Sunday, 10 May 2015

Life with GOM: Chapter 3

Jumpin' fish and A1 steak sauce

There's a song called “Summertime” from Gershwin's Opera Porgy and Bess, written in Charleston in 1935. The song begins “…. and the livin' is easy, fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high....”. I didn't realise that fish actually jump. Not to be confused with flying fish you understand. It's mesmerising and therapeutic – ideal entertainment when you're drinking your morning coffee so not really a “hide” report more a “normal everyday” report.

Back to the grind – early morning run – how virtuous is that. Then it's get the chores out of the way
- food prep for supper (of my choice) for the boys. Two essential matters to be considered, my friend cooks for himself and so looks forward to being relieved of duties and, when you're jet-lagged comfort food is the best medicine, so a treat today, braised steak and onions with sautéed left over potatoes and snow peas (mange tout in UK speak). With this braised steak I pay homage to a product that is quintessentially American – A1 Steak Sauce – fantastic stuff, akin to a combination of our HP Sauce and Worcester Sauce. The sauce is used neat when BBQ'ing and can be diluted to use as a rich sauce as is the case here for slow cooking, with chicken and pork too. It's also used in sandwiches, neat.



So using fantastic braising steak, sealed, large sliced onion, sealed and then a gravy made up of A1 sauce, a Knorr beef stockpot and tomato purée the slow cooker is left to work its magic.

I've always got a list of research projects on the go and this place enables me to devote time and attention to them. Top of my list today is catching up with Edna Taylor – of Edna's Lowcountry in the Charleston Historic City Market. Edna's stall sells Low Country Gullah gourmet mixes, mixed spices, marinades and sauces – time for a trip I think.

No comments:

Post a Comment