Tonight was a good night. The family was out watching James Bond and by the time I got home there was 40 minutes or so to really upset the neighbours. My default listening pleasure at this stage is usually Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones from the extra disc that came with the the box set of Get Yer Ya’s Ya’s Out, an old bootleg version of Boxcar by REM or Rock’n’Roll by Led Zeppelin from How The West Was Won. Each a perfect opportunity to beat hells bells out of a tennis racket and pretend for at least a moment.

This evening I went for something different. I have found myself on the email list for Six by Seven who briefly about 12 years ago were a Peel favourite before falling off the map. Despite being off that map they have continued to plough a very worthwhile furrow and every few weeks I get an update from chief SxS Chris Olley as to where he and his music is at.

Earlier in the summer he almost gave away ten or so CD’s of historic music to remind us of how great they were. On the drive back from work the Ipod shuffle had thrown up something by Fuck me USA (which is a very good name for a band) so I though I would dig out the CD of SxS platying live at Glastonbury some years back.

It was the perfect noise to sort out the rack of lamb chops I picked up from The International Store on the way home. There is a beauty about pure noise. That moment where an electric guitar is suddenly hit vey hard so that all the possible notes are gathered up and spat out as a grunt of sound that hopefully goes on for a long time.

SxS manage to do this a lot and it can be quite liberating to listen to on a Friday eveing whilst cooking up a plateful of lamb chops, marinaded in honey, garlic, ginger, ras el hannout and morgrabia.

This evening I have been thinking about smoked mackerel and have decided that next summer when we are at the Cottage I will have to make a smoked mackerel carbonara.

The smoker is not much more than a glorified biscuit tin, its bottom raised an inch or so off the ground, a small edge round the side to balance the rack on and a loosely fitting lid. There is a methylated spirit lighter that sits on the ground.  The first priority is to make sure there is some methylated spirit in the garage, if there isn’t any there, take time out to swear violently and make a mental note to buy some when next in the village. Then kick yourself again and rembember that mental notes are never enough and take more time out to scribble down that same note to be positioned prominently in the kitchen so that it forms part of the shopping list for that next trip to the village.

If there is a plastic bottle of spirit fill up the lighter and light it. Place the smoker on top and sprinkle a handful of wood chippings on the bottom. It will start to give off smoke very quickly. Hopefully you will have cleaned off whatever gunk there is on the rack from last time, lay out the fillets of mackerel, put the rack in the smoker and cover with the lid. Leave for five minutes or so and check how it is doing.

If all has gone right then the small fillets should be more or less cooked and will be giving off their oil. If you are not sure, pick up a fillet, be careful, it will be hot, and gently pull it with your fingers, the flakes of flesh should just pull apart, although there should be some residual stickiness giving back a bit of resistance. Lick your fingers. If that fillet is ready remove the rest from the rack onto a plate.

They will good enough to eat as they are but could be substituted for bacon in a carbonara. Heat up a pan of boiling water. Pull the skin away from the fillets and discard. For the rest you will need a tub of thick cream into which you have strirred in an egg, salt pepper and some finely chopped parsley.

Once the water is boiling cook enough pasta for the number you are feeding. Once the pasta is done drain it quickly and return to the pan, add the cream and egg, the seasoning and the smoked mackerel fillets, stir gently together. The fillets will break apart as they are stirred so it will be an idea to keep a few to one side. Pour the pasta into a serving bowl and top with the reserved fillets some more seasoning. Serve and eat.

If we are eating this next summer I fancy listening along to The Unthanks.

It is Cora’s birthday tomorrow again so of course some time has been given over during the last few days for preparations.

That preparation started, in part, on Saturday morning with the purchase of the biggest pumpkin they had from the greengrocers on Oxton Road. Time was then spent on Sunday morning looking for a suitable face to first of all be marked out on the side of the pumpkin in black ball point and then carefully carved by father and children with a variety of sharp knives.

There was, of course, some friendly discussion between father and children as to who should do what. No fingers were lost and we now have a proud pumpkin.

This evening we had Cora’s favourite supper – noodles.

For Cora all she really needed was a plate of noodles in broth – anything else would be a distraction and extraneous to the noodle eating to be done.

That would have been boring for the rest of the family so peppers and baby corn were sliced, garlic, ginger and spring onions diced  and chicken breasts chopped. Similar chopping was applied to a lump of tofu for the vegetarian option.

The woks were taken up from the basement, cleaned off and put on a high heat with a glaze of corn nut oil.

Ten minutes later we were done and sat down slurping at the table. The sauce was a combination of bottles that needed using from and cupboard – mostly fish sauce and plum sauce and a teaspoon or so of red curry paste that has been lurking in the fridge and looks like it needs eating up.

It was not quite all finished and there should be enough left for me to have cold for lunch tomorrow.

We listened to the dream pop of Beach House – not that anyone else in the family noticed.

Earlier in the week I mentioned that I had picked up some bags of Moghrabia from a middle-eastern food shop on the Cowley Road in Oxford. You don’t see Moghrabia very often in your local Sainsbury so if I spot some bags on a shelf I like to stock up. Earlier this year I bought five kilos from a shop on Edgeware Road.

I first came across recipes for Moghrabia or Moghrabieh in the first Ottolenghi cookbook. It is also known as giant couscous and that is basically what it is, made out of durum wheat and water and dried to a small hard nut. Like couscous it is a food of the Middle East but it features in cooking along the North African coast.  You are most likely to come across recipes for it books of Lebanese or Morroccan cooking.

Shortly after I was given the Ottolenghi book for Christmas we went to Australia for the first time and I came across Moghrabia on a menu in a restaurant in Melbourne. It was our first lunch in Australia have flown the night before over  25 hours in a plane. We had been up early and had spent the morning walking around the city in a daze. Bar Lourinha http://www.barlourinha.com.au/menu.php was the first mention in the guide book and although it was a further walk out of the centre we headed there for lunch.

It was mid afternoon by the time that we got there and and we took our seats at one of the high tables. Having had my curiosity piqued by the mention of Moghrabia in the Ottoleghi book I was obliged to order it when I saw it on the menu. It was served with a lamb stew and was delicious – small nuggets of forgiving pasta that took up the juices of the stew. When we got back to Sarah’s later that afternoon she told us we had been lucky to get a table at Bar Lourinha as it was normally packed at lunch time.

Back at home in England I was determined to track down a source for Moghrabia. On the internent I came acrss a site that specialised in Morrocccan food and was able to order a supply from there but it was expensive. Matta’s http://www.mattas.co.uk/on Bold Street would sometimes have it but only in small 500gr bags. So I was very happy when I came across the shop on the Edgeware Road that had countless bags of it on its shelves and even more pleased when I found it in Oxford last week.

I will have to speak to the people who look after The International Store on Oxton Road to see if they can get it in.

We had Moghrabia last night. I made one of the recipes I had seen in the Ottolenghi book – barbecued quail with mograbiah salad. I substituted the quail with chicken as I knew that quail would be too much to get past the children. It was all very simple. I started by making the marinade in a large heavy pestle and mortar. Cumin seeds, ground cinnamon, cardamon pods, all spice berries, tumeric, paprika and salt were all ground to a fine powder before I added garlic, ginger honey and olive oil. Once this was thoroughly mixed it was slathered over a chopped chicken. A vegetarian option was made by chopped aubergines and peppers being mixed with the same marinade.

It is not necessary to cook Moghrabia. All it needs is to left to soak for half a day. The small hard nuts take up the moisture and expand, softening but retaining some bite. As an alternative you can boil them for a few minutes but you need to be careful not to overcook them.

Once we were almost ready to eat the chicken pieces went into a hot oven for 40 minutes. The Aubergine and peppers followed 15 minutes later. To make the salad I chopped some good handfuls of parsley and coriander which was then stirred into the Moghrabia together a good squeeze of lemon juice, the half dozen red tomatoes I had rescued from the greenhouse and more oilive oil. I heated this in a pan before we ate it with the chicken and vegetables.

There are still about 5 large bags of Moghrabia in the basement which should hopefully do me until I next come across it.