Montol Eve

The journey down from Bath was gloriously uneventful. Barring the unfortunate child 3 seats back, bored literally to tears, who boarded the train with us in Bath and at St Austell  left us to enjoy the final few miles. With the dubious Christmas songs from further down the carriage, we ran down from St Erth and in to Penzance.

Montol on December 21st is a recently revived festival of the Winter Solstice.

 

 

We joined the parade up to the prehistoric Lescudjack Hill Fort where the 'Lord of Misrule' lit the beacon fire an dances were performed.

 

With a gale of some 40 mph blowing the dry timber in the beacon didn't last long before being blown through the lee of the basket. The walk back down to town was a much less ordered affair and we left the group at Leskinnick Street to enjoy a fine pint of the Cornish Crown Brewery's Porter in the Crown.



Tum-tee-tum - Heavens - Do I have a blogspot?

For no other good reason than, Site Meter has reminded me that I have a fallen readership (5 hits last week), I am writing these few words to wake up the search engines to the fact only checking back once per day is probably not sufficient, should I recommence my pursuit of literary fame.
Needless to say, Twitter seems to have attracted me away from the more formal blogging in favour of random 140 character 'tweets' with the monicker @thenctoo.
In a vague attempt to push my total hit count up from the current 9066 to a 5 digit number, I feel perhaps I'll pursue this writing thing a little further.
Keep your eye on these pages.....

Good Afternoon Newlyn

'First thing' became ‘nearly lunch time’ and our planned trip to Town to buy a replacement for the ageing Chinos that had failed me last night started late. The first and last shop we went to was Burton's and there it was that I discovered that there is no longer a 'standard fit' that I'll ever get in to. It took 3 changes of trousers of various descriptions to realise this. I don’t shop for clothes well and three changes were trying my patience. Why aren’t companies making trousers for men of my shape? I know it’s a sizable market because I see them in pubs wherever I am. How hard are short and pot belly sized trousers to make?
I eventually left Burton's in a pair of jeans 2 inches larger in the waist than my M&S Chinos and 2 inches longer in the leg to boot. As we walked down a damp Market Jew Street I realised that the legs were far too long to be practical. We swung left down New Street prompted by an ‘A’ board inviting us to an ‘All Day Breakfast’, then left again into Princes Street for a 'proper' breakfast which we found at Country Cousins Café (there’s bound to be a story behind that name). The Café is a wonderfully traditional cafe serving everything with chips, toast or fried bread and pots of tea.
The search for a seamstress began following breakfast and was concluded when Wonder Web was purchased in the Sewing and Craft shop where we'd enquired after a seamstress. Quick bit of shopping in the Co-op and back to the 'self-catering' to iron in the Wonder Web ready for our day's adventure (Coronation Street on TV and is winding me up).
Plan - get to The Fisherman's Arms before the forecast rain arrived. The reason I wanted to visit The Fish, as the regulars have it, was that I had met a man from Newlyn called Perren in The Coeur de Lion in Bath and had been advised to visit the pub and say ‘hello’ to Brian his father.
It was a pleasant walk we took down the back lanes to the Boating Pond before strolling along the seawall into Newlyn, past The Tolcarne Inn, through the village past the fish docks and up the hill towards Mousehole. The Fisherman's Arms is a revelation of local community togetherness.

Quite apart from the atmosphere the beer was the trustworthy Trelawney and Proper Job from St Austell Brewery. Closed from 4-6 Monday to Thursday 'out of season' it was a delight as every conceivable inappropriate comment could be squeezed out of today's Daily Mail. Raw and hilarious, we and the pub were in stitches. 4 o'clock came too soon and as we left, the rain established itself for our walk back to The Red Lion.

Its only 50 yards way and we were already wet as we entered. We were customers 2 and 3 and ordered Addlestones Cider and Dartmoor Brewery's Jail Ale. After acquainting ourselves with the pub cat (Milo?) and this week’s copy of The Cornishman we started back toward Penzance. A quick detour left off the main road took us through a collection of lanes, unreachable with Google Earth, which proved to be a delight to us both, before coming out by the Swordfish Inn. Across the road and thoughts of chips entered our conversation, ”If I can see a 'chippy' from over here we'll nip back for some”. Alas the wooden buildings by the Fisherman's Mission obscured my view back up The Strand. Turning and walking back toward the Penzance road there it was in all its delicious signage, 'Fish and Chips'.
The smell of fresh cooking oil and batter met us as we entered. At the top of the Menu on the wall was Fish of the Day £3.70. As soon as we were asked, I quickly responded with "Fish of the Day please, with Chips". "What fish?" the girl replied. "Fish of the Day" I repeated. I didn't mind what it was but after a dig in the ribs I realised there was a choice. We could have had Scallops or John Dory and even Lemon Sole 'huge ones'. Embarrassed I chose the Lemon Sole. Once it was cooked and packed with salt and vinegar we left the shop with several “Cheerios”'. The rain was coming down in buckets as we walked back round by The Tolcarne Inn toward the seawall I tore open the paper wrapping the food and we got stuck in to beautiful chips. After a few mouthfuls and while the rain began to wick its way up our trouser legs we grinned at each other and walked on. Having made some space in the styrene tray, the golden batter on the sole was beckoning. With an inviting crunch the batter gave way to the most delicious Lemon Sole I have ever eaten. It just oozed essence of sea with every bite of the soft white flesh. Soaked and in taste heaven we smiled our way along the seawall toward the bottom of Alexandra Road.
We didn’t dawdle once the last of the food had been devoured and the rubbish was stuffed into the bin at the bottom of Alexandra Road. Hurrying now, in our soggy trousers we puffed and panted our way back up the lanes to Morrab Road and on round to the ‘self-catering’
The kettle went on as soon as we could get across the living room without tramping rain across the carpet.
Wasn't that a day and a half!!

Slow Cooked Beef Brisket in a Dark Ale

This little treat came to me when I was thinking about a 'winter warmer' in The Raven of Bath one evening over a few pints. I'd recently been experimenting with Fennel, since Russell Ham at the Devon and Cornwall in Millbrook, Cornwall had introduced me to the deep flavour that adding Tarragon could give to Beef and Onion Stew. I chose Fennel for the same aniseed like  flavour that Tarragon has and the similarity in structure to Celery that would add to the vegetable bulk. When Fennel is out of season I'd use Parsnips and a good quantity of Fennel Seed roasted and ground.

So here it is, Slow Cooked Beef Brisket in a Dark Ale, takes 2 days to produce and serves loads of people.

I bought a piece of Brisket from the butcher In Green Street ready rolled that cost about £16 and at about £7 per Kg must have weighed just over 2Kg which is about 5lbs in 'old money' . When I got it home the first thing I did was untie it and lay it flat; I wanted to see how large a pan I was going to use. What I wanted to achieve was to have the beef cook slowly on top of a thick bed of vegetables and stock. I found it was going to need my largest deep (6cm) roasting tin. I filled the tin to about 4cm with equal parts of Carrot, Onion and Fennel cut to about a half inch (12mm) dice. The tin then took about a pint and a half of rich dark ale, one of the following would suit - Plain Ales, Inncognito; Stonehenge , Old Smokey ; Wooden Hand, Black Pearl; St Austell, Black Prince.

 

Next I heated my largest frying pan 'til it smoked and placed the brisket fat side down in it and left it to crisp up (ruined the Teflon - getting a Green Pan next). Turning the brisket to ensure that all the edges and the back were partially sealed took 2 pairs of tongs, and it was bit of a struggle to get it into the roasting tin on top of the vegetables. I topped the whole lot of with a liberal quantity of fairly course ground pepper and a scattering of Thyme sprigs.

Now the easy bit; seal the roaster with a double layer of foil and make sure there's a little space above the meat and the edges are crimped tight. Put in a warm oven and cook for eight hours on Gas Mark 'a half' (130°C).

Once the cooking has been completed, remove the roaster from the oven, take off the foil and remove the brisket which will fall apart without care. Place it on a sheet of foil and wrap it tightly and set aside to cool before putting it in the fridge. Separate the vegetables and stock and allow to cool before chilling overnight.

The following day I separated off half of the vegetables and combined them with the stock in a liquidiser to produce a rich sauce. Now that the meat had chilled it can be carefully cut into thick slices and placed in a dish on a bed of some of the remaining vegetables and covered in the sauce for reheating in an oven while potatoes are roasting. There will be loads of beef left and it's great in rolls or baguettes with horseradish sauce. Enjoy, it's well worth the time and effort.

August Bank Holiday and Wet

I was out this morning with my camera, dodging into doorway to avoid the worst of the rain.

I liked this one

I hear September's going to nice...

The destruction of Britain's social fabric

http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/General-News/London-2012-Olympics-Pubs-in-central-London-suffer-as-West-End-becomes-ghost-town and the Forum comments http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/Forums/News-Article-Comments/London-2012-Olympics-Pubs-in-central-London-suffer-as-West-End-becomes#660180

I think Phil Johnson's comment says it all - supermarket culture has destroyed swathes of the British social fabric.

RE: London 2012 Olympics: Pubs in central London suffer as West End becomes

Phil Johnson - 02/08/2012 14:45:27

And that's because Brigid et al simply don't live in the real world anymore. I can guarantee what will happen here on Saturday morningwith large family 2 doors away from me:
9am - 'X' will drive to ASDA and return approx 40 mins later with £60's worth of cans. Sons will cart the lot to refurbished covered area in garden.
10.30am - extension lead rolled out and laptop & TV plugged in (under cover)
11.30am - rest of large family will start arriving (probably with more cans) and the partying will begin.
??pm - spotlights will go on
??pm - Olympics sacked long ago and Gem AM Gold blasting out.
Just over 5 years ago, these hardworking people would all have happily been ensconced in the local pub spending in the region of £300.
They no longer care what the sporting event is, they no longer care where it is, their normal entertainment has been curtailed -and that is why our local boozer has dropped from £12,000 per week --> £3,000 per week. So where do these people draw their conclusions from that the pubs will suffer great upturns in trade just because athletes are doing their thing for a fortnight-at God only knows what cost to our already financially beleagured country!

The Besterist Chilli Recipe

This is the besterist chilli recipe you'll ever find. It's a batch chilli which means that you make a lot eat it all at once or freeze it in portion sized portions. (* see footnote)
On the day before you decide to make your chilli, soak 800g of dried Red Kidney Beans. In my case I did know I was making a chilli so I followed this instruction but in case you don’t know you’re making a chilli you’ll need to add several tins of pre-cooked Red Kidney Beans to your shopping list. Dried beans tend to take on over twice their weight in water, so when soaked and cooked my 700g became just over 1.5Kg of prepared beans. As you will see this chilli is one of equal parts so there is mostly the same amount of each of the main ingredients.
Start off by skipping to the end of this essay and make sure you have all the ingredients you need. Once you have everything laid out on a work surface start the peeling chopping and unwrapping. I start with the garlic; peel it crush it and roughly chop it. Peel your onions and cut them into chunks. The chillies, I just slice whole up the length holding on to the stalk end which I discard. The green peppers I deseed and cut into 2cm pieces.
At this point I realised I needed something to cook my chilli in. This chilli is a big one so if you don’t have a good sized pan you’d best get a calculator out and reduce the amounts below by some proportion. When I started this one I knew I’d not get it into one pan but I went for it anyway and got all but about a quarter of it cooking in “The Big One”. My two large pans are both 28cm diameter, one being 15cm deep with a pair of handles and my usual stew pan, the other is only 8 cm deep and a sauté pan.
Taking the bacon and after roughly cutting it up, I put it in a large frying pan on a high heat. Pretty soon all the water and some of the fat started to run out, which I spooned into my sauté pan and heated to drive off the water. I had to do this a couple of times as the bacon was the cheap stuff. While the bacon was browning to just short of crisp I put about half the Onion into the sauté pan to soften in the bacon run-off. Once the bacon was ready I added the rest of the onion and the garlic along with the jar of ground cumin and gave it a stir before adding the chopped chillies.
In the sauté pan the onions had softened nicely so I added the jar of Oregano and stirred both pans, lowering the heat to allow the herb and spice to cook through. Once done I tipped the whole lot into the big pan on the lowest flame on the small back ring of my stove, to gently warm up.
The Green Peppers came next which I wanted to fry off until soft and the edges were browned slightly. In retrospect I might have roasted them to add a smoky flavour or perhaps just put them straight into the big pan, anyway I digress.
Now it was time to fry off the mince. I had three 500g packs so I put one in each of the two pans I’d been frying in, and broke it up. I didn’t want to find lumps of meat in my chilli later. Once coloured and separate I tipped the mince into the big pan and gave it a stir before doing the same with the last pack of mince.
Finally I poured a good slug of red wine into each of the frying pans to lift off all the stuck on flavoursome goo that had accumulated. This then went into the big pan too. I gave the whole lot a good stir to mix everything properly and shift anything that had stuck to the bottom.
Leaving the chilli on the stove to do its thing for a while, I cleared everything I had used away and washed up the frying pans and binned the rubbish.
Back at the stove there was a nice gloop sound beginning to come from the chilli as all the juice from the meat and vegetables was starting to mingle. At this point it was time for the first tasting. I had got the richness I wanted from the Cumin and the background heat from the salsa chillies was coming through nicely. Last Christmas I’d been given a bar of chocolate covered in Chilli Flakes. I tried a piece at the time and immediately decided the rest of it would go in the next chilli I cooked. This was that chilli; I broke it up and in it went with a quick stir.
At this point I needed to decide on the final heat of my chilli. I wanted something with a bit of a spike but not so much that neither the other ingredients couldn’t be tasted nor the guests leave it on the plate. That would be a waste. Either way there’s always a bottle of West Indian Hot Pepper Sauce in the cupboard for anyone to use. So to add a little heat I took 5 Bird Eye Chillies and rolled them gently in my hand to loosen the seeds, then holding each by the short stalk I split them from top to tip keeping both halves attached to the stalk and carefully removed the seeds. The deseeded chillies then went into the pan as they were. I figured that if the chilli started to get too hot they’d be easy to find and take out.
It was now time to add the Chopped Tomatoes. After tipping the tomatoes into the pan there was barely an inch of room left in the pan and I still had nearly 2Kg of cooked Red Kidney Beans to add. I left the pan to bubble away for half an hour, spattering the splash back with drops of sauce and stirring it every 10 minutes to keep it off the bottom of the pan until it had reduced a bit and was thickening nicely.
Now for the beans; using a Kebab Skewer I measured how deep the chilli was in the pan, then I transferred a third of it into the Sauté Pan I’d used earlier making sure that not all the Bird Eye chillies ended up in one pan. Then spoon by spoon I measured the Red Kidney Beans 2:1 into the respective pans and stirred them in. A quick reorganisation of the hob, placing the larger pan on a larger ring and the smaller pan on the smallest ring and simmering continued. The pans bubbled and I gently stirred for another 10 minutes before stirring in the Tomato Puree, a whole tube in the big pan and the ½ tube in the small pan. Stir and simmer for another 20 minutes and the chilli was done.
• 1.5Kg of Cooked Red Kidney Beans
• A couple of plashes of Vegetable Oil
• 1Kg Smoked Bacon Rashers
• 6 Large Onions (about 1.5Kg)
• 5 Small (it’s all they had) Heads of Garlic
• 46g Jar Cumin
• 14g Jar Oregano
• 1.5Kg Green Peppers
• 150g Mixed Chillies (the kind you use for Salsa)
• 4 Dessert Spoons of Soft Brown Sugar
• 1.5Kg Lean Minced Beef
• 5 Bird Eye Chillies
• 4 x 390g cartons of Chopped Tomatoes (about 1.5Kg)
• 1½ Tubes of Tomato Puree
• 1 Bar of Chilli Flake covered Chocolate

* Following the tubbing exercise I can confirm that the above recipe will produce 30 portions.