Flapjacks:UK back-to-schoolers, put this in their lunch boxes instead of cold pop-tarts

I had a request for a flapjack recipe that could be made on Sunday nights and put in lunchboxes Monday to Friday.

This one is endlessly adaptable, depending on what kind of roughage and nuts and seeds your children will not pick out. The condensed milk ensures it does not turn brittle and keeps it tender. I would imagine industrial versions use corn syrup and glucose for this function. If you don't use the nuts and seeds given here, you will need to use about 50g of other dry or moist ingredients to get the right ratio of oaty goodness to textural adorment.

Oven at 160 degrees C

125g butter
100g caster sugar
ah, now, dessertspoonsful of golden syrup - there is no metric conversion, you just need three of them (heat the spoon first and it will slip off luxuriantly)
1 dessertspoon of condensed milk

Melt all this together gently in a pan then stir in
200g of quick cook oats
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
1 tablespoon of poppy seeds
25g chopped nuts of your choice
a pinch of salt

Line a 20cm square tin with baking parchment and pour in the mixture. With wet finger-tip press it in to the corners and drop in a couple of times on the counter top to settle it and bake it for 20 minutes or until the edges are looking golden not brown. Turn off the oven and leave it in there for another 10 minutes. Take it out and mark out portion divisions before it cools down.

I haven't made any of this for a while as one of my children would be thoroughly affronted if I suggested he eat it. However, if I could wrap it in LCM livery I would include it in his lunchbox. So here is a picture of a poppy from whence the seeds come.



Come to think of it, Lemon poppyseed and yogurt cake is an absolute corker. Available on request

Paula Fitzgerald: Caterpillar Bites

Caterpillar Bites http://www.caterpillarbites.com/default.html

Part one of an occasional series looking at women in the food industry in Perth.

Paula Fitzgerald has always had artistic tendencies. In high school she wanted to be a painter but was dismayed by the paltry prices work at art fairs was fetching. She relegated sketching and painting to hobby status and trained as a chef. Paula spent time in Devon and Italy and returned to Perth to focus on pastry work. For the last 5 years she has been providing the superior sweet delights for top catering company Comestibles http://www.comestibles.com.au/contentTwo.aspx?cId=31. However, 18 months ago her artistic streak just had to come to the forefront of her work and she launched Caterpillar Bites.


From a corner of the Comestibles kitchen in East Perth, Paula does her thing - birthdays and weddings are the chief income earners but as Paula says "once a client has used Caterpillar Bites for a child's birthday they tend to come back again and again for special occasions throughout the year; work colleagues' parties, father's day, Granny and Grandparent's golden wedding anniversary - it just spirals." Paula has struck oil during this time of fascination with professional cake decorating, the food network has Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss back to back on virtual rotation. A professionally decorated cake is recognised as an expression of creativity and dedication and the smartest move a host can make, not just the crumbly, sticky end of the meal.

So what makes Paula Fitzgerald and Caterpillar Bites different? On her website we can see her vast range of designs: Cheeky Devil Care Bare, Pink Tiara for girls and for boys Yoda and a Rusty VW Beetle amongst the Thomas the Tank Engines and even silver porsche spyder with red leather upholstery.http://www.caterpillarbites.com/Cakes-for-Boys.html
"Anyone can decorate a cake, it just depends to what standard." Paula takes her business very seriously - she is off to the UK to train with Debbie Brown, the undisputed Empress of Innovative Cake Design http://www.debbiebrownscakes.co.uk/myPhotos/index.htm "I've waited for 5 years to get a place on one of her courses, this is the ultimate learning experience. Debbie's work is clean with a crisp finish, it is flawless," Paula tells me. "I want to learn all the secrets of the art." Debbie Brown, whom Paula describes as the supreme cake decorating icon started small, from home and was in the right place at the right time to bring the art thundering into the commercial arena and get in first on a series of best-selling how-to books. Paula appreciates this set of business skills. There are plenty of women who do sugar craft as a hobby, offering to make an Optimus Prime Transformer cake for their nephew's birthday, shutting themselves away for 8 days, fingers stained with red and blue and eyes crossed with the effort of replicating the right engine grill in fondant. They emerge frazzled and find it hard to emotionally detach from an item that will ultimately be devoured. Paula is a pragmatist who has found her calling and woven it in with her strong business sense.

Paula is a true artist as she makes time to explore and focus on craftmanship and techinique, expanding ideas and trialing new methods.
This parade-ground of chocolate teddies was made for pleasure. She found the chocolate fondant in a cake supplies shop and began practising. She made more and more, the teddies multiplied and with each one a techinique was honed: the stitched effect on the seams, the slightly different expressive position of the arms makes each one an individual. Paula gets much of her inspiration from ceramics and figurines as sugar works structurally in much the same way.

Paula charges properly for her time and she has never had a disappointed customer. "I've learned not to cave in should a client's face fall at the point of delivery - $300 for a cake!" The cost of Paula's time is used on design, sometimes in collaboration with the customer, details, baking, assembling, decorating, details, delivery and installation often with as much care as an art gallery curator. Did she mention the attention to detail? "I never let a cake leave the kitchen without a little hand-painted detail, be it lustre dust for the shaping on a duck's beak or the roses on a mermaid's cheek," confrims Paula. She prides herself on being precise in the details, for each client they are personalised even down to the hair colour and outfit of the birthday child.


Along with a true respect for the discipline of cake decorating Paula's business gives space to her naturally caring side. On her website she reassures clients that she will take care of dietary requirements, delivery and make sure the client sits back and enjoys the party. "I think parties should be memorable and fun for both parents and children," she declares. "A stressed hostess is likely to be a snappy hostess and it's my role to take that stress away." Not only will Paula's service dissolve anxiety but it will cast a serene, shimmering glow of limelight in which the hostess can bask, reflected perfectly in Paula's talent.


Paula was kind enough to show step by step pictures of the UP cake on her website http://www.caterpillarbites.com/Special-Feature--.html

Once the cake is in situ and has drawn coos of wonder and admiration from the guests, all of which the host can absorb, and then been photographed with cake honouree, cut, cooed over a whole lot more and eaten, the guests' pictures up-loaded to Facebook and Twitter , the cost is really quite modest considering the high mileage of pleasure the cake gives through all stages of its life.

Paula is thinking of the future of Caterpillar Bites and it will get expensive in the short-term. Light industrial units and equipment are costly yet in the long-term Paula is confident her product can deliver enough returns to succeed. "Many women in small businesses have sold themselves short and cut costs only to find they are shooting themselves in the foot. I know my service has real value and I want to keep improving that." Does this mean more staff and delegation and, dare I say it, a dilution of control? "I'd happily have someone else waiting 2.5 hours in the kitchen for a mud cake to bake, but all the cake recipes are my own and I will not compromise on quality if I'm going to put my name to something," Paula says firmly.

Paula considers the appreciation of the cake decorator's art to be a fixture rather than a fad and believes its emotional impact will give in longevity in the food market-place. -"The end result can make people scream with joy. Seeing reactions like that make it all worthwhile, especially the responses from little kids." Paula has looked carefully in to her business and can crystalise its value perfectly; "It may last an hour at their party, but they remember the cake for many birthdays to come"

Basics and beyond. Buy your stuff here

http://www.basicsandbeyond.com.au/

About half way up the Fitzgerald Street shopping strip your eyes will be drawn to a non-calorific candy-store for growups. If you are culinary-minded or creative in your creature comforts or enjoy brightly-coloured and shiny things then you will stop in your tracks at Basics and Beyond.

Angelo Tancredi has 10 years' experience of retail in London and has been operating in North Perth since 2008. His establishment has made a welcome splash of desire and enticement on the Fitzgerald High Street with its nod to the enticing and hard-working shop-fronts of the most popular of London's many village high-streets. In fact, it makes me feel like I'm back in Islington, Upper Street to be exact. Only I won't have to lease an internal organ to make a purchase.

Among the many, many gorgeous objects such as retro starburst clocks or a set of Japanese laquer-ware rice bowls I may want for my birthday, is the Cook Ware section. And it's good. And by that I mean Well Thought Out: There is a wall of practical blister-packed gadgets (I came away with things I needed; an oven thermometer, a set of ceramic blind-baking beads). There are another two walls of solid, sensible equipment including a cabinet of good knives and possibly the entire Scan Pan range. We all know we could update and expand our stock of baking sheets and chopping boards, that's common sense if you are a keen cook ( I also slipped in to my stash a bamboo meat carving board complete with a channel for the juices. The kind of thing you see on mortuary slabs).

There are tables laden with every kind of cake tin known to man, stacked and glistening like the turrets of castle. Why, yes, I do need a mini bund-tin as it happens. The tables also offer new things, so new in fact that they were featured on the ABC TV show The New Inventors only last month. http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s2958807.htm : Clongs. click-lock sit up tongs. No more cacky counter tops when tossing carbonara. Angelo has them already, 9" of them at $24.95. http://www.dreamfarm.com.au/products/clongs/. I need a pair. Oh, and know someone in my household who needs a teafu http://www.dreamfarm.com.au/products/teafu.







Those are the Basics.

And now comes Angelo's master-stroke: The Beyonds. One turns to be sensible and complete the purchases but brushes against the really magical section of the shop's design and this is the shelves that blend from classy kitchen ware to funky gardening gloves re-usable plastic bags that seem to be made from a Hollywood Starlet's photo ablum and then the complete range of Urban Rituelle toiletries http://www.urbanrituelle.com/mmm.. Pomegranite. And one cannot ignore the cases of jewels and trinkets and the blatant, outright frippery.

Well why not? I have the Basics, and it is hardly my fault if to pay for them I am led to the Beyond. And you know what? I'll take trio of onyx photo frames for teacher's presents at xmas, and a few blocks of Margret River made http://www.oliveoilsoapfactory.com.au/ soaps while I'm here. And a handful of no-message greetings cards because the art of old-fashioned letter writing is dying. And look there's my real birthday present, I changed my mind; The Venturi red wine aerator pleaes http://vinturi.com/products/vinturi.html ...... Time to stop now. But I'll be going home and looking online for anything that may have got away.




Basics and Beyond
293 Fitzgerald Street
North Perth
08 9227 0304








The Angel food cake tin has three prongs evenly spaced around the rim. We don't know why. However it is my mission to find out and the item in and of itself is a thing of beauty. Watch this space. I imagine there will be a lady in the New Forest who will have an idea.










This is an onion-saver. You store the remainder of you onion in it to keep it fresh and your fridge fresh. Angelo tells me the shoplifters of North Perth have had three of these away in one week.

American Meatloaf Recipe

I know a lady who has come back from holiday in the US and is asking for a meatloaf recipe. Meatloaf is an American standby, almost a by-word for wholesomeness, and who more wholesome than Campbell's to supply a recipe, full to the brim with soup, naturally.

This is from "The Campbell's Treasury of Recipes" and it is, sure enough a trove of ideas, ALL of them with soup; Double Decker Chicken Mould, Pork Chops with Party Hats and Sprig O'Spring Soup. There is also Meat-Shell Pie which I don't really want to visualise.

I have an Australian version edited by Margaret Fulton. I 'm guessing it's from about 1962


Here is my family's favourite from the three versions of meatloaf:


SAVOURY MEATLOAF
1 can Campbell's condensed cream of tomato soup
approx 850g minced beef (you could do it with a kilo but this is the minum)
1.5 cups of cornflaks lightly crushed
half an onion finely chopped
herbs of your choice, dry or fresh, e.g. parsley or oregano
1 tablespoon of worcestershire sauce
1 egg slightly beaten
1 teaspoon of salt
pepper

1 2lb loaf tin lined with baking parchement
roasting tin half filled with boiling water
oven at 180 degrees C
serves 6

Combine all ingredients: mix thoroughly (hands are best, you know that, right? Press in to loaf tin and place bain marie (the roasting tin with water) and bake in oven for 1 hour. When it comes out let it sit for 10 minutes before slicing, and tip the juices out too as this is where a lot of the fat will be.

Campbell's gives the following serving suggestion: Serve with additional cream of tomato soup sauce, if desired. Blend about 1/4 cup dirppings with 1 can soup; heat.

Food Photography. Flipping Heck, it's a Faff

show us your pips

cauliflower cuplprit

Talking to Sheila Dillon on the Radio 4 Food Programme recently, Nigel Slater explained that the aim of food photography used to be perfection and the process labour intensive. (Nice chap, Nige. I know a woman who keeps a photograph of his house in her handbag.) Then in the mid 90s the French sexed it up. Food had to move, to writhe, to shimmer, to arch its back in ecstasy and let you, the viewer, catch it's sensual exhalation of flavour and texture and do with it what you will, you brute. Hopefully you are doing it in a dark room with the door tightly closed and a clean tea-towel to hand. Loose-flan bottoms are the new up-skirt shots, the motion of whisking to stiff peaks the new money-shots.

Then there are the endless books filled with roccoco tableaux, the Carvaggio still-life that sells Tessa Kiros.

Marcella Hazan got by on pen and ink line drawings, the austere simplicity of which did not divert millions from trying the best-ever recipe for chocolate mousse or roast chicken with lemons (available on request - just to see if anyone is reading this). Her foolproof and straightforward methods and notes on how to choose ingredients are supported only by utter confidence in her craft and generations of successful dishes. This gives the reader space to choose and does not presume their palate is so jaded and cloyed that they need ever-increasing kinkery to tickle their tastebuds.The illustrations show method not product. A bit like Alex Comfort. But without that creepy bearded chap.

As an amateur it is hard not to produce Readers' Wives style pictures. I mean, you remember Audrey? Similarly too much apricot glaze on a frangipane tart has much the same effect as lipgloss on a 5 year old American pageant contestant.

Of course, some dishes are simply unphotographable.
Robert Carrier, can you explain this? Is it not something the cat produced?
Robert had to fill 20 fabulous Cookery Cards for each pack of the series in 1968. They are, on the whole wonderful. But very occasionally ill-advised.
Orginal blog man James Lileks collated and venerated this kind of food photography. http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html

a) CARAMELISED ORANGES WITH CREAM FILLED BRANDY SNAPS b) CARBONADE OF BEEF

I had two simple goals: a) to recreate in homage the cover of
the first edition of the seminal part-work The Cordon Bleu Monthly Cookery Course first published in 1968. This merits a whole article itself. I use it constantly. This picture tripped my wires as a kid and was very possibly the reason why I took to cooking b) to make a simple dish look stylish, attractive and tasty.

For both these goals I enlisted the help and the kitchen of my friend Allison, art teacher and interior designer. She has recreated, without an ounce of up-herself-ness, a French Provincial Kitchen in the Perth Suburbs complete with chandeliers, eathernware honey jars and a kitchen garden in which she keeps bees. She should know a thing or two.

Fortunately the food did not require too much fluffing. The caramelised oranges are completely gorgeous as they are, and indeed the making process yielded some of the most sensous images I shall ever take. Here are some from my private collection.



The Carbonade of beef had the right kind of unctuous exterior and depth of tone to wing it. Yet when it came to the photographing, who knew that putting brilliant white globes of cauliflower in the foreground would eclipse the meat? I just didn't think of it. Below you can see my friend Alison's beautiful dining setting but not much of the dish, nice composition but dreadful lighting





And that's what gave me the idea for this piece. This is where a professional with Leichas and light reflectors and meters and fundamentally basic knowledge would have flicked the lime-light stealing brassica from the dish and replaced it with a nice dense... well who know it may have been a tiny pair of purple patent leather mary-jane shoes or a cow's snout, it would just depend on the directions of the art-director and the market for the piece.

No, it was not the food itself that had us foxed, but a) the background and b) the props. Who knew that there are two competing shades of orange in a terracotta pot and sliced glazed carrots with thyme and honey? And who knew that the pyramid of cream-filled brandysnaps and the formless yet stable mass of oranges would defy any logically shaped background prop and always look mad? Ow, my eyes, take away the sunflowers and those jars are just plain crazy.



The answers are: The professionals. They know. They get paid to know. They plan and position and practise.

In future I shall stick to visually accurate, spontaneous and heartfelt images rather than acrobatically enticing or visually cleverer than I actually am images, (a motto many of us could well take on board in other rooms of the house, I'll warrant). Unless I'm getting paid. (Ditto)Any images I can capture of the process along the may which a)do not steam the lense of my camera or b) show my navvy/skivvy man-hands.

Would anyone like any of the recipes from this post? Do let me know.

Cold. Sticky Toffee Date Cake Cold

It's winter here. It's chilly. Perfect for this:


I'm afraid we were on to the second bottle of shiraz voigner when I took the pictures so they are slightly squiffy. Those aren't my hands

Yes, I know there are dozens of recipes and versions out there but this one works for me. It works so well I will take it to a secluded corner and eat it all from the tin if I'm alone. As I consequence I only make it when I have Company.

I first made this in November 1999 when I was obsessed with the Sainsbury's Magazine. It was all coriander and olives and puy lentils and a nascent Nigel Slater and a very posh Lorna Wing and adverts for Twinnings Fruit Teas. This recipe is by Sue Lawrence who won Masterchef in 1991. Back in the days of Lloyd Grossman and guests like Penelope Keith no-one shouted about it being Tough and Real and none of the contestants broke more than a few beads of polite persperation, even when the big green capsicum flashed on screen. sue lawrence titles Sue, it really is a winner of a recipe, thank you. Clearly they don't call you "The Queen of Scottish Baking" for nothing.



RECIPE for STICKY TOFFEE DATE CAKE
175g stoned dates, chopped
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
250ml boiling water
75g butter
1 teaspoon - can I start putting tsp in now as the abbreviation? Would we all be cool wit that? - vanilla extract
175g light brown or plain granulated sugar
1 egg beaten
175g plain flour sifted with
1 tsp baking powder
and for the sauce:
75g butter
150g brown sugar, the darker the better
120ml double cream.
pre-heat oven to 180 degrees

Method:
1. Line a 7 inch loose bottomed cake tine with a circle of baking parchment
2. Place dates and bicarb in a pan and pour on the boiling water and heat gently for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until melted
4. Add the vanilla, sugar, egg, flour and baking powder and stir well.
5. Pour in to the lined tin and place on a baking sheet and then in to the oven. Bake for 20 minutes
6. Meanwhile make the sauce by heating all the ingredients together in a pan. Let them bubble for 3 minutes while stirring. Pour onto the cake and bake for a further 20 minutes. Do use a timer.
7. Leave to cool in the tin and serve when still slightly warm.
8. Prepare modest face for ensuing compliments.


To serve, best vanilla ice cream. In this picture I served a side of Butterscotch Angel Delight on account of wanting to share my culture with the Australians. They didn't get it.



Mandarines, dark chocolate and walnuts finish off the flavours well at the end of the meal, the main course of which was pork sausages, mash, kale and garlic and onion gravy.

Look What I grew. Butternut Squash

Well technically I grew both of them but it is only legal in this country to eat one of them.

Do I make soup with many rinds of German smoked ham? Scones? Or plainly roasted for hours in clarified butter and olive oil with sage and thyme and a dressing of bottled caesar salad and slivers of crispy proscuitto?

But not today. I am listening to my body and this is it wants. Acutally it wants to snap its fingers and be back at the very top of the Holloway Road eating Makani Dahl and Bombay Saag Alloo and listening to the carefully chosen Jazz tracks Raj will be playing at The Sitara - the best of the high-street Indians restaurants in North London and still going strong 15 years on. Good for them, you had a vision, Raj. Sitara Indian Restaurant 784 Holloway Road; London; N19 020 7281 0649; Hey, all those dishes are v..v...v..Vegetarian.



So, it's the first vegetarian dish on Crackling. And time for a medium length Aside:

I used to be one. It was 1985, I was at Poole Arts Centre with my mates at a Smiths Gig (James support IIRC) and between the guitar jangling and the plaintive wailings about Manchester and its environs Morrisey spoke directly to us. He told that Meat was Murder. However what he didn't fit in to his lyrics was that it is also an excellent source of iron, b vitamins and many minerals vital for the nutritional stores-houses of young girls and women.

So I "went veggie" Evangelical, wholier than though, awkward, righteous Vegetarian. There followed endless suppers of beans on wholewheat toast with cheese, snacks of wotsits and potato latkes, pyramids of cheese and onion pasties.*** What a donkey.
I since discovered from music engineers and producers who had worked with Morrisey in the south of France that he is somewhat idiosyncratic in his culinary dogma; he won't have garlic on the premises or butter. And no murdered animals either. They would sneak out for big macs and loaf around the studio with the reek of their forbidden lovers still on their clothes like adulterers just for fun. Also, my friend Nicole swears Morrisey used to come in to a certain Manchester sandwich bar she worked in for tuna melts. How's he doing these days since Swindon?

Vegetarianism, as Anthony Bourdain proselytises, is very much a first world luxury - to pick and choose one's protein sources is a privilege. In the early 90s when Mr Wong and I traveled round Malaysia we would trek to a restaurant famed for Ayam Soto Beef Kway Tow, Char Siew or go out to dinner with the many cousins for house-specialities of venison tendon and river flounder and I would sit with with nose turned up and a sanctimonious demeanour prissily picking at pack choi (no oyster sauce). I doubt my actions saved a single bivalve. One day they gave me a taste of my own medicine and took me to the Bhuddist restaurant for a chow-down on mock-duck. Shudder. That'd shoulda oughta taught me.

Vegetarianism in the 80s and 90s, did call attention to the recklessly dangerous standards of animal-husbandry. Many of us spent valuable physical resources denouncing factory-farming and when the headlines were hit with BSE and the charmingly-named Scrapie for sheep, the standards and scales started to change. Plus old breeds re-appeard at the butchers - ah Freemans of Crouch End and your sublime Tamworth Bangers - and latterly the supermarkets.
I still cooked meat for work though, the irony of standing in Leadenhall Market with a 2k bag of best end of lamb neck one winter's day was not lost on me.

I saw sense in January 2002 after an anaemia-induced spin-out in Toys R Us Colney Hatch and made Mr Wong take me directly to Gaucho, the Argentinian Steak House in Hampstead for lunch (actually it was Uraguayan Fillet steak that day as there was some kind of Latin American Anglo Trade Embargo going on) I have never looked back. At all. And if at all it was to see if there were anymore fibres I could possibly gnaw off a rib bone dropped under the table. And the last time we were in Malaysia with the cousins they had to fight me for a mere sniff of the deep-fried pork hock.

I have friends who are vegetarians for health and karmic reasons. They get on with it calmly and wisely, perhaps having learned from the misadventures of buffoons like myself that there is little or no merit in heckling one's dining companions. I am still evangelical about eating meat: Eat a little of the best you can afford which has been reared and slaughtered in the best possible circumstances.



So finally I present the recipe for
CURRIED BUTTERNUT SQUASH



Oh this one is Malaysian, it has curry leaves which are optional, in fact this is really about technique - amalgamating the first ingredients to a fragrant paste.

500g peeled cubed butternut squash, hitherto known as BNSq
20ml oil
half a red onion finely chopped
one clove of garlice minced
a can of chopped tomatoes, drained
I used this mix of spices because it was what I had to hand but you, of course could use your own favourite blend or even a teaspoon or two of pre-made curry paste - the important thing is how one cooks them to release the flavour and turns the whole thing in to a paste: ground cumin, chinese five spice, tumeric and allspice because it really brings out the sweetness of the BNSq
15g of butter or ghee
150ml each of stock and coconut milk
half a can of chickpeas drained
salt
curry leaves
coriander leaves to serve










1. heat the oil and fry the onions until translucent and just starting to brown at the edges.
2. add the garlic and the tomato flesh and cook on low heat for 5 minutes stirring well
3. push this mixture to one side and turn up the heat slightly and sizzle the butter or ghee and throw in the spices. You want to toast them properly to release the aromas and if you're careful you shouldn't burn them so cook them for at least 60 seconds***
4. stir well to blend it all and cook for 2 minutes then add the BNSq coat with the mixture.
5. add the remaining ingredients, cover and simmer until tender - at least 20 minutes.
6. check seasoning and serve or leave for an hour so the flavours develop and serve luke warm but don't tell the health inspector.

I am going to serve mine with cauliflower, wilted spinach and lime pickle. If I could face the sheer drudgery of cleaning up my kitchen again today (I am very messy) I would make wholewheat roti to mop up the gravy properly. Perhaps another day.


*** prolific cookery author Rafi Fernandez gives this tip for the faint hearted fryer: Addition of spices when cooking: "always reduce the heat before adding any ground spices as they burn easily which will give a bitter flavour to your dish. I mix mine with a little water and fry them gently until the water has evaporated and the oil separated"
Rafi has dozens and dozens of titles Rafi Fernandez titles. I wonder why she is so much less-known that Madhur Jaffrey or Charmaine Solomon? What can have gone on behind the scenes?


** actually, whilst I depreciated my iron stocks I did appreciate my stock of original recipes. I do have some absolutely corking Vegetarian Recipes which I will throw in to Crackling as and when the mood takes me. Why, here's one now!
with the remaining half a can of chickpeas and the tomato juice I whizzed up a hybrid-hummous with olive oil, tahini, salt, roasted garlic and for the necessary zing I fried a teaspoon each of garam masala in oil and poured it in, a techinque Rafi Fernandez calls "tarka".