by Doug Fahrendorff
Football done
Except perhaps in New Orleans
Basketball nearly so
The carousel of seasons
Has turned again
Baseball,the harbinger of spring
Working it’s way north
Soon from playgrounds
To “The show”
A new seaon will begin
Play ball!
.
Posted 4/8/2010
Laura emailed me with her entry. The photo will be in the roudunp. She wrote:Hi Danielle,Ok, I’m a day later than I promised, but we did it, so I’msending it along.The quote, from The Tale of the Lizard’s Lesson, continued Oh! Roses are very interesting, are they not? Did you knowthat if you feed one nothing but sugar water and a mash ofhoneybees, it becomes sweet and thick enough to be fried forsandwiches, like boar meat or fish? We have lunched on rose and leek sandwiches for most of this seaon! The recipe:Rose and Leek Fried Sandwiches (makes 2 sandwiches)Filling:1 tsp butter2 small leeks, diced and rinsed1 large white rose, petals only (wash with a commercialvegetable wash if not from someone’s garden. Supermarkets don’t expect you to eat it, so it’s probably covered in pesticides.)salt and pepper to taste1/4 tsp rosewater1/2 tsp honeyBatter:3/4 cup all-purpose flour1/8 tsp salt1 1/2 tsp baking powder3/4 cup waterone half of a lightly beaten eggFor sandwiches4 thin slices of sturdy breadoil for fryingtoothpicksIn the butter, saute the leeks until they start to caramelize. Add the rose petals and cook until wilted. Remove from heat. Add the rosewater, honey, salt and pepper.In a deep pan, heat enough oil to float one sandwich. (I used a very small but deep saucepan doesn’t need to be big, only deep.)For the batter, sift flour, baking powder and salt together. Add egg and water and whisk until smooth. Test the oil with a drop of batter. When the batter rises to the top of the oil and browns, oil is ready.Fill two slices of bread with the rose and leek filling and close the sandwiches with the other two slices. Secure the sandwiches with toothpicks. (I used five on a fairly small sandwich, and the filling still had a tendency to sneak out the sides.)Dip the sandwich into the batter so it is completely covered. Drop sandwich into hot oil. Fry until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels as you remove the toothpicks. Cut in half and serve. To be perfectly honest, I was expecting a more rose-y flavor, particularly as I’d added rosewater to combat the fact that my rose was a supermarket rose. (Hey, it’s the middle of winter.) The sandwiches weren’t bad but mostly tasted like fried. My tasting panel of four gave it one thumbs up, two shrugs and one thumbs down from the guy who doesn’t like roses or fried food (big surprise). Were I to do it again, I might double the amount of honey, use two roses, and double the rosewater. I’d also use much thinner slices of bread.