Thar's nowt like Yorkshire prudence

God bless Yorkshire, a sunny place on our glorious green Earth where an absurd bargain can still be had. Shopping at the Hyde Park exotic food store, we bought:

1 aubergine
2 vegetable samosas
Large bunch of parsley
2 courgettes
A head of celery
Bulb of fennel
5 onions
4 potatoes
6 apples
A lemon and lime
3 heads of garlic
3 nectarines
8 bananas
2 tins of tomatoes
Tin of chick peas
Tin of cannelloni beans
2 red peppers
Box of rice crispies (the costliest item at £2.50)

All for a little over £15.

Sadly, they don't sell fillet steak or petrol.

How do you like your placenta?

I've known that a placenta is edible, and to some, a delicacy, ever since watching the old-school Hugh Fearnley-Whitingstall programme TV Dinners. But I did not know the practice had such high profile admirers until an article in today's guardian, which reveals Tom Cruise planned to eat his daughter Suri's (eeeeeeeeewwwww).

But what nutritionally do you get from a placenta? Does it pack lots of flavour?

Unless the Mum happens to be particularly stoical, it is unlikely to be organic. But on the other hand, it is a good way to avoid waste.

The recipes on the Internet are disappointing. A good meat recipe should have the meat as the principle ingredient, rather than a constituent. You shouldn't add meat to a dish just because you can. Then again, I've never gorged on my new born infant's placenta, so what little I know.

Here is a recipe for placenta pate, a dish TV Dinners found was not to OFCOM's taste.

Mum's tarragon chicken

A bit more from Elizabeth David, and a recipe right in my personal "top 5 things to eat" list.

The following recipe is much more my Mum's. Most Elizabeth David recipes tend to be light on detail, such as for how long to cook the thing. Here is a bit more instruction. You end up with a juicy, nicely roasted bird with crisp skin, accompanied by a delicious, fragrant gravy.

I've been told that the trick is to search out French tarragon, as opposed to Russian, as there is a big difference in flavour. There is a little bunch in a ceramic pot outside our back door, but it has failed to sprout so you can't have any.

Mum's tarragon chicken (serves four)
1 x Medium free range chicken, approx 3lb or 1 1/2 kg
50g butter
Large tablespoon French tarragon
Large clove of garlic
Small glass of brandy
Creme fraiche

Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 6/ 200c/ 400f. Make a herb butter, by mashing together the softened butter with the tarragon, finely chopped garlic and plenty of seasoning. Smear the bird all over with the butter, and shove some under the skin. Cook the chicken on a wire rack, resting the bird on its side, turning it over half way through, for 1 hour 20 minutes. When the time is up, heat the brandy in a small saucepan, ignite, and pour all over the bird. Turn the oven off, open the oven door, and return the bird, to allow the meat to rest and the flavour of the gravy to develop. 15 minutes will do it. Finally, place the bird on a carving tray, and whisk a couple of tablespoons of creme fraiche into the juices. Serve the gravy separate.

Bad recipes

An occasional series proving even the great and good suffer inexplicable lapses in taste.

Skimming through Elizabeth David's beautifully readable cookbooks, you forget how earthy and robust much of her recipes are. And nothing is quite as no-frills as Kokkoretsi, Greek offal kebabs. The name alone is ominous, with an internment camp punishment ring to it. No doubt "mountain herbs and lemons" could make anything palatable, but it wouldn't change the fact that this is one of the most alarming recipes ever written.

Kokkoretsi, from Elizabeth David's "A Book of Mediterranean Food"
"The insides of a sheep - heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, brains, sweetbreads, everything - are cut into small pieces, heavily seasoned with mountain herbs and lemon and threaded on to skewers. The intestines of the animal are cleaned and wound round the skewers, which are then grilled very slowly on a spit. They are, in fact, a sort of primitive sausage, the intestine on the outside acting as a sausage skin".

Mmmmm. Mmm.

Old posts

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