On a recent trip to Scotland in which she raided a
well-stocked farm shop, my Mum picked up a packet of smoked salmon trimmings.
I’ve heard of them of course and just assumed they were cheaper because they
were scraps, which is true but holy moley, they’re also as smoky as anything! As
the outer parts of smoked salmon, trimmings are exposed to the full whack of
smouldering woodchips in the smokehouse. I actually needed to soak ours in milk
for an hour to reduce the pungency but after that they were good to go! The
default recipe for trimmings seems to be paté; which has never appealed to me. Equally
sacrilegious when it comes to smoked salmon is the prospect of a quiche; if you
buy it smoked, you don’t cook it! Come on, people don’t buy whiskey to flambé,
or stir caviar into a risotto, do they? However, with my trimmings so
unbelievably strong I had to make an exception to my rule, labelling them “tartlets”
in the hope of getting away with it. Plus, the salmon was actually on the turn
and cooking it seemed to be the best option. I’m sorry most of my recipes deal
with semi-rotten foodstuffs from the back of our fridge; that’s what cooking’s
all about, isn’t it?
In a moment of madness, I decided to volunteer in a flour
mill at York’s Castle Museum. Wild at the thought of working in a mill, I
underestimated how very cold it was in there and how little time I actually had
to work in the place. Plus, little gripe here: it’s a crime that museum funding
is so low that they have to rely on volunteers to run things. As a student, I’m
not ashamed to admit I really did need money. I am ashamed, however, to admit that as a result of the wallet, I had
to give up volunteering before I’d even begun! One good thing that came out of
this process was that the thought of being able to work in a “demonstration
bread kitchen” got me so excited, that I quickly whipped up some bagels to give
to people in charge to land me the job. Which would have worked, if anyone
cared. Volunteers just need to turn up, they don’t need to bring bribery
bagels, do they? I ate them myself and gave some to my neighbour, Maria.
