More Slo' Cooking.

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To be honest, I couldn’t decide whether or not to do this post today after all those shocking revelations here on Wednesday.

You see I’ve always wanted visitors to think that this is a blog of “Good Taste”.

Yes, today, it’s a question of ‘Taste‘.

A question of “I wonder what that tastes like”?

A couple of weeks ago I tried my first duck egg. I enjoyed it.

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But I wonder how many of you have tried Frog's legs or hedgehog?

No, neither have I, but people have been known to resort to making pies from them, and I believe Angus is quite partial to a fricassee of grey squirrel.

Now where is all this leading?

Well, yesterday my friends tortoise died.

It had got through the winter hibernation alright,

but was wandering about not eating or drinking.

We looked on the web here, and read:-

“Certain complex chemical and biological processes are initiated as the animal prepares to emerge into the spring sunshine. At this point unfortunately, it often runs into its first problem. In this country springs are cold, wet and miserable.

For us, this sort of weather may be merely unpleasant. For tortoises it can present rather more serious problems. Upon first emerging from hibernation a tortoise is depleted in strength, and is very vulnerable to infection. Unless it receives adequate quantities of heat and light it will simply 'not get going properly', and instead of starting to regain weight and strength lost during hibernation, may well refuse to eat and begin to decline.”

Well it did.

It declined to eat, and died.

My friend was of course very upset, and asked me,

as she lives in a flat, would I mind burying the poor tortoise in my garden.

So I brought it home and ……..

I can hear you all saying “Oh no! You didn’t eat it, did you?”

Well, I though long and hard about this, and then remembered things like Turtle soup, and I remember reading that tortoises on the Galápagos have been hunted for their meat by sailors and fishermen for years. The great Charles Darwin, when he arrived in the Galápagos in 1835, described how he and the crew of the Beagle lived entirely on tortoise meat.

And, even if I didn’t fancy it, Hazel might - and Wesley eats anything!

Firstly, I googled the web for the ‘internal layout’ of a tortoise.

I found this.

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So I now knew where to find the various bits .

Actually it scooped out fairly easily,

but it was a bit ‘rubbery’ in texture‘ and would require long slow cooking;

I know, I’ll make a soup.

(To avoid upsetting anyone, I have thrown away all the bits with pipes and suchlike).

My “Mrs Beeton” didn’t really help; she only mentions ‘Mock Turtle’ soup.

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However, the rest was easy, fry an onion,

chop a tomato, brown the meat and add some stock.

I couldn’t decide if beef stock or chicken stock was best,

so in the end I settled for vegetable stock, as tortoise are totally vegetarian.

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And the result after a few hours gentle simmering -

a quick zap with a blender -

a delicious tortoise soup.

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Now, what more could one want,

apart from crusty bread,

on April Fool‘s Day?

So friends and followers, sing along with me…..

“He’s a faithful friend, the tortoise;

And he’ll love you till the end.”

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Enjoy. He,he,he,he, he!

I wonder why so many folk singers have beards?

(and, 'a little bird tells me', some of their wives too.)

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