Baked beans in bedsits…

As threatened – the post on baked beans.

Baked beans on toast are the perennial stand-by for impoverished students in bedsits, low-income earners in bedsits, no-income earners in bedsits, schoolkids, vegetarians and vegans. Or used to be in my younger days. I suppose Pot Noodles took over long ago as easier to not cook.

I was surprised therefore, when browsing another blog, to discover this is not a worldwide-known fact. Other Brits may be similarly surprised – link here.

Baked beans, as we all know, are full of protein (the beans), a tasty sauce, and the toast provides carbs. Beans plus carbs = a good thing, unless you are a paleo primal screaming person, in which case, I really don’t want to hear your view as I have read up on it and written about it here.

For those who can’t afford £42 for fillet steak, a tin of beans and a couple of slices of toast does the job. Incidentally, in the supermarket yesterday I was amazed to watch the woman behind me buy up nearly the equivalent of 14 chickens.

Chicken breasts (in packs of three) were £4 a pack, but buy three for £10. So I watched her pile up one set of three packs, then another three, then another three. A grand total of 27 chicken breasts. A large family I thought. Or a large freezer. Or maybe they just like chicken breasts. Pork chops apparently cost nearly £6 for two. Equally amazing. Don’t knock the humble baked bean, although I don’t suppose small tins are 19 pence these days.

I didn’t eat them very much at home as a kid. They didn’t really fit with my mother’s weekly Corden Bleu Cookery magazines (4/6 each) promoting rich and delicious French cooking. So when we had baked beans on toast for tea, they came laced with butter, cream, and tomato puree. Have to say they were very nice and I would have been happy to have eaten them more often. They were awful at school, thin and watery, for which I blame my mother’s rich French additions at home.

By the time I had become an impoverished student I was no longer interested in tins of baked beans. They had the dreaded S word as one of their major ingredients. I was on a big anti-sugar campaign (still am), so beans were a no-no. Anyway, they weren’t proper food, because they weren’t meat.

How things turn full circle! Moving forward to my vegetarian days, I did find some decent tins of sugar-free beans, Whole Earth, I suspect. Hardly cheap, but at least sugar-free. When I had time, I cooked beans and made the sauce, if not, I bought the tins.

So reading the baked bean post on the blog linked to above, I had a huge urge for baked beans on toast.

Ingredients

Beans, usually haricot (navy in North America I think you call them), but any beans will do. I used pinto, as I was out of haricot.

Tomato sauce – olive oil, onion, garlic, mixed herbs, tomatoes, veg stock, soya milk, vinagre de Jerez, soya sauce (tamari). Tin of toms works instead of fresh.

Method

Soak beans overnight. Cook following day in pressure cooker for 25-30 mins depending on beans and pressure cooker.

Cook onion and garlic, add tomatoes, herbs and stock. When cooked, and cool, zap. At this point I added the tamari sauce, milk, and vinegar. Add beans to finished sauce and warm up to put on toast.

Tomato sauce

Adding pinto beans to sauce

Optional extras
This is the difficult one. You need to decide what you want your sauce to taste like. I added a Thai green chilli which made it pretty hot, suited us, but may not be to everyone’s taste. Ginger, mustard, apple cider vinegar are other popular additions. Worcestershire sauce if you use that (and can find one free of anchovies and sugar) if you don’t like tamari. I did ponder coriander – I didn’t want it to taste curried, but I do want a slightly spicy taste, so that may be for next time.

If you want to serve it with greens to salve your conscience, then I would be going for parsley without a doubt, and maybe a dark green leaf salad, eg rocket (aragula), and spinach leaves.

Thanks to The Vegan Kat for her excellent series of interesting breakfast posts throughout February, I guess I just qualify for Hot Breakfast Month, pipping in on the 29th with this one.

(Note to self. Do wash out pans before taking photos, and then put ingredients back in, so that everything looks immaculate).

Southport Gates

Don’t you love it when the place is so quiet that you can take photos without pesky people getting in the way?

Granted some spontaneous people shots can really make a special photo out of nothing, but sometimes, it’s nice to take architectural/historical photos without people cluttering up the place.

So first thing on a Sunday morning is A Good Time to take piccies. Lazy Gibbos haven’t got out of bed, even lazier Spaniards probably haven’t arrived home from their Saturday night out, and tourists haven’t started wandering around looking for the cable car and the monkeys.

As you would expect in a small place that has been fought over for centuries, and later became a military garrison, Gibraltar is full of fortifications, walls, gates, and former military buildings.

A couple of minutes walk from me are Southport Gates/Referendum Gates. Whenever we’ve been away, I love wandering back through the city walls. It’s great crossing the frontier, and the airfield, but it’s only when I’ve walked through these gates and I’m within the city walls that I can truly say ‘Home again.’

There are three separate gates here. They are at the far (south) end of Main Street, just before the Trafalgar Cemetery. The first gate dates back to the sixteenth century (1552), when Charles V of Spain started construction of a wall from the Upper Rock right down to Main Street to improve the city’s defences. Originally this gate had a drawbridge.

The two older gates from within the city walls, Charles V gate on the left

The sixteenth century gate

Above the archway on the outside of the gate are the Arms of Gibraltar and Spain (don’t forget it was still Spanish at this time although that didn’t stop people trying to invade). The Arms of Gibraltar are on the bottom left hand corner, and on the right is a coat of arms said to be that of the Marques de Mondejar. The gate also bears the Pillars of Hercules with the inscription ‘plus ultra’ to mark the recent discovery of the New World.

The old gate on entering the city - watch out for that canon!

A second arch was cut in the wall in 1883. On it are the British Lion and Unicorn, the Castle and Key of Gibraltar, and the Arms of General Sir John Adye, then Governor of Gibraltar. Further alterations were carried out in 1899.

The Victorian gate (inside the walls)

Approaching the Victorian gate from outside the walls, the road lined by colourful winter flowers and lush greenery

Finally the last wider gate – Referendum Gate – commemorates the 1967 referendum, Gibraltar’s first one, when Gibraltarians voted by 99% to retain links with Britain in preference to Spain. A second referendum in 2002 produced a similar result. You would have thought by now that politicians would get the message.

Referendum Gate

The fountain garden between the two newest gates

As an aside from the history lesson, plenty of Spaniards don’t want Gibraltar to lose its ties with Britain. The ones who cross the frontier every day for work know that the economic situation would change drastically under Spanish sovereignty, and they are currently grateful they have jobs, while many of their friends, family and neighbours in Spain are unemployed.

Moving quickly up-to-date with the revamp of the Trafalgar roundabout area, which is next to the gates. Work was started nearly three years ago to change the road layout, and the garden areas. The cost of the tender was approx £3M, although I’ve no idea what the final bill came in at.

I liked this old stonework for the gardens much better than the new blocks. Note the carving above the Victorian gate which isn't visible in the later pic above

Endless, endless roadworks, photo taken in November 2009

They made a good job of it, but it looked nice enough before. Has it slowed down the traffic? Possibly, although vehicles still come down Europa Road far too fast. I think the new seats are pretty naff looking, and I don’t really like all the blue, but apart from that it looks great. The trees have little fairy lights on at night, and the gardens are floodlit, so it does look really pretty then (when you can’t see all the blue). No, I haven’t taken any shots of blue paintwork and naff benches, although you can see the blue streetlights in the pic below.

Possibly the most expensive roundabout in Gibraltar

It’s a pleasant enough place to sit, although why there are benches in the middle of a pedestrian crossing area (off left in the above pic) is beyond me. Great place to get lots of petrol/diesel fumes in your lungs. Fortunately there are benches elsewhere too.

Information about the gates comes from the treasury website, as they feature on a five pound note, link here.

Thanks to Panorama for the tender details about the works, link here. The winning firm Haymills no longer exists, but that’s another story.

I’ve threatened to write about baked beans on toast, but that will have to wait for another post……

I would like to wish all Andalucíans an excellent day, as today is Día de Andalucía. Que paseis un buen Día!

And – a special thanks to WordPress for choosing the roadworks shot as the one to feature on the blog pages. That was a really clever trick. So not appreciated by me.

A walk to the shops

I loathe shopping. Not just with a capital L, but LOATHE it.

But, and this is a big but, even I can tolerate a trip to the boring old supermarket when I have beautiful views all around me.

Beautiful views wherever you look

This isn’t Asda, or Tesco, or Safeway (as was) in Newcastle, in Gosforth, or Kenton, or Cowgate, or Heaton or wherever. This is a trip to Morrisons in Gibraltar, with the Bay of Algeciras and Spanish hills, on one side, and on the other, the indomitable Rock.

Looking up to the Rock from the new Mid Harbour estate

The supermarket is the same as any boring old one anywhere, but the walk there and back is wonderful. Now if only it wasn’t for that bit in the middle, I could almost like going shopping.

Yesterday was a glorious day, and I wandered around the streets, wearing a huge alpaca/wool pullover, thick jodhpurs, boots, and two T-shirts. I did think if I had been in the UK I would be wearing shorts and a T-shirt – pretty much like a lot of the tourists who were wandering around.

And when Partner came home after work, he promptly took off his overalls and trousers, and desperately pulled on his shorts.

After the recent ola de fria (cold wave) in Europe, it seems like we are having a Feburary ola de calor (heat wave) in winter. We’re looking at more than 20 degrees today in sunny Gib.

Vinagre de Jerez

Sherry vinegar just doesn’t have quite the same ring to it, does it?

I despair of all these recipes that endlessly insist in dribbling drizzling drops of balsamic vinegar all over everything. This trend must have started years ago, I would have thought it should be well past its sell-by date.

Vinagre de Jerez is a vastly superior vinegar. Apart from the fact that it makes sense to buy a locally-produced vinegar (ie in Jerez in Andalucía) I prefer the flavour because it isn’t as sweet as balsamic.

On my father’s side, the family adored vinegar, and I inherited the trait. Although not to the extent my partner does, as he slops some on every single meal. I suspect this was a childhood habit to counteract the excessive salt thrown into everything by his mother. [Ouch!] Still, he does tell me my food tastes wonderful, so who am I to worry if it’s really vinagre de Jerez that tastes wonderful.

Sherry vinegar at Morrisons costs around £1.99 for 250ml. I think this was slightly cheaper and is 375ml, from Coviran (at New Harbours), but it is a far superior ‘sherry vinegar’. I tend to be a label woman – if it’s a decent label, I’ll buy it.

Vinagre de Jerez, Romate

This one is made by the Sanchez Romate brothers and the firm dates back to 1781. The vinegar is produced in casks of American oak and the acidity level is 7%. The bottle has an official ‘denomination of origin’ stamp on it, pretty much like wine bottles have.

There is only one sherry vinegar at Morrisons – there are six, yes SIX! balsamic vinegars there, and a balsamic glaze, which naturally is for dribbling, drizzling, according to the label. The world is full of sheep. So if you are one, follow me instead and put down that bottle of balsamic stuff and buy vinagre de Jerez. Apart from anything else, technically it is nearer to both the UK and North America than Italy. Possible even to Australia as although further west than Modena, it is further south. OK, I digress.

Next, red wine vinegar. What a silly label on this bottle with those mixed lower case fonts. It looks like one of those ghastly WP cloud category things. (But it was cheaper than Aspall’s).

Red wine vinegar

Occasionally used by me in cooking, or as a change to Jerez, but its main use at the moment is to marinate our onions. I said before that we always have a bowl of onions soaking in the fridge, to use with sandwiches, or sometimes with Thai or Indonesian meals, when I add cucumber and chillies too.

In this one, I’ve stuck a couple of leaves of mint in for a change.

Onions and mint in red wine vinegar

Apple cider vinegar is the least used one in our repertoire. It goes in Chinese meals sometimes for that slight apple flavour to contribute the ‘sweet’ aspect of sweet and sour. It’s the nearest we get to sweet. Sour and hot is our preference.

ACV also occasionally goes in the dog water dish as prevention against fleas and ticks. Might think about adding it to his food rather than water, and also spraying him with it in tick/flea season.

Vinagre de manzana

Finally, ordinary wine vinegar. We always tend to have this in as a basic vinegar – it can be used like any of the others above. I tend to forget you can use it as an all-purpose cleaner, its main use at the moment is as a conditioner for my hair.

I was reminded about this on another blog site and, when I ran out of conditioner one day, decided to give it a go. If you look at my profile pic, it’s obvious I’ve got long hair that isn’t straight, and can literally be a pain to brush. Vinegar rinse? Brilliant. Leaves it tangle free, shiny, and not surprisingly, my hair just doesn’t get greasy.

Compare the ingredients in a bottle of vinegar with the junk in some gloopy conditioner container. Much simpler and more natural.

Compare the price. At Coviran, the 2 litre bottle was 80 pence, the smaller one is 45 pence, but probably equally as cost effective as it has a tiny trickle spray thing. And not as big to take in the shower. Morrison’s vinegar runs out dearer at 55 pence for 500 mill. Hence buying the Coviran vinegar.

Vinagre de vino - my hair conditioner/rinse of choice

Cheap, effective, and pretty natural. My top tip for the day.

And no, I don’t smell like a fish and chip shop.

Pronunciation note: If there is anyone who doesn’t know, thought I would point out that Jerez is pronounced Herrrrrr-reth. Sorry about all the rrs – the only way I could think of to try and indicate that it is a short ‘e’ and the first syllable is not pronounced Her, as in the English word ‘her’. The accent is on the last syllable.

And I should have said that this fitted neatly into the WordPress ‘indulge’ photo challenge word of the week. I don’t think I need to spell it out, you can all work it out for yourselves.

And the mountain continues to rise……

Partner walked in last night and looked at the soul-destroying mountain of dishes.

‘I think we’ll eat out tonight.’

I dropped on the floor with shock.

‘There’s a lot of dishes there,’ he said, stating the mind-blowingly obvious.

I picked myself up, and dusted off the dog hairs and everything else on the floor that had transferred itself to me, because clearly the floor is also part of the great unwashed.

‘We haven’t been out for a long time,’ he said.

‘Eighteen months to the day,’ I pointed out, telling him what my blog readers had learned much earlier in the day. ‘For the silver wedding – we went to the Maharajah.’ I thought I had better remind him in case he got any details wrong about one of the most romantic dates in our married life.

I thought it would be rather nice to go out on the 23rd, on our 26 and a half year anniversary.

‘What about Quattro Stagioni?’ I suggested.

It’s a decent Italian restaurant about ten minutes pleasant walk away.

He agreed.

I never remember what times they open as they change the opening time in the evening depending on the day and the season. But they probably wouldn’t be open at six.

The last time we went up there for six it was one of the nights they opened at seven. So we wandered back into town and called at a pub for a couple of drinks to kill an hour. Except we didn’t have any money, we’d only taken a card for the meal.

We looked at the two beers we’d ordered, and at each other, discovered neither of us had any cash, each having thought the other had taken some – and then we looked at a mate who was drinking in there. Fortunately. ‘Steve – can you buy these two beers for us please?’

He did. And when we’d finished he offered us another. And another. (We declined the third). So never let it be said that Yorkshire people are not generous.

We’re a bit more savvy these days, so I handed Partner a cold beer from the fridge while we waited for seven o’clock.

I was tantalising myself with what I should have and thinking how nice it would be to not cook, be waited on, and not add to the ever-increasing mountain of dishes.

Out of nowhere, ‘I don’t think we will go out tonight,’ he said suddenly.

‘I don’t feel like it anymore. I can wash up the dishes when the water comes back on.’

‘Why don’t we wash up in cold water?’ I asked unhelpfully. This was based on the fact that we wash up in cold water in Spain, although on the rare occasions I do it, I do boil some hot water.

Partner looked at me sympathetically, realising I was losing the plot. ‘It’s not just hot water we don’t have, we don’t have ANY water.’

Ah, that’s right. Totally forgotten in the excitement of thinking about going out, and then suddenly having it snatched away from me again.

‘OK, I’m not bothered about going out anyway.’ Flexible me, you see.

I got some potatoes out to bake in the oven (minimum washing up there), some broccoli – using a not too dirty pan, and then made matters worse by using a whole new clean pan for my fave lemon butter sauce.

And no – the water didn’t come back on. Still hasn’t. I wonder if we will eat out tonight?

Tree-lined promenade - where we didn't get to stroll yesterday evening

ETA: The quote that came up when I published this was:

The best time for planning a book is while you’re doing the dishes.
Agatha Christie

Very clever WordPress :D

Not a drop to spare…

In case anyone thinks living in warm, sunny, sub-tropical Gibraltar without a job is a breeze, I thought I would point out today’s little downer.

In fact it started last night.

Now we all like excuses not to wash up, or at least I do. But not having any water yesterday evening, still not having any this morning and the pile of dishes mounting up, as is the laundry, I can’t mop the floor – what is a woman to do with her day?

Naturally, not lacking the odd functioning brain cell, I finally got round to ringing GibAqua.

‘For information on interruptions to supply, please press zero.’

I did.

‘Due to emergency work the connection to potable water supply has been disconnected to …. ‘ – virtually most of Main Street by the sound of it ‘…..until 8pm tonight.’

What??

There are more too .. just not all in the photo :(

8pm?? By then I’ll not only have last night’s dinner dishes, but today’s breakfast pots and pan, my brunch, and tonight’s evening meal stuff as well. That’s if I can find anywhere to work amidst all the dead dishes.

I mean, it’s a good thing it’s winter and I can live without a shower. Even more important, it’s a good thing I washed my greasy hair yesterday isn’t it? Always best to look for the good things in life. And find something else to do instead of keeping the house clean and tidy.

But to end on a cheery note, I was reminded, when replying to an earlier comment, that I am midway to my next wedding anniversary. The fact that I am married at all never fails to amaze me, but for so many years is something else again. So I thought a few summer photos from our silver wedding 18 months ago to the day would not go amiss, as I never posted them before. Sometimes it’s nice not to post stuff. At least not straightaway.

Europa Point is one of my favourite spots. Standing there at the tip of Europe and looking across the Straits of Gibraltar to Africa is always, well, inexpressible, to be honest.

Just as well I am not there today though. Being surrounded by water and not a drop in the flat would get up my nose somewhat.

Lighthouse at Europa Point

We went to the Rock Hotel for the first time ever. We didn’t eat there.

Closed

One of the Rock's menus

The lounge, somewhat dilapidated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So we wandered down Main Street instead, to the town branch of the Maharajah, Tuckey’s Lane as I vaguely remember, anyway, one of those between Irish Town and Main Street, (other restaurant is on Queensway Quay). We did eat there.

The Maharajah

Yes. Open for business.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And not a food photo in sight!

Note (to avoid being sued by The Rock Hotel): I posted a photo of the restaurant, at The Rock which was closed. Bar food on the terrace was available but a) my photos didn’t come out at all, too dark inside the bar maybe? and b) there was zilch/minimum vegetarian choice. There were some large olives on the table. Can’t remember if I ate any or not though. Probably too worried about being charged a pound an olive.

The job thing (4) – and stuffed cabbage leaves

It is axiomatic that unless you are extremely rich, you need either an awful lot of savings that bring in some reasonable interest, or you have to work.

Given the current world recession, savings are bringing in very little unless you tie them up for three to five years, and even then, unless you have decent bucks, you won’t get much interest. We aren’t talking the golden days of thousands a year, more like a few miserable hundreds.

So, for those of us without a reasonable income, our priority is work.  Well, I’m getting round to it. I do keep visiting the job centre waiting for that perfect job to appear on exactly the right salary, for which I am ideally qualified.

In the meantime I write blog posts about the work situation in Gibraltar.

Some on the ground gossip. Which may or may not be true.  I repeat it as it was told to me.

1) A tradesperson started work on a building site the other week, and within two days he was gone.  Why?  Not a bad lad, pleasant, reasonable work, good time-keeping.  He lived in Spain.

2) A sub-contractor on a construction site was told there was no more work for his firm.  Why? Yes, that’s right.  He lived across the frontera too.  Contrast that with a different Spanish sub-contractor who had the presence of mind a couple of years ago to set up a legitimate Gibraltar company.  The money still goes to Spain, as he employs Spaniards, but it’s a bit more difficult to throw a Gib company off a job.

3) A couple of people running another business were told to leave that firm (not construction-related in this case).  Apparently they had adequate pensions from elsewhere and had received their jobs through, well, the usual crony networks.  Caveat: this tale is the least reliable as I don’t know how many people it came through before it got to me.

Let’s look at some facts. Or rather a government press release.

The assessment of the employment service is that the persons resident in Gibraltar and seeking employment is in excess of 1300. This is higher than the figure indicated by the GSD during the election campaign when they claimed that providing employment on the minimum wage to everybody who was unemployed would cost £11m, which at an annual cost of £10k per person unemployed, would translate into 1100 unemployed.

This therefore is the real level of unemployment and not the 450-500 persons a month that has been given in the past as the level of unemployment and which led the GSD Government consistently to boast that we had an unemployment level last year of 2% or under. The real figure has been and continues to be in the range of 8-9% of the resident working population, when one includes all the categories of people seeking employment, including those on training schemes, those wait listed and other Gibraltar residents primarily British, Moroccan and other nationalities.

I do think this government is making a sterling effort to tackle local unemployment by trying to ensure that any Gibraltar residents get priority for any vacancy, and that only when they can’t be filled should employers be looking across the border.  But …….

For just about everyone reading this blog, I think I should let you know the minimum wage here is £5.40 and not the £6.08 of the UK.  There’s probably not much in it as they are both crap wages.  Ten thousand pounds a year ain’t enough to get a mortgage.  Nor do you have much left to live on after you have paid £500 a month (minimum) rent in the private sector.  This is why people in Gibraltar live at home until they can get government housing.

What about if you are skilled and qualified?  Well the local construction industry official rate is £7.47 an hour for a skilled craft operative.  That comes in at £284 a week, gross (slightly under £15K pa).  Unless you have allowances in Gib, tax rates are high (initial rate 17%, followed by a hike to 30%). Of course if you have lots of money, naturally you can opt for a lower tax rate, of 20%.

How about if you are a journalist?  Well, the Chron is advertising a post for a trainee qualified reporter.  Hello Chron?  I think when I passed my journalism exams I was no longer a trainee and I became a Senior Reporter (rather than a Junior Reporter).  They are offering a princely £15K too, although they do offer up to £17K, presumably for a very well qualified and experienced trainee reporter.

But, all is not lost.  A PA or an office manager can apparently pull in some £20K.  Social media managers for gaming firms can look at nearly £30K.  And a marketing director who speaks Scandinavian (which Scandinavian language I wondered, not that it mattered) can get £30K plus.

Most of the jobs in the job centre are in the gaming industry.  Either techy ones, or needing a zillion bizarre languages and previous exp of the industry.  These are followed by finance/accountancy/company trust jobs.  For which you need to be an accountant, and ICSA or ITSA or whatever the trust stuff is. There are a couple of lawyers’ jobs.

There are however a lot more jobs ‘available’ this year, than there were last year. I say available because when you send a cv to an email that doesn’t exist, ring a ‘phone number and find out they aren’t dealing with the vacancy, or ring up and find the job has already gone in less than 24 hours, you wonder how much window dressing is going on.

More on jobs in a later post but after all that a little light relief is called for.  A while ago, I read on another blog about the author’s disappointment with the results of stuffed cabbage leaves.  I remembered making them a while ago, so fished (!) out the recipe I’d followed.

It’s from Sarah Maxwell’s Vegetarian Pasta (inspiring name there but I suppose you know what you are getting).

Pasta-stuffed cabbage leaves

Ingredients

Any tiny pasta (I used twists which was all I had in)
Savoy cabbage leaves

Stuffing

Olive oil
Garlic
Tomatoes
Carrot (grated)
Courgette (grated)
Walnuts
Salt and pepper

Sauce

Tin tomatoes
Red wine
Veg stock
Oregano
One chopped onion
Salt and pepper

Method

Cook pasta.  Blanch cabbage leaves.  Make filling ingredients and cool.

Make sauce, cool and zap.

Put filling in leaves, fold into neat parcel, secure with skewers or cocktail things if you need to.  Place in ovenproof dish (I slightly oiled mine) and surround/cover with tomato sauce.

Cook in oven for around 20 mins on 200/400/Gas Mark 6.  Serve any extra sauce separately.

My comments

I didn’t have courgette or walnuts.  I used ground almonds for the nut element (any nuts will do really), and managed without the courgies.

I didn’t have red wine either (!), didn’t feel like adding white, so did without again.  I used mixed herbs instead of oregano, and fresh tomatoes instead of tinned.

It worked well – it must have done – there was none leftover for breakfast :(

The key is in the timing, because you basically have four different elements to cook.   The recipe suggests cooking pasta and cabbage first, but I would probably (if I remember) get the stuffing and sauce going first as they take longer.  Either way, it tasted good, not too filling, and a reasonably balanced main dish.  I served it with a small green salad.

Stuffed cabbage leaves and tomato sauce

Jamaica Inn

Time for a quick book review in amidst the Gibtours and food posts.

Daphne du Maurier is a good read, which is always a useful advantage for an author. Sort of midway between Mills and Boon and Tolstoy.

I couldn’t remember whether I had read Jamaica Inn before, but I took it from the library anyway. Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, they all sound the same to me and on the lines of “Watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by.” They probably don’t recite that one at school any more, so for any youthful readers, Rudyard Kipling’s poem is about smuggling.

But onto the plot. Our exceedingly plucky heroine Mary, sells the family farm on the death of her mother and goes to live with her aunt at – Jamaica Inn.

However it is a strange sort of inn as no-one ever stops there. Her aunt’s husband, the landlord and the villain of the story, is a typical dark brooding giant of a man, who abuses his wife and admires Mary’s assertive character. Mary is provided with board and lodging in return for helping around the place.

You know from the word go that this is obviously a smugglers’ HQ, so I’m not giving anything away by saying that. The inn opens on the few nights when there is business to be done.

Naturally the lovely Mary attracts some attention from men. She is spoilt for choice between the strange and spooky albino vicar, and the landlord’s younger brother, who, amongst his other talents, is a horse thief.

Mary seems to spend half her time tramping the Cornish moors, and by amazing co-incidence, either encountering the vicar or the younger brother on her travels.

But that’s child’s play compared with taking on the murderous smugglers in the middle of the night on the treacherous Cornish coast. I wish I had half this woman’s guts. I can’t imagine doing what she did, and I’m not sure I know anyone who would either. As a female character, she is amazingly strong and courageous, which is A Good Thing.

The novel’s plot is pretty thin. It must be, because even I worked it out before the end and I am notoriously slow on plots. But in terms of action and writing, it’s a great read. I picked it up, and read through the 300 pages in one afternoon without putting it down.

On which basis, I would recommend it. Plot isn’t everything, what is the point of a good plot in a badly written book? Readability and style are often more important.

Note – the introduction by Sarah Dunant in the version I read was also good, but I do leave introductions until I have finished the book as they ALWAYS give too much away. I don’t know why they don’t put them at the end.

Summary:
Plot – thin and obvious (as above)
Style – good
Pace – excellent

An interesting smuggling post

Menus for the week, and, beurre au citron

Menus for the week (MFTW) was one of the most useful tricks I ever did when I was working in London.

At the weekend, partner and I would happily write down what we were going to have to eat the following week.

So when I got in from work, there was no dilemma about what to do – I looked at the list and got on with the allocated meal.

If I was feeling naughty, I might swap a couple of days around, but basically I stuck to the list.

And if I was late in, Partner would look at the list and start the meal instead.

Chatting about what I now eat over on Clouds where I posted about becoming vegetarian, I thought it would be interesting to have a quick look at a week’s menus these days.

I’m looking back over the last week, so it won’t be a perfect balance – but it will be an honest reflection. It even helps to answer that nosy question about what I eat.

Readers of Pippadogblog will know that our routine has changed somewhat as Partner is now working long hours, and we fit in two Pippawalks before we eat the evening meal, so it needs to be a relatively light meal.

During the day, Partner’s already had breakfast, and sandwiches at work, I’ve probably had left overs for breakfast and maybe a sandwich. Or a salad.

Lentil dahl and curried potatoes for breakfast

His breakfast includes any or all of Cauldron vegetarian sausages (tofu-based), tomatoes, mushrooms, egg, potatoes, any left over spicy sauce, and sometimes I’ll buy Quorn peppered steak or lamb grills for a change for him.

Sandwiches tend to be Redwood sage and onion or beef slices, these are vegan and excellent, assuming you don’t want them to taste like meat. If they aren’t available then I buy the Quorn turkey stuffing ones. I have a bowl of onions soaking in red wine vinegar in the fridge all the time, and they get added to the sarnies. For a change, there is always cheese (vegetarian cheddar usually) and beetroot and/or tomato.

So this list is just main meals.

Saturday
Spanish lunchtime meal: Paella – with runner beans, broad beans, oyster mushrooms, onions, garlic, tomatoes, olives, and lemon juice (as in the previous posts on here and on Everypic).

Evening supper: fresh artichoke salad, artichoke cooked that day, salad greens out of the garden, tomato, cucumber, capers, olives, served with mustard dressing.

Sunday
Spinach lasagna using the acelgas (spinach beet) picked that morning at the finca. I didn’t bother with any cheese in the white sauce as the spinach was well rich enough. White sauce made with soya milk.

Monday
Baked jacket potatoes (organic so I can eat the skins happily), with broccoli and lemon butter sauce. I add cheese on top of Partner’s and finish them quickly under the grill.

Tuesday
Tamarind tofu with shiitake mushrooms and sesame seaweed (or whatever the recipe’s called – link on the previous post). Tofu, carrots, broccoli (left-over from Monday), kale, shiitake mushies and served with chilli noodles.

Wednesday
Shepherds pie made with Granose soya mince. By the time it has soaked, and then cooked it slowly in a sauce, it makes a good main ingredient for any mince-based recipe. For the pie I cook it with onion, herbs, grated carrot and veg stock, which is virtually the same way my mother cooked hers, except she used minced beef. You all know how to mash potatoes and put them on top. Although I suppose some people don’t as they buy them pre-mashed. Served with cauliflower.

Thursday
New salad potatoes, boiled and served with broad beans (from the finca again) and those tiny Chantenay carrots which seem to be fashionable at the moment, cooked in stock.

Friday
Hot curried potatoes and lentil dahl, with tomatoes, onions, and spice perfumed ‘butter’ (actually olive oil).

All the stock used is vegetarian, low salt, organic, by Kallo. With the exception of the lemon butter sauce, I use extra virgin olive oil for all cooking, even white sauce. Works just as well.

Quick analysis of evening meals – in terms of carbs, one rice, two pasta and four potatoes. Partner likes potatoes :D Protein – tofu, soya mince, lentils, beans. Negligible cheese. Fresh veg – with virtually every meal apart from the curry. No fruit, we aren’t fruity. No desserts either as we are sweet enough. Only one salad. Last time I did salad as a starter we ate very little of the main course!

It’s important not to examine any meal in isolation – remember that we have eaten other food during the day.

If I’d hung onto one of my MFTW from twenty years ago, it would have looked different. It would have been far more pulse-based with lentils, haricot beans, chick peas, and butter beans playing a bigger role. They would be in casseroles, salads, bakes, and the inevitable shepherds pie. I didn’t eat tofu, seitan or tempeh – doubt I knew about them or where to find them. I didn’t want to end up living on cheese and eggs. And if you’ve read the Clouds post, you’ll realise MFTW probably included chicken initially, and fish for a couple of years.

Might as well add a recipe to this list, so I’ll add the delicious lemon butter sauce, which I only make occasionally due to the butter content. The sharp lemon beautifully offsets the richness of the butter though, and it is great with brocs, cauli, and asparagus to name but three that I’ve served it with. It is similar to a hollandaise, but without the faff that involves, and it is relatively quick to make.

Lemon Butter Sauce – Courtesy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1, Beck, Bertholle and Child. An unsurpassable cookbook IMO.

To be more accurate:

Beurre au Citron

For about 1/4 pint

Ingredients

1/8 pt lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
pinch of white pepper
4 oz chilled butter cut into eight pieces
2-3 tbspns stock/hot water

Method

Boil down lemon juice, salt and pepper until reduced to around a tablespoon.

Remove from heat and beat in two pieces of butter. Place over very low heat and beat in the rest of the butter, a piece at a time to make a thick creamy sauce. Do not keep sticking finger it to taste it or there won’t be enough. (OK I added that bit). Immediately remove from heat.

Just before serving beat in the hot liquid drop by drop to warm the sauce. Correct seasoning and serve in a barely warm sauceboat.

My comments

Like anything it’s about taste, so squeeze as much lemon juice as suits you, and add proportionately, more or less, the right amount of butter. The recipe calls for a wire whisk but I tend to use a wooden spoon. Easier for tasting really. I don’t bother with a sauce boat, preferring to pour it over the veg, or whatever else it is accompanying. As usual, less is more, you don’t want to kill the other flavours, this is an enhancement not a drowning. Bon appetit.

Sauce, complete with whisk in this pic! to be served with asparagus

Something to share

Remember the red pepper and tomato soup? That I forgot to take a photo of?

Well here you go. I finally took a photo the next time I made some, and, I even included celery and orange juice in the recipe.

It looks exactly as you would expect really doesn’t it? Like tomato soup. Looks like Heinz in fact, although fortunately not quite as gloopy and sweet.

Recipe and ingredients back on this post here for anyone who didn’t see it before.

And I thought I would share an excellent recipe I found on WordPress, maybe it was a featured one or something. Here it is – food to glow. I won’t precis her recipe, she also gives some good and interesting nutritional points, eg I didn’t know that shiitake mushrooms were so good for your health.

The author is not vegetarian, although this recipe is, but she does say that non-veggies can substitute chicken for tofu. I would have thought tofu or tempeh would work far better, but each to their own etc.

I was amazed when I first learned that the ‘seaweed’ you get in Chinese restaurants was not seaweed at all, but shredded brassicas, cooked dryly and quickly.

This recipe suggests using cavolo negro (always wondered what to do with it when I saw it on the shelf and never bought it), but as there wasn’t any in Morries I just bought a bog-standard bag of kale.

Important note. It looks as though there is loads in the bag of kale. When you put it in the oven to cook, it shrinks massively. I started off using half a bag the first time I made this, and then added more. The second time I just tipped the whole bag in.

Important note number two. If you buy tamarind pods (I always wondered what to do with that as well, once I had bought it and looked at it sitting forlornly in the fridge) it is messy to make the paste yourself. If you don’t do your own washing up – this may result in a grumpy partner.

Having said that, the tamarind-based sauce was really zingy and lemony, so well worth making the mess, IMO. And basically it is a pretty quick meal to prepare too, so that’s always a plus point. I served it with Thai noodles but my pic of the final dish is crap :D – suggest you look at the ones on the recipe blog.

tofu soaking marinating in tamari

Some of the ingredients, I had some left-over brocs, so added that as well

Tamarind pods - NOTE! - I added too much water to this, less is more

Carrots, to provide the crisper contrast of texture (uh! that was a bit foody!)

Cost for two greedies:
Shiitake mushrooms – £1.59, the most expensive part of the meal
Kale – £1
Tofu – approx £1.50 as I used about 3/4 of a pack
Carrots – not a lot
Noodles – can’t remember
Sesame seeds – 30-50p say?
Tamarind – probably another 50p ish.

On a separate but related note, ie not about this recipe, but about cost, I was wandering past the meat counter at the supermarket and noticed the price of steak. I was totally gob-smacked. Around £15 or £16 a kilo for rump/sirloin, and £32 for fillet. If you wanted to pay more you could go up to £42 for fillet steak.

It is so long since I have eaten meat that I had no idea what it cost. I’d totally lost track. It also brought it home to me how much of a rip off it is when you eat a vegetarian meal out and it costs the same as meat or fish. Yes, I accept that the labour costs and all the on-costs have to be considered. But still, the meal I have just priced up cost around £5/6 for two people, cooked at home, with very little prep or cooking time. I wouldn’t be very pleased at having to fork out £12-£20 for it out. Which is one of the many reasons I don’t eat out.