Corrie Comicals Mon 16 - Fri 20 2018

Once again looking at the lighter side of Coronation Street to remind ourselves that not everything is gloomy and dark.

Monday was dominated by revelations - Rana and Kate in bed which once revealed in the environs  of the Rovers enabled Jenny Connor to observe, as we see above:

"It is the 21st Century.  You are allowed to say the word "lesbian" in public".

The other revelation was of course the tonsil hockey games between Ali and Carla, which led to the abandonment of dinner chez Michelle and an explanation of Jenny's later slightly drunker behaviour (christened "Bradleyed" elsewhere on the internet) as she gets up to leave the dinner table she tells Johnny "I missed lunch for this".

Jenny seemed to get the pick of the lines on Monday so we will move on to later in the week!  For those who want to know it the password to the wifi in the cafe is IcedFinger1997.

Talking of Roy's Rolls there was discussion of a secret pudding for Monday over which Shona was accused of making a mountain out of a moment and was a bit surprised as we can see.

Within seconds Shona hit back with the acute observation that she did not realise anyone under the age of 30 actually knew what a landline was for when Ali phoned the cafe's phone; then she carried on to accuse Carla of "not" being a cradle snatcher.  The mystery pudding turned out to be the infamous Manchester Tart; which certainly wiped any hint of a smile off of Carla's face!

Continuing the tarts theme, out on the Street Moira (talking to Liz) [and courtesy of scriptwriter Debbie Oates] refers to the Kate and Rana living room activity as "shenanigans" observing that if she is capable of that sort of activity then she is fit enough for work!

However the funniest laugh in our house this week came from the following:

As you can see Max said to Shona that "She's (Gail) washing the pots for Roy".  However in our house what we thought Max said was "She's watching the pots dry"!  So rewind and turn on the subtitles.  We are sorry the writers did not use our interpretation.

I should be writing the Friday episode review - it will be along a little later.  I hope you are enjoying this little comic diversions!

Kosmo

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Cooking with Coronation Street - Manchester Tart

Greetings! Here we go with the fifth of our Cooking with Coronation Street blog posts in which we take recipes from this little gem of a book from 1992 and see what they turn out like when cooked at home by Corrie fans.  

Our friends from the Coronation Street podcast - Conversation Street, Gemma and Michael have taken up the cookery challenge again, this time to make Guinness casserole.

You can follow Conversation Street on Twitter @ConversationStr and Facebook

Michael and Gemma chose to cook Manchester Tart from the Corrie recipe book this time and now, it's over to them both... 

What do Elsie Tanner, Bet Lynch and Liz McDonald all have in common with our Cooking with Coronation Street recipe this week? Manchester tarts, the lot of ‘em – and very tasty too! 

For our third attempt at preparing a dish from The Coronation Street Cookbook, we’ve gone for a classic pudding that’s probably very familiar to the residents of Weatherfield, but truth be told, Manchester tart isn’t something we’d ever actually tried ourselves before. In fact, the only real knowledge we had of the dish came from the time Deirdre ended up with her face covered in the stuff after having a secret snog with Audrey’s fella, lothario Lewis Archer.

When we were ready to start, we got together the ingredients required for the recipe – pastry, jam, egg, milk, sugar and salt and nutmeg to taste – and set to following the steps. To be honest, the instructions couldn’t have been simpler. Like most of the dishes we’ve cooked from this book before, we got the impression that this was definitely a no-frills version of a pudding that could easily have been made more complex. Indeed, we’ve seen versions that use cream, whole raspberries, vanilla extract, banana, and even desiccated coconut, but this was a recipe that even a stranger to cooking like Carla Connor could handle. As proof of that, it was Michael who took the lead in preparing this pud, albeit under the watchful eye of house chef Gemma.

First off, the ready rolled shortcrust pastry was taken out of the pack and flattened out on our kitchen worktop. Don’t fall into the same trap we did and try this straight from the fridge, which can lead to the pastry cracking; instead, leave it 10-15 minutes at room temperature. Next up, we greased a 9-inch baking dish with butter, before lining it with the pastry. Be gentle with this part, as again, you don’t want the pastry to crack.

Once the dish was lined and excess pastry removed with a sharp knife, we dolloped and spread on a layer of jam (raspberry is traditional, though we preferred to use strawberry). On top of this, we poured on a mixture of milk (1/2 pint) and an egg, then grated a small amount of nutmeg over the surface.

The dish was then placed in the oven, preheated to 200 degrees, and cooked for just over half an hour. Be careful where you put it: the pastry can burn easily at such high temperatures, so keep the dish on a lower or central shelf. After thirty minutes, we checked the consistency of the mixture; it seemed a little liquidy still, so we kept it in the oven until it was a little more solid. Once it was ready, the tart was removed from the oven, sprinkled with caster sugar and left to cool.

So what were our first impressions of Manchester tart? Overall, pretty good! You can’t really go wrong with a bit of pastry, jam and egg custard – proper school dinner food. It’s certainly something we’d try again, and would love the opportunity to taste a more authentic version on our next trip up to Manchester.

May be served with cream, or for the full Coronation Street experience…

KEN! DO SOMETHING!!

Keep your eyes peeled for the next of our Cooking with Coronation Street blog posts coming very soon.

See also: 

• Cooking with Coronation Street, Betty's Hot Pot
• Cooking with Coronation Street, Angie Freeman's lentil soup
• Cooking with Coronation Street, Alec's Whiskey Chicken
• Cooking with Coronation Street, Curly's red wine chicken
• Cooking with Coronation Street, Bet and Alec's Guinness Casserole

Read more Corrie news, interviews, gossip and spoilers  

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Manchester Tart! Toyah and Maria's feud explained

Just in case you've been left scratching your head and wondering why Toyah and Maria were at odds in last night's Coronation Street, here's a quick reminder.

Back in 2002 Toyah started dating one of her former professors, John Arnley.

But then Maria had a one-night stand with John in January 2003. And, as this is the world of soap, it wasn't long before Toyah found out that Maria had slept with her boyfriend John.

But worse was to come...

Maria and John

Maria fell pregnant with John's baby. Despite the fact that Maria went on to have an abortion, Toyah couldn't handle John's infidelity and left for a new life in Sheffield.  

So there you have it.  Manchester Tart explained!

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