My family laugh at me, but I really hate wasting anything; they are not quite as accepting as me of weird combinations of left-overs, cobbled together just so I don’t have to throw anything away… Take yesterday, for example; I had cooked some beetroot… I peel them first to get rid of that muddy taste, and as a result I have a pan of lovely red water flavoured with the beetroot which cooked in it. I also have some left over carrots, some tomatoes which are going squidgy, and an inch of red wine which has gone everso slightly sour… the result is… red soup! It seemed a bit feeble in flavour even though there were so many nice things in, so I used the last off some Jamaican jerk sauce… well… well, we did eat it actually…
My mum’s tea bread – left over tea in the pot? perfect!
- 12 oz mixed dried fruit
- 2 eggs
- 6 fl oz cold tea
- 4 oz Demerara sugar
- 6 oz flour
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp mixed spice
- soak the fruit in the tea over night
- add beaten eggs
- mix the other ingredients except the granulated sugar and add to the fruit
- pour into a greased and lined loaf tin, sprinkle with the spare sugar
- cook for 1 3/4 hours at 350F
Eat with plenty of butter… and a cup of hot tea!
Lois Elsden 