SIGN WITH AN E

from Brillat-Savarin:

‘Fish, taken collectively in all their species, offer the philosopher an endless source of meditation and surprise.

The various forms of these strange creatures, the sense which they lack, the limited powers of those which they possess, the influence on their habits of the element in which they live and breathe and move, all combine to extend the range of our ideas, and our understanding of the infinite modifications which may arise from matter, movement, and life.

For my part, I like to look upon them with a feeling akin to respect, born of the conviction that they are antediluvian creatures; for the vast cataclysm which drowned our great uncles eight hundred years after the creation of the world was a time of joy, conquest, and festivity for the fishes.’

Well, I don’t know if it’s the fishies that are a little sinister, or the great philosopher, but I think that calls for calamari.

If you get up at four in the morning and spend your first cup of coffee reading about recipes (because that’s work) and you know you have a couple of stale muffins sitting around heading for nowhere but the bin, this is what you should do:

Slice them up, butter one side and lay the slices, butter side down, in an oven-proof dish. Now, if they’re fairly bland, you can add whatever you need to bling them up, like grated lemon zest, a good sprinkling of cinnamon, a little nutmeg, or cardamom, perhaps a little vanilla. Follow this with a meagre layer of apple chunks.

Then beat a couple of eggs, add some warm milk and pour this over the muffins and apples. A nice touch is then to throw a little handful of raisins into the mess, and a sprinkling of nuts and sugar.

Now bake the thing (moderately, around 180) for about 45 minutes, or until it’s looking nice and golden and there are some unmistakably warm, cinammony smells in the kitchen.

If you’re waiting for someone to wake up so you can have a second cup of coffee with company, these smells may prove enough to rouse them.

Or not.

Whichever the case, it is a good thing to do. And it’s a delicious breakfast, particularly on a cold and dark winter morning.

(I believe, by the way, that any form of stale, wheaty starch will work well, like day-old croissants, or, well, bread…which of course would make it a bread-and-butter pudding. Which mine wasn’t.)

1 part wodka

1/2 part cordial of some sort (if you have Swedish organic elderflower cordial, so much the better)

1 part lemony fizzy water

1 part Bob’s your Uncle

and while you’re there, lorem ipsum

So, in the new twisted world of food and business, it should come as no surprise that Gordon Ramsay, fondly referred to as that tediously sweary gastronome, is the new face of BT (British Telecommunications).

Funny, how after the man has proved himself as wily a businessman as chef (it is, after all, quite a feat to be cooking in over ten restaurants in two continents, starring in a TV show, and all the etcetera, all at once), the ad pumps him up as someone who can’t even manage a DIY broadband installation. And he goes for it. (Let’s not ask what he gets out of it.)

Watch it here. Nota bene: there are no F-words, which is another first.

of work, food, sleep, and no time to blog. This is it.

I can manage a cursory list, however, of good things ingested recently:

Out: last night, braised guinea fowl (on a blahblah risotto, with blahblah sauce) at Rozenhof on Kloof; it was tender and delicious, but too much, particularly after the not-so-light souffle that was my starter.

In: chicken breasts stuffed with smoked sundried tomatoes and sage, wrapped in parma ham, and served with petit pois a la moutarde (blahblah), and home-baked sourdough bastoni with olives. The poule was followed by chocolate souffle (and it rose!). That was me at the stove; one for the books.

In: pasta (penne?) with fresh porcini and – aaaaaah – Jordan Whole Nine Yards Chardonnay. A wine that appeals to my decadent side.

In, severally: biscotti with cardamom and pecan nuts (a winning combination).

Out: a fine little steak at Hatfields, a fine little restaurant close to the Jewish Museum.

Tonight: in/out, who knows. But recent trends bode well for it being fine, whatever it is.