1lb butter
1lb white sugar
1lb dark brown sugar
1 tin condensed milk
6oz dark chocolate
2 tablespoons golden syrup
Melt butter, sugar etc. Put syrup in last. Boil till it leaves back of spoon. (238-240 degrees).
Pour into tray rubbed with butter. Cut into blocks as it cools.
Sometimes it doesn’t work. Try not to stir too much when heating, but if you don’t stir it enough you’ll get burnt bits on the bottom of the pan. Trial & error.
The more you stir, the grittier the fudge will be.
5-6 potatoes
1 leek
2 big yellow onions
1 cube of vegetable boullion
2 dl or 7 oz of cream
salt
white pepper
olive oil
7 dl or 24 oz of water
Peel and chop the potato and the onion.
Fry the potato and the onion in a pot with oil.
Split and rinse the leek. Chop it into small pieces.
Fry the leek together with the potato and the onion.
Pour water into the pot, add the boullion and let it boil.
When the soup is boiling, pour the cream into the pot and let the soup cook until the potato gets soft.
Add salt and pepper.
Serve with brown bread and milk.
“Why, there they are both, baked in that pie;
Whereof their mother daintily hath fed,
Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred.”
William Shakespeare (1564-1616), ‘Titus Andronicus’ Act V Scene III
A number of stories in Greek mythology involve cannibalism, in particular cannibalism of close family members, for example the stories of Thyestes, Tereus and especially Cronus, who was Saturn in the Roman pantheon. The story of Tantalus also parallels this. These mythologies inspired Shakespeare’s cannibalism scene in Titus Andronicus…
2 avocados
1 med. tomato, chopped fine
1 small onion minced
1 tbsp. chopped canned green chilles
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tsp. sherry
Dash cayenne, optional
Salt, pepper
Peel and mash avocados. Add tomato, chilles, then stir in lemon juice, sherry and seasonings to taste, blending well.
Serve as a dip for tortilla pieces or corn chips or as a canapé spread. Makes 10 to 12 appetizer servings.
45ml rye
22.5ml Lillet blanc
22.5ml pineapple juice
Shake over ice.
Double the recipe for whole numbers and more inebriation.
NB. Traditionally, dry vermouth is what is used, but I didn’t have any and Lillet has far more character.
1. Get a chunk of chocolate and cut it into small pieces. I used about 400g of dark chocolate.
2. Put it in a bowl (stainless recommended) and warm up the bowl in a boiling pot.
3. It will take some time, about 15 mins. Be patient and when the chocolate pieces start to be melt, stir them many times.
4. I added condensed milk (because whipping cream was sold out at every shop in my town..) – about 120g – and stir them all together for another 15 mins.
5. During melting chocolate, wash mandarin carefully and peel it. I only used two madarin. It’s enough to have fresh and sweet mandarin flavour. With fruit knife, scrape out white parts of peel inside, so you only use grainy orange part of peel. Blanch them in a boiling water and slice them. If you find it hard to get mandarin at your place, you might be able to use orange instead. But normally orange peel is too thick and not sweet as much as mandarin’s, I guess. (I’m so lucky. Mandarine is very common in Korea in wintertime. Actually, Jeju island (the southest island of Korea) has a special chocolate, which is made of their special mandarine called Hallabong!-Halla is the name of mountain in Jeju. I didn’t refer to it, but my friend told me about it when he ate my chocolate. Of course, he loved mine more!!)
6. Cut caramel into small pieces. Very easy!
7. Get any flat big dishes or pan on which you spread melt chocolate (just like a pancake!). I used a big frypan. I put plastic wrap between pan and chocolate so the chocolate gets easily removed after getting hard.
8. Put sliced madarine peels on the half of chocolate and caramel pieces on the other.
9. Fold the chocolate, so now it looks like a half moon.
10. Wrap it with plastic wrap and put it in a freezer for about 2 hours.
11. Write a card for someone you’d like to give and smile!
12. Get the chocolate from freezer. It shouldn’t be fully formed but that’s the point. It’s hard to cut when the chocolate’s fully hardened. Cut them into good size and shape. Put them into freezer again for another few hours.
13. That’s it!
Happy Valentine’s Day, all!
2-3 eggs
200-300 grams feta cheese
500 ml yogurt
a bit of oil or melted butter,
a bit of salt if the feta is not too salty
filo pastry
baking pan in any shape you have available
15-30 mins
LOVE!
MIx all in a bowl, and leave the cheese in slightly bigger pieces – I prefer it, because I like to know what I eat (smile).
You can put a bit of the mix on each sheet, rolled and turn it as a big mandala and form in a round baking pan. OR! use a another shape of baking pan and distribute the mix inbetween one or two layers, and be sure you have enough at the edges to do – don’t have them dry after baking.
This one you can cut after baking on squares or triangles for example. Don’t forget to put a bit of oil on the bottom of the pan and sometimes inbetween. If you have left of the mixture, you can put a bit on the top sheets, more for decoration. Before you bake it, use a
fork to make holes here and there from the top to the bottom of the pie.
Bake! 220°C / both sides for around 15 minutes until you get a nice colour on the top. Check if it’s well baked on the bottom with a fork.
Enjoy!
In the Balkans we have this at anytime and with anything.
Another mix. I personally like – apart of the cheese one – you can cook some chopped leek in a pan with a bit of salt and oil/butter and add between the layers too, black olives and nuts go nicely too.
Sweet!
With filo pastry you can make apple, pumpkin, ginger or nuts and cinnamon sweet pie very quick as well
Brown rice (round grain is best) – or millet. Both have no gluten so they’re easier to digest, absorb and tolerate than any other grain. Millet is perfect for infections of any kind – it’s a natural antibiotic. Both are very stabilising, building core energy and gently massaging body and brain – neither of them extreme in terms of energies they sustain and develop. Rice porridge reheats a bit easier as millet can get very jelly when cold. You’ll find your ways…
Grind rice or millet into a powder, initially very thin, later can be thicker. Mix with water or with milk diluted with water and boil, then simmer for at least 20 mins, often mixing. First ratio to experiment with: 1 bottle = 165 ml of milk mixed with 85 ml of water – or simply 250 ml of water (a glass) – mixed with 1-3 flat spoons of ground grains, depending on how thick you want it (1 – watery and easy to drink, 3 – really thick; I never went beyond 2).
It’s okay on its own, but once your baby grows and is ready for more adventures… The milky porridge is great with sweetish flavours for breakfast and supper, the watery one with more savoury, vegy stuff during the day.
Steam/boil locally grown fruit (apple all year around, berries during their season, pear in the summer; add a pinch of cinammon to energetically warm it up) or local veg (carrots, parsnips, pumpkin, broccoli, etc.) topped with few drops of good oil (oil, linseed, pumpkin, sesame).
Add the fruit/veg mash to the previously cooked porridge and mash in the mixer.
“I used to cook a big pot of porridge for approx. 6 bottles at a time every other evening, one bottle for immediate use and the rest to be kept in the fridge for the next 2 days (never in the freezer – it freezes the food’s – and thus body’s – energy), filling 3/4 of each bottle with porridge to leave some room for the fruit/veg mix. Sometimes I’d only add a freshly cooked & hot fruit/veg to a cold bottle (in the summer), at other times I’d gently reheat the porridge too (in the winter). Don’t microwave it (same baddie as the freezer) – just put the bottle into hot water or simply warm it up in a pot, like a soup.” [Magda Raczynska]
Found some plastic bags in the freezer, blended the contents with spices and apple sauce. Cannot be more specific.
I tin artichokes
Cup of mayonnaise
Cup of cheddar cheese
2 cloves garlic
2-3 Halapeno peppers
Liquidate (sic) and either put in separate ramekins or in a large dish, sprinkle with parmesan and bake.
Serve with tortilla chips or crudites.
BY APPOINTMENT TO THE ROYAL ELBOW
Ingredients:
A few carrots, a drop of cold pressed organic oil
Instructions:
Steam the carrots.
Mash them with a potato masher or in a mixer.
Add the drop of oil.
To thin the mash, take a small amount of water from the steamer and add that…
Serve with a soft spoon.
2 eggs
salt
200 ml milk
150 gr flour
150 gr blueberries (from the garden or frozen)
butter
sugar
Make a pancake pie by mixing 2 eggs with pinch of salt, milk and flour. Pie has to be homogenous, but not too watery. Put a small piece of butter in the pan (medium heat) and when it melts, put a pie into the pan with a large ladle. While the pie is still soft, add blueberries and distribute them evenly on the upper side of the pancake. When the lower side is done, put a plate on the side with blueberries in order to flip the pancake more easily. Flip the whole pan, and take out the pancake, add a little piece of butter in a pan to melt for a few seconds, and then ‘slide’ the pancake back to the pan, this time on the side with the blueberries. Fry for a few minutes, mildly stirring the pan, so that the blueberries would not stick.When the pancake is done, put a clean plate on the top and flip the pan. This time the blueberryside will be on the top of the plate, so just cover it will sugar according to your taste and enjoy.
1/2 of large Lettuce salad
1/2 of Red Oak Lettuce salad (or Lollo Rosso Lettuce)
1 big or 2 small tomatoes
50 gr of (mild) Chèvre cheese (goat cheese)
20 ml of Balsamic vinegar
30 ml Olive oil
10 ml Kikkoman soy sauce
Wash and dry salad-leaves before cutting them into smaller pieces. Add cut tomato and small pieces of Chevre. Mix olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and add to the salad. Stir well, and then add soya sauce. Mix the whole salad well and serve into two separate smaller salad-bowls.
(see also Blueberry pancakes, which Thomas serves at the same meal)
(see also Salad, which Thomas serves at the same meal)
Ingredients (Serves 2):
1 x Red Onion
1 x Vegetable Stock Cube
2 x Cans of Cider (doesn’t have to be fancy (Strongbow, Magners, etc.). However, do not use White Ace or White Lightning or similar, this is not a good thing to put into your body under any circumstances)
Salt/sugar/mixed herbs to taste
Olive Oil
1. Chop red onion into small rings
2. Heat a blob of olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the onions
3. When onions are translucent (but not browned), add the cider and the stock cube
4. Simmer on a medium heat for roughly 20-30mins. At around the 15-20min mark the cider should start to reduce and the alcohol should have evaporated. This sometimes takes slightly longer, so taste the mixture periodically. When the alcohol has evaporated, add the salt/sugar/mixed herbs depending on your taste (it’s trickier to gauge the overall flavour before the alcohol has gone)
5. Continue to simmer until the soup has reduced to a nice, thicker consistency
6. Serve in a back garden with black pepper and interesting bread. Note pinkish colouration from the onions.
The means are slightly crooked, but the end results are amazing.
Wash the strawberries, serve with the stalks and a glass of chilled Riesling, for example Schauß Monzingen from the Nahe Valley, south of Koln, Germany
Click here to enjoy Achim Mohné’s Asparagus and Potato recipe
500 gram per person white asparagus, approx thickness the diameter of a one euro coin…
Peel thoroughly and cut off one centimeter of the stalk
Boil gently for about 20 minutes in slightly salted water with two teaspoons of sugar and a knob of butter
Parboil unpeeled new potatoes
Serve in a dish, plate up and garnish with melted butter (50-100 gram)
Drink with Riesling from the Nahe Valley, south of Köln, Germany
Click here to enjoy his dessert recipe, Fresh Strawberries and Riesling
Pistou is French for “Pesto” – this soup is a celebration of home-grown
summer vegetables and olive oil…
Soak about 300 g of dried beans (according to taste) in cold water over
night. (You could use tinned beans if you really must).
The next day, chop up 3 or 4 small-ish, freshly picked courgettes, 3 or 4
waxy new potatoes, fresh broad beans (all to about half-inch cubes or slices),
and a de-seeded tomato.
Heat a dash of olive oil in a large pot, add all the above (having drained
the dried beans), along with a big sprig of fresh basil, and stir gently
before covering with cold water. Let it come to the boil, then simmer until
the potatoes and beans are cooked – the courgettes shouldn’t be too soft.
While the soup is cooking, use a blender to purify as much fresh basil as
you can find with 2 cloves of garlic and the de-seeded flesh of 2 oxheart
(cuore di bue) tomatoes, a generous pinch of sea-salt and a really generous
glug of best extra-vergin olive oil. This is the pistou.
Salt the soup. Then, to serve, pour the pistou into the soup at the table,
and eat with toasted bread with olive oil. Accompanied by a nice crispy
young white wine.
Tie Luo Han is a Chinese Oolong tea of the Wuyi Rock tea family. The name translates to Iron Warrior Monk, because it is believed that it was created by a powerful warrior monk with golden-bronze skin, hence the cool kung-fu movie-like name. This is one of my favorite teas. I drink it a lot. Although it’s a mid-priced tea (100 grams is usually around $30, although the price has risen in the last years) I like it better than teas which cost twice more. It’s easily available from online tea shops.
Tie Lup Han has a strong full-bodied taste, with a rich and smooth aftertaste. It works well with food, but the aftertaste will be somewhat lost, so for the full experience drink it on its own. It’s one of the teas which I can drink any time of the day.
Here’s how you prepare it:
Tie Luo Han is a loose leave tea. No tea bags, so you’ll need a bit more utensils than just a big cup.
If you have tea clams which you use for loose leave tea: throw them in the garbage. Tea clams is an abomination. The difference between bag tea and loose leave tea is that the loose leaves are bigger. They need space to swell. With a tea clam you’re putting them in jail and reducing the full effect. Use a pot (clay or glass, either is fine) or a Gaiwan.
Like other Oolong teas it’s best to brew Tie Luo Han at 90°C. If you don’t have a temperature-specific water boiler just let the water boil up and then cool for a few minutes. Never let water boil excessively – it’s the oxygen which provides taste to the tea. Dead water = dead tea.
The amount of tea is difficult to say. It depends on the size of the pot. Usually about 1/3 of the pot covered by tea (in dry condition) is a good rule. The amount of tea affects the brewing time. After a few times you’ll get a feel for it.
The first brew you throw away and don’t drink. This is to ’wash’ the tea of possible toxins. It also decreases the caffeine levels (80% of the caffeine is released during the first 30 seconds of brewing).
The second brew is the first you drink. Let it brew for approx 30 seconds. The tea should get a light brown colour. Not dark like black tea, but darker than green and white tea. Pour it into a pitcher from which you pour into the drinking cup(s). Use small drinking cups. It may not look as butch as your big red Manchester United-mug, but the tea will taste better. You should slurp. It adds oxygen and thus more taste.
For the third round let it brew for about 60 seconds. And for the forth and fifth add 15-30 seconds each consecutive round. The third brew is often the best. Your mouth is accustomed to the taste so the tea takes on a drier quality.
Tie Lou Han is good for about 5-6 brews.
4 – 7 organic eggs depending on size and hunger
A small onion, very finely chopped
A few tomatoes, de-seeded and finely chopped
A fresh green chilli, finely chopped
Whisk the eggs (properly, so that they turn a bit fluffy and
are well-mixed) adding salt, freshly ground pepper and about
half a teaspoon of red chilli powder.
Mix in the vegetables and pour into a hot, flat pan in which
you’ve melted a bubbling, browning but not too dark butter.
Let the mixture spread evenly across the pan, and rather than
flipping the whole thing, fold one half over to cover the other
as soon as this is possible.
It should be soft and creamy inside. Serve with bread and butter, or make
parathas*. Perfect at any time of day or night.
* Flat breads made of whole-wheat flour, salt and water, fried in
ghee.
ingredients for 3 people:
– 1 and a half aubergine (size ± 15 centimetres)
– one big onion, ± 5 gloves of garlic
– about 5 peeled tomatoes (drop in boiled water for a minute) and cut in
small chunks (or use a tin already chopped tomatoes)
– 200 gram of boiled chickpeas
– a good pinch of herbs (bayleaf, provencales or a mix of thyme, oregano etc)
– some chili powder and/or a teaspoon sambal (or any other hot stuff)
– salt and black pepper
– some parsley
Dice the aubergine, rub salt though them and put in a colander for about 30 minutes.
Slice and fry the onion slowly till slightly brown, put aside.
Fry the aubergine for a while, add the onions and chopped garlic. Add the tomatoes, herbs, pepper and hot spice.
Drain the chickpeas and add them. Add some water if it gets too dry. It should be not soupy, but not dry either.
Taste for salt. Let it simmer for a while so the flavours can mix. Just before serving add a good handful chopped parsley
Nice with dark bread and a green salad and a sprig of mint