h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Givusa bash of the bangers and mash, me mother used to make

Hard boil the eggs, cut them in halves or quarters and wrap the sausage meat round the smaller portions.

we make (I know, I know) really delicious vegetarian scotch eggs (the "scotch" is a mixture of breadcrumbs, herbs, ground hazelnuts, beaten egg, yoghurt, chopped fried spring onions and tomato puree - I can't remember the proportions and I've lost the recipe) they're then baked in the oven and are really spectacularly yummy.

We watched the 80s show yesterday. The little boy annoys me because he clearly acts up for the camera. But the two teenage daughters are brilliant - they were aghast at the idea of all the plastic waste from ready meals.

Doing a roast chicken dinner in a microwave took 2.5 hours - in a conventional oven you'd have done it in one and it would have been tastier

Giles Coren was totes adorable though. Again.

That sounds pretty tasty, Sho

Not sure when I'll see the 80s episode. I normally watch the programme on Friday evening (yes, I make my own television schedule - can't be doing with all this binge watching and watching what you want when you want), but I'm going to Austin Reggae Festival to see Lee Perry this Friday

I'm till envious your going to see Lee Perry - food wise.... I use a mix... hopefully chosen on basis of logic and what tastes right, mor ethan anything... - sadly though, at the moment, I'm a lot more relient on ready made, or half ready made rubbish, than I'd normally be; its either that or eat nothing, I've not the energy to cook much from scratch, all the time, and when I do I've gotta be so careful, due to lack of feeling in my fingers, and dodgy concentration; not like it bothers me, much burning or cutting my hands to bits, whilst cooking... only I'm ment to be avoiding infections at the same time, and the s take a dim view of my ... gun ho attitude to the burns and cuts on my hands at least I made a risotto from scratch last night, a veg one tonight will have to be something simpler/quicker though, won't hae had any sleep for 40 plus hours by the time I cook and Im dangerous enough when I'm that tired pasta, salad and ... something I guess... not quite out of a tin or freezer ready meal, at least

Risotto, along with chips, is something I've never made. And I don't think I will, after having seen the price of Arborio rice

they're not that expensive?! err.... I get at least ten risottos, for myself, out of a 500 G pack of aborio rice... and I love a good risotto actually, more than 10, from memory, my cup, 1/2 full, is like 35 Grams which I find enough for one meal, now, for myself, and a full cop, does for two a quid for mushrooms, last night, plus whatever the one onion would have cost, plus some garlic, grated cheese... Think the 500% pack of aborio is a bit over a quid now, from up the road here - its the seriously exotic rices/grains that get pricey... er... is it black rice? that's so* expensive! I've never bought it mind, I spend a fortune sometimes, on teh wild rice, but that is so gorgeous diluted down with the pure basmati I get in 5 KG sacks from the corner shop nextdoor (he has some odd stuff, for a little corner shop; slike the Guinness export bottles I bought the other day! <stout)

From memory, the ordinary white or brown organic rice I buy from the co-op (from the bulk bins) is around $1.50 a pound, but I think the Arborio is $2.50. I'll check that again next time I'm in there. They have black rice too, and something called secret rice. Although, now I search the web to find out what it is, there are no results for 'secret rice'. Maybe I was imagining it

To be honest, I don't really pay much attention anymore, to how much I'm spending on food... - from where I was, a number of years ago, I roughly reduced my calory intake, by half, by eating half as much... and broadly that's continued, though at the momen, I'm tending to snack a bit more and I've gone a bit carb heavy but, even so, and even though I now refuse to shop at M&S as its less good than Waitrose... for what I actually spend, to feed myself, and also for feeding William, when he's hear, which is about half the week now, its really not a vast fortune, so I just don't tend to notice...
a couple packs jarlsberg at about three quid each.... four or five double packs little baby gem, and same of cucumber, at ... a quid each or whatever they are... a few snack things, like ordinary cheddars, etc, and then the pain au levain from the waitrose bakary, about one a day at ... less than two quid I think, plus... a pack ofr two of butter a week, and then just ... bits of dried pasta, rice when I've run out, and suchlike... - it can't be much more than i I spend a week on hand made bath products, mouthrinse, etc.... which, actually, both combined, is probably about what i was spending a week, until the 5th feb, on cigarettes Hmm.... I guess whatever I was spending on food before, is what has been buying me all the chain mail... rubber ducks.... and ... teddy bears - I just so wish I could predict my energy levels; or I'll be spending a good twenty quid a week in the butchers, but I loath throwing decent food away, so I've been tending to not risk buying too much, like that, for risk of wastage... and having to turn instead, to some fresh ready-made stuff, which I'll often freeze; at least then I don't create wastage, or, indeed, risk eating stuff that i'm ment not too, whilst I've supposidly got no immune system... Mind... still reckon my stomach is immune without an immune system and I so wanna get back, making bread, but, lack energy/concentration for that which... is annoying me endlessly.... - the Waitrose pain au levain is good... but their baguettes.... nah.... mine are so much better

Ooh, That reminds me - I have almost everything I need for one of those in the freezer. I just need a few extra ingredients... no, I think I do have everything. I just need to thaw the pork shoulder and the belly pork

show off! I'm not mad enough to make me own pork pies although... tempting it would be... maybe one day when I've a kitchen, that isn't... shared with my lodger, and falling to bits with no storage room for anything

They're really easy to make. You can avoid the awkward hand-raising bit by making a big one, like in this recipe:

Ingredients
1kg boned pork shoulder
250g pork belly
250g streaky bacon
Salt
Black pepper
2 bushy sprigs of thyme
2 sage leaves
½ tsp ground mace
½ tsp ground white pepper
2 good pinches ground nutmeg
Anchovy paste

For the pastry
210g lard
230g water
600g flour
1 beaten egg
1 x 20cm cake tin

For the stock
bones from the pork
2 pigs' trotters
1 onion
1 small carrot
1 small bunch of parsley stalks
1 rib of celery
6 black peppercorns

Method
Set the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Chop the pork into small cubes and finely chop the bacon.

Remove the thyme leaves from their stems, add the sage leaves and chop both finely. Mix the herbs into the chopped meats together with the mace, white pepper, nutmeg and 1 tsp each of salt and coarsely ground black pepper. Make the pastry

Put the lard and water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Sift the flour with a good pinch of salt into a large bowl. Pour the hot lard and water into the flour, mix with a wooden spoon, then leave until cool enough to handle. The pastry must be warm when you start to work it.

Lightly grease and flour your mould or cake tin (with removable bottom). Pull off a quarter of the pastry and roll it into a lid that will fit the top of the cake tin. Roll the remaining pastry to fit the base of the tin. Lay it in the bottom, then firmly push the dough up the sides with your hands. It should spread quite easily. If it slides down, leave it to cool a bit more. Make certain there are no holes or tears. This is crucial, as the jelly will leak out. Spoon the pork filling into the lined cake tin and press it down. It should come almost to the top of the pastry.

Brush the edges of the pastry above the meat with beaten egg. Lower the lid into place and press tightly to seal with the edges. Poke a small hole in the lid to let out the steam and put the tin on a baking sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, then lower the heat to 160C/325F/gas mark 3 and bake for 90 minutes until the pastry is pale gold. Brush with the beaten egg and return to the oven for 30 minutes.
Make the stock
Put the bones into a deep saucepan with the onion, carrot, parsley stalks and the celery rib. Cover with water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and leave the liquid to cook for an hour, watching the water level carefully and topping up where necessary.

Remove from the heat, decant the liquid into a bowl and leave to cool. Refrigerate overnight. If it has set very firmly, simply remove the fat from the top of the stock, transfer to a saucepan and bring to the boil. If it is still on the runny side, then remove the fat as before, pour into a saucepan and boil hard until it is reduced to about 400ml. Season carefully with salt.

When the pie is ready, pour the stock into a jug and then pour it carefully through the hole in the top of the pastry. A funnel is invaluable here. Leave the pie to cool, then refrigerate overnight.


The only difficulty for me is that pigs' trotters are almost impossible to find in all the places I go to for my ingredients so I have to use stock and gelatin. But maybe if I tried some of those Mexican butchers on the east side of town...

I watched the 1980s episode on Friday, and I found it quite moving, and certainly more interesting in some unexpected ways, than the first three. I'll have to watch it again to recall everything about it, but the part about the meal made during the miners strike got me close to blubbing. I too threw money into 'Dig deep for the miners' buckets, while at the same time living my comfortable and relatively carefree life, watching news reports of the cops laying into miners without apparent repercussion and doing little more than saying 'Oh, that's awful'

I have now seen the 90s one, so although I didn't see the first 3, I think the 80s was the best. Not only because of the bit on the Miners' strike - which came at you like a slap in the face - but because the two girls really came into their own.

I loved how they moaned at their dad for all the waste after they all had their ready meals.

the 90s one was interesting because it really wasn't that long ago, and I was well married and running a home by then (heck by the end of the decade I even had The Gruesome Twosome). all the Mad Cow stuff was chilling.

Next week there is going to be a show about future trends, which should be interesting

It's certainly worth watching the first three, to get an idea of how grim British food was (or how the producers thought so, at least) and how much better the food and the ways to prepare and cook it got, although, as already discussed, the impression the programme gives isn't entirely accurate nor does it cover much of the middle ground, where most of us sit, because it has to show how things were changing.

I think I might have to watch them all again now because it really does startle you to see the changes in British lifestyle (because the programme's not just about cooking - it updates the decor and also talks about other aspects of life, particularly eating out) from the 50s to the 80s, in the space of 30 to 40 years. I think they overdid the greyness and the grind of the 50s. I was only alive for the last 3½ years of the decade and too young to remember most of those, but most of the lifestyle of those years would have carried over into the early 60s, which I do remember, and didn't think were quite so awful. And besides, the 60s didn't really get going until The Beatles arrived

Oh, and I wish the husband would stop going "Oh wow"

the husband does get a bit annoying, like showing off for the camera but pretending not to, IYSWIM? The boy is horrible though, totally showing off for the camera.

I might see if I can find the first eps on the iPlayer - the food historian is really interesting, and she rightly pointed out on the 90s one (or was it the divine Giles?) that actually food provides a really good insight into social history.

If you can't find it there they're all on YouTube. Unless they aren't any more.

They're all on Youtube.

Snap!