Welcome to series 3 of the Culinary Alphabet…WHERE the middle letter is E…

Nothing is as it seems here…this new series is the brainchild of Chel Owens who writes at A wife, My Verse, and Every Little Thing…my followers are so good to me they think up all sorts of permutations of the Alphabet…not sure if they want me to call it quits or what they will come up with next…Chel like Pete, however, will be called on to make her contribution every two weeks…they don’t get off scot-free…so I hope you have started brainstorming Chel…haha x

So what’s in store? In this series the A, B, C, etc will be the middle letter, for example, Brawn, Cabbage, and Yucca… how easy that will be who knows I am sure some of the letters of the alphabet could cause the grey matter to rebel or implode…haha…I also don’t want to use plurals to form a word as I may need that word for another letter and its sort of cheating I think…unless of course I really get stuck…which I am sure will happen…

Today it is words where the middle letter is E... vinegar on your chips … with a nice slice of homemade bread or maybe you are having pizza with extra pepperoni …spoilt for choice it seems…How about a cup of tea to help you make up your mind.

Bream:

Bream, is a common European food and game fish belonging to the carp family, Cyprinidae, found in lakes and slow rivers. This delicate white fish can be baked, fried, grilled or steamed.

Bread:

Eaten around the world it comes in many forms…Arepa Bread is a flat, round, cornmeal patty that is eaten in Venezuela and Colombia. It can be baked, fried or cooked on a charcoal grill, with fillings like grated cheese, ham, black beans, chicken salad and avocado, shredded beef or Perico (Venezuelan-style scrambled eggs). I will be sharing the recipe at a later date x

Wholemeal Bread made with whole flour has nothing taken out…the flour is coarser in texture than white flour, brown wholemeal flour is the finely ground meal of whole wheat berries. Bran and germ are retained during processing, making wholemeal flour higher in fibre and more nutritious than white flour.

Casserole:

Getting down to the basics, a casserole is any food that is cooked and served in the same dish. They are typically baked and can consist of proteins like beef, chicken, or fish, a variety of vegetables, or almost anything else you can think of. … Then, it is cooked uncovered in an oven.

Cream:

Think strawberries and cream or scones with jam and clotted cream…A versatile cooking ingredient it comes in many forms…It can be a rich dairy product or if made with coconut cream it is vegan and dairy-free…

Crepe:

A version of a pancake my pancakes are similar to crepes as I make mine very thin…They can be sweet or savoury and in my book always a delightful treat.

Cress:

Egg and cress sandwiches are my favourites since childhood…made with garden cress we used to grow it on the window sill or you can get the peppery watercress which is grown in water…both are delightful in a sandwich or a salad…the watercress is lovely wilted in rice it just gives the rice that peppery taste and is lovely with chicken or pork in an orange-based sauce…with watercress rice...Delicious.

Watercress is also packed with nutrients and often called a superfood.

Goosefish:

The monkfish, or goosefish which is its official name, is a type of anglerfish that lives on the bottom of the ocean throughout the Atlantic.

Grapevine:

No! not a record by Marvin Gaye...but for you an Acappella version…

it is however a vine that grows the grapes that your favourite vino is made from…

Knead:

The best thing to relieve stress is to get kneading that bread…in breadmaking, kneading is a process used to mix the ingredients and add strength to the final product…Your beautiful homemade bread.

Nigella Seeds:

One of the oldest spices known to be used, nigella seeds were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb and are mentioned in the Bible’s Old Testament. The tiny black seeds have a slightly bitter taste with some of the pungency of onion, but also offer many other subtle nuances of flavour.

Their appearance means they are commonly called black onion seed, but they have nothing to do with the onion family.

Pepperoni:

I love Pepperoni on pizza and in paella…a  variety of salami, made from cured pork and beef seasoned with paprika or other chilli pepper.

Polenta:

Polenta is a dish of boiled cornmeal that was historically made from other grains. It may be served as a hot porridge, or it may be allowed to cool and solidify into a loaf that can be baked, fried, or grilled…it seems that polenta chips are quite popular on the cooking programmes.

Ramekin:

A small glazed ceramic dish used in cooking and for serving dishes like a souffle or a creme caramel…sometimes made from other materials.

Rosella:

A pretty fruit with fleshy flowers…The Rosella fruit   One of my favourite flowers that I use for jam/jelly/chutney or dried I make a nice tea from it which is reminiscent of blackberry tea for me or Ribena.

When I first saw this beautiful fruit I had only ever seen them dried before not fresh…it was something new to try… I just love it when I come across something I have not used or seen before…I get so excited.

Sauternes:

Are a French sweet wine…a golden wine which can be very expensive and is often sold in half bottles…From the Graves region in Bordeaux sweet wines are not my favourite…but they are a very popular dessert wine around the world.

Sieve:

A metal or nylon kitchen utensil held in a frame…used for straining solids from liquids and reducing to a pulp also for separating coarser from fine particles from flour or other dried goods.

Speck:

Speck is a type of cured, lightly smoked ham. It’s typically made in South Tyrol, a province in northeast Italy known for its snow-capped Dolomite mountains and strong German-Austrian influence. Although a close cousin to prosciutto Crudo, speck is worthy of its own distinction when it comes to cured hams.

Spelt:

Is an ancient grain…also known as hulled wheat or Dinkel wheat. Nutritionally, it is very similar to wheat. However, comparisons have shown it to be slightly higher in zinc and protein.

Tangerine:

Is a type of mandarin orange…The difference is in the skin The tangerine has a darker orange skin the mandarin skin is a lighter orange.

Tea:

Is an aromatic beverage made by pouring boiling or hot water over cured or fresh leaves…it is said there are over 20,000 different teas in the world…it can be broken down to black, white, green, yellow and oolong…

A Britsh tradition …the kettle goes on for many occasions, funerals, divorces, births, happy news, sad news or just because…Black tea has always been the most popular but other teas are now slowly gaining ground…my favourite is Oolong…What’s Yours?

Vinegar:

Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace chemicals that may include flavourings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, acetic acid is produced by the fermentation of ethanol or sugars by acetic acid bacteria.

That said my abiding memory is eating freshly cooked fish and chips out of newspaper sitting beside the sea…

Vinegar of course now comes in so many types and I use some of them quite regularly in my kitchen those being Apple Cider Vinegar. Balsamic Vinegar, Red Wine Vinegar, Black Vinegar, White Vinegar and fruit Vinegar…Vinegar deserves a whole post, not just a few lines but for today…that’s what it is…What’s your favourite vinegar?

That’s all for today for the letter E…

Thank you so much for your visit I hope you have enjoyed the read…See you tomorrow for another episode of made from scratch… Love Carol xxx