We've been making slow but steady progress with our organic allotment. The battle with the perennial weeds, rye grass and the weather has made it a bit more challenging but a few weeks ago we finally cleared the entire plot and have been anxiously waiting to get some crops in. Yesterday we received our potatoes which have been lovingly chitted in Perthshire and we finally planted them in the ground! Typically, just
as we finished planting, the dark clouds over us relieved themselves of
their hail stones and we got pelted! Don't you just love Edinburgh
weather!?
Drum roll as the first one goes in!
Our first earlies are Sharpes Express, a heritage potato dating back to 1901. This should be a good all-rounder and we expect to have some from around June.
Our second early crop will be Charlotte potatoes, which should be ready to serve up in some delicious summer salads.
Potato #1 in all it's glory!
We'll be planting more vegetables in the next few weeks so do come back to see how we're getting on!
“Chinese
cooking is, in this sense, the manipulation of… foodstuffs as basic
ingredients. Since ingredients are not the same everywhere, Chinese food begins
to assume a local character simply by virtue of the ingredients it uses”
The next menu
for Table for Ten is inspired by our love of Chinese food. Although we live in
Scotland and love local food, our menu is designed to make the best use of
Scottish produce in Chinese-style cookery.
Taking into
account the principles of fan and ts’ai we have created a menu that
should be both delicious and harmonious.
Table for Ten Menu
十大菜单表
Dim
Sum
点心
Tomato
and Eggflower Soup
番茄和鸡蛋花汤
Peking
Duck
北京烤鸭
Jasmine
Tea Sorbet
茉莉花茶冰糕
Sweet
& Sour Prawns
Crispy
Chicken Dumplings
Bean
Sauce Noodles with Pork
甜酸辣虾 香酥鸡饺 豉汁面条猪肉
Kumquat
Fondant & Lychee Ice Cream
金橘糖果软馅及荔枝冰淇淋
“In the Chinese culture, the whole
process of preparing food from raw ingredients to morsels ready for the mouth
involves a complex of interrelated variables that is highly distinctive when
compared with other food traditions of major magnitude. At the base of this
complex is the division between fan, grains and other starch foods, and ts'ai,
vegetable and meat dishes. To prepare a balanced meal, it must have an appropriate
amount of both rice or noodle product and meat and vegetables, and ingredients
are readied along both tracks. Grains are cooked whole or as flour, making up
the fan half of the meal in various forms: fan (in the narrow sense,
"cooked rice"), steamed wheat-, millet-, or corn-flour bread, ping
("pancakes"), and noodles. Vegetables and meats are cut up and mixed
in various ways into individual dishes to constitute the ts'ai half. Even in
meals in which the staple starch portion and the meat-and-vegetable portion are
apparently joined together, such as in . . . "wonton" . . . they are
in fact put together but not mixed up, and each still retains its due
proportion and own distinction.”
Quotes taken from Chang, K.C.
(1977) Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives, Yale
University Press, Newhaven, pp429.
You may also
be interested in some of the symbolism associated with the food we have chosen:
