Where am I going to find greengages? Hmm, poss a farmers' market, but I always get up too late... or I don't get up too late because I'm off somewhere but by the time whatever I'm off to is done, it's too late. And sod's law, everytime I actually would make it, they wouldn't have greengages, and the once a year when they do, I'd definitely be fast asleep... Anyway, the recipe says 'or plums' - so plums it was. Plus I was at a friend's, after a long day trapsing around the enormity of the craft fair that is The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, and with serious headaches, and feet and credit cards burning, we needed some blood-sugar-raising asap, and only CostCutters was open. And it sold plums! No greengages though. Unsurprisingly.
Thus, this was made in someone else's kitchen, without the aid of a food processor - argh! Luckily there was a willing friend who inexplicably DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO RUB BUTTER INTO FLOUR. Madness. But she seemed keen to learn, and since I loathe rubbing butter into flour and have done since being forced to make scones at school week after week in the 80s (bizarrely in lovely lovely Mason and Cash mixing bowls - which I adore and have coveted ever since, which is why I now own four of them all in different sizes) I quickly showed her how and delegated the task to my new (temporary) kitchen slave. Hurrah!
Otherwise, easy peasy, throw it all in, bung in the oven and then yummy crumble 40mins later. Very slightly blackened on top, because we kinda forgot about it whilst we were eating dinner and it prob got a bit longer than 40mins, and the oven may have been a bit hot still, but not overly cremated at all. Perhaps a little oversweet - less sugar for plums vs. greengages, maybe? But lovely crumbly powdery topping, and fabulous with friend K's amazing homemade custard - wow, who knew it was so easy to make amazing homemade custard?!
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3 comments:
He DrMouse! Such a shame I only discovered your blog near the end of your Challenge. I was thrilled to discover that you are doing what I did last year - cooking every recipe in the Kitchen Diaries. I miss the discipline of it (although it sometimes felt like a millstone round my neck!). I shall have great fun looking over the year so far and seeing how your experiences compared with mine. all that lamb! All the red mullet! Lemon and garlic in just about everything. What a year. Anyway, the blog is fab, keep doing it and I shall check on progress regularly. Many thanks for stopping by my blog too.
Hullo Maggie! It's lovely to 'meet' you! I've been using your blog from last year as a great source of inspiration - esp when I've been a little daunted by souffles, roulade, and vague timings on cooking all those red mullet! It is fun though, isn't it? I love cooking and tend to tinker with recipes, adapting them to what we like/have to hand, so one of the things I've been trying to do is to really try to stick exactly to the recipes as in the book to make myself try things the way someone else does them - it adds another dimension to the challenge, but there are definitely limits!!
Ah, looking at your blog has brought back such memories! All that butter! I usually cut it way back with no obvious detriment to the recipe. I got more and more blase about substituting things as the challenge progressed, so don't get too hung up about it! You are on target to finish in good time - keep going! Hope your cold is better.
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