fry an onion

New Year's Day

2012-01-02T14:43:00.000Z

It is now 2nd January; 2012 is now well underway and my hangover is abating. To kick off the year we hosted a curry and hair of the dog lunch party to blow away the cobwebs of the night before and get us all going for the year ahead.

Few guests had actually been anywhere for New Year's Eve, we have all got children, so the celebrations were mainly early nights. Which put everyone in good humour for our annual local get together.

The house was over run with a hoarde of children ranging in age from about 3 to 15, the boys rushed off to the park and played football in the pouring rain, Maddie hosted a cinema show in her room for the younger kids. This gave us around 1 1/2 hours of sanity. The rain beat down all afternoon so there wasn't anywhere for the kids to go, so as the afternoon wore on they rushed around like maniacs making a terrific noise.

I kicked off the day with a blinding headache (a relic of the previous fun evening), but that soon melted away as we prepared the feast.

Lorna made Bloody Marys - spicy and delicious, Oscar made his legendary Mango and Lime Smoothies (see earlier post), I made a sweet and delicious Royal chicken korma courtesy of Madhur Jaffrey, aloo gobi (I rather overdid the quantities of this so we'll be eating it for months). Our friend Simon made a delicious dahl and Veronica brought home made cheese cake for pudding. Kate made us some bread and filo pastry snacks (which were divine).

To drink there were Bloody Marys, Cobra beer, Prosecco, Muscadet, red wine from Montepulciano and a small scattering of soft drinks. Our lovely friends from the street all came armed with lots of wine and more Prosecco.

The last guests disappeared at 9pm and I staggered off to bed after another bowl of Aloo Gobi!

I really recommend the Royal Chicken Korma - it was so sweet from the sultanas and nutty from the almonds, and more spicy that the restaurant version.

Martha Stewart's lemon curd tart

2011-11-12T11:24:00.001Z

This is amazing, the curd very tart, a fantastic pudding after a rich meaty main course, eased down with a nice chilled Sauternes.

You'll need six egg yolks, beaten, 1 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1/4 lb of unsalted butter, 1 tablespoon of lemon zest.

To make the tart, buy some short crust pastry, roll it out and line a shallow baking tray (round thing) for tarts, prick the base with a fork and cook for 30 mins or so at 150C (I think). Remove and leave to cool.

To make the lemon curd beat the eggs then strain through a sieve into a medium sized heavy saucepan, Add the sugar and lemon and cook over a low heat stirring constantly to combine. Keep stirring until the sauce thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon, it's a bit of a fag as it seems to take ages (10 - 15 mins approx). Remove from heat and allow to cool a bit, then stir in the sticks of butter a little at a time. Then stir in the lemon zest and allow the mix to cool completely.

Pour into the pastry tart and refrigerate. When you want to eat it dust with icing sugar and adorn with a sprig of mint, serve with clotted cream.

Peckham - Autumn

2011-10-29T16:52:00.000+01:00

Scotland - October 2011

2011-10-29T16:48:00.003+01:00

Wet, but beautiful autumn colours

Uranus Pizza

2011-10-29T12:20:00.002+01:00

Bit of a weird name for a pizza parlour!

Ow!

2011-10-01T17:14:00.000+01:00

I love this

Stuffing for roast chicken

2011-09-07T13:50:00.000+01:00

No pictures with this post as I don't think the body cavity of an uncooked chicken is particularly interesting. Usually we lob half a lemon, some crushed cloves of garlic, a chicken stock cube and a glass of water inside our chicken, which makes for a delicious and succulent bird. But last weekend I had a hankering for some good old fashioned stuffing. I always remember my mother making a nice breadcrumb and parsley stuffing, so I decided to do a variation on that theme.

We've had a good season in the garden despite my harvested garlic cloves being smaller than the things I planted, they are very tasty though. So I gathered together some bread (we only had wholemeal brown (soooo healthy) in the cupboard), one of my tiny whole heads of garlic, a sprig of rosemary, a sprig of tarragon, a couple of leaves of sage, a bay leaf and a bunch of thyme and oregano. I whizzed all this up with the bread in the old magimix, then added the juice of a lemon, a chicken stock cube and a couple of shavings of lemon zest. Then I whizzed it up again.

I have to say it smelled jolly delicious.

I mixed in some softened butter, added a wee bit of salt (no pepper - the kids freak out) and shoved the whole lot up the chicken's arse.

I then roasted the bird according to normal convention with butter slavered on top and a few whole cloves of garlic dotted about, and we ate it with roast spuds, broccoli and carrots.

The stuffing was sublime, so zesty and tart. It helped keep the bird moist too.

Dorset flowers

2011-08-20T12:42:00.002+01:00

The garden is about to bear fruit

2011-08-10T19:40:00.002+01:00

Cucumbers, pumpkins, garlic, runner beans, french beans and some beautiful black dahlias

More Dorset Summer time pictures

2011-07-31T11:17:00.000+01:00

Scenes of Summer in Dorset

2011-07-30T18:16:00.000+01:00

Wheat fields

Castle Cove

Views of Dorset coast towards Golden Cap

Flowers

Supper

Some flower pics from Spring

2011-06-18T12:10:00.000+01:00

New potatoes, harvested today

2011-06-18T12:00:00.000+01:00

Lovely new potatoes fresh from the ground this morning - v thrilling!

Running through fountains - Mallorca May 2011

2011-06-10T19:44:00.002+01:00

Motorbike mirror

2011-05-15T12:29:00.000+01:00

Scenes from Mallorca

2011-05-15T12:26:00.000+01:00

A wonderful four days based in Port de Soller, exploring the mountains, swimming in the chilly Med, eating fish, drinking Rioja, coke, fanta, San Miguel.

Nice place to sit and relax in the sun

2011-05-08T14:03:00.000+01:00

Near Pollenca in Mallorca, this rustic bench was outside an old villa with an amazing view

Wales - Crickadarn and environs

2011-05-07T17:57:00.000+01:00

Amazing weather over Easter enhancing already outstanding views

Rather testicular I think

2011-05-07T14:12:00.002+01:00

Wye Oh Wye

2011-05-07T14:03:00.000+01:00

Three sheep (one ewe and two lambs) drinking from the River Wye (Easter Saturday)

What kind of bug is this?

2011-05-07T13:55:00.000+01:00

Some kind of beetle larva I think, its habitat was the mountains in Mallorca.

Scrambled eggs

2011-05-07T11:43:00.000+01:00

Probably the best breakfast in the world: at least one large egg per person, beaten with a fork, salted and peppered. Melt knob of butter in a non stick saucepan over a lowish heat, when it froths pour in the beaten eggs and stir to loosen eggs scrambling at the bottom of pan. When they look creamy take pan off heat and serve immediately. don't leave them lying around in the pan or they'll carry on cooking and end up hard and disgusting. Serve on buttered toast with fresh ground black pepper.

Explosive ideas

2011-05-07T11:38:00.000+01:00

Are these ones that come out of your arse?

Nice sign in the back of a van in Mallorca

Blue and green

2011-04-05T11:04:00.000+01:00

Oscar's Mango Smoothie

2011-03-20T12:12:00.000Z

This is sooooooooo delicious:

Two mangos peeled and chopped roughly and placed in blender (discard stone obviously!).
Juice of two juicy limes (might need another if they are a bit hard and juiceless)
Two tablespoons of white sugar
One tray of ice cubes

Put it all in the blender and press go - give it a vigorous blend until smooth.

Serve at once, or decant into jug and refrigerate. Serve with ice later.

The one we just did is a bit gloopy but yummy none the less

March plant and flower images

2011-03-13T15:00:00.000Z

How I do like to be beside the seaside

2011-02-26T14:29:00.000Z

Lovely walk by the sea, only problem is - I never saw the sea.

France Feb 2011

2011-02-26T14:26:00.000Z

Amid the gloom a couple of nice plant pics

Flowers, lichen, shapes, sizes

2011-02-19T13:05:00.000Z

Swans on the Fleet, Dorset (winter)

2011-02-19T13:03:00.000Z

This is a view that takes me back to my childhood, the mute swans seeking sanctuary near Moonfleet Church

Roast lamb for lunch

2011-02-19T13:01:00.000Z

A delicious leg of lamb with roasted root veg and spuds, and a nip of sloe gin to warm us up

Seaweed

2011-02-04T08:30:00.001Z

Flower effects

2011-02-04T08:24:00.000Z

Below stairs

2011-01-28T15:03:00.001Z

I don't like to complain, however I feel compelled to protest at a recent move to confine me below stairs where the sun don't shine, the air don't move and the lights flicker all day. I had to write something about it and here it is (thanks to Rhianna for a small amount of inspiration):

An ode to the basement

The lower ground floor
Just through that door
It’s bright and cheery,
We haven’t had a query.
They said.

Shove them down there
Where no one can hear
They’re such a pain
Na na na what’s their name?
Who cares.

Fetid air
Light spare
Lamps flicker
It hurts my ticker

Heads ache.
The team are fading
They’re down in the dumps
…Down in the dump

close ups

2011-01-14T14:25:00.000Z

Highshore Road, Peckham, 2000

2011-01-14T14:18:00.000Z

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head

2011-01-14T14:08:00.000Z

Dorset - Eggardon

2011-01-03T17:34:00.000Z

New year's day - Portland

2011-01-02T16:05:00.000Z

The stabbed concrete bleeds!

Church Ope Cove, Portland

IPA Photography competition winner

2010-12-20T18:33:00.000Z

Won the green category with this little ladybird.

Congrats to Emma Blackmore who stole the show.

plants of various types + and some clothes pegs

2010-12-12T15:43:00.000Z

Butt Hole Road

2010-12-06T12:39:00.000Z

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7981651/Bladder-Lane-Bent-Street-and-Butt-Hole-Road-the-street-names-that-reached-the-end-of-the-road.html

Indonesian Rendang Curry

2010-12-05T16:26:00.000Z

This was sensational, warming for a cold night:

You'll need chicken bits (it can be done with beef) - breast or thighs, whatever takes your fancy.

For the sauce you need to bung in a magimix the following:
- roughly chopped shallots x 2
- two stalks of lemon grass roughly chopped
- four cloves of garlic
- one thumb sized piece of fresh ginger
- two red chillis (or more if you like more heat)
- can of coconut milk
- 4 tablespoons of tamarind paste
- two table spoons of dark soy sauce
- 4 tablespoons of nam pla (fish sauce)
- 1 tablespoon of ground cumin
- 1 heaped tablespoon of ground coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon of tumeric
- I tablespoon dark brown sugar

Whizz this all up until you have a smooth sauce.

Transfer this into a casserole or wok together with two whole star anise. Add your chicken bits then simmer with the lid off, stirring well. If you do this with beef you'll need a longer cooking time, however you want the sauce to reduce until it clings to the meat but you have some sauce left to infuse with the jasmine rice (that you serve this with). The chicken took around 30 mins to cook and the sauce to thicken.

Street, road, avenue, park, grove, mews etc

2010-12-05T16:12:00.000Z

This is the start of an extremely dull project. It started to amuse the kids in the car, we have collected hundreds of different road/street/avenue nomenclature and I am now going to photograph them as a record for town planners everywhere.

Dorset - end of Autumn

2010-10-30T14:49:00.000+01:00

Scenes at Cogden Beach, Hardy's Monument and Fleet

curry

2010-10-17T17:59:00.000+01:00

There are some nice recipes and videos of how to... on this site http://www.anjumanand.co.uk/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5nhyKflfhg&feature=player_embedded

What are you looking at?

2010-10-15T15:12:00.000+01:00

Some flowers

2010-09-28T10:18:00.000+01:00

The great British High Street

2010-09-19T14:06:00.000+01:00

I like the juxtaposition of these two shops

Flowers, France etc

2010-09-18T11:03:00.000+01:00

autumn harvest

2010-09-18T10:48:00.001+01:00

The UK Sound Map

2010-08-26T13:41:00.000+01:00

This is such a brilliant initiative, well worth a visit:

http://sounds.bl.uk/uksoundmap/map.aspx

The Mani - landscapes

2010-08-11T20:30:00.000+01:00

The Mani -sea

2010-08-11T20:28:00.000+01:00

The Mani - Greece

2010-08-11T20:26:00.000+01:00

Souvlaki Pork

2010-08-10T13:16:00.000+01:00

Just back from The Mani (Greece). Souvlaki Pork is amazing: nice tender cubes of Pork Loin threaded on a skewer and marinaded in olive oil, lemon juice and lots of oregano. Barbeque and eat with chips. Perfect

KitKatt Nohr Photo Comp

2010-08-10T13:13:00.000+01:00

Here's the link to the finalists etc, including me - of course:

http://kitcattnohrwork.com/gallery/index.php/Finalists

I won some gongs

2010-07-15T10:03:00.000+01:00

Last night at the Kitcatt Nohr photo competition I won two prizes, best landscape photograph and the people's choice award, voted by everyone who attended the event last night. Hurrah. And massive thanks to the agency for organising a brilliant event.

http://www.kitcattnohr.com/aboutus/photocomp.php

Carrot, ginger and lentil soup

2010-04-21T10:48:00.000+01:00

Thanks to Dawn Sillett for this one:

This should chase away the last signs of Winter

You will need:

A little oil for cooking

1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped

4 large or 7-8 small carrots, peeled and sliced

1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped

1-inch chunk of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped

Pinch of turmeric if you have it

½ cup dried red lentils (which actually look orange to me)

1 litre good quality chicken or vegetable stock

How to make it:

Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan.

Sweat the onions over a medium heat, with the lid on, for 5-6 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the carrots and garlic, giving them a good stir to get them coated with oil.

After a minute or two, quickly stir in the ginger (and turmeric if using) and then add the stock.

Add the lentils and a grind of black pepper (don’t add salt, as it toughens pulses in cooking).

Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure the lentils aren’t glueing themselves to the bottom.

When the lentils are tender, blend with a stick blender or in a mixer and check the seasoning.

Scotland

2010-04-14T18:55:00.000+01:00

Pasta with bacon and leeks

2010-03-10T09:11:00.000Z

Linguine with bacon, leeks and crème fraiche

A Lucy Tilney special:

For this dish you’ll need about one medium sized leek per person, a couple of rashers of bacon each and approximately 500g of crème fraiche, though you won’t use it all unless you’re feeding six or so. A glass of cheap white plonk. Chop up the bacon rashers and fry in a pan with olive oil, carry on until the bacon is crispy.

Chop the leeks lengthwise in half then half again. Dice into pieces about 1cm in length.

There are two routes for this: the lazy way and the more laborious. Add the diced leeks directly to the bacon, cook until soft, then add the glass of wine. This way the crispy bacon gets a bit soft. The alternative is to spoon out the crispy bacon, then add the leeks to the oil. Then the bacon is added back right at the end so it stays crispy.

This dish takes around about 10 – 15 minutes so get your past on early, allow 150g per person.

Once the leeks are soft and coated with the delicious brown bits of the bottom of the pan and the wine has reduced. Spoon over the crème fraiche liberally, probably a tablespoon per person, you’ll need to use some skill and judgement here. Grind over some pepper, add salt to taste.

Drain the pasta and return to the pan, mix in the bacon and leeks then serve.

Weymouth beach January 2010

2010-02-28T16:26:00.000Z

Devon Streams

2010-01-31T21:42:00.000Z

Christmas

2010-01-02T18:43:00.001Z

This picture seems to embody Christmas, the aga working overtime, well used pots bubbling away.

fish curry pictures

2010-01-02T18:40:00.001Z

New Year's Day - Knole

2010-01-02T18:21:00.000Z

Icy cold, frozen ground, tame deer, delicious picnic, amazing colours and textures

2010-01-02T18:16:00.000Z

Christmas in Dorset

2010-01-02T18:15:00.000Z

Steamed Sea Bass Fillets with Thai spices

2009-12-03T10:09:00.000Z

We had this last night, absolutely sensational: the flesh melted in the mouth, and the spices fused into a firework display on the taste buds.

The only bit missing was the banana leaves. We didn't have any so used baking parchment, a very very poor substitute.

In a steamer place your sea bass fillets on a bed of banana leaves.

Then chop finely a teaspoon of lemongrass, one finely sliced garlic clove, one finely sliced red chilli, a tablespoon of chopped fresh coriander, a teaspoon of grated fresh root ginger. Mix in a bowl. Add a pinch of dark brown sugar and mix with a teaspoon of nam plah (fish sauce).

Spread the spice mis over the fish and steam for 20 minutes.

Serve on the banana leaves, with steamed pak choi and/or noodles, and soy sauce.

Savoury rice

2009-11-27T11:49:00.001Z

This goes very well with sausages or pork tenderloin. It is a good supper party dish, has a bit of bite and always goes down well. The example below feeds four.

Pour a good slug of olive oil into a medium saucepan, put on a medium heat. Skin and chop an onion. Crush and skin a couple of cloves of garlic. Put into the saucepan and stir until the onions go translucent. It doesn’t matter if the onions brown, they will add a certain sweetness to the final dish. Once the onions are soft, translucent and a little browned turn the heat down to medium and add a tin of chopped tomatoes. Rinse the tin and pour the extra bits into the pan. Now add a teaspoonful of oregano, salt and pepper, tomato puree (a good squeeze) and a generous tablespoon of medium curry powder.

Mix the ingredients together and simmer gently. Then add a large tablespoon of home made chutney (branded pickle doesn’t do the same thing), or more to suit your taste buds. Let the mixture simmer away while you cook the rice.

Bring a large saucepan about one third full of salted water to boil. Then add four cupfuls of rice, ideally basmati, and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 7 1/2 minutes. Drain. Get rid of the excess starch by rinsing the rice in your colander with cold water. The rice won’t be entirely cooked, this doesn’t matter as it will be cooking further with the tomato sauce in a minute.

Add the part cooked rice to an oven proof dish then mix in the tomato sauce, grate a liberal amount of cheddar cheese over the top, then mix that into the rice. Grate over more cheddar so you get a crunchy crust.

Bung it in the oven at 180C for around 30 – 40 minutes. Serve when it bubbles and the crust is crunchy. Pork tenderloin, bashed and fried and a fresh green salad go so well with this rice.

Chutney

2009-11-14T14:15:00.000Z

Lorna makes the best, from the simplest recipe in Constance Spry, lauded by Audley (acupuncturist).

Am fed up with all the plastic packaging that comes with our food at supermarkets etc, not just cellophane, but all the trays etc. Surely we can minimise this.

Just had cheesy potatoes for lunch, with ham and cold lamb (and aforementioned chutney). Put a large potato, scrubbed and pricked in the oven at 200 - 220c for up to an hour (no fan, 45 mins with fan). When done take out of oven and carefully slice the tops off the long face of the potato. Scoop the potato in a bowl and add lots of grated cheddar and parmesan, butter, milk and salt and pepper. Mix with a fork until fluffy and smooth, then fill the potato cases you have put to one side. Grate more cheese over the top and return to the oven for 10 - 15 mins until golden brown on the top.

Onions

2009-11-03T20:33:00.000Z

Useful links about onions:
http://www.onions.org.uk/
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/knowhow/glossary/onion/

France, October, 2009

2009-11-01T14:23:00.000Z

As October drew to a close the weather was sensational, beautiful light, warm, sunny. Heaven on earth. These are some of the images that try to capture these last few days of Autumn. They are taken in Northern France in and around Saulchoy, Quend, Fort Mahon and Argoules.

Halloween!

2009-10-25T13:32:00.000Z

It's a scary pear!

Stuff around the house

2009-10-25T13:31:00.000Z

Bowleaze Cove, Weymouth

2009-10-25T13:15:00.000Z

October, Grey morning, brightening in the south. Lovely rock pools, geological formations and peace.

Fruit Bowl

2009-10-24T15:54:00.001+01:00

lovely lovely Claret

2009-10-24T15:53:00.001+01:00

Chicken a la Pooch

2009-10-22T20:21:00.000+01:00

Pooch was my Father's Father's second wife, she invented this classic piece of 70's cuisine, or probably didn't but we like to think she did. It is massively simple and amazingly delicious.

You will need a chicken thigh per person, or a breast half sliced across the breast (i.e. four or five bits) per person, you can put in more if you are hungry. Lay them in a well buttered dish and sprinkle salt and paprika over the meat.

To make the sauce chop and fry a large onion in olive oil (or for authenticity veg oil), when this is softening chop a couple of juicy eating apples and dice into bits approx 2 cm cubed. Add them to the onions. Allow to cook and soften.

The add a teaspoon full of curry powder, the strength is up to you. Allow it to mix, permeate and fill the kitchen with delicious curry odours. Then add a can of Campbell's cream of mushroom sauce (of course use your own, but to relive the 70s trust me here), and a dollop of single cream. Cook until hot through then pour over the chicken.

Put it in the oven at 180 to 190 C for one hour depending on volume of chicken. When it comes out it should be bubbling away merrily and brown.

Eat with plain buttery rice and make sure you have some fresh bread on hand to mop up the juice.

I like it with a green salad and a chilled bottle of Loire Sauvignon Blanc.

Hurrah for Pooch

switch, bolt, plug

2009-10-04T17:55:00.000+01:00

earth

2009-10-04T17:53:00.000+01:00

flowers

2009-10-04T17:50:00.000+01:00

tomato

2009-10-04T17:49:00.000+01:00

juicy lamb kofta

2009-10-02T11:06:00.000+01:00

I am not 100% sure if these really qualify for being kofta, but they are my version and they are extremely delicious. I serve them with yoghurt with finely diced cucumber mixed in, Thai sweet chilli sauce (heretical I expect) and simple basmati rice cooked with butter and onions (more later).

Buy some lamb mince, how much is up to you, depends on your greed and number of mouths to feed.

Decant it into a mixing bowl. Add in one finely chopped red onion, one inch of finely chopped or grated fresh ginger, three cloves of finely chopped garlic, one finely chopped red chilli (nice and hot preferably), and a smallish handful of chopped fresh coriander.

Give it a rough mix.

The add a teaspoon of Turmeric, a teaspoon of cumin, half teaspoon of ground ginger and a smidgeon of chilli powder.

Then plunge your lovely clean hands into the mix and knead like its dough. You'll need to wash your hands after this otherwise you might get hot chilli in sensitive places. Fresh lemon juice is good for this.

Then make up as many lozenge shaped rounds of lamb mix as you can, make sure they are pressed hard together so the ingredients bind.

In a saucepan melt a knob of butter, when sizzling fry and chopped onion (any variety), and brown. Then add a cup full of rice and salt to taste. Coat the rice with butter then add a coup and a half of cold water to the pan, bring to the boil, put the lid on, turn down the heat and let it simmer for ten mins. Turn off the heat and let it stand for ten more minutes.

While the rice is standing, fry the kofta in hot oil until they are browned and crunchy on all sides. Serve immediately with some coriander leaves, the yoghurt, rice and chilli sauce.

A red or white wine is good too. But then I would say that.

Deliciously yummy pork tenderloin

2009-09-06T12:57:00.000+01:00

For four people you'll need about 30cm length of pork tenderloin. Slice it into 2.5cm bits, then bash them flat with a meat mallet. Lay them out on a plate and sprinkle over some fresh thyme and oregano, black pepper and a bit of salt.

Meanwhile prepare thinly sliced carrots, and either runner or french beans.

And peel and chop potatoes into cube (ish) type bits around 1.5cm wide. Bung them in boiling water and boil for 5 mins. Drain. While you are doing this heat some olive oil in a roasting tin, with springs of fresh rosemary and three or four whole cloves of garlic (with skin on). When hot sprinkle the potatoes around the hot oil and salt. Replace in oven and let them brown and crisp up.

One these start to sizzle start steaming the vegetables.

Then put a generous knob of better in a cast iron frying pan, with a dribble of olive oil. Heat until it sizzles then lay the meat in the fat. At this stage you can flour the meat, this will give you a thicker gravy, but it is by no means essential.

Fry until brown, the place the meat to one side. Bung in a handful of fresh tarragon, a generous glass of white wine and a tablespoon of dark muscavado sugar. And the juie of a lemon. Allow to reduce.

Once the veg are done you can saute the carrots in a pan with butter and honey (the kids love this).

Serve and drizzle over the gravy.

Nice with a sauvignon blanc or a good chianti.

Lick lips and sit back and enjoy.

You can make the gravy with all sorts of stuff: marsala, vermouth, by adding a chopped red chilli, by replacing the tarragon with thyme. You can also serve with pasta or rice if you prefer.

Lenses for sale

2009-08-16T16:58:00.000+01:00

Vivtar 100-300mm f5.6 macro focusing zoom lens (fits Minolta) - offers
Nikon 50mm f1.8 - offers
Minolta 50mm f1.7 - offers

Chicken - summer sizzle

2009-08-16T15:41:00.000+01:00

Bashed thin and fried chicken breast with sauté potatoes and salad (or spinach) – Again this is a super easy chicken dish which always seems quite exotic. Allow one chicken breast per person. You’ll need some greaseproof paper, a rolling pin, a large shallow frying pan, some olive oil and butter, a lemon and some oregano.

Arrange the chicken breasts on a (meat) chopping board, slice the breasts in half (don’t quite cut them completely in half) and fold out so that they look like a butterfly, then place between two sheets of greaseproof paper and give the meat a jolly good bashing with the rolling pin. The chicken should now be quite thin. Repeat for each breast.

Add a knob of butter and a dessert spoon of olive oil to the frying pan. You can either fry the meat as it is, or if you prefer some coating you’ll need a plate of seasoned plain flour (i.e. flour, salt, pepper and dried oregano): coat the chicken with the flour mixture. Add the chicken to the frying pan once the butter starts to froth and sizzle. Cook on each side for around 3 – 5 minutes. When the chicken is nicely browned serve onto warm plates. To make a simple sauce either pour in a glass of white wine or squeeze in the juice of a lemon and stir in the gubbins from the pan. Simmer for a couple of minutes and then pour over the meat.

This dish is delicious with a simple green salad and roasted potatoes.

Onions

2009-08-16T15:40:00.000+01:00

Summer Flowers

2009-08-16T15:38:00.000+01:00

fun and games on the beach

2009-07-30T16:33:00.000+01:00

And this is suppose to be summer. What larks!

Clips of a stream

2009-07-30T16:05:00.000+01:00

This served as our wine cooler while camping in an idyllic campsite at Brevedent in Normandy near Pont L'Eveque

Beef Rendang

2009-07-30T15:51:00.000+01:00

This recipe is simply awesome.

This is a mild beef curry from the Far East, flavoured with coconut milk and lemongrass.

Serves 4-6
Ready in 3 hours
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Ingredients

* 2 lemongrass stalks
* 2 large red chillies, deseeded and chopped
* 6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
* 5cm piece of ginger, roughly chopped
* 1 large onion, roughly chopped
* 1/2 tsp ground ginger
* 1 tbsp ground coriander
* 1 tsp ground cumin
* 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
* 2 tbsp sunflower oil
* 2 cinnamon sticks
* 12 cloves
* 2 bay leaves
* 600ml canned coconut milk
* 1.5kg braising steak, such as chuck or blade, cut into 5cm pieces
* 1 tsp salt
* Walnut-sized piece of tamarind pulp or 2 tbsp lemon juice
* 1 tbsp Billington's Dark Muscovado Sugar

Method: How to make indonesian beef rendang

1. Remove the outer leaves from the lemongrass stalks and reserve. Roughly chop the tender core and put into a food processor with the chillies, garlic, fresh ginger, onion, ground ginger, coriander, cumin, black pepper and 2 tablespoons of water. Blend to a smooth paste.

2. Heat the sunflower oil in a large flameproof casserole over a medium heat. Add the cinnamon sticks and cloves and allow them to sizzle for about 1 minute. Add the spice paste and bay leaves and fry gently for 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk, 200ml water, the beef, reserved lemongrass leaves and the salt and bring to the boil.

3. Meanwhile, if you are using the tamarind pulp, put in a small bowl with 120ml of warm water and work through with your fingers to release the seeds. Strain the syrupy mixture into a clean bowl and discard the seeds.

4. Lower the heat to a simmer, add the tamarind liquid or lemon juice and muscovado sugar and leave to cook uncovered for 21/2 hours, stirring more frequently as the liquid reduces, until the sauce is well reduced and quite thick and the beef is very tender. Serve with plain rice and a cucumber, tomato, red onion and coriander salsa.

luscious lamb curry

2009-07-23T22:01:00.000+01:00

Serves 4

In a casserole pot pour in 2 to 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, heat. When hot add a teaspoon of cumin seeds and a teaspoon of black mustard seed. When the mustard seeds pop add two large chopped onions, two finely chopped red chillies and three chopped cloves of garlic.

Sir until soft.

Then add cubed lamb chunks (750g), brown the meat all over. Then fold in approx two small pots of natural yoghurt. Ideally you should let the yoghurt become incorporated but I don't give two hoots for that I'm afraid.

Add two large chopped up tomatoes (skin removed if you can be bothered). Stir. Then add half a teaspoon of chilli powder, half a tspn of tumeric and a whole teaspoon of ground coriander. Plus salt and ground black pepper. I don't like things too salty so you'll need to gauge how much yourself.

Here comes the fun bit, either add whole 2 sticks of cinnamon, 6 whole cardamon, 6 cloves and 10 all spice and a nutmeg. Or dry roast them and grind them up then add. It all depends whether you want to extract bits of wood from your curry.

Put the lid on the casserole and simmer on a low heat for 1 1/2 hours. Ideally I would then leave it lying around for the rest of the day or 24 hours and reheat just before eating.

Fantastic with plain buttery rice, cucumber raita, daal, chutney and poppadams. Sprinkle some chopped fresh coriander over the lamb before you take the casserole to the table.

Drink what you like, lots of it.

tents and cooking

2009-07-23T20:33:00.001+01:00

Camping in Normandy

2009-07-21T18:56:00.000+01:00

Idyllic, quiet, pretty site near Pont L'Eveque. Lovely people run it and it has unobtrusive yet excellent stuff for young children: http://www.campinglebrevedent.com/en/services.htm

Our pitch was beside a lake with a small bubbling brook running behind our tent which proved invaluable for chilling our vin blanc.

Another nice site, a few miles away, though a little less fun for kids: http://www.ukcampsites.co.uk/sites/t/Clos-Du-Mont-Criquet-Moyaux-7999.htm

It is an orchard and really peaceful - nice walks around and close to all the things you might get up to in Normandy.

Both sites have excellent loos, always vital!

And are close to producers of excellent Calvados (one from Blangy le Chateau and one from Moyaux).

Nice simple camping meal: thinly sliced chicken breast marinated in honey, lemon juice, garlic and fresh herbs (+ salt and pepper), fried over ones primus stove on a hot heat and served with rice and green salad. Even the most fussy eaters seem to find this palatable.

Ratatouille

2009-06-30T11:51:00.000+01:00

The most delicious ratatouille ever was created in our villa outside Policastro (Campania, Italy) last Summer - every ingredient fresh and sweet, with the most aromatic basil I have come across. Last night I created another, though not quite as fresh, though the herbs are from our garden.

wild flowers - east sussex

2009-06-23T20:59:00.000+01:00

Camping in East Sussex

2009-06-22T22:11:00.001+01:00

Fantastic weekend in East Sussex, a lovely, idyllic campsite just outside the village of Horam (http://www.hiddenspring.co.uk/), with folk from our street. Great barbeques, camaraderie and hoardes of energetic children.

A few images from the weekend:

1. The Kelly Kettle: we couldn't live without it, endless opportunities to light little fires

2. The amazing chicken with a can of beer shoved up its behind and cooked over a raging fire with herbs, tender, juicy and delicious; and the detritus of a jolly evening::

Shampers

2009-06-18T15:00:00.000+01:00

This is one of the best eateries anywhere, full of deeply unfashionable people like me. It is in Kingly St off Regent St in London. Last night was fab, I enjoyed fried squid with sweet chilli sauce followed by Beef Rendang, washed down with a bottle of Gigondas. And in the wonderful company of my mate Peter.

Chives

2009-06-15T22:14:00.001+01:00