During the 1977 Baker's strike I started to make my own bread, and did so for years, but at some point it dropped away. Maybe because we could get decent bread locally, and then because we had a bread machine. But inspired by my son Jonathan's amazing sourdough wholewheat (which is about the best bread … Continue reading 100% Whole Wheat bread baked in a casserole dish
I made chilli pickle, based on this recipe, found by Jonathan Kahn. It's quick and simple. Remove stalks and chop up 15-20 finger chillies (I used 10 and it wasn't quite enough for the liquid ingredients). Toast in a dry frying pan or skillet , for one minute, 1 teaspoon each of: cumin seedsblack mustard … Continue reading Chilli Pickle
Here are some things that I aspire to do when learning / practising specific melodies or solos for guitar. I wish I could remember to do these things all the time. Some of them apply to other instruments (particularly piano) and other activities (like drawing, handwriting). This is not advice for other people because everyone … Continue reading How I learn material for the guitar, or No Pain, Good.
The first four bars of Triste I've been revisiting the first four bars of Triste by AC Jobim. What is going on there? The original (on the album Wave, 1967) is in A, and not Bb as it is usually played by the people I play with. Fair enough, A is an atrocious key for … Continue reading The first four bars of Triste
Here's a dish called Red Eggs and Babinjan. It was made by my parents-in-law, Julie and Josh who were Jewish, and came originally from Iraq. The eggs are cooked for a long time and turn brown. I don't know why they were called Red Eggs, perhaps it's a mistranslation. Dishes cooked slowly on the fire … Continue reading Red Eggs and Babinjan
This is another variation on some preceding curry ideas. The idea is that the vegetables thicken the sauce, and also that the lamb is immersed in the sauce so the spices flavour it. It's good to use the smallest pan that will fit the shoulder, so that the intensity of the sauce is not diluted … Continue reading Shoulder of Lamb and Fava Bean Curry
I made turmeric rice adapted from a recipe I found on the web. It didn't work out quite how I expected but The Irit said it was amazing so here's the recipe. It's still a bit experimental, so I'm putting it here for the record, so I can remember what I did. I'll update it … Continue reading Turmeric Rice
