Slightly bemused

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Ralph Bullivant

With the family away with the car I was obliged to walk down to Birkenhead this morning. The air was damp as I started with spits of rain but it wasn’t too bad. I stopped for 10 minutes in The Williamson gallery to look at pictures and see if there were any good second hand cook books for picking up.

Down towards the bottom of Oxton Road I paused to look into the window of All Nations 4 Hair. They had a white screen set up against a wall with some bright lights and cameras. I was waved inside and before knew it found myself being photgraphed first with my hat on and then with it off hair awry.

Harold Offeh, a artist and lecturer at Goldsmiths was in there taking pictures of passers by as part of an arts project involving the shops and business on Oxton Road. The other shops involved are the greengrocers and Frank Cavanagh, the cobbler on Borough Road.

The grocers have had in an Iranian artist, Haleh Jamali, she spent a week with them before Christmas taking videos and pictures. The art is all going to be shown on Saturday 5th March. In the grocers they are going to set up a projector and show the work on one of the walls at the back.

We should all make sure that we make our way down to have a look.

In the meantime it felt slightly unsettling stood in the hairdressers having my photo taken with the good people of Birkenhead passing by in the rain.

Five minutes later I was back out in the rain myself but with a promise that the pictures would be emailed through to me on Sunday.

I finished my walk to Wards and bought myself some fish and then made my way back home taking some pictures of the buildings as they look above the shop fronts through The Pavements.

On the walk back the rain grew in intensity coming down in a thick grey sludge that soaked through my jacket and shirt. Walking into the house I had to strip of dripping clothes left to lie on the kitchen floor hopefully to dry off.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Keefing on the right side of the neighhbours

Posted on February 19, 2016 by Ralph Bullivant

I like dirty guitars so is there any greater sound on earth than Keith Richards in his pomp taking his guitar and some poor, innocent riff to the limit of their endurance and just when you think it is all over lifting his arm up to do it it all over again with Charlie Watts in the background hammering an almighty noise out of the smallest of drum kits and ideally Mick Taylor not too far away adding colour?

I hope that the neighbours agree because I have been home alone the last few days and Friday night is my last opportunity to let some noise bounce up from off the floor-boards before the family are back and the volume knob on my amplifier slips a few incremental moves to the left.

Amidst the noise I have been cooking some chicken. There wasn’t time to marinade the chicken thighs over night but they had an hour or with some grated ginger and garlic, fish sauce, sugar and chilli.

The thighs have been fried in oil until coloured and then removed, a sliced onion then went through its paces in the same pan and was taken out to join the chicken. Some more sugar and and water was then brought to a boil in the same pan and as it was about to burn everything was tipped back in together with a good slug of stock.

It is bubbling away now and some good rice is on the go and in the background the Stones are breaking down The Midnight Rambler.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Roast Chicken and Other Stories

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Ralph Bullivant

You know that an aunt has your best interests at heart if thirty years ago she gave you as a birthday present a copy of Simon Hopkinson’s Roast Chicken and Other Stories. According to the card that is still inside it arrived late but no matter.

I have it beside me now and will be following his recipe for roast chicken later this afternoon. As he says ‘the better the bird, the better the dish cooked.’I have one of my favourite birds in the fridge downstairs, a bag of potatoes and some dirty carrots.

In an hour or so’s time I will start up the oven and take the chicken out of the fridge. Butter will be rubbed and a clove of garlic will be crushed lightly and popped inside together with some straggly herbs from the garden. Salt and pepper will be applied liberally and a lemon will then be squeezed over it before it gets shoved in the oven.

No gravy will be made. I will simply serve it with the juices left in the bottom of the pan.

In the meantime outside in the garden there has been a suggestion of spring. The sky has been blue all day and although it has been cold there was a lightness in the air. I took this as an opportunity to annoy all the neighbours and have a damp bonfire at the end of the garden. It has been burning for the last couple of hours sending out billows of thick grey smoke across our garden and all the other gardens up and down the road. Hopefully no-one thought to take advantage of the sun to put their washing outside. If they did then it will be tinged with the smell of burning leaves. Perhaps not a bad thing.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Happily I found some beetroot still lurking in the veg patch and a thick end of horseradish which should do for the cold roast beef left over from last night.

Rib of beef

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Ralph Bullivant

It wasn’t all bad news at The Farmer’s Market this morning.

One of the butchers had a fine rib of beef standing proud on the top of the counter. There were two ribs in it and for a second I was tempted to get them both. Then common sense (and my aching wallet) intervene and I agreed with the butcher that he should cut it in half and deliver to me just the one rib.

Watching him go at it with a sharp knife, then saw and then with a cleaver, brought back memories of one of the more grisly episodes of War & Peace and the work that a doctor did with much the same implements with men brought back shattered from the battlefield.

The rib had a satisfying weight to it in my bag as I walked round picking up my bag of potatoes and carrots and some bread for lunch.

At home shortly before cooking it I took it out of its bag and gave it some air and then using my fingers to rub in some olive oil and seasoning it with salt and pepper. It looked good enough to eat as it was even before going into the oven.

At home potatoes were peeled and I rescued a bag of patron peppers that had been forgotten in the rush to produce food last weekend.

The beef went into a very hot oven for about half an hour until it was angry and spitting fat. The heat was then turned down and I boiled the potatoes.

Once the potatoes were done the beef came out of the oven to rest covered in a layer of silver foil and a tea-towel.

The potatoes were cubed and fried in hot olive oil. They fell apart as I cooked them but that didn’t matter. What was important was a good crust of almost burnt potato with plenty of salt and some garlic.

The patron peppers were left until last – fried in oil with salt and then piled up next to the potatoes.