Perfection is not only difficult to achieve, but difficult to maintain. The imperfection in Apollo 13 constituted a near disaster, averted only by outstanding performance on the part of the crew and the ground control team which supported them.
I knocked this together a few nights ago with some forgotten olives, end-of-jar capers and some tired parsley – it came out really well. I wish I had a better photo!
Ingredients
Manzanillo olives, pitted, ~160g
Flat leaf parsley, stalks removed, a good handful
Capers, 1½ tbsp
Caper brine, 1 tbsp
Lemon, ½, juiced
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp
Salt + pepper
Instructions
Chuck all the ingredients into a blender and carefully pulse a few times until combined but still chunky. I use the mill attachment for my blender.
[T]he decision was made to consolidate years of newsletters, weblog posts and other minutiae from various Jekyll instances to one WordPress-powered deal.
Five years later I’ve moved reyhan.org back on Jekyll, once again hosted with GitHub Pages! There’s a handful of reasons for this, none of which are interesting to read about but I thought I’d note the change for posterity.
Baba ganoush
I like to prepare this in advance, pop in the fridge and bring to room temperature before serving.
Ingredients
Aubergine, 1 large
Red chilli, 1, minced
Garlic, ½ bulb, minced
Flat leaf parsley, a small handful, chopped fine
Extra virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp
Paprika, ½ tsp
Lemon, ½, juiced
Salt + pepper
Instructions
Prick the aubergine skin all over with a skewer then grill until the aubergine is soft and the skin starts to char. Pop in a bowl and wrap well with cling film and set aside for ~20 minutes.
Put a small pan on a medium heat, add a touch of olive oil followed by the garlic and chilli and fry until the garlic start to turn translucent then set aside.
Once the aubergine has cooled, gently peel, discard the skin and pop the aubergine meat into a large mixing bowl.
Use your hands to pull the aubergine into smaller pieces then add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, the lemon juice and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Break down the aubergine with a fork until it is the desired consistency.
Add the garlic, chilli, flat leaf parsley and another tablespoon of exta virgin olive oil and stir until everyting is well mixed.
Transfer into a shallow dish and finish with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt and pepper and a good pinch of paprika.
Bacon is salt pork. Before refrigeration, we used to salt it so it could be hung somewhere dry and cool where it would remain good to eat through most of the winter. Today, we refrigerate bacon, so it doesn’t actually need the salt for preservation. But bacon without salt is just joyless slices of wet pork. I got straight onto the phone with my wholesale butcher. “What the hell’s going on with the bacon?”
A fascinating look into how the music superstars of today were put on by a small group of kids behind keyboards. This 10-part docu-style audio series – which traces the rollercoaster ride of 2007-2012, when hip-hop met the internet – features stories from 150 influential voices, including Wiz Khalifa, Curren$y, Joe Budden, Bun B, The Cool Kids, and many, many more!
This is a well produced podcast that takes me back.
A PHONE RINGS. Rich Habib opens his eyes and blinks in the darkness. He reaches for the phone, disturbing a pair of dogs cuddled around him. He was going to take them to the river for a swim today. Now the sound of his phone means that somewhere, somehow, a ship is going down, and he’s going to have to get out of bed and go save it.
I read this article back in 2008 and it recently popped in my mind but for some reason I never posted it! I thought it was shared in an issue of zzmag way back when but maybe not ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Meat sauce with tomato and red bell pepper
This is a quick meat sauce that I like to stir into linguine and finish with grated mature cheddar.
Ingredients
Tomato passata, 500g
Red bell pepper, 1
Brown onion, 1 large, diced
Garlic, 3 cloves, minced
Basil, a good handful
Beef mince, 300g
Tomato purée, 1 tbsp
Salt + pepper
Instructions
Roast the bell pepper until the skin is evenly charred. You can do this on the grill, over a gas hob, in an oven, etc. Once charred, pop in a bowl and double wrap with cling film and set aside for 15 minutes to steam.
Once steamed, remove the skin, seeds and stalk, roughly chop and add to a large mixing bowl with the tomato passata and a good handful of basil leaves. Blend until smooth and set aside.
Put a good-sized pan on a medium-high heat, add a touch of olive oil followed by the onions and fry until they start to turn translucent.
Add the garlic then fry for a few minutes.
Stir in the tomato purée and fry for a few minutes.
Stir in the mince a handful at a time and season well with salt and pepper. Fry for a few minutes until the mince is cooked through.
Stir in the blended sauce and simmer on a gentle heat for ~30 minutes.
Dhal
Ingredients
Red lentils, 200g
Cumin seeds, 1 tsp
Coriander seeds, 1 tsp
Garam masala, 1 tsp
Turmeric, 1 tsp
Chilli powder, 1 tsp
Red onion, 1 medium, minced
Garlic, 2 gloves, diced
Ginger, 1 inch, diced
Red chilli, 1, deseeded and minced
Tomato purée, 2 tbsp
Chicken stock, 200ml
Coriander, small handful, chopped
Butter
Salt + pepper
Instructions
Toast the coriander seeds and cumin seeds in a pan on a medium heat until fragrant.
Using a pestle and mortar, bash up the cumin seeds and coriander seeds until fine.
Add the cumin and coriander powder to a bowl with the turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala followed by a pinch of salt and pepper and set aside.
Using a pestle a mortar, bash up the garlic and ginger with a pinch of salt until a paste and set aside.
Put a medium-sized pan on a medium heat, add a touch of vegetable oil followed by the red onion, red chilli, garlic and ginger paste and cook until the onion starts to turn tranclucent.
Add the dry spices, stir well and cook until the spices are fragrant (don’t burn the spices!)
Add a knob of butter and stir in the tomato purée. Cook for a few more minutes then spoon the spice mixture into a bowl and set aside.
Using the same pan, add the lentils and the chicken stock with a knob of butter then stir well, ensuring you pick up any remaining spices that have stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add enough cold water to come to around two inches above the surface.
Bring to the boil then reduce to a gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes until the lentils are soft.
Stir in the spice mixture and cook for a further 5 minutes or so.
Add more water depending on your desired consistency then add the coriander to serve!
Take a saucepan and boil the potato in lightly salted water. Once done, fish the potato out and set aside to steam dry.
Put a good sized frying pan on a medium-high heat, melt a little butter and flash fry the broccoli and asparagus in batches for a few minutes then set aside. We’re not looking to cook them through, just catch colour and take away some of the rawness (especially if they’ve been in the fridge).
Put a good-sized pan on a medium-high heat, add a touch of olive oil followed by the onions and fry until they start to turn translucent.
Add the garlic then fry for another few minutes.
Stir in the tomato purée and harissa then fry for a few more minutes.
Add the vegetable stock and Henderson’s.
Add the broccoli, asparagus, frozen spinach and potato and stir well!
Season with salt and pepper.
Bring the pan to the boil then reduce to a gentle simmer and cook for 15 minutes.
Blend until smooth.
Ladle into a deep bowl and finish with a dollop of green pesto or a chonk of Blue Stilton.
A wind starts to pick up, distant at first, but building quickly. 10 Foot’s eyes widen. “You can hear them whispering,” he says. Then he jumps into the weeds on the side of the tracks just in time to see the Thameslink go thundering past, barely a metre in front of him. You should never look a train in the eye, he told me. That’s the rule. The eyes of a train can turn you to stone.
Thx Will!
Digital Color Meter
macOS ships with a handy piece of software called Digital Color Meter that you can use to find the colour of something on your screen.
Open Digital Color Meter (found in Applications → Utilities).
Click View → Display Values → as Hexadecimal.
Hover over the thing you’d like to sample:
Shift-Command-C to copy the colour as a hex code.
Option-Command-C to copy the colour as an image.
Curry sauce 2
This is a curry sauce that lends itself to tougher pieces of meat like stewing beef, goat chops, etc. For the paste I use the mill attachment for my blender but I’ve also use a pestle and mortar which takes a little longer but is more satisfying.
Ingredients
Garlic, ½ bulb, crushed
Ginger, peeled and grated, ~2 tbsp
Coriander seeds, 2 tbsp
Cumin seeds, 2 tbsp
Cardamom pods, 4
Cinnamon bark, 1 stick
Black peppercorns, 4
Whole tomatoes, 400g tin, broken up
Tomato purée, 2 tbsp
Beef stock, 300ml
Coriander, 2 good handfuls, chopped
Red onion, 2 large, minced
Stewing beef, 500g, cut into 4cm chonks
Olive oil, a glug
Salt + pepper
Instructions
Toast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cardamom pods, cinnamon bark and peppercorns in a pan on a medium heat until fragrant.
Set the pan aside to cool then use the flat side of a knife to release the cardamom seeds and discard the shells.
Add the garlic, ginger, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cadamom seeds and black peppercorns to the mill followed by the chopped coriander, a teaspoon of olive oil, a splash of water and a pinch of salt.
Blend until a fine paste! You can add another splash of water if it’s struggling.
Take a heavy pan, add a glug of olive oil and brown the beef chonks in batches on a medium heat then set aside.
In the same pan, add the curry paste, cinnamon bark and red onion, stir well and cook for 5 minutes, or until fragrant.
Stir in the tomato purée and cook for a few minutes.
Add the beef chonks back into the pan and stir well, ensuring all the chonks are evenly coated in the mixture.
Stir in the chopped tomatoes and beef stock, followed by a good pinch of salt.
Pop a lid on and simmer for 1 hour1, stirring ever so often.
Remove the lid and reduce on a simmer for ½ hour (or more depending on your desired consistency). Stir often to prevent sticking!
