Two posts? In one day? Don't get your hopes up (or your knives out)

Not only is the constant rain somewhat depressing, but it's also wreaking culinary havoc in my kitchen. Logically, I know that it's summer, the Sainsbury's magazine certainly thought two months ago that it would be summer by now, and my veggie box definitely thinks that it's summer -- the contents are largely dominated by salad ingredients, and yet we're craving warm, soothing, dare I say winter dishes. Tuesday, we had a root vegetable stew: potatoes, fennel, carrots, and onions gently simmered in wine and stock, flavored with rosemary and garlic. Gorgeous -- but hardly what we should be eating in July.

This is what we should be eating. And did, at the weekend. Bugger the rain, I thought, I'm going to make ice cream. Nigel Slater's recipe for Clotted Cream Ice Cream was too good to resist. Just milk, vanilla, sugar, egg yolks, and globs of clotted cream, one of the finest ingredients available. For my esteemed American readers, clotted cream is 60% butterfat; in contrast, heavy cream is about 30% butterfat. Clotted cream spreads like butter, standing stiff in the pot, is heaven on a spoon. And this ice cream was fabulous over a few English strawberries that had survived the torrents of water flooding the land.



Spinach is the other ingredient that's dominated our veggie box. Week after week, bags of the stuff arrive. It's doing what it's supposed to -- pushing me beyond my culinary comfort zone, challenging me to find new dishes. We've had all sorts of Middle Eastern dishes; I've sneaked it into pasta sauces; wrapped filo pastry around it to disguise its metallic sliminess. (Yeah, I don't like spinach, much.) And on Sunday, I made spinach gnocchi and served them on a simple tomato sauce, draped in parmesan. Again, not really what I'd expected to be eating on July 1, but damn fine all the same.



A blog-appropriate joke to close:

Q: Why are the Tories the cream of society?
A: Because they're rich, thick, and full of clots!

Boom boom!