23.12.12 Christmas Dinner Winner

This year’s Christmas meal was doomed from the outset. Seeing how much effort my mother puts in every year, I declared last year that I would take up the mantle this December 25th and would cook the traditional roast dinner. And now, quite frankly, I am bricking it!! That means that to be on top of things I have to get a head start, as a result I am going to prep a few things in advance. The first one up is the red cabbage that my family is partial to. The only problem is that I don’t actually have a recipe to stick to. I know the gist of what’s in it, but I will have to dig into the BBC Food directory to teach me how to get it done.

Ingredients

50g/2oz butter
1 medium onion, finely sliced
2 dessert apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1kg/2¼lb red cabbage, finely sliced
100g/4oz sultanas or raisins
200ml/7fl oz sherry vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation method

Melt the butter in a stainless steel or flameproof casserole over a medium heat (an aluminium pan will not work for this).
Fry the onion in the butter for three minutes, then add the apple and cabbage.
Cook for five minutes or so, until softened, then add the sultanas and the sherry vinegar.
Place a lid on the pan and cook for one hour, until all the vegetables are just tender.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper and replace the lid. Continue to cook until the cabbage is tender and all the liquid has evaporated. This dish will keep for several days, covered, in the fridge. Simply heat it up again when ready to serve.

I’m off to heat my pan, cross my heart and hope that this meal all goes to plan. After all, there’s only Christmas riding on it.

DC

22.12.12 Shop until you Drop

Everyone rushes around at this time of year in a mad dash to get all of their shopping in time for the Christmas break. I’ve done all of mine, thanks for asking. In fact for the first year I’ve even wrapped all of my presents before Christmas evening. But many people haven’t, just ask my dad who every year falls into the trap of doing it all at the last minute in a mad rush.

If you ignore the 60m trees that are grown in Europe each year for Christmas, or that their needles are rich in vitamin C, I think the most amazing fact that I have heard about Christmas relates to our panic shopping. Today, in the UK, it is estimated that of the approximately 75million odd UK residents (a proportion of whom won’t celebrate Christmas or are young), 13 million people will grace the high street shopping.

I think you’ll agree, an incredible testament to our consumerism!!

DC

21.12.12 It’s the End of the World as We Know It

Today is meant to be the end of the world. Well I say that, apparently the Mayan’s claimed that 21/12/12 would be the end of the world, or at least that’s very much what my Facebook newsfeed is telling me. But what’s the truth of the situation?

The date actually marks the end of the 5,125 year cycle Mayan calendar – this being their 13th Baktun. Mayan’s have long insisted that the date didn’t actually denote the end of the world and western calendars may even mean that we are a few days out from matching up the exact date anyway.

In fact, not only are the Mayans saying it, but event he scholars that have been flaunting the story admit that there is only an incredibly vague and small reference in artifacts that could even relate to the end of the world.

David Stuart, a noted Mayan and Meso-American specialist at the University of Texas at Austin, observed in his book The Order Of Days: The Maya World and the Truth About 2012, that “no Maya text – ancient, colonial or modern – ever predicted the end of time or the end of the world.” The strength of the case against is fortunately much stronger than the doomsday pushers. So we should be all right, the Mayans will just have to buy a new calendar.

Postscript – it’s ok, the world didn’t end, or else I wouldn’t be able to write this blog!

DC

20.12.12 Can’t Start a Fire without a Spark

Ever since I moved into my house 2 years ago, I’ve stared longingly at the fire place, wishing more than anything that I would be organised enough to arrange for the chimney to be swept so that I could have a roaring fire to keep me warm on these cold lonely nights. Well now I’ve only gone and taken the plunge and it’s all ready to go. Just one problem…. As we know I lack the most manly of skills, so I actually don’t really know the best way to go about making a fire. Luckily for me, the Internet exists, lifehacker.com explains…..

1. Before you do anything, open the flue and make sure it works correctly. You’ll usually be able to feel the cold air coming from outside if it’s open. The last thing you need is a house full of smoke!

2. Grab your newspaper and crumble a few pieces up, throwing them into the back of the fireplace. These are going to act as our tinder, starting our fire with an easy-to-light surface.

3. Stack some of your kindling on top of the newspaper. Make sure you leave enough room in there for oxygen to circulate, as your fire will need it to burn. You don’t need too rigid a structure, here, since you have the grate and screen to keep the fire put together.

4. Light your fire. Again, you’ll want to light the tinder (newspaper, in this case) in a few different spots to get it burning quickly. Your kindling should catch fire pretty easily. You can add a bit more kindling once it starts to create a nice coal bed.

5. Once you’ve got a small fire going, you can start adding your bigger logs. You can usually just lay these across the grate lengthwise, then stack one or two on top diagonally. Remember: you want to leave enough room for oxygen to flow so everything catches fire easily.

Now I know a good way to get me going it’s time to get the logs out, pour some wine and get toasty.

DC

19.12.12 Vindaloo, Vindaloo…….

Particularly at this chilling time of year, few things warm the cockles more than a lovely, hot curry. That feeling of warmth, spice and gluttony is just perfect to stave off the cold. I’m partial to a bit of spice and absolutely love things ranging from a Jalfrezi to an extra chili Dhansak (a personal favourite) but I know my upper limits. I have never been tempted to order a Vindaloo, for instance, I have no desire to lose the taste of my food in a symphony of painful yelps and desperate gulps of water. However, today’s learning is indeed about the noble vindaloo.

Once an icon of heat and spice, the vindaloo has since been usurped by man’s attempts to get hotter in the Phall. Today, whilst whiling away time watching more cooking shows, I found out that the ‘vin’ part of the name vindaloo is actually because the recipe calls for the inclusion of vinegar!! Who knew. So to celebrate that fact the below is a recipe available on bbc.co.uk/food from chef Anjum Anand for a fine Pork Vindaloo:

Ingredients

1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
5 black peppercorns, left whole
2 green cardamom pods, seeds only
2 cloves
1cm/½in piece cinnamon
1cm/½in piece ginger, peeled and chopped
7 garlic cloves, peeled and left whole
3 fresh red chillies
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
pinch salt
350g/12oz pork shoulder, flesh cut into 2.5cm/1in cubes
100g/3½oz pork belly, cut into 2.5cm/1in pieces
65ml/2½fl oz vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
¾ tsp mustard seeds
handful cashew nuts

Method:

1. – Using a spice grinder, grind the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, peppercorns, cardamom seeds, cloves and cinnamon to a fine powder.
2. – In a food processor, blend the ginger, garlic, chillies and white wine vinegar to a paste.
3. – Mix the ground spice mixture with the paste until well combined and season with a pinch of salt. Rub the mixture all over the pork using your fingers, then set the pork aside, covered, to marinate for 1½-2 hours.
4. – Heat four tablespoons of the oil in a non-stick pan. When the oil is hot, add the onion and fry for 3-4 minutes, or until golden-brown.
5. – Add the marinated pork pieces and fry for 6-7 minutes, turning once, until golden-brown on all sides. Reduce the heat to low, cover the pan with a lid and cook for 35-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the pork is tender. Add small splashes of boiling water to the pan as necessary if the juices in the pan dry out. Add as little water as possible as the resulting sauce should be quite thick.
6. – Heat the remaining teaspoon of oil in a separate pan over a medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds. (CAUTION: the mustard seeds will start to pop. Keep the pan well away from your face and eyes.)
7. – Once the mustard seeds start to pop, add the cashew nuts and fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the nuts are golden-brown.
8. – To serve, either divide the rice among four serving plates, spoon the vindaloo alongside and pour the fried cashew nuts and mustard seeds over the vindaloo, or alternatively spoon the vindaloo into the centre of four wheat tortillas, sprinkle with chopped lettuce and soured cream and roll up into parcels.

Now you know the clue in the name, maybe give real spice a go. I must admit it, I’m reasonably petrified but perhaps I’ll buy some yogurt too.

DC

18.12.12 World Heavyweight Championship of Football

It’s interesting that in the school play ground you constantly lived in fear that your team would lose to a friends team. In the unofficial code, it meant that your team was worse until the next time you played. Even if, say, you’re team was Manchester United and they won the league that year, that was all well and good but if you lost a game to Sunderland then you were indeed worse than them. Until now, I thought that the school yard was the only place this code existed.

I was wrong.

The Unofficial Football World Championship is an unsanctioned title that was awarded to England when they won the first ever international football match against Scotland back in 1873. There was no tournament to win it, just one game and here’s the best part – its defended like a wrestling world title! That is to say, that if you beat the current holder then you take the title.

The title swapped between the UK nations (the only ones competing) for a while, before the World Cup came into play as a rival title. If you trace the title all the way through to the current day (and there are websites that have), the current title holders are amazingly North Korea, having beaten Japan on 15th November 2012 in World Cup Qualification.

Wo would have thought that North Korea, unofficially at least, would be the best team in the world?

DC

17.12.12 Veg Your Bets

Lumpy, bumpy cones of floret shaped greenery. Looking like tiny alien pyramids, sandwiched together to make a mother ship style entity that looks more like it’s intent on taking over planet Earth and enslaving our people than being a delicious accompaniment to a roast dinner. You see I’ve long wondered exactly what the below vegetable is, where it originates from and what it tastes like:

It is known as Romanesco and, as the name suggests, has its origins in Italy. It is, in fact, a cross between broccoli and cauliflower from the species Brassica Oleracea. The pattern of the florets is what the vegetable is most famous for with its branches making a logarithmic spiral, this means that the shape is approximately a natural fractal or each bud consists of many smaller buds that are again arranged in a logarithmic spiral. All of it getting smaller and smaller until it reaches the final tip.

I’m not going to lie, the main reason I have always wanted to know what this vegetable is, is because of it’s incredible shape. I may now have something new to go with my Sunday lunch.

DC

16.12.12 Handy Brandy Info

Christmas is nearly upon us and with the festive time of year comes a focal point of all celebrations – alcohol. More specifically I’m spending my time wondering around trying to find alcohol to give as gifts and to ply people with. The problem I am having is that I need to buy a bottle of brandy for one of Lucy’s relatives and it’s not an area of specific knowledge for me. I’m looking at bottles of brandy but also at bottles of Armagnac and cognac and thinking that they’re similar, or at least I think they are?

To help clear my confusion, as a man whose head feels fuzzy like he’s already drank far too many bottles of festive celebration. Brandy is defined as distilled wine so as to up the alcohol content, usually above 30% or so. This is done by taking wine with high acidity and boiling it to condense it down leaving the resultant liquid as having a much higher concentration of alcohol.

It actually turns out that Armagnac and Cognac are both types of brandy, not alternatives. There are three main types of brandy – grape, fruit and pomace. Both Armagnac and Cognac are both grape brandies and take their names from the regions in France from which they originate. Famous Cognac’s include Martell, Remy Martin and the bottle I eventually plumped for Courvoisier. This is a huge relief as it means that the recipient of my gift won’t turn her nose up at the offering!

DC

15.12.12 Came to Harm? Bought the Farm

“I think he needed to do it before he bought the farm.” This popular American expression is regularly mentioned or used to describe someone who has died. I hear it and my brain doesn’t even need to compute what it means, however, when I think about it I have absolutely no idea where the expression comes from or why people use it and to be honest I’ve decided that I would like to know before I’ve ‘bought the farm’.

The earliest record of the expression dates back to WWII and was recorded in pilots notes in the US Airforce in the 50s. There are two different interpretations of the etymology of the word. The first is the idea that the pilots dreamed of saving up for the end of the war so that they could go home and ‘buy a farm’ or equivalent, but when they died during service they had to buy a more fitting form of land (their grave site). The second, and I think more fittingly, is that when servicemen died their families received an insurance payout that coincidentally allowed the deceased’s family to buy the farm or alternative that they were currently living in.

There is also reference in the popular play ‘Of Mice and Men’ where George has to kill Lenny but first assures him that he has bought the farm that they can live happily on. It’s quite a nice gallows humour way of saying that someone has died and provides a black humour way of passing on the news to acquaintances – I guess there are worse ways to be described when I finally do go.

DC

14.12.12 Newtown Tragedy

Incredible tragedy has again befallen the world and unfortunately it has a slightly familiar ring to it in the horrific scenes in Newtown Connecticut in the US. 20 children and 6 teachers have been massacred in an elementary school shooting.

A 20 year old walked the corridors of the school with a gun marking the worst killings in a US school (elementary to high school) since the Columbine Massacre in 1999 where 13 people were killed. I say it’s unfortunately not a new story because there is becoming a nasty history of these events, including:

– Bath School bombings, 1927: In the deadliest attack to date, school treasurer Andrew Kehoe, 55, kills 38 kids and six adults with a suicide car bomb.

– University of Texas massacre, 1966: Ex-marine Charles Whitman, 25, shoots dead 13 people and an unborn child at the campus. He was gunned down by cops.

– Cleveland School massacre, 1989: Patrick Purdy, 26, fires an AK-47 into an elementary playground, killing five children and wounding 30. He later took his own life.

– Columbine High School massacre, 1999: Teens Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shoot dead 12 students and a teacher and injure 24 others at their Colorado school before killing themselves.

– Amish school shooting, 2006: Father-of-three Charles Carl Roberts, 32, takes ten Amish girls aged between six and 13 hostage in Pennsylvania, killing five of them. It ends when he commits suicide.

– Virginia Tech massacre, 2007: Student Seung-Hui Cho, 22, kills 32 and wounds 17 in two attacks two hours apart before killing himself.

Unfortunately, today i learnt the horrible history of school shootings in the US, let’s pray for the families of Newtown and that scenes like this may never happen again.

DC