I'm very lucky to live in Fulham. True, it's bit of a chav-ridden hole and I have to keep one hand on my wallet when I'm walking through town but, on the plus side, I'm only 10minutes away from a tapas bar with good Sangria and have the convenience of two huge 24hr supermarkets on my way home from work. This means I have no problem at all in picking up stuff for my last minute cooking and can happily succumb to my bargain hunting addiction on a nightly basis. I always assumed that everywhere in London was the same, at least within Zone 2. Last night I found out that things are not always so convenient.
Due to a pub trip which ended a little later than expected, I had to take an alternative route home up the King's Road. At home I had my half price veal escalopes, waiting to be turned into a scrumptious saltimbocca. Unfortunately that was the only ingredient I had, so I really needed to do some shopping.
It turns out that the King's Road is great if you want to shop for overpriced designer clothes. For everything else it is totally and utterly useless. It looks like Sloanies don't need food. Maybe they eat tweed.
It appears that saltimbocca is a very hard dish to recreate when you've only got access to a small petrol station Tesco Express store. The dish is supposed to be made with veal, fresh sage and proscuitto which are rolled up and secured with skewers before being sauteed in butter and olive oil. I only managed to get hold of dry sage and parma ham. My second problem was a bit of a suprise. All my cocktail sticks had vanished. I guess someone in my flat must have suddenly got a craving for cheese and pineapple hedgehog.
So my saltimbocca was made by brushing ground dried sage onto the veal, sealing it, wrapping it in parma ham and baking it. It wasn't too bad actually. The pan juices made a nice sauce when combined with some butter and cream. I made a red wine and mushroom risotto too, just because I'd never made red wine risotto before.
So that was a rather ‘ecclectic' meal. Now, on a related topic, I've finally found someone who talks some sense about veal and other meat products. Strangely enough, she's writing for the Daily Mail. Here's the article! Please note that British Veal is no longer reared in crates and fed a inadequate diet. You can tell if veal has been reared well if it is more pink than average.
I'm very lucky to live in Fulham. True, it's bit of a chav-ridden hole and I have to keep one hand on my wallet when I'm walking through town but, on the plus side, I'm only 10minutes away from a tapas bar with good Sangria and have the convenience of two huge 24hr supermarkets on my way home from work. This means I have no problem at all in picking up stuff for my last minute cooking and can happily succumb to my bargain hunting addiction on a nightly basis. I always assumed that everywhere in London was the same, at least within Zone 2. Last night I found out that things are not always so convenient.
Due to a pub trip which ended a little later than expected, I had to take an alternative route home up the King's Road. At home I had my half price veal escalopes, waiting to be turned into a scrumptious saltimbocca. Unfortunately that was the only ingredient I had, so I really needed to do some shopping.
It turns out that the King's Road is great if you want to shop for overpriced designer clothes. For everything else it is totally and utterly useless. It looks like Sloanies don't need food. Maybe they eat tweed.
It appears that saltimbocca is a very hard dish to recreate when you've only got access to a small petrol station Tesco Express store. The dish is supposed to be made with veal, fresh sage and proscuitto which are rolled up and secured with skewers before being sauteed in butter and olive oil. I only managed to get hold of dry sage and parma ham. My second problem was a bit of a suprise. All my cocktail sticks had vanished. I guess someone in my flat must have suddenly got a craving for cheese and pineapple hedgehog.
So my saltimbocca was made by brushing ground dried sage onto the veal, sealing it, wrapping it in parma ham and baking it. It wasn't too bad actually. The pan juices made a nice sauce when combined with some butter and cream. I made a red wine and mushroom risotto too, just because I'd never made red wine risotto before.
So that was a rather ‘ecclectic' meal. Now, on a related topic, I've finally found someone who talks some sense about veal and other meat products. Strangely enough, she's writing for the Daily Mail. Here's the article! Please note that British Veal is no longer reared in crates and fed a inadequate diet. You can tell if veal has been reared well if it is more pink than average.
