Tuesday February 22, 2005

Growing seeds in a propagator

I purchased an electric propagator as my seedlings are now banned from the house. Seed trays do make a mess however careful you are in the house. So this years leeks are now in the propagator that uses the same electric current as a household bulb. It sits in the greenhouse which is kept above freezing by an electric heater. I have used half sized seed trays and one of them has this years chrysanthemums in it. The lid has vents so you can keep out excess moisture. I also purchased some copper fungicide useful in many applications but for the seeds this is to avoid them damping off. After sowing the seeds you mix the powder with water and then water the soil. If the propagator works I will buy a second one for flowers. It cost abouts thirty pounds.

A lean roast

Unlike years ago most UK folks do not have a Sunday roast every week. We go for Curries or other exotic meals nowadays. But once a month I do like a roast dinner and I usually cook it. We have leg of lamb or a chicken usually. Last weekend I did chicken.

I cooked the chicken on a simple metal tray with foil covering it. I usually season the chicken and put a bit of butter on the thighs to keep them moist. Twenty minutes a pound plus twenty over at ~ 180 degrees C. You should be prepared to pour off excess juices from the tray every so often. After it is done you are meant to take it out and let it 'relax' I think the idea is to get the juices in the meat to redistribute themselves evenly again. Of course you must make sure it is cooked, I use a skewer pricking into the meat to ensure the juices run clear - no blood.

Delia Smith would tell you to baste the meat during cooking to keep it moist, Nigella Lawson turns her poultry upside down so the juices from the fatty area drip over the thighs. Another way is to use a deeper tray with a rack and put water in the tray. This has the effect of steaming the meat, keeping it moist. You also then have a good base for a gravy later on.

You cannot have a sunday roast without roast potatoes. I cook mine in water until they are just going soft on the outside. I then take a tray ( fairly deep) and put some oil in it. Drain the potatoes, put the lid on the saucepan and shake them up and then put onto the tray ( which you have preheated in the oven - now turned up a bit). Be careful when you do this as the potatoes (wet) will spit when they hit the hot oil. With a spoon ladle the oil over each potato. Pop in the oven. After thirty minutes turn each potato over and ladle oil over each one again. Put them back for another thirty minutes.They should be crisp and when done pop them on a grill pan with kitchen towel spread over it to soak up the excesss oil.

Other vegetables we have are sauteed leeks, carrots and peas which go well with this. We do not make our own gravy I am afraid we are a Bisto household , looks like you can even get it in the US.

When the East wind doth blow we shall have snow

The above picture is of our garden on tuesday morning. Not much snow has fallen so far but we are promised heavier downfalls today and later in the week. The kids will have to wait before they have enough of the stuff to have snowball fights...

Meanwhile now the promised snow has finally arrived and Britain is plunged into the usual chaos I was reminded of a weekend many years ago when we stayed in this pub , The New Inn, Coln St-Aldwyns in the Cotswolds for my birthday in January.

We did a nice walk during the day across to Bourton on the water . In the evening as I sipped my pint of beer and studied what to eat for dinner the white stuff started started to fall. By the time we had finished eating there were several inches of snow. It transformed the landscape. Rumours of closed roads spread around the pub and any remaining rooms were quickly taken. We of course had already planned to stay overnight.

The following day as I took our case out to the car and removed as much of the snow as I could, I looked up the hill behind the pub. Loads of children were on the hill sledging and generally having loads of fun. As I went back to the pub I met someone who had also stayed overnight. He was putting his case in the car. He said "this is going to be a fun journey, this is one day when I would rather not own a Porsche". I knew what he meant. Keeping the Porsche on the road with that amount of horsepower was going to be a challenge.

As I said Britain and extreme weather conditions. Instant chaos.