A cocktail of borne of Christmas desperation and a resourceful spirit(s):
1 part Southern Comfort
3 or 4 parts Calpis (or Calpico depending on your location)
Alternatively, just pour an amount of Southern Comfort into a glass that doesn’t make you feel too shameful, then add an appropriate amount of Calpis to taste.
かんぱい！
Wash 3 leaks and cut into chunks after removing the dark green
2 handfuls of oat flakes
Optional sprinkle of aniseed seeds or basil to your taste
Pepper and salt
Water or bouillon
Boil
Cook on a low heat for 30 minutes
Blend the mixture then sieve to remove remaining debris
Serve with a dollop of sour cream
some milk, mixed seeds, spinach, walnuts, EVOO, banana, dates, some sea salt…
POISSON SAUCE ROUGE
Ingredients:
Flour
3 Red Peppers
2-3 Cloves of garlic, peeled
1kg (2lb) of white fish fillets such as Flathead or Snapper
4 tablespoons of Peanut Oil
Juice of 1 Lemon
Mediterranean Parsley
Salt & Pepper
1. Roast the red peppers in a hot oven (about 200-220 degrees) – make sure
they’re fleshy – put them on a baking tray in the oven until their skins are
blistered & black. Turn them over once so the skins are blistered on both
sides. Take them out and leave for 10-15mins.
Once they are cool enough to handle, peel them and remove the seeds & stem. Keep
the juice but make sure there are no seeds in it.
2. Blend the peppers and the juice of the peppers to a cream together with the
garlic + the salt & pepper in a food processor
3. Pour the sauce into a pan & heat through being careful not to burn it. Heat
it through gently until it begins to bubble.
4. Lightly flour the fish & then saute in the oil turning over once
5. Take the fish out & add a little salt & pepper + the lemon juice
6. Serve with the sauce poured over the fish and the chopped parsley sprinkled
on top
Best served with cous cous & a Mediterranean green salad (tomatoes, cucumbers,
parsley, a little mint, lemon juice, olive oil, salt & pepper).
POISSON AUX CITRONS CONFITS
1.5kgs (3lb) of White FIsh Steaks or Fillets such as Flathead or Snapper
3 Preserved Lemons (these are lemons that have been preserved in salt – easy to
make but even easier to buy readymade in a jar from a store)
4 Tablespoons of Peanut Oil
175ml of Water
1 Teaspoon of Smoked Paprika (or regular paprika, however the smoked version is
goooood)
1/4 Teaspoon of Turmeric
Salt + Pepper
4 Tablespoons of chopped Coriander
1. Mix and beat the oil and water with the paprika, turmeric, salt, pepper and
chopped coriander and marinate the fish in it for 30mins
2. Rinse the preserved lemons under cold water & remove the pulp (important!).
Once the skins are rinsed cut them into small pieces & spread half of them on
the bottom of a baking dish
3. Lay the fish on top and pour the marinade over it
4. Cover with the remaining lemon skins
5. Bake in the oven at 220 degrees for 20mins
As per the previous dish this one is best served with cous cous & a
Mediterranean green salad (tomatoes, cucumbers, parsley, a little mint, lemon
juice, olive oil, salt & pepper).
Bon Appetit!
Like many good recipes, this one comes vaguely remembered from a book which is now lost. I reckon the book was probably eaten by the dog; of course, this is also always a sign of quality, as only the best recipe books get enough food splattered on them to become truly attractive to canines. The recipe itself is a cheat, in that it involves putting together a few cheapish and easily obtainable shop-bought things in such a way as to give the impression of many hours of intense labour in a hot kitchen. To my mind, this, again, is no bad thing. The name comes from my daughter’s Emily’s description of what it looks like when finished. If you try it, you’ll soon see what I mean.
500 g packet of puff pastry
500 g of minced beef (or whatever other meat or non-meat takes your fancy)
100 g (ish) packet of sage and onion stuffing mix (or, again, whatever else.)
A large glass of red wine (you can use white for lighter meats)
An egg, lightly whisked.
Thaw and roll out and then cut the puff pastry into two circles, one a little larger than the other. The younger of you will be aiming for diameter of 20 and 25 cm – the older for something like a vinyl LP. Mix the meat and the puff pasty and the wine in a bowl. The rest of the wine in the bottle can, of course, be thrown away. Place the smaller of the two pastry circles on a flat, greased baking pan. Then put that mixture, looking pretty much like an upturned bowl, centrally on the circle, leaving about 2 cm around the edge. Brush the edge with the egg mix, place the bigger pastry circle on top, use a fork to make a pretty pattern where they join, then cut a couple of slots to let the air escape from the top. Trim off any bits which offend artistic sensibilities regarding the circularness of your circle. Use the rest of the egg to glaze the pie (which should by now be looking like a flying saucer unless something has gone seriously wrong) and place in the oven for about an hour and ten mins at gas mark 5 or about 190 centigrade. Make sure it’s good and brown and well cooked and, uh, eat it, although you might like to wait about 20 mins for it to set and cool.
The pie is actually one of those rare things that works even better after a day or so left cold.
There are many versions of Funeral Potatoes. Some recipes call for putting cheese (about 1 cup of Cheddar, American or whatever you like) in the potato mixture and using buttered bread crumbs for the topping.
1 1/2 lbs frozen hash brown potatoes, preferrably southern-style diced ones
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cream of celery soup (or cream soup of your choice)
1 (10 3/4 oz) can condensed cream of potato soup
3/4 cup milk
1 pint sour cream
Grated parmesan cheese and butter for topping
Heat over to 350 degrees F.
Mix all the ingredients except cheese and butter, and pour into a shallow baking dish. Top generously with cheese and dot with bits of butter. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes or until bubbly and cheese is lightly browned.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
Penitentiary’s follow a weekly meal plan. Without exception, inmates are served the same meals on a rotating basis each week for the duration of their sentence. Many choose to prepare their own meals in their cell blocks or units. The following are some favorite foods enjoyed by guest of the state. Recipes vary, but these are generally dishes meant to be prepared either in cells or common areas of the penitentiary & without the benefits of the common kitchen.
Some foods are prepared & shared amongst friends, others are offered up for sale on the black market. Religious groups with dietary restrictions tend to prepare their own meals together, for instance.
Prison Bowls
Most inmates own a tupperware container & plastic flatware set purchased from the prison commissary. Three to ten individuals will regularly contribute towards an evening meal which is made in one large container & then served up into individual servings & delivered in their ‘bowl’. Inmates working in the prison kitchen will secretly abscond with fresh ingredients that make their way into these meals via the black market, while items such as tortillas, crisps, crackers, tuna fish & other canned meats may be purchased from the prison commissary. A common bowl will consist of one layer of refried beans, one layer of rice, one layer of nacho cheese sauce, one layer of meat & one layer of tortilla chips on the top, sometimes with tortillas between each layer.
Frito Tamale
A bag of frito or other corn chips is crushed into meal, and a small amount of hot water is added. The mixture pressed & left to cool. Once cooled a seasoned & cooked beef mixture may be wrapped in the corn meal as one would a traditional tamale. With corn husks generally not being found in most prison cell blocks, these are generally wrapped in either sandwich bags, plastic wrap or newspaper. Individual tamales will be sold for between 2 & 4 stamps each, depending on quality.
This is a very simple but time consuming recipe. you do not have to “keep the starter alive” in your fridge, like with many other sourdough recipes.
1/2 l rye flour
1/2 l water
step 1.
mix the flour and water and let the “porridge” stand in a bowl with a plate on top in room temperature for 36 hours. after that time there should be a sour smell sneaking out from the bowl (don´t worry it´s not that bad!). this “porridge” is the “starter” of the bread and will lift the bread.
1 1/2 l rye flour
1/2 l water
a little bit of salt
step 2.
mix the rest of the rye, salt and water to the porridge and knead it with everything you´ve got (the dough is pretty massive). the dough also has a tendency to be a bit wet so it´s good to have extra rye on the side to spill over the dough.
step 3.
split the dough into 2 parts and place in 2 buttersmeared bread pans.
let the bread rise for 5 – 6 hours.
step 4.
heat the oven at 175°C
step 5.
bake the bread for 2 hours, but take the bread out of the pans for the last 15 mins so it will be well baked on the sides aswell.
step 6.
let the bread stand for a while before you attack it with a knife (preferrably 24 hours – but i can never wait that long myself….) the bread will be a bit wet in middle for the first day or so, but don´t panic – that is very normal. unlike many a bread this one gets better as it´s gets older. i recommend toasting it and putting some dijon mustard and cheese ontop.
Following Touch: Isolation which covered the first lockdown period in the UK, Touch: Displacing as a full album is now available; the focus falls on longer-form compositions, originally released on a monthly basis over 2020-2021 and featuring artists for whom duration is a key feature of their work.
Full album now available - 28 exclusive tracks recorded by Touch artists,
with the final track delivered on 25th May 2020. A photographic counterpoint by Jon Wozencroft, the view from Hampstead Heath during the London lockdown.