Autumn is definitely the sexiest season of the year. Rotting leaves, drizzle, bonfires, roasting chestnuts, leather boots and firelighters – these are all smells that conspire to unfurl big passions in me. Particularly firelighters. I have to throw them into the grate at arm’s length when I light the fire each evening so that I don’t suddenly becoming a quivering wretch. They are devilish things. I long for and yet fear the invention of a firelighter incense stick or a room spray entitled ‘eau de petrol’. Indeed, I’m getting all hot under the collar thinking about it. I think that’s why I love old cars so much. The slightly decaying smell of old leather, years of leached out petrol drenching the air and the imagined smell of wooden dashboards easily rival Ernest Beaux’s ‘Cuir de Russie’.
I keep on coming back to the subject of smells and I just can’t help myself.
I can remember my mother's smell when I was very young. It was sweet, powdery and aldehydic and was combined with the harsh, nostril-tinging notes of Elnett hairspray and the soft violet scent of her face powder.
When I was fourteen I had a friend called Teresa, who was very womanly and very attractive to boys. I was a late developer and the local boys were wary of me as I wore crinolines to play table tennis with Teresa at the local sports centre while she wore very becoming short shorts.
Teresa had crushes on lots of boys at the swimming pool. We only ever knew them as ‘bluey’, ‘greeny’ or ‘blacky’ depending on the colour of their trunks. I only liked dead poets and dead composers.
One day Teresa and her family took me to a rugby dance. Teresa had a swarm of strapping rugby players lining up to dance with her while I was sitting next to her granny talking about rationing in the Second World War. Suddenly a grown man appeared in front of me and asked me to dance. Without waiting for a reply he pulled me firmly onto the dance floor and then manouevred me firmly against his body and started to slow dance with me. To my surprise he seemed rather pleased to see me. His face was pressed close to mine and his cheeks were rubbery smooth and scented with the most divine perfume I had ever smelt. I can’t remember how many songs we danced to but I soon found that his tongue seemed to be dancing in my mouth and then shortly afterwards Teresa’s dad was prising him from me and threatening to see him outside if he didn’t leave me alone.
It transpired that he had just come out of prison and I never saw him again. But I was on a mission from that day on to identify that wonderful smell. It took me a long time but I eventually found it. I bought a bottle with several weeks' pocket money and kept it hidden away. A few years ago I smelt it on a stranger and instantly had a vivid image of entwined tongues!
Thursday 5 November 2009
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Butternut Tornado
I’ve just been bought a camera for skyping sessions. It's quite disconcerting. I’m not sure about it. I feel obliged to put my lipstick on before calling anyone and it’s strange bringing vanity into telephone conversations. But it’s free and I have to admit that it can be good fun. Zelda and I dressed up as fantastic witches on Halloween and skyped all our friends to scare them.
I’ve just made up a really good recipe using butternut squash. I stole some of the ingredients from a Jamie Oliver recipe, but I kept on adding to it until it was really delicious. I’ve decided to give up red meat, particularly cow meat, to save the planet so I’m trying out lots of new vegetarian recipes.
Here is my Spicy Butternut Pasta Bake
1 butternut squash
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons dried oregano
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
2 small dried chillies
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 cloves smoked garlic (if you can find it) otherwise add 2 cloves of normal garlic
Olive oil
2 red onions
Fresh pasta
Double cream
Parmesan cheese
All you do is cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the gunge and seeds. Lay them in a baking tray.
Put all the spices into a pestle and mortar and give them a good pounding until the seeds turn into fine powder. Add the 2 unsmoked garlic cloves and pound again.
Then add enough olive oil to make a nice pesto consistency paste. Smear this all over the butternut squash, cut the onions in half unpeeled and tuck between the squash and drizzle some more olive oil on top of everything. Put two cloves of smoked or unsmoked garlic in whole and unpeeled too.
Cook in a preheated oven (200 degrees centigrade) for about 40 minutes.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta for however long it takes. I used Waitrose’s Trompetti pasta which is really lovely for this. Drain the pasta and put it in a large ovenproof bowl. Cut the squash up in chunks scraping it off the skin first. Squish the garlic cloves in the mixture. Add all this and the onions (peel them from their skins) and mix up gently with the pasta. Grate in some parmesan and pour in just enough double cream to make the mixture moist. Mix one last time and then grate some more parmesan on top.
Put back in the oven and leave until the cheese is bubbling and melted.
While this was cooking we had an extraordinary mini tornado outside. It has wreaked havoc in the space of just a few minutes. Nearly all my pots in the courtyard have fallen over, some have broken alas, and every one of my bay trees which are at least 7 feet tall and in huge great troughs has been knocked over. It was just like the beginning of The Wizard of Oz. I'm going out now to clear up the devastation. I've put on my red shoes.
I’ve just made up a really good recipe using butternut squash. I stole some of the ingredients from a Jamie Oliver recipe, but I kept on adding to it until it was really delicious. I’ve decided to give up red meat, particularly cow meat, to save the planet so I’m trying out lots of new vegetarian recipes.
Here is my Spicy Butternut Pasta Bake
1 butternut squash
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons dried oregano
½ teaspoon fennel seeds
2 small dried chillies
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 cloves garlic
2 cloves smoked garlic (if you can find it) otherwise add 2 cloves of normal garlic
Olive oil
2 red onions
Fresh pasta
Double cream
Parmesan cheese
All you do is cut the butternut squash in half and scoop out the gunge and seeds. Lay them in a baking tray.
Put all the spices into a pestle and mortar and give them a good pounding until the seeds turn into fine powder. Add the 2 unsmoked garlic cloves and pound again.
Then add enough olive oil to make a nice pesto consistency paste. Smear this all over the butternut squash, cut the onions in half unpeeled and tuck between the squash and drizzle some more olive oil on top of everything. Put two cloves of smoked or unsmoked garlic in whole and unpeeled too.
Cook in a preheated oven (200 degrees centigrade) for about 40 minutes.
Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta for however long it takes. I used Waitrose’s Trompetti pasta which is really lovely for this. Drain the pasta and put it in a large ovenproof bowl. Cut the squash up in chunks scraping it off the skin first. Squish the garlic cloves in the mixture. Add all this and the onions (peel them from their skins) and mix up gently with the pasta. Grate in some parmesan and pour in just enough double cream to make the mixture moist. Mix one last time and then grate some more parmesan on top.
Put back in the oven and leave until the cheese is bubbling and melted.
While this was cooking we had an extraordinary mini tornado outside. It has wreaked havoc in the space of just a few minutes. Nearly all my pots in the courtyard have fallen over, some have broken alas, and every one of my bay trees which are at least 7 feet tall and in huge great troughs has been knocked over. It was just like the beginning of The Wizard of Oz. I'm going out now to clear up the devastation. I've put on my red shoes.
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