More stuffing

Just over a week ago, another chicken with all the trimmings, just about a month since the last, noticed at reference 1.

The stuffing was started the day before, as is customary, on this occasion with a small organic white loaf from Sainsbury's. The interior all went into the stuffing, while the crusts were taken at tea time, some with butter, some with cheese. I thought the crusts tasted rather sweet and suspected Sainsbury's of having added sugar to the mix, as is indeed suggested by some recipes, perhaps with the idea of helping the yeast along. But a practise I myself gave up hundreds of batches of bread ago, preferring now just to used the dried yeast as it comes out of the tub.

Stuffing completed the following morning. With the mix now including rape seed oil, as noticed as reference 1.

Dished up and garnished with some of the dry cured streaky sold by the butcher in Manor Green Road, quite a number of rashers by the look of things. Stuffing then left to be attended to by BH, along with the rest of the lunch.

While I renewed my acquaintance with a couple of young people - Bella and Finlay - who lived on the other side of the brick compost bin, which they could just about reach by crawling through a bit of hedge. The young lady presented me with one sketch of herself and another of her younger brother. While the father explained that his rather sick looking oak tree contained a nest of the processionary moth, a concern both on account of his children and on account of the tree, the consumption of its leaves being very weakening.

I couldn't see anything on his tree, or on the rather larger one over my fence to the left - although this last is not in that good condition either, with a fair amount of dead wood and with the odd lump going down in our garden. Certainly nothing like the rather extravagant snap above, turned up by Bing. It seems that the moth, long established in central and southern Europe, arrived in Richmond on the western outskirts of London about 15 years ago and has spread steadily since. Considered a major pest, hard to deal with.

Maybe it won't spread into our garden, home to a number of small oak trees and one larger one.

For once in a while we had a small number of roast potatoes, actually recycled from a meal taken the day before. These ones were well enough, but when we try at roast potatoes we don't seem to do very well. Not part of my childhood, so perhaps they never put down proper roots.

Wine from the Zorjan people in Slovenia first tried at Terroirs and noticed, for example, at reference 3. Probably followed, in due course, by a spot of Calvados from Majestic. On which I got a good price at one point, as their online catalogue held their cheap Calvados - which, as it happens, I rather like, it tasting unusually of cider, unusual in apple brandy - but the shop held their expensive Calvados - which is even better. Terms of trade are that they trade up, and on this occasion they did not have much choice.

Closed with rhubarb, BH thought maybe from the Netherlands. At least not air freighted from Peru which irritates slightly in these climate conscious days.

The scene from where I sat, towards the end of the main course. Under half the chicken done, more than half the stuffing done. The wine, rather dark (possibly what is called orange wine) and rather unusual, went down well. All done. We shall buy some more, from the people at reference 4.

Over dessert we wondered about how traditional sage and onion stuffing really was. First stop, Dorothy Hartley, where we find a short essay on the principles of stuffing poultry. Sage and onion stuffing gets a mention, but Hartley seems to think it of a rather strong & coarse flavour, more suited for goose (which I am not very keen on) than chicken, for which thyme and lemon (which I am not very keen on in this context) is advised. So not very traditional here. But I did light upon the stuffing of the neck of the chicken, these days removed well before it gets to the butcher, never mind home. The idea seems to be to make a stuffing involving breadcrumbs and chopped lights. Also that the skin is left on the neck, with the stuffing being poked in between the skin and the bony part. Called neck pudding.

Second stop, the Boston Cook Book, where a whole chapter is devoted to stuffings, some rather exotic by our standards. A lot of them use cracker crumbs rather than bread crumbs. Some use oysters. But I did not come across sage and onion.

Third stop, Cuisine Familiale, last noticed at reference 5. Various kinds of chicken and various breeds. For example, poularde is what they call a specially fattened chicken which is about three months old. A reminder that chickens are best plucked warm. Lots of recipes for cooking chicken, with some involving roasting and some involving stuffing. But I failed to spot sage and onion. On the other hand, we did have a recipe for 'Poularde Grammont', as prepared by M. Cormies for a banquet offered to our Queen Elizabeth at the Elysée in 1957. Her second mention in as many days. Looks reasonably complicated, probably included more for interest than for use; hardly cuisine familiale. While on the page before, we had a splendid colour picture of Carpe à la Polonaise, apparently involving making a complicated stuffing out of some of the carp meat, putting it back inside the reconstituted fish and then serving it cold in slices. Neither Bing nor Google obliges, so we will have to make do with the not very satisfactory snap from the book above. Head top right.

The last item of the day was Nicholas Farrell in Midsomer Murders, who has a face which is very recognisable as that of an ITV3 regular, but not one I could put a name to. Maybe from Poirot. In due course to Bing, where starting at the relevant entry for Midsomer Murders, I find he has had a long and illustrious career, including appearances in the quiz weekend episode of Lewis, the sheep's head episode of Morse and the blue train episode of Poirot. So not so wrong after all.

Over the next four days, the remains of the chicken went two days cold, one day soup (with added bacon) and one day stewed. Or in a fricassée as the relevant cook book would have it. All rather good. We are getting quite a taste for cold roast meat.

PS: a long time since we have had Paxo stuffing, that is to say the sort of thing used in carveries. Or in prepared meats from butchers. Not very keen on the stuff at all.

Reference 1: psmv4: Roast stuffing with all the trimmings.

Reference 2: Oak processionary - Wikipedia.

Reference 3: psmv4: Cheese.

Reference 4: Les Caves de Pyrene - Shop.

Reference 5: psmv2: Truffes.

Reference 6: Slovenian Wine | Think Slovenia. All about Slovenian wine.

Reference 7: Siol.net. Seemingly the email provider of the address on the bottle.