Denniblog

Over the past year or so, our Friendly Neighbourhood Atomic Weapons Facility has sprouted a veritable forest of cranes across several building sites which—over time—gave rise to a new laser facility, super-computer building (looking a bit like this one) and a new office block.

Meanwhile, planning applications have been arriving in my inbox at up to bi-weekly intervals for anything from gardening sheds to parking facilities for 1500 new staff. Oh, and some associated sundries:

And in February, AWE was delighted that an important planning application was granted for work to start on replacing its High Explosives Fabrication Facility (HEFF) at its Aldermaston site

(Connect ISSUE 3/SUMMER 08 p.2)

Could it be that the decision to replace Trident has already been taken?

P.S. I’m surprised to see that the Women’s Peace Camp(aign) website doesn’t contain the press release I’ve just received. I’m subscribed to their aldermaston_tng Yahoo group via info@aldermaston.net.

Last week my sister was visiting, and on Saturday the sun peeked through the clouds just about long enough for us to attempt our once-a-year BBQ cook-out.

The occasion—aside from her visit—was our 19th wedding anniversary. John’s workmates had given him a bottle of champagne which would probably have gone undrunk until our silver jubilee, if it was just the two of us. (Well, I would have drunk it, but that’s not really the idea…). So, with the strawberry season at it’s peak, the starter was a no-brainer:

With just three people attending, it was hard to restrain myself when it came to the prep. I reluctantly gave up on humous, seeing that I was out of tahini anyway. I also didn’t have any aubergines, but we needed a Mediterranean influence so I made mini lamb köfte balls:

500g lamb mince; 4 spring onions; 1 batch ras-el-hanout (Waitrose does an authentic mix. Failing that, it’s 1 pinch allspice, 2tsp nutmeg, 20 threads saffron, 1½tsp black pepper, 1½tsp mace, 1tsp cinnamon, 1½tsp cardamom, 2tsp ginger, 2tsp salt. Really, this also ought to have rose petals in there. Waitrose’s does, but it doesn’t have saffron. Use 2-4 tbsp.); 2 cloves garlic; handful chopped coriander; 10(!) tbsp sesame seeds, slightly toasted.

This mixture freezes well. Make walnut-sized balls, roll in (corn)flour and thread onto soaked bamboo skewers (these give better hold than metal skewers). Serve piled into miniature pita pockets lined with lettuce leaves and drizzled with tzaziki (full fat yoghurt with cucumber—peeled, grated and squeezed—spring onion, garlic, lemon juice and fresh mint).

They also go well with vegetable skewers: peel 2-3 mushrooms per skewer, score the caps cross-wise and marinade for an hour or so in balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, oil, fresh thyme and black pepper. Toss in a few thick, halved courgette slices and roll some cherry tomatoes in oil. Thread the lot onto skewers and throw it on the BBQ until the tomatoes are soft. Olives, stuffed jalapeños and salad make nice sides.

Naturally, there had to be an Asian influence as well. It’s always good to have some Chinese chilli oil at hand (veggies, note that this contains fermented fish or shrimp). I tried my hand at chicken satay again, after spotting some free range chicken breast at the butcher’s. This dish is better if the meat is cut into very small pieces and threaded onto thin skewers. The chilli oil was needed to liven up the saus kachang which was a bit weak (a strong Thai chilli would fix this). This is derived from my favourite Asian Street Food cookbook:

8tbsp peanut butter; 2tsp jaggery; ½tsp garlic salt; 3tbsp soy sauce; 1tsp blachan (shrimp paste); 1 finely chopped chilli; 100 ml coconut milk; 1tsp lime juice. Heat in sauce pan to combine and add water to desired consistency.

The satay chicken is marinated in a pinch each of cinnamon and tumeric; 1tsp each of ground coriander, cumin and jaggery; 1tbsp crushed salted peanuts; 6 minced spring onions; 2tbsp oil and the grated rind of 1 lime (lemon grass would be better, if any was to be had in Tadley).

The book also provided the base recipe for the enduring classic Indonesian barbecued spare ribs, although I must say that I haven’t come across anything like it in Indonesia. These ribs are usually pre-cooked in the wok or oven and finished on the BBQ, basting frequently. Since I didn’t have enough notice, I stuck the ribs directly on the BBQ. They have to be grilled for a long time over a low heat to cook through. Keep brushing on the sauce with a pastry brush:

2-3 chillies, chopped; 2 cloves garlic; 2cm ginger, sliced; small onion, grated (or 4 spring onions)—mince all this.
1 good slug kecap manis or 1tbsp jaggery; 2tbsp soy sauce; 1tsp nam pla (fish sauce); 1tsp tamarind concentrate; 1tsp tumeric; 1tbsp ketchup; 1tbsp oil.
Coat the ribs with the mix and toss them on the BBQ. There’s no need to marinade.

This was it for the year, or so experience tells me.

We’re unlikely to go abroad this summer (John hasn’t renewed his passport), but we’re off to Scotland next week. Perhaps—just perhaps—we’ll have another BBQ there, if I can dissuade the guys from landing me with 3 (!) assistants when cooking. The current rota spells chaos.

Well, we’ll see.

Phew, I’m literally just back from flood defence duty.

We got away with it, this time. The sandbags arrived just as the brook was starting to recede.

We had to bail out the backyard though, and call the plumber for emergency assist before the kitchen and lounge flooded by stealth, thanks to a blocked-up drain.

Internet is creepingly slow when it works, yesterday we had a power outage for five hours and today we have a(nother) flood alert.

Where is this place?

Bangkok?

No: Tadley, England.

I’m brushing spiders out of my hair while writing this, and the bits of bark that have fallen into my collar and lodged themselves in my bra straps are itching.

Time for a bath. Time to put on the washing machine again, because of course the workmen would wait until the day before we’re going on holiday (and an entire year before that) to call around to fix the holes in the fences on either side of the garden, which the storm tore sometime in the spring of 2007.

Meanwhile the garden has grown into a jungle, fed by the daily rains, and I have scratches on my hands from clawing vegetation away from the rickety back door (we lost our gardening paraphernalia after the flood last June).

But at least we now have new carpets! The man finished laying them last week, and since then we have only set foot downstairs with socks on.

Cue the outdoor men with their muddy boots.

Anyway, tomorrow we shall be away and I couldn’t care less about what is going on in Tadley or with the house. But until then it seems that a thousand little things need my attention.

I finally have a printout of my 1/3rd revised novel, and I was going to spend some time on plot development while on holiday, but since last week at least two other novel excerpts have landed in my inbox, demanding critiquing for the writers’ group workshop that happens while we’re away. Grrr. I think we should have a word limit for workshops.

Reading doc files on screen makes my eyes bleed, not to mention doing it on the little EeePC—so that’ll be more printouts to lug along.

Further to our travels: in the joyful anticipation of experiencing Greek Orthodox Easter in Crete I have forgotten about the six weeks of Lent that precede it. If memories from boarding school are anything to go by, meat, cheese and other delicacies are off the menu during that time—except that Greek Orthodox Lent is a good deal stricter than the Catholic version.

I may have to revise our taverna plans during the first ten days of our holiday—in fact I may well have to sneak foodstuff into our self catering kitchen—whereas during the final Easter Weekend I expect those establishments to remain closed.

Oh well, there’s always Macca’s.

I write this in sympathy as, for once, we have been spared the tribulations faced by passengers going through Heathrow’s new Terminal 5 these past few weeks.

Yesterday, about 5cm of snow left hundreds of passengers stranded overnight, where they slept on thin mats and under cardboard boxes after having spent the day doing the rounds from check-in to baggage claim as their flights were cancelled at the last minute up to five times in a row.

Many papers were leading with pictures of passengers huddling under thin blankets and headlines declaring the Terminal Five shambles a national embarrassment and as bringing shame to London.

In my opinion, the shame belongs firmly in the laps of the world’s least favourite airline whose bosses are responsible for operations at the new terminal. From what I read in yesterday’s Evening Standard, nine out of ten of the thousands of lost luggage items that have accumulated may never be reunited with their owners as staff shortages and renewed glitches continue to pile up.

I read the article with incredulity, wondering what could possibly have caused these renewed delays until one Swiss family pointed out laconically: “Our flight was meant to go at 7pm but we were told it was delayed until after nine this morning. This was apparently due to the snow which had fallen in the morning.”(News, p.5)

In all fairness, I don’t remember when snow last settled in London. It may have been as long ago as 1990 when I broke my little finger in a snowball fight that escalated in Hampstead Heath. But snow and frost in April are not unprecedented and an international airport ought to be prepared for such eventualities.

Meanwhile, we had fun waking up in a winter wonderland with the sun glittering on sugared tree branches and the kids’ laughter ringing through the windows. Even the ‘hood’s cynical teenager joined in the frolics, their usual sullenness forgotten.

I had missed the news on Saturday evening as we were seeing some mates, but the snow had been forecast to a generally incredulous response.

“My son was practically bursting with excitement,” sighed one of the blokes in the pub yesterday, “so of course I promised he could drag me out of bed if it really should snow. And he did: at 7 am! But we were the first people out, all was quiet and there were no footsteps on the ground. It was magical.”

It was the party of the decade, if not the century!

Have a look at the menu and laugh (or weep):

It was five o’ clock on the day of the event before I started on the party food prep—at about the time when the chef who was helping said that we should start plating up. So none of the canapés turned out quite as intended. But what is most amazing is that only nine of the 50-odd proposed menu items didn’t get made in the end. No, really.

Long entry warning (2,500 words)
[read on]

Tortilla chips with cream cheese-lime and mango salsa:

These are nice and will look good if I get better at assembly, plus they can be contrasted well with red salsa which I’ll also make. However, they turn soggy fast, so they have to be milled out while people are grazing.

Thai fish cakes with sweet chilli dip (recipe for fish cakes in photo link. The sweet chilli dip is easy to make, too):

I’ve tried several dips, but sweet chilli wins every time.

On the other hand, soy & ginger dip goes well with Thai-style sausage rolls:

I wasn’t going to do sweets (and I’m not going to on the day), but I had this tin of matcha tea powder left from Nippon 2007, and it needed using. So…

Green tea shortbread should be a crowd-pleaser. However, these are too sweet. My college-recipe shortbread already uses masses of icing sugar. Sadly, this wasn’t a trial-run: half my green tea cakes are sickly sweet…

Alas, this was the effect I was after.

Without the sugar-coating, the effect is more pleasant. (Note: these things will go from being undercooked to burnt inside two minutes!):

Finally, I’ve never baked brownies, but these just looked too spectacular to pass up.

Sadly, the same can’t be said about mine:

But come on—I’ve never tried this before.

My experiments in egg marbling haven’t progressed much:

But this may be as good as it gets. The eggs have been marinated (l-r) for 1h, 4hrs and overnight respectively. Suffice to say that marinating time has less influence on the outcome than handling.

Quails eggs are fragile things and bruise easily. The shell is thin, but the membrane is tough, so peeling is fickle—rush and you’ll end up with nicks. Specks of shell will remain no matter how carefully you wipe, but they can be washed under running water. Finally, not all quails eggs end up egg-shaped.

In the final few days before the big occasion, I’m testing out recipes that are new to me or that I haven’t made for a while. Today I’m making oriental foods, but because of the time it takes to prepare them I’m usually lagging at least a day behind with updates.

So here’s one I made earlier:

Mini palmiers are a canapé-party standby, but a modicum of practice is nessecary—as you can see from the somewhat amateurish result.

The classic filling for savoury palmiers is red and green pesto, but I’m avoiding nut products so I’ve tried alternatives.

Roast vegetable pasta sauce was not a success because the red pepper clashed with the parmesan and puff pastry. The whole thing tasted somewhat metallic. Puréed roast vegetables would work, but cut back the pepper and add sunblush tomatoes and basil.

Mushroom duxelle with cheese was tasty, but may need to be cut finer. Sprinkling the things with parmesan means that they brown a bit much and the spiral pattern is somewhat obscured.

These things are tasty enough either (slightly) warm or cold and I will make them. The maximum time for them to stay crispy is 4 hours. Don’t you hate the stale sausage rolls that are usually dished up at buffets? This is why (but in fairness, we’ll have an adjacent kitchen).