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

Who was it who said "Life is too short to stuff a mushroom"?

I had some lovely stuffed mushrooms last week. They were stuffed with seasoned couscous then covered with melted kefolateri cheese. Yummy!

I got some nice, fresh, new season's beetroot the other day. Unfortunately they didn't still have the leaves still on them, 'cause they're gorgeous wilted in a little olive oil or butter (so are radish leaves!). This is how I did them:

Baked in a hot oven. Just wash and trim first and put them in whole. They're ready when the skin is crispy and starting to come away from the soft flesh.
Also - bake a couple of handfuls of cherry tomatoes. They may be done before the beets - so just take them out a while and warm them up again later. You're aiming to have them start to go black in parts.

To serve:
Fry up some mustard seeds and cumin seeds (and, if wished some methi/fenugreek seeds and soonf/fennel seeds). Add some matchstick threads of ginger and a thinly sliced onion. Fry until the onion is golden and crisp (but be careful not to burn!). Add salt at the end (not at the start or the onions won't crisp)

Cut a cross into each beet and open up the quarters. Alllow one largish beet or three small ones per person. Put a spoonful of yoghurt into each one. Surround with the tomatoes. Then spoon the onion/oil mixture over the lot.

Eat with naan bread or something.

I might try growing some golden beets. I've dug the garden already and I've got some horsesh*t to fork into it. And I'm getting some earthworms mail order because my soil is clay and I haven't got any indigenous ones.

Oh, now I'm going to have to run out and buy beets. I made some lovely sauteed turnips with greens on Friday night. But I absolutely LOVE beets!

Wish I could have a garden. And mail order earthworms. Can you get horsesh*t via mail order? I know that in the States it's illegal to mail poop (please don't ask *how* I know), unless you're licensed to ship bio-hazardous materials.

Can't wait to try those beets...

You proably can get horsehit mail order - but it would be heavy to send in any quantity. Anyway - you can buy farmyard manure in any garden centre. Plus there are a few riding stables near me. It's not that I particularly like gardening, though. But I like the vegetables you get.

Also - our local council is selling compost bins cheap, so we can start composting vegetable waste. I'm not sure if they're the kind that use worms - which is a faster method. I've only ever seen one earthworm in my garden. I wonder if they're 'Hemafelites' like Cartman's mother?

'Nine bean rows will I have/ A hive for the honey-bee/ And live alone in the bee loud glade'
(W. B. Yates. Inisfree.)

Oddly enough - I was planning a turnip curry tonight.

A soup I made for friends last night - based on a Bolivian idea:

Take as may different varieties of potatoes as you can conveniently get. I used some King Edwards, which are floury so would dissolve nicely to add body to the soup, some red-skinned/ yellow fleshed ones and some waxy Charlottes. Dice them small or slice thinly, as is your wont. I sliced the Charlottes and diced the others.

Now - sweat a chopped onion in some butter. I also added a leek - optional. To this, add a thinly sliced red chilli and a few cloves of garlic. Sweat a little more.

Next add the potatoes, a couple of chopped tomatoes and some stock. Boil for a fairly long time until nicely soupy. Stir in some cream and a good handful of chopped coriander. Serve, garnished with a couple more chilli slices and more coriander.

(I also added some butternut squash - but only because I had one to hand. It added a pleasant sweetness. I've also added corn in the past)

I wish someone in the UK would get around to selling some more exotic varieties of potato - like the blue or red fleshed ones from South America. I gather they're slightly hip in the US. I attended a conference reception in Florida where we were served various types, mashed. It's probably too late to put any in my garden this year. Maybe next year they can get the benefit of my compost dalek.

By the way - I read in a magazine at the weekend that carrot leaves are edible! Cor! I must investigate. (They had them deep-fried, as a garnish).

I've had carrot greens served in salad before, they're really good!

I wish I could find more varieties of potatoes, too. It'd make some awesome potato-leek soup. Those blue ones are REALLY good!

"Compost dalek"! Now I need to go and dig myself a garden, just so I can have a compost dalek!!

I have been SO lazy this week and haven't cooked a single night. Tonight I was going to stir-fry some stuff I got at the Korean grocery on the way home from work Tuesday. I was going to throw in some pea pods, scallions, red bell pepper, and some bean sprouts. I'd also gotten some lovely tofu. I might make Udon Sunday or Monday (federal holiday- no work Monday, woo hoo!) for lunch.

I had a pakora fest this weekend. And discovered my new favourite shop.

Take some gram flour (from chickpeas - consult your local Indo/Pak store) in a large bowl and add enough cold water to get a thick pancake batter cosistency. Add a fair amount of salt. Optional - a chopped green chilli, a handful of coriander/cilantro/dhaniya leaves and a few ajwain/ lovage seeds.

Then get some vegetables. I used some cauliflower florets (The best pakora!) some thin slices of potatoes, sweetpotatoes, aubergine/eggplant/baigan, some green cabbage, some hollowed-out green chillis (leave stalks on) and some sliced onions. You could try broccoli, mushrooms, paneer (Indian cheese), spinach, a mix of cooked diced potatoes, chilli and peas....whatever seems reasonable at the time.

Prepare to fry. In a suitable vessel, heat up some sunflower oil. Get a draining plate ready with some kitchen towel for grease-absorbtion. Find a slotted spoon. Now - my top tip - get a tap/faucet running (see later).

Hold the slotted spoon in your dominant hand (right, in my case). With the other hand, pick up a handful of vegm drop them in the batter and muddle them up so that they are nicely smeared all over. (although bits peeking out are fine). Drop a piece at a time in the hot oil. You can use the slotted spoon to agitate them from time to time. While a batch is cooking nicely - here's where the tap comes in - you might want to rinse your sticky hand. Tea towels don't work!

When the pakora look golden enough - remove and serve. I accompanied them with two sauces:
Yoghurt, fresh mint and a little salt (I sometimes also add cumin).
Coriander (you can use leftover stalks) processed with the juice of a lime, salt and a green chilli. You can add mint to this too.
Some of the more hardcore Pakistani eateries I go to mix green chilli in with their yoghurt. Very nice - but a shock the first time when you're assuming the green comes from mint!

Anyway...I was out of gram flour, so I made a diversion to pick some up from my old 'hood. There was a new shop on the main road, before the 'hood proper, so I gave it a try figuring it would be convenient. It was called 'Super Asia Food Stores', and I assumed it would be a convenience store with a few Asian goods. It turned out to be a Tardis! A massive shop extending backwards and crammed with every conceivable goody! The owner was charming too - complimented my daughter on her doll and gave her a piece of carrot halwa. He said he's trying to cater for all communities, and he doesn't even know what some of his stock is! (They had plantain and yam flours for making African fufu! And he's promised to start stocking fresh plantains).

I didn't have much cash on me, so I couldn't get half the things I would have liked (which would have languished in my cupboards anyway), nor bought a tawwa (griddle for chapattis) or a big, stone mortar and pestle, but what I did buy was:

Gram flour @ £1.25/$2 per 2kg - last time I got a small bag from a health food store and probably paid the same for 500g!
Bajari (millet) flour, for making a special kind of roti. (I've been asking around for ages. It's very hard to find)
Patak's mixed pickle (my favourite A3100168. I hope you can find Patak's in the US )
Cartons of Turkish Ayran (salty Yoghurt drink - made in Germany! very refreshing)
Boxes of mangoes packed with tinsel (lovely, small, sweet, yellow ones.)
A box of Iranian dates from Bam
A big jar of Iranian A3100168
A box of Turkish delight. I got rose flavoured - but they also had lemon, vanilla, pistachio, almond, walnut, hazel...
A bunch of methi/fenugreek leaves (turnip curry tonight!)

Plus it had the normal range of convenience store goods, household products, newspapers...pretty much a miniature WalMart!

Mmmmmm turkish delight.. my cousins are Persian and used to bring back huge bags of pistacho's and rose and lemon handmade TD liberally dusted with icing sugar.

I always loved the way my auntie cooked her basmati rice with potatos on the bottom of the pan with a little oil. Apparantly to give those potatos is an insult to your guest - but we always ate them as they'd crisp up nicely and had that mushy rice flavour.

There was a Farsi dish she used to cook that was really yum - I forget it's name, it was bright green tho with lots of leaves and a limey taste

I love vegetable pakora.

That shop sounds awesome! I want one! We have some decent ethnic grocers, but none like that. with envy!

Keep the ideas coming, people! I've been slacking a bit lately, partly because I'm on a short budget at the moment, and partly because it's too hot to cook! But we've still gotta eat!!

This summer’s soft drink is…Iced Masala Chai.

Take some chai teabags (Assuming you can find some. Otherwise google 'recipe masala chai' for some recipes. Basically, tea with spices.)

Make up some tea to x-tra strength (I use 4 bags and 1 cup of water). Brew for a good long while and either allow to cool or bung in some ice cubes.

Sweeten to taste. Add a can of evaporated milk, more ice cubes and top up with regular milk.

(The authentic version uses sterilised milk, but evaporated milk delivers a similar texture and the required slightly artificial flavour)

Mmmmm! I loved iced Masala Chai!

It's fantasic!

Incidentally, it's great with soymilk, too (I always use soymilk in tea or coffee. Doesn't taste any different any more). Starbuck's makes an awesome iced Chai latte... I don't like to frequent them because they're over-priced, and I prefer Fair Trade coffee, but I don't have the aversion to Starbuck's many people have. again!

Iced Chai would rock today. It's SOOOO hot already and it's only 8:20 AM. Oh, I can't wait to get back to working in a climate-controlled office!! Will be having iced Chai with dinner though- that's what I can do with the spare can of evaporated milk left over from the custard pie...

I drank Chai for the first time this weekend at the Glastonbury Festival Where have I been all this time? It's lovely!

I don't like Starbucks. I *do* like coffee – but the problem is that if I have more than two cups a day, I start hitting people (Hmm. Maybe I shouldn’t add so much methamphetamine to it?). So coffee opportunities are precious, and I prefer to drink something more tasty than Starbucks dishwater. And when it comes to iced coffee – I don’t like all their frappucino palaver. I prefer it done the Greek way – black.

(Reminds me of a dreadful one-liner: I like my coffee like I like my women – imported from the third world at exploitatively low prices. )

As for Glastonbury – I hope you survived the flooding. I watched/taped it from the safety of my home. Coldplay were dire, obviously – but Meg and Jack were on particularly awesome form.

I've been buying the Starbucks beans at the grocery store, because the other brand they have is crap. When I can get to the Whole Foods and get the organic Chiapas stuff I love so much, I get 10 lbs at a time. Fortunately, it's not often that I'm out and about and need to buy ready-made coffee. Starbucks by my house is drinkable, especially the Chai soy latte, and Dunkin' Donuts makes an AWESOME cuppa.

Only two cups of coffee a day??? I have that before I'm even out of the shower. Most weekdays, K and I split a pot before we leave for work, then I have another pot throughout the day. And it ain't the coffee making me want to hit people around here.

Weekends, we're good for two or three pots if I keep brewing it, or two presses worth. I prefer the press, but the way we drink it, the turnaround's too fast to really relax and enjoy drinking it.

Who all played at Glastonbury this year? I can happily say I've never heard a Coldplay song.

I like my coffee like I like my women, strong, black, and lots of it I don't sseem to be drinking so much coffee these days, I still get though a 200G instant jar of coffee in a week, but I used to get though half a pound of coffee beans as well as that in a week, plus about quater a pound of ground coffee, mainly French when It comes to the ground and beans Oh talking of recipie ideas; I did a roast chicken last night, and now needs recipies to use up the majority of the meat that is left tonight I think I'm going to do a spicey type soup with it maybe noodles though but I've not decided as yet

Don't start with the Coldplay, PC! It's not worth it

Out of the bands I actually stood and watched, the highlights for me were New Order (they played Love Will Tear Us Apart *and* Transmission - although not Blue Monday) and Brian Wilson who really was the real thing, which is pretty amazing when you consider the state of his health. Also the Zutons were pretty good, and from what I heard from my tent I quite enjoyed the Futureheads, Bloc Party, and Echo and the Bunnymen.

But the mud made getting around quite difficult, so I didn't see half as many bands as I'd have liked to. I'd liked to have seen Kaiser Chiefs, for one. And to have seen more than just a bit in passing of the Killers, the Thrills and the Bravery.

I seem to be getting into dance music in my old age though - I passed up the White Stripes and went to see the Chemical Brothers instead. Although for reasons not clear to anyone, three groups of us independently went to the wrong stage and all ended up watching another act called Hybrid. And it was only a day and a half later than anyone realised that who we'd seen wasn't actually the Chemical Brothers...

Do you like curry, 2legs? I used to make a wonderful chicken curry with golden raisins, chunks of potato, red bell pepper, chopped coriander leaves (aka cilantro), canned tomatoes, chopped scallions, and you can cheat and use Madras curry powder or a decent paste.

You can also bread it in a little cream or milk, some beer, an egg and some bread crumbs, then lightly pan-fry it in olive or canola oil. or butter if you don't like your coronary artery.

How about a nice, cool chicken salad? Flaked cold cooked chicken, with chunked boiled sweet potato, black or red currants or golden raisins, a little diced celery and/or onion if you like, mayo, and either curry powder or garam masala. One of my old favorites. You can add chopped walnuts if you like, too.

Brian Wilson is a whacko! Saw him on a TV interview the the other day.

The only bands I think I'd have bothered with would've been the White Stripes and Echo & the Bunnymen. Possibly New Order, though I'm ambivalent about that.

No worries about my getting started on Coldplay. You guys have been wonderful about warning me away from such stuff, and I'm convinced!

I don't get out to too many outdoor music gigs this time of year, the city parks draw crowds of hundreds of thousands and I can't stand being that close to that many people when it's 95 or 100 degees out. I do enjoy the outdoor film festival, though, it's after sunset when it's not *as* hot and hazy.

A couple of decent bands are supposed to playing this year's Lollapalooza, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. They've never had a good show yet, and they're ridiculously overpriced.