Saturday 13 December 2008

Hangover cures

Thank you for your kind, and sometimes irreverent, comments. I did have a lovely time at Ely Cathedral carol service. Very Christmassy, and such an amazing building. If you have never been there, go.
The service was in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust. Very good organisation, they are trying to raise money to get a ward in Addenbrookes, as at the moment if you are a teenager with cancer below 16 you are put in a ward with very young children, or if you are 16+ you are put with adults, who often are a lot older. Teenagers at the best of times feel isolated, and want to be in their own groups, because nobody understands them, and for those with cancer it must be terrifying and even more isolating. Look out for the TCT.

So....... have we been to lots of Christmas parties? Don't give me that migraine nonsense, Mr Cracknell. I know.
Nigel Slater (Lovely man) says a cold cooked sausage and a raw carrot are both good. He's right, but then I think he's right about a lot of things. Raw carrots are good- the crunch gets your jaw working, the sweetness helps your blood sugar and it does give a little energy boost.
Cold sausages, especially from Andersons in St Neots are great whatever time and reason you have them.
Scrambled eggs are a small miracle. Simple ingredients, a beautiful texture and rich taste that is palatable however you feel.
A few things that I insist upon with scrambled eggs. You need butter. Not margarine. You need proper bread. You need a cooker, not a microwave- we are looking for creamy not fluffy. Proper eggs. From proper chickens, the sort with feathers, that know what the sun and the sky look like.
Make some decent coffee, or tea, or if you're feeling that rough a tomato juice, virgin or otherwise, and then you can begin. Swig your drink.
Break 3 eggs in a bowl. Add a little black pepper- freshly ground. Add a small glug of milk, or double cream if you're feeling extravagant. (Swig). Break the eggs and stir gently. It shouldn't be all one colour, leave it with gloopy bits and bits of deep yellow.
Place a small pan on the stove and add about an ounce of butter. Just cut a centimetre off the end of a block. Put two slices of bread, your choice of colour, in the toaster.(swig)
When your butter is melted, pour in the eggs, turn the heat down to medium. Stir gently. keep stirring until the mixture is just amalgamated. It should look too wet. Add another splash, carefully, of milk/cream to the pan. The residual heat will finish cooking the eggs. Butter your toast, and then tip the eggs on top. Make more coffee and enjoy your breakfast.
The easy way of doing this, is to take a gentle walk to the cafe, and buy coffee, eat breakfast, watch other people hurl themselves across the lake on windsurfs and the like, and then you don't have to wash up!
You can add smoked salmon, fresh coriander or even cumin seeds to this scrambled egg. All good. The strangest way I've ever seen it eaten is in a sandwich- it was ...interesting, thank you Little Charlotte.
Smoothy type things are good for hangovers too. The most "zingy" I have found is Carrot, ginger and apple. It's amazing. Virgin Marys are good too. As is gazpacho soup, but I'm guessing not everyone has that in their fridge!
Fruit is good, hungover or not. Mangoes are one of those things that you can kind of feel working as soon as you eat it! In Guyana, amongst other places, they eat green mango with chilli and pepper. It's really refreshing, and can get really hot, but good. Pineapple with salt is also a good wake-up boost food.
Well, I've made myself hungry now, so I am off to make scrambled egg on toast.
Enjoy your parties, and I hope your hangovers aren't too bad.

1 comment:

saato said...

Charlotte. As we all know, the sausage roll is the only true cure for the hangover.