No sniggering at the back please! Prunes have all kinds of negative connotations here in the UK, I wonder if it is the same in other parts of the world? Ah, I see from a quick Google around the block, that it is the same everywhere!
I am doing that thing that many, many magazines and newspapers suggest at the start of a new year, and trying to vary my breakfast routine. Usually it is toast, toast, toast, but let’s face it, there are many other food groups.
Pic from my new website obsession: The Flour Advisory Board
I read about this new “thing” yesterday, and you’d better believe I’m doing this soon…
Lovely pic from www.healthyrecipes.com
But for now, I have turned to the lovely Diana Dors’ diet book for inspiration, and here it is, prunes soaked in grapefruit juice, now known to me as “prune soup”.
I see now that this photo is BIG that I have that telltale BAD soup-style food photography no-no – the tide mark. My lovely inspirational chum Alastair Hendy pointed that out to me once, and I try and avoid it.
But you know what, I am taking photos on the hoof, because I am always just about to scoff the dish. I don’t spend hours fiddling around with styling the pics, I stick the plate in front of the Hornsey and take a few snaps. I used pink grapefruit juice which is probably why mine looks different to Diana’s…
I was thinking about food blogs this morning, and how they often make it look as though the blogger has a perfect life, with a perfect kitchen and perfectly made food. Not so at Silver Screen Suppers kitchen. Just wait for the blog post about Robert Quarry’s Beer and Cheese Soup which had an ALIEN in it.
In the meantime, here is an arty photo of my Jackson Pollock-esque hob after making Cher’s Minestrone. You don’t get this kind of food photography over at the Pioneer Woman!
I’ve written about Diana Dors and her diet over at Eat Drink Films so if you are interested in the fabulous DD – and who wouldn’t be, nip over there and check it out – Eat Like The Stars – Diana Dors
This breakfast tasted almost BOOZY to me, but I wonder if that was because now my mind always suggests that I might like to have a Tyne Daly’s Greyhound whenever I taste grapefruit juice, even first thing in the morning…
Diana Dors’ Breakfast Prunes
8 large prunes (50g dried weight) soaked overnight in 1/2 pint (150ml) unsweetened grapefruit juice
1/2 teaspoon honey
plain yoghurt to serve
Place the prunes with their juice in a saucepan and cook gently for about 5 minutes, adding a little more juice if necessary. Remove from the heat. Add the honey and serve while still warm. Serve with a little natural yoghurt if liked.
When I was a cub reporter, I had to write a feature about ‘The Company of Youth’, commonly known as the Rank Charm School, where young British actors and actresses were groomed for stardom, rather in the style of MGM in Hollywood. They were taught elocution, singing and deportment, and lent gowns and fur coats to appear at parties.
Diana Dors was one of its best known alumni (Joan Collins, Honor Blackman and Petula Clark were others, so you get the idea) and according to my interviewee (who taught there) she got into terrible trouble because she was spotted by a reporter walking along Knightsbridge eating a bag of cherries, and spitting out the stones.
She obviously had a thing for fruit.
Oh Orlando this is BRILLIANT. I can just imagine Diana strolling along with her cherries – genius! Jx