On Saturday – yes Saturday just past – we had a Burns night party with a distinct Ghanaian flavour – the tardiness!
By Thursday, I decided it was really time to start on my cooking. I got the recipe for Mrs Jump (Dave’s Gran’s) tablet (the reason for slight post-bulldozer weight gain in Swailand), had my HUGE container of condensed milk (only sold in 700g containers) and now needed a kg of sugar. One problem – no scales in the house, very expensive to buy and tricky to find in Bolga. I went into one of Bolga’s best supermarkets (think small corner shop Spar) and asked how much sugar was in a large plastic (sandwich type) bag. A bowl I am told… so I ask how many grams a bowl holds. The poor girl shrugs her shoulders at this demanding “sulumia” and shows me the bowl used for measuring. Having no real idea what a kg of sugar looks like, I agree to take a largish bag… and proceed to the post office.
I trudge into the post office, still in full motorbike gear (helmet, substantial gloves, large bag on my back.) I measure my small package and buy the appropriate postage… then it occurs to me – post office scales! So I asked the man (who, like supermarket girl, also must think me slightly crazy) if I can use his scales to measure my sugar. 1.08kg – perfect!
Tablet made successfully – perfect consistency found by accident after dropping fork in the mixture!
Saturday morning = time for shortbread making – Grandma’s recipe this time. Again, I am faced with the same problem – how to measure the ingredients. I cut the correct amount of butter (4oz) using the gram markings on the side of the paper. I need 2oz sugar and 6oz flour… so how can I measure this with no scales? All I have to work with is a wooden chopping board, several plastic containers and a few empty tiny tomato puree tins. Hmm…. homemade balance scales!! My first few attempts are pretty pathetic – the tins are not small enough to make a good middle balancing bit… then – rubbers! I find two small rubbers in my resource area, and put them under the board, then put half the butter on one side and start my measuring.
The result? Some rather tasty shortbread. (Finished just before the electricity went out for several hours.)
The party was a success. Jason made a rather tasty mackerel concoction to put on bread, and Laura, Vic and I made potato/yam scones and potato/yam soup. This, along with some tinned haggis (thanks Mum and Dad) made our feast, along with some of India’s finest Party Whisky.
Our slightly alternative Burns evening started with a verse of the Bard’s Address to the Haggis and the Selkirk Grace. After our wee feast, we had a Scottish quiz – naming the body parts in Scots, matching famous Scots to their world famous achievements, two rounds of Scotland questions (no, Scots do not (normally) keep their Christmas decorations up until Burns night… but thank you, Rachel Campbell is a well known Scottish artist!) and, my favourite, Scottish music intros.
Unfortunately we didn’t get round to any Scottish dancing… roll on St Andrew’s day!
Photos to follow soon I hope!
