Freshly Ground

Grinding Down

2011-05-10T18:49:00.003+12:00

It's sad to see something end, but I think that this blog has died a peaceful and natural death.

Freshly Ground was more than just a blog to me. It was my entry into this thing they call "having an online presence", and it turned out to be so much more than I ever imagined. However, as you can see from the lack of posts over the past several months, this blog really has, well, ground down.

But fear not. Although I shall no longer be blogging over here, or posting recipes and delicious photos that make you just want to open your jaw as wide as it will go so that you can, if at all possible, eat the computer screen, I will still be around, and this is not the last gasp from Freshly Ground.

I can now be found over at my recently revamped homepage, Dan.Rabarts.com. There, I'll be blogging, from time to time, as it suits me, about the things I'm most passionate about, namely family, writing, and, occasionally, food. And whatever else I feel like blogging about. Because it's my site, and I can do what I like. Nah nah.

Also, I have a very special project going on around Freshly Ground, and I'm looking forward to getting that to completion and being able to announce it to you all. I think you'll be as excited about it as I am.

Anyway, please come on over to Dan.Rabarts.com and say 'hi". I'd love to see you there.

Saving the Hobbit - The FAQs

2010-10-22T06:58:00.003+13:00

The public response to yesterday's events has made it clear that this situation is as confusing to many as it is potentially disastrous. In response, I'd like to very quickly address what seem to be some of the most common misconceptions floating around out there in the comments, both here and around the blogosphere.

Q: Do the actors have a valid dispute?

A: Yes, but not with the production company 3' 7", or with Wingnut Films. Their claims regarding conditions lie in employment law and should have been taken up with SPADA and the Department of Labour. This could have been done long ago. An opportunity to do so was presented to Actors' Equity 18 months ago, but they chose not to at the insistence of the MEAA's Simon Whipp, who advised them to "wait until The Hobbit".

Q. Should Sir Peter Jackson have met with actors to discuss terms?

A. No. To do so under our current labour laws would have been illegal.

Q. Can't they just cast around the boycott?

A. I'm no casting director, but the answer to that is no. It's not that simple. The more important point is that the damage the boycott has done to this production in particular and also to New Zealand's reputation as a stable place to invest in film projects has been catastrophic.

Q: Does Sir Peter Jackson have a secret agenda to take the production offshore because it's cheaper?

A: Absolute nonsense. Anyone who has worked in Wellington over the past ten years or more knows that a tremendous amount of money has been re-invested by Wingnut Films into the services and infrastructure required for Wellington to offer world-class film studios, post-production facilities, and everything that goes with it, not to mention keeping hundreds of people employed both during filming of larger projects and in the downtime. Everything Jackson needs is here, and it won't come any cheaper taking it elsewhere.

Q. Do the studios have a secret agenda to take the production offshore?

A. The studios have every right to protect their investment. If the risk seems to high to spend their money here, then it makes business sense to take it elsewhere. That's the hard reality of multi-million dollar industries.

Q. Aren't the studios just trying to gouge a bigger tax cut from the Government?

A. Perhaps. According to Sir Peter, they have never asked for one. According to Gerry Brownlee, they have not asked for one. Remember, up until the industrial action was started four weeks ago, there was no discussion about this project going offshore. Not being a studio exec, I can't answer that.

Q. This is just about a rich greedy man getting richer and greedier. (Not exactly a question, but a blatant case of Tall Poppy syndrome that this country has suddenly developed for a man who was our hero not that long ago.)

A. First off, Sir Peter Jackson is anything but greedy, as anyone who knows him and has worked with him will agree. Secondly, yes, he is wealthy, and he has earned every cent of that money through years and years of hard work. If anyone else out there has built a film-making empire from the ground up out of practically nothing, has gone on to bring millions of dollars into our country to feed down into the pockets of ordinary New Zealanders, has created thousands of jobs, has generated billions of dollars in tourism income and created a cultural phenomenon whereby our country is now recognised as a mythical place where dreams can be made reality, then you have a right to criticise whether or not Peter has the right to spend money. If not, then keep it to yourself.

Q. Will losing The Hobbit really be that damaging to our film industry?

A. Yes. The reputation we have as a stable and safe country to bring large jobs to will be gone. Investors will not have confidence that their money is secure and will choose to take it elsewhere. Even the low-budget end of our market is cushioned by the influx of big-budget work - it allows suppliers and technicians to work for lower rates to see projects shot because they love working on them and want to see them made. Without the big-budget work, the low-budget industry will shrivel on the vine as well.

Q. What else can be done? What needs to happen now?

A. That is, of course, the multi-million dollar question. Robyn Malcolm's public renouncement of the boycott last night on TV3 and the assurances that there will be no industrial action taken during this job are good to hear, but just may be too little too late. The damage has been done. The one person who should be stepping forward to take responsibility for this fiasco is Simon Whipp, who refuses to answer questions or to face up the media or the people whose lives he is destroying. Whipp advised Actors' Equity to wait until The Hobbit before starting their dispute action, he has openly stated that he sees this film as an opportunity to unionise the entire NZ film industry, it is his influence that has precipitated this whole affair. This is not wild speculation, it is basic analysis of the MEAA's openly declared intentions and the actions Whipp has taken, regardless of the actual law in this country, to derail a project that represents the life or death of our industry. Whipp needs to face up and bear some responsibility for what he has done. Actors' Equity need to break their ties with the MEAA until that Australian union takes its nose out of our business.

We don't need a unionised industry in this country. We have managed quite well for plenty long enough, thank you very much, and barring that one rogue case of a disgruntled contractor who disputed his employment status with Wingnut a couple of years back, I don't know a single technician who would rather be an employee than a contractor in this industry. Yes, there are some incongruities in the current law that need to be addressed, but the proper place for that is in a review committee with public consultation, the way we handle all issues of law in this country, not in this untenable game of brinksmanship that does nothing but play into the hands of our nearest competitor.

And, of course, this country needs to show Warners and the world that we want this film here. We already know we have the talent and the motivation. Apparently there are going to be public demonstrations in all the major centres next week, though details on that are still murky. Check out this Facebook page.

Keep spreading the word, keep making a noise.We won't go quietly.

Breaking the Silence - Save the Hobbit

2010-10-21T07:04:00.004+13:00

As some of you may know, my day job is in New Zealand's film industry. It is a dynamic and exciting area to be working in, but the events of the past few weeks surrounding The Hobbit have brought the industry as a whole into great peril, and things could not be worse.

However, this in not being seen in the media. All we have been hearing is "actor's conditions" and "Peter Jackson refuses to meet with the union." Until yesterday, we had not heard a whimper of support for the filmmaking genius that brought us LOTR and King Kong. For years we have all presumed that Sir Peter was impervious, a rock that could weather any storm and bring us all through it with him intact. The selfish and destructive actions of the Australian MEAA have proven otherwise.

Last night I joined a thousand other technicians marching through the streets of Wellington in an unscheduled demonstration in support of Peter Jackson, and in support of our local industry. It was well past time that the people who have been so supported by Peter and his tireless work in this country over the last 25 years stood up and showed him that we value and respect him. We owe him a great deal, and we will not stand silent while he fights the fight of his life. He has fought for us. We will fight for him.

These are the basic dynamics of this conflict:

- The Australian Union (the MEAA) is threatened by the dynamic and creative independent NZ film industry that is flourishing on its doorstep, taking projects and doing them better than they could.

- The MEAA has manipulated Actors' Equity into industrial action against The Hobbit specifically because of the massive impact it will have on our small industry.

- Even if The Hobbit is not shot in Australia, but in Ireland or Prague or wherever, losing it will have disastrous effects on the New Zealand film industry.

From the cynical point of view of a film technician seeing his industry being ripped out from under him, it seems pretty clear that whatever machinations are at work here at higher levels, whoever is being played by who, the outcome of all of this will not be better working conditions for actors, as the smoke and mirrors are leading us to believe.

It will be no work for actors, fullstop. Or for technicians for that matter, or the myriad of support services that prop up the industry, or the hundreds of suppliers downstream who prosper on the downstream value of a project of this size.

What many Actors' Equity members don't seem to understand is that by supporting this boycott they are, to all intents and purposes, committing career suicide. Not in a "if you support this boycott we won't hire you in the future", sort of way, but a "there will be no industry in this country anymore" sort of way. I won't argue that there are issues to be discussed, but these relate to employment law and should be taken up with the New Zealand legislature, not with a production company working within that law.

If The Hobbit goes away, the amazing creative workforce we have here, which has been nurtured by Sir Peter for almost three decades, will also go away.

It's time for more than just the puppets of the union to be heard. Last night we marched, and we tried our best to get people to understand just what is at stake here. We want to do this job. We can do this job better than any other country. Sir Peter is a highly collaborative artist, and the success of his work is not simply the result of his own genius, but the combined efforts of hundreds of people, many of whom I brushed shoulders with on the streets of Wellington last night.

Peter Jackson cannot pick up the hundreds of people who comprise this amazing community and take them overseas. These are the people who brought you The Lord of the Rings. These are the people that hand-sculpted the miniatures, who drizzled the blood, who aged the costumes, who hammered and dressed the sets, who rigged the lights. New Zealand is Middle-Earth.

But something drastic needs to happen if that is going to remain the case. The Hobbit made anywhere else will not be drawing on the extensive expertise of a community that have been there and back again, who spent upwards of seven years perfecting the craft that made LOTR the stunning work it is. The only way we can hope to keep this job in New Zealand where it belongs is by making our voices heard.

If you're a fan of The Lord of the Rings, and you want to see another glowing masterpiece on cinema screens in two years time, not a tawdry imitation, then you need to speak up.

Tweet this link, if you're on Twitter.

Post this page to Facebook.

Blog about it, let the world know that The Hobbit is on the precipice of falling into mediocrity, and that you won't stand for it.

Let the studios know that you don't want a cheap knock-off, but a shiny polished original.

Spread the word. Do it now.

Save The Hobbit.

UPDATE: Auckland Film Techs and #SaveTheHobbit & #PeterJackson supporters: Be at 40 Vermont St, Ponsonby, 6.30pm, with placards.

The SJV and What it Means for You.

2010-05-25T20:34:00.002+12:00

Or, more to the point, what it means for me.

But let's back up a little. What, you ask, is an SJV when it's at home?

SJV stands for Sir Julius Vogel, this particular SJV refers to the awards presented by the SFFANZ (Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand) and is this country's pre-eminent recognition of outstanding achievement within or services to the Speculative Fiction genre.I have two fantastic pieces of news regarding the SJV nominations this year. Firstly, nearest and dearest to my heart, the nomination that I put together (after being gently prodded by all-round good chap Grant Stone) for Hugh Cook has been accepted onto the ballot in the category of Services to Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. I've written about Hugh and his life and work a great deal over the last couple of years, so it's fantastic to see him being recognised at last.

One of those articles also earned me a place on the ballot, for Fan Writing, which fills me with a lovely warm glow way down deep inside. Hopefully I didn't swallow a dragon, because that would be uncomfortable in the morning.

There are a raft of other great names in there as well, including my friends Grant Stone, Tim Jones, Philippa Ballantine, Debbie & Matt Cowens, Jenni Dowsett, and Anna Caro. The list is all but bubbling over the rim with talent.

So, in the name of shameless self-promotion, it would be wrong of me not to ask you to cast a vote for Hugh, or for me, or for both of us, or for any of the marvelous folk that have put in t he hard yards and made it onto the ballot, if you were able. Of course, I'd prefer votes to be cast my way, but do what you feel you must. Members of SFFANZ or anyone who attends the Au Contraire Science Fiction Convention in Wellington in August 2010 can vote.

The Bottom Rung

2010-03-30T20:39:00.003+13:00

Long-time readers (if any of you are still coming back to check up on this most sporadic of blogs) might remember a year or more ago when I waxed lyrical about getting my lazy butt into action and writing something every day. Well, it might sound strange but after more than a year that little book, which I promised to write in every day, is only half full. It contains what are, in my writing oeuvre, very rare things called short stories.

I haven't written a lot in that book because shortly after writing the above-mentioned post I got said butt into gear and spent a lot of time hammering out novel length manuscripts. Not at just a few pages a day, but aiming for a writing goal of at least 1000 words a day.

All of this, of course, on the computer, or else I'd have needed several dozen of those lovely little notebooks to contain all those many many words.

Some days I didn't hit the 1000 word mark. On many days I wrote a lot more, a really good day being up to about 5000. Since I wrote that blog post, I have completed two full-length novel manuscripts, and have had significant interest in one of them from a small publisher. It's not a book deal - in fact, it was a very kindly written and helpful rejection, which I will cherish for a long time to come - but it has validated the long hours and the carpal tunnel syndrome and the eye strain that all those words have cost me.

But I didn't start writing this post to brag about getting a rejection letter from a publisher, since I know there are plenty of writers out there who can claim the same thing many times over, and I don't want to tread on any toes.

No, I wanted to point out the power of making a public statement.

I said it, therefore I must do it.

Prior to writing these two manuscripts I had completed a very lengthy and, at this stage, unpublishable epic tale. When I researched the publishing market and found out just how unpublishable a 275,000 word fantasy series was for an unknown author, I began to languish. I had a plan, but I had not put it into action.

Telling everyone that I had committed to putting words on the page every day cemented the need to do so in my mind, and the habit was formed. If nothing else, failing to do so would mean that I had lied to you all, and I'm not the lying kind.

Well, apart from writing fiction, which is lying in its purest sense, but we won't get into that here.

And now, a year and a bit later, I may not be a published author but I have my first rejection under my belt and I know that my strategy is taking me closer every day. I have gone from standing on the ground looking up at the ladder hanging mysteriously in the overlit sky, to clutching with all my might to the bottom rung of that ladder and holding on for all I'm worth.

So if I don't crop up here more than once or twice a month (as has been the case for a while now) you know where I am: with my head in another world, thinking of horrible things to do to my poor characters.

Failing that, of course, you can normally find me lurking around on Twitter, with my legs dangling uselessly beneath me.

The Prolific Blogger Award

2010-02-19T21:17:00.002+13:00

It strikes me as somewhat ironic that I sat down to write a(nother) post apologising for my slackness in the blogging department of late, only to remember that I was recently named in the "Prolific Blogger Awards" by my friend Debbie Cowens.Yes, it has in fact been a month since I last posted here, so no, I don't really deserve an award that suggests I blog an awful lot. A year ago that was so. But a lot has happened in the past year.

My excuse this month for not blogging has been quite simple: I have had far more important writing work to get done. There are only so many hours in the day and writing fiction has been taking up most of my time when I'm not working or being a family guy. There, excuses made and moving on.

Nonetheless, I'm not one to turn down a prize. I believe there are cream buns at the awards ceremony, so I won't be doing myself out of free cream buns.

The idea is that I must go on to praise seven other bloggers (yeah, it's not the most exclusive of clubs) and give them the same award. At last count, there were at least 150 other registered winners. Seems to me a bit like one of those lotteries you get in the mailbox that promises you've already won, but I'm not going to let that worry me. Cream buns, man!

Unfortunately, I'm fairly sure that most of the bloggers I read don't read me back, and Debbie has already chosen most of the good ones who do. Full cred to Jenni, Morgue, and Tim for getting their invitation to eat cream buns with us.

I'll add a few more to the list, bloggers who really are prolific and whom I think will actually read this post:

Off-Black - Random musings of a 30-something guy from The Hutt;

Undulating Ungulate - Also random but somewhat darker musings of the mildly anarchic, in the nicest possible way;

The Alligator Love - The trials and tribulations of a chef in Washington State, USA, just trying to find a way back to NZ before his car really eats him;

and last but not least...

Strong-light - More slice of life stuff from Morgue's better half; short, sweet and to the point.

Prolific Blogger Award Rules | ONE: Every winner is expected to pass on this award to at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers. | TWO: Each Prolific Blogger is asked to link to the blog from which he/she has received this award. | THREE: Every Prolific Blogger is asked to link back to this post, which explains the origins of the award. | FOUR: Every Prolific Blogger is asked to visit the post listed in rule #3 and add his/her name to the “Mr. Linky” at the bottom.

Just like Debbie, I don't expect the above prolific bloggers to list seven bloggers, unless they wish to do so. :-)

Cappuccino Cheesecake

2010-01-18T20:51:00.001+13:00

I promised it, and here it is: Cheesecake.

I took this recipe out of the same cheesecake recipe book as my first Cheesecake post, and I have to say it was just as good as that one. I modified the recipe slightly to use a brewed shot of espresso rather than instant coffee, but I'm a bit of a coffee snob like that.

So without further ado, here it comes.

Cappuccino Cheesecake
(Serves 1, unless anyone else hears that you've made it)

Ingredients

Base

1 1/2C crushed Wine Biscuits
2T Sugar
50g Butter

Filling

500g Cream Cheese
1/2C Sugar
1 1/2T Flour
2 Eggs
1/2C Sour Cream
1 Short Black, with a pinch of cinnamon mixed in.

Whipped cream to serve

Pour a strong shot of espresso coffee. Add sugar and drink. This will put a spring in your step, if nothing else. Pour another shot for the cheesecake mixture and place in the freezer or fridge to cool.
Combine all the ingredients for the base in a blender, then press into a 20cm springform tin lined with baking paper. Bake at 160C for 10 minutes, remove from the oven and cool. Increase oven temperature to 230C.
In the blender, combine the cream cheese, sugar and flour, mixing at a medium speed until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing each in well. Add the Sour Cream and blend.
Add the cold coffee to the filling and mix well. Pour the filling over the base and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 120C and bake for another 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Test with a knife to determine that the centre of the cheesecake is cooked.
Loosen from the rim of the tin and allow to cool before removing. Chill.
Serve with whipped cream or natural yoghurt, and maybe, just maybe, coffee.

(I'm going to be honest - I ate this for breakfast, just because I could.)

Now, Despite What I Said Earlier...

2010-01-12T20:47:00.000+13:00

This time a year ago, I made some rather jocular and possibly insulting comments about barbeques, the tools that are used to drive them, and the cleaning habits of most the men who lay claim to them.
However, despite all my protestations to the contrary, I finally decided that we did, indeed, need a bigger barbeque. Here's me, the boy, and Off-Black Sam, who helped me assemble said new barbeque. (Thanks again, Sam & Fish. Hope Charlotte's still getting a kick out of the box!)
And this, as you can see, is a big, three-burner barbeque, complete with oversized barbeque tools and the obligatory cold beer. See how bright and shiny they are when they're new?
This is the first slab of strip loin steak to go on the barbie, a cut worthy of baptising such a fine cooking device.
These are the mushrooms and onions, for flavouring the grill plate.
This is the steak, sizzling and flaring.
Asparagus, because it's in season and absolutely divine with simple seasonings on the hot plate.
And this is the first dinner plate dished up straight off the new barbeque, with soft buttered rolls and steak sauce to round it out.

What can I conclude about barbeques now that I've had a chance to get used to using one that is bigger than a large frying pan?

Well, I'll be honest and say that yes, good long tools are a requirement. I never really doubted it, but until I got this barbie, I never needed them.

As for cleaning, well, that's another story. I make an effort to not only scrape down the grills and to burn off the dead carbon, but I also slice a couple of lemons and smear them over the plate while it's still hot to get it all citrusy clean. My conclusion is that it's well worth the time to take a few minutes to clean the barbeque after I'm done cooking on it than to open it up a couple of weeks later to find it all greasy and smelly and crawling with critters.

On another subject, this post marks my return to the blogosphere after a near silence for the past two-and-a-half months. Thanks for sticking around and for popping back to check in. I had a very focused couple of months working on the new draft of a novel that is my current obsession, and then we had a nice couple of weeks away in the Marlborough Sounds, sailing and rowing and drinking wine, mostly.

I'm back into it now, but I rather suspect that I will be light on the blogging until I've put the complete rewrite of this novel to bed, which might take me a couple more months.

By way of apology, my next post will be cheesecake.

Garden Update Summer 2010

2010-01-11T21:44:00.004+13:00

I know it might seem like this blog has ground to a halt.

(Yes, I went there. It's an awful pun, but it was really begging for it.)

However, we are still alive down here, there has just been an awful lot going on and a whole load of reasons why I haven't been blogging, the main one of which, as I've said before, is that I'm spending a lot more time doing what I should be doing, which is writing and submitting that writing to publishers.

However, I thought it was about time to share with you all how our efforts at growing a garden have gone this year. You might remember our little vege patch that we planted back in August. It did pretty well.

We got lots of leafy greens...
...cauliflowers...
...broccoli...
...peas...
...lettuce...
... and we're still getting strawberries - as long as a certain 3-year-old doesn't pick them the moment they go from green to pink.

We're also getting little cherry tomatoes coming through one at a time, which is about as well as anyone I know that has tried to grow tomatoes has done this season.

Overall it has been a success. My usual pumpkin and potato patch up the back was left this year to ... er ... lie fallow. Yes, it might look like it went to wrack and ruin on the outside, but there is a method to the madness. Fixing nitrogen to the soil and all that, you know.

Honest. It's not just another excuse for being slack...

A Temporary and Unexpected Hiatus

2009-12-01T20:28:00.003+13:00

Let me start by apologising to those of my readers who have been popping back here to catch up on Freshly Ground over the past three weeks, only to find that I haven't been updating.

No, there has been no family calamity, nor was I abducted by aliens or a shadowy government organisation both of whom wanted me to cook for them the best meal they've ever had. None of those things happened.

Quite simply, with the silly season upon us and work and life getting busy again, something had to give, and blogging seems to have been the thing that gave.

As well as that, I have another opportunity to submit a novel to a publisher, and I'm pouring every spare moment I can find into working on getting that polished up until it shines. I was doing this about this time last year too, but for a different publisher, and it is always an explosively productive time for me, whether the submission is successful or not.

I very much doubt that I will blog here again before next year, although I may try to get some of my in-progress photos of our vege garden up this weekend coming. It really has been something to be proud of.

And with that I must leave you again, so that I can go and grovel to my readers at The Podagogue. Catch you all later!

A Curry Odyssey Episode 10: Mum's Tangy Sweet Curry

2009-11-03T13:29:00.002+13:00

I love it when I can combine two themes into one post: In this case, we have the latest installment in the Great Curry Odyssey, as well as another fast, healthy meal for you crazy NaNoWriMo participants.

By fast, I mean quick to prepare. So long as you can get this ready and leave it to stew for a couple of hours, then it won't take you away from your frantic writing pace for long.

This is the one that started it all; my Mum's famous Tangy Sweet Curry. It's by and large more of a British dish than an Indian one, but if you can get your hands on a good pre-mixed curry powder then there's no reason why this shouldn't stand in for a regular Indian feast. Takes about 15 minutes to prepare. Serve it up with bread rolls and you don't even have to spend time cooking rice.

Tangy Sweet Curry
(Serves 4)Ingredients
500g Stewing Steak, tenderised and cubed
Olive Oil for frying
8 Garlic cloves, minced
2 Onions, sliced
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
1T Flour (Use Potato Flour to make this Gluten-Free)
150g Tomato Paste
1/3 Cup Water
1 C Beef Stock
2t Curry Powder
2t Honey
1 Apple, cored and chopped
1 Kumara, peeled and diced
Heat the oil in a large pan. Soften the garlic and onions. Add the meat, season with the salt and pepper and flour and brown. Add the tomato paste and water.
Into your beef stock mix the curry powder and honey, then add to the pot.
Add the chopped apple and kumara. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Boil up some peas, steam a few carrots and some broccoli, and serve with buttered bread rolls.

Quicky Pizza

2009-10-29T20:28:00.001+13:00

This blog might have left you with the impression that we eat ridiculously well every night (and most mornings, too).

I can assure you, that is not really the case. It is certainly our intention, but we're just as hard-pressed for time, energy and budget as everyone else out there.

Weeknights especially seem to go the way of meals that are as fast and simple as we can manage. Most of the flash and interesting stuff, the time-consuming stuff, happens on the weekends. It's sort of like the magic of television, only it's the internet.

But you saw it here, so it must be true, right?

Anyway, over the next few posts, I plan to intersperse a few more of our weeknight meals, and the little things we like to do to keep our meals vibrant, healthy, and tasty.

Here we have really quick, simple pizza.

The bases were in the freezer, leftover from another night of homemade pizza.

Then all you need is a brush of olive oil, a little bit of minced garlic, a slather of pizza sauce, some sliced salami, onion, and capsicum, and a grating of cheese.
In the oven for 18 minutes, and served with salad. Dinner made in less than half an hour.

More of these will follow, because I'm sure there are folks out there who will find them useful and hopefully inspiring.

'Urban Driftwood' Review

2009-10-26T19:12:00.002+13:00

Our first real review has come in for Urban Driftwood.

Please take a minute to pop over to Tim Jones' website, Book in the Trees, and read what he has to say about our little book.

If you haven't already, you can get a free PDF copy of Urban Driftwood from my homepage, or you can pick up a paperback from Lulu.com ($9.00US plus freight).

We are currently recording and editing an audio version which will be released as a free podcast as well, so keep your ears open for that. Watch this space for more details.

If you've already read Urban Driftwood and enjoyed it, I'd really love it if you could take a minute to rate it and even write a quick review over at Lulu.com.

A Curry Odyssey Episode 8: Chicken Masala

2009-10-22T07:21:00.000+13:00

The Great Curry Odyssey continues!

I'll have to tell the truth here. All that hard work with the spices and the grinding and the frying and the blending and all that was never going to catch on. I think it's like Marmite or Chicken & Waffles; you really have to be brought up with it for it to make sense. That's not to say I've given up, mind you, or that I won't plunge into the hard work of real curry again. But for now, I'm not ashamed to say that I'm going to be looking for some shortcuts.

(Yes, you're right, I am ashamed. I'm weak and broken and deserve to be given the task of grinding coriander seeds and lemongrass to paste by hand for a thousand years with tennis elbow, but hey, that's not going to happen, is it?)

So for my first stop on the road to curry-shortcut-ville, I took the Garam Masala turnoff. I know that this is a vagary, but it is also a redemption of sorts. Garam Masala can be as unique as the person blending it. You can either pick it off the shelf at a supermarket, buy it pre-ground from your local Indian or Asian grocer, or, if you have the talent and the tastebuds, you can grind your own. Essentially Garam Masala is a blend of ground dried spices, and can include anything from coriander seeds to turmeric to cinnamon to cumin.

I got a nice pre-blended one from the little Indian grocer who used to be across the road, but which went out of business some months ago. It's probably going a wee bit stale, but it still suits us, and that's the one I used in this recipe.

Gluten-Free Casserole Chicken Masala

(Serves 6)
Ingredients
3kg Chicken Pieces, thawed, skin on
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
4T Potato Flour
2T Garam Masala
1/2 a whole bulb of Garlic, minced
4T Avocado Oil
2t Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil for frying
1/2 C White Wine
150g Tomato Paste
3 Onions, sliced
1 400g tin Chopped Tomatoes

Toss the chicken in the salt and pepper, flour, Garam Masala, garlic, avocado oil, and vinegar.
Fry in batches in a heavy pan.
Place the browned chicken in an oven dish.
Deglaze the pan with the white wine, then add the tomatoes and onions. Pour over the chicken.
Bake, uncovered, at 200C for 1 1/2 - 2 hours.
The meat should be falling off the bone. Serve with rice and steamed veges.

Crockpot Herbed Lamb Shanks

2009-10-16T15:24:00.000+13:00

It's been a while since I gave the good word to my friends at Wai-Ora, but that time has rolled around again.

I would have loved to have posted more lovely lamb deliciousness this winter, but it has not been the case. Mostly, this is because when we cook lamb we generally keep it very simple, and so there's not much to say about it, really.

The other thing is this: We are big fans of Lamb Shanks. Knuckles, Shanks, whatever you call them, there was a time, not so long ago, when they were a cheap and delicious meal that we would have at least every couple of weeks.

But something changed. The twin-packs of knuckles we used to get from the supermarket for $5 have crept up to $7 or $8, or even more. For two people (and given the long cooking time) that's not such a great deal anymore. You could pretty much buy steak for that price, and cook it in 10 minutes.

What happened to push up the price of a joint that used to be considered little more than offal?

I tell you, it's those damned Celebrity Chefs again. That, and possibly the severe shortages of lamb due to last year's weather, the declining market, the shift from lamb farming to dairy in New Zealand, and whatever else. But I'm going to blame Oliver and Ramsay. By doing the right thing and championing delicious cuts of meat like the Lamb Shank, they've pushed up demand and therefore market value for something that really should be an affordable family meal. Now it's almost a luxury.

With this small travesty simmering in my viscera I went to the market, and drooled over the selection in the Wai-Ora lamb fridge like I always do. When I saw two Lamb Shanks for $7, I was equally outraged, but then I did the math.

It was the same price as you'd pay for the ones in the supermarket, and they were slightly smaller, but, as we well know, of a much superior quality (I kid you not, and I have the pictures to prove it). Reluctantly accepting that if Lamb Shanks were now to be a treat they might as well be a delicious treat, I bought them.

No regrets.

But it does seem a shame that Lamb Shanks might now be a rarity in our diet, rather than a reasonably frequent staple. There's nothing quite like having that bone on the plate, all melting meat and oily juices. Very primal. For the sake of preserving these memories for future generations, I took the liberty of recording in great detail the cooking and even eating of these most delicious joints.

Because that's what I do.

Crockpot Herbed Lamb Shanks

(Serves 2)

Ingredients

2 Lamb Knuckles
Fresh Mint, chopped
Fresh Thyme, chopped
Olive Oil
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
Zest of 1 Lemon
2T Flour or Potato Flour for Gluten-Free
4 Cloves of Garlic, minced
1 Cup Beef or Lamb Stock
1 Onion, chopped
2T Sour Cream

Grind up the herbs, lemon zest, garlic, flour and seasoning with a mortar and pestle, adding enough olive oil to loosen it. Coat the knuckles thoroughly.

Place the knuckles in the slow cooker, push the onion in around the meat, and pour the stock in around the edges of the dish. Be careful not to rinse the herbs off the shanks with the stock.

Cook on High for 1 hour, then switch to low for a further 3 1/2 - 4 hours.
When the shanks are done, blend the remains in the crockpot into gravy.
Add the sour cream to the gravy, mix well and spoon onto plates.Lay the shanks on top of the gravy. Serve with couscous cooked in beef stock and fresh steamed vegetables. As promised, this is the depth of colour you'll get in the middle of one of these lamb shanks. That, my friends, is flavour, and that is why we have to do so little to get Wai-Ora lamb tasting amazing. It already is.

In case you missed it before, you can find the Wai-Ora truck at various markets around Wellington on the weekend, or you order direct from their site. And as I've said before, Wai-Ora don't pay me anything to promote their product. I'd just hate to see them disappear from my market, so get out there and support them, or I'll be cross.

A New Yorker in New Zealand

2009-10-11T20:17:00.000+13:00

I'm not a big desserts sort of a guy. You may have picked up on that from the scarcity of desserts gracing these pages. That and the fact that I refer to my lovely wife as Dessert Chef.

It is Dessert Chef that does the desserts. That is just how it is.

Until Dessert Chef got a book for her birthday.
If there is a dessert that can get my mouth watering at the very thought, it is real cheesecake.

For real cheesecake, I will enter the kitchen, roll up my sleeves and make dessert.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, the opportunity to make cheesecake was the best excuse I had ever had to buy a blender.

Yes, I can hear you. You're saying: "what, you don't already have a blender?" Well now I do.

There was no point wasting any more time. It's many years now since we were in New York, but my first stop on the Cheesecake Highway was at the corner of Fifth and Broadway.

I will say this: living out this particular dream was not a cheap one. You could have bought three of those cheap, sugary things that call themselves cheesecakes in supermarket fridges by the time you'd made this cheesecake. But the taste, without a doubt, simply does not compare.

And in reality I could have halved this recipe and made one smaller cheesecake which would have served us perfectly well, too. As it was we were eating cheesecake every night for half the week.

I am not complaining. Not one crumb.

New York Style Cheesecake

(Serves just the two of you, if you hide it from your guests)
Ingredients

Base
120g Wine Biscuits
3/4 C Sugar
50g melted Butter

Filling
1 1/2 C Sour Cream
1 C Sugar
2 Eggs
1 t Vanilla Essence
500g Cream Cheese
40g melted Butter
For the base, blend the biscuits, sugar and melted butter. (Look at the blender go. Isn't it sweet?)
Grease a 23cm springform pan and line the bottom with the base mixture, pressing down firmly and as evenly as possible.
Blend the sour cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. (There it goes; that's one sweet blender.)
Chop up your cream cheese into small blocks. (I just wanted an excuse to put in a photo of the cream cheese. Nomnomnomnom.)
Add the cream cheese to the sour cream mixture and blend. Pour in the melted butter as you blend the mixture down to a smooth consistency. (You couldn't do that without a sweet, sweet blender.)
Pour the mixture over the base and spread out in an even layer.

Put the oven rack one third of the way up, and Fan Bake at 170C for 45mins. Check the interior of the cheesecake is cooked by sticking a knife in it - if it comes out mostly clean, it's done. (Ours took almost an hour.)

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, overnight if you can.
Dust with icing sugar and serve with freshly whipped cream.

First Harvest '09

2009-10-07T20:25:00.002+13:00

A few weeks ago we planted out our little vege patch in anticipation of Spring.

I'm sure you've all been wondering just how that garden is growing.

Haven't you?
So far, so good.
We've kept out most of the wildlife, apart from the odd white butterfly, and everything is growing like crazy. So much so that we really need to actually stake out the beans and peas or risk losing them completely.
I was even able to go out today and pluck leaves from the lettuces for our dinner tonight.
Look at that, lovely and fresh from the garden. Such a great feeling.
Not so fresh from the garden. But they feel pretty great too. (Stop squishing the sausages in your hands, Dan.)
And here it is: Sausage, egg and fresh garden salad with olives and feta on toast, all seasoned with a big old helping of satisfaction.

Tropical Beef Stew

2009-10-04T20:30:00.000+13:00

Has it really been a week since I blogged here? Where does the time go? My sincerest apologies. I shall try my best not to leave you all alone for so long again.

Just when we thought it was getting all summery again, the southerly has come back through, so the fire is going and the wintry food keeps rolling out of our kitchen.

This one comes from the Recipe Book of the Weird and Wonderful - that's not a real recipe book, mind you, but an excuse for me to make up strange combinations and cook them just because I can.

This particular meal came about because we happened to have a whole fresh pineapple in the house. We'd sliced up about half of it and eaten it off a platter during the day, but as anyone who's ever kept pineapple will know, you really should eat it the day you slice it open or it goes bad.

I really don't like it when things go bad.

So, no matter that I had taken stewing steak out of the freezer to cook for dinner that night. The pineapple was going in with it too, somehow.

Thus was born the Tropical Beef Stew. Think of it as a Summer-Winter fusion if you must, as Spring in Wellington so often is.

Tropical Beef Stew
(Serves 4)Ingredients:
400g Stewing Steak, cubed and seasoned with freshly ground pepper and salt
1 Large Lemon
1/2 Fresh Pineapple, cubed, or 1 200g Can of Pineapple Pieces
Whole Nutmeg for grating
2C Hot Beef Stock
Grate the zest of the lemon and a few gratings of nutmeg over the beef and toss well. Batch fry the meat, draining the cooking liquid into a large pot as you go.
Transfer the cooked meat into this pot. Heat the pan again and add the pineapple, squeezing over the juice of the lemon. Heat briefly, tossing to deglaze the pan, then add to the pot along with the beef stock.

Bring to a rapid boil for 20 minutes, then reduce to a simmer for 1 1/2hrs.
Dish over rice boiled in beef stock, with sour cream and fresh steamed veges.

(The odd shape on the left in this photo is a dumpling. I had some dough that I had frozen, but here's my advice: dumpling dough doesn't unfreeze and cook very well. Don't bother, or, if you know a trick that makes them not come out like shrivelled little piles of rubber, leave me a comment so I know better for next time.)

I'll be honest: This dish got a mixed reception. I liked it, but not everyone at the table thought it was something I should add to our regular menu. But if you like beef and pineapple, it's a pretty good combination.

Bacon Bolognaise

2009-09-27T21:14:00.007+13:00

Just when I think that it's getting all summery, it turns cold again. Luckily, I've got a whole swag of warm winter stewy-type meals sitting here in the drafts folder waiting to tickle your saliva glands, but this one ought to go down just as well for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere who have started to feel autumn biting around your ankles.

This recipe was inspired by my friend Jenni's trip to Rarotonga, where she had a dish that sounded so good I just had to try it out myself.

Fortuitously, the same day I read that post we had somehow ended up with two lots of meat defrosted, which is not like us at all, and both had to be used up or one would have to be thrown out. The Stephano's Spaghetti Bolognaise with Bacon was obviously just meant to be.

Of course, not having been there myself, all I really had to go off was the name, and the rest I just made up. The cherry tomatoes, for example, were only in the fridge because a certain 2-year-old had got hold of the packet in the supermarket and started eating them, forcing Dessert Chef to buy them. As it turns out, they might have been the best bit.

So thanks to Jenni for the inspiration, and to my boy for the odd choice of unsanctioned supermarket snacks.

Bacon Bolognaise

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

300g Beef Mince
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
1T Balsamic Vinegar
1T Worcester Sauce
1/2t Freshly Grated Nutmeg
1t Dried Thyme or 1T Fresh Thyme Leaves
4T Tomato Paste
Olive Oil for Frying
1 400g Tin Chopped Tomatoes
4 Rashers Bacon, chopped
4 Garlic Cloves, Minced
150g Mushrooms, peeled and sliced
1 Punnet Cherry Tomatoes
Heat oil in a pan, add the mince and brown. Season with salt and pepper, vinegar, worcester, nutmeg, and thyme. Cook these flavours into the meat, then add the tomato paste and reduce. Cook until the moisture is absorbed, then add the tinned tomatoes. Mix the bacon and garlic, then fry until crispy. Put your pasta in to cook at this point.
Add the mushrooms to the mince to heat through.
Rinse a handful of cherry tomatoes.
Add the cherry tomatoes to the bacon pan for just a couple of minutes at the end, enough time to soften and warm a little. Toss well in the garlicky salty goodness of the bacon.
Mix the bacon and tomatoes into the mince at the end, then dish over long pasta, dressed with freshly grated parmesan cheese, freshly ground black pepper, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Then tell me if it tastes like Rarotonga.

Burgundy Beef Stew (Mine, I tell you)

2009-09-23T20:26:00.000+12:00

There's an irony here, and it's not just the cast-iron pan (although in some ways, it is).

Inspired by all the Slow Cooker recipes I've posted here at Freshly Ground, my Mum bought me the Slow Cooker recipe book pictured above. Thanks, Mum.

She also asked me to try a few recipes from it and post them here, so that was, by all means, my intention.

The trouble was that on the day Aunty L came to visit and I was going to do just as Mum had asked, we ran out of hours in the day, and therein lies the irony.

I sort of had to adapt the Slow-cooked Burgundy Beef Stew with Horseradish Dumplings - which I had planned to make - into something that I didn't need to, well, Slow-cook. Also, I just made normal dumplings. Not a big horseradish fan.

So, Mum, here's what might be a version of that recipe, but done in the oven, the old-fashioned way. Anyway, I had to change the recipe somewhat so as not to be in some sort of copyright breach, so I'm going to call this...

Dan's Burgundy Beef Stew

(Serves 6)

Ingredients

750g Stewing Steak, cubed
1t dried thyme or 1T fresh thyme
Whole nutmeg, for grating
1 Onion, sliced
3-4 Cloves Garlic, chopped
2T Flour or Potato Flour
300ml Red Wine
300ml Beef Stock
1T Tomato Puree
2 Bay Leaves
3 Carrots, peeled and sliced
1 Leek, trimmed and sliced into rings
100g Mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
Oil for frying
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt

Season the meat with salt and pepper and a splash of wine. Heat the oil in a pan, then brown the meat in batches. While frying, add thyme and a few grates of nutmeg. Add the onion, stir in and fry for a few minutes. Add the garlic and flour, then mix in the wine and stock.
Add the tomato puree, bay leaves and salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then transfer to an oven dish.
Mix in the mushrooms and leeks, make sure there is enough liquid in the dish to almost cover the stew (add more hot water if necessary), and place in the oven at 180c for 2 hours.

Prepare your dumplings when the stew goes in the oven, and add to the oven dish for the last 20 minutes of cooking.Dish up with rice (boiled in beef stock, of course) and a nice glass of red wine.

The slow-cooker version is to shift the meat from the pan to the slow-cooker on low for 7 hours, then adding the leeks and mushrooms, turning the slow-cooker up to high, and then 45 minutes later adding the dumplings for a further 45 minutes. Certainly not something you can start into at 3pm, but here's the quick version. And as you can see, it turned out pretty well.

Honey Soy Chicken Wraps

2009-09-20T20:18:00.000+12:00

There's been a hint of summer in the air these last couple of weeks, even if it just turned cold again a few days ago.

Such warm tidings get me thinking about crisp salads and food I can take out onto the deck to enjoy in the sun. It might not be quite that way yet, but it's not far off. I'll be blogging stews and casseroles for a week or two to come, but this incarnation of classic honey-soy chicken counts as one of my personal successes.

I've tried time and again to make a good honey-soy mix that I can whip up in the frying pan, only to have the honey burn and ruin everything.

Finally, after much banging of my head against the bench, I had the brilliant thought: Add the honey right at the end.

Ping!

The most obvious solutions are often the most easily overlooked.

Since making this for these wraps, this recipe has come out again and again to make stirfries, applying the same technique, and it has worked every time.

Dip your brush and paint me proud.

Honey Soy Chicken (For Wraps, Stir-fries, etc)

(Serves 2)

Ingredients
1 Fresh Chicken Breast, diced into 1cm pcs;
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
1T Balsamic Vinegar
1 dsp Potato Flour
2 Garlic Cloves, Minced
Olive Oil or Rice Bran Oil, for frying
1/2 Red Onion, finely chopped
2T Honey
2T Soy

Heat the oil in a pan. Season the chicken with the salt and pepper, and toss in the vinegar and potato flour. (Normal flour probably works fine, too; I've found the lighter texture of potato flour prevents it from clumping and is a bit less thick and gluggy. Using potato flour won't make this recipe Gluten-Free unless you also have Gluten-Free Soy Sauce, which most commercial brands are not.)

Add the chicken to the pan and brown all over. Add the onion and soften.

Place the Soy Sauce and honey in a microwave-proof dish and heat in the microwave for about 45 seconds (1200w microwave). Remove and mix well.

When the chicken is cooked, add the honey-soy mixture to the pan, mix through, bring to a brief simmer and serve.
We spooned ours into tortilla wraps, with grated carrot, salad greens, beetroot, peppers, cheese, sour cream, and fresh sliced tomatoes. We could almost convince ourselves it was summer already by the looks of them.

Hugh Cook – The Wordsmith and the Warrior

2009-09-15T07:22:00.007+12:00

This article was produced as part of New Zealand Speculative Fiction Week. For more information, go to Pterodaustro Dreams.

Hugh Cook might not be a name instantly recognised by readers of the fantasy genre, but to his legion of dedicated fans across the world, mention of the man and his work inspires a sense of reverence.

Cook remains one of New Zealand’s unsung heroes of fantasy literature, despite his achievements outshining those of many of our more well-known authors. Between 1986 and 1992 Cook released his Chronicles of an Age of Darkness series, a ten-book cycle of stand-alone fantasy novels. Set on a world ruled by bloodthirsty emperors, threatened by swarms of monsters, and blessedly devoid of goblins and elves, the Chronicles capture a history of Cook’s lands and their people in a multitude of voices, spanning continents, and all occurring roughly within the same timeframe of a decade or two. Characters recur across the books, making cameo appearances from one story to the next, weaving a complex web of events that draws the reader through the series, however unrelated each volume may seem to be at a glance.

Cook was among a group of authors who eschewed the traditions of Tolkienesque high fantasy, choosing instead to write about the dark, unsavoury aspects of human nature in the grim harshness of a world bent on crushing the meek. In Cook’s world, orcs are hunted for their blubber and sea dragons are vain creatures who pretend to recite poetry in their sleep before sinking into snoring heaps. Empires are driven to war by syphilitic emperors, who are in turn murdered by warring sons. Heroism is a constant theme, usually as a partner to vanity, folly and ultimately death, and can be summed up in the immortal line, “vaunting their boasts with the blood of their lungs on their lips.”

Suffice to say that Cook rebelled, writing unorthodox fantasy in an unorthodox world. He dismantled old tropes and bent the genre like light through a smoked lens. He replaced the tired theme of good versus evil with one which instead pitted brutality against barbarism, and rarely delivered a clear victor. Cook not only rejected the clichés of the fantasy genre; he subverted them with an almost malicious glee.

To judge Cook’s success by book sales alone would be misleading, but the numbers are certainly impressive at first glance. Altogether, the Chronicles sold around 450,000 copies, and that in itself is reason for celebration for any New Zealand author. The Wizards and the Warriors, together with its US incarnation, Wizard War, sold over 160,000 copies, a phenomenal sales record for any fantasy author.
Unfortunately, as the Chronicles became less conventional and more obtuse, sales began to decline. This was compounded by the decision made by bookselling chain W.H. Smith to drop Cook’s books from their shelves when sales slowed, which inevitably led to an even steeper fall. Despite a rebounding of style and content in the last three books of the series towards more action-based storytelling, Cook had largely lost the means to supply to his mainstream audience, with sales for these three books falling to between 7,000 and 10,000 copies each. I bought all my copies of Hugh’s books in my local Whitcoulls here in New Zealand, where his books enjoyed pride of place on their shelves with every release. But if the books were not on the shelves overseas, then Cook’s fans had little chance of finding them.

Cook’s prose drew heavily on the landscape, places and mythology of New Zealand, from the legendary Taniwha of Quilth, to the Ngati Moana, to a prison called Maremoremo (after Paremoremo in Auckland). Our native flora and fauna often made cameo appearances in wild locales, including weka, kauri and rimu, to name but a few – all of this well over a decade before Peter Jackson delivered our country up to the world as Middle Earth. Cook refused to suffer from cultural cringe; he embraced our country’s uniqueness and used it to flavour his own inimitable world and style.

China Mieville, author of Perdido Street Station, sums Cook up nicely; “Hugh Cook was one of the most inventive, witty, unflinching, serious, humane and criminally underrated writers in imaginative fiction. Or anywhere.” It remains a shame that so few New Zealanders know that Cook was a Kiwi writer, but there is a good reason for this: Hugh Cook may have lived in New Zealand and written in New Zealand, but I suspect he saw the same tired faults with our nationalistic model of publishing and author recognition as he saw in the failure of the fantasy genre to redefine itself. Accordingly, after publishing Plague Summer here in 1980, he bypassed the New Zealand publishing model and went instead to the London market, where he secured publishing deals almost simultaneously for both his science fiction novel The Shift (Jonathan Cape, 1986) and the first volume in the Chronicles series, The Wizards and the Warriors (Corgi,1986).
What separated Cook from so many of his contemporaries was his ability to alter his prose style from book to book, while he never lost his unique authorial voice. Two of the Chronicles, The Wishstone and the Wonderworkers and The Wazir and the Witch, take the form of actual recorded histories, thick with the idiosyncrasies of both the imaginary scribe and subsequent editors, and are thus peppered with redactions and long, apparently unrelated diatribes. These books are full of acerbic dark wit and bleak philosophies, and represent, in some ways, Cook’s ultimate success at writing fantasy that transcended the sword and sorcery models of the genre. For all their apparently random digressions beyond the story, these two books might be seen as the pinnacle of Cook’s genius, for there is a depth to these tales that no amount of Feistian swashbuckling or Eddingsesque adventuring could rival. Some readers even suggested that ‘Hugh Cook’ was not one writer but many, a collaboration of individuals writing in isolation with a single grand design in mind. But Hugh Cook was just one man, a prolific author and poet, whose storytelling skills ascended beyond the formulaic norm into something infinitely more enduring.

Ironically it was these two books, with their challenging diversions into philosophy and metaphysics, that seemed to undermine Cook’s mainstream success. Book sales for these two volumes showed a steep slide from his earlier highs, and may have contributed to the W.H. Smith decision and its consequences for Cook’s publishing career. Cook did with fantasy what hard science fiction does to that broader genre, by delving into in-depth ruminations of the unknown and fantastical in the body of his storytelling. Cook teased apart the nature of magic and the supernatural as demi-scientific concepts, as well as exploring the brutal underside of human nature as represented by its practice in politics and warfare – stark metaphors for the real world, despite being dished up in the barbaric soup of a fantasy setting. Apparently, booksellers suspected that works of this complexity and wisdom would not be appreciated by fans of the tales of blood-soaked armies, pirates, and torturers that had preceded them. This was truly a pity.

Cook’s epic plan for a sixty book series was accordingly cut short, and after publishing the brilliant conclusion to the Chronicles, The Witchlord and the Weaponmaster, he went on to champion print-on-demand technology and electronic formats, constantly moving into newer and stranger worlds with his writing. He was among the first authors to publish works through Lulu.com with the Oceans of Light trilogy and later, Cancer Patient. Even so, the Chronicles remain Cook’s legacy, and copies of these volumes continue to fetch outlandish prices in second-hand book markets around the world (my own collection must be worth a small fortune, according to Amazon – but it is most certainly not for sale).

Cook was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2005. He endured months of chemotherapy and radiation treatment in Auckland, which briefly sent the cancer into remission. During this ordeal he wrote Cancer Patient, a collection of musings, poetry and recollections which document his struggle with the disease and what he learned about life and the human condition in the process.This book is available for free as an online e-book or as a download from zenvirus.com, one of Hugh’s many websites. Unfortunately in 2007 the cancer returned, and Cook passed away on November 8th, 2008, after bravely battling the disease for so many years. It is a testament to the scope of his fanbase that the obituary I wrote for him, which was published in the New Zealand Herald and which I posted to my blog in December last year, remains one of my most frequently visited pages.

Ultimately, Cook was both Wordsmith and Warrior. Poems, stories and characters were his tools and his weapons. He wrote with a passion, producing fiction at a prolific rate, and the English language would be greatly enriched if all the words and terms he had coined in his oeuvre were to be introduced into common parlance. He fought to find new ways forward in the publishing world, exploiting technologies that are only now starting to establish their true place in the electronic market. He maintained his integrity as an author to the very end, determined to always share the stories he had to tell, and not those that others wanted him to tell. At the end, he fought an unseen enemy – fought it and beat it, if only for a short time. Even in this, he had a story to tell, one that may not have been able to completely defeat that insidious foe, but which may yet bring comfort to others who face those same demons at some stage.

For those of you interested in reading Hugh Cook’s work, samples and full-length copies of some of his books can be found at zenvirus.com. Also, keep an eye out for a reissue of The Walrus and the Warwolf, due for release in 2010 by Piazo Publishing, with an introduction penned by China Mieville.
Walrus is recognised by Hugh’s fans as his finest hour, and well worth a read by any lover of epic fantasy. To quote Mieville again, “To honour the memory of this wonderful and generous-spirited writer and man, those - too bloody few - of us who know his work should do all we can to bring it to the world's attention.”

Hugh Walter Gilbert Cook (1956-2008): Wordsmith; Warrior; New Zealander.

Man’s first death is the random potential
Of aeons before conception,
And the surf, merging life with form,
The surf is creation and rebirth.

(Cicada Sun, Landfall #118, 1976)

I would like to thank Colin Smythe, China Mieville, and the Cook family for their kind assistance in preparing this article.

Secret Family Recipe Barbeque Chicken

2009-09-13T19:24:00.000+12:00

There's nothing quite like spilling the beans on a secret family recipe, is there?

This one's been in our family for generations - two, at the very least (including my own progeny).

So not exactly a secret extracted from the depths of time, but pretty good nonetheless. Add to that the fact that I've adapted it to work in our slow-cooker that we've only had for about a year, and the mystique all but dissolves.

Not to worry.

Slow-cooked Barbeque Chicken it is.

I will warn you in advance, however, that my precious notebook full of recipe notes went wandering sometime between cooking and eating dinner, so I'm trusting to the original oven-bake recipe here. Let's hope I didn't get too creative when I modified it.

Crock-pot Barbeque Chicken

(Serves 2)

Ingredients
2 Large Chicken Legs (Thigh and Drumstick, skin on)
1 T Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup Steak Sauce
1 T Honey
1 Dsp Brown Sugar
1 T Cider Vinegar
1/4 t Crushed Ginger
3 Cloves Garlic, minced
1/4 C Hot Water
Combine all the marinade ingredients and mix well.
Pour the sauce over the Chicken and cover well.
Place the Chicken in the crockpot and pour any excess sauce over top. Slow-cook on High for 3-4 hours.
Serve up with oven-baked chips and fresh veges. Pour the excess sauce from the bottom of the crockpot into small cups and place these in the centre of each plate for dipping.

The Pudding to End All Puddings

2009-09-10T20:20:00.001+12:00

It's been an awfully long time since I wrote about dessert, hasn't it?

OK, maybe not that long. But long enough.

So when Dessert Chef started making noises about cooking up what sounded like the ultimate pudding of all time, I was all for it.
It involved lovely ripe winter pears.
It required stewing those pears down with sugar, and getting some stewed rhubarb out of the freezer.
It involved crumble. Lovely, lovely crumble.
It involved custard.
There was pastry, rolled and pressed into a buttered pan and filled with the stewed fruit.
The custard went on top.
Then came the crumble.
Then the oven.
Lastly, it involved a bowl, a spoon, and a dollop of ice-cream.

There are no words necessary.

Fusion Chicken

2009-09-06T20:14:00.000+12:00

"Fusion of what?" you say.

Very hard to know.

But Uncle I and I (by which I mean me and Uncle I, in case that was unclear) went to the store to get more chicken and on the way settled on a bottle of wine that suggested it would go well with "fusion dishes", whatever that means.

Since I had no nuclear reactor on hand with which to fuse my chicken, we settled on a fusion of mustard and mushrooms, because hey, who's ever done mustard and mushrooms before?

Since my last go at mixing up chicken and mustard was such a blinding success, I saw no reason why this shouldn't work for a second effort, but I decided to make this one more of a casserole.

Overall: Well-fused. Fusionality. Fusacious. (by which I mean: it was good, in case that was unclear.)

Mushroom Chicken Fusion Casserole

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

1.5kg Chicken Drumsticks and Nibbles
2T Mustard Powder
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
2T Potato Flour
2T Dried Basil
2T Worcester Sauce
Olive Oil for frying
1/2C White Wine
2 Chopped Onions
1C Chicken Stock
200g Sliced Mushrooms
Hot Water
Toss the Chicken Pieces in the mustard powder, salt and pepper, potato flour, basil and Worcester. Coat well and cook in hot olive oil until browned all over.

Add 1/4 Cup of the white wine and reduce, then add the onions.

Allow the onions to soften slightly, then remove the chicken and onion to an oven dish.
Deglaze the pan with the rest of the white wine and the chicken stock. Add the gravy to the oven dish and place the mushrooms over and around the chicken.
Add enough hot water to almost cover the chicken, then cover and place in the oven at 200C for 1 hour.
Serve with piles of fresh veges and mashed potato. (And keep your Geigermeter handy, just in case...)

Steak with Herbed Garlic Butter

2009-09-02T19:23:00.001+12:00

I've talked here before about eating less meat but of better quality for the sake of our health, the environment, and so on.

When it comes to eating better meat, you can't go past Eye Fillet Beef Steak.

OK, I see you throwing your hands in the air and declaring (with only the mildest hint of indignation) that who, in the current economic climate, can afford fillet steak? It's not 1986 now, after all.
But here's the thing: Communities can.

Fillet steak follows the same rules in a supply/demand/price-point market as any other product, and suppliers know this. On a per kg basis, no, you can't necessarily afford to buy fillet steak in meal-sized portions off the supermarket shelf. We certainly can't.

But any good butcher or wholesaler (like, say Prestons or Moore Wilsons in NZ) will supply fillet steak in whole lengths, and the price per kg is significantly less than you would pay for cut, trimmed, packaged fillets from the coldshelf.

But still, you argue, the price of a whole fillet ranges into the $40-50 mark, and who can justify that sort of a spend on one piece of meat?

Well, consider this: You're not paying a cent for bone, and virtually nothing for fat. Hunt for a lean cut of fillet steak, and your price per kg is practically 1:1, top-notch meat to dollar. No amount of chops, sausages or stewing steak will give you that degree of economic return.

With a full cut, you can also poke and prod to your heart's content, finding the most tender specimen. Yes, a soft, tender hunk of raw meat will cook up more tender than a tough piece. Amazing, eh?

Sorry, did I say something about community? Why yes, I did. It comes back to that matter of outlay. Who has the outlay to buy these large, if delicious, cuts of meat? Restaurants, for one.

Restaurateurs understand the economy of the whole fillet, and it works even better for small groups of people. Let's say, for example, a 2kg fillet, costing $40, is bought by two couples. That's $20 each.

Now, each of those couples have 1kg of fillet steak. A nice decadent size for a fillet steak if 200g, so that's five steaks, each costing $4.00. That's an $8.00 steak meal for two; I challenge you to find 400g of pre-cut steak on the cold-shelf in NZ for less than $10.00.

And of course, you don't have to be decadent. You can cut that steak into six, or eight, or even ten pieces. You may have a smaller piece of steak, but you still have top quality. And for the sake of our bowels, we shouldn't eat more than 100g of red meat a day anyway.

The only catch is that a 200g steak will cook more nicely than a 100g steak, so to get around this, just cut to 200g, cook as a single steak, then slice and share. Perfect.

It does require someone have a freezer, and that you cut and store the steak in individual portions, but that's not a big deal these days. Freezers are our friends.

This is just one way that reaching out to the people around you can improve not only your budget, but the quality of the food you're eating as well.

Give it a go. You'll thank me for it.

Now, what to do with that delicious, top quality steak? I've already written a detailed post on how best to cook pretty much any steak, but here's another lovely option: Herbed Garlic Butter.
Cook your steak as per that post, but you can flag the garlic at the preparation stage. The Herbed Butter will do all the hard work for you. Eye fillet steak will require less tenderising than other cuts as well, but a little bit of a bash never hurt.

Herbed Garlic Butter
Ingredients:
100g soft, salted butter
2T fresh thyme leaves
4 cloves of garlic, minced
4T freshly grated parmesan cheese

Combine all ingredients in a mortal and pestle, or you can probably use a hand blender.
Scrape the butter onto a dish to pop on the table when the steak is served.
Be sure to fry a few mushrooms and onions around the side of the pan with the steak.
Scoop the butter onto the steak, along with the mushrooms and onions. Serve with oven-baked fries, eggs and a little green salad, just for colour.

Polly Want a Cracker?

2009-08-30T21:52:00.004+12:00

You've all heard the rumours about wild big cats that roam the wilderness of places where there ought be none. Most famous are the tigers of Britain's moors (or some such), and in New Zealand we have our very own legendary panther that is reputed to stalk the highlands of the South Island.

The story goes that these animals are errant strays from the collections of rich, perhaps rather lonely folk, though I wouldn't presume to know anything about that. What I do know is that we have an exotic animal loose in our neighbourhood.Dessert Chef got these tantalising shots a few days ago of something that can only be a parrot, cavorting in the manuka with a tui.Wellington readers, please forward this link to as many other Wellington readers that you might know, in the hope that by pure viral spread the owners of one missing parrot might drop us a line so we can pass on the last known siting of this lost bird in the wild.
You can see from this cropping that it is most definitely not a bird of native origin, and it is probably quite keen to find its way back to a warm home and a cracker.
As you can see by this comparison with a tui on the same branch, it's not a small bird, and it must be pretty friendly. If we can help by letting someone know where we saw it, please leave a comment so we can get back to you.

Because, as a parrot I once knew was wont to say, "Any port in a storm."

No, it didn't make sense to me, either. That's just one for the birds.

Bohemian Goulash

2009-08-30T13:16:00.000+12:00

Here at the bottom of the South Pacific the days are getting longer and the nights are feeling warmer. But I'm not fooled: it's still winter.

Nonetheless, my opportunities this winter for posting lovely hearty stews are running short, so here's one of my all-time favourites: Goulash.

Whether your Goulash is simply hearty or truly fiery all comes down to how much spice you add, so if you like a good hit of tongue-burning heat, just double the quantities of paprika and carraway.

Otherwise, this meal follows the template of most of my stew dishes: Sealing the flavours into the meat in a hot pan, deglazing the cooking pan with wine and stock, and cooking for a couple of hours, adding dumplings at the end. What better way to wrap up a Sunday night?

Bohemian Goulash
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:
400g stewing steak, cubed
1 large onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed and chopped
2t carraway seeds
2t dried thyme or 1T fresh thyme leaves
2T paprika
2t flour (or potato flour to make this recipe Gluten Free)
2 carrots, sliced
3 small potatoes, diced
1 kumera, diced
1/2C red wine
1 1/2C beef stock
1/4C sour cream

Dumplings

Heat some olive oil in a pan, fry the onion and garlic until soft, then add the meat and brown quickly. Add herbs, spices, flour, and freshly ground pepper and salt. Sear thoroughly without burning.
Place the carrots, potatoes and kumera into an oven dish and scoop the browned meat and onions into it. Mix well.
Return the pan to a moderate heat, then add the red wine, scraping the bottom of the pan to bring up all the cooking flavour. Add the stock, not too quickly, ensuring the reduction doesn't cool too far. Allow to thicken slightly.

Pour the reduction over the meat and veges in the pan, top up with a little water if required to stop the meat from drying out.

Cover and place into a preheated oven at 200C, and cook for 1 1/2 hours. Then add your dumplings, and cook for a further 20-30 minutes.
When the stew is done, dish up the dumplings, then mix the sour cream through before serving. If, like me, you sometimes forget to do this, it's also fine to just spoon it up on top of the stew.

Great with mashed potato and fresh steamed greens, plus a nice big glass of bold red wine.

Roast Pork & Pumpkin Soup

2009-08-27T21:22:00.001+12:00

Things being what they are out there, you can't go past a good leftovers meal. One of the things I set out to do when I started this blog was focus not only on good tasty food but also economical meals, and making the most of your supplies.

I might have done something like this last winter, but what the hey. Learning by repetition is the best way, right?

Or was it learning by doing?

Anyway, not to worry.

This soup requires that you have the following leftovers:
Roast Pork;
Roast Pumpkin;
Roast Veges;
Chicken stock, made from leftover chicken and vege scraps.

This is good, because it gives you good reason to cook:
A Roast Pork;
Roast Pumpkin;
Roast Veges;
And a Roast Chicken, at some stage (although the stock can be frozen, of course).

Making the soup is dead simple.
Take your roast pumpkin and other veges, and chop them up into chunks.
Drop them into a bowl and add the chicken stock. Blend up to a nice, thick consistency. Try to get it ... soupy. Add water if further thinning down is required.
Add your leftover pork, chopped into nice little bites. Heat thoroughly, without boiling.
Serve with fresh rolls, sour cream, and freshly ground pepper.

A Day at the Farm

2009-08-25T19:21:00.003+12:00

I'm terribly behind in my blogging responsibilities, I know, and I do apologize. We had a busy weekend with friends and family, which included my little niece sleeping in our office - thus, no computer. Thus, no Sunday night blog post. This I shall quickly remedy.

A couple of weeks ago we took Isaac up to Nan Gailyn's farm to see the 4-day old calves.
As you can see, he was dead keen.

You might remember our visit last year to Staglands in the Akatarawas, where upon seeing a couple of lambs Isaac - then not even two years old - said, in all seriousness:

"Lamb...Food...Dinner."

Yip. Macabre as it may seem, I felt like I must have doing something right that my boy recognised that food doesn't come from a shop, but from the real world.

On the drive up to the farm the other day, he saw cows out the window of the car, and had this to say on the matter:

"That's a cow."

"That's beef."

"That's dinner."

With apologies to any vegetarians reading (No, I'm not getting into that discussion here), I consider this continued success. He also knows that milk and cheese come from cows, that chickens give us eggs, and that we also eat chickens.

No sugar coating here.

Unless you're talking about the alpacas:
I'm not sure what he sees in these surly, smelly beasts of burden, but Isaac just loves getting to see alpacas, and even pat their ears. Maybe it's because we don't eat alpaca - we just wear their wool.

That's all for now. I've got a mountain of writing work and audio editing that I need to get up to date with, so I'll be back soon with more foody goodness.

Take care everyone.

Banana-Honey Bread

2009-08-20T21:09:00.001+12:00

Anyone who's been reading Freshly Ground for a while will know that I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with that curious breed known as the Celebrity Chef. And by love-hate, I don't mean that I love to hate them, or even that I hate them at all. Most the time, I am inspired by their dedication to good food and nutrition and taste, and sometimes it's just that they are such a world beyond what I will ever be as a cook that it bugs me.

So, in order to give the Olivers and Ramsays of the world a fair go, I've also made an effort to document my humble attempts to replicate their luscious-looking dishes in my own small kitchen.

My last try was not terribly successful - there must have been something in the Italian air that I was missing. (Either that, or, as the Alligator said, I just didn't follow the recipe, so it was my own darned fault).

This next one, however, hit the mark perfectly. To be fair, I've made this before, and it worked back then too, so I came into the process with anticipation rather than foreboding, which may have helped.

But how hard could making bread with the banana and the honey built-in be?

Another Jamie Oliver recipe, this one is from his second book, Happy Days with the Naked Chef, and is a real winner. Especially if you have bananas that look like this stinking up your fruitbowl:

The key difference between Oliver's recipe and my interpretation of it is that I'm lazy: mine just goes straight into the breadmaker to do all the hard work.
Jamie Oliver's Banana and Honey Bread
(1 Loaf)

Ingredients:
500g Strong Flour (Hi-Grade)
1t Salt
2t Sugar
2T Breadmaker Yeast
3 Ripe Bananas, Pureed (see picture above)
4 T Honey, either runny or melted until it's runny

Dump all the ingredients, reserving half the honey, into the breadmaker pan. Turn onto a dough cycle.
I'm just going to pop this photo in here gratuitously, because I like it.
When the cycle is done, turn the dough out onto a floured bench and gently shape. With a long knife, cut the dough into six roughly equal sized pieces. Then, if you like, you can score them into fancy shapes. Place in an oiled baking tray and put into a warm, dry place for one hour to rise.

Drizzle over the remaining honey and place into the oven at 200C, for 18-20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool - but not too much.
With a bit of butter, you won't find these last long enough to get cold.

So Jamie, this one's a 5-Star winner. That's just Pukka.

Getting an Early Start

2009-08-16T10:16:00.001+12:00

We always tell ourselves that October is the time to start planting stuff. Accordingly, we put off doing anything about the garden until Labour weekend, by which time life is getting busy again, and so we put it off further.

In other words, we procrastinate, and nothing gets done. We've managed to keep a few pumpkins and potatoes going in the past, and our little crops of tomatoes on the doorstep have been OK, and the herbs - which are just glorified weeds, let's not forget - seem to thrive despite being neglected for weeks at a time.

But in terms of really having a proper vege garden that will yield a significant harvest, in the past we simply haven't done the work to make it happen.

Last weekend, that all changed.
We took a drive to the hardware store and the garden centre, then came home and cleared out one overgrown corner of our little front yard to put our planter down.
After getting it relatively level, we spread a layer of ash, in what may have been a misguided attempt to keep the weeds down.
Then we put down some plastic sheeting, punctured to permit some drainage, and assembled the 4'x4' planter box over top of it.

Now, I'm not saying that you should follow our lead here. We may have done ourselves all sorts of damage, like not permitting the soil to breathe and wotnot, but our main concern was for the weeds. The weeds up the back are the bane of my potato patch, and I don't want them invading this plot too.
Next, we got in some awfully cheap labour to do the grunt work.
Potting mix, about 8 bags, including a bag of strawberry mix, turn this from a wooden square into a miniature garden.
Then we got to planting: Strawberries, Lettuces, Beans, Peas, Tomatoes, Silverbeet, Cauliflower and Broccoli, several of each.
Into the potting mix, with a nice dousing of water and plenty of sunshine.
Finally, a bit of mesh to keep the local wildlife out - particularly our cat (I'd post a picture of said feline but I'm sorry, this just isn't that kind of blog). The mesh is attached to pieces of wire which are stapled into the timber, allowing access to the garden to weed and prune and harvest.

Since it's still winter and there may yet be frost, we also rigged a sheet of clear plastic which will double as a frost cover overnight and as a mini glasshouse of sorts on cooler days.

So there it is, August and we have our vege garden planted out. And the best thing is that a week later, the seedlings are not only alive but actually getting bigger. I hold out great hopes.
So after a big day's work like that (I could be honest and say that it was spread over 2 days, but that would completely dissolve the mystique surrounding our achievements), the hard workers deserve a cold, relaxing brew.
And sausages. There must be lovely lamb sausages.
Which are then made into burgers. What a perfect way to end the day.

(In case you're curious, Sausage Burgers contain sausage, lettuce, beetroot, cheese, sour cream, and sauce. Just like your mum used to make them. )

Steak Stew

2009-08-11T12:19:00.000+12:00

This is from a recipe I heard on the radio a few weeks back and decided that I had to try.

Since I'm a big fan of steak, and I'm a big fan of stew, the idea of Steak Stew just seemed like a match made in heaven.

Officially this was called Slow-Cooked Steak in Red Wine with Gremolata Dumplings, but Steak Stew was easier to remember.

To quote this particular rendition of the European classic's progenitor, Meillier Ouvrier chef Mark Gregory,

"In these recessionary times, it’s good to remind ourselves that simple food, slowly cooked is cost-effective, comforting and absolutely delicious. Our grandmothers used dumplings to pad out the more expensive ingredients like meat, and it’s a great house-keeping tip which is more relevant than ever right now!"

Never was a truer word spoken. If you're not making the most of cheaper cuts of meat cooked long and slow in the oven, then now is the time to get into it. And this one is actually pretty darned easy.

Just imagine: You've had a "stew" ticking away in the oven for a couple of hours, and when you come to dish it up, it's not stew but steak that slaps down on the plate, tender and melting and drowning in delicious red wine gravy.

With dumplings, of course.

I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter, only reducing the quantities by half. I have copied most of the recipe direct from the Radio NZ website, indented for clarity.

Beef steak
4 x 300 - 400g beef blade or chuck steaks
plain flour to dust steaks
¼ cup olive oil – or use other if not available
2 medium onions – finely chopped
3 cloves garlic – finely chopped
300ml red wine
1 cup tinned chopped tomatoes
½ cup chicken stock
pinch dried chilli
3 sprigs rosemary – from the garden if you have it
6 pieces anchovy - optional

"First choose a casserole dish large enough to hold the steaks.

Heat a frying pan, add three tablespoons of olive oil then sweat the onions and garlic for 5 minutes until soft and sweet. Scrape all into the casserole saucepan."

"Re-heat frying pan, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, lightly dust steaks with flour then pan fry until golden – you may have to do this in batches depending upon size of fry pan. Place the coloured steaks on top of the onions."

"Add red wine to the frying pan and reduce down for several minutes until it’s nearly all evaporated, add the tomatoes, stock and chili, rosemary and anchovies if using. Stir well before scraping everything over the steaks. Cover with a lid and place in oven at 325F/160°C for one-and-a-half hours."

Don't forget the dumplings:

Gremolata dumplings
2 cups plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 clove garlic – crushed
1 lemon, zested
½ cup parsley - chopped
1 cup grated butter – place in freezer for 1 hour first before grating
¾+ cup milk

"After 1 hour make the gremolata dumplings – sift flour into a large mixing bowl, gently mix in all other ingredients except milk. Now mix in sufficient milk to make a moist dough (similar to scones).

With wet hands, roll dumpling dough into golf ball-sized pieces and place on floured bench top. Remove steaks from oven, take off the lid and place gremolata dumplings evenly around the surface, be sure to leave one inch between each – if there’s too much dumpling mix do not use the extra.

Recover steaks with the lid and place back into the oven a further 20 minutes to cook the dumplings."

This was pretty yummy, but I think they should've cooked for even longer to really get down to that melt-in-your-mouth stage. The Gremolata Dumplings were different, and a curious change from my usual herbed dumplings, but I think we'll stick with the original for a while yet.

So there you have it, a bit of a recipe review. I just keep moving into new, exciting fields of endeavour, don't I?

Guest Postage

2009-08-05T15:10:00.000+12:00

You know, I do more than just write and cook and listen to podcasts.

I also write.

Hang on, did I say that already?

Ah well, I'm very excited to tell you that I've written my first ever Guest Blog Post, and you can read it over here at Jenni's Blog, Talula the second.

Without wanting to put too fine a point on it, it's about writing.

Please take a minute to go visit Jenni, have a read, and leave her a comment.

Thanks!

A Curry Odyssey Episode 7: Beef Rendang

2009-08-02T20:13:00.001+12:00

It's been a little while since I updated The Great Curry Odyssey, and there is a very good reason for this; specifically, because I haven't had a chance to spend the afternoon making curry.

The more I go down this track, the more I like the idea of Curry Paste.

But a couple of weeks ago, at the Hutt Riverbank Market, my eagle eyes picked out a tiny stall where a man and his son were selling ingredients for real, authentic, make-it-from-scratch curry, including galangal, kaffir limes and leaves and, what really caught my eye:

Lemongrass.

My Nana has a lemongrass plant in Coromandel, where the stuff grows wild. Down here it's a delicacy, and more importantly, it's the key ingredient in one of my favourite curries, Rendang.

If you're in Wellington and you want to know why Rendang is my favourite curry ever, head down to Satay Village on Ghuznee St, and order the Chicken Rendang, with a side order of Roti. If you're not a curry person, order it in mild, and I guarantee you will still be impressed.

So, with grand delusions in my head that I might have even a ghost of a chance of creating a rendang to rival the best in Wellington, I bought a bunch of lemongrass and started scheming out dinner for the night.

For once (as is the way with the Great Curry Odyssey) I did a bit of research, trawled through several rendang recipes online, cross-referenced these with what I actually had on hand, and composed the following hybrid recipe.

For a first time, it came out pretty well, though it didn't have a bar on Satay Village. Being beef, not chicken, and not having lovely oily rotis to go with it probably didn't help. It was hotter than I anticipated, but we took it to a shared dinner, and thankfully Uncle Ian and Liz E Bear, who both like spicy food, gave it the thumbs up.

The curious thing is that that man and his son have not been at the market again since. I wish I was a travelling curry ingredient salesman, bringing galagnal to a new farmers market every week. That would be the life for me, indeed.

Of course, I'd need to a) grow galangal first, and b) know what galangal was, and what to use it for. That would help, I imagine.

Beef Rendang
(Serves 4)

Ingredients

500g Skirt Steak, diced
4 cloves of Garlic
2 small Onions
3 small dried Chillis
2t crushed Ginger
5 stalks of Lemongrass
1/4t Fennel seeds
1/4t Coriander seeds
1 whole Nutmeg
2T Brown Sugar
3 whole Cloves
1/4 Cinnamon stick
400ml can of Coconut Milk

Chop and fry the garlic and onions until just soft (You might not need to fry these. Between the market and dinner time I had forgotten I had lemongrass for rendang, and I had started making goulash. But hey, I'm just relaying what I did to get here). In a bowl, mix up the garlic and onion with the chillis, ginger, and lemongrass, chopped. Blend to a paste by whatever means is most practical. I would've liked more of a paste than what I got here, but I was rushed (what with having set out to cook a goulash, and now trying to throw together my rendang research on the fly).
I decided to use the Jamie Oliver Ball Thingy to mix up my masala, using it to pulverise the fennel, coriander, and nutmeg (which I think I grated in).
In a pot, heat the paste, then add the masala. Heat for a minute to bring out the flavours, then add the beef and brown, tossing in the curry mix to coat it.
Add the sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and coconut milk. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer, and leave to cook down for a couple of hours. The rendang should come out almost dry, but with lovely tender, spicy chunks of meat.
Serve over rice (preferably rice boiled in beef stock), with nice hot, oily rotis if you can get them.

Previous Posts in the Great Curry Odyssey:
Butter Chicken
Naan Bread (For Comedic Value Only)
Curried Lemon Chicken
Lamb Korma
Raita
Roti Bread

Best EVER Mashed Potato

2009-07-26T21:17:00.000+12:00

Back in the day I used to work on film sets. No, not nearly as much fun as it might sound. No, I can't get a job with Peter Jackson, so don't ask.

Getting back to the topic, there is one thing that I will always remember fondly about working in film, and that is the catering. Well, not always. Certain jobs spring to mind and make me shudder, but for the most part, I remember being pretty well fed on most jobs.

The thing that amazed me most, however, was how excited people got when there was mashed potato on the menu.

People! I would say. It's mashed potato, for crying out loud! I would say.

It was only then that I realised how lucky I had been to have a mum who dished us up mashed potato on a fairly regular basis. As it turns out, a good old ladelful of mashed spud was a right royal treat for most people who weren't me.

Of course, as you can imagine, there are varying degrees of deliciousness to mashed spud. And over the years I've picked up a few little extras that tip the humble mashed spud over into the divine.

What a few film techs wouldn't give to eat dinner at my house one night!

World's Best Ever Mashed Potato

(Serves 4)200g Boiling Potatoes, peeled and cut into 2cm cubes
1 large Kumera, peeled and diced as above
1/2 an onion, chopped
1/4 C Colby Cheese, grated
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
Milk
Butter

Rinse the potatoes and kumera, then add fresh water and salt and place on a high heat to boil. Meanwhile, fry up your onion and set aside (I did this first, as I then used the pan to cook some lovely lamb sausages - but I digress).
When the potatoes are cooked, and simply fall apart when you poke them with a fork, remove from the heat and drain the water off. If you want to keep a gluten-free thickener on hand, I recommend reserving this water and freezing it to add to soups or stocks later.
Add a knob of butter and a dash of milk to the potato, about 3T. Mix in.
Add the cooked onion and go wild with the fork. No flash equipment is required here, not even a potato masher. A humble old fork and a speedy wrist are all that's required to whip your spuds up to a creamy lather.
If it seems a bit dry, add a bit more milk until it flows freely through the tines.
Add the grated cheese and a little seasoning of pepper, and whip the cheese in.
Dish up in a ragged swirl in the centre of the plate. You will find there is no better accompaniment for gravy in the whole wide world.

Jamie Oliver's Ball Thingy (Or, Honey-Spice Crusted Lamb Roast)

2009-07-23T21:06:00.000+12:00

Those Celebrity Chefs, sometimes I love them, sometimes I...don't love them.

But I'm always willing to cut them some slack. So when my lovely Dessert Chef presented me with this contraption:
...I had to give it a go. It's a Jamie Oliver thing, apparently, and it's sort of like a mortar and pestle, but in a jar. Sort of. That's a plastic two-part screw shaker, and the little white ball is ceramic. The theory goes that you can use it to whip up rubs, sauces, and suchlike with hard and wet ingredients in a jiffy, using less energy than it takes to drive a mortar and pestle.

I guess.

Thus presented, I decided to give it a whirl.

I had a lovely little roast of lamb, and I decided to coat it with a glaze of honey, paprika, almonds and some other stuff. So here goes.

Honey-Spice Crusted Lamb Roast

(Serves 4)

350-400g Rolled Lamb Forequarter Roast
Whole Peppercorns and Rock Salt to taste
Freshly Grated Nutmeg
1t Slivered Almonds
1t Paprika
1t Avocado Vinaigrette
1t Honey
1 Onion, cut into 1/8ths
Roasting Veges, peeled and seasoned and tossed in oil

Start with your hardest ingredients, in this case, rock salt, peppercorns, nutmeg, and almonds. Put these in the bottom section, add the wee ball, screw the top on and shake vigorously.
Hand off the hard work to a keen young helper.
Unscrew the cap and add the rest of the ingredients; the vinaigrette, honey, and paprika.
When it looks something like this, scoop it out with the little rubber spoon (Yeah, there's also a little rubber spoon, for just this purpose. Here's a photo of it).
Spread it over the roast.
Ooh, look, veges! See that pumpkin up there? I grew that.
Place the lamb on top of the sliced onion and arrange the veges around it.

Cover in foil and roast for 1 hour at 190C, or shorter if you prefer a rare cut.

Remove the foil for the last 15 minutes of cooking to brown.
Remove from the heat and allow to rest for 8-10 minutes before carving.
Slice and serve.
What do I reckon? Well, it worked for me. Easy to use, easy to clean, easy to store. I'll be interested to see how well the rubber seals last, and of course keeping the neat little ball away from the 2-year-old is a challenge too.

So I wouldn't write it off as a waste of money and drawer space yet. I've used it again since and it has served its purpose well.

So good on you Jamie. This one's a winner.

Love this Country

2009-07-21T21:55:00.003+12:00

If I'm going to drive up the length of the North Island, I only usually do so in the summer.

A couple of weeks ago I drove a truck to Cambridge, and had the good fortune to remember the camera. I got these shots of Mt Ruapehu, first from Waiouru...
...and then from the road around National Park. I haven't seen mountains drenched in snow like that since the first time we were in Canada, back in 2003. It sure is pretty.

That's all.

Fruit Crumbly Umbly

2009-07-19T21:02:00.007+12:00

As promised, there was dessert at Jarratt & Evies. What's more, I made it.

Yes, you heard right. I made dessert. If you'll remember from my last post, Dessert Chef was feeling under the weather, but since we had already said we would bring dessert, my hand was all but forced.

I know I've already posted a crumble recipe this year, but most of that was shot by torchlight, and it was all about living off the land and wotnot. This is exciting because, as I might have already mentioned, I made dessert.

Did I mention that I made this dessert myself? Well, I did.
So I mixed up some stewed rhubarb, blackberries and apple,
made up a crumble from butter, flour and sugar, and took it all with me to assemble and cook after dinner. If you're not going to cook them straight away and you don't keep the two separate, you see, the flour goes soggy and then you have more of a stewed fruit mush than a crumble.
So the crumble goes over the fruit, like so, and it goes in the oven for about 20 minutes at 180c, maybe with a little bit of a grill/broil at the end.
So there you have it. If even a pudding-lummox like me can do it, it must be pretty easy.

(For the record, before you start pointing out continuity errors, the picture above is the little one I cooked at home for Dessert Chef and the little guy. I might have gone out and left them at home to be sick together, but at least I was good enough to make dessert before I went).
Jarratt's oven was a teensy bit more powerful than ours. But I have a good nose, so disaster was averted. Certainly nothing that ice cream couldn't save.
I had a little bit of leftover crumble, so the next day I stewed up some overripe pears we had sitting in the fruit bowl and made a pear crumble.

Two desserts in one weekend! That's like two eclipses in one year!

The Other Side of the Table

2009-07-14T21:31:00.003+12:00

It wouldn't exactly be untrue to say that we don't get out much. (Did I obfuscate sufficiently there?)

So when, after six months of personal disasters and last-minute rescheduling, we finally managed to align all the stars together and take up the opportunity to drop the little guy off with the baby-sitters and go to a good friends' place for dinner, I would not be daunted.

Then aforementioned little guy got sick, and Dessert Chef wasn't feeling too well either. However, at risk of being branded a cad, I took up the torch and went out anyway.

I'm not used to being the guest, but it sure is nice once in a while. It was great to share dinner and a bottle of wine with Jarratt and Evie, and the Chicken Breast with olives and all those little baby veges (cherry tomatoes, baby beetroot, gourmet potatoes) all dressed up in mustard and maple (I think) were delicious.

Jarratt had had plenty of practice at this dish, of course. For every planned dinner that got scuppered, he still had all the ingredients on hand to make the meal. By the time I got to enjoy it, I'm pretty sure that they were well sick of it! How you could get sick of such a delicious dish, I don't know.

Thanks, guys. Sorry it took me so long to get to posting. Photos of the crumbly dessert action will follow shortly. Let me know if you post the recipe, so I can link to it.

I'm still trying to figure out how we didn't get onto Singstar that night. Ah, yes, the driving-therefore-not-drinking thing. It takes a certain minimum amount of wine before Singstar is really an option.

Maybe next time!

What the H@!! is this?

2009-07-08T21:59:00.001+12:00

I have so much cool stuff to blog about, but this week is getting away from me and right now it's just gathering speed as it careens down a hillside.

So rather than burn the candle at both ends, I'm going to give you this simple question:
What the heck is this?

Please direct all guesses to the comments department. There will be a prize, perhaps an imaginary starship journey with an already maxed-out Starlight Express Credit Card to beguile and amuse your friends.

(No, seriously, I took this photo in my own kitchen and have no idea what it is. So, there is no wrong answer, unless it involves tofu. Tofu lovers: I've tried, I really have. But it just doesn't work for me.)

Enough. Must get to the sleeping.

Don't Call Me Pastie

2009-07-01T20:16:00.001+12:00

I'll be the first to admit that I'm struggling with the witty, pithy Blog Titles right now. Please refrain from filling the comments section with this observation. I got there first.

Today I'd just like to write a post about why I love my Dessert Chef so very much. As far as this particular post goes, it's because even though she hates cooking, she still pulls things like this out of her hat:
Mince (Ground Beef) with carrot, tomato, onion,and fresh spinach.
Savoury pastry, rolled out and cut into circles...
...like so.
Mince layered with three cheeses and sealed off with a little milk.
Baked for about 20 minutes at 200C.
Served up with sour cream, and not a naughty vegetable in sight.

Who wouldn't love coming home to a treat like that?

Thanks, my lovely Dessert Chef. Now, what's for pudding?

Olive(r) Stew

2009-06-28T20:18:00.001+12:00

I've made noises here about celebrity chefs before, and a little while ago I posted a meal I cooked out of a Gordon Ramsay Cookbook that I picked up at the Food Show.

Now, the guys at Kamikaze Cookery (Link junkies: Language may offend. You've been warned) have taken it upon themselves to expose the glaring discrepancies between what most people are capable of cooking compared with what the Ramsays and Olivers of the world think we can manage, so I won't try to outdo them on that count.

Instead, I thought it worthwhile documenting my own attempt to pull off a recipe for Peposo - famous hunter's peppery beef stew - out of Jamie Oliver's book, Jamie's Italy. I like to think of myself as a slightly more accomplished home gourmandiser than the average kiwi bloke, so I was not daunted by the challenge.

Perhaps I should've been.

Admittedly I was trying to cook about 600g of beef rather than the 2.5kg in the recipe (I mean, who really cooks 2.5kg of stewing steak at a time? There are only 2 1/2 of us, after all!), and I was using normal stewing steak rather than beef shin on the bone, but you work with what you've got, right? I made the effort to use real french red wine, at least. And anyway, the first thing you do according to the recipe is take the meat off the bone, so why not just use deboned meat to start with?
Simple enough. Meat, onions, rosemary, garlic, bay leaves, salt and pepper.
Layer it all up in an oven dish and cover in wine, topping with water to cover the meat if necessary. Then bring to a boil and place in the oven at 150c for 6 hours. Yes, I did all this. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it?
Then at the bottom of the recipe (not at the top, not at the "when you're layering the dish" part) it says to skim off the fat and remove the bone. Aah. I see. So the bone was meant to go in? That bone I don't have? Right. Well, I didn't. Not only that but my dish didn't have any fat to skim off. It had virtually no moisture at all. Apparently it should have.
Yes, this was quite intensely flavoured as Jamie promised, and the meat was falling apart, if a little over-dry. I wonder if I had a small army to feed rather than my modest family, and I had cooked this in the five-fold quantity suggested by JO if this might have come out better. I can only guess so.

I dished it up on buttered slabs of fresh bread (also Jamie's recipe from his first book - I tried it once and have made it that way ever since), and we agreed that it was good that we had some nice bread for dinner.

So it's worrying that if even I, with my extraordinary powers of making stuff up on the fly and trusting my instincts to salvage the various disasters that arise from my untutored approach to cooking, can be derailed by a Jamie Oliver recipe that seems so straightforward, then how much paper is being wasted in this world in the printing of celebrity chef recipe books that people will simply never use? Or if they do, they'll be disappointed, and thus the book will sit on the shelf forever gathering dust?

I make an effort to make something from one of my many cookbooks every month or so, trying to learn new things and bring a dash of variety to our meals. But if the people who sell the most cookbooks on the planet - I'm looking at you, Jamie, Gordon and Nigella - can't come to terms with what average folk are really looking for in a recipe and capable of achieving in the kitchen, then I worry that even more innocent trees will die as a result.

Please, celebrity chefs. Take a moment to consider the trees. Then pull your heads our of your @rses and give us recipes that we can cook, damn it.

Mmmm Lamb...

2009-06-25T20:12:00.000+12:00

Blogging both here and at The Podagogue has been a bit light this week, mainly on account of my having launched into writing my third novel. The first few chapters are surging around in my head, so I must get them down before either I go mad or they morph into something too warped and untouchable even for me to lock down in words.

However, for a moment I shall hide in the safety of foody goodness.

It's been a while since I last posted about lamb. I am a big fan of lamb, as you are all well aware.

Therefore, I'll keep this brief. Think of it as more of an indulgence than an education.
Lamb chops, herbs, freshly ground pepper and salt, fresh chopped garlic, olive oil.
Fry until lovely and brown over a high heat.
Grate with Parmesan cheese and grill (broil, my lovely North American readers).

Stick with me. A blog post of some substance will be forthcoming, I promise. In the meantime, imagine the smell of cooking lamb chops. That should fix what ails ye.

Mushroom and Sausage Soup

2009-06-21T19:13:00.001+12:00

What do you do when your sister brings you a big bag full of delicious field mushrooms that only you will eat? And much as you would love to just fry them up with bacon and eat them, you're busy cooking sausages for dinner already?
Easy.

You make soup.
Chop up the mushrooms, and take some photos, pondering the odd nature of these particular mushrooms that seem to be slightly out-of-focus in the real world (couldn't possibly be the camera, much less the photographer...).
Since you're already cooking up sausages, simply keep the oily pan, add some butter and the chopped mushrooms, and simmer away while you're eating the afore-mentioned sausages, keeping one aside. There was also a certain amount of fried onion in the sausage pan, which we will just take as a given.
Chop up that lone spare sausage.
Add 2 Cups of light chicken stock to the mushrooms and bring to a rapid simmer, then add a 1/4 cup of cream.
Take a stick blender or pour the soup into a blender. Pulse it a few times so that you're left with some yummy chunky bits. Then mix the sausage through.

Sadly, this is the best "Final Result" photo I have, since I then took both servings to work for lunch, where there is no camera. *sigh*

Make Mine a YES

2009-06-18T20:25:00.006+12:00

It's been a long time since I waded into politics, and although I've felt pretty uptight about a lot of what has been going on in this country since the election, I've kept my mouth shut.

But occasionally something comes up that fills me with enough gripe that I have to speak up. And this isn't even so much about ideology or politics, as it is about deconstructing a haze of misinformation perpetrated by Larry Baldock in the form of the NZ Referendum on Child Discipline 2009.

Far more qualified and literate authorities have spoken at length on this subject in the media, but I still feel that the whole argument is being lost in the flood of rhetoric, leaving average folk still wondering what the he!! it's all about.

The question itself, which directly relates to the repeal of Section 59 of the Crimes Act - a change which removed the defence of "reasonable force" as an excuse for adults to abuse their children in the name of discipline - is deliberately misleading and unnecessarily emotive.

"Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?"

It sounds innocuous enough, and the immediate response that most people will have to this question is "No."

What a response of "No" means, however, is that it will not be illegal to abuse one's children, quite simply put.

What signal does this send to our children? That it's OK to use violence as a means of coercion if you're bigger than someone else, or if you hold a position of responsibility over them?

That because generations before us have used violence as a means of discipline that it's OK for us to, as well?

By answering "Yes" in this misguided referendum, we can send a message that the cycle of violence has to end. We can stand up and say that violence is not the way to deal with our problems, be they small or large, especially not against our little ones.

We can tell the government that we want to maintain a law that protects our most vulnerable from our most violent. And how can you possibly say "No" to that?

Blue Chicken

2009-06-15T21:02:00.006+12:00

OR: Cooking for the Morgue.

So you'd think that if I had a reputation to maintain I would take some steps to protect it, wouldn't you? You'd think that if New Zealand's No. 51 Blogger was coming to dinner, I'd be at pains to research the best recipe I could and to make sure it was all as good as it could be, wouldn't you?

I say: Nah. Although I had a concept in mind, I didn't actually make up my mind about what I was going to cook for Morgue and StrongerLight until I went into the kitchen and, to be quite honest, happened to open up the fridge looking for a spark of inspiration.

What I saw instead was not something expensive or gourmet or haute cuisine: It was two packets of Blue Cheese, bang on their Best Before dates, and reduced from $4.70 each to 0.50c each, which Dessert Chef had spotted and bought a few days earlier. But hey, it's Blue Cheese. What's it going to do, go mouldy?

I had my inspiration. I will keep this brief:
Take your deliciously ripe Blue Cheese and slice it into thin, flat pieces. Dispose of annoying crumbly bits in your nearest mouth.
Slide the cheese under the skin of 4-5 large chicken legs. Wrap whole rashers of bacon around the chicken, fixing in place with skewers, and place on a bed of sliced leek, halved cherry tomatoes, cubed pre-cooked potato and kumera, and sliced mushrooms. Season and drizzle with a viniagrette mixture.
Bake at 200C for 1 1/2 hrs. Cook up a pot of jasmine rice, and reserve the starchy water when you drain it.

Remove the chicken from the roasting tray, placing onto your plates with the rice and steamed veges. Drain the juices from the pan into a bowl. Scoop off the bulk of the fat (there will be HEAPS due to the melting of the cheese) and return to the roasting tray. Add the starchy water from the rice as a thickener and mash up the veges there to make a thick and chunky gravy, while you heat it over an element. And guess what? That gravy is completely Gluten-Free.

OK, it was a bit more like a soup than a gravy, but with a little bit of stock and some more time on the stove, it would have been much more like the gravy we know and love. As it was, it was delicious regardless. And not to be outdone, Morgue and StrongerLight brought the dessert. What a grand way to top off a fabulous night.

Thanks, guys. Let's do it again sometime soon.

Book Review: 'Vacation' by Jeremy C. Shipp

2009-06-14T21:28:00.001+12:00

Full Review Available at The Podagogue by clicking here.

"At turns surreal and frighteningly real, Vacation challenges the reader to deny that they are in fact living through the same drug-addled haze that Bernard Johnson has been until the time he goes on his own Vacation. Utopia disintegrates into dystopia, and Johnson is thrust into a dark world where life is worthless, minds become the puppets of guerrilla warlords, and the grand illusion of the world he knew is ground to dust."

Quarantine That Bacon Over HERE!

2009-06-11T21:41:00.005+12:00

So the much-dreaded Swine Flu is officially here n NZ, and it's officially a Level 5 Pandemic worldwide.

It seems that either nature has caught up with us, or us meddling with nature has caught up with us.

There is, however, one tragic misconception associated with the Dreaded Swine Flu: that the Swine Flu came from pigs. This awful failure of understanding has seen pigs across the world slaughtered, in much the same way that birds across Asia and Europe were murdered during the Avian Flu scare a couple of years ago.

This is crazy. For starters, there is still no evidence to suggest that this strain of flu, which is similar to but not identical to a strain of flu which affects pigs, is in any way actually related to pigs, or that it any way jumped from pigs to humans. However, the panic buttons were slammed home, and scared people - particularly in poorer countries - put thousands of animals to the knife, ruining businesses and leaving people starving. Who needs a Pandemic when we have man-made famine?

You cannot get Swine Flu by eating bacon. And if a pig sneezes, you will not get Swine Flu. OK, I'm not a scientist or a veterinarian, but I'm pretty sure from everything I've read on the subject that these two positions are verifiable fact.

It is only the fact that we are so ready to mess with nature that even allows the spectre of this fear to rule our perceptions and thus, our actions. On the basis of a purely imaginary fear, thousands of pigs were killed for no good reason. Where on earth will we be when biotech and genetic engineering do actually tip the scales of science against nature's delicate balance, and a real plague is unleashed? We'll all be wishing we had done more to support our organic farmers, that's where.

On that note, I want to prove a point: I ate bacon. I didn't get Swine Flu. Sweet, bro.

For a couple of weeks there, Bulls Bacon had a stall at the Hutt Riverbank Market. I was savvy enough to swipe up some of their wares, locally raised and prepared free-range organic bacon, with nothing added. No Swine Flu here.

I've written more than once about what I think of free-range, organic meat. Bring it on, I say.

Bulls Bacon was no exception.
Most commercially produced bacon is pumped full of water and nitrites to preserve it, and to give it some flavour. This is especially true of most stall-bred pork, which has very little flavour of its own anyway.

Of course, a lot of the bacon we eat here actually comes from China, so we have very little way of knowing how it has been raised or prepared before it reaches us, and that, to me, is more of a worry than Swine Flu. Conversely, this bacon was the real deal, 100% meat. And the difference was obvious immediately.
Put this stuff in a frying pan, and the pan doesn't suddenly fill up with water, bubbling and hissing away as the chemicals are forced from the meat, causing your breakfast to boil. Rather, it actually fries. Seems to fit with the concept of the FRYING PAN.
Just look at that. My mouth is watering again just looking at it.
The taste was stronger than normal bacon, a bit smoky, slightly gamey, and it had a tougher texture due to the thicker cut of the rashers. Overall the Bulls Bacon was by far a superior product to anything other than Freedom Farms Bacon that you can get from the supermarket, and worth paying a little more for.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen them back for a couple of weeks now. I'm hoping that their pigs didn't start sneezing.

(Disclaimer: As usual, I have nothing to gain by promoting what I see as responsible farming practices. I just think it matters.)

The Ugliest Chicken in the Room

2009-06-09T19:54:00.001+12:00

Righto, lets get back into the "Recipes-I-Made-Up-As-I-Went-Along" genre.

I was so doubtful of this recipe that I didn't even take any shots during the cooking process, but it came out so nice that I had to get a final photo.

Basically, this is Chicken with Mustard and Apple. I know, it doesn't exactly sound appetising does it? So I was surprised and awfully pleased when these two flavours fused and made for some of the nicest chicken for which I've ever made up a recipe on the fly.

Mustard Apple Chicken

(Serves 3)

Ingredients
6 x Drumsticks
2T Wholegrain Mustard
1T Malt Vinegar
2T Flour (Use Potato Flour for Gluten Free)
3T Tomato Paste
Olive Oil for Frying
1/4 Cup of White Wine
2T Brown Sugar
1 Onion, Chopped
1 Apple, Chopped

Toss the drumsticks in the Mustard, Vinegar, Flour, Tomato Paste and freshly ground Salt and Pepper to coat.

Shallow fry for 10 minutes, to sear the flavour into the meat. Place the onion and apple into the bottom of an oven dish, and place the chicken on top.

Deglaze the pan with the white wine and remove the pan from the heat when the liquid has reduced by half. Add the sugar and stir to thicken.

Pour the gravy over the chicken and place in the oven to cook at 220C for 50 minutes.

Serve up with rice and salad, spooning the apple-onion gravy over the chicken. Seriously, this chicken comes out looking ugly and it sounds really wierd, but it's delicious.

I wouldn't lie to you. Give it a try, then let me know what you think.

Last Look

2009-06-07T21:42:00.004+12:00

Wherein I discuss the end of Podcast Reviews on Freshly Ground, and welcome into the world my new site (for just this very purpose), The Podagogue.

Thanks to everyone who voted. I'll leave the poll up for a few more days, so you can see how close it really was. Ultimately, the "Nah, keep posting them here" readers won, but by such a slim margin that I had to examine very closely exactly what I've been trying to achieve with Freshly Ground.

Freshly Ground is a blog about food, and cooking, and reflections on the good (and not so good) things in life. As I've said in my introductory post across the road, "I think I was confusing the foodies, and making the Sci-Fi fans hungry. If there are two things you don't want beating down your door, it's confused foodies and hungry geeks."

To succeed in this wild world we call the internet, it's important to give people what they expect. Those who were drawn here by the food have frowned in consternation at the sudden deluge of podcast reviews I've posted as this obsession has gripped me, and those who have flocked here to read those reviews then find their tummies rumbling at inconvenient times when they come by looking for more fiction reviews.

Therefore: Location, Location, Location.

My reviewing self has a new home, and all my reviews to date have been cross-posted there too. I'll post quick links here as I write important reviews over there, but the full bodies of the works will now reside at The Podagogue, along with links to what I'm listening to at any given point in time, and stuff I highly recommend.

Back here at Freshly Ground, we'll be getting back into the food. Oooh, I can't wait.

So I'll be catching you all very soon, be it here or there. And I'd like to know what you all think of the new site, and of the decision to make the move, so go ahead and leave a comment. Either here, or there.

Podcast Novel Review: "Call of the Herald" by Brian Rathbone

2009-06-03T21:06:00.007+12:00

To get the housekeeping out of the way first, if you haven't already voted in the poll, please take a moment to do so. At the time of writing this, it's still too close to call. It's not like I'll feel bound by any result either way - I have to decide if I have the time and energy to maintain a second site, after all - but it's interesting to get a gauge on how you all feel.

Call of the Herald is the first part in Brian Rathbone's Dawning of Power Trilogy. The complete trilogy is available as a trade paperback; so far, only the first part is in audio format, and this available free from Podiobooks.com.Call of the Herald tells the tale of Catrin, a young girl thrust into a life of legend and prophecy when the quiet world she knew is changed forever.

Rathbone builds a haunting, immersive land of fog and mystery, meticulously building towards the unraveling of that world as the chapters unfold. He writes with care and attention to the finer details of Godsland, his fantasy world, and the characters that inhabit it. Listening to this audiobook, I was hungry for a bit more pace, but when Rathbone does bring on the action, he does so with the same refined skill and grace with which he has constructed his world. Without the methodical buildup, the climactic sequences would have seemed hollow. This is the fine art of world-building at its best.

The audio production is clean and clear. Rathbone never misses a beat in his crisp narration, and lets the prose carry the flow of his characters' voices. He has also chosen, for this recording, not to use any effects, music, or ambience, so the work relies very much on both his delivery and the weight of the writing for its effect. On this subject, Rathbone has a very soothing voice, which may at times be more relaxing than is good for the listener's focus. More than once I found I had to skip back because I had been lulled away from the story by the gentle timbre of Rathbone's voice rumbling away in my ear.

Call of the Herald took a bit of time to get into, but I was rewarded for sticking with it. The story finds its pace about halfway, and is unputdownable once it really gets going.

Overall, this is a fine effort in the fantasy genre, and I would have to give it a confident 3 1/2 Stars out of 5. I'll be looking forward to hearing future installments of the trilogy, and if the books were to cross my path I'd probably get my hands on them, if only to see if they read differently in my head without Rathbone's crooning voice to carry the words.

One thing I will say is that, unlike almost every podcast novel I've listened to, Rathbone doesn't plug his own site at all, which, while refreshing, is a shame. It is only tonight, as I skim over his site, that I see there are maps of Godsland for readers to look at, which would have made the listening experience a lot clearer. Maps are a critical part of the fantasy genre, and it is a skilled writer indeed who can write fantasy without recourse to a map in the front of the book - it's also one of the things we fantasy fans gobble up hungrily. It is a credit to Rathbone's writing that I made it right through Call of the Herald without ever seeing these maps, and never felt lost. Maybe a quick word in the intro or sign-off to check out the website for maps and artwork would have enhanced my experience of the audiobook.

Well done, Brian, on a great book and a fine audio production. Looking forward to your next offering.

Chicken Quesidillas

2009-05-31T09:49:00.001+12:00

There has been a minor mishap in the world of food photography that is Freshly Ground (when it's not a speculative fiction review site). That mishap involved a two-and-a-half year old, the camera, and a short sudden trip for said camera to the floor. Since that day, I can't quite seem to get anything in focus.

Not a great state of affairs for the art of macro photography. Luckily, I still have a good reserve of drafts to publish, so I'll use them for now while I figure out if the camera can be fixed or if this is a good excuse to finally upgrade to a digital SLR.

I'm also wondering if the split between food and fiction is maybe not really working for this blog. I've put a poll on the side here, to gather your opinions on whether or not I should create a new site dedicated to my podcast reviews and suchlike. Please take a minute to cast your vote, and feel free to leave a comment if you have an opinion one way or another.

And while you're mulling over that, here's a lovely, IN FOCUS photoessay on how to make great chicken quesidillas.

Chicken Quesidillas
Ingredients
Tortilla wraps
1 Carrot, grated
2 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
1/4 Cup grated cheese
handful of mushrooms, sliced
2 Cooked Chicken Breasts, slicedPlace the filling over one half of the wrap, leaving about 1cm clear at the edge. Moisten the clear edge, fold over, and press down.
Heat oil in a pan and fry the quesidillas rapidly to brown and heat through.
Serve with chopped salad and sour cream.

Sound Bytes

2009-05-29T07:07:00.003+12:00

I've been inundated with stuff to listen to and read lately, so here's a quick summary with my recommendations.

Firstly, I was very excited to get an advance review of Jack Kincaid's latest release, a short story called The Church Grim. This is a dark yet comedic horror story, masterfully crafted for both wit and chills. Kincaid uses the same stylistic techniques that worked so well for Hoad's Grim, including his creepy, dissociated narrator's voice and the voice talents of James Keller and Julie Hoverson. Once again, a fantastic piece of speculative fiction and an impressive audio production. Highly recommended, and at 40 minutes or so, a good way to get a feel for Kincaid if you haven't listened to Hoad's Grim already.

Another short podcast that I recently completed - and which also throughly entertained my staff, who have no choice but to listen to whatever I choose to play in the workshop - was The Takeover, by veteran podcaster Mur Lafferty. This zombie comedy clocks in at a little over 2 hours, and features a star-studded cast including Christiana Ellis and JC Hutchins. I can't say much about this without spoiling the story, but suffice to say that if you like zombies or just like to laugh at zombies, or just like to laugh, this is brilliant.

I've finished up several complete podcast novels in the past couple of weeks, and I'm not sure that I'll get to review all of them, so here's my quick star rating on those I've made it through:

The Call of the Herald, by Brian Rathbone: 4 Stars. Fantasy, first in a trilogy. Meticuloulsy constructed world, takes a little bit to get into the story but is satisfying for its buildup. Full review will follow.
Earthcore, by Scott Sigler: 4 1/2 Stars. Action/Sc-Fi. This is one of the world's very first exclusive podcast novels, now available as a print edition as well, and it set the standard for podcasts to follow. Excellent story and production values.
Nina Kimberley the Merciless, by Christiana Ellis: 4 Stars. Fantasy Comedy. NKTM is hilarious, it really is. Featuring an imbecilic king who thinks he's Don Juan, a pacifist dragon, and our eponymous hero who would rather be off questing than leading her people back to their former glory, NKTM is good, solid entertainment. My favourite line, as the bumbling King Francis tried to squeeze into his armour: "I must be light and uncucumbered!"

I'm currently listening to two more podcast novels, including the second book in JC Hutchins' Seventh Son trilogy, and the Failed Cities Monologues by Matt Wallace. I'm also hooked on JC Hutchins' new podcast novella, Personal Effects: Sword of Blood.

And I must throw a big shout of thanks out to all these authors, and to the crew at Podiobooks.com for all the hard work they put into bringing these books to greedy little me.

In terms of reading, I've been getting into the work of bizzaro fiction author Jeremy C Shipp over the past couple of weeks. You can check out some of his short stories online: Camp, Trout, and Dog. Not for the squeamish, however. You have been warned. I'm also reading his rather twisted but intriguing novel, Vacation, and I'll be posting a review of that shortly.

That's all for now. If you have a podcast or an audiobook that you'd like to direct me towards, please feel free to leave a note in the comments. Thanks.

Chicken Hash

2009-05-25T17:46:00.001+12:00

This will be quick post, because I have to be on a ferry very shortly. We'll be away down south for a couple of days, attending a funeral. Accordingly, here's a quick recipe for using up those leftovers after you've cooked a roast chicken with vegetables.

What a roast chicken dinner has to do with funerals, I don't know. But I do know that dealing with grief and stress often involves keeping the cooking down a minimum, and whipping up something like this fills that gap very nicely.

I'm also hoping that the pictures will do the talking, as I must be off out the door in a few minutes.

Chicken Hash
Ingredients
2 Leftover Chicken Breasts, diced
Leftover Roast Potatoes, Onion, Pumpkin, Kumera, etc, grated
3 Eggs
1 Fresh chopped tomato
Grated Cheese
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
1 T Plain Flour, or Potato Flour for Gluten-Free
(Think of this as a blank page - you can add to it as you see fit)
Mix everything together in a bowl...
...like so. (Evidence here that I sometimes forget to add stuff, like the essential flour.) The mixture should hold together in solid balls, but should also be light and fluffy. Whip it up with a fork to get air through it.
Heat some oil in a pan. Only add the balls of hash when the oil is almost spitting. If it's too cold, the hash will just absorb the oil and go mushy. Gross.
Keep moving in the oil to prevent sticking, and turn when brown on the underside.
When the hash is cooked through, serve up with sour cream and a tangy sauce. Catch you all later in the week!

Podcast Novel Review: "Nocturnal" by Scott Sigler

2009-05-21T20:43:00.000+12:00

In the brave new world of the podcast novel, it takes something special to be called a classic. Nocturnal by Scott Sigler is just such a rare creature.
Scott Sigler was among a very small group of writers who literally pioneered the Podcast Novel format, releasing his first book, Earthcore, in 2005. At the end of that podcast there is a very interesting Q&A with Mark Jeffrey, which provides a snapshot of both how small the audiobook market was at the time, and how Sigler envisioned it growing into the creature it has become - and that creature continues to grow.

Nocturnal is Sigler's third podcast novel, and it is a masterpiece of action horror. What starts out as a police procedural detective novel with a paranormal element quickly morphs into a gruesome and electrifying monster story, and from there into an action rollercoaster that would put John Woo to shame.

You'll forgive me if I slip, but I tend to recall Nocturnal as a movie rather than a book. The action and the imagery have seared into my skull, all chiascuro shadows and arcing blood lit by guttering streetlights and gunfire.

Sigler's dark alternate San Francisco is a place of fear and tension, haunted by unseen monsters, remorseless gangsters, ruthless vigilantes, corrupt cops, and a psychotic schoolboy with a god complex. Through this morass of murder two cops face the challenge of trying to solve the murders that have started to plague the city, only to find a conspiracy that even the SFPD doesn't want them to uncover.

This stuff is addictive. I personally neglected family, friends and more important things like writing my own novel to listen to this book. Sigler gets his teeth into your soft, tender flesh and shakes, not letting you go until he's wrenched you through the increasingly brutal and bloody story of the Nocturnals. And he pulls no punches whatsoever. Where Hollywood would turn away or save the day, Sigler just continues to rip shreds, and it is fantastic.

Not for the light of heart, I must emphasise. Nocturnal is R18 on every scale, for language, violence, torture, and even on a conceptual level. Yes, I squirmed more than once. But the payoff is so worthwhile, and nothing in this book is wasted. Every act of brutality, every murder, every fight, every explosion serves a valid and crucial purpose to the story. At the same time, Sigler can do subtext and complexity as well as he does action. I do not understand how Dan Brown sells more books than this guy. Brown is nothing next to Sigler.

Sigler's writing is also a pleasure to listen to, his dialogue sharp and his prose as witty as it is tight. He carries a vast cast of characters, voicing each with confidence and consistency. As usual, I cringe a little when a grown man puts on a woman's voice, but if I could do any better, I'd have some grounds to complain. I can't, so good on you Scott for giving it your all.

The audio production is clean and professional, relying almost entirely on Sigler's voice to carry the story. I can only recall one location that was augmented by a creepy harpsichord music track, and that really stood out for its oddity. As I've said, Sigler is a clever writer and a powerful performer, and thus requires little in the way of bells and whistles to bolster his efforts.

Again, for a free work, this is just brilliant. It is said that Sigler doesn't have fans; he has junkies. I just finished Earthcore today, and I still have four podcasts by Sigler to listen to. The future is bright.

5 Stars.

Nocturnal is an instant classic. Available as a free podcast download through iTunes and Podiobooks. Swing by Sigler's site for more info on this modern literary maestro, one of the true pioneers and energetic advocates of this great artform.

Orange Cinnamon Chicken

2009-05-19T07:00:00.000+12:00

A wee while back, I ran into the Alligator at the Market.

We waxed poetic about getting together and cooking dinner or something, but alas, circumstances conspired against us, and the deed was never done. Now we are separated by an ocean, but I'm sure that day will come.

Meanwhile, it's important to point out one thing: The Alligator is a real, bonafide chef, as opposed to me who is just a weekend foodie with a macro lens. I was therefore at serious risk of being shown up as a sad charlatan in the kitchen. Accordingly, I decided I had to do something drastic:

Practice.

I thought that if I was going to make something to feed to a real chef, it had better be delicious and original, and I wasn't going to take any chances. I made up a recipe and gave it a trial run.

Turns out I would've been OK just going with the flow like I always do. And as it was, the Alligator never got to chomp my chicken anyway.

So here it is, Alligator. I offer up my Orange Cinnamon Chicken for you to take away and make better, to make...professional.

Then send me a drumstick.
Orange Cinnamon Chicken

(Serves 3)

Ingredients:
3 Chicken Thighs, Skinned & Seasoned
2 Oranges
12 Cloves
Freshly Ground Pepper and Salt
Olive Oil
Semolina flour for Dusting
1 Cinnamon Quill
1 Whole Nutmeg
2 Bay Leaves
1 Onion, wedged
1 Carrot, peeled and sliced
1/3 Cup Red Wine
1/3 Cup Boiling Water
Juice 1 orange. Grate the zest from the other orange. Reserve the wedges of orange flesh, broken in half.

To the juice, add 6 cloves, salt and pepper, the orange rind and 2T olive oil. Stir it all up and sit for a few minutes to extract the flavour from the cloves. Strain the juice, reserving, and press the wet orange rind into the chicken thighs.
Sprinkle with semolina flour and drizzle with olive oil.
In a large pan, heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom to a depth of 1mm. When the oil is hot, add the cinnamon quill, halved, the nutmeg, 6 cloves, and the bay leaves. Fry until fragrant and smoking.
Push the spices to the edge of the pan and add the chicken. Shake constantly, browning both sides to seal the meat.
Layer the onion and carrot in an oven dish that will fit the chicken snugly. Place the seared chicken on top of the veges.
Press the orange wedges around the chicken and drizzle the juice over top.

Cover and bake at 220C for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, add the red wine and water to the dish, pouring around the bottom of the chicken, not over top of it. Reduce heat to 200C and cook for a further 1/2 hour.
Dish up with couscous and fresh veges, layering the chicken on top of the cooked carrots, onions and oranges.

Add One Year, Freshly Ground

2009-05-17T20:01:00.000+12:00

They call it a Blogiversary.

Seriously.

Crazy, I know.

Nonetheless, whatever it might be termed, I have reached my first ... Blogiversary. (Officially it's tomorrow, the 18th, but I feel it's going to be a busy one so I'm posting this right now!)

I started this blog not because I thought anyone would have any interest in anything I had to say, but because I needed somewhere to keep my recipes. I have a habit of making stuff up as I go along in the kitchen, and then people would ask me how I made it, and I'd say "well..."

So thanks to the generosity of Google Blogger, Freshly Ground was born.

Apparently, some people have even gone on to cook the recipes I've posted. That's cool.

So, without any more inane chatter (which seems to make up the bulk of this blog, despite its pretenses to being about food) I'm going to rattle off a few statistics and high points.

After writing about legendary fantasy cult author Hugh Cook and his struggle with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, I had the honour of being asked by his family to write an obituary for him. I did this, and the obituary was published in the New Zealand Herald. Were it not for Freshly Ground, I would never have had the opportunity to do homage to this writer whom I greatly admired. To Hugh's family, my eternal gratitude and love.

Running a blog also introduced me to the whole world of the internet, which up until then had always been a blurry and occasionally useful thing, usually for looking up odd words or researching obscure points of history or science. Apart from everything I learned about the publishing world thanks to this post (kindly supplied by my good friend Morgue), I also discovered audiobooks and podcasts. The addition of posting audiobook/podcast reviews came pretty naturally. I was also rewarded with the buzz of making the acquaintance of the writers I had reviewed when they came and left comments, and of trading tweets with those writers on Twitter.

Yes, it led me to Twitter too. Now, I don't know how I survived without it before (I know, it's sad and desperate, but it's an addiction I simply must feed).

This has also led to my latest piece of cool news, which is that emuse-zine have invited me to submit reviews for publication in their quarterly ezine. That's pretty cool too, and I'm looking forward to making the most of the opportunity.

Last year also saw, at long last, the publication of a collaborative work of poetry and short stories that had been on the back burner for nine years. Its final, harrowing birth was brought about, in large part, by my getting into the online world and finding a long-lost friend. If you haven't checked out Urban Driftwood yet, head over to Lulu and take a look.

Now for the stats:

Total Unique Visitors: 5,838 (Average 16/Day)

Total Page Loads: 8,351 (Average 23/Day)

Busiest Month: April 2009 (804 Unique Visitors; Average 27/Day)

Busiest Day: April 5th 2009 - 65 Unique Visitors. This was the day I posted my review of the Audiobook Drama Hoad's Grim. Thanks to Jack Kincaid for putting it out there on Twitter and driving the visitors to me.

Most visited page: The Ultimate Homemade Beef Burger Recipe. Somehow, this page seems to have made its way onto just about every food search engine in the world, because I get visitors from all sorts of random places, making a beeline to FG to learn how they can make the Ultimate Beef Burger. Eat up, I say.

At time of publishing this post, I had 8 Followers (Hi, Followers!) and 15 Subscribers in Google Reader.

Freshly Ground is rated 814,775 on Technorati. Awesome. If you're a Technorati member and think I deserve some love there, please swing by and throw me a bone. I'll give you back all the love I can, I promise.

So thanks everyone, for taking the time to come by and validate my existence here. I hope I've been entertaining.

And that's about it. Throughout the year we've laughed, we've cried, I've ranted, I've raved, and here's to another of the same, only bigger and better. Hopefully you'll all join me on the way.

Podcast Novel Review: "The Zombie Chronicles" by James Melzer

2009-05-14T21:11:00.006+12:00

Here's a podcast you can really get your teeth into.

James Melzer is one of a new breed of writers who are finding success by eschewing the traditional methods of shopping a manuscript to agents and editors, and are instead puffing out their lungs, warming up their vocal chords, and releasing their works into the wild - in the form of free podcast downloads.

As you know, I've been going on about this for a while now. As anyone who follows me on Twitter will know, I'm pretty much obsessed with podcast novels at the moment.The Zombie Chronicles - Book 1: Escape has continued to feed this addiction. This is storytelling with bite.

I had my reservations, as I greatly fear all the cliches that are associated with zombies. Zombies have gone so far into the laughable in the past twenty-odd years that it's a he!! of a job trying to make them scary again. Somehow, Melzer has written a zombie book that at once encapsulates all those worn-out tropes and injects the zombie genre with a new lease on life.

(Ah, will the puns never end?)

From the first chapter, I was grabbed by the freshness of Melzer's writing, his wry wit and the way he pulls a middle finger at all the stale baggage that zombies bring with them. Despite the title, this is no 28 Days Later. Without wanting to bring any spoilers to the table, I think it's safe to say that Melzer has single-handedly reinvented the zombie genre, while never abandoning everything we love about zombie stories - decaying flesh, the lust for human meat, brains exploding under well-aimed headshots.

TZC brings unexpected twist after twist, none of which have any place in the story you think you're listening to. But Melzer pulls it off with style, wit and lots of disintegrating sinew. I almost panicked when iTunes wouldn't give me the last chapter. Desperate measures were taken to hear the last part of this book, I guarantee you.

If you're into zombies even a little bit, you must listen to this podcast - or buy the book, when it comes out later this year (full disclosure - I get nothing from promoting any of the podcasts I review. I just dig that these guys and girls are so cool about it). If you like a good action story, or anything with a twist, this is also brilliant.

The audio quality is faultless. Melzer pulls off his voices without any problem, and has chosen not to clutter up the soundscape with effects. I think that if a podcaster/audio producer has the means and the ear to do good music and effects, and it doesn't cut drastically into their available timeframes, and that if adding M&E really fleshes out the world, then they ought to do so. But if a writer embarking on the huge task of recording a podcast feels they don't have the means or the skills to do this well, I thank them for not ruining an otherwise good production with a subpar effects track. It's nice to just appreciate the writing and the performance for what they are.

(To those podcasters who do put in the effort and do it well, keep up the good work. I love it all!)

I highly enjoyed this podcast. What it may have lacked in substance, it made up for in plot twists, gunfights, and exploding heads. Having said that, I felt close enough to all the characters to really want to root for them, although I was never really sure if I could trust anyone at all. Fantastic stuff.

TZC gets a solid 4 1/2 Stars out of 5 from me.

Coming Up:
Reviewing the Classics. I've recently finished Scott Sigler's Nocturnal and Seventh Son: Descent by JC Hutchins. Both will get a review here, as I educate myself on some of the seminal works of this emerging artform.

Past Reviews:
Hoad's Grim by Jack Kincaid - 5 Stars
Eden by Phil Rossi - 5 Stars
Jack Wakes Up by Seth Harwood - 3 1/2 Stars
Crescent by Phil Rossi - 4 Stars
DarkAge by Kirk Warrington - 2 Stars

Report from the Front Line: The Food Show, Wellington

2009-05-10T20:48:00.005+12:00

Since today was Mother's Day, I took Dessert Chef to the fabulous Food Show at the Stadium in Wellington.
OK, it was her idea, and I ate and drank a whole heap more than her, so really, she took me. In fact, since I tasted countless wines and she drove home, it really was her taking me out than the other way around.

Not to worry. Here's the up-to-the-minute review of New Zealand's biggest gastronomic event, as experienced by Yours Truly this very day. Yes, for once, my blog post won't be months out of date. It's good to be on the cutting edge.

Speaking of cutting edges, the highlight of the show for me was not actually any particular food or wine; it was the knives. Not just any knives, but ceramic knives. I have some great knives (a wedding present from my Mum, and still going strong), but these blades just blew me away.

I had just listened to an audiobook in which one of the characters has ceramic knives, which are worlds beyond any steel blade. So sharp that they don't blunt, lighter than steel - and of course never picked up by metal detectors, which is very helpful - I hardly believed it. Then I got to hold one, and cut with one.

*gapes*

They're great. I could slice a tomato literally paper-thin. At $110 on special for a small one, however, they're beyond this humble food critic's reach. but if anyone out there has that sort of money to spend on knives, I'd seriously recommend checking them out.

The other highlight was the Freedom Farms Bacon, purely on the basis of ethics and taste. I've talked often enough about getting more humanely farmed meat products into the mainstream, and as well as tasting delicious, this seems to be a step in that direction.

I learned a lot about different rice bran oils, and olive oils, and avocado oils, and tried probably three dozen or more (*gurgle gurgle* - quiet, tummy!) and disliked as many as I liked. I was surprised to learn that rice bran oil, which we think of as a terribly healthy option, is in fact a hydrolised product that is run through a chemical process before it gets to us. That's a shame, but we'll still use it - for now. I also discovered that avocado oil, which I've never eaten because of its hefty pricetag, tends to taste like overripe avocado. Yuk. I love avocado, but not once it's turned. There were some good ones, but they were really expensive. So hard to strike a balance.

I also tried numerous wines from several different regions and vineyards, and was surprisingly not blown away by any of them. That was also a shame. I wanted to buy wine, it's something I like to do because it means I get to drink wine. Oh well. Thinking about it now, though, I did drink wine, so that's probably OK. I didn't discover my next favourite Pinot Gris, though. Darn.

I've talked before about celebrity chefs, and while I err on the side of appreciating their passion for food even while I dislike the reality TV they have succumbed to, I have to admit a proclivity for snapping up their cookbooks if they cross my path at the right price. Dymocks Booksellers had a stand at the Food Show, and I grabbed a copy of Gordon Ramsay's Cooking for Friends for the bargain price of $20 (NZD). This book is not a "look at this great food that you'll never be able to cook" sort of a book. This is GR's family recipes, the stuff his kids make. And to celebrate this find, I dove straight in and cooked a recipe out of it tonight.

I know, it's unheard of. I'll be posting a meal that I've cooked on the same day as we ate it. I don't think that's happened since Day 1. But there you have it.

So, summing up the Food Show: Good. Yeah, lots of nice free stuff to eat and drink, as you'd hope (barring the $20 entry fee, of course, but I'm pretty sure we both ate and drank more than $20 worth of food). There was plenty of variety, and I even learned a few new things. It seems that nothing has made me sick, although my tum was telling me that I might have had just one too many lugs of olive oil by the time we left. Next year, I'll forgo breakfast to make even more of the delicacies on offer. Gordon Ramsay's Pasta with Baked Pumpkin and Rosemary
(With minor adjustments, just because I can)

Serves 3Pumpkin courtesy of our garden, no less.

Ingredients:
1 500g Pumpkin, deseeded and sliced into thin wedges
3 Rosemary Sprigs, chopped into 2cm lengths
4 Garlic cloves, peeled and halved
Lots of Olive Oil
50g Grated Parmesan
Drizzle a roasting tray with olive oil and sprinkle with freshly ground pepper and salt. Scatter the rosemary and garlic around, and drizzle with more olive oil and seasoning. Place into a preheated oven at 210C. Turn after 12 mins, then again after another 12 mins, until soft on the inside and lightly caramelised on the outside.
Set aside to cool. Discard the garlic and rosemary but reserve the oil. When cool enough to handle, remove the skin.
Place the pumpkin flesh and oil in a pot. Add a little more olive oil (I think I used a lot less to cook this than GR intended, as I had very little to reserve) and some water or vege stock to loosen it up. Blend with a hand blender or run through a food processor.
The pureed pumpkin should be more of a sauce than a soup, thick enough to coat the pasta but not runny. I think that I'd make mine a bit wetter next time. I wonder if UK pumpkins have more moisture content that the ones I grow out the back.

Keep the sauce warm while you cook a pot of pasta, steam some veges, and cook up your sausages or whatever, if this isn't your main course.
Drain the pasta and mix in the pumpkin sauce and the parmesan. Dish up hot, with freshly ground pepper, a grating of fresh parmesan, and perhaps a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

Podcast Novel Review: "Jack Wakes Up" by Seth Harwood

2009-05-07T20:52:00.003+12:00

To celebrate Seth Harwood's novel Jack Wakes Up being released into bookstores across the USA this week, I took it upon myself to listen to the entire podcast over the past two days and throw out my thoughts on it.
Jack Wakes Up is a bit of a step away from my usual cup of tea, being a crime novel and not in the slightest bit fantasy, horror, or science fiction. But it stood out to me, as crime fiction goes, in that the protagonist was not a cop or an ex-marine, but rather a washed-up actor.

Jack Palms has been on the wagon after his drug- and alcohol-fueled fall from grace some years earlier, which saw his marriage fall apart under the watching eyes of the public and the media. He's now cleaned himself up but is completely broke. A dodgy character from his past life entices him into doing one last big drug deal to set himself up for a while and make a new start.

As Jack gets drawn deeper into San Francisco's shady underworld, however, things quickly go from bad to worse.

Jack Wakes Up would fall somewhere between Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and 2 Fast 2 Furious, were it to have been a film. There are drug deals, murders, gun fights, car chases, betrayals, and strip bars - everything you expect from a high-octane, fast-paced action story.

This was fun to listen to. In the world of action storytelling, JWU was an invigorating tale, a cracking good yarn with plenty of good laughs thrown in. If my impression is that this was perhaps a bit lighter than Harwood intended, it's only because last night I also finished listening to Scott Sigler's Nocturnal, which completely blew me away (and will be reviewed very shortly, I promise). By comparison, JWU was good relief.

The audio production was clean and uncluttered. Harwood obviously made a choice not to use any sound effects (or if he did, they were so well done that I didn't even notice them), and relied on his own delivery to carry the pace of the story. There is no music or atmos in the soundtrack apart from chapter breaks, but I don't think the production suffered for this at all. The writing itself is tidy and precise, and Harwood's diction is mostly faultless (apart from the occasional stumble which hasn't been edited out), so following the story is never an issue.

I played this podcast through my computer speakers in a busy workshop, and was very rarely either a) unclear as to what was going on, or b) suddenly aware that I had lost the thread. I was kept engaged throughout the reading, even with distractions, and always felt like I knew what was going on and where the characters were. This is a testament to Harwood's writing and delivery, since this podcast is really just the author reading his own story, with all the passion he can muster.

Nice one.

Overall I rate Jack Wakes Up at 3 1/2 Stars.

Recommended to anyone who likes a good gangster or crime story, or a bit of action. Jack Wakes Up is complete at 19 Chapters, plus a Q&A with Seventh Son author JC Hutchins, which is both entertaining and informative.

You can listen to the first chapter here. The rest of the podcast can be found at Harwood's website, totally free. The book is also available in US bookstores and online.

While we're talking about Seth Harwood, he has posted a really helpful video about how to go about recording a podcast, which I also recommend for the three minutes it'll take you, if that sounds like something you might be thinking about.

Jack Wakes Up is available from Amazon.com, and can be found in bookstores across the USA.

A Curry Odyssey Episode 6: Roti Bread

2009-05-04T21:10:00.000+12:00

Back to the Great Curry Odyssey! It's lucky I'm getting so much mileage out of that big day when I made the Lamb Korma, because I haven't really cooked a proper curry since.

I have plans to try a Chicken Tikka Masala next, so if anyone can direct me to a good recipe to look at I'd appreciate it. A big shout goes out to BamBam for the loan of the Food of India book. It's the ultimate inspiration in print.

Moving onto Roti bread, then. What's great about this is that unlike my disastrous attempt at making Naan breads, this recipe for Rotis came out perfect first time. Seriously, I've never made these before. Following a link on my Key Ingredient: The Back Burner feed, I found this step-by-step photo recipe for making your own rotis from scratch. Lubna at the Yummy Food blog has gone to all the effort, but I didn't want to steal her photos, so I took my own. It's all her recipe, though. And it works, first time.

Before I launch into it, I'll make one quick comment. The roti we get when we order Indian or Malaysian or Thai tend to be a bit greasy, and are generally quite delicious. These ones, on the other hand, are dry and crunchy. However, I'm sure that this comes down to balancing your ingredients to suit your tastes and health needs. Quite simply, add more salt and oil for a more flavoursome, indulgent bread, or leave them as they are for a healthier option than you'll get from the local takeaways.

Roti/Chapati/Indian Flatbread

(Makes about 6, depending on how big you want them)

Ingredients
2 C Hi-Grade Flour
Extra flour for dusting
Water to mix dough, as required
2-3 drops of Oil for kneading
Pinch of salt
More Oil or Ghee if you have it
Combine flour, salt and oil, then add water slowly to form the dough. Knead until this becomes soft and elastic. Cover and leave to rise in a warm place for 15-20 mins.

Divide the dough into 5-6 roughly equal portions. Dust with flour and set aside.
Take one piece of dough and roll out flat on a floured surface.
Brush with a little oil (or a little more, depending on your taste) and fold the corners in...
...and in...
... and in ...
... then flour and roll out again.
Heat a wide heavy pan. Place the rolled roti on the pan. Cook until the top starts to look a bit dry, and turn before it starts to burn.
Press down on the roti with a kitchen tea towel or paper towel as the other side cooks to get a nice even puff.

Now you can brush your roti with more oil or ghee and either put aside in a warm place (ie, in a warming drawer) or serve up straight away with hot curry and cold raita.

More of the Great Curry Odyssey

Herby Bread

2009-05-02T09:42:00.000+12:00

It's the weekend. If it's not the weekend where you are, rest assured that it's probably the weekend somewhere. If that is simply impossible no matter where you are, you can take comfort in the fact that at some point it will be the weekend again.

OK, now that I've put that nonsense to bed, I want to show you something I love to do on the weekend, when I have the chance: Bread.

Don't be scared. I'm a lazy baker. I trust whole-heartedly in the stringent work ethic of the electric breadmaker. What I don't like about breadmakers is their complete and utter failure to present even a semblance of artisanship when they deliver up their final product.

Being inanimate may be somewhat to blame for this, but when you're dealing with a cook as fussy as me, there are certain standards I expect to be met. Let's just ignore that laziness comment for now.

Bread shouldn't just be a sustenance that gets us through the days. It should be a joy. If you think about how much bread you eat (gluten-intolerants are welcome to shake their heads in disgust at this point in time), why not make it yourself, and make it delicious?

With a breadmaker, all the hard work is done for you. Let the machine make the dough, then pull it out, let it rise, dress it up and slide it in the oven. Lovely stuff.

Mediterranean-style Herb and Garlic Bread

(Disclaimer: I've never actually been to the Mediterranean, so this could very well be a false claim. Nonetheless, it has olive oil in the recipe, so I'm sticking with it.)

Dough Ingredients:

300g Strong Flour
200g Semolina Flour
2T Breadmaker Yeast
1T Honey
1/2t Salt
280ml Warm Water
3T Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
(Alternatively, you can use Garlic-Infused Olive Oil, and make sure you get some of the chunky stuff in there)

Place all ingredients in the pan of the Breadmaker and turn on to a dough cycle.
When the cycle is finished, pull out the dough and gently shape on a floured bench. Because of the olive oil, this bread will be slightly denser than usual. That's OK. We like that.
Place the dough in a oiled baking tray and put it somewhere warm to rise for one hour. I always use the Hot Water Cupboard. While it's doing its thing in there, chop up some more garlic and some fresh rosemary and thyme.
Preheat the oven to 200C. Take the risen dough and brush gently with more olive oil. Sprinkle with the garlic and herbs and bake for 20 minutes.
It should come out a bit denser than normal bread. Delicious eaten warm with butter melting through it, or for sandwiches or toast or to soak up soup or whatever. Mmmm.

Bean Wrappin'

2009-04-30T21:10:00.001+12:00

This week is slipping me by, and it's like I've forgotten that I've got a blog to write. D'oh! I'll make my excuses later. Right now, I want to remind you that we do make an effort to cook vegetarian meals, just like I promised I would some time ago.

The fact is, the vego meals I've been cooking don't tend to be very interesting. This, I'm sure, is my fault, not the fault of the food. I was raised eating meat.

I'm not trying to break that habit. We're just trying to do different things.

Eating less meat is better for the environment and our health no matter how you look at it, so the vegetarian options really do matter. They haven't seen their fair share of airtime on this blog however, so today I will remedy that.

Beans are a brilliant substitute for meat. Packed with protein, fibre, and all sorts of vitamins and minerals, they're a one-stop shop for kicking off a vegetarian meal.
Just swap out a serving of Beef Mince (Ground Beef) for mild chilli beans, heated and spread over a third of a tortilla wrap. Season liberally with salsa and chopped salad - tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, cheese, capsicum, grated carrot, whatever - and dress the wrap with sour cream and your sauce of choice.
Just like that, Bean Wraps. Quick, easy, healthy, all those buzz words that make you feel righteous in your eating choices.

Not recommended if you work in confined spaces with other people, mind you.

Podcast Review: "Eden" by Phil Rossi

2009-04-28T20:32:00.004+12:00

A few weeks ago I wrote what I have decided, in hindsight, was an unnecessarily harsh review of the Sci-Fi/Horror epic podcast novel Crescent, by Phil Rossi. As I've said before, there is a huge difference between highly engineered audiobooks and works of individual labour, and having now thoroughly doused myself in hours of both, I can say with confidence that Crescent is a standout of the latter species.

On that note, anyone who has gone on to listen to Crescent, or anyone who may not be into audiobooks but loves to read a good bit of sci-fi, the book version of Crescent is going to be available on Amazon soon. Phil would like his fans who plan on buying a copy of the book to hold back until July 9th, and then to descend on Amazon like a swarm of angry hornets, pushing the book up the charts. I'll remind you all again closer to the time.

What I like about Rossi is how he has clung tight to everything about the internet that says "you can do it, if you stick with it." He's put everything out there for free, he's made himself accessible to his ever-growing fanbase, and he deserves to reap the rewards. It also proves that the cream really can rise to the top, and that there is no better weapon at a writer's disposal (good writing aside) than the art of self-promotion.
So, moving on. Eden is complete at 8 episodes and available free either on Rossi's website, or through iTunes, or at Podiobooks.com. It's free in all of these places, and Podiobooks.com provides a donation service, from which the majority of the money goes direct to the author.

I'm not sure what I was expecting when I started listening to Eden, but I figured out pretty much straight away that this was not going to be a rehash of Crescent, despite my initial impressions. Eden is also set on a space station, but there the similarities with Crescent begin and end. I was expecting another action story, but Eden with its dark mystery delivered a much richer experience, which had me hanging out for each new episode.

Where Crescent is visually evocative and a tour-de-force of action and horror, Eden advances at a more cerebral pace. From the outset, Rossi's writing has improved by several degrees, so much so that I felt like I was listening to a different writer. As the writing has matured, so too has the story. Focused intently on the first-person narrator, Malcolm, who is dispatched to a tiny space station near the planet Uranus, Eden is as much about the enormous, mysterious tree that has been found growing in the void of space as it is about Malcolm, his failings, his self-doubt, and his weaknesses.

Woven into this is Rossi's blend of science fiction and Lovecraftian horror, as the station spirals further from safety and sanity and into the consuming madness of Eden. The first-person perspective also keeps you relentlessly close to the action, which makes listening to this story a painfully emotional journey, in a way that all but the best sci-fi and fantasy fails to do.

Eden doesn't drag you through the chapters with blood pumping in your ears and air rasping in your throat like Crescent. Rather, you find yourself being led, trying to turn away, your stomach a hollow pit, afraid of where the next turn is going to lead you, and cursing Malcolm for his crippling self-pity.

I score Eden 4 1/2 stars out of 5, and I seriously rate the quality of Rossi's writing on this novella. It is a good length; any longer and it would have needed a faster pace, any shorter and it would have felt rushed. Overall, and given that it is not a studio production but an individual effort, Eden is a stunner. Give it a listen.

Gluten-Free Roast Chook with Apple Gravy

2009-04-26T15:07:00.001+12:00

It's been a little while since I actually posted a recipe here. I have a dozen food posts drafted, but more interesting stuff seems to keep coming up that I feel the need to blog about.

But since I'm also dealing with a serious case of writer's block right now, I figure it's time to get back to what I do best: making your tummy rumble.

It was Nan's birthday, and I hadn't shoved my fingers inside a dead chicken for some time, so I decided to do a special birthday roast chook. This recipe is based on a Jamie Oliver classic, but it incorporates my trademark apple gravy, and is Gluten-Free. (JO's is also GF, but he doesn't have the added bonus of apple gravy).

Gluten-Free Roast Chicken with Apple Gravy

(Serves 6)

Ingredients:
1 Large Whole Chicken, (size 20) fresh or thawed
50g Butter, softened
3 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
3 Stalks of Rosemary, leaves roughly chopped
Zest of 1/2 a Lemon (Keep the lemon to stuff the cavity)
Freshly Ground Salt and Pepper

For the Gravy:
1 Apple, cut into eighths
1 Onion, sliced
Pulverise together all ingredients except the chicken, apple and onion. Preheat the oven to 220C.
Take a small sharp knife and slit the skin away from the breast above the neck. Carefully prise the skin away, being careful not to let it split. Stuff the butter into the space between, pressing it as far as you can over the breast and into the thighs and legs. Spread any leftover butter over the skin.
Season the skin. Slice the lemon in half and squeeze into the cavity (the lemon that is, not you).
Place the segments of apple in the centre of a roasting dish and layer the onion rings over the top of this. Place the chicken on top, breasts up.
Roast at 220C until cooked, about 2 1/2 hours. Turn and baste after 40 mins and again after 80 mins.
And now for a picture of a posh-looking beer, cos we haven't done that for a while. Not necessarily recommended as an accompaniment to this dish, but certainly recommended. (Thanks Uncle I!)
When the chicken is done, remove it to a cutting board to stand for about 10 minutes. What you have left should look like this. To make the gravy, simply blitz everything in the roasting dish, either using a hand-held blender, or by straining it into a blender, or even by mashing it all through a sieve. It will self thicken without you needing to add anything or heat it again.
Serve with roast veges, fresh garden veges, and a nice crisp Pinot Gris. Then get out of the kitchen before they make you do the dishes.

What I've Been Listening To

2009-04-23T20:06:00.005+12:00

I'll be getting back to the food very shortly, I promise.

I'm being a bit of a net audio junkie right now, and I want to share around a bit of the love. Everything I've been listening to is free, just like the podcasts I've reviewed over the past months, so if any of it sounds like it might appeal, dive right in.

Top of the list right now is John Lithgow reading a big swag of previously unreleased Mark Twain. Witty, satirical, and thought-provoking, these unpublished letters and essays by one of literature's finest is brilliant stuff. Lithgow's reading is also a joy to listen to. I find myself alternately laughing and lost in thought as the talents of these two fine men blend together. Well worth the time.

I've just finished Derek Gilbert's Iron Dragons, a fantasy sci-fi book that kept me entertained from start to finish. From the immortal first line "Dragon pee really stinks", Iron Dragons promises to be full of dry wit and action, and it delivers well. Gilbert reads his own writing at an easy pace with little embellishment, so it feels like someone is really just reading you a good story. He drops his voice for some characters and plays with accents here and there, but only enough to get across the point of the different people in his world. Short and satisfying.

Also in the humour stakes (see, it's not all just horror and violence that I listen to!) is the laugh-out-loud audio-show "Lost Bearings", by Mr Jeb. This one is stream-only, but it is uproarious. Teddy Bears have come to life, and while most of them just want to fit in and drink beer and eat sandwiches, there are always a few who want to cause trouble and, you know, rule the world. Only four 15-min episodes at this stage, but if we flood Mr Jeb with hits, he might be more encouraged to record a few more. Top notch British humour.

And finally, I've moved on in the audiobook department to Nocturnal, by the original master of the podcast novel, Scott Sigler. Nocturnal is a horror story set in San Francisco. Since starting it two days ago, I can't stop listening. So far, so good. Cracking good humour, a scary-as-hell storyline, very competent performance, and impressive production values for a book that was a pioneer in its time. No star rating yet, but if you like horror, my impression thus far is that listening to this will be a stonking good time. My poor ipod is getting a hammering right now. I reckon it's shaking in its boots, now that I've left it alone in the dark.

I've also found myself reading again, more than I have in ages. Currently on a Dean Koontz novel, oddly, which as it turns out is a laugh-a-minute too, which I was not quite prepared for. While remaining dark and scary as one would expect from horror master Koontz, Life Expectancy is written with the author's tongue quite firmly in his cheek. (Sorry, that one's not free, unless you'd like to get it off me when I'm done.)

That's about all. Back into the foody goodness very shortly. Happy listening!

AudioBook Review - "DarkAge" by Kirk Warrington

2009-04-21T20:36:00.003+12:00

After finishing Phil Rossi's Crescent and waiting in eager anticipation for the final chapters of Jack Kincaid's Hoad's Grim, my hunger for more good storytelling was ravenous. I took Phil Rossi's advice and headed to Podiobooks to hunt down another great listen, and found a huge list of books that sounded like they might appeal to me.

I spent some time downloading first chapters and loading them into a playlist on my Ipod, then listened to them in the car on the way home. The ones that grabbed me made it as far as being downloaded in full, and one of those was DarkAge by Kirk Warrington.

I would love to rave about how good this was. I'd love to say that it was hilarious and satisfying and well worth the listen, just because I don't really like to sound critical. Unfortunately, for all its good points, DarkAge ultimately let me down as a listener, and I would be hesitant to recommend it.

First and foremost, let me say again that I have a tremendous amount of respect for the amount of work that goes into not only writing a book (I've done that myself - phew!) but also into doing an audio production of any scale, much less the recording of a whole book. I've made short films and worked in the film industry for years, so I know there's no such thing as a "small project". So to Kirk W and Phil R and Jack K (and Derek Gilbert, whose book Iron Dragons I'm currently listening to, and Christoph Laputka, who produces the astounding Leviathan Chronicles) who go to all this effort, and do it all for free, I tip my hat. Sometimes, however, the mark is missed.

DarkAge reeled me in from the first chords of the crunching heavy metal guitar riff that frames each episode. The basic premise is that a group of people - in this case fantasy role-players - are magically swept away into another world where they find they have come to inhabit their characters from the game they were just playing. Suddenly, the risks they were so happy for their paper-based characters to face are more than just a game; they're deadly reality. As the story progresses, the characters realise that in order to survive in this harsh world, they must become their DarkAge characters. If they don't, they won't have those characters' skills that allow them to prosper as they would in the game. The option is penury and shame at best, and death at the worst.

In terms of theme, DarkAge seems to be about the struggle for integrity of one's own self when faced with the challenges of emerging into a world that is more brutal and real than you were ever prepared for. As a teen coming-of-age metaphor, DarkAge bundles up the fears and hopes that we all had and throws them at us in a bloody, bruising haze; responsibilities can be as much a burden as a blessing, and making the wrong choices has real consequences. Sometimes making those choices, even standing up for what you believe in, can be fatal.

The narrative was linear and uncomplicated, which sadly also left the character development sorely lacking. While we knew all the characters and understood their individual motives and desires reasonably well, the need to abandon their old selves to survive tended to force them all in a single direction, even those who resisted that change.

Where this really fell down for me, however, was that the hook in a story of this nature is that you want to know: How do they get home? Without wanting to spoil the book, suffice to say that this question is never answered in a manner that satisfied me, given the hours I spent listening to DarkAge. In fact, there were far too many questions of that nature, questions that are really the guts of a story of this kind, that were never answered. Instead, the story focused on the conflicts between the characters themselves and the people they meet in the world of Merinia, and we never get to really learn about what makes this world tick. Conflict and story are all good of course, but it came at the cost of world-building and character arcs.

While this left the story open to a lot of action and adventure, of which there is plenty, and a good dose of humour, much of it fairly ribald, DarkAge ultimately feels shallow and under-developed, like watching someone else play a hack-and-slash computer game.

Warrington uses the idea that this is not a parallel world but a game world to lampoon many of the ridiculous rules that abound in roleplaying, and in that he well and truly hits the mark. (I think I'm bleeding to death! / You Idiot! Just drink a healing potion!) [Not an actual quote, but you get the idea.]

The other three key elements of the podcast - namely performance, writing, and production - also need work.

Performance-wise, while Warrington's theatrical skills leave much to be desired, he was by no means the worst I've heard. His reading of the script was deliberate and came across as forced, but he was nothing if not clear. He also handled the large cast of characters well, creating unique and distinctive, if not necessarily brilliant, voices for all of them. Some were harder to pick than others, but Warrington's insistence on writing dense lines of verbiage to follow almost every mouthful of speech ensured that we always know who's talking.

Yet it was this verbosity which also made me grit my teeth while listening. I would think to myself, I don't need you to tell me that he said that with annoyance, I can tell from the dialogue and the tone. This over-writing slowed the story down and seldom added any illumination. I think it may have improved towards the end, however. With the help of a brutal editor this book could be tightened up tremendously and be a snappier, more captivating piece of sword-and-sorcery than it currently is.

The sound effects were the real low point. Like I said, good on you Kirk for even getting this far. I've been spoiled by podcasts like Leviathan, Hoad's Grim and Eden, which all have stunning audio production. But the cries of the demons in the last chapters just made me laugh, or at least groan. Any tension that had been built in any scene that those demons squealed in just went down the drain as soon as that noise came through the speakers. Surely there must be better Creative Commons 'Demon Screams' out there for people to use. Kincaid, any suggestions?

Overall, I'll say that I'm glad I stuck with it to the end, but it was getting to be a struggle, and I really wanted to see them get home. Given the ending, however, I guess there is a sequel in the wind. This had the potential to be a good read, but ultimately it failed to convince me. Unless you really love the "whisked away into a parallel/divergent universe" concept, I wouldn't recommend DarkAge. The high point is Warrington's ability to satirise the genre and the RPG world, and worth a listen if you like that sort of thing. I know I laughed more than I usually do reading fantasy or sci-fi, and for that I'm grateful. And while I'd like to know what happens to Kev and Vaughn and Sake and Jer, and James and Hades, I don't think I'll be rushing out to listen to the sequel.

2 1/2 Stars.