Author: Kevin

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Blog

Still Standing!

This week I’ve been to see Elton John at the O2 Arena in London, on his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour.

If there is a world record for longest wait between buying a concert ticket and going to the gig, this is a definite contender. The World Tour started in 2018, and we bought our tickets in 2019. The concert was scheduled for late 2020, only to be postponed due to Covid. Rearranged to late 2021, it was then postponed a second time when Elton injured himself, to be rearranged again to April 2023.

Until this week, the longest wait I’d had for a Covid-rearranged gig was 2 years, in the case of Elbow. When the night did finally arrive, the band took the stage and Guy Garvey greeted the audience with the simple message Good evening – sorry we’re late.

Elton, as it transpired, was on top form. I have never been a huge fan of his, though his Top Tracks have been booming from the speakers in the ADK kitchen these last few days. I hadn’t seen him live before and was conscious that, it being his Farewell Tour, this would be the last chance of doing so.

He’s playing quite a few dates this month at the O2 and, being something of a local lad, the place has been transformed in his honour. The walkway to the arena from North Greenwich Tube Station is lined with billboards showcasing his various outrageous styles and outfits, in photos from across the last five decades. Even my pint of IPA from the O2 bar was Elton-themed (see below).

He played for two and a half hours, with an accomplished backing band and very clear sound. The vocals still hold up well, and his excellent rock piano is high up in the mix throughout, so can be fully appreciated.

Being Elton, he changed costume twice during the show – each time reappearing in a dapper sequinned evening suit with (naturally) a new colour-co-ordinated pair of diamond-studded spectacles.

The set list comprised one belter after another, varied up with a couple of tracks that I hadn’t heard before from his early albums. All the classics were here – Candle in the Wind, Rocket Man, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me to name a few.

The show built towards a rockier climax, with I’m Still Standing, Crocodile Rock and Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting getting the O2 audience on their feet.

The encore consisted of his Cold Heart duet with Dua Lipa (who appeared via the big screen), Your Song and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. Elton then waved farewell as he rode an escalator through the stage curtains. His image could then be seen on the big screen, walking into the sunset along said Yellow Brick Road.

All in all, well worth the wait!

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Mains

Spicy Parsnip Soup

Time for another guest post on A Different Kitchen! Over to my wife, Lesley to show us how to make this tasty, hearty and warming soup.

I belong to a community allotment and we plan to have lovely fresh things to eat. Recently we have had a glut of winter parsnips. Everyone should eat more parsnips!  

I took home 6 of them all large and gnarly, grown organically and fattened up over our winter. With vegetables that have imperfections like this, soup is a great option as it doesn’t matter what bits you might have to cut out.

I love the scent of the crushed spices that are used in this recipe. I used a pestle and mortar but you can crush them on a cutting board with a bottle or rolling pin.

You Will Need

  • 6 parsnips, peeled and roughly chunked
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • a knob of butter
  • 1 litre of stock (after roasting a chicken we always boil up the carcass with some water for half an hour, then put the stock in tubs in the freezer until needed).  
  • A spice mix, here’s what I used, but any spices you like will do:
  • 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
  • a few cardamon pods

Method

  1. Melt butter in a pan and add the crushed spices.
  2. Add the parsnip  and onion, and heat until all the chunks are warm and coated – this will take about 10 mins. 
  3. Pour in the stock, and bring to the boil, then simmer for 30 minutes.
  4. Blitz to a smooth consistency, then serve.

Customise It!

This soup is great served with crusty bread, as shown in the main photo above. However, you could also make croutons by cutting bread into cubes and baking them on a tray in the oven. Keep your eye on them as they brown very quickly. Chuck the crispy croutons on to the top of your bowl of soup.

You could also swirl in a few table spoonfuls of double cream for an ultra-posh version.

The contributor of a guest post gets to choose the next track for the ADK Spotify Playlist. Lesley has chosen Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John, who we have just seen on his farewell tour in London. More on this in my weekend post!

Categories
Blog

By Royal Appointment?

I must share with you, dear readers, an amazing letter I’ve received in the post this morning.

My excitement rose when I saw the postmark bearing the words Buckingham Palace. It turns out to be a handwritten letter from none other than the Queen Consort, probably still better known to most as Camilla (of Parker-Bowles fame). It goes like this:

Hi Kevin,

Hope you’re keeping well, mate. As you’re probably aware, we have a bit of a do coming up next month, with the Coronation. There’s lots still to organise, including the Afternoon Tea for all the family after the main service – I like to think of it as a bit of a knees-up.

Anyways, the Boss himself has put me in charge of sorting out the nosh. I love following A Different Kitchen, and wondered if I could ask you to bake us a few cakes?

A Dundee Fruit Cake would go down well with the Balmoral set, and you can’t go wrong with choco brownies as far as all the kids are concerned lol. Numbers aren’t final yet – we still don’t know if Harry and the missus will be attending.

Let me know what you can do for us. Keep up the good work, and why not post a few more tracks from the Arctic Monkeys – I’m a big fan.

Cheers,
Camilla

Goodness me! I need your help here, readers. This is my biggest gig since I started the blog, so do please let me have your thoughts by way of comments below, on what I should offer to bake.

In the meantime, here’s a classic track from The Who for the ADK Playlist – Won’t Get Fooled Again.

Categories
Blog Music

Eat Sleep Blog Repeat

It’s been a hectic few days since my last post, getting away from the kitchen for a few great meals and trips out with friends and family. More about this in future posts!

However, the highlight, that I will focus on in this post, has been attending a great concert by Fatboy Slim (alias DJ Norman Cook) on the final night of his UK Tour.

I used to be wary of big arena shows by so-called superstar DJs, tending to think it isn’t live music, but just someone standing on a stage playing their records. My perception changed a few years ago, however, the first time I went to see Fatboy Slim live.

This weekend’s performance also did not disappoint. He puts on a great show – a true feast for both the eyes and the ears, with crazy and inventive big screen videos, sync-ed to an everchanging mash-up mix, comprising snippets from his own best tracks and samples taken from a whole range of musical genres. The result is quite unique, to be experienced to be believed.

His most famous tracks feature in some shape or form. However, they are never performed straight as fans might recognise them from the records. Part of the fun is spotting a bassline, a beat, a lyric, a chorus etc from his impressive back catalogue, that is being interwoven with other samples, to produce something entirely new and fresh.

The words from Praise You featured twice, though never with the familar, catchy piano line from the record. The Rockafeller Skank is mixed over some Chubby Checker and the guitar riff from the Stones’ Satisfaction, yet still finds the crowd singing along with the Right About Now, Funk Soul Brother chorus. Macy Gray’s chorus is transmitted as giant subtitles during Demons.

Weapon of Choice is accompanied by a big screen excerpt from the famous video shot in a hotel elevator lobby. This time, however, Hollywood actor Christopher Walken is flanked by two skeletal avatars, dancing in co-ordination with his every step.

One track is founded on the isolated, thumping beat of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax, as the walls of the arena are being pounded by laser beams.

You never quite know who is going to turn up next on the big screen, often for their spoken words to be integrated into a track – examples here included Bill Murray and Barack Obama.

I have included a few of the photos I took, and hope I have conveyed what a fun, varied, high energy and inventive show this was.

I’ll settle on one track for the ADK Spotify Playlist. For this one, Norm mouthed the spoken word introduction up close to the camera, relayed on the big screen framed by the outline of an old-fashioned TV set.

A Wonderful Night!

If you get the chance to see Fatboy Slim live, I can’t recommend it enough.

Categories
Blog

New Forest Afternoon Tea

Now here’s a real treat: a recent family celebration took us to the Montagu Arms in Beaulieu, at the heart of Hampshire’s New Forest, for an English Afternoon Tea.

The New Forest is a slice of traditional old England. Originally a hunting forest for royalty from the 11th Century, it has benefitted from environmental protections over the centuries, and is now a National Park. This means that the beautiful scenery and wildlife have changed little, and the region is rich in heritage. One of its most famous aspects is the New Forest Ponies, who freely roam the land.

History lesson over – on to the food. Afternoon Tea was served in the Dining Room, with china tea service and the elaborate three tiered cake stand shown in my main photo.

Starting with the bottom plate, we had a selection of finger sandwiches: thinly sliced Cucumber with Cream Cheese; Longman Cheddar and Chutney; Honey Roast Gammon with Dijon Mayonnaise; and Smoked Salmon with Creme Fraiche. There were also slices of Pork Sausage Roll and Mushroom Vol Au Vents.

Once you’ve polished off the sandwiches, you move to the middle plate, which has warm Fruit and Plain Scones, with Strawberry Jam and Clotted Cream.

The top layer has the cakes: Chocolate Brownie with Salted Caramel and Kirsch Cherry; Blood Orange Choux Balls; and Carrot Cake.

Situated alongside the Beaulieu (it is pronounced Bewley) River, the Montagu Arms is an enchanting old country house hotel. The current building dates from the 1880s, and oozes traditional English charm with its interiors of oak flooring, wall panelling, original brick fireplaces and grandfather clocks. You would not be surprised if you bumped into Basil Rathbone or Wilfrid Hyde-White on the stairs (note to younger readers: look them up on Google).

When the likes of Netflix are trying to create a location for an Agatha Christie movie or period drama, this is the look they are aiming for – except this is the real thing. Even the plush carpet is eccentrically unique, with a quirky design based on the famous New Forest Ponies.

The food was delicious, the service friendly and efficient, and the surroundings relaxed. It is almost impossible to finish all the food, so you are able to take home whatever you can’t eat, to enjoy later. I can wholeheartedly recommend it for a birthday, anniversary or special celebration.

Musical accompaniment for this post has to be something quintessentially English. To me, that means Kate Bush. I saw her live in 2014, at her Before the Dawn residency at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. She is a captivating presence, whether with a full band accompanying her, or alone on stage with just voice and piano. This is one of many great tracks she performed, from the Aerial album – Joanni.

Categories
Bakes Desserts Recipes

Baked Blueberry, Lemon & Mascarpone Cheesecake

Heard the one about the new Italian toy craze loved by foodies? It’s called My Little Mascarpone.

I recently found myself with a tub of the silky rich cheese left over after making Cherry, Mascarpone & Biscotti Dessert, and wondered what else I could come up with. I spotted some unused blueberries in the fridge and there are usually some lemons in the ADK fruitbowl. Hey presto, the idea for a baked cheesecake was born.

I was introduced to baked cheesecake a few years ago in a New York deli, and loved it. I like how baking makes the taste and texture more intense, while browning and caramelising the top.

Servings

8 good sized slices.

Timings

10 mins to make the pastry, and 10 mins to make the filling, while the pastry base is chilling and the oven is warming up. Up to 50 mins to bake.

You Will Need

  • 225g plain flour
  • 100g butter
  • pinch of salt
  • a few tsp tap water
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 250g mascarpone cheese
  • 1 tbsp lemon curd
  • zest and juice of a lemon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 125g blueberries

Method

  1. Sieve the flour into a food processor with blade fitted. Add in the butter in chopped cubes and whirl till you have the texture of breadcrumbs. Drop in enough water and swirl again, till it makes a ball of dough.
  2. Roll out on a floured surface and line a pastry dish. Mine shown in the main photo is 21cm diameter. Place in the fridge to chill, and turn on the oven to 180C.
  3. When the oven has reached temperature, line the pastry with scrunched up baking paper filled with ceramic baking beans, and put in the oven for 10mins. This will part bake the pastry base before adding the filling.
  4. While the pastry base is cooking, make the filling by mixing the sugar and egg in a bowl. Add in the mascarpone, lemon curd, zest, juice and vanilla and mix it all with an electric whisk.
  5. Remove the base from the oven, and take out the baking paper and beans, leaving them in another bowl to cool. Pour the filling into the pastry base, and stud all over the surface with the blueberries. Press the blueberries down just enough so that they adhere to the filling but can still be seen from above.
  6. Bake in the oven for around 50 mins. Check on it after 35 mins – if a skewer inserted in the middle is coming out with no wet mixture on it, the cake will be cooked. I like to leave mine for the fuller 50 mins, as I like how this gives the filling a dense and richer texture, and the top to be browned and caramelised.
  7. Leave the baked cake to cool before serving.

Customise It!

I used blueberries as I had a pack unused in the fridge. You could just as easily use raspberries or other berries. Also, if you don’t like making pastry, or don’t have ceramic baking beans, you can use a shop-bought base. You could also use a pack of ready made shortcrust pastry, if you wish.

New York is also the inspiration for the latest track to add to the ADK Spotify Playlist. There really are so many great bands I could choose from here: the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, Talking Heads, Sonic Youth, Interpol… and of course these lads from Queens. Here are The Ramones, with Rockaway Beach.

Categories
Mains Recipes

Guinness and Honey-Glazed Roast Pork

With all my Irish Potato Bread now eaten, I’m moving on to the next round of Irish-influenced good food and great music, in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day Weekend.

This dish is a great way to incorporate A Drop of the Black Stuff in a dark, sweet glaze and sauce to enjoy with roast pork. As you can see from my main photo, I served this with creamy potato mash over a bed of shredded savoy cabbage. The garnish of scallions (spring onions) adds another taste, and contributes to the shamrock green colour palette.

It both looks and tastes great. What’s more, once you’ve opened the bottle of Guinness for the glaze, the rest can be poured into a glass as a well-earned appetiser for the hard working cook. So what’s not to like?

Servings

My carving of the pork loin produced 11 slices, so at 2 slices per person this will comfortably feed 4 -5.

Timings

15 mins to make the glaze. The pork takes an initial 20 mins in the oven at 180C, then a further 50 mins to slow cook at a lower setting of 150C.

You Will Need

  • 1kg good quality pork loin, skinless and boneless (I bought mine from a local independent butcher)
  • 200ml Guinness
  • 50ml runny honey
  • 120g light brown sugar
  • seasalt and black pepper

Method

  1. Combine the Guinness, honey and sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Then turn down to a simmer and allow to reduce by about half. Remove the saucepan to a cool place. Don’t be too concerned if it still looks too liquidy for a glaze – as it starts to cool it will thicken.
  2. Turn on the oven at 180C.
  3. Lay the pork loin on a chopping board, fat side up. With a sharp knife, score lines in the layer of fat at 1cm intervals. Grind over some seasalt and black pepper, then rub it in to the fat layer with your fingers.
  4. Place the pork on a roasting dish and put in the oven when it has reached temperature. Leave for 20mins.
  5. Remove the pork from the oven and turn the temperature down to 150C. Brush the pork all over with most of the Guinness and honey glaze, and put it back in the oven for a further 50 mins.
  6. Take the dish from the oven at 10 – 15 min intervals and baste with the liquid gathering in the bottom of the roasting dish. These will be a mixture of the Guinness and honey glaze and the juices from the pork as it cooks.
  7. Remove the cooked pork after 50 mins and let it rest on a chopping board for 5 mins, then carve into slices. See my photos below.
  8. Tip the juices from the roasting dish into the saucepan along with the remaining Guinness and honey glaze. Stir to combine as you warm it through, then pour into a jug.
  9. Serve slices of the pork with your choice of veg, and drizzle over the Guinness and honey sauce (see my main photo at the top of this post). My veg is boiled potatoes mashed with butter, steamed shredded savoy cabbage, and a garnish of chopped scallions.

Customise It!

You have scope to vary the veg accompaniments, though I would keep to a potatoes and greens theme for a St Patrick’s celebration. Add the chopped scallions directly into the mash, to make champ. You could also replace the cabbage with kale or cavolo nero.

No prizes for guessing the suggested choice of drink to enjoy with your meal!

My St. Patrick’s Playlist has been prominent in the ADK kitchen this weekend, and here is another track. This one is something of a timeless classic from Belfast’s own Van the Man: Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile).

Categories
Recipes Sides

Irish Potato Bread

Today is St. Patrick’s Day, so what better time to share an old family recipe for potato bread!

For many years, boiled, mashed potatoes have been a staple accompaniment to meals in Northern Ireland. The traditional way of preparing potato bread is by throwing a few extra spuds in the boiling water when you’re cooking. You then have some left over to make into potato bread, following this recipe.

Servings

This will make 8 rounds of potato bread.

Timings

15 mins to boil the potatoes, 5 mins to turn into mash, then 10 mins to cool. Another 15 mins to make the bread.

You Will Need

  • 250g potatoes (weight is after peeling)
  • 30g butter
  • half tsp salt
  • 70g plain flour
  • butter and granulated sugar to serve (optional)

Method

  1. Peel and cut the potatoes into chunky pieces. Pour over boiling water from the kettle, and simmer for 15 mins.
  2. Drain, then add the butter and salt. Mash to a creamy consistency, then set aside to cool in the saucepan.
  3. Sieve in the plain flour, and mix together with your hands, while still in the saucepan, to form a dough.
  4. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and roll out to a thickness of half to 1cm (see photos below).
  5. Use a cookie cutter (mine is 78mm diameter) to cut rounds from the dough. You should get about 4 rounds initially, then another 4 by combining and re-rolling the remaining dough.
  6. Lightly grease a heavy-bottomed frying pan with butter. Warm it on the hob, then put in the rounds, 4 at a time.
  7. Fry lightly on each side for about 5 mins, till dappled and golden brown (see my photos). Remove to a warm plate.

The potato bread can then be served as a savoury, along with bacon, eggs, sausages, or grilled tomatoes as part of a fry.

My favourite, however, is to serve it sweetened. Melt a sliver of butter on it while warm, and sprinkle with a spoonful of granulated sugar – see below. Serve with a pot of strong tea. Delicious!

I actually have a separate St. Patrick’s Day Playlist on Spotify, curated over a number of years, so there are many tracks I could choose from for today’s musical accompaniment. Let’s settle on this one from Dundalk’s famous musical family, The Corrs – So Young.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Categories
Blog

Celebration!

Today I am slipping in an additional post to share with you a milestone that I feel ought to be celebrated…

This week, A Different Kitchen has passed a total of 1,000 followers across my 3 interconnected platforms of WordPress, Twitter and Spotify. Woo hoo!

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I decided to start this blog last July. The concept was to post about my twin loves of good food and great music: Twitter (@differentkitch) providing quick, bite-sized content akin to snacks and appetisers, with WordPress serving up the mains – recipes and longer pieces that take a little more time to chew over and digest. Spotify would host an ongoing, personally curated soundtrack of great background music to it all.

Broadly speaking, this is how it has all panned out. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve enjoyed making connections with bloggers and foodies from all over the world.

There isn’t much I’m planning to change, though I may now upgrade my WordPress plan to go ad-free (which will probably come as a relief) with a domain name. Other than that, expect more photos and stories about what’s cooking in my kitchen, and yet more tracks from the Arctic Monkeys.

So, to everyone who has read, followed, commented, liked, pingbacked (pinged back?), retweeted, baked, barbecued, slow-cooked, bopped or pogo-ed…….

Thank You!

Categories
Bakes Blog

Bread Maker Pizza

Bread making machines have had something of a topsy turvy existence. Invented in the ’80s, they became widespread in homes in the ’90s and ’00s, as the smell and taste of freshly baked bread, at little more than the push of a button, became the next domestic ‘must have’ appliance.

Then, they rather fell out of favour. With growing awareness of the need to manage one’s carb intake, I know a few people who placed theirs in car boot sales, or simply gave them away.

There was then something of a resurgence in the pandemic. A combination of boredom in isolation, wish to avoid busy shops and some food shortages prompted people to dig their bread maker out from under the stairs, and bring it back into use.

While the pandemic is now well in decline, today’s cost of living crisis is once again reviving interest in home baking.

My experience is that it is very easy to slip into a rut with bread making – we find one of the pre-programmes that works for us reliably, and make the same loaf over and over again. It’s useful to remind ourselves that they are actually quite versatile and sophisticated machines. Mine is a Panasonic 2500, and the programmes enable dough preparation for ciabatta, focaccia and various fruited and seeded breads.

My photos show how I’ve used it recently to make a pizza base. I have had some mixed results in the past when making yeast dough by hand, as there are a number of variables, and things can easily go wrong. However, I find the bread maker version much more reliable.

Following the instructions in my manual, I tipped some fast action dried yeast powder, strong white bread flour, olive oil, salt and water into the tin. The machine then mixed, swirled and kneaded it all automatically for 45 minutes as per the set programme.

I left it covered in a warm place till ready to use. The soft and pliable dough came away easily from the tin, didn’t stick to my fingers, and was easy to stretch out with my hands on a floured surface.

I added some tomato and onion sauce I’d made, with fresh torn basil leaves, then topped it with soft fried chopped mushrooms, peppers, black olives and grated mozzarella cheese. Here it is ready to go in the oven at 180C.

12 minutes later, it looks like this and tasted delicious! The base had baked evenly from the edges all the way to the centre. It is also a fraction of the cost of a Domino’s. You can vary the ingredients if you wish, to incorporate your favourite toppings.

So if you have a bread maker somewhere gathering dust, why not look it out and try some new styles of bread? Never mind if you’ve lost the instruction manual, they are usually still available online. With fresh ingredients, and some fast action dried yeast you should, like this classy track from Gabrielle, be ready to Rise again.