• cooking

    Indian grilled chicken

    This was totally improvised.

    – Take the skin off some chicken legs and thighs.
    – Toss the chicken pieces in a mixture of curry powder and flour.
    – Brush with an egg.
    – Toss in a mixture of breadcrumbs and polenta.
    – Cook in the oven until golden brown.
    Meanwhile, make a spinach curry:
    – Fry some chopped onions in ghee.
    – Make a paste with freshly ground spices added to fresh ginger, garlic and chili.
    – Add to the onions, stir well and add a large bunch of fresh spinach leaves, stir over a low heat until the leaves begin to wilt.
    – Stir in a little fresh cream or yoghurt and cover to cook through.
    I served the chicken on a bed of spinach curry and topped with some yoghurt mixed with a little curry paste. A sprinkling of chopped nuts to garnish.

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  • cooking

    Christmas Left-Overs

    The left-over Turkey Gratin (left) recipe can be found here. This year I topped it with almonds which grilled nicely in the oven – pretty.

    The Christmas Pudding Roll was spectacular. Just roll up Christmas Pudding and a grated apple in a few leaves of filo pastry. Grease the individual filo leaves before with melted brandy butter (or bum rutter as we call it). Bake in a hot oven until golden.
    Above you can see a slice served with pineapple slices and vanilla ice-cream.

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  • cooking

    Aumônières au pommes


    A spectacular recipe with filo pastry.

    – Stew some chopped apples with a little cinnamon, raisons, lemon juice and sugar. Don’t overcook, the apples should be soft but not mushy.
    – Warm up the oven (hot).
    – Place two spoonfuls of the cooled apple mixture onto a sheet of filo pastry and fold up into a little bag. Secure the top with a cocktail stick.
    – Brush the “aumônières” with melted butter and cook in a hot oven until lightly brown.
    – Serve with vanilla ice cream (or rum and raisin) and homemade shortbread.

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  • humour

    Rindercella and her sugly isters

    Some polemic about the origins of this one.
    Some say it was originally shown on BBC TV, back in the seventies – apparently, Ronnie Barker could say all this without a snigger. If this is true, it is hard to believe that the BBC received not one complaint and several Ronnie Barker fans have e-mailed me saying he never would have performed this.
    The true origins are documented at matthewgoldman.com where you can find several versions including transcripts and MP3s. It seems that the original version comes from a Colonel Stoopnagel, his version can be found here: fun-with-words.com

    Try getting through it without converting the spoonerisms as you read;

    This is the story of Rindercella and her sugly isters.
    Rindercella and her sugly isters lived in a marge lansion.
    Rindercella worked very hard frubbing sloors, emptying poss pits, and shivelling shot.
    At the end of the day, she was knucking fackered.
    The sugly isters were right bugly astards. One was called Mary Hinge, and the other was called Betty Swallocks; they were really forribl huckers; they had fetty sweet and fetty swannies.

    The sugly isters had tickets to go to the ball, but the cotton runts would not let Rindercella go.

    Suddenly there was a bucking fang, and her gairy fodmother appeared.
    Her name was Shairy Hithole and she was a light rucking fesbian.
    She turned a pumpkin and six mite wice into a hucking cuge farriage with six dandy ronkeys who had buge hollocks and dig bicks

    The gairy fodmother told Rindercella to be back by dimnligh otherwise, there would be a cucking falamity.
    At the ball, Rindercella was dancing with the prandsome hince when suddenly the clock struck twelve.

    "Mist all chucking frighty!!!" said Rindercella, and she ran out tripping barse over ollocks, so dropping her slass glipper.

    The very next day the prandsome hince knocked on Rindercella’s door and the sugly isters let him in.

    Suddenly, Betty Swallocks lifted her leg and let off a fig bart.
    "Who’s fust jarted??" asked the prandsome hince.

    "Blame that fugly ucker over there!!" said Mary Hinge.

    When the stinking brown cloud had lifted, he tried the slass glipper on both the sugly isters without success and their feet stucking funk.
    Betty Swallocks was ducking fisgusted and gave the prandsome hince a knack in the kickers.

    This was not difficult as he had bucking fuge halls and a hig bard on.

    He tried the slass glipper on Rindercella and it fitted pucking ferfectly.
    Rindercella and the prandsome hince were married. The pransome hince lived his life in lucking fuxury, and Rindercella lived hers with a follen swanny.

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