There was quite a bit of cooking on a grey cold Monday morning, crust free spinach quiche and red chili oil. I've been thinking about both for a while, and thought well why not both?
The red chili oil is from Yeung Man Cooking on YouTube and the quiche from a long ago internet friend (Patti, if you're reading, it's Diane's recipe!)
So many spices in play for the oil. I subbed long red pepper for the Chinese red pepper he used, caraway seeds for tahini seeds, didn't have star anise, nor ghost peppers, but I used jalapenos, same idea. I don't make as much as he does, because it lasts a while for me.
I used the jar my berbere had been in, without wiping, since the remaining berbere would add heat, fine.
On the right you see spices and seeds toasting in a dry pan, other items waiting around.
Meanwhile on the other counter
The doings for the quiche. I added in mashed firm tofu with the cheese, and beat the onions and torn up spinach into the egg mixture. Worked a treat.
Here's the chili oil, red because of the red pepper in it, and the quiche ready for the oven, 350°f for twenty minutes.
Here it is, smelling great and ready to serve
And here's lunch
This really was excellent, even if I do say it myself. The spices were mellowed by toasting and sauteing, and the onions and garlic, too.
The idea just occurred to me when I realized the onions were cooked in the oil for flavor then strained out, so there they were ready to use, no need to make another lot for the quiche. A rush of brains to the head.
I was thinking about old language after the first footing discussion, and the Viking influence on the region I'm from.
You see it in place names
And Norse words were common in the language of my childhood, particularly in the country.
If you were tugging in the thumb latch on the back door, you'd be told "Don't rive at that sneck!". And playing out: if you go up fell, don't fall in 't beck! Translation if you're playing near the hill don't fall in the stream.
When I went to the uni I had to drop a lot of terms that the other students didn't understand, being from non Norse regions. And some pronunciation, too.
We lived in Gribdale, outside of Great Ayton, famous for Captain Cook. The next village was Little Ayton, known to us as Canny Atton
but when I asked a farmer about that a couple of years ago, he being a new resident from the south, he was baffled. And there's Chop Gate, said as Shop Yat, and I hear that pronunciation is gone too.
Times change and we change with them.
Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis. That's as accurate as I can get it without researching, but I don't remember who said it.
Probably a Roman complaining the language had gone to hell since all the foreigners moved in.
Happy day everyone, you say you!
Memories of Marigold as long as we're reminiscing. This was her last night, age 16.
