The 31st British Juggling Convention, Canterbury
Tuesday, 3rd April
I felt very strange going into this one. I have had a lot of family issues over the past year & I wasn't sure if I was going to attend right up to the point I left home. I've only made one appearance at TWJC since the last BJC & that represented all the juggling practice I have done since the last BJC too. For some reason I didn't feel that I deserved to be there. However, I was warmly welcomed & accepted by everyone, both old friends & new, & for that I am extremely grateful. Thank you to you all.
I arrived on site at 17:00, which was the advertised start time. Just behind me in the reg desk queue was Louisa (not Laura) who gave me my first hug of the festival. Just behind her was fellow TWJC member Richard but because he has never been to the BJC before I didn't register that it was him until my second pass through the queue! Also received a lovely welcome from Tor (my perpetual HLGCBS crush) in the reception, then Hannah, Chunk & Bungle from SJC before we found where Kevin, Nicola, Duncan & John had initiated the TWJC camp.
I got my tent up quickly then we went for a quick explore of the site. There was plenty of camping space available around the outside of the sports pitches with toilets & showers close by (to where we were pitched at least) in the separate pavilion building. The enormous Spinning@ tent & a knife throwing range being run by the Essex Backyard Throwers. The main building housed the show hall which was open for practice space during the day & used for shows in the evening, a dance studio for workshops, a climbing hall for big workshops & practice space, & the canteen which was home to Montegriffo's Frying Circus.
Outside were the Veggies catering van, while Love Waffles were set up in another building. There was a separate building for the balloon modellers, 3 outdoor huts for workshops, another 3 outdoor huts for the traders (which were quite out of the way of the regular convention foot traffic). Another building contained the main juggling hall, a few more showers & also the Lazy Juggler bar upstairs.
We poked our heads into the main hall which already had the distinctive aroma of a well used juggling hall. We went upstairs for a drink at the bar & found it was much more pleasant to watch the hall from the viewing window! There were lots of unfamiliar faces in the hall which was good to see.
The pass for the event was a tiny glass bottle of bath salts/glitter on a ribbon. It was also noted that the 'no glass allowed in the main hall' rule was a bit of a contradiction. My pass also didn't survive past my third hug, I spent the rest of the convention with the ribbon round my neck & the bottle in my coat pocket.
Wednesday, 4th April
Breakfast is by far the most important meal of the day. It is something we take very seriously at TWJC so it was a dent to our pride that we were not first in the queue at 08:00 on Wednesday morning. Not that it really mattered when we found out that the team weren't serving until 09:00. I wasn't too fussed but the coffee drinkers in the queue were mortified!
We killed time by perusing the workshop board which took the form of a grid made from coloured tape stuck to the large windows along the side of the show hall. Workshops were written up on individual cards & stuck in the relevant spot. It looked pretty but unfortunately the bright back light from the outside sun made it very difficult to read & even more difficult to photograph unless you were close enough for the individual cards to blot out the sun.
I also enjoyed all the student artwork that covered every available bit of wall. All of it was very good, & some of it was excellent. I particularly liked the black & white portraits in the seating area for the canteen.
When 09:00 rolled round I was a little disappointed. It was ok but the portion was small, the bacon was tough, the mushrooms lukewarm & for £8 including a cup of tea I expect a lot more.
I spent the rest of the morning in the show hall trying to remember what all this circus skill lark is about. I managed some satisfying handstands, although I think this was probably down to my improved physical condition rather than maintained ability. I also did some club passing with Richard before we were interrupted by the fire alarm which forced us out into the car park in front of reception. I waited it out chatting to Dee, Tor & Helena & enjoyed coming up with unsubstantiated theories as to the cause & casting blame accordingly. After a disappointing lack of firemen I returned to the show hall & continued with some 3, 4 & 5 club practice. All of which was dreadful.
At midday I joined in with an RPG session being run by last year's main organiser Stephen. I've been looking for something new to try & have been enjoying the Dungeons & Randomness Podcast (start at Arc 2: episode 1. It's really well done) so I thought I'd give it a go. The game of the session was Everyone is John, all of the players are a different voice with unique obsessions in the head of John, a poor chap with a severe multiple personality disorder. The aim of the game is to take control of John by bidding with your limited supply of will power then get him to perform actions related to your obsessions to score points. Not knowing anything about the game my choice of obsessions were very poor, my top obsession was free dive for 10 minutes, which turned into stay underwater for 10 minutes cumulatively. I managed to genuinely achieve 3 minutes 31 seconds. It was a very bizarre session & lots of fun.
I then took a break to cook myself some parsnips & pancetta & whiled away the afternoon drinking cider & chatting until...
The Spinning@ Show
Our compère for the show introduced herself as Miss Glitterface which was certainly descriptive. She was clearly spoken & very confident but I felt she went a little overboard trying to control audience applause levels. If people want to applaud, you should let them do so!
The show got off to a great start with Rico Titou from France performing a beautiful hoop routine where I think every move was in the vertical plane but still mostly on the body rather than just around the arms. He was very fluid, used the whole stage & at a time when 'generic hoop act' is in danger of entering my list of go to phrases for convention reviews Rico showed a lot of originality.
This was followed by Tony Nowhere with a rope dart act it might have been good but I don't know because it was unfortunately ruined by being an unnecessary glow routine. I'm sure there was lots of interesting things being done with the rope in the dark but all I could see was a bright spot of light either drawing a circle or going back & forth across the stage like the face of a 1970's Cylon.
Next up we had another hooper. She had a great sparkly costume & clearly enjoyed being onstage, she was very good but unfortunately it felt a bit too much like a generic hoop act. I can't pick out anything unique or special that I haven't seen before.
This was followed by Stanley Styx with an unnecessary glow staff routine. It was unnecessarily bright too, I couldn't look directly at the prop. It was a staff routine with overly dramatic music & a daft storyline. I'm sure all the contact moves were very interesting but in the dark it just looked like a really slow staff routine.
Pixie Patch tried a clown routine. In this instance the glow hoop was not just unnecessary, it was a brick wall preventing any enjoyment of the routine. If you are going to do any sort of clowning, I need to see your face. With the lights down I couldn't see any expressions or connect with the performer in any way.
Thankfully Ben Cornish rescued the show by performing with the lights on! He did the walking round the isolated suitcase skit & a bit of ball spinning. However, due to injury he couldn't do much of the spinning so the audience was in the awkward position of wanting him to succeed at the trick but didn't want him to hurt himself. What the act lacked in material Ben made up for with charisma, he was funny, charming & delightful.
Also performing with the lights on was Sam with a fast paced technical bar flair act. He performed lots of rolls, spins, stalls & traps with a big smile.
I was suffering some pretty severe hoop-fatigue at this stage in the show but Alice still managed to blow me away with a sensational melancholic hoop routine. Everything she did was flawlessly stylish & graceful. Instead of a checklist of flashy hoop tricks the routine consisted only of moves that fit the character, but was still highly technical. This was a great example of the performer being the focus instead of the prop. She maintained character with her body language, facial expressions & pace of movement almost to the end, only breaking I think to celebrate a job exceptionally well done.
After that I think it was Boris with a nice 1 & 2 diabolo routine using a loop of string instead of sticks. I haven't seen this style for years so it was a very pleasant change. Excellent skills well executed. Oh & with the lights on too!
Act of the show was Lukie the box monkey performing with 3, 4 & 5 cigar boxes. It was highly energetic & crammed from start to finish with ridiculously difficult tricks. There were quite a few drops but Lukie's personable nature on stage meant the whole audience was with him all the way willing him to succeed. Allegedly the routine was only put together in a couple of hours, but I'm not sure I believe that.
The show finished with another hoop act this time from Callum & Lisa. It's ok but still an unnecessary glow routine. I think the performers were a bit rattled too because the sound tech used a snippet of their music for the previous act which must have been off putting.
I'm glad I saw this show. The lows were low, but the highs were exceptional & more than made it worth my while. Remember kids, just say no to glow.
Thursday, 5th April
I made my own breakfast this morning (Eggy Bread - beat one egg per slice of bread, soak bread thoroughly in beaten egg, fry for about 1 min each side, spread with English mustard #recipe) which set me up well for the day. I spent the morning up in the bar area writing, then I joined Susannah, Lyn, Void & Guy to solve a cryptic crossword. I even managed to solve a clue, which is one more than I usually do.
At midday I joined in with another RPG session with Stephen. This time the game was called Lasers & Feelings, a more traditional RPG game where everyone plays individual characters trying to accomplish a mission, which in our case was to stop mind controlling parasites from reaching Earth. I played a yellow custard coloured android. As it turned out my disembodied leg turned out to be more useful than the rest of my character.
After lunch I enjoyed another chilled afternoon eating, drinking & chatting in the sunshine before heading into the hall for...
Open Stage
Our host for the evening was Devilstick Peat who is clearly enjoying the Tommy Cooper style of magic which he performed in between most acts.
Kicking off the action were Chris & Eilidh with an acro routine. The balances were a bit shaky but the routine had lots of daring moves & there were no mistakes that I could see. I enjoyed the ballroom dancing interludes in between moves & fantastic costumes too. Ivana got off to a droppy start with her hat routine but she got stronger as the routine went on. Her 3 hat work was superb, I particularly liked the sequence where she rotated 3 hats between her hands & head while twirling across the stage on her knees. I would like to see this act again.
I was initially dubious when John & Steph took to the stage with their glow poi, however the lights stayed on & their outfits were simply stunning. They performed a beautifully choreographed partner poi routine with lots of very well executed sequences all with slick transitions. It was clear they had put a huge effort into the presentation of the act. I was most impressed with the fast side to side step across the stage while standing front to front, yeah the intertwining poi was nice but the footwork was exquisite! Both performers wore massive smiles & clearly enjoyed being on stage.
Cameron & Mark entertained with a ring passing routine featuring an excellent mix of both technical & silly entertaining tricks all performed with good humour & a great connection with the audience. Daniel performed an excellent comedy ball juggling piece. Despite being dressed in a simple grey t-shirt & shorts he was able to brighten the stage with personality alone. He very quickly built a strong rapport with the audience only using one of the most expressive faces I have ever seen.
Keith & Antonia filled the stage with their poi passing routine featuring lots of slick behind the back catches, which were surprising because the passes were low, fast & horizontal rather than high & floaty like most throws that lead to a behind the back catch.
Closing the show was Arthur Hyam with a new diabolo routine. Lots of tough tricks with 1 to 3 diabolos, it was pretty droppy but he kept his composure throughout.
All in all a great show.
Friday, 6th April
On a tip from another juggler Kevin, Louisa & I walked down the road to find the Lime Tree Cafe hidden behind the Sainsbury's supermarket. We were gutted to find out that they weren't serving a full English that day but we enjoyed excellent bacon in beautiful soft white baps & a nice cup of tea. It was a lovely pristine cafe overlooking the county cricket ground which was busy with people hurling cricket balls at batsmen using those flexible tennis ball launchers you often see dog walkers use. It was a bit unfair I thought but very entertaining as the trainers were not always particularly accurate. It made me wonder how fast a fast bowler could bowl if they could use one in competition. Before we left Kev made the staff promise that they were definitely serving a full breakfast tomorrow at least 3 times.
Back on site we prepared for the long day in Margate. Buses left site at midday & 40 minutes later dropped us off at Dreamland. The info booklet told us our pass entitled us to a free ride or some free food at one of the concession stands, neither of which turned out to be true. I certainly didn't feel like paying any of the high asking prices for the basic fairground attractions. There was one side attraction that I felt would have been pretty easy pickings for the aerialists & rock climbers among the BJC crowd where you had to hang from a bar for 2 minutes. I admit I was tempted to have a go but put off by the prospect of winning an absurd oversized stuffed toy. Many attractions were closed or under construction, the bar was mugging patrons for £5 a pint, the roller disco floor was the size of a postage stamp. To make things worse before the games started we were subjected to the excruciating Story time with Peter Rabbit show, a patronising screechy affair narrating the actions of someone in a stuffed animal costume. I died a little inside. For those that couldn't believe it the first time they did it again an hour later.
Devilstick Peat & Russell Wells got the games underway. I watched Felix win the brief 5 club endurance in windy conditions & Lucy put in a great performance to win the unicycle gladiators. I got bored with the prolonged balloon modelling race & joined Kevin, John & Gabor to explore Margate & scout out somewhere to eat for Louisa to join us later. It took us a while to find the exit through the park's last ditch attempt to fleece customers of their loose change otherwise known as the 'amusement' arcade but we finally managed to reach safety. However, Margate was a very depressed town of soulless amusement arcades & uninspiring eateries in between boarded up shops & litter. We spent our time exploring the handful of interesting antique/bric-a-brac stores, all of which were charging antique prices for bric-a-brac. I did like the 7ft imitation bear though.
We decided that the Weatherspoons pub was the only safe option for something to eat & bagged a table before it got too crowded. I left the group to find Louisa who was MIA. I was beginning to fear that she might have slipped into a coma in Dreamland & that I might have to go back in to get her out which was quite the emotional crisis. Fortunately she emerged while I was figuring out just how much I was willing to pay someone else to go in & get her.
Back at Weatherspoons we ordered food & settled in for the advertised 30-40 minute but in reality 1 hour wait for food & amused ourselves by pinging origami frogs at each other courtesy of another juggler on the next table. After gorging ourselves we ambled to the other side of town to the Wintergarden Theatre for...
The Gala Show
On entering the theatre we were greeted by a superb giant balloon sculpture of the convention's troll mascot, animated by volunteers with long poles. Easily the best BJC balloon sculpture yet.
Unfortunately most of the seating was flat, the only raked seating mostly had views partly obscured by pillars. We decided to sit in the flat seating, hoping their wouldn't be much low level action.
Our compère for the evening was Matthew Tiffany who entertained with a Brunn combination trick, spinning a 3 ball stack, some teaspoon balancing & some songs on the banjo in between acts.
Jon Udry kicked off the proceedings with some nice ball through the rings juggling, some of his fantastic 3 club technical skills, a daft 3 ball strip tease (just his jacket) before finishing with his 5 helium balloon juggling. I really enjoy his dry sense of humour & his comedy skills are improving every time I see him.
This was followed by Ben Nichols performing as Professor Circumference's assistant. It finished with an interesting way to get into a 5 ball cascade by holding 3 balls in place on top of a beach ball using a juggling ring, then dropping the whole lot on the floor which launched the 3 balls into the air in perfect formation. It was a nice act but felt very low energy after following on from Jon Udry.
Ratcheting things up again was Jan Himself with a superb high skill diabolo act with lots of Zoolander-esque male model humour. A lot of the gags involved his phenomenal waist length hair which he incorporated into his diaboloing. This was a really really really really good looking act.
I was very surprised to see Paul Zenon listed in the info booklet. I loved watching him perform when variety was a thing on UK TV in the 90s. Paul is a great magician & comedian & I was really enjoying his act until it was unfortunately cut short by a stage hand angrily demanding that he get off the stage. It was not immediately clear why this was the case, & there was no explanation given. If it was the adult humour he used it was certainly no worse than that used by Jon Udry or Tiff. If it was the cigarette that he was performing a trick with surely this should've been picked up in advance? Regardless the episode completely ruined an otherwise very enjoyable act.
Helena Berry opened the second half with a wonderfully moody acrobatic juggling piece. There were lots of walkover, handstand & cartwheel moves with balls balance on her feet, then a lot of interesting juggling patterns involving catching balls on the sole of her right foot. She struggled a bit with the 5 ball cascade to foot catch finish but it was genuinely satisfying when she did manage to land it.
I was really looking forward to seeing Loz Because because (I can't believe that has never come up in my writing before) she is one of my favourite performers. I love her manic comedy style so I was disappointed when she performed an unnecessary glow routine I think there was lots of nice subtle technical skills lost in the darkness. I did like the Streetfighter 2 reference though.
The Berlin Passing Girls are a 4 strong troupe from Germany who were very technically adept & filled the stage in all 3 dimensions with big many club passing patterns. The act had a lot of parallels with the Gandini Juggling Project. It was a well choreographed routine but I felt some of the transitions were a little slow for my liking & it lacked that little extra polish that the Gandini's bring.
Rounding off the evening was BJC favourite Steve Rawlings being Steve Rawlings. You've all seen his act, you all know how good he is. Was he brilliant? Of course he was!
Saturday, 7th April
Saturday started with a bit of light rain, but not enough to stop Kevin, Laurence & I wandering down to the cafe for breakfast where we met ball spinning Peter & enjoyed large English breakfast featuring lovely soft bacon, superb sausages & free tea/coffee refills for £7. It was a lovely meal, served by pleasant staff & enjoyable company.
Back on site I joined the last of Stephen's RPG sessions. The name of the game was Actual Cannibal Shia Lebeouf, & the aim is to kill or escape from Hollywood actor Shia Lebeouf. This game felt a bit unfair the odds always seemed to be stacked against us, but it was still fun to play thanks to the other players. I was the first player to die in an adventure where almost all of us perished but as a team we were victorious.
I then went back to my tent to cook myself some food, during this time I had to actively avoid the burning sun. I regretted not packing my shorts.
A great place to avoid the sun was the Spinning@ tent for an audience with Steve Rawlings. Steve was open to every question, full of fascinating stories & gave useful advice from experience. It was a very funny & entertaining session which could have gone on for hours.
BYJOTY
The panel of judge's this year consisted of Ben Cornish, Natalie Randall & Matthew Tiffany. Jon Udry took on compère duties.
I sadly can't remember the names of the young acrobatic trio who opened the show. They were all extraordinarily bendy, as only kids can be. They did lots of synchronised tumbling into splits positions. They lacked a bit of confidence & were a little hesitant at times but they got through their well choreographed routine without any errors as far as I could see. A cracking start.
Next up was Becca with a staff routine. She had a great costume & presented herself well, again she lacked a bit of confidence but kept smiling & worked through her piece which was well choreographed to her backing music. My only real complaint was she was too static, she never really left the centre of the stage.
Jonny performed a technical ball juggling routine with 3 to 7 balls. There was a lot of variety but the performance had too many drops for it to build any momentum.
Young Sophie presented a glow poi routine which was fine but unfortunately for me she did the routine with one set of poi, then pretty much did the same routine again with another set of poi that had long tails which was just unnecessary. The takeaway lesson from this act is: if you have 3 minutes of material, just do a 3 minute act. Short acts are perfectly ok!
The next act was Chris with his S-staff. This was not my thing at all, the isolations were unconvincing & the routine was repetitive. My main frame of reference for this type of act is Nik Robson-King who is mesmerising to watch, sadly Chris had none of the magic. I am well aware that it's pretty unfair of me to compare him to Nik because that is a very high bar to live up to.
I wisely walked out on Peter practicing earlier in the week when I learned that he would be competing in BYJOTY. I prefer to be surprised, & I know I judge acts more harshly if I've seen it before. He stormed through a fantastic spy themed walking globe routine. It featured loads of tricks I haven't seen before such as a leapfrog mount over a globe onto another one, a 3 ball 1-up 180° on 2 globes. My favourite trick was when he put a globe into a fast horizontal spin then leapt on & maintained the balance until the spin stopped. Bonus points for his young assistant being suitably decked out in black clothes & sunglasses too! It's the little touches like this that make an act special.
Closing the show was Circomedia student Eilidh Sela with a very high end hoop act. Her advanced training was evident from the start, the whole routine was very slick & professional. She looked great & was able to throw in the incidental smiles & connections with the audience that only comes when you are very comfortable with your skills. She rattled through all the tricks at a blistering pace yet was still tight to the musical queues. Fantastic stuff.
While the judges retired to deliberate their decision Jon kicked off the best trick competition. The drop count competition wasn't particularly popular this year which meant the prize fund was only £12. This fact combined with the length of time that the best trick section went on for meant that it violated the UK minimum wage law.
The judges returned to award Peter & Eilidh silver awards & Eilidh the Judge's Choice. Once the votes were counted Peter picked up the BYJOTY title. It was tough to call between Peter & Eilidh. I think Eilidh was the better performer, but the market for accomplished hoop acts is becoming saturated whereas Peter's routine had the benefit of originality & rarity.
Other stuff probably happened then it was time for another episode of...
Old Skool
Our panellists for the evening were The Void, Jamie Fletcher, Mandy Blake & Devilstick Peat. They were kept under control (mostly) by Ashby Winch. I particularly enjoyed hearing about Void's experience's of working with Max & about Mandy growing up in the early UK convention scene. It was a fun, laid back show in which everyone was entertaining.
Sunday, 8th April
I cooked my own breakfast then spent the rest of the morning doing some juggling & handstand practice in the show hall. My handstands are improving, I managed to stay standing after being struck by an errant diabolo twice.
The BJC meeting was very positive. I was very impressed with how effective Anna's opening preemptive strike against some of the obvious complaints was. I also think every BJC meeting should feature a scone vs scone pronunciation fight.
Jane talked about all the developments for next year's EJC 2019 which is going to be awesome. Keep an eye out for tickets, you can be the first to know by signing up to the email news letter.
At present there are no bids for a BJC in 2019. If you have a proposal, no matter how tentative, please do come forward.
After a bit more food it was time for the Fight night qualifying. 31 of us registered to take part, we were split into 2 groups & then worked through matches until everyone in group A had played everyone in group B. The climbing gym was too small for everyone to play at once so we set up a queuing system so that there were only around 8 games happening at any one time. This helped by giving us players a little bit of a rest between matches & allowed us to watch some of the games which I appreciated. Cameron beat me 3-0 with ease early on. Felix Surbe beat me 3-1. I'm not going to dwell on the 3, I'm going to focus on the 1 which was the greatest point I have ever scored. I managed a very clean lunging strike at full stretch on one of Felix's clubs just before he could catch it, my high throw was a bit wayward though forcing me to run & slide on both knees to make the save. Unfortunately I didn't slide on the nice slippy part of the hall, I slid on the grippy black rubber section of the floor which took all the skin off of my left knee & some of my right. I couldn't kneel down for the rest of the festival, but for that brief moment I looked good. I also lost 3-1 to Rob Woolley. I had a very satisfying 3-2 win over Stephan Cipra. Stephan is a very fast player who literally ran rings around me, I spent most of the match standing in the centre fending off his attacks but I was able to take advantage whenever he extended himself that little bit too far. Other than that I think I won everything else 3-0. Sadly my last match ended in disaster. I was playing Joe Wonham, we were at 2-2. He threw a club up & came at me for an attack, I tracked back a little then made a high throw & reached to swipe at Joe's descending club, while I was watching Joe's club I think Joe leapt in an attempt to catch my high club. I batted his club just in time to clout him in the face. I didn't realise this at the time so I caught my club & juggled to a clean finish, I turned to thank Joe for the game only to find him crouched & holding a bleeding nose. Arse.
I'd like to say sorry again to Joe for causing the injury & a big thank you to Stephen as the first-aider on hand for taking good care of him.
The results were totted up & 12 of us were selected for the main tournament to be held later in the evening. I was pleased to have made it through so I thought I'd go back to my tent for a brief nap before the main event at 22:00. I woke up & looked at my phone which said 21:57 so with a little bit of a panic I made it to the main hall in time for...
Fightnight Tournament
The arena was set up at one end of the main hall, Ieuen acted as referee, Dee kept score & Rosie Kelly did a fantastic job as the commentator making up lots of ridiculous facts about the competitors. My favourite line of the evening was, "Callum is sponsored by outer space".
True to form I went out in the first round losing 5-4 to Lukas Bonauer, but at least I didn't make anyone else bleed, although I did come close when I went crashing into the commentator's table.
Jon Peat surprisingly steam-rolled the number 1 seed, Brook Roberts 5-0 in the semi final. I have a long & glorious history of losing all the points-0 against Jon, but Brook?! Callum Lawrie pulled off a superb victory against number 2 seed, Cameron Ford to join Jon in the final. Callum lead Jon 4-3, when Jon won the next point he amusingly thought he'd won! Jon also took the last point to win the title with a well deserved 5-4 victory.
Well done to all involved, especially Ieuen for organising the whole thing.
Monday, 9th April
Monday was pack down day so I spent the day carrying fencing to the end of the car park, moving tables & chairs back into class rooms & litter picking. Thank you to everyone who chipped in to help, especially on the last day.
It was particularly lovely to see Anna & Jak smiling & laughing after a very successful event.
Being mentioned 4 times in one review. I feel... honoured!
It was great to have you in all my games though, and I do hope you'll join me again (hopefully @ Bungay if I run them!)
Games at Bumgay!!
Good heavens, whatever next?
Someone will be suggesting workshops if this trend continues, fetch my smelling salts someone I'm close to fainting...
Parsnips & Pancetta
We haven't had a good simple camping recipe for a while. I've been enjoying this quick & easy recipe at home for a while but hadn't had a chance to do it 'in the field' so to speak. It was a little bit fiddly peeling the parsnip with my small knife but nothing too taxing, I might have to add a proper peeler to my camping kit. If you want to keep it a one pan meal swapping out the pasta & adding chopped onion when you fry the pancetta also works well.
Ingredients
olive oil
pancetta
rosemary
parsnip (finely sliced)
pasta
butter (optional (not optional))
Boil the pasta in salted water, set aside.
Fry the pancetta with the rosemary in a splash of olive oil for 2 minutes.
Add the sliced parsnip, cook for 3 minutes or so until it has softened, stirring regularly.
Add the pasta & mix well. Stir in a knob of butter at this stage until melted if you've got it.
#recipe #camping
Little Paul - - Parent #
Mmm... sounds nice. Might have to give that one a go not-in-a-field.
Seems like it could take a nice robust cheese on top as well... but then so do most things!
I don't know if it counts as a #recipe - but more people need to know about Toilet Paper Mackerel.
Get a tin of mackerel in oil
This can scorch the grass. Think about where you're putting the tin down.
Remove lid.
Take two pieces of *clean* toilet paper and fold over.
Place on top of the mackerel so that the oil soaks into the paper.
Light the corners.
About 15 minutes later the oil will all have been used up. Carefully peel the ashen wick off. Your Toilet Paper Mackerel is ready.
I eat it with red onion, avocado and bread.
Great idea - thanks for sharing. I searched for a video and found several for tinned tuna. Here is one that used the fire to heat a can of beans. Onion and avocado sounds great too. https://youtu.be/NUZKB3zwPYY
That is amazing!
Now that you've posted this I feel we suddenly need to put more effort into fire breaks at convention campsites!
I just tried it, toilet paper tuna that is. My local Miami supermarket only had mackerel in water.
It went as advertised and was delicious, and I don't ordinarily like tinned tuna. It was warm and slightly smokey flavored.
Whilst watching the process I remembered "tin can cookery" from my youth. This link describes it, the flaming toilet paper tuna could replace what they call a burner. The flaming tuna/mackerel is similar to a sterno can.
Festival Cooking.
As somewhat as a novice at festival cooking, and with BJC just around the corner, I would be interested in hearing your favourite festival recipes. I recently bought a camp stove, so I'm hoping to get the most out of it this BJC (and beyond).
Still on my to do list at some point is to compile a festival cook book. Containing quick & easy recipes that can be cooked on a single burner, can easily scale if friends get together & cook a part of the meal each. Or foods that can be cooked beforehand & keep well in a tupperware box.
I mostly just cook tinned foods or pasta with something to stir in while camping for convenience, but I will also often chop & cook up a load of veggies then mix in an unholy amount of pesto.
Another quick an easy meal I like is to boil some rice, then a few minutes before the end tip in a tin of peas & a tin of sweet corn & boil the whole lot up together.
This Chickpea & Chorizo Curry is good too.
If you are just getting your camping kit together, may I also recommend a Kuhn Rikon Colori paring knife. It's a really sharp good quality knife that comes with an excellent blade guard so you don't slice your fingers off when scrabbling around trying to find it.
Talking of cooking gear for camping, I'm still looking for a decent container for cooking oil that is bullet proof, open/closeable with one hand & has a mess free pour. Anyone know of something that fits the bill?
Cous cous is very camping friendly and you can put nuts and raisins or dried fruit in it, and lemon zest if you can be bothered.
If you've just been to the supermarket then grab a rotisserie chicken and some tasty bread and salad and some napkins, and um this is not really a recipe. But it tastes nice.
Those straight to wok noodles can also be used in soup. Thus: fry an onion (if you can be bothered). Add coconut powder (if you have some) and thai curry paste (this is essential). Add plenty of water. Tip in some tofu or chopped up hot dogs from a jar, or whatever other protein stuff you fancy that won't give you food poisoning just because you kept it in a tent. Add some greens if you want. Break up the noodles in the packet and chuck them in. Add fish sauce if you brought any and lime juice ditto.
If you are not fussy then you can make spaghetti sauce of any kind and then stick those noodles in it.
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
This seems a good opportunity for my cous cous recipe:
1. Toss chunks of vegetables (include red onion & garlic) in oil and balsamic vinegar and then roast.
2. Bring to boil :
400ml stock,
1/2 tsp turmeric,
large piece of cinnamon,
juice of one lemon,
juice of 1/2 or one orange,
1 tbsp olive oil,
bay leaf.
When simmering add 250g of cous cous. Take off heat and cover for a few minutes.
Separate cous cous with a fork and add :
Freshly chopped parsley,
chopped dried apricot,
chopped lemon zest,
chopped orange zest,
the roasted vegetables.
Tasty and lasts for days!
Sounds pretty impressive, but I imagine roasting some veg on a campfire or camp stove would be tricky.
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
It would be tricky but I was thinking of making it beforehand, hence the 'it lasts for days' bit.
It's also a good opportunity to use one of my clip-down tupperware boxes. I love those boxes, saddo that I am. Sometimes I pop into Robert Dyas especially to browse the tupperware section and see if they have any new ones for my collection.
Robotic juggle - - Parent #
in boy scouts we put some burgers in tin foil and threw em by the fire till they were cooked (not elegant but if spiced correctly very tasty and juicy)
Robotic juggle - - Parent #
yah but a few of those will have ur heart in a greasy grogg so you may not want to eat it more than once a day
Little Paul - - Parent #
Would be a better call if open fires were allowed at bjc, but they're not ;)
Burgers can be done in a nonstick frying pan though if you're desperate for a burger
I feel qualified to talk about this as I've done it before. My methods range from the laborious and lavish to the lazy but good enough.
If you can be bothered:
Make things beforehand, freeze them and put them as insulated as you can. These will last a few days in English weather so you'll be fine. I recommend chilli or other forms of meat and sauce that you can easily heat up. Rice is easy to cook in a field, so eat lots of it.
At BJC southend we made a great sandwich beforehand filled with meat, onion, cheese, mushrooms and more, it was great, but very difficult to eat.
If you can't be quite as bothered but still want hot food:
Get microwaveable ready meal type things that come in plastic pouches. You can get pasta sauces and other filling type stuff which go great with pasta, or better - rice!
Pot noodle (or ethnic equivalents which tend to be far better but have names I can't read) is easy and cheap as you just need boiling water.
However my current favourites which require the least cooking:
Hummus, avocado, and anything that you like eating hummus with. You can get bread, carrots, tomato, crisps, a spoon etc.
Tinned mackerel and sardines are also both delicious and if you have them with loads of lemon you get a meal with a lot more flavour than most festival food. You can also get mackerel in a bunch of different flavoured sauces if you like. Tinned fish can (as I'm sure you've witnessed) be cooked in the tin on an open fire and is delicious.
Supplement everything with fairly stale bread, crisps and chocolate.
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
"anything that you like eating hummus with"
I've yet to make nice falafels. I've tried various different ingredients but they're never as nice as the packet ones. Should be so simple. What's the secret?
I suspect you are making the common mistake of cooking your fava beans or chick peas first or even worse using tinned ones.If you do this the mix will be hard to form into balls and stodgy to eat because of the high moisture content.If you soak your beans/peas over night,rinse well and put them raw into a food processor with your other ingredients(onions,garlic,chilli,cumin,coriander,salt pepper etc)and pulse till a paste it will form balls and fry into nice light falafel.
forgot to say that you need to leave the mix for a couple of hours before frying this helps with the texture and marinades the flavours.Also if the mix is too wet to fry add a little gram flour.
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
Brilliant, thanks that's exactly the problem! Stodgy and damp, so I add too much flour to dry them out. I have used tinned chick peas before and I also tried the bagged ones - soaking over night then boiling for a few hours. So I still soak them but don't boil them at all, is that right?
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
Apologies, you answered that already - raw in the food processor. Thanks again.
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
Such a great tip that was Monte... raw chickpeas instead of tinned. Yesterday I added Lebanese seven spice with the mixture, just had them this evening - delicious.
Monte speaks sense! Tinned chickpeas in general are bad. That said there are a lot of foods where I think making your own is a waste of time. I rarely eat falafel but Hummus is definitely one of those. I've made my own once or twice and it just wasn't that great and it was a lot of effort. Tesco in my opinion do the best hummus money can buy (especially since they started putting less tahini in it).
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
If your hummus ain't that good, then you're doing it wrong. Homemade hummus is the dog's fucking bollocks, a country mile better than almost anything you can buy, and light years better than the insipid shite the supermarkets slap their own labels on. And it's a tiny fraction of the cost to boot.
For me the key to great hummus was partly getting the proportions right, but probably mostly down to reserving the chick pea boiling water to dilute the finished product to the correct consistency.
Give me what you think is the ideal hummus recipe then and I'll follow it and see whether or not your opinion is valid. I think you're being way too harsh on supermarket bought stuff though. Sainsburys have recently changed theirs and it's gotten a bit better, Waitrose is poor but I'm fairly confident of the fact that Tesco has some of the finest chick pea chefs in the world.
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
Gah, hung by me own petard.
This is my recipe, but I confess the quantities are vague because I just know how much to use from experience.
Ingredients :-
1 cup dried chick peas, picked over to remove any duds.
Extra virgin olive oil.
Garlic.
A lemon or two.
Bay leaves.
Tahini.
Method :-
There are numerous methods to hydrate dried pulses. Mine is a quick one. Chuck the chick peas and three or four bay leaves in a pan and cover well with cold water. Put a lid on the pan, bring it to a rolling boil for a minute and then let it simmer for a few more minutes. Turn off the heat and let it stand for an hour. Strain off the liquid and discard it, along with the bay leaves. Put the peas in a pressure cooker, cover well, and bring to the boil at high pressure for 45-60 mins. Allow the pressure cooker to cool, strain the peas but reserve the boiling liquid!!
Peel four cloves of garlic and put them and the strained peas in a blender until reduced to a fairly fine paste, but a bit of texture is nice. You might need to do this in batches if your blender isn't big enough.
Put it all in a large mixing bowl, and add a really generous glug of olive oil, perhaps 100ml or more. Squeeze the lemon(s) and add their juice to taste (it will also help preserve the hummus). Add the zest too if you can be arsed. Add salt if that's your thing, but in truth we're making hummus, not tequila slammers.
Now get your tahini and make sure it is thoroughly mixed. This can be a tedious job if it has been standing a long time. Add, I dunno, 200ml tahini (quite a bit).
Mix everything together, to form a horrible stodgy paste that smells of sesame oil.
Now comes the magic : You're going to use more olive oil, and the pea boiling liquid you reserved, to make the perfect hummus. You add oil to make it more unctuous, until it begins to glisten. And you add boiling water to transform the consistency from aforementioned horrible paste, to gloriously goopy and smooth paste, with the consistency of a very soft cream cheese.
It's that last bit that really makes the difference, and a little trial and error will teach you how much of each far quicker than I can. You can make your basic horrible stodgy paste, then divide into several smaller batches and play around with the quantities of oil and water until you get your perfect hummus, just the way you like it.
Consume with good pitta from a decent Turkish grocer, crudités, crostini, and an awful lot of cheap red wine, or even Retsina if you can get it.
Store the leftovers in the fridge in a covered container, with an thin layer of olive oil on top to help preserve it.
Bon appetit!
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
Spotted a mistake : The bay leaves go in the pressure cooker, not the initial boiling water.
As you were chaps!
Robotic juggle - - Parent #
ok this may seem rude, but i love that your typing has an accent. makes me read it in an accent in my brain.
You may be hoisted by a petard, but to be hung by one would be a peculiar turn of events. I'll give this hummus a go within the next 6 months and let you know what I think
Again if you use tinned chick peas your hummus will be inferior. It is worth soaking and boiling dried ones as they have a lower moisture content and better flavour. If you are fussy about not having too much tahini then it must be better to make your own. I like a lot of lemon not too much garlic in mine.The supermarket ones are too finely processed and bland in flavour in my opinion.
Little Paul - - Parent #
J and I tend to eat at the catering stands most of the time these days (especially if Monte is cooking) but we do cook from time to time when there's nothing on the menu J fancies (he can be a fussy bugger)
As we generally don't know the menus in advance, anything we take with us has to be easy to store (as well as easy to cook, quick, hot, filling, one pan, minimum washing up etc)
This one isn't especially classy, and it makes wilful use of convenience food, but it's hot, filling, cheap, quick, easy to wash up and (most of) the ingredients store easily in a tent for up to a week. Serves 2, takes about 10 minutes.
- 1 packet Uncle Bens "spicy mexican" express rice
- 1 packet tortillas
- half a red pepper, sliced.
- half a red onion, sliced.
- cheese (more about cheese storage in a minute)
- harissa paste to perk it up a bit
Fry off the pepper and onion for a couple of minutes to soften them. Add the packet rice to the pan along with some water (as per the instructions) - while that's cooking spread some harissa and cheese on a couple of tortillas. Add the cooked rice, roll up and scoff.
The other half of the pepper/onions keep well in a tupperware container. For cheese, only buy in small amounts.
We never have a grater with us (and the pre-grated packet cheese is a step too far for me) so we tend to avoid hard cheese and make a lot of use of soft blue cheese or those sausages of smoked cheese.
We don't have a fridge in the van, but a washing up bowl full of water left under the van (in the shade) keeps the container with the cheese in it fairly cool (handy place to store a pint of milk as well) - at Bungay, before we got the van that bowl of water used to live in the hedge.
Cheese doesn't present much of a storage problem anyway as we tend to snack on it with biscuits/bread throughout the day - so it's never around for much more than 2 days anyway.
Other favourite standby foods - soup is great for lunch on a cold day. Don't like tinned soup? The "carrot/potato/stock cube" approach works fine in a field (and stores just as well) - overcook the potato slightly and use a fork to mash it up a bit.
Orin's famous courgette + lemon linguini also works well, but really needs 2 burners. Perhaps join forces with a friend, one of you cook the pasta the other cooks the courgettes.
#recipe
Little Paul - - Parent #
Oh, and this works better than you might expect: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/rice-and-tomato-soup-recipe.html
My courgette & lemon linguine is famous?!
I've yet to come up with a decent way to juice a lemon using my minimal equipment in the field though. Best I've come up with so far is squeezing the halves then just fishing the seeds out of the pan. Although come to think of it I've got some muslin cloth now (& have overcome my fear of using it) that I use for ginger beer production that wouldn't take up any extra space in my kit...
Little Paul - - Parent #
I juice lemons with a teaspoon (even at home) and strain the pips out by running the juice through my fingers.
I'll see if I can find a video of someone doing it.
Little Paul - - Parent #
What I do, is sort of a combination of these two ideas, but rearranged so I can do them both at once. The juice is trained through the same hand as the lemon.
https://youtube.com/v/Y9VN1dVosjw
https://youtube.com/v/SHGtzm3Uous?start=32
I've used the fork technique for years now. If I'm worried about pips, I use a separate bowl first and fish out the pips. It's an amazingly efficient technique.
You've got a sink in your BOV haven't you! Not sure about using my hand as a strainer in the field (especially with cut & bruised hands after a night of gladiatorial combat, I'm with Miracle Max on that front) but will give it a try though.
Little Paul - - Parent #
lemon juice and cuts is erm "interesting" - I think in those situations I'd probably go with Dee's suggestion of juicing into a cup or bowl and then picking the pips out with the fork/spoon whatever.
Look, I'm not going to claim it was amazing, but what I did the other day was really simple and surprisingly good.
1) rinse some bulgar and add to pot
2) add water and make hot.
3) put on lid, turn off heat, add crushed garlic, leave for ages until liquid gone and fluffy.
4) to serve, mix with water, olive oil & salt in bowl (cold water if contents are still really hot).
Herbs would be an option, but I doubt I added any (rosemary if anything).
I'm still not doing much juggling at the moment on account of a dodgy wrist. However, I am still doing some handstands & a bit more balancing. I had my first glimmer that I might be able to hold a dual balance last night which felt good. To watch me though you'd never say I was anywhere near yet though. Andy joined us from Hastings. He has had a porpoise skeleton rendering down for a while in his garage, he was saddened that an animal had made off with it this week. Kevin & I sympathetically joked that he had lost his porpoise in life. We also had a family 3 newbies this week who seemed very keen. The father was already competent with a 3 ball cascade & his kids were enthusiastic diabolo players.
#twjc
Andy & I also came away from this evening with ginger beer plants courtesy of Emily. However, I got the only copy of the instructions, so for Andy's benefit:
Every day for 6 days stir in 1 tsp sugar + 1 tsp ginger.
On the 7th day stir in the juice of 2 lemons. Strain through muslin or a fine sieve into a huge bowl. Stir in 8oz sugar + grated peel from the 2 lemons. Add 8 pints of water + extra ginger to your taste.
The sludge you filter out is your next plant. Divide this in 2 & put in jam jars, add 1 cup of hand warm water (I've also read that you should let the water stand for a day so that any chlorine evaporates off before adding it to the new plant) & 1 tsp of sugar & ginger to start the process again.
Remember she has already been feeding it for a week so it should be ready on Saturday. I'm quite excited about how this is going to turn out!
#recipe
Surely handstands are worse for an injured wrist than juggling? I used to do handstands a bit but had to stop because it was injuring my wrists.
Well done with the dual balance. I remember my excitement when I first made some corrections and realised I would be able to do it.
It seems illogical I know but handstands really do help me. I think the repetitive impact of clubs does more damage to me than the stable constant weight held during a handstand.
Thanks. Lost my porpoise gained a ginger beer plant. Fair swap if the fox, badger, other animal (?) enjoyed a medieval delicacy.
Getting ready to bottle today - should we have a tasting next week at HCC? Don't forget it's a table tennis prop night so if you feel like doing a one handed handstand and knocking a ping pong ball around - I won't stop you.
I just bottled mine. I know you're supposed to leave it for a bit for best results but I couldn't resist a quick taste & I'm going to try less lemon & more ginger for the next batch. What did you think of yours?
Don't keep the ginger beer for too long, I discovered as a 12 year old that it can continue maturing after bottling and become slightly alcoholic.
Little Paul - - Parent #
I seem to remember that after bottling, it can build up quite a bit of CO2 as well - to the point that if your bottles aren't up to the job, it can explode.
I also seem to remember that fizzy drink bottles can stand an obscene amount of pressure. More so than a lot of glass bottles.
During my brief stint brewing beer, I was told that fizzy drink bottles were much better than most glass bottles that weren't designed to hold pressure (eg most wine bottles, posh still water bottles). If you wanted to bottle into glass bottles, you were supposed to buy much more expensive bottles for the job. Naturally, I used coke bottles.
Off-topic--but there are two downsides to using coke bottles for actual beer. The first is that they don't protect the beer from being lightstruck and getting skunked (versus brown beer bottles). The second is that thin walled PET bottles can be slightly permeable to oxygen, and (in theory) for long term storage they can cause oxygenation. That said they definitely are good to prevent bottle bombs. I'd definitely use them for homemade ginger beer & root beer (which the way they are commonly made are massive risks for bottle bombs), just not for beer beer.
No such thing as off topic here!
When I first learnt that I would be acquiring a ginger beer plant I did put word out that I wanted some empty 2 litre drinks bottles but unfortunately none had appeared in time so I bought myself some glass Grolsch style bottles instead. They are currently being stored out of the light & my first batch isn't particularly fizzy so I don't think I will be suffering any explosions at the moment.
I will hopefully have some plastic bottles in time for when I have improved my method.
Chickpea & Chorizo Curry
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion
Some chorizo
2 Tbsp curry powder
1 can of chickpeas in water
Slice the onion & chorizo.
Fry the onion, chorizo & curry powder together in a pan with the oil for 3-4 minutes until onion softens.
Drain then add chickpeas to pan, cook for another 5-6 minutes.
On its own serves one, with rice would serve two.
This is the easiest curry I've ever cooked & it tastes good too. Thought I'd share because it is really cheap, quick, easy, can be cooked on one burner & in one pan, & scales nicely if a friend does the rice on their stove. Which means it qualifies for inclusion in my repertoire of recipes to cook while camping at a juggling convention.
#recipe #camping
Tasty, quick and easy... just perfect for camping. I'll give it a go later this week to see if any amendments are needed for my palate.
Maybe we should compile these in advance of #EJC2014 and then pass on the ingredient lists to the shops in Millstreet...
Little Paul - - Parent #
I didn't feel like giving this its own thread, but I've just baked a batch of these:
Cheese & Marmite straws.
2oz butter
2oz strong cheddar
4oz self raising flour
2 large teaspoons of marmite (if you don't like marmite, or it's not available locally, a heaped teaspoon of paprika and a pinch of salt works nicely instead)
Chuck the whole lot in a food processor and mix until it comes together[1] Roll it out until it's about 1/4" thick. Cut into strips about 1/2" wide and 6" long and lay them out on a baking sheet.
Bake at 180C for about 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Cool them on a wire rack.
Try not to chain eat the whole batch in one sitting. Which is the step I have most trouble with.
[1] If you don't have a food processor, rub the butter into the flour, then grate in the cheese in with a fine grater and add the marmite. Then kneed the whole lot until it comes together, but don't go mad and overwork it.
I have some of these in the oven right now. I mixed by hand & am worried I might have over done it with the kneeding but should be ok.
They came out well, although I will only be using 1 tsp of Marmite for my next batch.
Little Paul - - Parent #
Heh! Fair enough, I am rather overkeen on marmite at times :)
Rosemary jelly. Yum. Lovely with cheese.
https://www.kilnerjarsuk.co.uk/recipes/rosemary-jelly
RegularJugular - - Parent #
What isn't lovely with cheese? Doesn't cheese make everything better?
I've never been able to bring myself to prepare food stuff using muslin cloth. Comes from being raised on cloth nappies I think.
Oh & #recipe
Little Paul - - Parent #
if it helps, you can get nylon jam bags*
* probably best not to look that up on urban dictionary, just incase...
Courgette & lemon linguine
serves 4
250g Linguine (or any pasta)
1 small thinly sliced onion
1 garlic clove, crushed
4 courgettes, thinly sliced
Juice of 1 lemon (how to juice a lemon with just a fork)
a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
parmesan shavings, to serve
Cook the pasta on a rolling boil.
Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the onion, garlic and courgette until golden.
Add the lemon juice, tomato and 2 tbsp olive oil. Season.
Toss the pasta with the lemony courgettes. Serve scattered with parmesan.
#recipe
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
I'll try that this weekend, it sounds tasty! Here is one of my favourite simple pastas:
200g broad beans, skinned
300g ditali, pennette or macaroni
80 ml olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 red pepper, julienned
pinch of cayenne pepper
200g mozzarella, diced
3 tablespoons grated pecorino (authentic) or parmesan.
Cook the pasta according to packet instructions.
Meanwhile, heat oil in large frying pan and add red pepper and garlic
Cook on low heat without browning ( 2- 3 mins ) then add cayenne pepper
drain pasta and add to frying pan with broad beans mozzarella and pecorino
Mix it up until the mozzarella begins to melt
Season and serve quickly in heated bowls.
There's no pumpkin in that recipe. I imagined that all of your favourite recipes had pumpkin in them.
Know any pumpkin linguine recipes?
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
It's great in curry.. and soup of course. Other than that I don't think I've ever really cooked with it. I should be more adventurous with pumpkin - not living up to my name.
pumpkineater23 - - Parent #
I suppose I don't really eat pumpkins exactly, I insert them anally and then slowly absorb them.
Dave Cheetham - - Parent #
Talking about pumpkin, here's my favourite recipe of the week.
Serves 6
50g unsalted butter
900g peeled butternut pumpkin
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 x 400g cans whole peeled tomatoes
1 large brown onion diced
2 tbsp chopped basil
2 tbs chopped oregano
1/4 cup (60ml) red wine vinegar
4 tsp caster sugar
300ml thickened cream
1 cup (80g) finely grated parmesan
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Melt 25g butter. Halve the pumpkin,
scoop out the seeds and cut flesh into
1cm-thick slices. Place in a shallow baking
dish that measures about 23cm x 32cm.
Pour over melted butter, sprinkle with
1/4 tsp salt and toss to combine. Arrange
the slices in an even layer. Cover the dish
with foil and bake for 30-35 minutes until
the pumpkin is just tender.
Meanwhile, melt the remaining
25g butter in a saucepan over medium
heat, then add the garlic and cook for
1 minute. Add the chopped onion, and
cook for 5 minutes until slightly translucent.
Add the canned tomatoes, basil and
oregano. Simmer, stirring regularly and
breaking up the tomatoes with a wooden
spoon, for 15 minutes. Add the sugar
and vinegar and continue to simmer for
10 minutes or until the sauce has
thickened.
Remove the pumpkin from the oven and
remove foil. Spoon over tomato sauce
in an even layer and set aside to cool slightly.
Place the cream in a small saucepan
over medium heat and simmer, stirring
occasionally, for 5-10 minutes until
reduced slightly. Remove pan from
heat and stir in 50g grated parmesan,
then season to taste.
Pour parmesan cream over the layer
of tomato sauce and sprinkle with the
remaining 30g parmesan. Bake for a
further 20-25 minutes until golden and
bubbling. Remove from oven and leave
to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Excellent, I've got half a bottle of red wine vinegar that I was wondering what to do with, thanks!
Dave Cheetham - - Parent #
I definitely recommend this one. The vinegar and suger gives it a great little sweet tang.
One of my favorite recipes to cook so far in life has been this butter chicken recipe :).
I alter it a little as described, I like my butter chicken sweet :).
Indian Butter Chicken (serves 4-6)
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1 kg boneless skinless chicken breast, cut in large chunks
50 g butter (though I use closer to 100g)
2 teaspoons garam masala
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon grated fresh green ginger
1/2 teaspoon chili powder (more or less to taste- for me, none)
1 cinnamon stick (I actually prefer it without this :))
6 cardamom pods, bruised
1 (400 g) can tomato puree
1 tablespoon sugar (or two... :D)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup cream
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Directions:
1. Heat a wok/fry pan until really hot, add 1 Tbsp oil.
2. Add half the chicken and stir-fry for about 4 minutes or until chicken is a nice colour.
3. Remove to plate.
4. Add extra oil and cook remaining chicken.
5. Remove from wok.
6. Reduce heat and add the butter.
7. When melted add all of the spices and stir-fry until fragrant- about 1 minute.
8. Return chicken to wok and stir to coat with the spices.
9. Add the tomato and sugar and simmer for 15 minutes- stir occasionally.
10. Add the yogurt, cream and lemon juice and simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens a bit.
11. Serve over rice.
Extras:
To make an even nicer butter chicken, you can make tandoori chicken first and then use this as the chicken
in the recipe. I've only done this once myself as there's extra effort and marinating time, but it's lovely.
#recipe
Little Paul - - Parent #
Apologies for dragging up an old thread, but tonight I remembered this Courgette & lemon linguine recipe and decided to give it a go using yellow courgettes fresh from the garden.
It's lovely!
It is! I'm going to be cooking it this afternoon, also with homegrown courgettes.
Had a really great lunchtime juggle today. I was approached by a bunch of kids, which often happens. Usually they will be interested ... ask questions, but after a while hang around a bit longer than you would like and start getting in the way!
These kids seemed to have a much more genuine interest and amazement. It happens all to often that kids will express amazement at first, but then realise that it is not cool, and just be a bit cocky after that. Anyhow, after chatting with them it turned out that they were at a loss for something to do because their frisbee had got stuck in a tree and they couldn't climb up to reach it.
They showed me the tree with their frisbee, that was stuck quite high up. I thought, 'I can probably knock that down with a juggling ball', and proceeded to hit it on my very first throw.
The kids just looked at me in awe!
Happy days, Colin E.
Nice one! Hmm, can this become a "Real-world application for juggling skills" thread?
I'll add 2:
- Sitting on sofa, watching TV. I see a blur in the air, and my hand moves instinctively. I look up to see I'd caught a Mars bar that my friend had pelted at me.
- I open the kitchen cupboard. I see a blur. My hand moves instinctively. I caught the marmite!
jamesfrancis - - Parent #
Incorrect. Juggling skill is a terrible deterrent to the cause of eliminating Marmite.
Little Paul - - Parent #
#recipe : Fry mushrooms in butter, add a good sized spoonful of marmite and some pepper, serve on toast. Nyom!
I've always found a frying pan is a better choice than butter for something in which to fry.
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
"I open the kitchen cupboard. I see a blur. My hand moves instinctively. I caught the marmite!"
I trust that made you do a ...
http://jay-linn.co.uk/b3ta/marmite-smile-big.jpg
Marmite smile!
Little Paul - - Parent #
"marmite smile" sounds erm...
Little Paul - - Parent #
Hmm. Sorry about that! It started off as such a nice thread as well :D