Cooking With Richard

Oriental City has been under threat for so long, but it is finally to close at the end of May, to make way for soulless flats and a DIY superstore. (There aren’t enough DIY superstores in London apparently, so a one-of-its-kind shopping centre has to be leveled to make way for one).

I’ve been going there regularly for at least ten years, but today was the last time.

There aren’t really any alternatives. Chinese Wing Yip, down the road, is expanding, but they don’t have the other shops or non-Chinese food. Japanese TK Trading is miles away.

More discussion of the closure …

Thanks to ex-Mayor Ken Livingstone for valiantly defending the store — oh no, in fact he approved the planning application. Well, he’s been thrown out of office now, but his stupid planning decisions like this and others will linger on.

This is what I got from Utsuwa no Yakata Japanese pottery shop:

The garden is full of stinging nettles at the moment, vicious little bastards. What better way to show them who’s boss than to make nettle soup. I collected a large pot full of the shoots and heads, which turned out to be about enough for two people:

This is the soup, with a sprig of mint leaves (also from the garden). Very delicious — we should eat nettle soup more often.

This is the lemon from the lemon tree:

Same as this leek potato and bacon soup except that I didn’t have any leeks so I used cauliflower instead. Very tasty!

MEAT! Or more precisely, 11lbs (5kg) of pork shoulder down to the loin. This cost me under £20 and should feed about 15-20 people, so it’s actually very good value (if you have 20 people that need feeding).

If Justin gets his act together and calls me then I may well cook this for his party tomorrow afternoon.

Update

Not bad, a bit dry. Crackling was excellent.

I photographed a sparrowhawk catching, killing and eating a starling in the garden today. Well, the killing and the eating kind of overlapped. As you can imagine the starling was not too happy about this situation and made a lot of noise.

Click photos for larger versions.

ガーコ is still sitting on her nest. We’re expecting ducklings towards the end of this week. Here’s the latest photo of (an) egg, she covers them up before she goes out each time.

While you’re waiting, here’s a photo of our lovely long-tailed tits:

Here is M-kun playing Mario Kart Wii, which is bloody good fun:

Dorchester:

Little Wittenham and the Wittenham Clumps, Northmoor Trust:

Bravery:

Lambs!

Push!

Toad in the hole made with delicious sausages from the butcher in St Albans:

Note to self: Look over these Roman recipes for food and wine from Cato and see if there’s anything worth doing.

Recipe for libum: Bray 2 pounds of cheese thoroughly in a mortar; when it is thoroughly macerated, add 1 pound of wheat flour, or, if you wish the cake to be more dainty, 1/2 pound of fine flour, and mix thoroughly with the cheese. Add 1 egg, and work the whole well. Pat out a loaf, place on leaves, and bake slowly on a warm hearth under a crock.

I was in the middle of making this recipe described as “Bubble and Squeak” when I came to the sudden realization that it is really コロッケ, so I quickly covered it in honey panko and shallow fried it. Success!

But in Japan, mere potato isn’t enough carbohydrate on its own, so they wrap it in bread (can you believe?) to make a kind of potato sandwich. Mmm carbs!

Looking at the duck’s arse:

The meat is from a great little butchers called JTB Butchers out in the back of beyond:

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Our duck (N-sama is calling her “ガー子”) has now laid a full clutch of at least 10 eggs, see the photo below. N-sama bravely took this photo.

Here she is sitting on the fence and flying off:

Easter weekend was a wash-out because of the high winds, rain and snow:

We went to the Rose and Crown in Kings Langley for beer and greasy pub fish and chips and ale pie:

N-sama was very brave yesterday and today and went out and took photos of the eggs, while mama-Duck-san was off flying around and eating seaweed and whatever else they do:

Mother duck, taking off:

Sorry, terrible photo but I can’t get too close … There’s a duck nesting in our back garden!

Home-made rice pudding from a Jamie recipe with N-sama’s purple jam.

But just like at school I like to mix up my rice pudding and jam together:

Tasty!

This tandoori chicken comes from a Manju Malhi recipe. I took some inspiration from Turkish Izkender kebab and laid the chicken out on pitta bread, so the bread can soak up the lovely juices and marinade.