Talking to the taxman about poetry..in Wales

The older/leftier/more musical amongst you may recognise the title of this post as a Billy Bragg album - of which The Husband is particularly fond. But my SO's musical tastes apart, the reason for this title is that we have been in deepest West Wales for the past week, and whilst having a delicious lunch in a little art gallery/cafe in Cardigan high street (What's that? Glamorous life? Well, yes, now you mention it) called Pendre Art, bumped into Mr Bragg himself (Billy, not Melvyn - do keep up). The Husband was unfeasibly excited and star-struck, so made a beeline for the solitarily tea-sipping chap. Fifteen minutes of chat about the demise of the Left in Britain, tea and the impact of BB's lyrics on The Husband's political views ensued. In general BB is very lovely, friendly and un-precious. A very unexpected and cheering encounter.

Other than that, the week in Wales was alternately lovely and stressful. A combination of organisational nightmares, and pub lunches in The Nag's Head, Abercych; fabulous Sunday lunches which left us groaningly full; wonderful local ale - Old Emrys, Cwrw, Hook Norton; glorious sunshine on Llangranog beach, but extremely chilly waves; evening sunset walks on Poppit Sands; and sadness and things past.

Heaven thy name is Mark Bittman...no-knead bread

First of all, let me say that I can claim absolutely no credit for how fabulous the loaf above looks. The recipe is stupefyingly simple, and incredibly forgiving.
I have been meaning to try the version of Sullivan Street Bakery (NYC) no-knead bread that was written about originally by Mark Bittman of the NY Times. It has a virtual cult following amongst those who seek frankly artisanal-quality bread. This is especially dear to my heart as it's extremely difficult to get decent crusty bread down here. So, I finally got round to it after tasting some that a friend of ours had made (substituting wholewheat flour), and being blown away by it. It also means that I can use my le creuset for even more things - hurrah to that.

So, here's the recipe (a la Mark Bittman of the NYT):

No-Knead Bread

Time: About 1½ hours plus 14 to 20 hours’ rising

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting
¼ teaspoon instant yeast
1¼ teaspoons salt
Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.
-- Fan-bloody-tastic, I can tell you. The only problem with the resulting loaf is that it has an alarming tendency to disappear!

Tornados and Claudia Roden

We've been told to expect severe weather today (and severe in this part of the world means flooding, golfball-sized hail and tornadoes), so we're stuck inside with the lights on at 1.30pm trying to decide whether to submit to the temptation to write the day off and turn the telly on.

So far we've resisted and I've been entertaining myself looking at the very exciting new cook book I bought this week (in continuation of our attempt to cut down on the amount of red meat we eat for both health and sustainability points of view)...Claudia Roden's gorgeous-looking Arabesque - featuring recipes from Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon.

I absolutely love all this kind of food anyway, so this is a total treat, and the photography and writing are just beautiful. I think that this evening's dinner will be something utilising lentils, caramelised onions and pine nuts...hmm feeling hungry.

Folliculee, follicular......

Those of you who have known me for a while know that my 'naturally curly hair' (ref. Frieda in Peanuts) has been alternately a joy and a total burden. There are lots of us curly girls around (in fact about 65% of the world's population has either curly or wavy hair), but you'd never know it from the pictures of beautiful, successful, professional people we're always fed. Straight hair is associated with glamour, competence, 'togetherness', dependability etc etc. Curly hair, on the other hand, tends to be used as a marker of wildness, unkemptness, incompetence, immaturity (kids with curly hair are cute, but adults?!) and unreliability. It goes without saying that this constitutes prejudice, but a kind that seems so bland as to be not worth mentioning.

Unless you're a curly girl like me. This really matters, because it matters how you feel about yourself. So, I am now a fully fledged curly advocate. After years of wishing I had straight blond hair that would ruffle attractively in the breeze, I am now, finally, in my thirties, coming to accept and love what I have. This has meant a wholesale change in my approach, and one that I am talking about here because it fits perfectly with my broader interest in sustainability and minimising my impact, where possible.

So, this change has meant that I no longer use shampoo. Yep, you heard me right, I chucked out the countless bottles of harsh, sulfate-riddled chemicals that I kept buying in search of the perfect product. Along with that all the silicone-laced potions that are supposed, magically, to make your hair look healthy and shiny, when in fact they just coat it in a suffocating film that only sulfate-based shampoo can strip away, leading to a loss of natural oils and moisture, meaning more products are needed to make it look healthy...starting to see the vicious cycle? (Oh, and by the way you do know that that shampoo you use is basically the same as your washing up liquid/dish detergent and the manufacturers only add the suds to make you feel like you're getting your hair clean?).

The best description I read was in a book called 'Curly Girl' by Lorraine Massey - she points out that your hair is a delicate fibre, like wool or cashmere, and wouldn't dream of washing your cashmere in detergent, so why on earth would you do it for your hair?

My routine now is incredibly simple, I use a natural, botanical conditioner (plus friction) to 'wash' my hair, and a completely organic flaxseed and aloe vera gel (which I brew up myself on the stove, like a witch!). My hair has never looked or felt better, and I have cut back massively on the amount of packaging, chemicals and general ecological damage that I'm contributing. I feel hugely positive about this, and I have to credit www.naturallycurly.com for showing me the way and the light! Now, all I have to do is find a hairdresser within 100 miles who can actually cut curly hair!

Forgive this slightly indulgent post, but for someone who's been battling bad hair days her whole life, this is big! Hopefully some other curly might happen across this blog and find a new way of thinking about their hair too.

Anyway, enough about hair, it's Easter Sunday and I'm sure the Easter bunny will have hidden some chocolate for me somewhere...

Religiosity and small creatures

So, I've been particularly remiss about updating this, despite convincing myself that I was going to be much better, but I do have at least a partial explanation in the form of a mountain of grading/marking which has rather taken over in the last couple of weeks. However, it's now Spring Break, so I have more time to devote to other things, like catching up on reading, doing all those little projects I've been meaning to do for weeks, and starting to tackle the garden (yikes).

The last couple of days have been interestingly full of little reminders of what a different place we're living in. On Thursday I was walking the dogs in the local park, which is on campus, when I spied a smallish group of people (about University age, so I assumed they were students) walking quite slowly through the park. They didn't seem really to be walking with much forward momentum, more wandering, but when I got closer I saw that one of them had a very large beam of wood on his shoulders and his hands appeared to be tied to the ends of said beam. Then, noticing that a couple of the other guys were half-heartedly hitting him with whips or lashes, I realised that this must have something to do with the fact that it's Easter! But what on earth they were doing (rehearsing for some church play?) I didn't have the strength to ask. I think the thing that always surprises me about religion around here is that it's the most laddish/girly students who tend to be really religious. It's caught me off guard several times, and this group were no exception. Bemused is what I was.

My other deeply Southern experience was at 6 o'clock this morning when I let the dogs out and they dashed hell for leather towards something that I could barely see (didn't have my specs on) and started barking like the sky was falling in. It turned out to be a horrid mangy possum, which are potentially rabid and nasty when cornered (especially by two excited schnauzers), so I dashed to get some more clothes on to shoo the thing away, but the dogs had chased it off by the time I got myself together. Here, for those unfamiliar, is a pic of a possum (sometimes called an opossum)...nasty little bugger.

My current obsession - the Tolix A Chair

For some reason, now that the dining room is painted (a lovely colour with an uninspiring name - Berkshire Beige!) I am obsessing over furniture that we can't afford. The current object of my affection is the lovely Tolix 1934 A chair, which was originally (supposedly) designed to be used on board a battleship, but were subsequently given to cafes and bars in France by breweries in exchange for stocking their beer. It now epitomises industrial cottage chic, and I really want some. Sadly, they are approaching $230 each. Serious design expenditure.

Black-eyed peas and squash stew

Here is the Ainsley recipe that I mentioned before:
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 35 mins
Serves: 3-4 (depending on your appetite, but usually does two of us for two meals)

Ingredients:
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1 chilli pepper (he stipulates red, but I've used jalapenos successfully)
1lb (450g) potatoes roughly diced
2 tbsp curry paste or powder (I usually use Madras - I love a bit of heat!)
2 1/4 cups (600ml) stock (veg or chicken)
1lb (450g) butternut squash (or pumpkin)
15oz (400g) can black-eyed peas, drained
2 tomatoes, cut into smallish wedges
Salt & pepper
chopped coriander (cilantro) to garnish
lemon wedges to serve

Instructions
1. Heat oil in large casserole (dutch oven), add cumin and mustard seeds, and cook for 1 minute. When they begin to splutter and pop add the onion, garlic and chilli pepper and cook for 3 -4 minutes.

2. Stir in potatoes and cook for 3 minutes. Add curry paste/powder and stock, bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Add squash/pumpkin and simmer for 15 minutes (or until veg are tender). Add black-eyed peas and tomato wedges and continue to cook for a couple more minutes. Season to taste.

3. Divide stew between individual dishes, sprinkle over coriander (cilantro) and serve with lemon wedges.

Yum!!

Off to take a pic off the new Le Creuset and the stew it contains...