Garnish

Rowan came round this morning to learn some knife skills. She's contributing to a buffet tomorrow and wanted some garnishes. This grew from a text message the other day which featured a crown-cut grapefruit and the question "Do you know how I do this?". The answer was yes, and much more.

The carrot hearts are a bit naff because the carrot was past its best but the tomato roses have come out okay, the one on the right is from a cherry tomato hence it's smaller. The radish is one that Rowan did after a bit of practice and the cucumber is the easiest thing to do but I'll have to drop the lemon striper round as she forgot to pick it up on a one-day borrow. I admit that I had to look the name up - I've put a photo of it in the extras so that you know what we're talking about I've also made a loaf, and given half to Rowan, and I'm making some focaccia (now out of the oven so image included). All while getting work done/finished/progressed as required. Plenty of phone calls made and a nagging problem with a system finally nailed. Still stuff to do but I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

We're not all going to be together over Christmas so on Sunday I'm feeding two children, including the one from Vega. I'm thinking of doing stuffed cabbage leaves as part of the meal - I've bought a cabbage and I keep looking at it when I go into the kitchen, I'm visualising how to do it rather like golfers visualise the shot. My visualisation is slightly more fraught with risk because I've not done this before....... I've done dolmades so I'm guessing that the cabbage thing is adjacent and the main wrinkle is in getting the leaves soft enough for folding. As my treasured child from Vega is to be included the filling will be rice and sultanas and lemon zest rather than minced meat.