The Tingle Factor Box

That's Terrible! Lotus Shoes

Imagine, you are a mother living in China living in the 1700s. Your daughter has just reached the age where her feet will be bound and you know you should be happy, but you aren't. You know just how painful the next few years will be for her, but you also know that if you don't do this she will never have a good life. Having her feet bound will ensure that she has good marriage prospects and a happy life. Yet you also know just how painful the binding process is, after all, you had it done yourself when you were her age.

Roaming Roy Gets Lit Up - Jenolan Hydro Electric Scheme

Last week, Roy visited the Nettle Cave at Jenolan Caves, which he found a wonderful place to spend some time. While at Jenolan though, he discovered a fascinating fact. Jenolan Caves were the first cave system in the world to be lit by electricity and what's more, they generated their own power! He thought this was amazing and decided he wanted to see where the power was generated and learn more about how and why the hydro-electric scheme at Jenolan came about.

Roy Creates An Old Fashioned Meat Stuffed Marrow

This week, Roy was given a bit of a challenge. One of his friends gave him a marrow she had grown, and of course, he wanted to do something with it, but he didn't know what! Marrows are very old fashioned vegetables and you don't see them very often today, but luckily, Grandma remembered having marrow as a child and was able to help Roy work out how to cook it. She told us that they are 'a bit like an overgrown squash' or a 'zucchini on steroids', and best filled up with a tasty stuffing as it doesn't have a strong flavour of its own. Sometimes, this might be made of meat, and other times it might be rice, bread or just vegetables. Roy decided to try making a meat stuffing, and discovered it made a delicious meal. So this week, Roy Creates An Old Fashioned Meat Stuffed Marrow.

You Will Need:

• A marrow
• Beef mince. You need not have a huge amount, as you can pad it out with vegetables.
• Olive oil
• An onion
• Carrot. Roy used one, but if you don't have much mince, add more.
• Zucchini. Again, Roy used one, but you can pad the meat out with more. 
• Celery. Roy only used one large stalk, but you can use more if you like.
• A tin of crushed tomatoes
• A teaspoon of mixed dried herbs
• A teaspoon of stock powder
• 2 or 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• Cheese
• 3 slices of bread
• Mixed herbs
• Salt
• Pepper

Optional - you can add a little dried chilli if you like a bit of spice.

Method:

• Make a simple savoury mince. To do this, Roy finely chops onion, carrot, zucchini and celery. Then, he fries off the onion in a little oil and, when it turns translucent, adds the mince. The mince is fried until it has browned then the carrot, zucchini, celery and garlic are added and fried briefly. Then he adds a tin of tomatoes, herbs, stock and 1/2 a cup of water and stirs these into the meat and vegetables. He simmers the sauce until it has thickened and cooked through. If the sauce remains too runny, he adds a spoon or two of rolled oats and cook them into the mince.
• While the meat is cooking, preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
• Oil a glass baking dish which will fit the marrow inside.

• There are a couple of ways to prepare the marrow itself. Roy simply cut the ends off, then slit the marrow down the middle. You can cut the marrow in rounds though, which makes it easier to serve to people, and easier to eat, if not as 'pretty'. You can remove the skin before baking, though this helps it keep its shape.

• Scoop the seeds out of the marrow using a spoon. You want to make sure that the seeds are completely removed.

• Spoon the meat sauce into the marrow where the seeds were. Mound the meat slightly above the marrow.

• Bake the marrow for about 25 minutes
• While the marrow is baking, prepare a cheesy bread topping. Put the slices of bread into a food processor (or use a grater) and process them until you have fine breadcrumbs. Put these into a bowl with cheese, herbs, salt and pepper (to taste)

• After the marrow has cooked for 25 minutes, take it out of the oven and cover with the bread topping, pressing down lightly to make sure it stays in place.
• Put the marrow back in the oven for another 30 minutes (or until the cheese is golden and the marrow itself is soft and yielding when you press a skewer into it).

• Serve with extra vegetables or salad. To eat it, you scoop the marrow flesh and stuffing out of the skin, and throw the skin away.