2 Ys U R
2 Ys U B
I C U R
2 Ys 4 Me
Written in my Autograph Book in 1959 -years before TXT/SMS messages; whatever happened to autograph books?


READING:

James Lee Burke is a much acclaimed American crime writer. His most famous creation is the maverick detective Dave Robicheaux who left the New Orleans Police Department to work for the police in New Iberia a smaller town some miles away from the Big Sleazy as New Orleans is called.

The Tin Roof Blowdown is the 16^th book featuring Robicheaux, and I suspect it is the one which will be most remembered. The action all takes place in New Orleans and its surrounding areas before, during and after Hurricane Katrina hit the city on 29^th August 2005. In the ensuing chaos, with over 80% of the city flooded, Robicheaux is tasked with investigating the shooting of two looters, and tracking down a third. It would seem that they are also being hunted by the local mafia boss whose house they had inadvertently ransacked.

This tale of ruthless greed and cruelty would be quite enough for most crime novels, but to my mind the real story is that of the violent wasteland that New Orleans became in the aftermath of the hurricane. James Lee Burke is a native Louisianan and he lives in New Iberia, so his knowledge of what happened during Hurricane Katrina and the weeks that followed is close-up and personal. The scenes of devastating destruction and the terrifying breakdown of law and order are more powerful than anything a mere novelist could dream up.

Burke does not pull any punches in describing the political chicanery and the failure of local and national government in either preparing the city for such a calamity, or dealing with it after the event. His descriptions of what happened to the people of New Orleans who were unable or unwilling to evacuate are absolutely horrifying – and this in the USA, the richest, most powerful nation in the world - 1836 people dead, and $115 billion in damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure.

The Tin Roof Blowdown is much more than the crime novel it purports to be, it is the story of an apocalypse, and a piece of reportage which conveys what happened to New Orleans better than any journalist could have done.

Rated 4.5*

RANTING:

I have decided to instigate a new award. This will be given, from time to time, to the individual or group who gets my goat* – therefore it will be known as The Gets Herschelian’s Goat Award.

The very first recipient of this dubious new honour is none other than our Prime Minister Gordon “Clunking Fist” Brown.

He deserves this award for his condescending and patronising attitude in telling us how we could help the economy by not wasting food. Moreover, (and this makes him exceptionally deserving) by lecturing us all on this and then partaking of the following delights on a single day whilst on a G8 jolly to Japan, d’you think he scurried round to the kitchens after it all to make sure that no left-overs were wasted – I suspect not.

Who does he think he is? Mrs Beeton? Can we now expect Gordon Brown’s Book of Household Management with a special recipe section on using potato peelings and onion skins?

*get(s) my/our/your goat is an idiomatic expression used in English meaning to be cheesed off** or to be very annoyed.

** to be cheesed off is an idiomatic expression used in English meaning
to be fed up*** or to be very annoyed.

*** to be fed up is an idiomatic expression used in English ….
oh for goodness sake, this is getting ridiculous, just look it up…

RECIPE:

In Morocco we enjoyed some fabulous meals; sometimes the dishes were very sophisticated, but at other times they were very simple and homely. This was a dish I ate in three different places, Fès, Chefchaouen and Meknès. Each time it was more or less the same, and yet subtly different as each cook varied their spicing slightly.
I came back to London laden with little bags of spices bought in Souk Atriya, the food and spice market in Meknès, and at last have used one of the spice mixtures in my version of Kefte Mkaouara. Although I have mixed beef and lamb mince together (because that was what I had available in the freezer) you could use just lamb or just beef, I don't think it would make much difference.

KEFTA MKAOUARA (Moroccan Meatball Tagine with egg)

Serves 6

Meatballs

500g lamb mince
500g beef mince
3 tablespoons finely chopped coriander
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
3 teaspoons ground cumin
Salt & pepper
Olive oil for frying

Sauce

2 onions finely chopped
2 fat cloves garlic finely chopped
3 teaspoons mixed Tagine spice or
1.5 teaspoon hot paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tins chopped tomatoes or 500ml tomato passata
Salt & pepper

3-4 fresh medium sized eggs

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

Put all the ingredients for the meatballs into a bowl, using your hands work them together so that everything is well combined.
Shape the mixture into small balls about 2.5cm wide. You may find it easier to do this if you wet your hands first.
Heat a small amount of olive oil in a large sauté pan and brown the meatballs. Set aside.

In the same pan, gently sauté the chopped onion and garlic, adding a little more oil if needed. When soft and starting to colour slightly, add the spice mixture and cook for a few moments stirring well before adding the chopped tomatoes. Stir to mix all together.

Place the meatballs into a tagine or other lidded ovenproof dish, pour the sauce mixture over them. Cover the dish and bake in the oven for about 30 mins.
Remove from the oven, and carefully break the eggs into the top of the sauce, keeping them separate.
Return to the oven for 15 minutes or until the whites of the eggs are set.

Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with buttered couscous, rice or crusty bread.

THE PAST 10 DAYS HAVE BEEN STRESSFUL IN THE EXTREME, WE ARE SELLING OUR HOUSE AND SO I SPENT HOURS GETTING IT TO "HOUSE DOCTOR" STANDARD BEFORE HAVING 38 POTENTIAL BUYERS VIEW IT....NOW WE HAVE ACCEPTED AN OFFER. WHEW.


READING:

The Saffron Kitchen is Yasmin Crowther’s first novel, and to a certain extent it fits into the genre I mentioned on the blog back in May when I had just read 'Minaret'.

Set in London and rural Iran, this is the story of Maryam Mazar and her daughter Sara. Maryam was the independent and wilful middle daughter of a well-to-do General in the Shah’s army. She was resistant to his attempts to arrange a marriage for her, as she wanted her own life and then in her late teens she was disowned by her father for having brought dishonour on the family, she was sent away to Tehran and from there she eventually made her way to Britain where she met and married Edward. Sara is their daughter, an only child, she is now a primary school teacher, married and expecting her first child.

When Maryam’s schoolboy nephew Saeed arrives to live with them following the death of his mother in Iran, his arrival sparks off a chain of events. As a result of Maryam’s treatment of Saeed, Sara loses her unborn baby. Racked with guilt Maryam returns to Iran and seeks her past in an isolated rural village called Mazareh which is up in the north-east of the country near the Afghan border. Edward and Sara have been left in London to care for Saeed, and they are distressed and bemused by Maryam’s apparent abandonment of the family.

Sara decides, that she must go to Mazareh herself and bring her mother home. Although she is half Iranian, and can speak some Farsi, she finds Iran a mysterious country which is totally foreign to her, and she is confounded by the primitive lifestyle to which her mother has elected to return. But when Sara meets Ali, the village school teacher, a man with whom her mother had a deep and loving friendship when she was young, she begins to see that Maryam had a previous life of which her family in England were unaware. Just before Sara returns to London Maryam finally tells her of what happened to her all those years ago, and how she and Ali had paid a heavy price for their relationship. Sara finally comes to understand that her mother is a very different woman from how Sara had seen her, and that a long buried secret of love, shame and unhappiness has surfaced to change all their lives.

Yet again I was struck by how women in some societies are so suppressed and how cultural norms tend towards such suppression. We have had a lot of discussion in the British media recently about so called “honour” killings, and in this book Maryam is subjected to unbelievably horrible treatment, ordered by her own father – who is a sophisticated, educated man of the world – and all in the name of honour, or rather, an imagined breach of honour. What Maryam experiences is so dreadful, so emotionally damaging, that it changes her whole personality; and despite her trying to bury the incident in her mind it festers like some tumour until years later it bursts forth.

I thought that the book dealt well with the emotional difficulties of going to live in a country that has a culture very different from what one is used to, and how no matter how successfully someone seems to have assimilated, they will still have a kernel of yearning for their childhood homeland, the homeland of the heart.

REJOICING:

FREE AT LAST!! After 114 days of captivity Alan Johnston is free. Ranting has turned to Rejoicing for today. Frankly my rant seemed petty in the face of good news, so I binned it.

Speaking to the media this morning Alan Johnston compared his captivity with being buried alive, and I can imagine nothing worse than to be held captive by a group of volatile political extremists who threaten to kill you, it must be absolutely terrifying. The group holding him called themselves "The Army of Islam" and seemed to believe that by taking a hostage the British and Israeli Governments would accede to their demands. Johnston must have known that this would never happen - in fact it must never happen - because once goverments cave in and do deals with hostage takers, every one of their citizens becomes a potential hostage.
The big irony in Johnston's situation was that his captors had seized the one man who lived and worked in Gaza and who actually reported on the plight of the Palestinians to the wider world through his BBC broadcasts.
It is terrific for Alan, for his parents, family, friends and colleagues that he is free.
The next piece of great news would be to hear that little Madeline McCann has been found safe and well, but sad to say I think that is far more unlikely.

RECIPE:

I love cumin, and I love meatballs, so when I found this recipe in a newspaper years ago I fell upon it with jdelight and have made it many, many times since.
This is a version of an ancient Iranian/Greek recipe from Asia minor – the sort of simple dish which would have helped feed Xenophon’s army of 10,000 men!

SOUTZOUKAKIA (Lamb and cumin meatballs)

750g minced lamb
2-3 slices good quality bread
1 egg
3 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon ground cumin
Salt & Pepper
4 tablespoons plain flour
3-4 tablespoon sunflower oil

Cut the crusts off the slices of bread and put the slices in a bowl, pour in enough cold water so that the bread is just covered and leave to soak for 10 minutes.
Squeeze the bread dry and place it in a large mixing bowl together with the minced lamb, egg, peeled and crushed garlic, ground cumin and seasoning . Mix together with your hands until all is well blended and silky.

Put the flour into a shallow bowl.

Take a heaped teaspoonful of the lamb mixture, the size of a small walnut, and roll it into a small oval shape with your hands, set aside. Continue doing this until all the mixture is used up, then roll the meatballs in the flour until well coated, shake off excess flour.

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the meatballs in batches, turning regularly, until they are lightly golden. Drain them on kitchen paper.

These can be eaten immediately or put in an oven-proof dish together with a good homemade tomato sauce and baked in the oven for 30 minutes then served with rice or noodles. They are also delicious stuffed into warm pitta bread together with a simple salad of tomato, lettuce and onion.