A few weeks ago, our whole family decamped to Derbyshire to celebrate the parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Being a large family, we didn't all manage to be there for the whole time, but we did manage one big celebration dinner together.
Heidi wrote a great overview of the meal here: http://www.movingfoodie.com/2012/06/recipe-pork-belly-with-coriander-and.html but I failed to provide her with the recipe for my contribution, a chorizo and butterbean side dish, in time. Here it is.
As cooked that evening, for 10 people as a side dish, you need to:
- Crush and gently fry two cloves of garlic in some olive oil
- Slice a chorizo sausage into thin rounds, add, and fry for a few minutes
- Add about 4 teaspoons of paprika, 2 of coriander and 2 of cumin, plus salt and pepper
- Add two tins of chopped tomatoes and a tin of butter beans
- Bring to boil, stirring occasionally, then turn down low and cook until the sauce thickens, stirring from time to time. We cooked it for about an hour, but it probably doesn't have to be that long. The longer the better in terms of developing flavour!
Further to this, I cooked this tonight as a main dish. In addition to the ingredients above, add two diced chicken breasts with the chorizo, then a chopped sweet potato, 3 potatoes (butternut squash or carrot would work well too), and 440ml water (I filled a tomato tin with water and tipped it in!) with the tomatoes and beans. Cook slowly for a couple of hours on the hob, stirring regularly. Yum! Would serve 5-6.
Sorry it's late, Heidi!
Tuesday 26 June 2012
Monday 11 June 2012
Cloud Atlas
Finishing this list is now starting to seem like a reality - hence my reading has become more purposeful (for this read: I am reading when I should be ironing, washing up, cleaning...oh well).
Before reading Cloud Atlas I had a sneaking suspicion that I had already read it, but as I couldn't remember anything about it, I thought I should read it again. About 2 chapters in, I was sure that I'd read it, but still couldn't really remember what was coming next so carried on.
I have a grudging admiration for David Mitchell, although I really don't enjoy his writing. I think this is predominantly because he tends to construct his novels out of a short story format, where the individual elements are very cleverly linked together to form a whole, but it still essentially feels like reading short stories. And I don't like reading short stories. My first DM experience was Ghostwritten, recommended to me by my brother after I had read and raved about Memoirs of a Geisha...the two are really not very similar, so I think the gap between expectation and reality also coloured my opinion! However, this challenge was partly about reading books that I wouldn't normally pick up, so I tried to approach Cloud Atlas with an open mind.
The thing is, it's really good. Intelligently constructed as a palindrome, there are four interlinked stories which take you forward through time and then back again. If you apply yourself to noticing, there are loads of little details throughout which connect the stories together, ranging from the fairly obvious birthmark to locations, music, and so forth. The scope of the work is wideranging, moving from a 19th century (I think) ship voyage to a post-apocalyptic future, with the style of writing adapted to suit each period and scenario.
I found the Adam Ewing and Zachry sections really difficult to read due to the style adopted in writing, but I'm probably just fussy.
There is a suggestion that Luisa Rey, the central character of the third story, has a spiritual connection to Robert Frobisher, of the previous story, given by her sense of recognition of the music he wrote despite never hearing it before...this is a little bit weak. But this is about the only hole I could pick in the storyline.
Cloud Atlas definitely deserves its place in this list. It isn't easy reading - well, you could make an easy read of it, but this would result in missing most of the clever plot devices and connections, and wouldn't do justice to it. I'm glad I read it, David Mitchell displays such creativity and imagination in pulling the elements of the story together, but...I'm really sorry to say, I still don't like it. Perhaps I'm lazy and don't like to work too hard for enjoyment of a book, maybe it's something to do with his tone and characters...I don't know, but I haven't been converted! You should read it though, if you haven't already.
Before reading Cloud Atlas I had a sneaking suspicion that I had already read it, but as I couldn't remember anything about it, I thought I should read it again. About 2 chapters in, I was sure that I'd read it, but still couldn't really remember what was coming next so carried on.
I have a grudging admiration for David Mitchell, although I really don't enjoy his writing. I think this is predominantly because he tends to construct his novels out of a short story format, where the individual elements are very cleverly linked together to form a whole, but it still essentially feels like reading short stories. And I don't like reading short stories. My first DM experience was Ghostwritten, recommended to me by my brother after I had read and raved about Memoirs of a Geisha...the two are really not very similar, so I think the gap between expectation and reality also coloured my opinion! However, this challenge was partly about reading books that I wouldn't normally pick up, so I tried to approach Cloud Atlas with an open mind.
The thing is, it's really good. Intelligently constructed as a palindrome, there are four interlinked stories which take you forward through time and then back again. If you apply yourself to noticing, there are loads of little details throughout which connect the stories together, ranging from the fairly obvious birthmark to locations, music, and so forth. The scope of the work is wideranging, moving from a 19th century (I think) ship voyage to a post-apocalyptic future, with the style of writing adapted to suit each period and scenario.
I found the Adam Ewing and Zachry sections really difficult to read due to the style adopted in writing, but I'm probably just fussy.
There is a suggestion that Luisa Rey, the central character of the third story, has a spiritual connection to Robert Frobisher, of the previous story, given by her sense of recognition of the music he wrote despite never hearing it before...this is a little bit weak. But this is about the only hole I could pick in the storyline.
Cloud Atlas definitely deserves its place in this list. It isn't easy reading - well, you could make an easy read of it, but this would result in missing most of the clever plot devices and connections, and wouldn't do justice to it. I'm glad I read it, David Mitchell displays such creativity and imagination in pulling the elements of the story together, but...I'm really sorry to say, I still don't like it. Perhaps I'm lazy and don't like to work too hard for enjoyment of a book, maybe it's something to do with his tone and characters...I don't know, but I haven't been converted! You should read it though, if you haven't already.
Wednesday 6 June 2012
A Confederacy of Dunces
I was intrigued to read A Confederacy of Dunces (CoD) as it was one of the few books on the list that I had never heard of. It's an interesting one.
For once, I read the foreword to get a bit of background. The author, John Kennedy Toole, wrote CoD in the early 60s and failed to get it published. He eventually committed suicide, and his mother took up the cause. The manuscript landed on the publisher's desk, in a messy, handwritten, smudged state. He hoped that it would be terrible, so that he didn't have to read much of it, but within a few pages was hooked and so took it forward for publication.
The novel is described as a comedy, and some reviewers describe it as the funniest thing they have ever read. I wouldn't go that far, but it is an entertaining read. It's set in New Orleans, and the central character, Ignatius J Reilly, is a 30 year old man, enormously obese, and with an entirely unique view of the world. At the start of the novel, Ignatius continues to live at home with his long-suffering mother, not working, and spending his days writing ranting treatises on various subjects, wallowing in the bath, and lying in his "yellowing sheets" (ugh!). Due to an incident that places financial pressure on his mother, she snaps and forces him out to get a job. It is only when Ignatius has to interact with the outside world that the extent of his insane world view becomes clear. The slightest incident causes him to unleash streams of abuse at the individual; he calls anything he disapproves of an "abortion" which makes for slightly uncomfortable reading. He is a comic character, due to the extent of his hideousness...it's difficult to explain this further without giving too much away, but the contrast of his puritanical world view (whilst not hesitating to lie, cheat and steal) with free and easy New Orleans demonstrates that he is almost a caricature with no redeeming features, rather than (you hope) a feasible individual.
It's an easy read. I didn't love it, because I find it really hard to love a book unless I can identify with at least one of the characters, and there is very little to like in any of the characters here. However, it is humorous. The characters are well defined, although one dimensional, and the events which play out are entertaining. If you like the style of Martin Amis, you may well like this!
For once, I read the foreword to get a bit of background. The author, John Kennedy Toole, wrote CoD in the early 60s and failed to get it published. He eventually committed suicide, and his mother took up the cause. The manuscript landed on the publisher's desk, in a messy, handwritten, smudged state. He hoped that it would be terrible, so that he didn't have to read much of it, but within a few pages was hooked and so took it forward for publication.
The novel is described as a comedy, and some reviewers describe it as the funniest thing they have ever read. I wouldn't go that far, but it is an entertaining read. It's set in New Orleans, and the central character, Ignatius J Reilly, is a 30 year old man, enormously obese, and with an entirely unique view of the world. At the start of the novel, Ignatius continues to live at home with his long-suffering mother, not working, and spending his days writing ranting treatises on various subjects, wallowing in the bath, and lying in his "yellowing sheets" (ugh!). Due to an incident that places financial pressure on his mother, she snaps and forces him out to get a job. It is only when Ignatius has to interact with the outside world that the extent of his insane world view becomes clear. The slightest incident causes him to unleash streams of abuse at the individual; he calls anything he disapproves of an "abortion" which makes for slightly uncomfortable reading. He is a comic character, due to the extent of his hideousness...it's difficult to explain this further without giving too much away, but the contrast of his puritanical world view (whilst not hesitating to lie, cheat and steal) with free and easy New Orleans demonstrates that he is almost a caricature with no redeeming features, rather than (you hope) a feasible individual.
It's an easy read. I didn't love it, because I find it really hard to love a book unless I can identify with at least one of the characters, and there is very little to like in any of the characters here. However, it is humorous. The characters are well defined, although one dimensional, and the events which play out are entertaining. If you like the style of Martin Amis, you may well like this!
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