Cooking With Richard

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.

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:

Moustache … Like it?

I have to admit I was watching the excellent Jamie at Home last Friday and he made a slow-cooked roast shoulder of lamb, similar to the ones I’ve made here before, except he used garlic and rosemary for the classic base seasoning.

This is my version, much modified. I cooked the shoulder for 4½ hours, first for 15 minutes at maximum (220°C), then at 130°C. The meat just falls away from the bone after this, and the dissolved fats and sinews in the meat make it moist and rich:

I made a gravy in the usual way, but added fresh mint and capers:

Rosemary and mint came from the garden, lamb from Yorkshire, and the carrots and sweet potatoes from the UK, so this is local food for local people.

Apparently I’m not allowed to play my favourite band, The Cardiacs in my own home!

Here are some music videos for you to enjoy anyway:

Strange video of “to go off and things”:

Smith looks a bit like Suggs, and Domo-kun makes an early appearance, in this video:

Slightly more mainstream cover of a Kinks song (better than the original I think):

And Cardiacs live:

Conkers!

Tring has a small but rather wonderful Natural History Museum. Actually it is more properly known as the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, which is now managed by the Natural History Museum in London. The collection is marvellously Victorian — 4000 stuffed animals, a spectacle rather than an education.

Damn …

Paul Smye-Rumsby, who lives in Dover, said: “It was about 08.15 when suddenly the bed shook violently. “I thought my wife had got cramp or something but then I saw the curtains were moving and the whole house was shaking. It lasted about 1.5 seconds..

When I was in Aomori four years ago there was a really huge earthquake near Sendai which shook the whole place for a minute. Screen capture from the TV: