Hossenfeffer

Greek-style roast chicken

To achieve maximum juiciness, I like to brine the chicken for 24 hours before cooking.

• Put a layer of sliced red onion on the bottom of a deep baking tray, a cast iron skillet, or a Dutch oven
• Stuff the cavity of a large free-range chicken with some oregano, onion, a lemon wedge, and a lot of garlic, season all over with salt, pepper, and more oregano
• Place the chicken, breast side down, on top of the onions
• Season some new potatoes and slice them in half if they're biggish, then put them around the sides of the chicken
• Add 250ml chicken stock, 50 ml white wine, and a little lemon juice
• Roast for one hour at ~ 180c
• Turn the chicken over so it's breast side up (the potatoes will fall into the space where the chicken was, but that's ok, just rest the chicken on top of them), and check there's still a little liquid in the bottom of the pan (add a drop more stock if neeed be)
• Roast for another 30 mins to an hour (depending on the size of the bird) until done
• Rest and serve with a Greek salad or a simple green salad.

Chicken Ramen

This is a quick meal which I've done in as little as 20 minutes, start to finish. Using the Itsu broth is a huge time saver but you could elevate things by using a home-made stock.

Serves 2 adults, 2 children

• Season 2 large free-range chicken breasts with salt, pepper, and chinese five spice. Gently fry in toasted sesame oil
• In large pot bring one carton of Itsu classic ramen broth and one carton of Itshu chicken broth to a simmer (the photo is of one I made a while back, with two of the chicken broth cartons, but I prefer the mix)
• Cut the bak choi, separating the white stems from the green leaves, then add the white stems to the broth (reserving the leaves) along with some frozen edamame
• Bring a large pan of salted water to a boil. Add your ramen and cook according to packet instructions. For the four of us I use three servings of Yutaka frozen ramen which only take one minute to cook
• Add the green leaves to the broth and turn off the heat
• Drain the noodles and split between bowls
• I use a slotted spoon to scoop out the veggies and split them evenly between bowls, then pour in the broth
• Slice the chicken and add some to each bowl
• Add more fixin's as desired: chopped spring onion, finely sliced red chilli, chopped coriander, sesame seeds

Rough sort of recipe - I tend to wing it without very accurate measurements of things:

Serves 4 adults.

• Cook 500g of macaroni or other appropriate pasta shape to al dente (I generally go about 2 minutes under the recommended packet instructions)

• Fry up 150g of well-diced chorizo and reserve.
• Melt 125g of butter in the same pan (there should be some oil left from the chorizo)
• Chuck in some flour (I guess about half a cup) and stir to a roux which is roughly the consistency of wet sand
• Stir until not lumpy
• Add some minced garlic, a level teaspoon of English mustard powder, a pinch of nutmeg, a bay leaf, stir and then immediately start adding the milk to bring the temp down a bit and make sure the garlic doesn't burn in the roux/napalm.
• Total of about 2 1/2 pints of whole-fat milk. You have to add it in dribbles to start with and stir vigorously. The roux will glump up into a claggy mess at first but gradually combine with the milk. Once it's a reasonable consistency you can pour in the rest of the milk.
• Bring the milk to about 85-90'C (185-195'F) then stir in some grated cheese. I used a mix of Emental, Extra Mature Cheddar, and Monterey Jack.
• Season with black pepper

• Once that's all thick and cheesy and gooey and nice, return the chorizo to the sauce, then stir in the cooked pasta.
• Pour the cheesy pasta into an oven-safe dish or pot, sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top and bake for 20 minutes at 180'C / 360'F.
• Check it's bubbling nicely under its breadcrumb hat then grill for 5 minutes to get those breadcrumbs golden.

• Let it cool for 5 minutes while whipping up a simple green salad.

  I like it with some OG Tabasco to taste.

https://www.today.com/pets/goat-anxiety-only-calms-down-when-duck-costume-t105482

This is a tough one for me.

I already have the 2018 edition of the Sourcebook. This new edition has - apart from the utterly glorious cover art - an updated layout, updated visuals for dynastic genealogies, and updated maps of the Underworld and previous ages.

If you haven't got the Sourcebook, and want to understand Glorantha, then this is a must-have purchase. But if, like me, you have the previous edition then this is a purely luxury purchase. And with the Lunar cults book coming out sometime in the next couple of months, and so much great content on the Jonstown Compendium it's hard to justify the price for those updates. I make no promises though.

... but I won't spread it.

"Starting 11 March 2024, the price of Ring Protect Basic will change from £34.99/year to £49.99/year per device. If you would like to keep your current plan, no further action is required. Your plan will renew at the new price, unless you cancel your subscription before your next renewal on or after 11 March 2024."

Arse clowns.

Editorialised headline: Man who anticipates making obscene piles of cash through deals with China sez we should do deals with China.

First job of the Ryujin questline to get coffee from TerraBrew. I picked up the order but then sat with it on a bench in the lobby of Ryujin Tower for 48 hours (70 hours UT) before I completed the quest to make sure it was cold.

Hah! In your face, corporate drones, you don't control me!

Slice or dice some good quality (not smoked) pancetta and gently fry it to release some of that delicious fat, about five minutes or so should do. If you don't have pancetta some unsmoked steaky bacon will do. I like to use an enamelled Dutch oven for this (I use a Le Creuset, other brands are available).

Finely dice a large onion, a carrot, a rib of celery, and a few fat cloves of garlic and add to the pancetta. Add a little olive oil if you feel it needs it. Very gently fry for about ten minutes.

Side note: onion, carrot, and celery make a soffritto, the cornerstone of Italian sauces and soups. This is very similar to a French mirepoix, and only a little different to a Cajun or Creole 'holy trinity' which switches out the carrot for a green bell pepper.

Meanwhile, fry 500g or so of beef mince to get some colour on it. I tend to take the block of mince and sear it hard, on both sides, in a cast iron skillet, then break it up before adding it to the soft veggies.

Add a big ol’ glass of wine. White or red. Let’s face it, no nonna ever thought “I only have white wine in the cupboard, let’s get KFC instead”.

Simmer on a medium-high heat, stirring often, until most of the wine has evaporated. About 10 minutes. You could probably just simmer on a low heat for longer but I’m a very impatient man.

Add 500 ml passata, 250 ml whole milk, 250 ml beef stock. Yup. Milk. Trust me. Whole milk, obv. And go easy with the passata. This is a meat sauce with tomato, not a tomato sauce with meat.

Bring it back to a simmer and turn the heat right down to the lowest you can. Wait three to four hours while it simmers, checking and stirring every twenty or so minutes. If it starts to dry out, add a little more stock.

Test for, and adjust, seasoning, with salt and pepper, obv.

Then cook some pasta - I much prefer tagliatelle to spaghetti for a ‘bol’. Drain the pasta and add to the pan with the sauce. Mix it up good and proper, then serve with slightly more freshly grated Parmesan than seems sensible.

Nice.

That will make enough sauce for about 8 people. I usually ladle out half of it into some Tupperware and freeze it. If I’m making a double batch to freeze for several meals, I’ll add 500g of minced pork to the beef, and double all the other ingredients.

Now then. Let’s talk real. Italian food is gate-kept (gate-keepered?) more than pretty much any other cuisine in the world. But ‘spag bol’ is now an international dish and there are more variations of it cooked around the world than there are people in Italy, and that’s absolutely okay. If you want to add mushrooms, dried herbs, chorizo, or even – and I’ve seen it recommended – peanut butter, that’s up to you and if the people you’re serving it to like it then hurrah! One piece of advice though (and this is advice for life, not just for spag bol) avoid Worcestershire Sauce if you can. Henderson’s Relish is infinitely superior.

But if you do want to try the official recipe for Ragù alla Bolognese, you can find it here.