Trolley 641

I captured just two of the four trolleys from the M&S food hall available in the Kokoro passage yesterday.

The one at the back, at the right that is, has had its handle bent down a couple of inches, a bending which does not seem to interfere with use, or with it being pushed inside another trolley for removal. But one probably could not push another trolley inside it. I dare say one could straighten it out with a wrecking bar, but I don't carry mine about and there would always be the risk of a bar snapping rather than bending - which would be a bit awkward. I associate to a carpenter I once worked with who told me about being stopped by a policeman who had spotted his bar sticking out of his bicycle basket while he was cycling home after a late night at work. A bit like getting caught out of doors these days with a knife which is not a kitchen knife but has a blade longer than 10cm or something. My picnic knife from Laguiole answering this description.

On round the Ewell Village anti-clockwise until I get back to Pound Lane School where I am reminded that I rather like rosemary in flower. For some reason, we have never done very well with it in our own garden, here at Epsom.

Home to record progress with the triffid, last noticed at reference 2. But not to go to the length of measuring that progress with a tape, although I have done that in the past. 

Amaryllis top left holding up well, all four flowers now out. An impressive feat of growth.

Which brings me onto the matter of sausage stew, that is to say stew involving saucisson sec from Bastides. The last one having been towards the end of last month, as noticed at reference 3.

Same starting point as last time, including the lentils. But also using some left over potatoes which happened to be to hand. And using chou pointu rather than crinkly cabbage.

The sausage was one of the long thin ones sold by Sainsbury's, 250g of it, rather than the short fat ones sold by Waitrose. The thin version has the advantage of being a lot easier to peel and somewhat easier to cut up.

But by the time the potatoes and sausage were in, there was no room left for the mushrooms, so they were cooked separately in a little butter and water.

I might also say that the insides of the chou pointu are quite eatable raw, so not much cooking is needed at all. Maybe two minutes after the water - I use plenty - comes back to the boil. 

Dessert took the form of the remains of the pineapple upside down cake - something we used to have reasonably regularly but have not had for a while. Same sort of thing really as a baked jam sponge, but made in a bigger tin, so wider and thinner and with yellow tinned pineapple underneath rather than red jam. Compensation in the form of a few glacé cherries by way of garnish.

All very satisfactory.

There was enough of the stew left on this occasion for it to go around the next day, that is to say the day of this trolley. With the help of 3oz more lentils that is, cooked up in a little water before embarking on the anti-clockwise.

Crinkly cabbage cooked in two passes: first the dark leaves, and when the water had come back to the boil, the light leaves. Bits of stalk chopped up and then in with the dark leaves.

All very satisfactory again. Perhaps even better than first time around. But perhaps just as well we did not have lentils three days running.

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/trolley-640.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/trolley-636.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-first-stew.html.

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