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Author Archives: Fordiebianco
Split Red Lentil Dal with Lamb and Tomatoes
This weekend the best girlfriend ever was away gallivanting around the continent so I thought I’d get out one of my favourite cookbooks – the amazing The practical Encyclopedia of Indian Cooking
I first heated some nice Kalamata Olive oil in a deep pan and fried for 5 minutes a bay leaf, 3 cloves, 6 black peppercorns and a chopped onion. I then added the sliced lamb strips, and a tablespoon each of turmeric, hot chili powder crushed coriander seeds and stir fried the whole mix until the lamb was nice and brown.
I then added 2 pints of water, brought the whole thing to a simmer and left it until the water was almost evaporated and again stirfried the whole shebang for another 2-3 minutes.
Simmering Away
Almost completely reduced
In the meantime I cooked ca 50g of red split lentils in a pint of water and when nice and soft added them to the reduced lamb mix and on top added 2 sliced tomatoes and 2 sliced green chilies. Stir and serve!
With Lentils, tomatoes and chillies
et voila!
See, that wasn’t too hard, wasn’t it?
Cal Tjader and Stan Getz
Isn’t it weird how your taste in music broadens the older you get? While I have to boast a little and state the fact that I was always open to a variety of music styles since the tender age of 12 (Wham, Bach, Chicago, Simple Minds, Brahms and the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. Is that broad enough for a 12 year old? I would hopefully think so!) I have become more encompassing the older I have become. Interestingly enough, this also includes some pretty old music.
Well, not quite early baroque/late medieval grooves, but late fifties, early sixties stuff. I was already into late Bebop and early Cool, but then I started to find out about musicians like Baden Powell and Cal Tjader who would introduce an incredible South American influence into the whole genre, and somehow I seem to be hooked. I have been carrying around the classic Bossa Nova album by Getz/Jobim/Gilberto in various forms (vinyl/tape/mini disc/cd/Ipod and now again vinyl) since I was 21, but it’s introduction into my life has caused a never ending chain reaction of seeking more recordings that are similarly satisfactory to that original trigger.
So now I am now again looking for vinyl that satisfies my brazilian jazz cravings. Since I have been finally equipped with a proper living room I have invested into a proper turntable and dug out my vinyl collection. This has been a revelation: the heavily compressed tracks we listen to these day on CD and Itunes just don’t prepare you for the sheer dynamic of a vinyl track in which loud is allowed to be loud and quite allowed to be quiet, so the advent of my vinyl finds of Baden Powell and Cal Tjader has been a revelation. These vinyl discs I have rescued from some obscure flea market are in gorgeous coulours, more than 45 years old and sound amazing. Yes, there is the odd crackle and pop, but my Klipsch Horns really savour the challenge of some proper dynamics on these classics, so it’s a delight to have them on turntable.
Which leads me finally to my current turntable filler: ‘Stan Getz With Cal Tjader‘ is such a cool album, I can’t overstate what a terrible hole this would leave in your record collection if you wouldn’t order it now. It obviously features Tjader’s and Getz’s virtuosity on their respective instruments, but so much more. The first seconds of the first track, ‘Ginza Samba’ miraculously shazammed such a broad smile on the best girlfriend ever’s face that I immediately knew I bought a winner. And indeed , it’s an incredible album that not only lives from the two main protagonists but also from those amazing chaps that make up Tjader’s sextet: especially Eddie Duran on Guitar and of course the great Vince Guaraldi (before he became famous with the ‘Peanuts’ soundtracks) make this unforgettable.
Well, it’s gotta be better than the new JLS album, innit??
In praise of the Star Inn.
In a remote corner of Essex, where very few Londoners ever dare to traipse, is a small village called Steeple (no, not Steeple view or Steeple Bumstead). Located on the northern rim of the Dengie Peninsula, Steeple features a rather beautiful church, a caravan park and two pubs. Wap bang in the centre of the village is the Star Inn, a little pub that has already seen a few centuries of drinking. Now run as a free house, it features four regularly changing guest ales and the usual stable of fizzy beers. It keeps a well maintained wood burner, has pub nosh and a rather mellow atmosphere. Its regulars are a gentle and friendly bunch and the land lord keeps the more boisterous weekend crowd well under control. It also features what looks like a HD based multi media centre in which the Landlord conjures up an impressive array of perfect pub tracks (you name it, he plays it).
It is, in other words, a shining example of rural hospitality, the perfect pub.
Local Beer
It’s weird. While pubs are dying left right and centre, the proliferation of micro breweries around the UK is unstoppable and there is now real hope that people will increasingly drink local beers instead of the tasteless fizzy beer-like liquids that people still drink. Kudos to our local Co-op grocery store who features loads of local produce and even some of the local breweries.
Local breweries? In Mid – Essex?
Indeed. On our little peninsula with its rural hamlets and tiny villages, I already know of two excellent brewers: the brillant Crouch Vale brewery in South Woodham-Ferrers and the amazing Wibblers brewery in Mayland. Just a few kilometers away in the Pant Valley there’s Shalford brewery, and just across the river there’s Mersea Island brewery, again producing beer of outstanding quality. I only recently discovered Shalford and Wibblers and bought one of each of their range of beers and was immensely impressed. I wouldn’t hesitate to offer any of these to guests (though I prefer to keep them for myself). Have a look at their websites and ask the landlord of your local freehouse to get some as a guest ale.
Cheers!
The Shalford range. Note attractive branded pintglass. Available with gift set.
Three Wibblers and a Mersea Island beer. Yum!
Messaged from the Outhouse 