The kitchen front, two takes

 I'm currently reading The Kitchen Front, by Jennifer Ryan, for which I have been waiting I dunamany weeks.

Set in wartime Britain with food rationing and the workarounds important particularly to women struggling to cope with what really was near starvation, it's an interesting take with all kinds of emotional buttons pushed. A cooking contest, the winner to be a presenter on BBC radio, is at the hub of events. It presents recipes as it goes, too.

It's a bit unfair to read this after Austen, Leon, or Winspear, because the writing level doesn't compare. But I like the concept so I'll finish it. 

And she did her homework on the history of the time, full credit there. If you're not familiar with the British food rationing of the early 40s, her opening account of a week's allowance of food (only if available, not guaranteed), for an adult,  might be an eye opening surprise. Other scenes, too, but I'll leave you to read it.

Meanwhile on the other kitchen front, D's suggestion yesterday about ginger strawberry jam came to pass. Small batch jams are good. Just enough to enjoy and give a bit to the neighbors.

Here's the makings. Small batches aren't a big deal.

And this is on the way to unboildownable. See soup pot on the other burner, we'll get to that.

Here's the resulting jam. I boiled it for quite a while longer than usual, and I hope I succeeded in getting it to gel. Once it's cool I'll know. Its delicious, with that bite of ginger. If it doesn't gel, it's fruit sauce.

And since I urgently needed lunch, a soup of butternut squash, red lentils and cashews also happened at basically the same time. The broth is a Rachel Ray vegetable one, and very good. 

The sprig of thyme on the soup is more than just pretty. It gives a lovely delicate flavor too. The hot soup seems to release the flavor molecules or something. Anyway you get flavor without cooking it in. 

The Thai basil you've often seen over the winter on my soup is just now starting again from my saved seeds, and when that's advanced enough I'll use it. I grow it as an annual.

The kitchen smelled like America's test kitchen! All good stuff going.

In less happy food news I opened the latest package of the English breakfast tea that I've been drinking and enjoying for years, same company, same high price. Name redacted because they have deeper pockets and more lawyers than I.

I noticed the packaging had changed but attached no importance to it. Then when I opened it and took a sniff expecting the usual lovely scent, I was surprised. Hardly any. I made a pot as usual, same amount, pot, everything. It tasted of nothing. 

So I got an immediate refund. I'd got it through Amazon, yes, I know, but I rarely do use Amazon, and for once was glad. They instantly processed the refund, instructed me not to return the two large bags, maybe foodstuff related, maybe Covid, and I was done. No need to contact the tea company.

Wanting to be fair, I went to the tea folks website to explain and see what's up. Their customer service asks you to email, because they're now remote. Fine. I went there. And the email is disabled. Nothing daunted, I went to their Twitter account to message them privately. And found their DMs are disabled.  

I don't want to go nuclear and put out a public tweet, so I'm leaving it there. I'm done. I wonder if they've changed hands. The quality drop won't get them far with people who like tea enough to buy high end leaves, no matter how fancy the packaging.

Meanwhile I went to Reluctant Trading and I'm going to get a bit of chai mix to see if that works for me as a change from English breakfast. I've tried other companies' English breakfast tea, and it didn't compare, so maybe a change will be good.

I've been given chai by Indian friends and it was like drinking hot candy. But I wonder if I can make my own without sugar, since I don't like sugar in any hot drink other than chocolate. We'll see. I'll report back when it arrives. No rush.