Roots And Shoots

Roots – because Bob picked this book up for £1 in a charity shop in Swaffham on Tuesday [Marion promptly borrowed it and used it to cook Rice And Peas for her weekend guests]

Shoots because Lucy went up to the coast with friends and returned with a bag of samphire shoots for us. [her friends also sent a couple of marrows from their garden]

Norfolk Samphire has been popular for centuries [even mentioned in King Lear!] The original name was ‘sampiere’ - a corruption of Saint Pierre. It is named for St Peter, patron saint of fisherman, because it grows along the rocky, salty coastal marshes.

Wash it, boil it for 1-2 minutes, then serve it with melted butter and pepper. ‘Poor man’s asparagus’, you eat the fleshy parts and discard the stalk.

We ate ours with some mussels [we’d found a reduced ‘vacpac’ in Lidl] and crusty bread.

You do end up with a huge bowl of shells and stalks tho!

It took Bob just minutes to prepare the first course. It had taken me considerably longer to prepare the dessert.

Levi Root’s Coconut Rice Pudding – serves 6

• 250g pudding [short grain] rice
• 100g sugar
• 750ml milk
• 400ml can coconut milk
• 4 tbsp double cream

1. Put rice, sugar, milk in heavy bottomed pan, heat gently till milk is simmering.
2. Simmer rice very gently, stirring occasionally, till thick and porridge like – about 30 minutes
3. Remove from heat, stir in coconut milk. It will seem soppy but will firm up as it cools. [When cool, cover and put in fridge, if you want to serve it really chilled.]
4. Stir in the cream, serve.

I had half a can of coconut milk in the fridge, so made half the above quantities. As you can see, it makes a lot! The picture does not do justice to the amazing, rich, thick, creaminess of this pud. It served us four more-than-adequate portions. I’ll do this one again

[note- the hairy arms in the penultimate picture are Bob’s not mine!]