Hallam's Journal

I put in most of the things, and added or modified others.

Have, use weekly: griddle pan, stick blender, pestle and mortar, moka pot, aeropress, baking tins, colander, sieve, wooden toaster tongs (those things are the BEST)

Have, use monthly or thereabouts: kebab skewers, pizza stone, coffee grinder, milk frother, martini glasses, slow cooker, pastry brush, meat thermometer, mini food processer attachment on blender, ice cream maker, cafetiere, drip coffee maker, cookie cutters, mandoline (I fell out a bit with my mandoline), gratin dishes

Have, don't use often: jam funnel, cheese board and knives, juicer (probably going to get rid of it: it's stupid and a bitch to clean), deep fat fryer, bamboo steamer, tea strainer

had, but not any more: gravy separator (I broke it)

don't have, want: stand mixer, pressure cooker, fondue set, tempura set, garlic press, conical chinoise strainer, maybe a pie funnel?

don't have, don't want: banana stand, crepe maker, electric wok, espresso maker, fancy-ass bain marie, most of that other shit.

Half a tin of chickpeas (pref Valfrutta, not Tescos)
1 stick good fresh green celery (or the green ends of two sticks of celery)
1 small good ripe red (bell) pepper
100g feta cheese
quartered lettuce hearts (optional)
dressing: 1 small clove garlic, some vinegar or lemon juice, olive oil, dried italian herbs

Drain chickpeas.
Slice celery and pepper fairly fine.
Mix together with chickpeas in serving bowl.
Break feta into chunks and add to bowl.
Add lettuce hearts if using.
Mix dressing ingredients.
Pour on dressing, turn salad gently to avoid breaking the feta up too much.
Serve with bread.

Have just seen the best thing. Two blokes doing the Dakar* in a chip van. Not an ordinary chip van, but a Toyota LandCruiser converted to have a fryer in the back. They are competing in this thing, driving the day and then making and serving chips in the evening. Excellent!


*the Dakar endurance rally-raid. Not from Paris to Dakar this year, but through Argentina and Chile.

The shop over the road has a small stock of French raspberry "jaffa cakes", the classic Lu Pim's Framboise. 3 packets for £1. For the Central and Eastern European market: Slovakian, Croatian, Romanian, Polish, Bulgarian, Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian on the wrapper.

We are going to lose the Ryder Cup, I feel. There's only Ian Poulter playing with real grit. I think Sergio Garcia is pining for Luke Donald.

I made a nice chicken thing tonight, sort of a blackened chicken type of thing with a tomato sauce. I put hot pimenton, black pepper, cumin and black cardamom on the chicken as a sort of dry rub, shallow fried the chicken in oil, added garlic, tinned chopped tomato and chicken stock and cooked the chicken through in that sauce. Very tasty. The slightly smoky flavour of the black cardamom combined well with the smoked pimenton. Served with green beans, and a corn on the cob, and some bread.

(edited to make this make ANY SENSE)

Hey there everyone. This is kind of a ragbag, because I don't have anything of any great import or interest to say, but at the same time I feel the compulsion to tell my bugger-all to THE INTERNET!

1) Made aubergine and courgette (zucchini) beer-batter fritters for dinner on Saturday, with tzatziki. Very very good, as ever, didn't make as much mess with the batter as I usually do.

2) What do herbs and delay pedal have in common? You can have too much of either; too much herb in a dish or too much delay pedal in a track. And yet, add more and more and more; use the herb like it was a vegetable or a salad leaf, go hogwild with layers and layers of delay pedal; and you can end up with something very pleasant. For example, one of my favourite starters is panir-o-sabzi, Iranian cheese with herbs. You get a little slab of Iranian cheese, and gurt big bunches of mint, tarragon, spring onions and radishes. You wouldn't use that much tarragon in a dish for eight people. But for one, as a salad leaf, it's just right. Same thing with bunches of methi and dhania in a stew. Use loads!

3) I feel really guilty for being slightly mean about Jari-Matti Latvala prior to Rallye Deutschland (that "sweepstake" comment I made last week). He had a complete nightmare, and he was just in tiny little bits on the Saturday and Sunday, and the poor boy does not need people sitting at home and making snide comments. He still needs to change a few things about his preparation, but I think at this point one should be encouraging rather than mean about it.

4) I feel really stupid about 3) above, but I felt I ought to say it anyway. I feel one should be in for a penny in for a pound with this "being a fan" thing. Or maybe not?

5) If y'all ever want me to post about Serious Shit Happening In The World, I, like, will, but I don't know how much good it'll do you to read it. There are better and more informed minds than mine out there. I have an always-simmering rant about the fetishisation of the countryside, but a) you can probably guess what it would be and b) it would probably enmire us all in a long and ill-tempered discussion of where privilege lies in the debate. So, best not to bother, I think.

6) Bit of a mare for Kimi Räikkönen, wasn't it?

7) Leicester have won two, drawn one so far. I guess we've found our level.

Have I said recently how much I like what I call "black breakfast"? It is black pudding (one slice large, either Lancashire or Scottish, grilled or dry fried); a large grilled mushroom, presenting of course a black appearance; and a mug of black coffee.

I just had it for lunch. Lovely.

What a top evening.

Missed first half of France - Romania, which didn't matter too much as it was dreadful. Watched poor second half and summarising while making moves towards dinner.

Put dinner in oven (we had one of our classic favourite dinners - pork chops baked with feta, with chips and steamed broccoli, always a bonus on any day)

Drank some wine.

Watched weekly world rally programme on Dave. Along with a preview of next weeks event (Turkey) this featured the following diversions.
1) a drag race in Abu Dhabi, between: Jari-Matti Latvala in his WRC Ford Focus; a Red Bull test driver in a Red Bull F1 car; and Péter Besenyei in his Red Bull Air Race acrobatic plane. Péter Besenyei is, how you say, fucking CLASS.
One did think "you chaps have been watching too much Top Gear" though. Jari-Matti appeared to have fun with it. Bless him.
2) the first round of the official unofficial WRC Scalextric tournament, pitting driver against driver, co-driver against co-driver. Lots of fun, lots of cheating.

Switched over to ITV just in time for kickoff of Netherlands-Italy. What a fantastic game. The Italians will rue those missed chances in the first half. And Van Nistelrooij had an open goal in front of him, but hey, that won't matter now. He was well offside for the opener (or am I wrong about this - the defender who was taken out was off the field of play, so cannot possibly count for calculation of offside), and I am sort of quite cross about that, because it did change the game. Great passing play from both sides, and, and this is an "un-English" thing to say, excellent fouling as well. A little of the ball, and a whole lot of the man. This is how it is done.

I once again find myself sort of supporting Italy (perhaps it is because they play like cats, beautiful but vicious) so the result was painful, all the more so because I picked Buffon and Zambrotta in my fantasy football team. DAMMIT.

Anyway, after the game a quick walk around the fields, then tea and bed.

There was English asparagus at the market!

Tonight, therefore, is steak and asparagus night!

Someone come and take these biscuits AWAY from me.

They're McVities Digestives, with bits of dried berry puree in them and a yoghurty coating on one side.

I've ruined my dinner, I know it.