Why won’t my Milk Go Off?

I have always (slightly) believed that whilst Best Before Dates can be ignored Use By Dates should be adhered to. At least that is what I always advise others, to be honest I use my senses and brain to assess the situation for myself which is how I came to be using ten days out of date milk this morning.

Whilst making our hot drinks I had a strokey chin ponder, as I often do, about Use by Dates.  Even though this milk is so very much past its date it tastes fine and doesn’t separate when heated – there is absolutely nothing wrong with it!  At first I was impressed but now I am a little suspicious.  Wtf has happened to this milk to make it so indestructible?

So I looked up what others think about it …

According to the Daily Mail

“Pasteurised milk will keep 50 per cent longer if you store it at a lower temperature. Try storing at the back of the fridge rather than the fridge door.”

However I always keep the milk in the door so it’s not that.

Rose Gray of the River Café says …

"If it's past its use-by date it's inferior, it has started to deteriorate in one way or another. It doesn't mean you can't eat it. It just means it's not as good for you, or won't taste as nice."

I’m not sure about this one – my real man is a bit of a super-taster (in fact he's super in lots of ways) and can taste the slightest change in flavour and he says it is fine.

According to the Beeb …

“Milk will smell or taste bad long before it makes you sick”

… which is as I thought.

A chap called Dr Slim Dinsdale, who is an independent food safety and quality consultant, says lots of things on the matter but one that really resonates with me is …

"People don't make their own judgments, I see that as a retrograde step."

So that’s enough quoting (almost – see below!)

What I really, really want to know is why is my milk not going off? Seriously - any ideas?

In Other News ...

Somewhat related to the above I received lovely review of The Leftovers Handbook recently, there is quite a lot of it but the first paragraph pretty well says it all …

“I am a proud owner of your book, which was just delivered today, and wanted to tell you I am thrilled to bits with it! Honestly, I have quite a few books at home and quite of them are the "bible" type all-in-books, but I have the feeling yours will be the only one to be referred to time after time after time after time. I don't mean to belittle the work of Jamie, Hugh, Gordon, Nigel etc. etc., however I am in love with this book because it sort of reminds us what "back to basics" should look like.”

Tesco offers - gorgeous 3 course meal for 70p!

Maybe no such thing as a free lunch - but almost!

Did you see that - 70p the lot!

This was thanks to a successful shopping trip where we garnered the following ...

~   2 x 250g Extra Thick Brandy Cream reduced from (I think) 94p to 14p ea
~   400g strawberries, reduced from 3.00 to 45p
~   2 x 250g asparagus, reduced from 1.65 to 25p ea
~   500g red grapes reduced from 2.00 to 30p
~   500g parsnips reduced from 1.00 to 16p

So that is 1.69 instead of 9.53 – quite good n’est pas? 

All of the produce was in prime condition, despite the fact that some was past its best before date, and in fact the parsnips were superb. (Talking of best before dates on New Year’s Day my real man remarked on how excellent the tomatoes in his salad were, I checked the date on them – best before 29^th November!  They must have been gobsmackingly marvellous then!)

This is just my kind of thing, as you probably know I started Sudden Lunch! (and also wrote “The Leftovers Handbook”) because this sort of spontaneous “wtf shall I do with this” kind of cooking is my favourite.  

The important thing, when getting a bargain, is to make sure you don’t spend more than usual making something good with it This what I have done so far with my bounty without lashing out on anything extra; the costs I have calculated include the pasta, olive oil, vanilla etc., everything in fact.

~  Parsnips  ~

I took these out of the bag as soon as we got home as they were wet so no label to show but they were 500g for 16p reduced from 1.00.

Once I wiped them off I have to say they were 8 of the finest parsnips it’s ever been my privilege to meet!  Lots of ideas for them but this is one I have been pondering for some time ...

Tostones (sounds rude, doesn't it!)

These are fritters made in Puerto Rico from plantains but I’ve long thought that parsnips would be a good, if not better, alternative.

parsnips
olive oil or similar
crunchy sea salt

~   Have ready a bowl of cold water.
~   Cut the clean dry parsnips into slices about 1cm/½” thick.
~   Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil, a depth of about 6mm/¼”, in a frying pan large enough to take parsnips in one layer.
~   Fry the parsnips gently till tender and golden.
~   Remove from the pan (keeping the pan of oil, you will need it again in a minute) drain and then press each slice to flatten it which will break open the edges a little.
~   Drop the parsnip slices into the water.
~   Reheat the oil, lift one slice of parsnip at a time from the water, shake off any drips and return to the hot oil.
~   Give them a minute or so more per side, drain and serve warm with crunchy sea salt.

My verdict – lovely; sweet and salty, soft and crunchy!  I used just half a parsnip so let’s see ... 16p for 8 parsnips = 1p!!! Let’s be generous – 3p with the oil and salt!

This leaves me with 7½ parsnips but not to worry there is probably a roast coming up on Sunday and roast parsnips are always welcome, or maybe Roasted Parsnip Soup 

~  Asparagus  ~

“Asparagus stirs up lust in man and woman.”
see here for details!

These were quite thick stalks from Peru.  With one pack I made ...

Asparagus Pesto

250g asparagus
30g cashews (or other nut if it’s easier – pine nuts are traditional)
1 garlic clove
60ml olive oil
30g grated Parmesan

~   Snap the ends off the asparagus and discard, cut off the tips and set aside.
~   Slice the body of the spears.
~   Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and put a bowl of cold water nearby.
~   Add the slices asparagus to the boiling water, boil for 3 minutes till crisply tender, drain and immediately plunge (as they say in recipes) into the cold water.
~   Drain the asparagus.
~   In a food processor pulse together the cashews and garlic.
~   Add the asparagus, olive oil and process to a purée.
~   Stir in the Parmesan by hand.
~   Taste and season.

This was enough pesto to sauce tagliatelle for 2 so I had it for lunch the next day too. I always want a bit of crunch with my meals so I tossed the tips together with 3 coarsely chopped slices of chorizo (15p) and half a crust of bread in small dice (½p?) in a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  I cooked this in a hot oven (that was already on for something else so no waste there) for about 8 minutes till the chorizo and bread were crisp and the asparagus al dente.  A perfect topping.

~  Extra Thick Brandy Cream  ~ 

Out of date on 6^th January but still delectable on the 9^th.  With one I made ...

Brandied Vanilla Ice Cream

This is, of course, based on my humungously useful, quick, easy, no churn recipe – just the brandied cream, 100g of condensed milk and tiny bit of vanilla paste.  So 14p + condensed milk 36p + say 3p for the vanilla = 53p for 2 portions.  Real man was happy to eat this.

The ice cream was superbly rich and creamy, probably the brandy content helped a lot with this. (More on this splendid recipe, how alcohol and can help, what else helps, my genius key recipe plus 100+ more recipes, accoutrements, serving suggestions etc. in my ebook – go here to read more about it and see if you fancy a copy, its very cheap!)

I served it with strawberry sauce – see below ***

~  Strawberries  ~

From Egypt; nice to think that probably Cleopatra feasted on these!

The were slightly sharp and a bit on the firm side but with a good flavour so I decided to make ice cream using the same basic recipe. It too was a gorgeous texture and made much better use of the strawberries than just eating them. The cost was 45p + 14p + 36p = 95p but it made 3 or 4 portions.  I cooked the berries with a couple of tablespoons of sugar and when I drained the strawberries for the ice cream, I boiled down the resultant juices to make a sauce I served with the Brandied Vanilla Ice Cream.

~  Red Grapes  ~

I’ll probably just eat these, mostly with St. Agur my favourite blue cheese, or perhaps on a pizza with said St. Agur, I’ve done it before and it works beautifully!

Sweetfire Beetroot Recipes

It’s the most wonderful time of year, again.  No, not that one – the time of year when Tesco Head Office fails to comprehend or take on board the severe drop in customers when the season ends and the tourists leave Padstow!  They stock up like maniacs and we pick up so many fabulous bargains that we actually share them with the neighbours!

A lovely find, and something I had not tasted before was these little beauties. They are called Sweetfire Baby Beetroot and are indeed sweet and spicy, in fact I hope the neighbours didn't have too much of a surprise, we didn't realise how hot they are.

So what did I do with this bounty? Firstly I made ...

Beetroot & Boursin Risotto 

Serves 2

1 tbsp olive oil or butter
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, finely minced
200g risotto rice, such as Arborio or Carnaroli
½ glass of white wine
500ml or so vegetable stock, gently simmering with the lid on
6 Sweetfire baby beetroot
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp or so Boursin (or other cream cheese)

~   Gently cook the onion in the oil or butter in a saucepan till tender.
~   Stir in the garlic and cook a minute or two more.
~   Stir in the rice and continue cooking and stirring for 7–8 minutes until it looks translucent.

~   Add the wine and cook, stirring, until absorbed.

~   Add a ladleful of hot stock and continue to cook, stirring and staring into space till that too is absorbed. Carry on like this with the stock until the rice is just tender with a little bite in the middle (al dente) and is coated in creamy sauce which will take about 20 minutes. It may not take all the stock or might need a little more, use your judgment.
~   Stir in the beetroot and then the Boursin.

~   Taste and season and stir over the heat just long enough to mingle in the cheese and heat through the beetroot.

~   Serve immediately.

Riso al Salto

With the leftover risotto (I never seem to finish my dinners!) I made Riso al Salto, or “leftover risotto fritter thing” as it’s known in the UK, for a Sudden Lunch.  Just form the cold risotto (it has to be cold or it won’t work) into a cake and fry in a little olive oil till hot and crisp.

Sweetfire Beetroot Soup 

Serves 2

This is another variation on my Super Flexible Recipe for Soup.

Maybe pin this for later!

1 medium red onion – thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small floury potato – peeled and thinly sliced
vegetable stock
6-8 baby beetroot – coarsely chopped

~   Cook the onions in the oil exactly as explained here which is The Best Way to Cook Onions!
~   Peel and slice the potato and add to the onions.
~   Add just enough stock to cover the potatoes, bring to the boil, turn down the heat, put on the lid,) and simmer till the potatoes are tender.
~   Stir in the beetroot and cook for 5 more minutes.
~   Purée in a liquidiser, food processor or with a liquidiser on a stick adding more stock (or cream) to make it just how you like it.
~   Taste and season.
~   Serve topped with a little sour cream if you can – it goes really well.

After spurning beets for years and years due to having been frightened by them as a child I am now starting to realise that they are not the demon veg I thought they were. This is the second time I’ve had a go with them in just a couple of months. 

McDonald's ...

A week or two ago, under duress, my real man and I went into a McDonald's for breakfast.  It was his first visit and the only time I went into one before was about 25 years ago when I was showing a friend why I didn’t think it was real food.  At the time I think there was a sign on the wall saying ...

"Now Made with Real Chicken!!"

On this visit I had pancakes with maple syrup – they tasted fine but were ultra-flabby as one would expect, I suppose, as they'd been steaming in a box. My coffee was fine.  My darling had an egg McMuffin which he said tasted OK but was tiny.  

Actually I can see that McDonalds are a boon to people on the road who just need to refuel but in recent, unrelated to my visit, discussions on FB I have read of mothers who take their children to McD every morning for breakfast on the way to school.  Is that cos they are poor?  Because if so I’ve got news for them!

For how to easily make all sorts of delicious pancakes see here!

Generally speaking the weather is still fab in Cornwall and we've been for a lovely wander in the countryside three days in a row. Our primroses and lots of other flowers are blooming and we saw rhododendrons in bud. Is this normal can anyone tell me?

Bargain Hunt ~ please ignore this post if you live in the St. Austell area!

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I had a bit of a rant about a girl who claimed to be too poor to eat well. I’ve been pondering on this as I eat really well on a low budget and I believe that this is not only because I know how to cook but also because I know how to shop ie. I pick up a lot of bargains. For instance this is what I've eaten over the past few days.

Lemony, Peppery Sea Bass Fillets with Asparagus and Sautéed New Potatoes ~ 90p

This was quickly and economically cooked in one pan. I had a few cooked new potatoes leftover from an earlier meal so sautéed them in a little oil till crisp then pushed them to one side of the pan and pulled that side off the heat.  I wiped out the rest of the pan, added a knob of butter, the seasoned fish fillets and 3 stalks of asparagus, sliced.  Both the fish and the asparagus took just a few minutes to cook. I served up the potatoes before sprinkling the fish and asparagus with freshly squeezed lemon and a good old grind of black pepper. 

The sea bass was 66p, reduced from 4.40, the asparagus 49p for 9 stalks so about 16p, the new potatoes were 10p for a kilo so perhaps 1p!

Scallops in a Creamy Leek Sauce, in Crispy Buckwheat Pancakes ~ 90p

½ small leek – cleaned and thinly sliced

7g butter

1 tbsp white wine or vegetable stock
60ml double cream

80g raw scallops

~   Melt the butter in a small pan and stir in the leeks to coat thoroughly.

~   Turn down the heat and press something suitable (ie. a butter wrapper, greaseproof paper of piece of foil) directly onto the surface of the leeks.  Cover the pan.

~   Cook gently for 10-15 minutes keeping an eye on things and giving the occasional stir till very tender.
~   Add the wine or stock and allow to simmer for a minute or two.
~   Stir in the cream, bring to a boil then turn down the heat add the scallops and simmer gently for just a minute.

Serve with crispy buckwheat pancakes the recipe for which is here.

The pancake recipe makes 6-8 crepes so I ate 2 and froze the rest, in pairs, for my future delectation (the best way to reheat them is individually in a dry frying pan so that they crisp up again).  Buckwheat flour, which is gluten free, is about £2 a kilo, so my recipe for 6-8 crepes costs about 70p which is about 20p for the crepes, the scallops were reduced from £4.00 to 60p so 30p for them, ½ leek is about 20p, so with the wine and cream – say 90p.

Peppered Steak Salad ~ £1.70

We always pick up the little ends of steak reduced in the supermarket, I use half for either this salad or for Bulgogi and the other half in a fry up for my real man.  On average a small fillet steak trimming costs about £2.50 so that’s £1.25 for my share. handful of lettuce from our favourite mixed bag – 20p, pepper, brandy, cream say 35p. The recipe for the salad is here and as I say it is one of my most popular dishes ever.

Roasted Salmon with Sweet Potato Fries ~ £1.36

Some while ago Jamie Oliver was berated for the expensive ingredients in his book “Save with Jamie” and in particular people seemed aghast at his use of salmon but I can see his point because occasionally Tesco have a half price offer on whole salmon (I used to scale and fillet them myself but recently discovered they’ll do it for you which is even better).  A whole 4kg or so salmon costs about £26 normally, but we never buy one for more than half price, ie. £13.00 and I have seen them occasionally for £6.50!!!

Working it out on the half price version I cut it into about 16 portions so 81p each.  I always keep a sweet potato in stock, 1 sweet potato costs about 60p and is too much for me but the lucky thing is the remaining cut portion keeps well in the fridge with the cut edge covered for about 10 days to 2 weeks so I get three goes at it. Salmon 81p, sweet potato fries 20p, handful of salad 35p = £1.36.

Even better – sometimes I leave a little of the salmon and have it for lunch the next day ... 

Courgette Fritters with Salmon Mayonnaise ~ very little!

Quite often I can’t quite finish my salmon (aren’t I pathetic) so, in this case, I mixed the leftovers with mayonnaise and ate it with courgette fritters using this universal fritter recipe mainly because  we bought 3 gorgeous courgettes for 8p! 

Ham & Pease Pudding Soup with Crunchy Croutons ~ say 30p

This is thick, warming, savoury and delicious and literally costs pennies. See here for the recipe and add some shredded ham if you can. 

This time I served it with croutons about which I hold strong opinions; they should be torn rather than cut as this way you get lots of little ridges and points to go crunchy. Toss with a drizzle of olive oil plus salt and pepper, spread on a baking tray and pop in the oven for a few minutes till golden and crunchy. It’s best to make these when you have the oven on for something else so I can’t give exact timings as I don’t know what temperature you’ll be using but it’s not long. If you keep a collection of bread scraps in the freezer (old crusts and trimmings) they cost virtually nothing whereas a 100g bag of croutons from the supermarket is about £1.00!  Rip off!

I eat this well and this cheaply all the time and if I can do it so can anybody because not only is the food I use cheap but in most cases it’s a doddle to cook and takes very little time or energy – either mine or the electricity type. I realise that as I love cooking and have been at it for years this sort of thing is easy for me but it really honestly ponestly isn’t difficult – and there’s loads and loads of info out there to help, even some stuff by me!  I also know that it is probably easier for me just cooking for myself (and my real man, this is how he eats) but I am confident that I could feed a family reasonably cheaply and healthily too.

We don’t live anywhere particularly bargainaceous (inland Cornwall, we usually shop in St. Austell Tesco) and we don't spend a lot of time searching out deals. We only shop once a week but we do always pick up any bargains we see and luckily I know what to do with them. Often the first step is put it in the freezer which means I always have lots of inspirational bits and pieces to turn to. If you live in the St. Austell area I would, of course, appreciate it if you’d please ignore the above post and leave all the bargains for us!

If you have the time and the inclination it is possible to do the job even better; we have friends who make a point of visiting Morrisons at about 3.30 on Sunday afternoons and they really clean up.  They bought 4½lb vine ripened tomatoes for 45p a couple of weeks ago – respect!

Chocolat Chocolat ~ handmade chocolates, a review.

Bespoke Chocolate Bars - what a good idea!
Click here to Tweet this 

Oh happy day – look what came in the post this morning! Lovely chocolate from Chocolat Chocolat, a company in Cambridge who, among other chocolatey things, are making bespoke chocolate bars. 

What an excellent idea!

First you choose your handmade chocolate (from dark 70%, dark 55%, milk 34%, caramel 34% and white 28%) and then the hard work starts – choose up to three toppings from, brace yourself:

~   Fruits: dried apples, apricots, cranberries, raspberries, strawberries, raisins and sultanas plus banana chips.

~   Nuts: grilled flaked almonds or whole caramelised almonds, hazelnuts, praline, coconut flakes, pecans, caramelised pistachios and walnuts.

~   Herbs & Spices: Aniseed, cardamom, cinnamon, chilli espelette (a mild aromatic Basque chilli), fennel, crystallised ginger, lavender, liquorice, crystallised mint, pink peppercorns, poppy seeds crystallised rose petals, fleur de sel, and crystallised violet petals, Plus: Chocolate coffee beans, cocoa nibs, Earl Grey tea, espresso coffee grains

~   Confectionary: Amaretti crumbs, chocolate buttons, cappuccino callets (posh chocolate chips), crunchy balls of various flavours, chocolate coated honeycomb, fudge, fudge brownie, feuilletine wafer crunch, malt balls, marshmallows, meringue, chocolate crisp, popping candy, shortcake, gingerbread.

~   Decadent: Gold or silver flake.

There is also an option to have a message on your bar of chocolate. They suggest Thank You, Happy Birthday or I Love You but I asked for Sudden Lunch!

My Choices

I tried the dark chocolate first, for which the only addition I had asked for was fleur de sel. I love salted dark chocolate so popped a bit in my mouth almost as soon as I’d got it out the packet. I then accidentally went all dreamy and thoughtful which I think is a good sign. 

Milk chocolate with espresso powder and fudge pieces, good choice me! Although I was not immediately gobsmacked as with the dark chocky I notice that I have to keep trying it again and again so think I would describe it as moreish.

I was nervous of eating the gold flake but it was fine; innocuous but very pretty. The orange complimented the white chocolate well, the chocolate was surprisingly crumbly but that is not necessarily a bad thing!

In addition to the bespoke chocolate bars Chocolat Chocolat offer chocolate bouquets, buttons, hot chocolate, gift boxes and all sorts of other goodies.  Even more – they do Chocolate Making and Chocolate Tasting courses and all sorts of other interesting things. I suggest you get over to their site for a browse! Or pop into their shop if you are in the area, it is according to them, in historic centre of the city opposite Emmanuel and just around the corner from Darwin in a 19th century building.

A few provisos, not all of them serious ...

~  The chocolate was very well packaged indeed so don’t try to open a bar when hungry.

~  The products are not cheap, £5.95 for a 100g bar but for a special occasion or a gift probably worth the investment.

~   I think they may need to practice their handwriting a bit!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, oddly enough. Ads on the telly, Christmas themed programmes, Christmas goodies in the shops and in some cases even Christmas trees and I must say this pre-empting of the festive is season is not something I really go along with. You may remember my discombobulation a couple of years ago when this appeared in Padstow Tesco store on 2^nd May 2012!

Well, having had a bit of a rant there I think I might join in to point out that a little something from Chocolat Chocolate would make a rather lovely Christmas prezzie or stocking filler.

In Other News

~   Speaking of chocolate, if you think I’m lucky (and I am) did you see the article in The Western Morning News about The Best Jobs in Devon and Cornwall?  It mentions my blogging friend Choclette, now she’s really given some thought to her lifestyle!

Click here ~ go on!