Easy to make and very tasty. *This will make two chicken wraps.

De-bone two chicken leg and thigh, remove the skin and marinade.

Marinade:

In a pestle and mortar grind up:
1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
1 teaspoon of cumin
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon of back pepper corns
1 fresh mild green chilli
A small chunk of fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves
1/2 a small onion
Once you have it all pounded up mix it with:
1 pot of natural yoghurt
1 teaspoon tomato puree
1/2 teaspoon lime juice and zest
3 teaspoon olive oil

Put your chicken in the marinade and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours, or at least overnight.

Wraps: These are simple, but be careful as they can go crispy and will break when you try to roll them up to eat.

3 Tablespoon plain flower
3 Table spoon soya milk (you probably could use ordinary milk but I've not tried it)
1 Table spoon of melted butter

Mix it all together and knead it till it goes smooth, wrap in cling film and leave at room temperature for 1/2 an hour.

Cooking:

Heat up a shallow backing tray in a hot oven. add the chicken and cook for about 20 minutes. Remove the chicken and slice it up to bite size pieces (you may need to pour off some liquid) put the pieces back on the tray and brown them off under the grill.

Roll out your wraps to about 3 mm, heat up a non stick frying pan with a spray of olive oil. Cook over a medium heat and keep pushing the bubbles down. These don't take long and you want them a bit like a pancake (too hot or too long and they will go crispy)  we don't want that.  

Serving:

Lettuce
Fresh coriander
Finely sliced onion
Chicken
Mint and yoghurt dressing

Wrap it up and enjoy.



*Play around with the marinade to suit your taste, and add other seasonal vegetables to your wrap if you have them. Cucumber, Spring Onion, Tomato, Sweet Pepper, etc work well.

If you like going to your local Chinese restaurant and trying the Crispy Seaweed you will probably know it is not actually seaweed, it's Kale. But it is very good for you and so simple to make.

Get a good handful of Kale leaves. "Nero di Toscana" works best and is so easy to grow.

Peal the curly leaves off their stalks (keep the stalks in your freezer for use later in stews etc)



Finley shred you leaves and add a little olive oil, a little bit of brown sugar and some Chinese Five Spice powder to your liking.



Mix it all up and put on a flat backing tray in your hot oven for around 15 minutes. Keep an eye on it as it will suddenly go crispy and could burn.

Serve hot or cold. Enjoy.

This is a simple recipe that ends up with some very tasty pork rillons.

Chunks of pork belly. (We use the rough bits left over from when we get a large chunk of belly for sausages or ribs)

One litre of sweet cider.

One table spoon of lard.

Two bay leaves.

Sichuan pepper corns.

Star anise.

Cloves.

Salt.

Black pepper.

Sprinkle your chunks of pork with the salt and pepper then fry them off in the lard till they are nice and  brown. Throw everything in a metal cook pot or saucepan with a tight fitting lid, bring it all to the boil and then simmer very low for 3 hours.

Remove and cool on a wire rack till they are cool and set. You can freeze them for use later or keep in the fridge for a few days.

Serve cold in thin slices or as a chunk with cheese and salad.  

Don't worry about the look of them as they are very tasty.

If you like your blues and want a DJ that comes across as being just a person like you, I can recommend "Fossy - Blues and Beyond"

I found Fossy last year and have been enjoying his shows every Friday evening on Mixcloud. He just has a way of making it feel like he is talking to me. He has taken me back in time to when I would listen to Radio Caroline and imagine that the DJ was talking to me. That DJ then fed me music that I felt was tailored just for me and that is what a good DJ does. He/She has a way of talking to you and only you, we often forget they are just sitting in a room imagining we are out there listening.

In my youth a DJ was so important and today they are just as important as they were then. You should not fall into the trap of crap music that is peddled today, you should hunt out a DJ that you like (not one that media says is good) but search hard for a DJ that involves you. Find one that plays the music you like and not the music they are told to play.

Forget your crap TV shows just for one night and go DJ hunting, you may be lucky enough to find a DJ that is passionate about what they are doing. Once you find a DJ you like let them know you are listening and give them some feedback, they like knowing someone out there is enjoying their show.

I contacted Fossy after he asked if anyone had a recommendation, and last night he played three tracks from Low Society Band and during his show he said he was determined to find out who I really am. It was a funny moment especially when I got called Flaky Fled (around 47 mins in)    

I'm not sure if Fossy is offering a reward for the information but I will double it. So if you do know who I am then please tell me first as I may have forgotten myself.

Oh and you can find Fossy here: Fossy - Blues and Beyond

ArteMie independently designs and bakes arty mugs, e.g. oldtimers and traditional sailing vessels. Freshly designed mugs are ready to ship or pickup in Amsterdam.  

You can find out more about Artemie and her work here:

https://www.artemie.nl/

@emmymeester

We went for a little break to a strange place next to a power station.

The weather wasn't great the first day, but it got better the next. We wasn't sure what to expect but the power station was small and didn't seem to be doing a lot.

Here is the power station



It's situated on the blustery Loire River where it heads out to sea.



Now we need to find somewhere to stay. :91:

There must be somewhere to stay down here.



That's odd, I'm sure I saw a house on top of a chimney.



Let's check the other side. ............................... It is a house and a tree on top of a chimney.



Better get a closer look.



Yep it's a little house, I think we should look a little closer in the next post.

I thought I would have a go at drying some herbs in the polytunnel.

#1 Some odd bits of wood found in the Man Cave.
#2 Old mosquito netting also from the Man Cave.
#3 A hook and a length of strong string.

Make up the frame.



Staple the netting on.



Chuck in some herbs.



Pull it up and tie off with the string.



And there they are drying at the top of the polytunnel.



I'll see how it goes and report back. If I remember.

Here's another one of those Fred moments when I prove to you that I do like modern bands.

Yeah it's Bluesy but it's not that old stuff I'm often accused of being stuck with. This is something that you need to wind up the volume for and either play it in your car with the windows open or better still open the windows in your house and let your neighbours get a listen.

It needs sharing and this band Low Society are doing a great job of keeping the Blues alive, you need to like a very powerful female voice and some damn good guitar playing to like this. If either of those are not for you then walk away now..........................No Stop Right There. Hold on, let me find you something to try maybe it's not so Bluesy as you thought.





But then again those of you that now me will be expecting some Blues so I'm throwing in two videos in this post. You just have to watch this one (It's my favourite find) from Low Society. It's a cover and as some know I'm not a huge fan of covers, but they have done a great job of this.





Give them a listen, you can find them on Twitter https://twitter.com/LoSox and I'm sure elsewhere on your favourite social thing.

Enjoy.

Here's your chance to get your hands on some original art by Kathryn.

Kathtyn went to Winchester School of Art for her foundation diploma, then the University of Portsmouth in 1993 to study a degree in Art and Design. Her recent work has been studies of the rural aspects of Winchester.

Winnall moors.


Autumn Lane.


From the hill beyond

Today I've been making the first batch of passata.

The tomatoes are "Black Russian" a very odd looking tomato but about the best tasting one for passata you will ever find.

Recipe:
Black Russian tomatoes (other toms will work but it may not be so thick and tasty)
Garlic
Sea salt
White pepper
Brown sugar

Roughly chop up your Black Russians throw them in a baking tray with a couple of bits of garlic, some sea salt and white pepper, a tea spoon of brown sugar and a good splosh of olive oil.

Chuck em in a hot oven for around 40 minutes or until they go all soft and some edges start going black. When they're done pour them in a saucepan and give them a good blitz. (I use a saucepan to blitz them in as it's safer than a jug)

Once they are all blitzed up you need to pass them through a sieve into another saucepan. (you don't have to sieve them but it does give a smoother passata)

Let it cool and put it in portion sized containers. We use one container big enough for a Chilli or Bolognese and a smaller one for Pizza topping. Now you just throw them in the freezer and use as needed through the year.  

Yum



The one on the right weighed in at 566 grms









This is the first batch form our poly tunnel and we should end up with enough to give a meal or two each week till this time next year.