Cooking With Richard

Hiyoko Sable site …

(Thanks Nobuko!)

Previously and previously and previously.

I ordered a goose from Clerkes Geese, but how best to cook my goose? (I’m going to call her “WAAKO”).

This site has illustrations on how to truss, cook and slice a goose.

Gordon Ramsey’s Christmas goose recipe looks a bit poor.

Delia’s suggesting goose, pork, sage and pears.

Goose, plum and sage, sounds nice.

Goose with cranberries, sage and a traditional stuffing. Another goose recipe with a traditional chestnut stuffing. I think I’m seeing a pattern here …

Goose with apple stuffing, and another goose and apple recipe, and yet another one.

I ordered a goose for Christmas from Clerkes Geese.

Something of a lost opportunity. The Two Brewers is a traditional pub in just about the perfect English village setting (yet close to London). With the right owner it could be a great pub, but instead it’s a moderate chain pub with restaurant-cum-hotel pretensions. The food was 5/10, certainly not bad, but nothing of note.

Previously …

A few weeks ago I bought by accident the Complete Encyclopedia of Chickens.

Wow, chickens are … amazing!

These are Japanese fighting cocks! called Japanese SHAMO:

But I also bought a book about goats …

Roast chicken:

From the chicken carcass I made stock (using the carcass, water, only a little sake, carrots, onions, garlic, and parsley):

I made a potato soup from this chicken stock which was decidedly better than any previous soup I’d made, the difference being down to the stock itself.

With home-made custard. The tart was approximately from this recipe.

It’s been one year since I bought an iPhone, and to celebrate that I bought the Bijin Tokei iPhone application.

It shows you a different lady every minute. As the website says: “In addition, it is likely to be able to meet the same woman every 24hours.” (Really? Is that how it works?!)

Here is an excited looking Miss 18:45:

4 out of 5 for effort but sorry Miss 18:50 is saucier.

They’re also different (sometimes) from the ladies on the website:

Was it £1.79 well spent? You decide …

Photos by N-sama …

I bought these duck’s eggs from G.Gibson butchers in Watford Market:

Duck egg is the white one on the left, compared to a normal hen’s egg (note: from unhappy caged hen). As you can see, the duck’s eggs are slightly larger:

This is a duck omelette:

Conclusion on duck’s egg: Slightly larger than a hen’s egg, but broadly tastes the same. Judging by the condition of the yokes, these weren’t good quality eggs, old or from battery ducks (yes, ducks are kept in cruel conditions in this country, just like chickens). Next time I’ll try a wild duck instead.

His sausages were much better:

Yesterday I visited Beaufort Court a.k.a. the Kings Langley wind turbine, which is sited on the old Ovaltine chicken farm …

Solar powered train:

Chotto-chicken:

I went to Bletchley Park today (Wikipedia page), home of the code-breaking efforts during World War II.

On my own!

They are starting to preserve the original nissen huts and later brick buildings like this one …

The rebuilt Colossus, arguably the first digital computer:

Captured Japanese codebooks:

They have their own Harrier:

and at the end of the day there was a fly-past by a WWII Hurricane:

I’ll have to take N-sama next time!

Best thing, just sitting by the garden all day watching the tiny birds.

Thinking about getting a duck island.

We went back to Bennington Lordship today …

Stop looking at me!

Finished now …

It’s our white duck / mallard couple. I wonder if they will have spotted ducklings?

Edit: N-sama said the male duck was ugly .. mooo

BBC Four Japan season: Japan in Colour: The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn.

A documentary about Japan in 1900-1920.

To those who know what comes after, looking at these photographs gives terrible premonition of what is to come.

And they are reshowing the Secret Wilderness show:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jhxhf/Secret_Wilderness_Japan_Episode_1/

Today to the Mosquito Aircraft Museum / De Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre in Hertfordshire.

Chipmunk, similar to the ones I used to fly in AEF:

Comet 4 interior:

De Havilland Gyron engine:

Vampire trainer jet (one of two at the museum which are both very well preserved):

Mosquito, built and used during World War II:

Top gun … is it Tom Cruise?