Rolling, rolling, rolling!

Christopher over 2 years ago

Good to see you haven't forgotten what your mum taught you. Very nice.

How is everyone at Casa Hunt doing? I've been away far too long and am trying to catch up reading when I have a few moments.

Neville Hunt over 2 years ago

Thanks Christopher. We seem to be OK now. My wife had a ‘routine’ operation a week before Christmas to remove her gallbladder as she’d had gallstones troubling her for some years. It’s a very common operation using keyhole surgery... quick and neat. However, the surgeon accidentally cut something he shouldn’t have and she was in agony overnight at home. I rushed her back to hospital and she had another operation and an endoscopy to try to fix it. She apparently narrowly avoided sepsis, was in hospital over Christmas....

Neville Hunt over 2 years ago

....Meanwhile... my son in law who lives with my daughter in the next village had got Covid and their whole family got it.... and me too! So when my wife finally got home, she had to isolate... in her cell downstairs and I had to keep away at the top of the house, while cooking her meals as she was still very poorly. Kinda shitty all round, but might inspire a drabble series🥴. So my output on Drablr has taken a bit of a knock! I hope you’re getting over whatever has laid you low, Christopher.

Richard Hunt over 2 years ago

This is Seville Orange time of year, but you can freeze them (and defrost them) quite successfully. We do. I like the marmalade best with freshly made Irish Soda Bread - for the making of which I have a very old, tried and tested recipe. Could write it up in a Drabble, I suppose, for anyone who wanted it. What do you think?

Neville Hunt over 2 years ago

Irish Soda Bread recipe? Sounds like a great idea! Is it for making in a bread maker (which I have) or the kneads must method which doubles up as a work-out?

Richard Hunt over 2 years ago

As I said, it is a very old recipe, gleaned from Ireland, and originates from a time when there was no electricity or gas, let alone bread makers. Really. It needs kneading, but it is quite quick to make, and even quicker to devour … especially with others taking half of it. I shall be making a loaf before long, so will convert the recipe to a Drabble-friendly version and post it.

VerityAlways over 2 years ago

I'm drooling, Neville. Share the secret sauce, please!!

VerityAlways over 2 years ago

Neville, ever since you fed oranges to my neurons, the citric reaction has me drooling for an orange cake! Have you tried them with these? instead of the juice or crush? I read a gluten-free version with almond flour and eggs

Neville Hunt over 2 years ago

I’ve never mad a marmalade cake so far, Verity, but I think it could be rather nice. I don’t know if you have marmalade in the US, as it’s very English. In case you don’t know it or haven’t tried it, its a kind of preserve (jam) we tend to have on toast at breakfast. It’s made from special very bitter oranges from the Spanish city of Seville. These oranges are only available in January for a few weeks, and because we love Seville orange marmalade so much, I make enough marmalade for a whole year! I can send the recipe, but it’s the method that matters most.

VerityAlways over 2 years ago

Thank you, Neville! Grandma used to make some amazing jams and had a chance at marmalade too!
I would love your recipe and if you could send some of your precious at
Hogger House, Drool Street, Gluttony-101 ;))

VerityAlways over 2 years ago

PS- managed some sub-standard drabble to a satisfying dessert! Read my "Orangealicious" drabble

Neville Hunt over 2 years ago

Verity, thanks for your interest. I will attempt to drabblify the ‘recipe’... although the actual ingredients are few and the weights/volumes are very simple. It’s the method that maybe counts most. The most important ingredient is the particular orange... the Seville Orange - like no other fruit called orange. It is very bitter, ugly and absolutely full of pips. You wouldn’t want to peel and eat one, but when ‘preserved’ the taste is very particular. In fact divine!

VerityAlways over 2 years ago

I'll have to hunt that type of bitter one's but I'll love to savor the recipe! you certainly write some delicious!!

Neville Hunt over 2 years ago

I wonder if Seville Oranges actually make it across the Atlantic. Maybe the same variety of this strange ‘orange’ is grown in California somewhere? The people of Sevilla in Spain must have thought they had executed a most wonderful con when they sold the absolutely crap oranges they grew to the mad English. Ugly, full of pips, hardly any juice and what there was was bitter as hell! But the crazy English, and/or Scots made from them something divine (imho). You can’t seem to get the same preserve in Europe, and certainly not in Spain.... continued...

Neville Hunt over 2 years ago

...The oranges appear here only in January for about three weeks maximum. That’s why I make enough Seville Orange marmalade for more than a whole year each January. But as my brother has commented elsewhere on Drablr, the oranges freeze very well - in case one runs out mid-year! (I inadvertently kept some frozen at the bottom of a chest freezer for 15 years once and they still made fantastic marmalade!)

VerityAlways over 2 years ago

Thank you so much for the brief, Neville! You saved me some time orangeoogling!
I can't believe you made marmalade out of 15-year-old oranges. I would have sold it off in some auction!