Here’s the next clue in the great competition, EPP. Remember every post till the end of the chemo (30 Jun) has a title. That’s 11 days away. Guess what they all mean, and you win a prize (well no you don’t actually).
Now for a whinge, recipe and a serious bit.
I’ve got rid of the oral thrush, and constipation has been sucessfully dealt with. Now I’ve got a urinary tract infection. Am I going for a full set of inconvinient and socially embarressing diseases? Look s like it.
But I promised a recipe for meat pie.
1, you need meat. This can be mince, or cubed meat , or anything else. You need about a pound (or a Pfund as we’d say sometimes in Germany = 1/2 Kg ). If you use cheaper meat remember you need 1 pound good meat at the end. If you use good quality mince you can skip the next step. If it’s fatty or has bones, then stick it in a slow cooker overnight. In the morning put the juice in the fridge to separate out the fat as a hard layer (and chuck it in the food recycling, or at any one you don’t like). Dissect the good meat out and put it back in the slow cooker with the de-fatted juice.
2, you need mixed pulses. If you don’t have any go to a health shop or a supermarket and go down the shelves of assorted dried beans/lentils/etc. Get as many as you have room for, stick them in a big storage container and shake them around. Then take a ladle-full of them and add to the meat.
3, Add any spare veg. Also add mushrooms, sliced broccilli stem if you have any, and anything else you fancy (beans, mixed peppers, peas, etc). Pour on red wine or cider (the rougher the better, remember the alcohol will boil off).
4, Add spices to taste. We use 2 cloves of garlic and a lump of ginger about the length of the last bit of the thumb. Chop and crush both and chuck them in, with any other spices you fancy.
5, Cook on Medium for a day or so. Towards the end, add gravy powder to thicken it up, but keep it fairly runny.
6, Pastry. You need about 12 ozs flour and 8 cooking marg, it must be cooking marg. (Metric, about 375 flour and 250 Kg Marg). Leave the marg out overnight to soften it, then use a wooden spoon and big bowl to blend them together. You’ll probably get tired, that’s ok, just take a break. For the last bit, add a very little bit of water, just to make it bind together better.
7, Use the pastry to line a big oven dish, ladle the meat+ veg stew into it, and slap another piece of pastry on top. Cook for about 25 mins till the top crust goes krispy and golden..
8, Eat it.
And a serious bit.
We had a row tonight. Never mind the details. One person said something and phrased it badly, the other didn’t stop to ask what did they really mean, so we had a shouting match for a few minutes.
The basic problem was very simple. We are both very conscious we are waiting to see if I am going to live or not. We know some of my fellow patients will not survive. The pressure on both of us is very severe. Some times we crack. Tonight we did. Remember us in your prayers, and remember those who are told they lost their throw of the dice.
mixed puls