Banana Bran Bread

It's a while since I honoured "Recipe Tuesday", so I thought I'd get back into the habit. :o)

When DH and I go grocery shopping, one of our regular purchases is a hand of bananas. We both take a banana to work each day, so most of the time they get eaten before they go too black and soft. The ones that don't end up in one or other version of banana bread. Surplus bananas end up in the freezer until I'm in the mood to use them.

This is my favourite banana bread. My dad used to call it "Walnut Loaf", because the cooked brown rice takes on a nutty, chewy texture. It must be brown rice; the recipe doesn't work very well with white. Sometimes the rice can get quite hard - I bit into a piece on Sunday and chipped an already dodgy tooth.

It's a good recipe to double, if you've got the oven space.

For Weight Watchers, follow the recipe using skimmed milk, oil, soy flour and the half sugar/half Splenda options. The recipe makes 12 muffins (at 3 WW points each) or 1 large loaf giving 20 half-slices at 2 WW points each.

Banana Bran Bread

Ingredients

2 soft bananas
70ml oil (or 100g butter)
100g soft dark muscovardo sugar/molasses sugar/raw sugar (or use 50g sugar & 1/2 cup of Splenda)
2 eggs (or 2 tablespoons soy flour and 3 tablespoons of water)
1/4 cup of milk (60 ml)
150g wholemeal self raising flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon bicarb soda
1 cup cooked brown rice

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.
2. Cream together the banana, oil/butter and sugar +/- Splenda.
3. Blend in the eggs (or soy flour and water if using), then the milk.
4. Sift over the dry ingredients blending as you go (that's the flour, cinnamon and bicarb).
5. Finally, stir in the rice. (If you are doing this in a food processor, just give it a quick burst to blend.)
6. Pour into a lined loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. Alternatively, pour into 12 muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes. It's done when a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cake cooler.

- Pam

One of the great mysteries - Alcohol and the British

I have never understood the British attitude to alcoholic drinks. I've been thinking about it more and more, partially because LBC this morning was reporting a 12% increase in two years in ambulance call-outs in London related to alcohol consumption.

Two years ago, the Government liberalised licensing laws, enabling pubs and bars to stay open to whatever hour they have nominated on their licence application - so called "24 hour drinking". It's easy to blame the change in licensing laws, but I don't think that is the real problem. I think it's the "getting drunk for the sake of getting drunk" culture that exists in this country. In many circles, saying "I was so drunk on Saturday...." and then elaborating on some act of stupidity is a socially acceptable boast.

I've been pondering this for a long time and I don't think I have a solution or an explanation for the drinking culture in this country. Changing the licensing laws back to something more restrictive will just drive drinkers to downing more pints of beer in less time and then going outside to throw it all up. Or the pubs will return to the culture of illicit lock-ins.

I don't think it's a new problem, either. 17 years ago, I worked in the Accident & Emergency Department of a major suburban London hospital; 18 months earlier, I completed my second stint in the Casualty Department at a major, inner-city, Australian hospital. In the UK, we would receive our daily delivery of "PFO's" or "pissed, fell over"; two or three would delivered by ambulance during each day shift, more at night.

You didn't get that in Oz. We would get the odd drunk admitted on a Friday or Saturday night, usually with major injuries, and the occasional hard drinker, often derelicts from local shelters who were regulars known to staff.

I think one big difference in Australia is that people expected to drive to/from their social events - usually there is no alternative. Maybe it's the stringent drink-drive laws, or the daily publication of alcohol related road deaths. Also, the Mediterranean culture of eat-whilst-you-drink has taken hold - most pubs serve food as a matter of course and have facilities for children. Drinking at home is at least as common as it is here, if not more-so since it's the one place you can drink without having to drive afterwards. But people don't seem to get as drunk and I'm not sure why.

Don't get me wrong; I like a glass of wine or a shot of whisky. At last count, we had over 20 bottles of different whiskys in this house, 60 odd bottles of wine and 10 or so different vodkas, as well as numerous other bottles of individual spirits not already listed. However, I drink but I don't like getting drunk. I do not understand it's attraction, nor do I think it is a desirable outcome for an evening out. It seems I'm in the minority.

Can anyone enlighten me?

- Pam

Wash your hands

I'd like to apologise now - I haven't been inspired to write much this week. I guess I've been too tired. I haven't even gone through the photos from the trip to select a few to show off. I've even been to lethargic to cook! (I have to say that having some tubs of base and a few containers of chilli and stew in the freezer have been a godsend.)

So I thought I'd share one piece of useful trivia that I picked up from the Canadian news channel: apparently if you wash your hands at least 5 times a day (presumably in addition to toilet stops), you halve your chances of picking up the common cold. The Canadians are worried about an epidemic of a non-typical strain of the common cold, which the news channel dubbed "the uncommon cold". Unfortunately, I never did learn what the symptoms were; I'd obviously walked in at the wrong end of the news item and missed it being repeated.

As an ex-nurse, I thought I'd pass on the correct way to wash your hands. If you've ever wondered, here is a good "how to". The only things I'd add are:-

• Start at your finger-tips and work your way down your hands and onto your wrists/forearms.
• In most respects, it is the friction that kills the bugs (unless you're using a disinfectant soap such as Betadine). It isn't necessary to use a disinfectant soap in normal life, just make sure that you spend enough time washing your hands to do the job. In fact, it is possible to get surgically clean hands after 5 minutes of correct washing, using a basic soap and running water.
• If you use a cake of soap, ensure it is dry. The BBC did a documentary a few years ago, The Secret Life of the Family, where they demonstrated that your hands would have more bugs on them after washing with soft, damp soap, than before doing so! Apparently, soft, damp, mushy soap is a perfect growth medium.
  
• Scrub your nails if you get the chance with a clean, dry nail brush, then wash each finger, move rings up and down to clean beneath them. Move onto the palms, rubbing your knuckles into your palms, followed by the back of your hand.

- Pam

back home

We flew back from Canada on Saturday night. I got very little sleep on the plane (had a migraine), but the jet-lag didn't really kick in until today (possibly because I was up past midnight re-writing my CV - more on that later).

I'll post some photos, etc, later, but here are some random thoughts about our trip to entertain you:-

• I didn't knit on the way out. The Air Canada check-in staff advised me to pack my needles into my suitcase.
• I did knit on the way home. The check-in staff sent DH off to speak to security to ensure they hadn't changed the rules since the last knitter checked in. Security's response was revealing - they couldn't quite comprehend why he was asking the question about such a normal activity. Nobody said anything to me when I went through security nor were there any comments on the plane.
• Quebec drivers are worse than the British. DH's cousin says they're worse than driving in France.
  
• Of the towns we visited, Quebec City was the most tourist friendly, followed by Ottawa.
• I didn't find any yarn shops, but I didn't get the chance to do much looking. I did, however, manage to pick up two very nice knitted cardigans for reasonable prices.
• I didn't drive on the wrong side of the road, but I did manage to turn the wrong way down a one-way street.
• The deep water in a typical North American toilet-bowl still freaks me out. Why, in two countries obsessed by hygiene, do you run the risk of "splash back" every time you go to the toilet??? Drop the water-level guys!
• I'd forgotten how big trucks could get. Saw my first proper road-train outside Australia.

OK, I'm tired. That's enough for now.

- Pam

PS: On the job front, I had a call yesterday from the recruiter who placed me in my current role. Seems he's set up on his own with some colleagues. Perfect timing. I wandered into the kitchen at work, talked to him for at least 10 minutes and officially started my job search.

Waiting for the music to stop

I'm sitting watching yet another program about the current British property boom. The theme is simple - property is being priced out of reach of first time buyers. It's a horror story I've been watching for a while, coupled with the rise in personal debt. According to a statistic I heard tonight, the British have the highest per capita personal debt, including mortgage debt, in the world.

In most respects, I'm really glad DH and I are already on the property ladder. Our house needs work, but it is a solid 1930's semi in an outer London suburb. It isn't our ideal suburb; we procrastinated about house hunting in 2002 and watched houses in our favourite area go up by £100,000. They had been in the £150,000 region; when we started house hunting in January 2003, the cheapest in that neighbourhood was £240,000. That was more than four times our joint salaries. So we started circling outwards until found a house we could afford 7 miles from our original target. If we tried to buy it today, it would be out of our price range.

The property market here is has reached scary levels. I don't understand how "normal" people can now get on the ladder; mortgage companies have been advertising multiples of 5 or 6 times salary but even at those levels most people can't afford a small flat, let alone a family home. The average salary here is approximately £27,000; at five times salary, Joe Average could borrow £135,000. I did a quick search on www.findaproperty.com: he would be lucky to purchase a small studio flat anywhere in London. I counted 5, including one in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire (another 20 miles out of Central London from here).

The real question is what will happen now credit is drying up? Wages are rising at 3% per year, whilst house prices are rising at closer to 15%. Employment and salary figures are skewed by the recent influx of Eastern Europeans, who happily take lower wages than existing residents because they don't realise how high cost of living is and/or only plan on working here for a relatively short time until they have improved their English or reach a saving goal. This can't carry on.

Academically, I know how this game will play out. People will borrow money on larger and larger salary multiples until either property prices rise completely out of reach or the banks stop offering them. Those that have borrowed crazy money will find their mortgage payments eating up large proportions of their salaries and disrupting how they'd like to live their lives. Then a crisis will hit, probably in the form of higher interest rates, particularly as long fixed rate mortgages are almost unknown here - most people are on variable rate. The overstretched will survive for a while using their credit cards to supplement their income. And then their personal house of cards will start to topple. And their neighbours. And their friends. Personal tragedies hidden in an avalanche of bankruptcies and repossessions.

It's like an elaborate game of musical chairs, but with consequences. How many people will be damaged, how many homes will be lost, and how many banks fold as a result of debts gone bad, before the music stops?

- Pam

What to take with me?

We're off to Montreal in a week, to visit family. If I'm lucky, that'll mean 18 hours of knitting time on various planes plus whatever knitting time I can squeeze in whilst we're there. (It isn't guaranteed that I'll be able to take my needles onto the plane - I'll ask at check-in.)

I'm currently knitting the Soft Sweater With A Patterned Yoke that I wrote about way back in April. It's fairly mindless knitting (my favourite kind - you just motor along) and the Rowan Tapestry yarn flows through my fingers. The yarn is a single ply, soft with a slight halo and a tendency to untwist as it gets wrapped around my right needle.


The colourway is "Lead Mine", multiple shades of grey from pale to almost black. Unfortunately, the camera has given it a faint purple hue in this photo. It's got much more of a stripe than I really wanted (I was hoping for a more graduated flow of colours with bigger blocks of shading), but the finished sweater should look nice.

Anyway, my question is: what knitting do I take with me? I have several pairs of socks promised for Christmas; since I think they're more likely to allow bamboo dpns on a plane than metal/resin ended circulars (garrote anyone?), I was planning on sock knitting on the flight. Should I just focus on socks or should I take this sweater along too, to knit in the evenings at DH's aunt's?

- Pam

PS: Why do I knit socks with bamboo dpns? Aside from the minimal noise issue (no clack-clack), it's because they bend under pressure and look like they'd snap. Much less threatening to airport security. Of course, only an idiot would snap a bamboo dpn - they're far more valuable whole.

Knitting to show off

Here is the gaggle of socks I've knitted since our first Proms concert in mid-July. I've made completed 4 pairs now, all knitted on buses, the London Underground, train journeys and at concerts.


They're all made using leftovers from 100g balls of Opal self-patterning sock yarn, mixed with suitable contrasts. Do you recognise the ones on the right? They were the ones for which I couldn't find a suitable contrast yarn (from this post). Lisa Souza came to my rescue (thanks for the referral, Tama).

Yes, the second blue sock is missing - this was taken before the NFL match.

I've also completed the snowflake sweater. No, I can't model it. It's too small! Even though I based it on the largest size given in a 1942 Vogue pattern and double checked my gauge, it is tiny. The original had typical war-time styling (narrow sleeves, fitted waist), but had been revised for a 1980s publication "Knitting in Vogue", edited by Christina Probert. There was no mention of the massive amount of NEGATIVE ease I've encountered. I knitted the largest size (36 inches) based on bust measurement. Just as well I've lost 18.5 lb so far on Weight Watchers - I think I'll need to lose another 12 before this fits nicely and I doubt it'll ever do up properly over my bust.



I followed the Vogue pattern for the shaping. My modifications were the v-neckline, changing the bands, the snowflakes and the Swedish Stars on the shoulders. The whole design was inspired by the grey and white bands on this sock.


- Pam

A Football Match Was Attended

... And it was NFL! Yes, we went to the historic first regular season match outside America at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. It was a "home" match for the Miami Dolphins against the New York Giants.


We supported the Dolphins, on the basis that they were the underdogs (and we've driven past their stadium in Miami).As you can see from this shot of the cheerleaders, we were up in the top tier. It didn't matter - the view was good.

Here's DH (at the front) and friends, all wearing their team shirts and jackets. They're serious fans. DH and his best friend used to play in the local amateur league, and they've all played play-by-mail fantasy NFL games.

Do you like DH's New England Patriots jacket? Pretty blue, isn't it? He's had it since he was 21. I was disappointed to discover it still fit him (I was hoping to "borrow" it for the match).

Here's me and my knitting. Unsure of whether there would be a problem with knitting needles, I almost smuggled the sock in. The security guards saw my make-up-bag-knitting-case and didn't check inside. Once inside, the Safety Stewards didn't care.

You can't really see from the picture, but I'd just picked up the gusset stitches and knitted 3 rows before we got to Wembley. I knitted throughout the match.



Can't say it was a particularly good football match (if you hear that from me, who's only seen a couple of live NFL-Europe games and a few televised matches, it really was bad!). But the pre-match and half time shows were good and it was just really great to be there.

The middle two quarters were dire. The Dolphin's were their own worst enemies - they clocked up a string of penalty plays in the second quarter (six, I think), including a 1st and 25. Much to the surprise of my friends (who'd thought that was the worst play they'd ever seen), the Giants topped it with a 2nd and 37!

Just when you thought the Dolphins had a chance in the final quarter, they inexplicably blew through their 3 time-outs before the two minute warning. This meant that although the did manage to score a touchdown (finally!), they couldn't call a time out to organise a field goal. Even I know that was stupid. What did their coaches think they were doing? Throwing the match?



This is how far I managed to get with the sock, approximately 60 rows knitted at the match including the gusset. The blue part is leftover Opal self-striping yarn, while the white is all Lisa Souza's Sock! in ecru ordered directly from her (remember the problem I had obtaining white yarn? Lisa solved it for me. More pictures later). No, I didn't borrow DH's jacket - he held the sock for me.

Here's another photo of the sock. Taken in the last two minutes of the match.



On the whole, a great evening out. Next time, though, please can we see the Pats?

- Pam (when the play got really bad, I was chanting "we want Pats")

Not dead yet, either

I've been at Site for most of this week: a 504 mile round trip. My little Toy car will hit 151,000 miles by the time it gets serviced next week. (BTW, Mr Snarky, the Toy is a Seat Arosa, the cheaper, LBYM cousin of the VW Lupo . Same car, different badge, fewer inclusive options and no central locking/electric windows.)

What was really surprising about visiting Site is how easy it was to forget that 3 weeks ago, I'd just had surgery into a major body cavity. Everyone kept asking me how I was feeling and, since I've picked up Jan's croup, I thought they meant it because my cough would give a barking dog a run for it's money. (I even have the loud, inspiratory wheeze.) They all knew about my operation - it was me who'd forgotten.

Am I glad I my gall bladder out? Absolutely. Have I suffered for it? No. Am I sick of feeling ill? Yes.

- Pam

PS: If I could only get rid of this chest, I'd feel wonderful.

It's official

It's official. Whilst I can knit and watch TV, drive and listen to the radio or cook and listen to the radio, I cannot REPEAT cannot read and do anything else. Nor can I surf the Internet and watch TV. Or write a report and pay attention to anything else that is going on.

Therefore, apparently, I cannot multi-task.

Am I the only one?

- Pam

A show was attended

Last Saturday, I had my first big day out since the operation: the Knit and Stitch Show at Alexandra Palace. I took the tube up to Wood Green and met my Best Buddy At (former) Work ("BBAW") at 10.30am. We were a sorry pair: me - weak, pale and with the odd pain from my wounds; BBAW - unable to use her left hand for much at all since damaging the tendons in her wrist several weeks ago. This was a Girls' Day Out for two women who had been house bound and gone stir-crazy!

We hadn't booked classes; we hadn't even purchased our tickets in advance. We just wandered the stalls, chatting to the stall holders and fondling the merchandise. (And buying some.) Unlike last year, when I had a shopping list of patterns I wanted to knit, I was woefully unprepared. I've purchased quite a bit of yarn in the last year, so didn't have anything on my wish list.

Here are my spoils:-



The ram came from a stall selling New Zealand yarns. He bleats. I bought him for DH - after all, if I was coming home with a load of wool, he might as well have something to play with.

Amongst other stalls, I visited the lovely ladies at Get Knitted, the only UK shop I know that stock any American yarns. I came away with an invitation to visit their shop (on the A4 between Bath and Bristol - our side of Bristol, about an hour and a half away), and some pretty pinky sock yarn.

I picked up 7 skeins of some lovely grey DK alpaca from UK Alpacas. It was marked down to half price at £4.95 per 100g skein. That'll be enough for a cardigan for me with some left over. Also purchased a skein of their charcoal grey alpaca sock yarn for a pair of socks for DH. (Appears black in the picture.)

And from the Wensleydale Sheepshop stand, I purchased 600g of their DK yarn in a divine shade of blue. It was this blue yarn that attracted me to their stall last year when I came away with the wool for the snowflake sweater. I'm not sure what I'll make yet.

A very nice lady selling knitting machines promised me to mail me two more latch hooks, like this one below. They form the bed of the knitting machine, but their value to me is that they are the best tool I've ever found for picking up dropped stitches (say, if you've made a mistake two rows below and drop down to correct it). The one below I "borrowed" from my mum over 20 years ago.



Some things were too lovely to not handle, even if I didn't buy them afterwards. Even now, I can't believe how close I was to buying sock-weight quiviut from a Danish stall. It was so light and soft! The £37 for a 50g skein is what finally put me off. That and BBAW acting as my conscience. Yarn lust can be very strong.

It is hard not to underestimate the importance of the Knit & Stitch Show for the UK knitting underworld (knitters are very much a hidden underclass). For many stall holders, these shows are their only window to the outside world - there were stalls from artisan wool growers and spinners, as well as small yarn shops, craft shops and embroidery designers. For knitters, it is often their only chance to find specialist yarns or, indeed, any yarn that isn't made by the companies behind Sirdar and Rowan. Ditto for embroiderers. Craft/yarn shops just don't exist like they used to - there might be one in a 50 mile radius.

- Pam (who knitted socks on the way up and back)



PS: DH loved "Derek" the ram...

Mushroom Duxelles

Here is the "Mushroom Duxelles" recipe I promised in my Mushroom Ragout post. It's a type of mushroom pate, very dark and rich. The first time I made it was when I did my big mushroom cookup - word of warning: this uses a shed-load of mushrooms for not much pate. You could easily double the quantities for a dinner party starter.

You will need a food processor.

Mushroom Duxelles

Makes just over 1 cup of pate.

Ingredients

350g Mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
15g dried mushrooms (ceps/porcini, wild mushrooms or whatever you have)
50ml red wine/sherry/marsala
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
5 or 6 grinds of black pepper


Method

1. First, soak the dried mushrooms: put them in a small container, pour over sufficient boiling water to cover and set aside for at least 20 minutes. (Meanwhile, prepare the other mushrooms.)
2. Drain the dried mushrooms through a sieve (I use a coffee filter), saving the soaking liquid. The sieve collects any grit.
3. Lightly chop the dried mushrooms.
4. In the food processor, combine the sliced mushrooms, dried mushrooms and tarragon. Grind over the black pepper. Process in 5 second bursts until the mushrooms are finely chopped.
5. Pour the mushroom mixture into a saucepan. Pour over the wine and soaking liquid. Add the soy sauce. Heat gently until the mushrooms begin to water, then stir fry over a high heat until all the water is evaporated.
6. Spoon into small ramekin dishes and allow to cool. Serve with crackers or melba toast, or use as a sandwich filling.

- Pam

Milestone

My beloved Toy car passed another milestone on Wednesday: 150,000 miles in 6 years 11 months.



Only 12 of those miles were driven before Toy became mine. The nickname comes from my remark to the delivery man from the dealership: "You've brought me a new toy to play with". And it stuck. Here is a side view of one of Toy's relatives. You can understand why he's "The Toy".


Although I'm his regular driver, Toy gets driven by DH most weekends. He's also been driven by my sister on her explorations of Scotland and my friend Stephanie.

Excluding DH, Toy is my favourite travelling companion. Our regular daily commute has never been less than 25 miles each way; at one stage we did regular day trips to Worcester, Birmingham and Bristol (242 miles, 240 miles and 220 miles return respectively). For most of those, it's just been me, Toy and the radio (usually LBC) or books on tape/CD (mainly Terry Pratchett). We've listened to cricket matches and football games, classical concerts and rock CDs.

There have been trips to Scotland, day trips to France, and mad dashes to West Wales. That awful drive to hospital following the ambulance when my FIL died.

For a long time, there was a nose print in the middle of the back window from Sammy-dog, when we took him out to play. That was when I realised the back windows didn't open (it hadn't occured to me, since I rarely carry passengers in the back). Sammy slept with his head on my seat belt and his nose out the driver's window on the way home, half choking me.

There was that nightmare drive on the M25 in January 2003, when it snowed and the roads hadn't been gritted. We'd stayed late at work, so there wasn't too much traffic, but I'd had to chisel the snow out of wing mirror housings as well as scrape off 6 inches of snow. (I wish I'd had a camera that day.) That was the day we hit ice 500 metres from home and, at 5 miles/hour, drifted into the middle of an empty intersection. We were lucky, other roads closed and some were trapped in their cars.

Sure Toy's had the odd "digestive problem" recently and there is an on-going problem with the cowling around the gear selectors (it has one bolt holding it in place which gets lose about once every 20,000 miles making gear changing difficult), but I'm hoping to post the 200,000 mile photo some day.

Thanks Toy!

- Pam

First day back at work

and I'm shattered. I felt faint a few times, suffered nausea at the same time and considered throwing up on one of the auditors. If he hadn't caught me, I'd have gone home before 3pm.

Returned to chaos, 103 emails in my work inbox and an "I'm glad you are back" from several of the Site staff. Of my colleagues in the office, well... Excluding my boss, only the girl I sit next to spoke to me for hours until my mate from Project Accounting popped round to see if I was in. Even the finance team at my client were nicer to me than the women I sit with.

- Pam (eventually left 45 minutes early, when I couldn't keep my eyes open)

Mushroom ragout

It's been a busy evening in the PipneyJane household. Yesterday, DH and I did our main supermarket shop for the month and scored 1.5kg of mushrooms for 28p! Result!

They were in the "Reduced Price" aisle, so needed to be cooked relatively quickly. We already had mushrooms in the fridge, but I can't look a cheap mushroom in the mouth; this evening, I turned my kitchen into a mushroom processing factory. First, I cleaned and sliced 2kg of mushrooms (as I said, we already had some). Then I divided them up and started cooking.

I chopped 5 onions, crushed 6 cloves of garlic, added 800g of mushrooms and made base. That should make 4 or 5 containers for the freezer (it's still cooling, so I haven't dished it up yet). Another 350g of mushrooms went towards making "Mushroom Duxelles", a type of pate (recipe later).

The balance of the mushrooms went towards making Mushroom Ragout. This recipe is based on one from Sue Kreitzman which was published in a Sainsbury Supermarket cookbook. I haven't seen the cookbook for at least 3 years, couldn't find it when I looked, so cooked this from memory. It makes 2 pints, for a total of 14 WW points. I usually freeze half for later.

This works well as a sauce over pasta (I use tagliatelli), as a filling for a vegetarian lasagne or as the basis for a quick, creamy mushroom risotto.

Mushroom Ragout

makes 2 pints or approximately 8 servings

Ingredients

Olive oil spray
1 onion, chopped
750g mushrooms, sliced
20g dried porcini mushrooms
1 x 400g/14oz can evaporated semi-skimmed milk (skimmed would be better, but I can't get it)
300ml/1/2 pint skimmed milk
30ml/2 tablespoons brandy
1 heaped tablespoon dried mustard
25g corn flour
25g/1oz freshly grated parmesan cheese
Pepper in a grinder

Method

1. Start by preparing the dried mushrooms. Put them into a bowl, cover with hot water (approximately 100ml/4 fl oz) and set aside. They will need approximately 15 minutes to reconstitute.
2. Spray a large saucepan or wok with the olive oil spray and heat.
3. Gently fry the onions until soft.
4. Stir in the fresh mushrooms (yes, all of them), pour over the brandy, add a splash of water and gently fry the mushrooms until they make water. Turn up the heat and reduce the mushroom water by approximately two thirds.
5. Drain the dried mushrooms through a sieve, collecting the liquid in a measuring jug. (I use a coffee filter for this - it catches any grit.) Chop these mushrooms and add them to the saucepan. Measure the mushroom liquid and top it up to 300ml/half a pint with the skimmed milk.
6. In a small bowl, combine the dried mustard, corn flour and sufficient of the milk/mushroom liquid mix to make a paste. Stir it into the balance of the milk mixture. Ensure it is well combined.
7. Add the milk mixture and evaporated milk to the mushrooms in the pan. Stir well. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Just before serving, stir in the parmesan cheese and grind over some pepper. Once the cheese has been added, don't reboil the sauce as it may curdle.
   

- Pam