Kedgeree duo

Following the elaborate kedgeree reported at reference 1 and the purchase of fish noticed at reference 2, there have now been two more kedgerees. The first of them being snapped above.

Taken with a drop of white, retrieved from the bottom of the heap in the cupboard under the stairs, one of two or three there, and the purchase of which I initially had trouble tracing. However, turning to gmail, I turn up some 13th century songs on 'cantigas' - but a February 2023 advertisement from Majestic Wine on 'albarino'. From which I lift the connecting: 'Martín Códax was named after a Galician troubadour whose medieval poems are love songs to the sea. If the soil and the sun are the main characters in the story of Albariño, then the sea is the supporting act...'. Not bought online, probably not even bought on the strength of the advertisement, of a sort which I rarely read, but probably a chance purchase in the course of one of my regular visits to Majestic Wine in East Street. Maybe £10.99 a bottle. Whatever the case, it did well enough on this occasion.

For Baixas, see reference 3.

For dessert, some tastefully arranged tinned pears. Which we have discovered that we rather like - the only downside being that they seem to vary from tin to tin, even within the same brand, Del Monte as it happens. Variation of variety, that is, rather than quality. Perhaps they shift the buying for their canneries around, reflecting the day-to-day vagaries of the pear market.

The second kedgeree was taken yesterday, using the balance of the fish, frozen in the interim. Kitchen refit meant that BH used brown rice rather than white rice, a little darker and a little more chewy, but I don't think that one would have known had one not known previously. And I dare say one could tell the difference if you were able to put them side by side: the sort of thing that a celebrity test kitchen ought to be able to manage. In which connection, I hope they find something better to do with all their cooking than chuck it in the bin - particularly now that feeding it to the pigs in the old way is more or less out - killed off, as I recall, by the mad cow disease.

On the plate. Crinkly cabbage light, but cooked just about right. Not much like a proper Savoy cabbage which has stood up to a few frosts. Presumably imported from somewhere warmer than here.

Did about three quarters on its first outing. The balance will probably be snacked away later today.

Is that the kedgeree itch scratched for the time being? Time will tell.

PS 1: checking with OED this morning, I find that kedgeree is a dish of Indian origin, as I had thought, but not from the days of the Raj. The dish appears to have been known in this country since the late seventeenth century, and making it to Mrs. Beeton - spelt Beaton in OED - by the end of the nineteenth century, by which time she or her editorial successors had it down as a breakfast dish. A lady with a long-standing connection to Epsom, her mother's second husband being the clerk of our racecourse - with whom she managed thirteen more children. With the present Mrs. Beeton being an expert on pastry. See reference 4. Kedgeree is not present, as far as I can tell from the indexes, in Pepys, also late seventeenth century - but one would need a forgiving full text search to be sure - forgiving to cope with the various spellings available. We do not seem to own a Beeton, but we do have a Boston, in which kedgeree is not mentioned at all. You can have pilafs, which do not seem to come with fish. And you can have fish hash, a version of kedgeree made with potato rather than rice. But no kedgeree. Lots of recipes for halibut if you go for that. For which, see reference 5.

PS 2: on the prompt 'Does Samuel Pepys mention the fish dish kedgeree, becoming known in England during his time? I can't find it in the index, so a full text search is needed, one which can cope with variations of spelling', Gemini suggests searching an e-copy at Gutenburg. I tried this, using their UTF-8 version of the text and the Edge 'find on page' feature. No luck with the first few versions of 'kedgeree' and no luck with 'rice', although there are plenty of people with names in which 'rice' is a substring.

PS 3: I noticed while turning the pages of Boston, that mock turtle soup is made from calf's head. Turning once again to Gemini with the prompt 'According to the Boston cook book, mock turtle soup is made from calve's head. How did it come to be so named', I was told that green turtle soup became fashionable in England in the early eighteenth century. Turtles then became scarce and expensive, and calf's head was one of the substitutes used, with mock turtle soup becoming more popular than the real thing. Furthermore, calf's heads were used to make soup well before turtles came along. All of which, on this occasion, I could have found out just as well by asking Bing and turning up the Wikipedia page. No need for anything fancy.

But Gemini did tell me about this cook book, which might be worth looking out for.

PS 4: while all this is going on, a leg fell off our cooker, the fixing of which struck me as a bit feeble for something of the cooker's weight. But a couple of spares are now winging their way from eBay. In the circumstances one does not mind what at first seems like a vastly inflated sum for a few pence worth of plastic.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/02/valentines.html.

Reference 2: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/03/trolley-644_9.html.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/10/noises-off.html.

Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Beeton.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/12/nansen.html.