Stuffed peppers

Here’s a recipe for stuffed peppers. The thing is though that when we ate them, nobody really liked the peppers but but loved the filling, so this is the inside bit.

Ingredients/method:

Cook 2 cups brown rice in 4 cups water with two teaspoons of veg stock powder. Throw in a palmful of currants. While the rice is cooking, roast 2/3 cup of cashews for about 15 mins until brown but not burnt. Chop these roughly. Chop 1 red onion finely, chop 2 cloves garlic finely and soften in a tbsp olive oil. Add 12 baby plum tomatoes halved and let them sweat with the onions/garlic. Add 1 tsp curry powder to the chopped cashews, add the cooked rice and onions and mix all the ingredients together. Stuff this mixture into halved pepper and top with cheese and slices of chorizo if wanted.

Storm Erik comes to Shelley Banks

I’m hoping to do a bit more personal work over the months, this is the first in a series. Shot using a variety of Nikon lenses mounted on a Canon C100ii. This is new (to me0 camera, a fantastic piece of kit with a great sensor and fantastic colour science.

Shot in 2 hours, edited in 4.

Kimchi

In an effort to eat cleaner, I’m going to try making kimchi, fermented Korean style cabbage (and other veg). The version I’m making isn’t vegetarian because it contains fish sauce.

The first link is the one that I’m making with a few variations in the ingredients (addition of capsicums, carrots and cabbage).

https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/brussels-sprouts-kimchi

https://www.mnn.com/food/recipes/stories/how-to-make-kimchi-in-5-easy-steps

The prepped veg are sitting patiently in their jars, fermenting away for a few days until I sample. It may end up being disgusting, but it’s a reasonably cheap experiment and it may be good. Time will tell.

Sourdough recipe

Akhil Malhotra‎ to Perfect Sourdough
2 hrs ·
Morning All,
I’ve pulled these suckers out of the oven this morning and thought I’d share the method and get some thoughts from all of you.
Normally I feed my starter the day I mix, but due to new constraints I had to feed it the afternoon before – so here we go.
5pm – feed starter (60% hydrated starter, 100% WW)
9am – Mix Dough, (100% white, 72% hydration, 20%starter, no salt yet)
9:30am – Add 2% salt
10:00 am – first fold
10:45 am – second cold
11:30 am – final fold
11:45 am – preshape
12:20 pm – final shape and retard
10 am next day – Bake at 230 for 20 with steam and 190 for 30 without steam
Bulk was done at roughly 28-29 degrees C (aiming for final dough temp of 26 degrees C)
Retarding was at anywhere between 3-5 degrees C
Any questions fire away
For more images follow me on instagram, akhilmalhotra

Tribesman, near Geda Yesus, Amhara, Ethiopia

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The office today, man and cow, near Geda Yesus village about 40km north of Dejen. This is about as Old Testament as it gets apart from the AK47. The people here haven’t seen rain for two years, and adjacent to where this picture was taken is a waterhole which services two kebele (villages) totalling about 1500 people. It’s a trickle – women queue all day for a chance to fill a 20l jerry can with a cup, then carry it back to their village. Life is unbelievably tough, the landscape is harsh, mortality is high. Sustenance is provided by the government but the diet is poor.

Happy Gooner

Benno proud as punch outside the Emirates, as part of his 16th birthday celebrations. Arsenal beat Everton 2:1 and went (briefly) top of the table. Fantastic seats almost bang on halfway and about 12 rows back, nicely sheltered from the rain, of which there was a lot. The Gaffer wasn’t so lucky though, he was getting drips down the back of his neck for the entire match, perhaps that’s why he looks so miserable the whole time.

We did an Air BnB which was great – really interesting place in Hoxton

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Fuji X100

A couple of weeks ago, I had a rush of blood to the head and got my hands on a good, use Fuji X100. There is a lot of eulogising about this camera in far flung reaches of the Internet, and to date I can’t disagree with any of it. It is by far and away the funnest camera I’ve owned. Quirky, sure, but remarkable results. Mostly I like that I can just stick it in my bag and not know that it’s there, unlike the monster dslr I use (less and less). 

Check the ultimate lighted makeup mirror reviews by PRNT on their website.

Adventures in sweet potato rösti

I’ve been thinking that sweet potato might make a good rösti, so I’ve started experimenting. 

Variant 1

1 sweet potato unpeeled, then grated. 1 scallion sliced and added to the mixture as well as a level tsp caraway seed. Formed into a chef’s ring and not packed too tightly. Small knob of unsalted butter on too. Baked in top Aga (180C) for 40 mins. 

Kept its shape coming out of the ring but was easily squished, not weight-bearing so couldn’t support something piled on top. Caraway overpowering, will omit for next variant. Also, I’ll squeeze out excess water.