A Medley

Last week was pretty intense posting-wise - Patricia Hewitt, Antracycline side effects, Kezia with chicken pox and Nanda in hospital.

Kezia is going a bit stir-crazy, not directly from the chicken pox but because she has to be in isolation and is thus confined to a single room - cannot go outside, cannot go on the ward, wander the corridors, go to the cafeteria etc etc. I hear today that Nanda's mobile has gone on the blink, Kezia had to have a blood transfusion on Saturday and they hope to go home tomorrow.

Jaime, on the other hand. seems to be having a good time staying with M. When I phoned on Friday, he was on the beach at Morecambe Bay!

Which brings me on to cockles. Morecambe Bay was the scene of a tragedy in 2004, when 23 illegal Chinese immigrants illegally employed to collect cockles were drowned when the fast incoming tide overtook them. Morecambe Bay is notorious for its shifting (often quick-) sands and only the foolish, the ignorant or those with expert local knowledge venture out onto the low tide sands.

A new local supermarket has opened here (don't imagine 25 tills, just one), run by the Africa-ubiquitous Lebanese, and seems to be importing its wares from Spain including cans of cockles. Yum Yum!

This Welsh recipe, Cocos ac Wyau, from the cookery book North Atlantic Seafood by Alan Davidson, is sublime!

"Fry them in a little bacon fat, tossing them well in the fat before puring the beaten eggs over them. Stir well with a wooden spoon and season with black pepper".

Bacon fat not being available here, I use a small piece of finely-chopped chourizo and butter and serve with bread or toast. Delicious!

Alan Davidson's books are wonderful - the aforementioned, Mediterranean Seafood, The Seafood of South-East Asia are true literature. You can really take them to bed! His last work, as editor, The Oxford Companion to Food, was given to us by our friends M. and R. three years ago. An encyclopedia rather than a book of recipes, at 800+ pages, it still constantly illuminates and fascinates me, entertains me when overcome with insomnia at two o'clock in the morning.