I found myself with a glut of parsnips, plenty of leeks and some unspecified white fish. It might be pollock. It might not. For illustrative purposes only, here is a pollock.
We caught these on a fishing trip off Tresco a couple of years ago and had them barbecued for tea. The fish for the pie came, rather more prosaically, from Asda.
And so, to the pie:
1. Make sure every pan you own is available for use and that the dishwasher is empty.
2. Poach fish in milk with salt, pepper, ground mace and a bay leaf.
3. Remove fish to a plate, use poaching milk to make white sauce.
4. Cook leeks in butter. Abandon pretence at this being a health food.
5. Boil parsnips until soft (to a given value of softness; these are parsnips after all.)
6. Mash parsnips in food processor with plenty of butter and milk until creamy. Think not about your waist line.
7. Put fish and leeks into baking dish, pour over white sauce.
8. Pipe parsnip mash on top, sprinkle on parmesan cheese.
9. Put in oven on timer to be ready for tea time.
10. Hope for the best.
Now I can sit down and have a think about things that are coming up while the kettle boils.
This afternoon I need to come up with some exciting ideas for camp, re-outline some Proverbs stuff for D:Team and write a talk about Ehud for Enigma.
Ehud was one of the judges of Israel, found, (strange enough to say) in the Bible in the book of Judges. Judges tells us of the time between Israel settling in the land God gave them and the time of the last judge, Samuel, whose responsibilities included announcing the selection of the new King.
The judges were not people in the legal profession, but rather simply leaders who took charge in some or all of the nation of Israel, and their time in charge follows a very particular pattern; a downward spiral.
First off, the people would forget God and rebel against him, often by abandoning him and worshipping the gods of the surrounding nations.
God's response to rebellion against him is that of any good parent - he meters out punishment to show his children where they have gone wrong. He allows the people that surround Israel to come in and overrule them. They prove invariably to be harsh masters who make life hard and difficult for Israel.
After an amount of time (in the case of the story of Ehud, 18 years!) the people would finally cry out to God for help. God is not a petulant father, he always hears the cries of his children, and so he would act...
... and raise up a rescuer, or judge, to save the people. Hurrah!
The judge would bring peace to the region for the remainder of their days.
But on their death the people would abandon the LORD again and the whole thing would start again, only worse. Worse rebellion, followed by punishment. They eventually cry to God and he rescues them with a judge and all is well until the death of the judge.
Rebellion, punishment, crying out, rescue, death
Worse rebellion, punishment, crying out, rescue, death
Yet worse rebellion, punishment, crying out, rescue, death
The rebellion gets worse and the personal qualities of the judge deteriorate likewise. The downward spiral starts with Othniel, and makes its way through the suspicious cowardice of Gideon, the frank immorality of Samson and ends with borderline civil war and the indictment of the end of the book: that everyone did as he saw fit.
Doesn't it just make you ache for a leader, a judge, who will not be a moral dirtbag, but even more than that, who will not be held by the power of death.
Now who might that be, do you think?
No comments:
Post a Comment