While the chestnut
hot cross buns I made at Easter had been an excellent opportunity to open the tin of chestnut puree I'd had lurking in my cupboard for a while, the recipe had unfortunately only required the use of about half of it. I kept coming across the Tupperware pot containing the rest of the stuff in my fridge, generally looking at the greyish brown mass and wondering what on earth it was, before remembering and telling myself that I really must think of a way of using it before it started to go off...and then forgetting about it all over again.
Thankfully, I did remember to find some ideas for it, ahead of the mould starting to grow. The Merchant Gourmet website, where I had found the bun recipe, had a wealth of other excellent chestnutty suggestions; I was quite drawn to the "
No Meat Meatballs" - partly for the name, and partly as it called for green lentils in the recipe. Merchant Gourmet were suggesting a pouch of their own lentils, but it just so happened that I had a tin of organic green bijoux lentils in my stash, crying out to be used (which for once
didn't mean rapidly approaching or past their best before date).
Only a few days before my recipe search, the world had received the very sad news of the far-too-early passing of the great Victoria Wood, whose sketches, stand-up and sitcoms I have loved since about the age of 10. One of my favourites, and hence one I'd had on my mind at the time, was the brilliant "
Brontëburgers" monologue, in which she played a tour guide at the Bront
ë family parsonage in Howarth despite having never read any of the books ("I'm more of a Dick Francis nut"), ending with the classic lines "Snacks and light refreshments are available in the Heathcliff Nosher Bar, so do feel free to sample our popular Bront
ëburgers. Or for the fibre-conscious, our Branwell Bront
ëburgers".
Thankfully, I did remember to find some ideas for it, ahead of the mould starting to grow. The Merchant Gourmet website, where I had found the bun recipe, had a wealth of other excellent chestnutty suggestions; I was quite drawn to the "No Meat Meatballs" - partly for the name, and partly as it called for green lentils in the recipe. Merchant Gourmet were suggesting a pouch of their own lentils, but it just so happened that I had a tin of organic green bijoux lentils in my stash, crying out to be used (which for once didn't mean rapidly approaching or past their best before date).
Only a few days before my recipe search, the world had received the very sad news of the far-too-early passing of the great Victoria Wood, whose sketches, stand-up and sitcoms I have loved since about the age of 10. One of my favourites, and hence one I'd had on my mind at the time, was the brilliant "Brontëburgers" monologue, in which she played a tour guide at the Brontë family parsonage in Howarth despite having never read any of the books ("I'm more of a Dick Francis nut"), ending with the classic lines "Snacks and light refreshments are available in the Heathcliff Nosher Bar, so do feel free to sample our popular Brontëburgers. Or for the fibre-conscious, our Branwell Brontëburgers".