And that'll be why I wasn't referring solely to black pudding (though there always seemed to be plenty of fat in it when I used to eat it).

Edit: According to Wiki, black pudding is around 35% fat. I'd say more than a third was quite a significant proportion.

Surely, my dear, you mean tortilla rather than frittata?
You know what with chorizo being Spanish and that.

Is there any food-related issue worse than other people's barbeques?
I propose a barbeque licence, whereby men (because it's usually men who suddenly become expert chefs when the sun comes out) have to undergo training in basic cookery and smoke control before they qualify.

Crap burgers, burned or raw meat, paper plates, nowhere to sit or put your drink while you try to gnaw a chewy Asda steak in a wretched white bun.

I am sure a satisfactory barbeque is theoretically possible but the only one I have ever attended and truly enjoyed was on a beach in Martinique where there were tables and cutlery to enjoy the delicious mountain crayfish.
Oh, and one in Madeira, not on a beach but similarly supplied with seating, tables and cutlery to eat (in this instance) char-grilled fillets of Espada (a type of white fish).

British barbeques are, not always but usually, rubbish.

Well the belly-pork I've just dined on with some buttered Jersey spuds and chilli salad was magnifique.

That sounds delicious.
Needs cutlery and seating though.

Only the pair of us sat on some pleasant garden furniture with some real plates and Sheffield steel forks and knives.


The wine was cr@p but we still managed to slurp 5 bottles of dry white down between us.

Five? Between two of you? I'd be lying in the garden in a puddle of my own p'ss on two and a half bottles of wine.

[url=http://thevoluptuousmanifesto.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/man-cooking.htmlHighly topical: man cooking [iand[/i Tom Sharpe[/url.

The man in question is tb, and he learnt how to do a [ibraai[/i out in SA.

Ah, now that sounds more like alfresco dining than the sort of barbeque I'm talking about.

We are hardened sad p!ssheads.


Oh, and it was fooking freezing in the garden up East Yorkshire way.

I should have known my comments would elicit the better examples, I mean, the cremators of nasty firelighter-flavoured cheapo burgers weren't ever going to step forward.
My rant was provoked by the greasy smoke cloaking my neighbourhood, against which I have had to close the windows to avoid the the sitting room and bedroom smelling like a kebab shop on a busy Saturday night.

It's always bloody freezing in Wiv.

Hedon at hers mate.

Meh. Same difference.

Apart from it's full of red and white t0ssers here.

Do you mean locust (or carob if you prefer) bean?

It was available in any UK greengrocer when I was a kid, as an alternative to chocolate. I spotted a tree when on holiday in Greece with my daughter. I climbed up and snagged a few pods and she ate more than was good for her. I did try to tell her they also had laxative properties, something that is seldom needed in Greece.

Useless fact: the carob bean was the original measure for diamond weight, hence carat

Ah, but you were living in that throbbing multicultural hedonistic hotbed that was 1950's Kingston upon Hull.
The closest we in the West Riding got to exoticism was Fry's Turkish Delight.

tb has a tendency to mutter at neighbours doing their 'BBQ' thang – mostly because he gets eye-rollingly annoyed that start cooking while it's still too hot.

And funnily enough (we had one yesterday as I mentioned), we were also discussing the readiness with which some people appear to assume that, because it's a 'barbie', you can get away with really cheap meat.

If anyone is partial to liquorice and the odd tipple (as I am), you could do worse than pop down to your local Lidl and blag a bottle of Liquore di Liquorizia. £5.99 per 50cl bottle, 25% alc by vol and currently on a BOGOFF.

It's lilke drinking Victory 'V's

The Carob - thats the one, was trying to find the name, grows all over the place in the wild in Portugal, there were some just over the fence of the apartment I was staying at, just served thinly sliced down the length of the pod.

Grows in the Balearics as well.
You can smell the pods from a surprising distance.

I first came across it in the UK, in the form of wrapped bars, as a supposedly healthier alternative to chocolate, in one of those hippie-style shops that are less common now, the sort of place that sold joss sticks, printed scarves, brass tea sets, carved wood buddhas, cassettes of sitar music and Guatemalan worry dolls.

Just in case there wasn't enough for you.......

How does one deep fry butter?

If the fat is cold enough, close to (but not) frozen it is quite simple, the cooking oil has to be very hot. I have never deep fried butter doesn't appeal but I have deep fried bone marrow, soft cheese and foie gras. In all cases they have been double coated in breadcrumbs. This type of preparation is called cromesquis in French cookery. Deep fried bone marrow and foie gras is so rich, when you bite through the crumb coating the interior is liquid, very tasty and such a different texture.

Freeze the butter, batter it and deep fry it

or for the really healthy option, you could try the Kidz Breakfast (so-called because it weighs as much as a small child) from Jesters Diner in Great Yarmouth. For £15 you get:

an 8 egg cheese & potato omlette
6 fried eggs
12 rashers of bacon
12 sausages
beans
tomatoes
mushrooms
saute potatoes
4 hash browns
4 black pudding
4 toast
4 bread & butter
4 fried eggs



I believe tea or coffee are extra but you do get your £15 back if you polish it off within one hour