Crimson is the colour that my heart pours out to you

[venta]

Last night I was rummaging about in the cupboards wondering what else I could put into my vegetable bake to make it look more like a meal and less like something constructed out of things I'd found in the back of the fridge.

I unearthed a tin of spinach (in brine). Yes, I know that sounds vile, but I like spinach. And since the blood donor people sent me packing today with mutterings about low iron I figured it couldn't hurt.

Actually, I don't know quite what possessed me to buy it, because the picture on the tin is possibly the least appealing label I've ever seen.

Now would you, in your right mind, think "ooh, that looks yummy!" and buy anything with this label?



No, thought not. I particularly like the "look what you could have won" touch of including a basket of fresh spinach. Ironically, it did say "serving suggestion" on the label. I suppose they never claim that it's a good suggestion.

Really, the problem is that I'd never serve spinach by itself in a tureen. I'd put it in something else. But I suppose there is a limit to what you can put on labels - showing a vegetable bake with a dark green layer in it is probably held to be pushing the limits, since the poor ignorant public might think the tin contains the entire bake.

Do packets of lasagne habitually show entire lasagnes ? The one in my cupboard has no picture at all. Presumably the thinking is that if you're buying things which cannot be eaten in isolation, you know what you're doing and don't need pictorial guidance. Has anyone got any idea how much leeway there is in the "serving suggestion" guidelines ?

More importantly, can anyone find me a tin of spinach with a nicer label ? Not that I'll stop buying Tesco's - it tasted perfectly fine - I'm just curious.

Note for the mother: have you ever tried putting other things into Canadian Casserole ? Today's had one layer each of spinach and grated cheddar, sliced carrot and chopped portobello mushroom in addition to the usual. Oh, and some wholegrain mustard dobbed about the place. It worked quite well as a main dish.

Note for everyone else: Canadian Casserole is a vegetable side dish of some repute. Fill a casserole in the following manner: layer of thinly sliced potato, layer of thinly sliced onion, small blobs of butter/marg, sprinkling of seasoned flour, repeat until you nearly run out of dish. Finish with a layer of potato, pour some milk over it, put in the oven a couple of hours at Gas 3. Great with bacon chops.

Comments

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

Canadian Casserole sounds rather like Pommes Dauphinoise without the garlic.
Alternatively, if you stack the slices on their ends and then pour over the milk and butter, you get the scottish dish 'stovies'.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ah. Yes. I think I've been served Pommes Dauphinoise in a posh restaurant before and been confused by it. In my mind, Canadian Casserole is an extremely cheapskate wartime recipe, and thus unlikely to be served anywhere posh.

For some reason, I got it into my head some years ago that PD are something like Duchess Potatoes, ie mashed with cream and piped. I know this is wrong but it's one of those ideas that just won't shift.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

You are so northern.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

It's Dolphinwars Potaters to poor folks.

[venta.livejournal.com]

In this case, I'm somewhat confused as to what exactly prompted that. Unless it was just intended as a generalised insult ;)

[mrlloyd.livejournal.com]

Complement, surely.

As to what prompted it, it's probably just admiration :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Obviously I'd take it as a compliment :) I've certainly had it said to me as an intended insult before, though.

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

The way I make it, it has no flour,a nd uses cream rather than milk, which I suppose makes it slightly less war-time. My mum used to do a version with left-over gammon in between the layers, which was fabulous.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Back in wartime Oxford, I often put streaky bacon between the layers. I reckoned that was impolite when I was feeding it to my vegetarian housemate, though :)

I'll have to try the cream instead of flour-and-milk idea.

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

mmm, yeah, our household had a version of that with layers of sliced tomatoes for good measure (and thermonuclear heat retention)

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

I got it into my head some years ago that PD are something like Duchess Potatoes

You might be thinking of pommes Dauphine. Mashed potato mixed with choux pastry and then deep-fried. They are like crack, and about as good for you, too.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

No insult intended, just an observance of a cultural difference. I think it was two things: firstly, the confusion about what dauphinoise actually is (as to me it's almost as usual as chips), and secondly, the fact that you think of it as a cheapskate wartime dish, while I think of it as a French classic which upmarket restaurants currently serve in tiny circular sections.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Good lord, no, I've never eaten heard of something like that. What a mad idea. Where do I try them ?

[venta.livejournal.com]

No, I didn't think you were just being rude, I was only joking.

As usual as chips ? Blimey. No, as I said, I barely remember what it is. Though, of course, the dish itself (or an approximation thereto) was quite a regular in our house, just by a different name.

Of course, you have to bear in mind that Darlington (where I grew up) actually doesn't have any upmarket restaurants. I do mean that - recently I tried to find somewhere "nice" to take my parents and drew a complete blank in the whole town. There's good curry houses, a reasonable Chinese and possibly you might find a passable Italian. I don't like admitting it, but the stereotypes are true and the place is a culinary desert.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

You'll probably have to make them yourself. They're not easy to make in quantity, so you don't see them very often in restaurants.

IIRC, it's something like 2/3rds mashed potato to 1/3 choux pastry. You have to get the consistency right or they disintegrate when cooking. Shape into quenelles and deep-fry in hot oil. They only take a minute or so.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Stupid question: we're talking abuot uncooked choux pastry batter, here ? I think I was originally envisaging mixing mash up with bits of pastry, which just seemed really odd.

I think I might have to give them a try.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Yes - raw pastry. It crisps up on the outside and the resulting tasty morsel looks a bit like a yam croquette.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

almost as usual as chips

That evokes a wonderful mental image of some random pot-bellied workman type wandering into a chip shop and saying "Batter sausage, beans an' a dauphinoise, please luv".

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

They could put a picture of a vegetable bake with a dark green layer, and then put "serving suggestion" with an arrow pointing to the green bit. THat would be more appealing.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

As a native of Reading, I am also rather taken aback that dauphinoise should be as usual as chips.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

And also right, this is where I'm confused.

When I do something like that with potatoes, the potatoes don't come out cooked. I pour not milk but runny white sauce over the top, and leave it in for about 30 minutes. Am I:
-Using too thick a sauce
-Not cooking it for long enough
-Other?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'd expect "not cooking for long enough" (or possibly not hot enough, but it doesn't need to be very hot, so I'd rule that out unless you're cooking on Gas 1/2 or something).

Mine came out after about 70 minutes yesterday owing to us being in a hurry, and though it was edible the potatoes would have liked longer.

Am an ad hoc cook rather than an expert, though, so could be talking out of my proverbial.

[pm215]

My family calls them 'Dolphin-nose'...

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Ahhhhhhhhh.

Yes. At school I think we parboiled them first and did it for 30 to fit into an hour's lesson, so I have always done it that way, and if they are left even a little bit raw in the middle they are still not cooked when they come out after that long.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Bloody hell, you had much more useful cookery lessons in school than I did. A double lesson spent learning how to make a tossed salad :(

A school report once criticised me for having "a flippant attitude" towards cookery, sorry Domestic Science, lessons. Too bloody right, they were a complete waste of time and effort.