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Sprouts


AlanHo
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Just a reminder to put your sprouts on to simmer with lots of bicarb in the water no later than 9.00 am Christmas morning. Otherwise they will be seriously underdone and not resemble in the least the soggy sprouts of yesteryear and those lovely school dinners. They take at least 5 hours to cook properly.............. :rolleyes:

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Just a reminder to put your sprouts on to simmer with lots of bicarb in the water no later than 9.00 am Christmas morning. Otherwise they will be seriously underdone and not resemble in the least the soggy sprouts of yesteryear and those lovely school dinners. They take at least 5 hours to cook properly.............. :rolleyes:

You know you have just brought back black thoughts of my childhood. It was a ritual that I hated, but yet it continued until I was in my late teens. We always had to go to my mother's brother's house for Christmas day. He would come and pick us up in his car (we only ran to a motor bike and sidecar but he had a large Chrysler) late morning after he had come back from the Go'f club. When we arrived there would be my aunt and the maid putting on what must have been a routine which must have been the inspiration for the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. But the big problem was always the urgency to "get the sprouts on".

This uncle would stop on the way back to pick up his other sister and her husband (who quite by accident also turned out to be my aunt and uncle). So at lunch there would be four children and six adults (I never saw the maid eat. She just served up, washed up, made tea and coffee, and such like).

How-some-ever, very quickly after our arrival there would be four women in the kitchen clattering and rattling around "doing the sprouts". A massive steamer, over a great big pan, full of sprouts, then boiled for an eternity. We were usually just starting to eat them just as the Kings/Queens speech was broadcast at 3.00pm and we then had to stop eating in order to listen. We had other things of course, it was not a sprouts only vegetarian job.

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The worst sprouts I ever had were some that had been put to roast around the turkey - with the potatoes and parsnips.

Even worse about the meal as a whole was that, when carved, the turkey was still frozen in the middle.

This was in my student days and the "meal" was cooked by the rather "dippy" girl in the downstairs flat (hovel).

Even worse than worse was that the flats were empty over the Christmas period and when we came back in the new year (I was first to arrive) I unlocked the door to be greeted by the most revolting stench I've ever experienced. The smell seemed to be coming from the downstairs flat so I went in and found all the dishes from the fated meal still in the sink waiting to be washed up and sitting on top was a well rotted (substantially raw) turkey heaving with maggots.

NB If you want the ultimate sprouts dish, have a look at my earlier post http://forums.windowsforum.org/index.php?s...&hl=sprouts

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Aah, that speech! I hate it! Isn't there something about that where she doesn't speak for 5 seconds and then starts again? :lol:

King George VI did that all the time. He had this stutter/stammer or what ever and he would come to a halt without finishing what he was saying, then after a pause he would continue.

I remember it well because one Christmas as they were sat around the dinner table listening and I was sat bored out of my pants there was this pause, and I thought he had finished, so I tried to jumped down from the table.......oh dear!

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This year they have been exceptionally good and tasty.

Apparently the frost turns some of the starch into sugar making them sweeter. But I have to agree they're delicious at the moment.

I think the problem is that too many people who have no idea how to cook them only try them at Christmas, make a total pigs ear of it then leave them for a year, when they repeat the process.

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