A new Beginning

Ok, so I'm kinda moving on on things. I will still continue to post here, but all my food related snizzle will be done on www.yespleasefood.com. Feel free to have a look, until then keep it real

Slow cooked shin of beef stew

1 kilo of shin of beef

Flour

1 Teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice

Salt

Pepper

250 grammes of Button mushrooms

2 medium Carrots

1 red onion Onion

1 stick of Celery

Olive oil

Half a bottle of Red wine

Half a liter of Beef stock

Fish sauce

Bay Leaf

Thyme

Cube the beef into sizes slightly bigger than the mushrooms and toss in seasoned flour along with Chinese 5 spice. Brown them off in a heavy based dish on a high heat, don’t add them all at once as the heat will drop and the meat will boil rather than caramelise. When it’s got some nice crispy edges, remove the meat and set aside. Deglaze the pan with some white wine, scraping off all the lovely caramelised meaty bits and decant. Add some olive oil, along with the finely chopped onion and celery. Cover and let them cook down till gooey. Add the button mushrooms whole and sliced carrots, then add back in the meat, the deglazed juices, and the bay leaf and thyme. Give it all a good stir and add in the half bottle of red wine, keeping a glug for you of course, along with the beef stock and a good dash of fish sauce. You may revile at the thought of the latter in your traditional stew, but both McGee and Blumenthal say, and I’d agree with them, that the fish sauce and the aniseed in the 5 spice help to accentuate the umami flavour and thus make your beef stew taste more, um, beefy.

Cover and reduce the heat to a glimmer and allow to cook for 2 hours. Then remove the lid and allow to cook for another half an hour to help the sauce reduce.

Serve with a wholegrain mustard mash and forget about the weather.

Freedom Onion Soup

So we lost, our world cup dreams are over. Perhaps now, after many months and some really embarrassing protests, we can get over it. Leave the past behind us, remove ‘cheese eating surrender monkey’ from our daily lexicon of terms for the French. But let’s face it, on a world stage; we’re not very good at kicky ball. The terms ‘fighting Irish’ and ‘luck of the Irish’ are certainly ones that apply to our national football team. We seem to win by jammy goals where Robbie Keane bundles over several defenders to toe poke it into the net along with some dubious refereeing decisions and so when it is done to us at a crucial stage by possibly the smuggest man in football, Understandingly it hurts us so much more. Unfairly and kind of elliptically we were played at our own game.

But now what comes over the brow but a sport and a tournament where, not only are we one of the best in the world, but where we don’t rely on our Darby O‘Gill twinkly eyed ohbegarrah to push us over the line. This is a sport where we can really stick it to the French, and they’re not bad at it, I mean look at the size of them.

Sebastian Chabal’s training regime is dictated by two things; his fear of sneaky anthropologists, yearning to confiscate his skull to prove that the Pilkington man actually exists. And eating mastodon omelettes followed by a quick sabre toothed tiger on toast.

To quote an oft used sporting term, at the end of the day let’s abandon this amateur xenophobia and remember the French for something that they are truly great at, Food. And one of their easiest, and best, meals of Freedom French Onion soup.

Ingredients:

4 large white onions.

3 small shallots

1 clove of garlic

2 bay leaves

A bunch of thyme

A shot of brandy

A Litre of good beef stock (This is where the difference will be made, If you have time, roast up some beef and veal bones and do it the old fashioned way like here, alternatively the jellied stuff is quite good although a tad salty so go easy on the seasoning at the end. Don’t use stock cubes, at all)

A few slices of Vienna loaf

Gruyere cheese.

Method:

First get a big heavy bottom pan on a medium heat with a couple of lugs of olive oil in it. Roughly chop the onions, and finely chop the garlic and shallots and add all them all along with the de-stalked thyme and bay leaves to the pan and cover. Stir occasionally and keep an eye on the heat, what you want is the onions to take a rich brown colour but not caramelise or burn so by keeping the lid on you’ll keep the moisture in and they’ll stew up nicely.

When the colour is achieved and the onions have a melty quality to them, add in the shot (or two) of brandy. Let the alcohol cook off in it for a minute or two, remove the bay leaves and add the stock. Give the stock a good stir and get it up to heat, but not to the boil. Season to taste and ladle into large bowls.

Lightly toast your slices of Vienna loaf and carefully place on top of the soup. Grate your gruyere cheese and cover the bread with a generous amount, there’s no need to be pretty here and it doesn’t matter if it gets in the soup.

Fire under a hot grill for a few minutes until the cheese is melted. You should end up with something like this.

Serve and listen to some Edith Piaf, whilst producing a stick of butter suggestively to the missus.

Sesame street electronica mash up

Dont ask me how I did this but play this

and then after 15-20 seconds play this

enjoy

The Blend Show November Oddcast #003

The Blend Oddcast #003  by  Ivan Varian

Tracklisting

1. Orla Dell Graham – Shortnin bread
2. Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss & Emmylou Harris - Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby
3. Fleetwood Mac – The Chain
4. Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros – 40 day dream
5. The Apples – Killing in the name of
6. Elektrons – Get up (GW edit)
7. LCD Soundsystem – Bye Bye Bayou
8. Fourtet – Love Cry
9. The Beatles – Tomorrow never knows (Leftside wobble edit)
10. Tim Baker – Reckless
11. Mala – Left leg out
12. Fuck Buttons – Space Mountain
13. Shackleton – Blood on my hands
14. Radiohead – Reckoner (Off World edit)

The Blend Show October Oddcast #002

The Blend Oddcast #002  by  Ivan Varian


Tracklisting...


Olive – You’re not alone (Kill Light remix)
Florence and the Machine – You’ve got the Love (the XX remix)
Greg Wilson – Sacrificial Soul
Hot 8 Brass Band – Sexual Healing
Pretty Lights – More important than Michael Jordan
Pollyn – Gave it up (Peter Visti Remix)
Joubert Singers – Stand on the Word (Unabombers Remix)
Hot Chip – Over and over (Maurice Fulton remix)
M – Pop music (Todd Terje Remix)
See Cape, Get Cape, Fly – D.A.N.C.E
Tensnake – In the end (I want you to cry)
22-20s – I’m such a fool
AmpLive – Video Tapez (feat Del the Funky Homosapien)
Massive Attack – Splitting the Atom

Soundtrack for my daughter

I have a maggot. When she's in my company, she spends most of her time reconstructing my face with the sharp talons and biting my nose.
I made this video of her and did a bit with the soundtrack, hope you like