‘Please.’
‘So,’ she said while she waited for the kettle to boil. ‘Tell me what you’ve been up to.’
‘Working mainly. I didn’t tell you when we spoke on the phone, but Liz and Alex are expecting a baby.’
‘Oh, that’s wonderful news!’ She clapped her hands. ‘I’ll have to get my knitting needles out. I love having a baby to knit for.’
Jay smiled. Knowing Alex, he suspected all Baby Sinclaire’s clothes would be designer. ‘That’s lovely, Nan. The thing is, Liz has been suffering from terrible morning sickness and the last thing she needs is to work with food, so I’ve been trying to pick up the slack for her.’
‘That can’t have been easy alongside the competition. Is she feeling any better?’
‘Starting to, yes, which is good timing because I’ve just got the brief through for the next stage.’
She moved towards her armchair and scooped Roland up into her arms. ‘Come on you, time to let the humans have a seat.’ She put him gently down on the floor and he looked up at her.If cats could scowl, Jay thought,that one was definitely making his feelings known. ‘Go on, go outside.’ Betty nudged him gently with her foot. Roland twined himself around her ankles, jumped onto a kitchen chair and plonked himself down again. ‘Oh, well, have it your own way.’ Betty turned to Jay. ‘So what have you got to do this time?’
‘Well, it’s the same brief as last time, but now it’s a starter and a fish course.’
‘And do you know what you want to cook?’
‘Not really, no. I’ve been looking through the recipe book, though, and it has given me some ideas, but I’m not sure if they’re too simple.’
‘What are you thinking? I might be able to help you there.’
Jay was surprised. ‘Help me create a banquet-worthy dish?’
‘Don’t mock. I’ve been watchingMasterChefand I figure I’ve learned a bit about fancy-pants cooking.’
Jay stifled a chuckle. He could see she was being sincere and, if she thought he was laughing at her, she’d be deeply offended. He could always run it past Liz later.
‘Well, a lot of the recipes were written during the war, so many of them are vegetarian due to rationing.’
‘That’s right,’ Betty replied. ‘Meat was in such short supply, even after the war ended as the rationing continued. Everyone had turned to their gardens into vegetable patches and were practically vegetarian.’
‘And with plant-based foods being so popular now, I thought I might try to make a version of a vegetable soup.’
‘Vegetable soup?’ Horror was written all over Betty’s face. ‘Are you off your trolley?’
‘Don’t worry, it won’t be a chunky, stick-to-your-ribs kind of soup.’
‘The kind I make, you mean?’
‘The kind you need on a cold winter’s day to warm your cockles.’ He was rewarded with a smile. ‘No, I’d treat the veg very delicately and use edible flowers. But the soup itself would be a vegetable consommé. There’s an enormous amount of skill in making that properly.’
‘There is,’ Betty replied knowingly. ‘But consommé doesn’t sound very English.
‘I suppose it doesn’t,’ Jay said, realising she had a point. ‘The ingredients are English though. Maybe I could call it a vegetable broth?’
‘That sounds better. And you can serve it in one of those glass teapots they like so much. And put the vegetables and flowers at the bottom of a wide dish so that they look like a garden.’
Jay stared at his nan, dumbfounded. ‘Youhavelearned a lot onMasterChef.’
She grinned at him. ‘Told you so.’
‘Maybe I could call it, “Garden on a Plate”?’
‘Oh, yes, I like that idea. So what are your ideas for the fish course?’
‘Fish and chips?’
