Ah the joys of marking. One of my students actually used the phrase, "As mentioned by Sarah Palin, Gramsci argues that..." in their essay yesterday. This tickled me so much that it completely made up for the fact that I'd had to spend over an hour trying to read and comprehend said student's (rather awful) paper. What do you think the odds are that A. Sarah Palin has heard of Gramsci, B. She has read and understood Gramsci, C. She can comment on Gramsci's contribution to the debate on American hegemony from the perspective of high vs low culture or D. She knows what hegemony is?? Snort.
On the Magimix front...last night I stuck to my own recipe instead of trying another one from the ill-fated Chinese cookbook and all was well. It's my version of pork larb I think, although I have never called it that. You blitz lime leaves, chilli, coriander, garlic, ginger, spring onions and depending on how lemony you like it, lemongrass together then add that spice paste to minced pork as it is frying. Once it's had a few mins, add some fish sauce and dark brown sugar, let it caramelise and you're done. We typically eat it on jasmine rice with stirfried vege, but it would be equally delish if wrapped in a crunchy iceberg lettuce leaf. The Magimix performed wonderfully when blitzing the spices and also 'made' the minced pork.
This weekend we're going to test the egg white beating function and see if we can muster a decent pavlova from it. The machine claims it can do it...no other food processor I've seen can, so it will be interesting.
And that's all folks. Now back to the grind of marking. Perhaps today Homer Simpson will comment on Stuart Hall's arguments on national identity?
Sarah Palin quoting Gramsci? hahahahahaha!! Oh my, that must have made your day.
ReplyDeleteSo, how did the Magimix pav turn out? I sadly wasted an embarassing amount of egg whites at Christmas, left over from the pudding custard. Had grand plans to turn them into a pav but was put off by the memory of my one and only attempt at meringue, which was a miserable mess. Care you share your secrets?
Haha, it really did make my day - made all the marking much more tolerable in fact :-)
ReplyDeleteThe Magimix pav (and all subsequent Magimix adventures of which there have been many) was a success. I didn't realise you had such trouble with pav/meringues - I'll absolutely post our fail-safe recipe when I get home! Pav and meringue require slightly different recipes but the main things are the same - clean bowl, clean beaters and no trace of yolk in the whites. Once you've got that sorted you should be away laughing. Yum, meringues.
Also, seriously impressed that you made proper egg-based custard for your Christmas pud! I have never once made a successful custard, either using eggs or good ol' custard powder. What's *your* secret??