Gastropod Sunday

I went back to the green grocer I frequent to source some okra as per ThirdCat’s request in the comments on my last Gastropod post, but I think the okra that looked so promising then hasn’t fared too well in the intervening week or so since. I suspect it’s even the same okra, especially if the brown bits and general sponginess were any indication of its age. So, I’m sad to inform you, The Okra Show will be postponed until another day.

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Meanwhile, let me share this comic in The Weekend Australian Magazine. You’ve probably already seen it:

Would life be worth living without jam, strawberry or any other kind? The thought of strawberry jam has me humming that Michelle Shocked tune of the same name:

Saturday morning found me itchin’
To get on over to my gran’ma’s kitchen
(What you gonna do honey?)
The sweetest little berries was cookin’ up, right
And then we put ‘em in a cannin’ jar and seal ‘em up tight

We were makin’ jam
(What kind?)
(Strawberry jam, that’s what kind.)
(Oh, the good kind)
Yeah, if you want the best jam,
You got make your own.

We have Smockers, Welches, Knotsberry Farm
But a little home-made jam, never did a body no harm.
A little local motion is all we really need,
To close down these corporate jam factories.

We’ll be makin’ jam
Strawberry jam, mmm hmm.
If you want the best jam,
You got make your own.
(Make that jam, Doc, show ‘em how it’s done)

(Banjo and fiddle)

Yeah!

We have a little revolution, sweepin’ the land
Now what’s more, everybody’s makin’ home made jam,
So won’t you call your friends up on the telephone,
You invite ‘em on over, you make some jam of your own.

You’ll be making jam
Strawberry jam.
If you want the best jam,
You got make your own.

(Go on Jerry, let the jelly roll!)

(Banjo)

(Jerry’s makin’ jam)

(Fiddle)

(That’s Mark O’Connor, he likes jam)

(Oh yeah, that’s as sweet as strawberry jam)

(Uh Huh)

Saturday morning found me itchin’
To get on over to my gran’ma’s kitchen
Where the sweetest little berries were cookin’ up, right
And then we put ‘em in a cannin’ jar and seal ‘em up tight

We was makin’ jam
Strawberry jam
If you want the best jam,
You got make your own.

Oh, one more time! (Repeat last verse. Throw in a few hearty yeahs. Maybe a yee-haw!)

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I’m not such a great jam maker, not like Ampersand Duck’s Best Beloved seems to be. I think my last serious attempt was a couple of years ago when I tried to turn a handful of cumquats into jam by dividing the recipe I had by sixteenths, or some such ridiculous equation. Small quantities of jam don’t seem to work. Then there’s the possibility that I was making it in the middle of the night because I was so angry with someone I couldn’t sleep. A friend suggested to me that I’d made a jam so horrible because it was infused with all the emotions I had while making it, a bit like the character in Like Water for Chocolate. Well, it was true, the jam was better put out with the garbage that consumed by anyone.

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Note to self: don’t abandon the searing hot grill pan while making pita crisps to go and write a blog post. The neighbours may call the fire brigade. And you’ll end up with pita ashes:

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In case you feel cheated by no actual food in this post, allow me to extol the virtues of fennel:This is not such a hot specimen, but since that’s my fridge it’s been in for a week, I have only myself to blame.

My sister likes baked fennel or fennel gratin. I don’t mind them, but my preference is for raw fennel, sliced in a salad. You get the nice fresh aniseed-y taste best this way. I like it most when tossed with toasted walnuts and parmesan shavings in a red wine vinegar and olive oil dressing. I insist on red wine vinegar in this instance. Don’t forget to use the finely chopped leafy bits in the dressing, with the usual freshly cracked pepper and sea salt. You can add semi-dried tomatoes too if you like, but they detract from the purity of the fennel for me.

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If you’re still hungry, go and visit a new Antipodean food blog I discovered, the delightfully named Buddha Belly. Tinned rattlesnake and orange cheese, anyone?