Too hot

Yesterday (Friday) was too hot at 35°C and the house had got too hot, the heat having now soaked in, ancient cavity walls notwithstanding. Hot enough that it was already too hot by the time I got back from my walk at around 07:00. Didn't venture out much for the rest of the day. Not sure how I am going to manage should it get to 40°C: build a wooden contraption which BH covers with wet sheets while I lie inside? Must check in the garage to see if we have something which would do.

The Ashley Centre being closed, I had returned a Waitrose trolley to their back door, where a big artic was putting in the day's supplies. And I noticed the bit of patch work, the strange bolt, on the box above. I think I have noticed such a bolt before, but without the power of Gemini to search the archive - I only get the relatively primitive Windows search feature - I don't suppose I will be able to find it.

And thinking with my fingers, a plus point for primitive is predictability. There are rules and with a bit of effort you can find out what they are. The black box is not completely black.

The trolley in question visible bottom right.

Another big artic (I think) from Tradeteam, a DHL subsidiary, was putting the day's supplies into Wetherspoon's adjacent.

McDonald's up and running at 06:30, as it should be. A sprinkling of customers.

Delivery waiting outside Costcutter, where the shutters were starting to come up. But it did not look as if the driver had been able to make contact with anyone inside.

It was also a day for baking, batch No.781. Amazon had stopped supplying the yeast I have been using for a while now, Mauripan from Italy, and I had been pushed onto Fermipan from Portugal. Same 500g vacuum packing, looking the same, but with different, more complicated instructions which were in very small and with which I could not be bothered. So how would it all turn out? Another confusion was the high temperature, with yeast working faster as things warm up. At least, up to a point.

In the event, the first rise was very fast, and almost took me unawares. The resulting dough was very sticky and I thought that the second rise would be very long as a result. Something to do with the life cycle of the yeast. In the event, it was very fast too, and did take me unawares, with a partial collapse. The resultant bread, in the words of the chief gravy taster, was good but not great.

Next time, I think I shall use less yeast. This stuff is too strong for five teaspoons to 5lbs of dough - although that may wear off as I work my way through the 500g.

It being a hot day, I thought lentil soup for lunch was the thing - with BH sticking to left-over gala pie and salad. But then, I had done rather well on pie the two days previous. Last knockings of batch No.780 middle left.

8oz of lentils, washed three times. Made up with water to something between 1.5l and 2.0l. Brought to the boil, boiled for bit, then simmering by 11:30. When I added some celery.

Butter, garlic, onion and bacon (some fancy stuff from M&S which happened to be in the freezer) in parallel. Added to the lentils around 12:55. 

Sweetheart cabbage (rather good, from Costcutter) added just before the off at 13:00. One wants a bit of crunch: crunch which fades away overnight in the refrigerator. Topping up will be required.

It all did me very well, brought on a good sweat. And I remember this morning about reading once that one needs something to make one sweat when it is hot and humid, something about needing to give the kidneys a break. Perhaps in Proust, in connection with his grandmother. Perhaps in connection with the spicy food of most hot countries - although that may be more to do, thinking with my fingers, with needing to spice up a diet including a lot of bland carbohydrate of one sort or another.

PS 1: I remember first coming across gala pie when I had been told off, this as a twelve year old or so, to escort my Canadian grandmother to lunch at the Blue Boar Hotel, then in Trinity Street in Cambridge. Quite a fancy place with silver service and middle aged waiters, rather than young chits from the country. I had a slice of their gala pie two days running, without sauce, not something that featured in meals at home at all. But I fail to remember how the bill was settled. Had I been supplied with a blank cheque - something which would probably have worked in those far-off days? Maybe it will come back to me.

I dare say they had a dessert trolley too.

I have made pork pies once or twice, but never gala pies. I suspect it would be too much bother now: much easier and more reliable just to go to the shop.

PS 2: the small dead flies which used to be a feature of our lentil soups reappeared for the second serving on Saturday. I never did find out what exactly they were, although I had a theory that washing the lentils got rid of a lot of them. See, for example, reference 2.

PS 3: on our first visit to Ottawa, back in 2014 or so, I had hoped to visit the agricultural research station there and ask them about lentils, a lot of which are grown in Ontario, or perhaps further west. Sadly, I never made it.

PS 4: I have now had a conversation with Gemini about dead flies and lentils, and the middle of this conversation is snapped above. I am convinced by his story that the 'dead flies' are actually the remnants of the attachment of the (unsplit) lentil to its containing seed pod, lentils being organised like peas. Most of this is caught by processing before packing - aka threshing - but some gets left behind. Some more of which will be caught by customer washing.

So not flies at all, despite appearances, and nothing like the bugs which can infest stuff like pearl barley - another of our staples - if you keep it too long.

So Gemini did well, but once again it took an educated second prompt - the one snapped above - to get him onto the right track.

References

Reference 1: https://lesaffre-meea.com/. Fermipan seems to be a brand of a baking supplies conglomerate called Lesaffre. French flavoured rather than Portuguese, and strong in north Africa and the Gulf states.

Reference 2: https://pumpkinstrokemarrow.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-load-of-old-lentils.html.

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