Rants&Rambles

Clearing the Hoard

I have never thought of myself as a hoarder. It creeps up on a person. Nearly thirty years in the same house and who doesn’t have a stack of who knows what under the bed?

The problem with stuff, lots of stuff, is that sooner or later you have to reckon with it. The carpet fitters are coming in which means all of the furniture will need to be moved about, which in turn means all the stuff lying about and inside the large pieces of furniture will need to move.

The obvious answer is to take this opportunity to throw out a whole load.

Faced with this challenge, my partner is moving at glacial speed through the files that cover every single shelf, wall and floor in our smallest room upstairs. A few years back, faced with the same challenge he managed just two files and carried a betrayed look on his face for at least a month. It got so bad that I offered to clear my files first, only to realise that of the hundreds stashed in the room, only two were mine. Paperwork has never been my weakness.

Meanwhile I’ve made six trips to the tip, most unwisely one on the weekend when everyone and their dog seems determined to empty their dumpy bags full of garden waste.

The surprise is how much bedding we seem to have accumulated. There really is no reason for more than two sets, one to wash and the other to ‘wear’ and yet it would seem that in nearly thirty years, I have never thrown a single sheet out.

Ho hum.

Where stuff cannot be thrown away (basically because it’s not mine and he just cannot deal) then it’s been put in plastic boxes in the garage. Why not the loft? Because the loft is already as full as can be obviously and out of sight, up a loft ladder means that stuff will still be there when we die. At least in the garage, the stuff is visible and one step closer to the tip.

My daughter came home (from her house two streets away) and finally cleared her room. The childhood globe was regretfully put into the tip pile alongside her school artwork. Her memory box was apparently too large for her house (seriously?) so is now located in my garage waiting for space to appear in their loft. If it ever gets there, it too will no doubt languish until the grandkids (God-willing) are left to deal with the house clearance.

Having put the carpet fitting into the diary for the wrong week (one week early) we are now almost ready for them to arrive, next week.

Now about that naked photo in the bedroom….

Rants&Rambles

Moths

When I moved into my house, many years ago, the carpet was muddy green. We lived with it for a reasonable amount of time until our own stains, added to the stains of people who came before us just became too much.

The kids were past the really messy stage, we told ourselves, quite incorrectly as it turned out. We decided to splurge on a lovely grey wool carpet, up the stairs and throughout the bedrooms. Downstairs has hard floors, mostly parquet.

Life moved on. The kids were messy. The cats scratched their way through parts of the carpets trying to get into their preferred bedrooms. Basically all was okay.

And then the moths arrived. Carpet and clothing moths are small and easily ignored until they reach critical mass and you’re faced with proof that they’ve eaten their way through your house. We had a small radiator leak in the un-used bedroom. It was fixed and the door closed. A few weeks later and the damage moths can cause to a damp piece of wool carpet was all too obvious.

We limped along with chemical sprays, blocks for the wardrobes (carpet moths eat clothes) and pheromone traps. The latter are especially gruesome as they trap the male moths on sticky paper, more a way to allow you to track how bad your infestation is (very bad) than to actually rid yourself of the problem.

Female carpet moths lay their eggs in quiet dark places with a food supply. They munch their way through fibres containing lignin, so animal products such as wool, cashmere, feathers, silk. Your cotton quilt cover is probably safe but your feather or wool stuffing in the quilt, less so.

Clothes were thrown out, sent to the dry cleaners and packed away in vacuumed plastic bags under the bed. Still the moths kept appearing.

Finally this Summer (just before the oven broke and the electricity scare came to light) I committed to a new carpet, the only condition that it may not contain any wool for the moths to eat. I also mentioned the three cats which quickly ruled out any thoughts of a loop carpet since they love to shred them with their claws. talking my way through the various artificial fibre options, we went for the one most similar to what we have already in place.

Apart from the moths, I like the look and feel of my carpet.

It turns out there are a lot of grey cut twist pile carpets out there. Shades of grey and cream neutrals seem to be the most common choices, though I was told that green is coming back into fashion.

But there really are a hundred shades of grey, and not all artificial fibres are equal. I’ve chosen the bluest grey and the easiest material to clean. In theory a glass of red wine should some out with a simple cold water wash. Ho hum.

And then there was the choice to re-carpet all of the house or just the rooms with obvious damage: the whole house was more expensive but only if we could persuade ourselves that we wouldn’t be looking at finishing the job after another five years of moths moving from room to room in search of munchies.

A whole house with new carpet just in time for any grandkids to arrive. Great.

Food

Sweet Chile Grain Tofu Bowl With Tofu

I’m trying a new recipe each week, some with more success than others…

Sweet Chile Grain Bowl With Tofu

Total Time 50 minutes Prep Time20 minutesCook Time30

You can use any kind of cooked grain as the base of this colorful, deeply flavored tofu and cabbage bowl. The grains, vegetables and tofu add texture, heft and protein, but the real star is the sauce, a mix of chile crisp, garlic and soy sauce sweetened with ketchup. Brushed onto the tofu and cabbage before roasting, the sauce caramelizes and mellows. Drizzled on top of the bowl right at the end, it stays bright and snappy. Fresh cherry tomatoes tossed with more chile crisp make a juicy, spicy garnish, but you can leave them out if you don’t have any on hand.

Ingredients

Makes: 4 servings

  • 1 package firm or extra-firm tofu
  • ¼cup neutral oil, such as rapeseed
  • 2garlic cloves, grated or minced
  • ¼cup ketchup
  • 1½tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1½tablespoons miso
  • 1tablespoon chile crisp, more to taste
  • 1teaspoon rice vinegar
  • 1½cups cherry tomatoes, halved
  • ½teaspoon fine sea or table salt, more to taste
  • 1½pounds napa cabbage, halved lengthwise, cored and sliced crosswise ½ inch thick
  • 1bunch spring onions, thinly sliced
  • 1lime, cut into wedges (or use more rice wine vinegar)
  • 4cups cooked grains (rice, couscous, bulgur wheat or whatever else you have on hand) or salad greens
  • Chopped cilantro, for serving

Preparation

  1. Heat oven to 200C degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Cut the tofu into 1-inch-thick slabs. Cut each slab in half to make squares. Line a plate or baking sheet with paper towels and place tofu on top. Place another layer of paper towels on the tofu and weigh down with a skillet or cans. Let sit for at least 15 minutes.
  3. While the tofu is draining, make the sauce: Heat the oil in a small pot or skillet over medium-high. Stir in the garlic and let cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Whisk in ketchup, soy sauce, miso, ½ tablespoon of the chile crisp and the rice vinegar. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
  4. In a small bowl, mix together the tomatoes, the remaining ½ tablespoon chile crisp and a pinch of salt. Set aside.
  5. Place tofu on one side of the prepared baking sheet and generously brush both sides of the pieces with the sauce.
  6. Add the cabbage to a bowl, sprinkle lightly with salt and toss with ¼ cup sauce. (Reserve remaining sauce for serving.) Spread cabbage on the other side of the baking sheet in an even layer.
  7. Roast tofu and cabbage for about 30 minutes, tossing the cabbage after 15 minutes. The tofu should be lightly golden at the edges and the cabbage tender and bronzed. Toss about half of the scallions into the cabbage and squeeze lime wedges over everything (or drizzle with a little rice vinegar). Taste cabbage and add more salt or sauce, if needed.
  8. To serve, put 1 cup grains in each of 4 bowls. Drizzle the grains with a little of the sauce. Top with tofu, cabbage and spicy tomatoes. Garnish with cilantro and remaining scallions, and drizzle with remaining sauce. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Rants&Rambles

Domestic

My built in oven broke, or at least was on its way out. I could turn the knob (yes, it’s that old) to the required setting but there was absolutely no certainty it would switch on.

We did the maths and worked out that it was maybe 15-20 years old. Ho hum. Time for a replacement.

Being middle-class wealthy, we headed to John Lewis after a quick look through the Which Consumer Guide to domestic appliances and chose their BEST BUY, plus the option for them to take away the old oven and fit the new one.

Everything was going really well. They arrived. The old oven was removed and the new one installed. A quick safety check and they could leave.

Oh dear.

Apparently the impedance in my electricity supply to the oven socket was too high at 1.35 (ohms?) So the men uninstalled the oven and left with instructions that I needed to contact a qualified electrician to sort things out. The implication was that my electricity supply was unsafe.

Cheery news – not.

My electrician arrived, checked the oven, saw no problem but agreed that the impedance to the rest of the kitchen was too high and moreover that my very old fuse box could probably do with replacing. he wasn’t ready to say that I needed an entirely new earth system, but possibly?

He is honest as the day is long so having fitted the oven, I’ve scheduled some time for him to replace the fuse box next week. Once that job is done, we can check the impedance again and see if it’s still too high and a new earth is required (different company UK Power Networks) to make my house safe.

A new fuse box will at least have an RCD (Residual Current Device) that will trip quickly if there’s a fault though to be honest, after living with the current one for nearly thirty years and no harm, I’m pretty blasé about the situation.

What was driving me crazy was having a new oven sitting in my kitchen unusable, even though given the heat we’re seeing at the moment I had no desire to bake.

Now that it’s finally connected I have different issues. It’s wifi enabled, talks to my phone and seems to get daily software updates.

Why?

Food

Butter Paneer

The future SiL who loves all things cheese, adores this recipe but since it’s quite rich, a fresh green side dish is probably advisable.

Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

  • 1½pounds paneer, cut into ½-inch cubes
  • 2tablespoons ghee or neutral oil
  • 1teaspoon freshly grated ginger or ginger paste
  • 1teaspoon freshly grated garlic or garlic paste
  • 1small white onion, finely chopped
  • 1teaspoon Kashmiri red chile powder
  • 1teaspoon garam masala
  • 1(14-ounce) can of crushed tomatoes, or 6 plum tomatoes, chopped
  • 2tablespoons cashew butter
  • 2tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 green chiles, chopped (optional)
  • 1tablespoon chopped cilantro (optional)
  • Rice or roti, for serving

Preparation

  1. 1If using store-bought paneer, soak the cheese in hot tap water for 10 minutes; drain.
  2. In a medium pot, heat ghee on high until it melts, 30 to 90 seconds. Stir in ginger and garlic and cook until the smell of raw garlic dissipates, about 30 seconds. Add onion and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent, 5 to 7 minutes.
  3. Add chile powder and half of the garam masala and cook until deliciously fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in the tomatoes and cashew butter. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes start to break down, 5 to 7 minutes.
  4. Adjust heat to medium and add the butter. Cook until butter has melted into the mixture, about 30 seconds. Stir in 1 teaspoon salt and add water if a thinner sauce is desired. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Stir in the paneer cubes. Simmer for 5 minutes on low, until the flavors have melded. Top with the rest of the garam masala and the green chiles and cilantro, if using. Serve with rice or roti.
Rants&Rambles

Dystopia

There is an author that I exchange emails with, provide some feedback to her novels etc. She has an editor so I’m generally just commenting on the narrative flow, raising the obvious questions and being a huge fan. She writes dystopian fiction, or at least that series I’m most connected to is a piece of American dystopian fiction.

I can’t imagine how tricky it is to write dystopian fiction in a country where that dystopia is playing out in real-time in government. Obviously it’s missing the werewolves and other woohoo but everything else is pretty much there. Wait a few days and the net appalling thing will happen.

I am of an age to have grown up believing basically that the Americans were the heroes, that whatever might happen, the Americans were there to stand up for the downtrodden democracies around the world against aggressors.

I never expected to see video of Americans being pulled from their beds, from the streets by armed thugs wearing balaclavas.

Who imagined the American president siding with the Russian dictator Putin over poor Ukraine?

How did we reach a stage where Americans thought it right or reasonable to keep a body alive until it started rotting before cutting out a half-developed baby?

Where is the popular uprising, complete with excessive guns that were promised in the event of central government overreach?

The US president has crashed world markets, upended alliances, cancelled aid leading to the death of thousands, maybe millions worldwide. And all the time, the powers that should check him stay silent.

It’s not so much the single elderly man that leaves me worrying but rather the people around him riding his victory, encouraging his excesses.

The world is paying for the choice that America made between the competent black woman and this sh*t show.

Food

Green salsa

2 cups fresh mint leaves, chopped

1cup coriander leaves, chopped

2 green chillies

2tbsp fresh squeezed lemon (1 large lemon)

2tbsp greek yoghurt

2tsp cumin seeds, crushed

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp sugar

Add all of the above to a food processor and combine.

Above is a recipe from the NYT which it uses to dress cooked chicken before serving in lettuce ‘cups. Having tried it with vegetarian chicken, I actually think it’s better either as a stand alone salsa or with a more crunchy kind of vegetable base, maybe finely sliced and cut kohlrabi?

It’s useful because having moved into her new house last year, my daughter has made a raised bed for herbs and is now over-run with coriander, parsley and mint. The latter is at least planted outside of the bed but I am reminded that every gardener, no matter how skilled, spends the first year planting and the next ten years weeding out what they’ve planted.

Rants&Rambles

Hypocrisy

Tax law changed in the UK, specifically Value Added Tax, a form of sales tax, now applies to private school fees. Given that typical fees for a day school are around £15k, the fact that they were exempt from VAT saved people a reasonable amount of money each year. So much so, that a small minority of parents will now have to relocate their children from private to state school.

I might have got into a fight with one of them on social media.

Before that change was implemented there were lots of claims that we’d see an influx of children into the state system that would not be able to cope, that in fact very little money would be made by the government making this change as a result.

It turns out that there re around 650k pupils in private schools in the UK, of which maybe 35k are estimated to be transferring to the state sector, a small proportion of the total. The change in tax will net the government a tidy sum that can be spent on free school meals for poorer kids, for more teachers and improved infrastructure in the state system.

For me, it seems like a good policy with good outcomes.

Of course my children are long past their school years and we could afford to send them to private schools even if VAT had been applied. Like most parents paying for the privilege, we were not at all price sensitive. During a time of low to no inflation, school fees doubled over six years. No one left their private schools.

The woman arguing with me on my socials doesn’t know my own kids’ educational background of course. She assumed that my children, if I had any, were state educated. She assumed my position was one of grievance, that I begrudged her something we could not afford ourselves.

Am I a hypocrite? Possibly. It doesn’t feel like the right word though.

I have never fooled myself that I wasn’t buying my girls something of value with their education, an advantage, and that as a consequence of that choice, other people’s children would be disadvantaged. It felt and still feels to me, that girls have plenty of disadvantages in life and spending money to advantage them went a small way to balancing that disadvantage. I accepted that it was unfair. Of course it was.

I have voted all of my life for a political party and system where in and ideal world both private and religious education would cease to exist. I would be happy in that world. But since we’re not there, and we could afford it, we chose private single-sex schools. I don’t regret the choice.

Having said all of that, the benefits of private education are not as great as you’d think. My girls had both good and bad teachers. they were in selective schools so the width band of educational needs was narrowed and easier to teach. This also meant that they had no idea that they were cleaver until they reached university which obviously impacted how they saw themselves, maybe still how they see themselves. The self-esteem of girls in selective same-sex schools can be difficult.

The facilities at the schools were good, but the really glamorous private school facilities tend to be sports based for boys schools, not academic girls’ schools. The breadth of subjects was broader initially, a choice of languages to learn, music and art as real subjects with dedicated time and teachers, but the academic pressures to perform pushed the children down fairly traditional academic routes.

I am genuinely sorry that this woman feels forced to move her child from her private school at 16. It must feel very disruptive. Her family must be quite angry and quite sad.

But that’s her problem. I don’t think that people struggling to get by in life should be asked to pay more tax to afford her a tax break on private schooling for her children whilst their own go to the local state school. I could afford the luxury of private education. Alas, she no longer can. Capitalism sucks.

She didn’t feel sorry for the neighbours who could never afford to send their children to private schools or at least not enough to send her child to the local state school in solidarity, to work within the system to improve the local state school. She is cross to have to give up the privilege that her child is enjoying, though to be honest the benefit is probably mostly in those years through to GCSE at 16. Many people choose to move their children at 16 within both state and private education.

She feels cross and maybe a bit reduced to her neighbours’ level.

She is not wealthy enough. Not now.

Ho hum.

Am I the hypocrite, or is she?

Food

Challah

I make this bread over two days, letting it rise overnight in the fridge before knocking the dough back, shaping and baking. Rather than raisins, I tend to flavour it with rosemary or (family favourite) cheese and crispy onion, most often in a spiral rather than the beautiful but complicated braid this recipe describes.

As someone who prior to this recipe had every attempted loaf of bread turn out positively brick like, I won’t say that it’s foolproof but aside from the braiding (which you can skip) it’s the best and easiest loaf recipe that I’ve come across.

Ingredients

Yield:1 large loaf or 2 small

  • 1teaspoon active dry yeast
  • 1¼cups/169 grams bread flour
  • ½cup/72 grams golden raisins (optional)
  • ⅓cup/113 grams honey
  • ⅓cup/75 grams extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1large egg yolk, at room temperature
  • 2large eggs, at room temperature, plus 1 beaten egg, for egg wash
  • 3cups/405 grams bread flour, plus more for kneading the dough
  • 11grams or 1½ teaspoons coarse salt)
  • Poppy or sesame seeds, for sprinkling (optional)

Preparation

  1. Make the preferment: In a medium bowl, combine the yeast and ¼ cup/57 grams warm tap water (100 to 110 degrees), and whisk until the yeast is dissolved. Add another ½ cup/113 grams room temperature water and the bread flour, and stir with a flexible spatula or bowl scraper until you have a smooth, pasty mixture with no dry spots. It should look like a thick batter.
  2. Scrape the mixture into the center of the bowl and cover tightly. Let the preferment sit at room temperature until it’s nearly tripled in size, extremely bubbly across the surface, and jiggles on the verge of collapsing when the bowl is shaken, 1 to 2 hours (depending on the ambient temperature).
  3. If making a raisin-studded challah, while the preferment is getting bubbly, place the raisins in a medium bowl and cover with boiling water. Cover the bowl and let the raisins soak until they’re plumped and softened, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the raisins, pat them dry, and set aside.
  4. Mix the dough: In a medium bowl, whisk together the honey, olive oil, the yolk and 2 of the eggs until smooth, then add to the bowl with the preferment. Add the bread flour and salt. Use a flexible spatula or bowl scraper to stir the mixture, making sure to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to incorporate the preferment, until a shaggy dough comes together.
  5. Knead the dough: Generously flour the work surface, then scrape the dough and any floury bits out of the bowl and onto the surface (reserve the bowl). Generously flour the dough. Use the heel of your hands to knead the dough, adding flour as needed if the dough is sticking to your hands or the surface, until the dough is very smooth, elastic and slightly tacky, 10 to 15 minutes. (You can also combine everything in a stand mixer and mix on low speed with the dough hook for 8 to 10 minutes, adding more flour as needed until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.)
  6. Test the dough: Pinch off a golf ball-size piece and flatten it with your fingertips. Stretch the dough outward in all directions gently and slowly: You should be able to form a sheet of dough that’s thin enough to allow light to pass through without tearing. If the dough tears, continue kneading. For a raisin-studded challah, use your hands to flatten the dough into a 1-inch-thick slab (the shape doesn’t matter) and scatter the drained raisins over the dough. Roll up the dough and gather it back into a ball, then knead until the raisins are distributed throughout.
  7. Let the dough rise: Gather the dough into a smooth ball, dust lightly with flour and place back in the reserved bowl. Cover and let the dough sit in a warm spot until it’s doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours (depending on the ambient temperature). Alternatively oil a bowl and leave the dough in the fridge, covered, to rise overnight.
  8. Divide the dough. I usually make two smaller loaves but for a single loaf: Punch down the dough inside the bowl to expel the gasses that built up during the first rise, then scrape the dough out onto a clean work surface. For a braided loaf, use a bench scraper or knife to divide the dough into 6 equal pieces. (You can eyeball it, or weigh the pieces for accuracy — each piece should weigh 180 to 190 grams.) For a round loaf, divide the dough in half.
  9. Braid or twist the dough, twists are easier. For a braid, roll each of the 6 pieces into snakes measuring about 18 inches long and slightly tapered at the ends. Dust the strands in flour to coat them lightly, then line them up so they’re side by side. Pinch together the ends of the strands to connect them at the top.
  10. Take the strand on the far right and cross it over the other strands, so it’s all the way on the far left side, placing it perpendicular to the other strands. Then, take the strand that was originally on the far left, and is now second from the left, and bring it all the way to the far right, also placing it perpendicularly.
  11. Fan out the remaining strands so there’s a generous space in the center. Take the strand on the far left and bring it to the center, but group it with the strands on the right. Next, bring the strand that’s second from the right and cross it over to the far left, also placing it perpendicular. Then, fan out the strands again, leaving a space in the center, and bring the strand on the far right to the center, grouping it with the strands on the left. Bring the strand second from the left to the far right and cross it over to the far left. Then, repeat this process until you’ve braided the entire length of the strands, tugging gently on the strands as you work to create tension in the braid. Pinch the ends of the braids and tuck them underneath the loaf, then transfer to a parchment-lined sheet pan. Make sure you have a couple of inches of clearance on either side of the braid so it can expand.
  12. Alternatively, for a round, roll the two pieces of dough into long snakes measuring about 28 inches long, making sure to taper the snakes at one end. Dust the strands in flour to coat them lightly, then line them up so they’re side by side with the tapered ends aligned. Twist the two strands together, then start at the tapered end and roll up the twist into a tight coil, wrapping the fatter end around and tucking the end underneath the coil. Transfer the coil to a parchment-lined sheet pan.
  13. Egg wash and proof the dough: Beat the remaining egg in a small bowl until it’s streak-free. Brush the loaf with the egg, then loosely cover the dough with some lightly oiled plastic wrap on a sheet pan, and let it rise at room temperature until it’s doubled in size, extremely puffy, and springs back but holds a slight indentation when poked gently with a wet finger, another 1½ to 2 hours (but possibly longer, depending on ambient temperature). The dough is easy to underproof, so, if you’re unsure, err on the side of overproofing. (The round loaf will also take longer to proof.) Alternatively, before proofing, you can refrigerate the dough overnight, but omit the egg wash and make sure it’s covered (plastic should cover it loosely but be sealed around the pan so the dough doesn’t dry out).
  14. Heat the oven: Arrange a rack in the centre of the oven and heat it to 200C degrees.
  15. Bake: Uncover the challah and brush with another layer of egg wash. Sprinkle the loaf with poppy or sesame seeds (if using) and bake until the loaf is shiny and burnished, an instant-read thermometer registers 190 degrees when inserted into the center, and it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, 35 to 40 minutes. Let the challah cool completely on the baking sheet.
Food

Tofu Chilli Crisp

Yield:4 servings

  • 3tablespoons chile-crisp condiment, plus more for serving
  • 3tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1½tablespoons Chinese black vinegar
  • 1½teaspoons sesame oil
  • 1teaspoon honey
  • 2garlic cloves, peeled and minced
  • 2tablespoons chopped scallions
  • 2tablespoons chopped coriander
  • 1(14-ounce) package extra-firm tofu, drained and sliced crosswise into 8 (½-inch-thick) slabs
  • ¾pound green beans
  • 1tablespoon neutral oil, like rapeseed
  • White rice, for serving
  • 1tablespoon minced fresh ginger

After all of these years, I still come across ingredients and condiments like chilli-crisp that I’m left wondering how I’ve missed.

Preparation

  1. Heat oven to 200C. In a baking dish or casserole, whisk together the chile crisp, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, honey, garlic, ginger, scallions and coriander leaf.
  2. Add the tofu slices to the dish, and coat them with the sauce, then allow to marinate for as long as it takes to heat the oven and trim the green beans.
  3. Add the green beans to a large sheet pan, then drizzle the neutral oil on top and toss to coat. Slide the green beans to the sides of the pan, and arrange the slices of tofu in an even layer in the center of the pan. Pour remaining marinade over the tofu, and place in oven.
  4. Roast until the green beans start to blister, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve immediately with rice and extra chile crisp on the side.