Random Walks in the Low Countries
Reflections and observations on the expatriate experience from an American scientist living and working in the Netherlands.
I had a breakfast meeting with a colleague overlooking Poole Harbour this morning – really an incomparable day, 20 degrees and sunshine.
‘makes it hard to work at anything but thinking of going sailing again.
’And the sunset was no less wonderful.
Coffee and morning light, 7am, create contemplative time at 5 Woodside. The house is quiet (new tenants moved in across the hall yesterday), the garden is sharply outlined in low sunshine and cool air. I’ve made a cup of strong coffee and am gathering notes for the day. A pitch upcoming on Isle of Man, business plans to collect from the printer, clinical trials getting underway in Southampton, Cambridge, Groeningen, Hungary…
I deserve a reward when this is done. Dinner…
I selected a recipe from BBC Food: “Scallops with pickled vegetables, mango jelly, lime and chive sauce. Prep time: Over two hours”.
Real MasterChef stuff. Cool: I’m in.
To be fair, I didn’t start until work was done. Midday, I made a quick run to the printers and post office, then stopped at Waitrose for scallops, white- and rice- wine vinegar, and a parsnip. Otherwise, it was well past six before I settled in for some serious kitchen work.
The Mango Jelly was kind of fun, peeling the mango, finding the outlines of the seed at the center, carving around it: all new. I didn’t have a puree machine, nor xanthan gum, so I improvised by reducing the fruit with a bit of white wine, then added a sheet of gelatin and refrigerated. The result wasn’t quite jelly, but it was solid and tasted intensely mango.
The sauce seemed kind of pointless; scallions, wine, reduce, water, reduce, a ton of butter, reduce, strain: yielding flavored butter. Nonetheless, it had a good depth.
When I think of pickling, I think of Korean Kimchi, burying cabbage in a pot of vinegar and spices in the back yard and letting it ferment for months. I’ve seen the TV cooks whip up pickled sides in a hour though, so I gave it a run. 
‘Warm the vinegar and sugar, add vegetables, let it sit for two hours. Honestly, the flavor is (similar to) pickle, but not the texture. Warming it, then cooling, improved things a bit, but it still tasted like faux-conserver dans le vinaigre to me, tart taste painted over veg.
The scallops turned out dead easy: trim off the (orange) roe, dredge in oil, herbs, and spices, then sear for a minute a side. They seemed a bit underdone to me, but had a nice soft texture.
The recipe advises to arrange the elements in a sunburst, dress with coriander and chive, and serve. The result looked more like bomb-burst than sun-burst, but it tasted great (at 10 pm…)
Its been a quiet weekend in Dorset: with the Big Four jobs done, it was time for relaxing into a lazy spring weekend. The weather cooperated, alternating sunshine and showers each hour.
So,’ tasks flexed to fit leisure.
I re-rooted and re-potted some plants after consulting with the local garden centre. Most are doing well after last weeks surgery, but two needed more encouragement.
The grocer had duck eggs on sale, so joined in making a very good kedgeree. I’m thinking of using milder smoked salmon to replace the smoked haddock next time.
The Dutch won second in the Eurovision Song Contest (so I’m told)…with a country-western song? I was catching up with The Amazing Race, instead.
The afternoon light was lovely, so ‘wrapped up the weekend exploring along Mudeford Quay, with crab baguettes at the entrance to Christchurch Harbour, and through the foliage and moors in the New Forest near Lyndhurst.
Everywhere, the wind was whipping the waves and trees, singing through the rigging in the sailboats and sighing through the birch leaves.
Both a light weekend and lovely light for sightseeing – I needed both ahead of plunging back in to worklife on Monday.
