Ask Nigel (the science bit)

One of the pleasures of the Sunday papers for me us Nigel Slater’s column in the Observer. The Internet allows me to create my own personal ‘best of’ Sunday paper, and not to have to get out of bed to read it (provided my laptop is in reach).

One of the things that they have added in the past year is a questions and answers section, where Nigel kindly answers reader’s queries. While I find his answers interesting, they are not sufficiently scientific for my liking, so I thought I would have a go and providing some alternative answers to the same questions. Here are Nigel’s original answers.

Q Nigel, for flavour and nutrition, is it better to crush or chop cloves of garlic? Many thanks.
For flavour, the more you disrupt the garlic cells, the more of their flavour you release. So for a subtle flavour, slice it thinly, for more oomph, chop finely (my personal choice) and for maximum flavour, or where you need something smooth (e.g. to add to mayonnaise for aioli) crush it with salt using the side of a knife. For nutritional purposes, unless you’re using bulbs and bulbs, whatever you do with the garlic is unlikely to affect the nutrition of the dish one way or another.

Q Is there a way to stop yogurt curdling and turning grainy when added to curry?
Yoghurt will curdle because the milk proteins denature – yoghurt is high in protein, and when heated too much, the protein molecules tangle with each other and form lumpy curds. This doesn’t happen with cream, because there is too much fat in the way, so using a full-fat or greek yoghurt will help. You can also stabilise the yoghurt by adding something else to interfere with coagulation – starch. Mixing a little yoghurt with some cornflour (say 1 tsp for a 4 person curry) will thicken the yoghurt slightly and provide stability. Finally, make sure you add the yoghurt at the end. Cook the curry all the way, turn off the heat and just stir through the yoghurt. It’s getting the yoghurt too hot that causes the curdling in the first place.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Turkish Delights

bazaar

Stall at Spice Bazaar
Originally uploaded by louise_marston.

I have just come back from a long weekend in Istanbul. Everyone told me before we went that it was an incredible city, and I wasn’t disappointed. We heard the muezzins calling people to prayer at lunchtime while overlooking the Suleyman Mosque. We cruised along the Bosphorus and had a special performance from one of Turkey’s foremost belly dancers (apparently – I mean, how would we know?!). We watched the red moon rise over the city from a restaurant in the hills. We saw the inside of the Haghia Sophia, a sight so awe-inspiring that it caused both a Roman Emperor (Justinian) and an Ottoman Sultan to prostrate themselves and thank their respective Gods the first time they saw it.

I also (inevitably) visited the Spice Bazaar in the Old Town, where Istanbullus still come to buy their supplies for the week. I looked around at the spice stalls, shops selling fresh feta and other cheeses, stalls with Turkish Delight, ropes made of dates, baklava and all types of nuts and dried fruit. I settled for buying some spices and pomegranate molasses from a kind looking man in one of the hidden-away spice stalls. He was quite bemused that I would want the molasses – not something he sees many Europeans buying, I suspect. I also bought some Turkish coffee from Mehmet Effendi’s stall – freshly roast and ground that morning. It smelled too good not to.

Sumac
This is a dark red berry that is coarsely ground and used in Turkish cooking. It has a sour, lemony taste and is often sprinkled on meat (such as kebabs) or fish just before serving.

Pomegranate Molasses
This is a dark, syrupy liquid made by boiling down the juice from the sour pomegranate (rather than the sweet pomegranate whcih is usually used for juice). It is sour, as you might expect, but also has a slight sweetness which makes for a very interesting flavour.

I used my brand-new pomegranate molasses to make one of Claudia Roden’s recipes (which also appears in her new book, Arabesque), Muhammara, a walnut and pomegranate paste.

muhammara

Muhammara
Originally uploaded by louise_marston.

Muhammara
100g walnut pieces
2 small slices of white bread, stale
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp chilli flake
3 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp water

Soak the bread briefly in water and then squeeze it out. Grind the walnuts in the food processor, then add the rest of the ingredients and puree, adding a little more water if it’s too stiff.

This was much tastier than I had anticipated – bitter from the walnuts and pomegranate but with a little sweetness from the molasses. Next time I would add a little more chilli (Claudia also suggests stirring in some harissa), and maybe toasting the walnuts and cumin to bring out their flavours more.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Holidays

Have been on holiday recently (although that is obviously not sufficient excuse for the absence from this blog :). I’m off again to Turkey tomorrow, but expect more when I get back. Brief summary of the holiday:

Geneva – staying with friends
Highlight – a long, *long* walk with beautiful views of Lake Geneva, seeing Chamois goats on the mountain and wildflowers everywhere.

Bude, Cornwall – self-catering
Highlights: a bit of bodyboarding, excellent fish and chips and clotted cream, and I finally finished ‘Seven Basic Plots‘.

British food

Reading my food blogs RSS feed, I came across a pair of Brit-related posts today. The first is from i was just really very hungry, praising the most recent series of Masterchef (Masterchef Goes Large! to give it’s full title). I have to agree with maki that this has been a well-crafted reality show, much better than other shows with a similar format (although I haven’t seen Top Chef, which she mentions).

The other post was from Accidental Hedonist, on the bizarre names given to British food. I won’t completely rehash her post, but basically she describes a theory from a book called Gastronaut, that British food tends to be looked down on by other cultures, not because of it’s quality but because of the strange names of the dishes. My understanding is that what is considered traditional British food dates from somewhere between the 17th and 19th Centuries and so the names are as antiquated as that suggests.

Looking at her list, I only recognised 11 of the 25 there, but I thought I would run through my understanding of those 11. I have given my descriptions, and then went back through and added some more helpful links, so that you can get a better idea, and in some cases, the recipes.

Black Pudding – a blood sausage, very traditional and often served with a full fried breakfast
Bubble and Squeak – a great leftovers dish, cabbage and potatoes fried together
Clapshot – a root vegetable mash – like Neeps and Tatties, a Scottish dish
Cullen Skink – a traditional Scottish smoked haddock soup
Flummery – a soft fruit pudding, like a fool
Hob Nobs – oatmeal biscuits (cookies) made by McVities – not traditional at all, as far as I know!
Knickerbocker Glory – an elaborate banana and ice-cream dessert, usually served with a cherry on top
Marmite – a salty spread, officially yeast extract – you either love it or you hate it (the website is great)
Spotted Dick – a suet pudding, studded with raisins. Something of a standing joke, so almost never seen any more
Toad-in-the-hole – sausages cooked in a Yorkshire pudding batter – still very popular, despite the name, as it’s such a great combination.

and that’s without Clootie dumplings. Maybe there is something to this theory…

Technorati Tags: , ,

Nigel Slater

How nice to see our own Nigel Slater getting some press the other side of the water. They already know all about Nigella and Jamie from their respective TV series, but as Nigel is not one for the TV cameras, he hasn’t really made an impression there yet.

Incidentally, this New York Times article was penned by Julie Powell, author of Julie & Julia, and blog and now a book about cooking everything from Julia Child’s book in one year.

And you can find a neat archive of Nigel Slater’s writing for the Observer here:
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/experts/nigelslater/

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Blood Orange Marmalade



marmalade.JPG
Originally uploaded by louise_marston.

I have something of a glut of citrus fruit at the moment, courtesy of my weekly organic box from Abel and Cole, so my thoughts turned to marmalade. Although traditionally made with the sour Seville orange, it is also possible to use sweet oranges, especially if you up the acid and pectin content by adding lemons to the mix.

Marmalade is nothing more than orange jam, but the traditional recipe, originating in Dundee, requires two particular things – the afore-mentioned Seville orange, and finely or thickly sliced orange zest. The word marmalade comes from the portguese marmelada, which originally described a quince jam something like quince cheese or membrillo. Like quinces, citrus fruits are rich in pectin, the substance that sets jams and jellies into that particular firm and quivering consistency.

Basic marmalade principles are the same as those for other jams:
• Extract the maximum pectin. This is usually done by gathering the pips from the fruit, sometimes also the pulp and pith, in a muslin bag and boiling it with the juice before removing it and squeezing the bag to extract the soluble pectin.
• Ensure there is plenty of acid. This helps to extract the maximum pectin and gives a better set. Extra lemon juice is often used for this, but it’s not a particular problem for marmalade.
• Dissolve sugar completely before bringing the fruit and sugar mixture to a boil. This helps to prevent crystallisation

The aim is to extract pectin, and then to make a 60-65% sugar solution with the fruit by boiling off the water until this setting point is reached. I based this recipe on one for Sweet Orange Marmalade from Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine, adding a step to increase the pectin, as suggested in other recipes.

2 lemons
2 small pink grapefruit
9 blood oranges
500g granulated sugar

Zest the lemons, one grapefruit and 3 of the oranges using a vegetable peeler to remove just the zest. Finely julienne the zest.

Juice all the fruit. There should be just over 1 litre.

Add the pips, pith and remaining flesh from the fruit into a square of muslin. Add this to a pan of water and boil for 45 minutes. Leave to soak overnight.

The next morning, squeeze all the pectin from the muslin and add with the water to the juice, zest and sugar in a large pan. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then bring to a simmer and boil for 1.5 hours, or until temperature reaches 104 degrees C. Start testing the set on a cold saucer, looking for a wrinkle on the surface when it is pushed.

Let cool for 15 minutes or so before putting into sterilised jars (this helps make sure all the zest doesn’t float to the top).

This looks beautiful, and is quite tart because of the grapefruit. It’s possible that it would have benefited from the zest being blanched before adding to the marmalade to remove some of the bitterness.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Britain’s Biggest Ever Robbery

It was confirmed tonight that at £53 116 760, last week’s Kent robbery was the biggest ever in the UK. This made me wonder how we rank in the world league table of robberies. What was the biggest ever robbery in the U.S.? What about Ireland? Were these others similar schemes, or more complicated? This sort of thing is a staple of Hollywood (and British) films, but how many of them sound like film plots?

Iraq Central Bank, March 2003

Iraq Central Bank – theft of $900 million in U.S. bills and 82 million euros during the U.S.-led invasion. This seems to be considered the largest bank heist in history, and took place over several days. Although reports are a little hazy, this appears to have been Saddam Hussein’s family claiming money from their “personal piggy-bank”. Some reports indicate that Saddam’s son Qusay directed the robbery, which involved little more than men arriving with a note from Saddam and then loading the cash into vans. Much of the money was later recovered from Saddam’s palaces.

Knightsbridge Safe Deposit Centre, London, 1987

Two men asked to hire a Safe Deposit box, and once inside the vault, they produced guns and overpowered the manager and other guards. They then displayed a sign telling the public that the vault was closed before letting in other accomplices. They broke open safe deposit boxes and left with an estimated £40 million. Several people were arrested after fingerprints were found on one of the deposit box doors and matched to an Italian who was also wanted in connection with other armed robberies.

Banco Central, Forzaleza, Brazil, August 2005

The robbery of 164 million reals (£38.6 million) from a Central Bank vault. The robbers spent 3 months digging a 260 feet tunnel from a house they had rented near the bank. One weekend, they burst from the tunnel into the vault and took the cash away. The aftermath of this incident is continuing – several people have been arrested and various people suspected of the robbery or related to the suspects have since been abducted or killed, presumably by people who know that have enough money to pay large ransoms.

The Northern Bank Robbery, December 2004

Famously Ireland’s biggest ever robbery was the theft of £26.5 million from the Northern Bank in Belfast in which the IRA were implicated. This robbery, like the Tonbridge incident, involved the families of bank employees being held hostage in order that the robbers could be given access to the vault.

It’s striking how many of these stories resemble film plots – I’m sure that a film of the Brazilian robbery is in the works as we speak. But few of these have Hollywood happy endings – arrest, kidnap, death. It’s not an easy life for a bank robber, it would seem.

Technorati Tags: , ,

Film trailers

I’ve spent some time today (probably more than warranted) looking at some new film trailers, and I thought I would give a little digest of the best:

Marie Antoinette
This is the next film from Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, The Virgin Suicides) looks like biopic of the spoilt Queen of France, with Kirsten Dunst in the title role, and Jason Schwarzman (rather improbably) as Louis XVI. The most unusual thing about this trailer is that, while this looks like a standard period adaptation, complete with fabulous locations and uplift corsetry, the soundtrack to the trailer is New Order’s “Age of Consent”. Intriguing. Unfortunately, it’s not due out until December in the UK.

American Dreamz
Despite the unpromising title, this is obviously an American satire, with a dumb Southern US president, played by Dennis Quaid, and the host of a reality TV show where new pop stars are discovered, played by Hugh Grant. As this is directed by Paul Weitz (American Pie, In Good Company, About a Boy) it’s anyone guess which of these three previous films it might resemble. Due for release in April.

Brick
This looks like a noir thriller, with the novel twist of being set in a high school. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Third Rock from the Sun) plays the Marlowe-esque character drawn into shady dealings. Looks good, but no UK release date yet according to IMDB.

I viewed these from Apple’s trailers site: apple.com/trailers, where you’ll need Quicktime to view them. Empire Magazine also has a great site, and will show all the possible trailers in all formats available.

Technorati Tags: ,

Meme: Top Ten iTunes most played

I don’t think I’ve done a meme on here before, but I just saw a good one over at Whatever and thought that I would be interested in the results, so maybe you are too.

So here is the top ten tracks in my iTunes library by play count (how many times they have been played on either iTunes or my iPod). Like John Scalzi, I have included only the most played track from each album to remove the effect of playing the whole album a lot:

  2. All Star, Smashmouth – Shrek Soundtrack
  3. The Right Place, Eddi Reader – Eddi Reader
  4. The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feeling Groovy), Simon & Garfunkel – Greatest Hits
  5. Big Time Sensuality, Bjork – Debut
  6. Caramel, Suzanne Vega – Greatest Hits, but I heard it first on the soundtrack to The Truth about Cats and Dogs
  7. Layla, Eric Clapton – Unplugged
  8. Respect, Aretha Franklin – First Lady of Soul
  9. One Week, Barenaked Ladies – Stunt
  10. Weather With You, Crowded House – Woodface
  11. Stan, Eminem – Marshall Mathers LP

Most of those I identify as upbeat songs that I play to get me in a good mood – especially All Star. They are also all songs that have featured in my CD collection for quite a long while – but I suppose that is inevitable when you count since I started using iTunes (circa 2003). If only you could count the most played tracks this year…

Technorati Tags: , ,

The discipline of writing

I have been reading a lot of Wil Wheaton recently, mostly because he’s been writing a lot. He’s been making himself write for at least 10 minutes a day, and it seems to be working for him – making him more creative and productive. I find it inspirational(as well as funny and true and good writing), and it has spurred me, once again, into trying to write more regularly on this blog.

It is a strange truism that if you want something done, give it to someone who’s busy. When your day is full, it is easy to accommodate another task or two; when it is empty, you procrastinate, on the basis that you have plenty of time, and will find just the right moment for the task. And of course, you don’t. Time drifts along, and suddenly it’s 16:49 and you wonder ‘Where has my day gone? When I had a job, I would have done 7 hours work by now – I can’t possibly have done 7 hours worth of anything today.’ And you forget that of those 7 hours, by no means all of them used to be dedicated to real-cranking-through-it work, but this does not diminish the fact that once again, you seem to have wasted your day.