Photos

I haven't managed to make Flickr work yet, but you can view my best/funniest photos from the holiday at Facebook using the link below, even if you're not registered.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88288&l=83dfc&id=860775531

I wish you were all in Oxford.

the salad i forgot to make on saturday night

its a coleslaw alternative for those of us who aint keen on mayo. and has chillies too, bonus!

salad
half a red cabbage, shredded
about 4 carrots, grated
tablespoon of linseeds (also good with hempseeds)

dressing:
olive oil
lemon
small clove of garlic
an inch of ginger
piece of mild red chilli
handful offresh corainder leaves
dash of soy sauce if you think it needs it

make a paste in a mortar and pestle with garlic and a wee bit olive oil.
add ginger and paste that too.
(as you go along you'll need to add dashes of oil)
chop chilli finely,add to mixture in mortar, and paste.
roughly chop coriander leaves and press them in with pestle to release a bit of flavour.
add more oil and juice of a lemon, until the dressing has a good vinaigrette-style viscosity. you can add a wee bit soy sauce here if you like.

mix up the cabbage and carrot. pour dressing over, toss salad then sprinkle linseeds on top.

an excellent lunch accompanied with smoked fish of choice and squeeze of lemon on toast/oatcake. obviously.

...and the lemon polenta cake

Lemon Polenta Cake
250 g soft butter
250 g caster sugar (granulated)*
Zest of 2 lemons
250 g ground almonds*
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 eggs
Juice of 1 lemon
125 g polenta*
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt

*I used dark brown sugar instead of caster, and 100g almonds/250g polenta instead of the specified quantities

Beat butter, sugar and zest until fluffy (and almost white). Stir in almonds and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating each before adding the next. Fold in lemon juice, polenta, baking powder and salt. Spoon the mixture into a buttered cake tin.Bake in a 160 c oven until sides pull slightly from the edges of the tin. This should take approximately 50 minutes. The cake is cooked when it feels firm and springs back from placing your hand on it.

Mama Wasabian's world class coleslaw

There are supposed to be actual measured quantities in this, but what the hell, it's just coleslaw. This makes loads but it all got eaten pretty darned fast.
Half a white or green cabbage, shredded
Half a red cabbage, shredded
About 4-5 carrots, grated
1 onion (red ideally, but I used white), finely chopped
Handful of sultanas
Cumin seeds (ground if you can be bothered)
Brown sugar, just half a teaspoon or so
Squeeze of lemon juice
Mayonnaise - probably about 4 spoonfuls for the amount of veg above but use your noggin.
Mix it all together. That's it! With special thanks to my mum.

for future holidays

AA AD AE AH AI AM AN AR AS AT AW AX AY
BA BE BI BO BY
CH
DA DI DO
EA EE EF EH EL EM EN ER ES EX
FA FY
GI GO GU
HA HE HI HO
ID IF IN IO IS IT
JO
KA KO KY
LA LI LO
MA ME MI MO MU MY
NA NE NO NU NY
OB OD OE OF OH OI OM ON OO OP OR OS OU OW OX OY PA PH PI PO QI RE SH SI SO ST TA TE TI TO UG UM UN UP UR US UT WE WO XI XU YE YO YU ZO

the general synopsis at 530 on monday 4th february

forth
(birthday) sprizz, spreading in slowly from the north west. with more gin expected to arrive from the north tomorrow.
gintake: soon.
thames
(unfortunately) no squally showers tonight or early tomorrow, leading to the return of normal conditions by mid-morning.
gintake: later.

Mr Kipperling's exceedingly good G and 'T'

the secret is not in the tonic water, but in the small quantity of it.

(kipperling overheard 5 mins ago corrupting the young wasabian)

Hebrides; Ardnamurchan Point to Cape Wrath.

The general synopsis at 213o on the 3rd February 2008.
Gin rising, leading to sub-optimal conversation.
Visibility: fading.
Alcohol intake: immoderate, or good.
The hat game: imminent. Singstar: later.
Solving the FT chess puzzle: unexpected.
Gin Force: 10, with strong gusts coming in from Kipperling. Expected in Forth and Thames tomorrow, or Tuesday.
Loch Morar: soggy.
Hot toddies arriving: good.
Cyclonic: sprizz.
Knitting: spreading from the south.
Capon: sleeping


And in other areas
Viking: imaginary.
Pol Roger, Sprizzer, Riesling White.
Braxony: Washing-up.
North Piatkusire: Tea 10/10
Glenancross: ten boxes landed.

Of coeliacs, kosherites, fishophobes, and dairynoughts.

those of us without special dietary requirements are beginning to feel threatened in our reckless gluttony. and wonder whether it is unseemly behaviour for those of calvinist extraction. anyway, i would suggest that anyone faced with such diners should not try and cook different omlettes to suit each eater, especially when suffering from the delayed effects of karaoke fuelled red wine drinking.

nevermind. the advice of the omlette king was missed.

mr kipperling and i concocted a winner for the mussels though. broth: softened onions, celery, and leek. add cider, sweet white miso, a generous dash of soy (tamari would be even better i think), and lime juice. sans moules: a fine cup of soup. avec moules: a fitting celebration of ten years palship with my favourite ever traveller and gin-with-a-gin chaser. kipperling, it's been fun! though not quite so fun this morning. i hold you entirely responsible for channeling the spirit of the attic (i do not count the fact that i told you to do so as an excuse otherwise).

also discovered today:

1. the incense produced as a by-product of smoked haddock poaching reduces to scent of prawn cocktail skips and is impossible to expel from one's above the kitchen bedroom. or the third step on the staircase. or my scarf.
   
2. english teachers make the best tea.
3. i should pursue a career in the design of sports kits for national rugby teams. the SRU, are you listening?
4. credit cards, betrunkeness, and peer pressure are an excellent combination. thank you, young wasabian!

Don't forget the desserts...

...mindblowing chocolate and chestnut flourless cake, butternut squash cake, and a slightly altered version of the river cafe lemon polenta cake - tastes even better a couple of days later, toasted on the Aga (smoked fish topping optional).

Honourable mention must go to the Tunnock's tea cakes, and lifesaving Jaffa cakes after the 7 mile walk today..

The Menu

What we all really wanted to know. Worth a lot of reminiscing

Thursday
Carrot and miso soup
salmon and haddock nigiri
avocado cucumber and salmon maki
chicken teriyaki
salad

Friday
roast butterflied leg of lamb - marinated in oregano and garlic
roast aubergine
fried courgette with dill and mint
quinoa
pitta
falafel
tsatsiki
turkish chopped salads

Saturday
Bastardised omelette Arnold Bennett
cider and leek mussels
fish pie
salad

Sunday
curries tbc

lunches
world class colslaw
mixed bean salad
sirloin steak
great leftovers
cheese
other goodies.

breakfast
black pudding
bacon
eggs
kippers
mushrooms
tomatoes
sausages
mikes bread
porridge
....

recipe

Matt P's patented Pasta della Casa recipe:
Take 80kg dried pasta and the same quantity of chorizo.
Fill kitchen with boiling water.

Serves several.

Mmm mmm mmm mmm

What more can I say?

non-smoked fish sushi extravaganza

yummy maki and nigiri. The only sushi outside Marks and Spencers in the whole of Lochaber. we think.

note to team: potential business opportunity here for a sushishack on the beach. open all seasons.

kippoera, karaoke, kipperino.

i didn't want to spoil my title by writing something underneath it. ...but i should report that the old wasabian is about to have forty winks. and i am going to try clare's lemon polenta cake of last night grilled with a wee bit kipper and a piece of clementine. dude.

10 kippers and some more to post

Big up to Andy Race. A group trip to Mallaig to buy a some postcards and a new tea towel stumbled into his ferryside warehouse. On the fish counter were a few wet looking fillets. A bit of haddock, a bass, some trout. Two roadbuilders stocked up for fridays supper.

Mallaig is famous in my family for kippers, so the instruction was to post my dad some kippers. With 10 people in the house, kippers for breakfast is a given, so we asked Andy for 10. Straight from the smoker ( oak, pine and peat ) he brings out a whole rack. The shop suddenly smells of laphroaig.

A half kilo bag of smoked salmon scraps, a mound of haddock, smoked and not and 3 kilos of mussels found their way out of the shop too. We'll wait and see what Stephen and Astrid do with the fish, but the smoked stuff is stunning.

And he'll post his smoked goodies pretty much anywhere.