"Can someone with asparagus fingers give me a hand with the steamer?" called The Boy from the kitchen. Years ago one of my nieces watched my dad pick up a pot from the stove without a hot mitt and wondered if he had "asparagus fingers." A synthetic organic chemist, handling hot equipment was par for the course for my dad, no need for asbestos gloves!
The Boy had another school project going in the kitchen, though at least this time it did not involve animal intestines and our kitchen now has such essentials as counters and running water back on line. He read Daughter of Heaven for his English class. Its subtitle, A Memoir with Earthly Recipes, explains a lot about why he picked this particular memoir to read.
He made enough steamed sponge cake for his class as part of his oral presentation. To steam it he had to lower a filled pan into a pot of boiling water with a steamer at the bottom. With only a quarter inch to spare between cake pan and pot this meant having a high tolerance for heat and some ingenuity. We ended up lowering the pan down with a sling made of cooking twine.
There was a bit left over for the sous chef - it's pretty good with a dusting of powdered sugar and tea!
Photo is from Muffet at Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons license.
Photo is from Muffet at Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons license.
What a cool adventure
ReplyDeleteSounds delicious, especially to share at school!
ReplyDelete