Following the Rules, Food and Tradition

Cooking rules that is.

I usually 'eyeball' the ingredients for whatever
I'm cooking.  After 50-odd years in the kitchen I can mostly guess the amount I need.  I know that baking, cakes and bread, is supposed to be more scientific and knowing how many grams you're using 'may' make or break your baking. However..

This Christmas was a time of change.  I followed the rules.  I weighed.  A cup of something wouldn't make the grade.  Grams were the order of these many cooking days.  Luckily I have a digital scale and it came out of the box and stayed on the bench.

But that wasn't all.  I actually followed recipes, well mostly followed.  And I, we, kept it simple.  None of that Jamie Oliver crap, boiling chicken wings and carrots to make the gravy.

Our gravy was made with the scrapings from the dish that the chook was roasted in, a bit of  brussels water and some bisto to thicken.  Flour would have done just as well.  It was the best gravy in years.  One thing I learnt was that you do really need to get rid of the fat and oil that's in there along with the scrapings.  The gravy just would not come together till I let it rest and tipped off all the fat and oil that came to the top.  

The stuffing was good old kiwi chook stuffing made with dry breadcrumbs, lots of grated onion, just the right amount of dried sage and this time I added an egg and beat that with a tablespoon of oil.  Not our best olive oil either.  Perfection.  Luckily my daughter thought the stuffing to be on the stingy side so I quicky made another lot and put that in some baking paper in a corner of the baking dish.  It was also the best we've had in years.  I've never added an egg to stuffing but I know some friends in NZ who use an egg.  Yes, that is definitely going into the recipe book.

Naturally the greek side had another menu for xmas day and they still have one Helluva lot to learn.  It was pork done  three ways at their end of the table.  Two ways too many.  

I have started a recipe book for a traditional English Christmas in this Greek house and am printing out descriptions of our xmases past to add to the folder as well.  Some of the feasts we 'enjoyed' before the economic crisis are way, way over the top.  8 years of austerity have done us a world of good.  We came through a period of western richness, then austerity and now it's back to simple and we all seem to be enjoying that freedom from over indulgence, food and otherwise.

We've come a long way in our 'learning to live with less' but we've still got a long way to go, especially the natives.

I heard how they reduce rubbish in South Korea.  Besides the recycling and  adherence to strict rules for removal of household waste they also have separate bins for food waste and are fined for every ounce extra that is thrown away.  What a brilliant idea.  It would save us so much money, by adhering to the policy, make us slimmer and healthier and protect the environment.