crunch).
Steam some small, new potatoes, preferably a fully-flavoured yellow variety.
De-skin and de-pulp some nice, dense, pink-fleshed tomatoes. Cut into big chunks.
Thinly slice some mild white onion (I believe that in the US you can get those ones called Gore Vidalia)
Toss the lot with a handful of black olives in a good, garlicky vinaigrette.

On top of each plateful, place a warm boiled egg, peeled, yolk still runny.

>Gore Vidalia<

Nice one!

That sounds like an excellent salad! I'm going to pick up some beans and tomatoes at the grocery store and make this one sometime soon!