Gordon Ramsay's Taste of Christmas

[owlfish]

The Taste Company (or whatever they're called) organized one of my favorite yearly events: Taste of London. This year, they've branched out into their first Taste of Christmas at Excel, a direct competitor to the BBC Good Food Show. I went on Saturday with fjm and C., through a hall of artificial, falling snow, to explore it

Comments

[tisiphone]

There wouldn't happen to be a recipe for that frangipane tart, would there? Frangipane tart is my nemesis, my white whale, my will-o-the-wisp! I keep looking for a good recipe, and ending up with concrete and pear soup :(

[owlfish]

Yes! The wonders of an accompanying program book, handed to us in a bag on the way out along with a bottle of water and a bottle of lager. On page 76, the recipe (along with a Volvo ad

[nisaba]

What is frangipani when it's not a flower?

[owlfish]

Frangipane is a French almond paste, used in a variety of ways, usually sweet, such as filling for a cake or pastry. I had to look up the flower! And now I know they're spelled differently - but only the last letter.

Fascinating - here's what the OED hypothesizes about their origins:
[a. F. frangipane, said to be from Frangipani, the name of the inventor.]

And for the earliest use of the flower's name:
1842 Curtis's Bot. Mag. LXVIII. 3952 It is from this circumstance [the white juice], probably, that the French call the species of this Genus ‘Franchipanier’, Franchipane being coagulated milk.]

[stormwindz]

I suspect they weren't angels, but Santa Lucia and her attendants. Though if they all had candles then they were all dressed as Santa Lucia which is a bit wrong and something started only recently in the interests of equality (because otherwise all the little girls who didn't get chosen might feel bad...)

Sweden is indeed one of the few places that celebrates the 13 December as a holiday, and the reasons behind it, should one choose to look into it, are rather arbitrary (and as recent as the 1800s) as are the traditions and symbology involved. My personal theory is that the Protestant Christmas failed to absorb enough local tradition that another wintertime holiday was needed.

[owlfish]

How useful you are! You're right, only one of them had the wreath; the others, however, I'm quite sure, were wearing golden halos. (Now I wish I'd taken photos to be sure!) They were all in white with gold sashes at their waists.

I've long been fond - if ignorant - about Santa Lucia, since my undergraduate friend SmithKatie celebrated her day every year. Also, I like candles.

[owlfish]

Looking around at photos - I bet you're right all all counts. I read head wreaths (without candles) as halos, whatever it was they looked like.

[owlfish]

It was a really lovely use of olives, both sweet and salty, and used delicately as a seasoning rather than for bulk at all.

[zoo_music_girl]

So what constitutes an English minestrone? I think the Italian version is a pasta soup with whatever vegetables and meat is to hand, but I could be wrong!

[owlfish]

It must have pasta in it when it's an English minestrone. In Italy, it must have vegetables - it's a hearty vegetable soup. Rice or pasta are usual too, but it doesn't have to be pasta. Potato cubes are good too. Meat is by no means required for the Italian version; I don't know if it's required for the English one. Perhaps it is?

[zoo_music_girl]

My local veggie restaurant does a good soup they call a minestrone. It's pasta, tomato based with lots of veg.

[desperance]

Um, was there a recipe for the black olive caramel etc? If you can be bothered typing it out...? *is intrigued*

[owlfish]

Unfortunately, no. The only Maze recipe is Slow-cooked chicken with smoked mussel and brown bread sauce (from the Maze Cookbook), which is not at all the same thing (obviously).

However it's made, I suspect it involves skinning them, simmering them extensively before purée'ing, and a fair amount of sugar to make it into a caramel. Plus salt for seasoning - I would use larger flaked salt in a recreation attempt, I think.

Write to Maze and ask? I'd love to know too.