“Half pound plain loaf” :- Half
a pound of flour, two tea-spoonfuls of Yeatman’s powder, a salt-spoonful of
salt, and four or five teaspoonfuls of water.
Work this as above*, reserving the baking powder to the last, set the dough
in a tin, or form it in the well-known “cottage” shape and bake.
I furnish this recipe for its “found poetry.” At least that’s the way it seemed to me when
I first read it, half-asleep on the daybed near Andy’s crate yesterday
evening. The two martinis I drank a
little earlier at Paramour, the oddly named but excellent (as well as highly
anticipated and wholeheartedly welcomed) restaurant in the Wayne Hotel, may
have contributed to my poetry – bread recipe reverie. Absolutely exhausted from a week of caring
for our recuperating dog (we first visited Paramour the evening before Andy’s
surgery, when everything seemed completely tenuous; we were already past
exhaustion then from worry), I fell
asleep quickly (I think) and woke up with Wyvern’s verse - recipe still on my mind.
I wasn’t sure what a “cottage” shaped bread loaf was,
well-known as it might have been to Wyvern.
When I found pictures of one, I immediately recognized it as the type of
loaf the character Marcus used when he (accidentally) killed the pond duck in About A Boy. Although I normally strongly object to animals
being used as comic props in this way, the incident develops into a funny, touching scene in an excellent, sensitive film, and it's clear that no actual duck was harmed in production. I'm pleased to see that Nicholas Hoult, the young actor who played Marcus with such restraint and depth, is now definitely “hot,”
"picked to click" and “poised for stardom,” as they say.
Andy is doing very well – growing stronger every day, balance clearly
re-balancing, attitude of a champion. I will do my best to
emulate him.
*N.b., Wyvern’s
kneading instructions are
rudimentary but, for the experienced
bread baker, intuitive. Essentially, he
sensibly counsels against over-kneading and his loaves all seem to be of the “single-rise”
variety. The Great Man seems to provide no baking
instructions, unusual for him, but I must admit I haven’t read this section of Culinary Jottings From Madras thoroughly.
Another Great Man aka The Best Dressed Chicken In Town aka The Ital Surgeon aka Winston James Thompson
