The Birds

Yesterday evening the sky was grey. Twilight was rapidly coming upon me as I walked between two buildings of red brick and mortar. Above me I could here the caw of seagulls and the fluttering of wings. I thought nothing of it and continued walking.

Within a few steps though, my evening changed quicker than I could imagine. The seagull cries were suddenly closer. I looked up, and two seagulls were jousting with each other not 9 feet above me. One seagull admitted inferiority and flew to distant shelter. The other, seemingly standing guard over its nest returned to the concrete eve of one of the red brick buildings.

I glanced in its direction, intrigued. Its eyes were as sharp as mine. Somewhere in its feeble, frightened bird brain it perceived me as a threat. The joust was on again, and it swooped down upon me with all its speed. Whether it meant to simply drive me off, or to really attack I cannot say, but It came in very close indeed. I took off like a bolt around the grounds of one of the brick buildings. I hoped that it would see I was no threat and return to its nest.

However, I was wrong. Drunk on power and victory the gull pursued me. Sweeping in low for pass after pass against my head, it chased me around the entire building. I ran with all me strength steeply downhill, only losing the maddened harpy when I dashed into a dense line of trees. There the gull gave up, and I regained my freedom.

I have never feared birds before, but my head was exposed and I had no tools with which to silence the enraged flyer. With a speeding bird coming at me, my eyes and ears suddenly felt more precious than they had before.

But I will have my revenge. Poisoned bread or sardines should do nicely!

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Bulgar wheat salad and Tiramisu Torte

You may wonder, reading the title above, what Tiramisu and Bulgar wheat have to do with each other. The answer is completely tangential to the essence of either dish. While it is true that they are both dishes, and both contain wheat, what really brings them together is that I served both yesterday when Ahreum and I had some friends over for lunch.

Will, Sunyoung, Eunhan, Heejoo, and Ahreum

On the menu was grilled pork chops with fresh rosemary, cracked black pepper, and sea salt with the bulgar wheat salad.

I received several requests for the preparation of the salad, so here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Bulgar wheat 400 grams
Tomatoes (maybe twenty to 25 cherry or plum tomatoes)
1 124 gram (I think) package Tesco finest or Sainsbury's Taste the Difference feta cheese (or any other good Greek feta)
1 red onion
2 cloves garlic finely minced
Juice of 1 lemon
Bunch coriander (cilantro for my fellow Americans) roughly chopped. If you don't like coriander add less or alternatively use basil or flat leaf parsley instead.
Olive oil
Honey
Salt and Pepper

Begin by cooking the bulgar wheat. If you buy a 500 gram package, you won't need the full amount. Maybe cook 4/5 of the package and save the rest for later. Put the bulgar wheat in a pot, cover with plenty of water, bring to the boil and then cook for 10 to 15 minutes. Drain the water from the bulgar wheat, rinse the wheat with cold water, drain again, and put the bulgar wheat into a large mixing bowl. Set aside to cool.

Now start chopping. Chop each tomato in half, dice the onion, crumble or chop up the feta cheese, mince the garlic, and chop the coriander. By now the bulgar wheat should be getting cool. But if it is still letting out steam, then let it sit longer.

When the bulgar wheat is cool, add all of your chopped ingredients and stir them together. Add the juice of the two lemons some salt and pepper, some olive oil, and a drizzle of honey. Don't add too much salt pepper or oil at once because once its in you can't take it out. Taste and add more seasoning, oil and(or) honey as required. You don't want it to be too salty or too olive oily in flavor. Let the honey balance the lemon, but don't make the dish too sweet. It should stay a bit piquant and sour.

When you like the taste, its done.

For desert we had Tiramisu. I'm not giving away the recipe for this one because I have to keep a few secrets, but two basic sponge cakes cut in half, enhanced with expresso, frangelico liquor, and sugar. Each layer of cake is topped with sweetened mascarpone cheese, and chocolate mousse, until the top layer, which only has the mascarpone cheese mixture. Tap some cocoa powder through a sieve and arrange expresso beans decoratively on its top.

Mascarpone Torte

After a some tea, Heejoo and Eunhan left, but Will and Sunyoung stayed for the evening. The girls went to watch DaeJangGeum, a beautifully produced drama about a cook in the Korean Royal palace. They were quickly addicted. Will and I had a long chat, read about 6 hours. He did an MA in Literature a few years ago in Exeter, but he is preparing to do and MA in philosophy at Essex. We spent much of the evening discussing philosophy, the mechanisms of social cohesion, post modernism, escape from post-modernism, religion, and neo-Platonism. I had a great time. Its been a while since I just had a good extra-academic, free conversation about such a wide range of topics.

The tiramisu was good, but intellectual discourse is better, especially with a little bulgar wheat thrown in on the side.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Korean World Cup Match

On Friday I finally finished off all of my marking. I did about thirty exams between 6:00 and 11:00 am. I felt like I hungover by the time I was done with it. Its rather amazing what the human mind and body are capable of when immense pressure is plied upon them. The most important thing was the feeling of total relief and calm that came over me when I turned in the exam stack to the office.

I must say that on the whole, I did not find the exam performances to be too stellar. There was some solid work, but, as with the essays, it seemed like they were only aiming for a pass rather than seeing what they were capable of.

But, this year, I have taken up the practice of writing down funny lines from the exams. It helps me stay focused and allows me to get a little enjoyment out of the grinding tedium. Here are the best gut busters:

"Firstly, as already mentioned natural law is consumed by all rational humans."
-I hope it has enough salt.

"As the name suggests eternal law goes on forever and extends well beyond our planet."
-That's totally cosmic, dude!

"The Utopians have a store of gold ... which they obtain by selling their excess gold."
-Something just doesn't add up here.


In the evening, I went with Ahreum and watched Korea take on Switzerland in the World Cup. Unfortunately for the Hanguk cheering section, Switzerland was playing on form and Korea wasn't. Still the Swiss obviously benefited from some highly dubious calls. Perhaps this might be called historical irony.

Irregardless of the defeat, I had a great time cheering for the Korean side. I also got some shots of some Korean friends and other Korean supporters.

Will and Sunyoung

Heejoo and Eunhan

Heejoo

Praying for Victory

Go Red Devils

Booster Club

Ahreum's come down with patriotic fever

Defeat sinking in

Sunyoung and Will

Sooyeon

Defeat hasn't dulled their spirits

When the game was over, and the post game drowning of sorrow had wrapped up, Ahreum and I joined our friend Sunyoung with her boyfriend Will and with Sooyeon and her partner Toby. We had just met the latter two, but they invited us over to their flat. We enjoyed some wine, some Hoegarten beer, and some funny videos on YouTube. Ahreum and I had a really good time meeting them and are looking forward to inviting them over to dinner sometime this summer.

What a great day!

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Guinea Fowl

Yesterday, I was able to take a little rest from marking exam scripts to have over company. Ahreum and I invited one of friends, Heejo, over.


Heejoo

Heejo and Ahreum


She had just returned from Korea the night before and had kindly brought over some things for us, including some traditional Korean snacks. She really enjoys western food and Sainsbury's had a sale on guinea fowl (a kind of relative of the chicken with vastly superior flavour and succulence), so I decided to do a summer style pot roast.

Guinea fowl browned and ready to roast
The process for such a dish is simple but the results are excellent. To begin get a celery bunch, cut off the top, trim the bottom and cut off the outer stalks. Cut these in half. Cut off the top half of the heart, but leave the bottom of the heart intact. Cut an onion into quarters. Peel one bulb worth of garlic cloves. Cut half a lemon into six pieces. In the meantime, heat a casserole or small oven safe stock pot. Turn the oven up to about 200 degrees centigrade. Cover the bottom with olive oil or butter. Rub salt and pepper over the top and bottom of the bird. When the pan is good and hot (medium to just barely high kind of temperature), put the bird in and brown it on all sides. When that is done put it breast side up and add the onions and the garlic with some salt and pepper. When they have been in for a little bit add the celery the lemons and then poor in a glass of dry white wine. After this has simmered for a minute or two add enough hot water to come up about half way on the bird and cover most of the vegetables. Add some time sprigs, four bay leaves, the celery leaves, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and put in the oven for 1 to 1 1/4 hours. If you can't find guinea fowl, pheasant would be a nice alternative, a good fairly small free range chicken would also do the trick.

I served the meat spooned over with some of the cooking liquid together with a mixed green salad with raspberry lemon honey mustard dressing. The vegetables this was cooked with are also nice to eat, but you may want to cook the celery a bit longer. If this is necessary, remove the lemons and add a touch of sugar.

Ahreum and Heejo liked this a lot. Give it a try. This is fire and forget cooking that shouldn't disappoint.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Meandering thoughts (From Essays to America and Back)

What a busy month and a half. I have left the blog idle, primarily because I have been preoccupied, but also because I of my chronic lackadaisical attitude and because I haven’t found anything to really write about.

Part of the problem revolves around marking essays. Unlike my previous students, the students I have this semester smack of mediocrity. That is not to say that they are poor students, or that they could not excel. In fact a small handful are excellent and studious. My point is more that the vast bulk of the students are unrepentantly average. There is nothing outstanding nor is there anything deploring in their performance. It is simply lukewarm. Essay after essay scored in the mid fifties. If I were grading papers in America, this would be like spread of B and B minus scores. This is not the kind of performance I can be excited about; in fact, it has drained me. I am now marking their second set of essays, and the performance is better on average, but still not where they should be.

This means I am nearly finished marking papers for the year. When I am done it will be a much needed relief, and I can turn to my own research in a far more concerted way.

At the moment, I am back in England I wrote most of this post at Heathrow airport. They are slowly improving the place, but there are still a number of things they could do better. Free wifi would be a great place to start.

I caught a bus at 1:20 in the afternoon. Ahreum was supposed to meet me on the bus, but it didn’t work out. Instead I met her in Exeter. But I was very worried on the bus ride home because I did not know what had happened. She is now completely finished with her work in London, and will be spending the summer with me in Exeter. I’ve been missing her over the last week. Traveling to and from the US was particularly hard without her. I’m so happy that I won’t have to go all the way to Exeter on my own.

In other news, I’ve now acquired a Canon 350d thank to their US rebate offer. It’s essentially a Christmas present from my Mom and Dad, since I will not be coming back to the USA this winter. I guess I’m the spoiled kid with the DSLR now. I can say that I am very grateful of my parents support. One of things I have promised in return is to post plenty of picture so they know what is happening in my life.

So far the operating of the camera has been remarkably transparent. I have experience with the canon system of film slr cameras, and I was able to jump right into the digital experience. These are two of the first shots I had taken before reading the manual properly:

I couldn’t resist that little opportunity to show off. Seriously though, the camera is easy to use. Now a lot of people complain that some major functions are “buried” in menus. While I can’t deny that they are in menus, they hardly require excavation. I imagine changing flash compensation, or iso could be slightly easier, but I don’t use the former and the latter can be accessed with one button press. This doesn’t strike me as being problematic.

Exposure is fairly good out of the box, but not perfect. I suppose it’s about the same as on my last camera, but because I shot film I had wider exposure latitude to work with. The camera is small, but I find it perfectly comfortable. It is made of plastic, but this means it is lighter and won’t get too cold to handle in the wintertime. I’m sure build quality is a step up from the Rebel 2000 I use for film, but it is not a leap forward. At any rate, I am very satisfied and can now focus on collecting lenses until a truly affordable full frame body is introduced.

Meanwhile, over the last week, I have been in the United States. My oldest friend, Chad Lothary, was getting married in St. Louis, and I was one of his groomsmen. I was very happy to be there for him as he begins his new life with Kristina. The ceremony was held in a greenhouse built for the World’s Fair, called the Jewel Box. It was fine wedding, replete with a string quartet playing JS Bach. Chad and Kristina should have fond memories of that day for many years. Here is a picture:

On the photography side of my interests, I was very impressed with the photographer that they hired. He was using a Canon 5d and an assortment of nice Canon L lenses. But many pros would use this kind of gear or better. What impressed me wasn’t his equipment but his disposition. He was friendly, i.e. willing to talk shop with me, clearly knew light exceptionally well, and had a relaxing effect on the wedding party. One of the little touches he did was to show some of the pictures he had been taking to the guests. Of course on a small viewfinder one can’t tell that much about a picture, but he had infused dramatic appeal and depth into his photographs. I have seen other wedding photographs before, and they are often mundane. I’m sure some of his are the same, but most were not. I’m very happy that Chad and Kristina hired this fellow.

Now I have to return to marking

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Kid with a DSLR

Yesterday I was walking in Regent's park with Ahreum. It was a beautiful day. Spring flowers were in full bloom. The scene was simply invigorating.

Then something came which blackened my whole experience. We turned a corner in the garden and saw a middle aged man with his son. Both were using cameras to take in the scene. I think its perfectly good for children to enjoy photography. But this kid was about 8 and he had a canon 350D. What the hell. I liked to take pictures when I was 8, but I used a blue Fisher Price small format film camera. Why is kid decked out in advanced photography gear. Am I envious? Yes. I'm almost 25 and using a Rebel 2000. It does the job but it certainly isn't something I would pine after.

Anyway, I think the child is too young to be able to use this kind of equipment completely. Maybe I'm wrong, ,and he is technically talented. However, I suspect its just a well off father treating his son to gear that wont really matter in the long run. Other devices would better actualise artistic expression for that child's age.

If I ever find my Fisher Price camera, I'm going to start using it again.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Florence 3

This is the last set of Florence pictures I am posting for the time being. Its kind of a shame I didn't have a decent wide angle lens with me, so I wasn't able to take any shots of Florence's architecture. These details will have to suffice.

Pastoral Saint

Santa Maria del Fiore Duomo

Benvenuto Cellini's Perseus With the Head of Medusa

European University Institute Gardens

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Tuscany 2

Here is the next batch of pictures from my travels in Tuscany. The first again is from Pisa, and the rest from Florence. I have long been fond of statue photography, and the opportunities for this sort of work are ample in Florence. It fills me with wonder that so these places are so replete with works of true human genius. I wonder how much even decoration has become a mere commodity in the contemporary age. Careful art is far more satisfying.

Gazing Face (Pisa)

Scholarly Contemplation

Hellenic Grace

This last photograph is actually of the site of our conference. The Villa Schifanoia

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Tuscany

This is a selection of photographs from my academic trip to Tuscany. I'll have more coming. All photographs' copyright mine.

Lion of Pisa

Receding Light

Lion Prowls the Piazza della Signoria

The Rape of Polyxena

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Retrospective in film 3, Korea

This is the last in the retrospective series. These are three shots I took at a folk village in Korea. There is something of a timeless quality to them all, and the ethereal tones of Kodak Tmax 100 speed b&w film. As before click on them to get full sized images. All photographs' copyright mine.

Hanging Gourds

Spirit Frightener

Dengjang Pots

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Retrospective in pictures 2

I took these photographs on my visits to the Netherlands last school year, when Ahreum was working in the Hague at the International Criminal Court. Do click on the pictures, as those in the post are reduced size. All photographs' copyright mine.
Ahreum was one of the few smiling faces in the Hague. There was something of a grimness to the city, and I was happy I wasn't visiting there on my own.

This is a strange flower I saw growing in Wassanaar. To this day I don't know the name, but my parents recognized it and said they had even planted one. Maybe I'll stop being lazy and ask them the name.
This picture and the next are from the Dutch tulip festival Kuekenhof. It was a little campy, but on the whole a brilliant display of vibrant tulips. One can get a feel for the madness which the unpredictable beauty of these flowers can bring to tulip aficionados.


This is second best flower shot I have ever taken. Regrettably the best is back at home with my pre-England photo albums.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Photographic memories

I've just uploaded some older scans onto my new computer, and I thought it would be nice to offer a sort of best selection of my pictures up until now. They are representative of my travels since I have been in Europe, from my first days in Exeter, into the Devon countryside, Netherlands, and Korea. This is the first set from my early rambles in Exeter and its countryside.

This is an angel carved on the side of Exeter Cathedral. There is something solemn and representative of heavenly serenity in the angel's countenance.

This is the burial monument for Lady Dodderidge in the Exeter Cathedral. She was the wife of an important Exeter lawyer. She is garbed, almost expressionless, in perfect Elizabethan dress, yet she grasps skull. I have always been struck by the morbidity of this picture. This picture and the one above were taken on my second day in Exeter.
An old stone gateway on Dartmoor. This photograph was taken after I had been in Exeter nearly a year.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

I just discovered that my department actually has a little blurb about me online with a picture. I recall that they asked me to write this and provide the photograph last year, but I thought they had never actually published it. Well, here it is: http://www.huss.ex.ac.uk/politics/research/students.htm

My path to web infamy (read being completely unkown) is almost complete.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Ethics of food

It's been awhile since my fair trade post, and recently in England Fairtrade has made the news again. I saw something of a pulp documentary considering whether Fairtrade is living up to its promise. The first Nestle Fairtrade products are storming up controversy. How can a Nestle product possibly be Fairtrade?

The problem, in my mind, is that many of the Fairtrade activists interviewed for this television programme have conflated the goals of Fairtrade with anti-corporatism in general. They see that big companies are using (read abusing) Fairtrade products in order to make money. They place large premiums on a Fairtrade product because people are interested in buying ethically. Now this certainly happens. Here at Exeter campus depending on where one goes one can pick up a Divine Fairtrade chocolate bar from anywhere from 50 to 90 pence. Its all the same, it is just different vendors setting different prices. So is Fairtrade being hijacked by corporations?

I should think not and the reason is simple. Fairtrade is not a socialist or communist ideal. Its whole point is to improve the standards of living and the pay received by third world produces by appealing to the market. Rather than with normal commodities, the basic prices for ingredients are set to a minimum. This protects the producer. Now for the producer's situation to be actually improved, the products need to move off the shelves. For the products to be popular, public awareness and marketing needs to be in place. Fairtrade knows this and must hope to leverage companies and supermarkets to sell Fairtrade products. Business is business and the profit has to be there. Capitalism is thoroughly wrapped up in this venture. But if companies can make a profit, and the products are popular, and huge producers like Nestle join in, this means that more chocolate, sugar, or bananas are needed. This means more orders for the farmers. And that means a better life for them. The whole point should be for supermarket chains and large food companies to "abuse" Fairtrade for their own profit because in the end this has a demonstrable benefit for the suppliers. As long as we are aware of this reality, I can think of nothing better for farmers than for Nestle to produce Fairtrade goods.

But after having thought about this I thought about other ethical food movements. What about fairtrade, free range, organic food, local food, small farmer food, and seasonal food? It seems to me that the ethics of food has become increasingly problematic and possibly chimerical. Say I want a tomato. Say I live in, Devon. It is the height of summer, and tomatoes are in season. Will the tomatoes at Tesco's be from Devon? Probably not. They will likely have organic and un-organic varieties. Where will these come from? Possibly England, but maybe the Netherlands, maybe Spain, or even Israel. If they are from far afield, it means that a good deal of diesel on a semi-truck or ship or jet fuel on a plane has been burnt getting the tomato to me. Enter the specter of global warming.

Now say I go to a farmers market. There I might buy a locally grown tomato, but it might or might not be organic. In any event, I haven't paid for huge waste in shipping, but I have given my money to a farmer who is likely to be highly subsidized by his government. And doesn't this mean I have worked against fair trade? Does this mean by going local I have gone against fair trade? But if I go for fair trade, because of the the products involved, by default, I have failed to go local and that I am contributing to global pollution. What a mess.

And then there is organic. At first it looks great. No fertilizers to imbalance the local ecosystem, no pesticides to damage the ecosystem. Great. But hold on a second. Isn't there a reason all those hideous chemicals are used. Surely it is to improve yield within a given area of land. Now if we ditch these chemicals, then something has to give. If I am a farmer and want to have a yield of X cabbages to sell and I go organic, then it is likely I will need to increase the land I farm in order to get the same number. This means, if we all went organic, either many more square miles of farmland would be required or a much lower quantity of food would result. Since much organic farming is corporate anyway, and buying organic doesn't necessarily mean supporting local farms, these issues can be set aside. Doubtless having a cleaner farm is a good thing, and I am sure that many farmers overuse chemicals and fail to rely on other alternative solutions. But at the same time, if I could chose between fewer farms (especially hydroponics) and more nature, actual unused land, I would be tempted to opt for more nature.

What I am trying to get at here, is that a good deal of the different ethical food movements offer overly simplistic views of the intertwined technical and moral concerns which actually crop up (pun intended) in the production of food. This is not to say that these ethical concerns are unimportant, but, as things stand now, they lead the ethically minded consumer into a number of unresolved ethical conflicts. More importantly they can be used, in the case of the Divine chocolate above, to empty the ethically minded consumer's pockets of a good deal more money then he should have actually had to spend, were he savvy, for the same principles. Most importantly, I don't think that it is right for me to have to engage in an internal debate every time I try to buy something. By and large, it is probably better to be lead by what tastes well crafted, than what some faddish ethical movement sees as singularly important. It is true that my actions and my decisions have consequences, but I suspect the after effects of each decision I make at a store and over multiple visits to different stores over my life are far to complex to be mapped. There are two many unknown variables for me to even begin to have the presumption that my shopping list has been ethically coherent. Therefore and henceforth, I refuse to play this game. If appears to be of good quality, nutritious and at a price that is sustainable for me, then I will buy the foodstuff of my choice. Otherwise I delude myself, possibly make things worse, and likely spend more of my resources than I should have.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Hiking

Spring break begins this week after a long and busy winter term. I gave another paper last week on methodology (just baby steps here). Yesterday I had an annual progress interview at the department. It sounds like I'm on track, and I feel confident that this is the case. So now I am taking a little time to relax.

Not that I can rest for all of break, but I am balancing my work with recreation. So today I went on a moderate hike in the nature reserve trails North of campus. Part of the trail is an abandoned country road. It goes uphill for quite a ways and eventually turns wet. In fact the road bed has become something of a small stream fed from a spring bubbling up somewhere on this hill. The pathway begins being shaded by trees on both sides, but as one makes the climb, there is eventually a break in the trees on the right and a beautiful view of the valleys North of the city is revealed. In fact there is a side trail into one of the valleys upon which I hiked for a short while. There are some other good green places in Exeter, but this is one of the few areas that is really wooded, natural and open for hiking.

As spring comes into its own, I encourage you all to get out from urban life and the manic streets, and go walking in the countryside. You don't have to be a camper or a long term hiker. Just have a ramble in the rolling hills. For those of you living in really big cities, this might be more of a production, but I know that you can go hiking on several mountains in Seoul and many cities have substantial open parks.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Back from Florence

I just returned from a brilliant set of conferences in Florence. The joint paper with Rob Lamb on Fenelon went without a hitch. We had some pointed questions, but I think we handled our selves amicably and astutely. In general the conference on the Passions and Virtues was academically very rewarding. The papers were tightly composed. The crowning event, in my estimation, was a newly retired professor, Nick Phillipson from Edinburgh, presenting on Adam Smith. It was a flowering of a lifetime's work and scholarship. His erudition on all manner of subjects was astounding, and he brought all of this together in a honed performance.

The other conference I attended in Florence was evaluating Early English Books Online. This was fabulous . Academically rewarding as well as technically stimulating. I am something of a geek, so I'm excited about how this sort of internet service really leverages much of what the internet can do for academics. I learned quite a bit about using EEBO, and I think I helped other people explore its possibilities through my report on how I use it in my research.

I got back into England last week, and Ahreum and I celebrated our two year dating anniversary. I was inspired by all the wonderful food I was fed in Florence, and I pulled out all the cooking stops to recreate something of a Tuscan feast. Of course I can't help but improvise, so whether what I made was in any real sense Tuscan is open to doubt, but it borrows the spirit and the feel of Tuscan cuisine.

My prized creation, in Ahreum's opinion, was a newly invented pasta dish, at least for me. One uses spaghetti (enough for two large or three medium sized portions. 4 or 5 cloves of garlic. A package of ricotta cheese (UK sainsbury's or Tesco's standard size, I think a US package is likely to be two large), a little milk, about 4 good handfuls of young spinach, and a dash of nutmeg. Begin by bringing some olive oil to a low/medium temperature in a saucepan. In another saucepan or stock pot, bring some water to the boil and put in plenty of salt. Dice the garlic, season with salt and pepper and lightly fry for about two minutes. Don't let it brown up, or this will damage the flavour. Then start adding the spinach a handful at a time with salt and pepper to season. At this point the spaghetti should go into stockpot. When the spinach has wilted and been nicely cooked add in the ricotta cheese and stir so it melts and breaks down. Grate a bit of nutmeg in. Not too much or it will be overpowering. Then use an immersion blender to blitz the sauce into a finer consistency. A splash of olive oil and a splash of milk (or potentially cream) finish the sauce. When the pasta is finished drain and put it into the spinach sauce. Return to the whole dish to the heat and stir together for about a minute or two. Done.

Tomorrow, I am back to the teaching grind at Exeter. But at least Ahreum is here to visit this weekend. And today is her birthday, too. Happy birthday to Ahreum. I am told her age is sensitive information, so I can't really say how old she is. But it is somewhere between 1 and 100, I assure you all.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Off to Florence

I'm off to Florence and the European University Institute for a conference on the virtues and the passions. I'll be giving a paper with my colleague on Disinterestedness as virtue in the thought of the quietist Archbishop Francois Fenelon, Jean Jacques Rousseau, and the British radical William Godwin. All of the papers look very interesting, and I think this is going to be a very important conference for my work. There are some well known names there, and some rising stars. This should be a very interesting experience.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Green tea cake

Ahreum is here for the weekend, and we are celebrating Valentines day a bit late this year. We're doing things low key as well. But for the menu, we are having green tea cake. I've never made a green tea dessert before, so this will be a new experience. I'll let you all know how it turns out.

But while I'm at it, I thought I'd post a link to the website where I found the recipe. It seems to be a pretty powerful recipe site for cakes, and it has a scaling function which allows you to increase or decrease the recipe by serving portions. So if its normally 12 servings, you could scale it to say, 6 or 20, and the website will do the calculation for you. That's cool. Of course what it doesn't do is scale based on pan size. So if you have a recipe for a 9 inch cake pan, and you want one that will fit an 8 inch pan, you'll have to do some calculations. If 9 inches is 12 portions how many portions will be in an 8 inch pan. We'll you can't set up a simple proportion, because we are dealing with units of volume, not length. So you'll have to calculate the volume of the pie tin. Its a cylinder, so it shouldn't be too hard. But I won't give you the full equation because I'm too lazy . But the area of a circle is Pi * (radius)^2, and the volume of a circle is height times Pi * (radius)^2. So now with that bit, it should be easy to make the calculation of how many serving sizes you need. Then let the website do the recipe modification for you.

So with no further ado, here is the web page: http://cake.allrecipes.com/

If anyone tries any recipes and likes them, let me know.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

Water contamination

Exeter is a great place. Peaceful, clean, green. Although it is a small city, at its edges it just melts into the rolling green Devon moors. It is this clean air and life that is so appealing about Exeter.

The problem is, this clean and green town is neither clean nor green. Though I can't make a proper reference, I have heard tell, that the air here, at least in the center of town, is some of the most badly polluted in England. This is because there is little industry left in the UK, and it is the cars that do the dirty work. Exeter certainly has traffic stagnation aplenty.

So at least the water is clean, right? Normally it is clean enough for me although not for Ahreum, but this week a new and splendid richness has been added to the pristine font of Exeter's North side. Have they decided to put fluoride into the water to strengthen our teeth or enervate our life energy ala Doctor Strangelove's General Jack Riper? No and no.

Without further elusive and wandering prose, the real problem this week is that Exeter's North side water supply has been contaminated by diesel fuel. I guess they were supposed to put a little chlorine in, but somehow they got mixed up. Campus was squarely hit, and after some concern and confusion, I determined that my house was just outside of the redzone. But had I been one block over...

I suppose they would have contacted me right away, but, then again and knowing the spirit of organizations like South West Water, I suspect I would have had to find out in a more pro-active manner.

The resolution from this whole incident, is that I have to start drinking like a medieval man. From now on, my fluid of choice is a well brewed beer.

Once more into the breach,

Ben

P.S. I am sure that South West Water will not take responsibility for this and will try to pass on the costs of the lost water to their customers. I can imagine that to make it less noticeable, the price hike will be done over their entire range of operations.

Two takes on pasta

Today I've got a recipe post for the loyal readers. I like pasta, most people like pasta, so this is a no brainer. These are two directions I took a basic tomato sauce this weekend. One is a classic and the other is a bit more hip.

First the classic, Chicken Parmesan. I doubt its actually from Parma. Its probably Italian American, but I wouldn't want to say for sure. What is important is that its been overdone but still can be great. You'll need to start with some kind of tomato sauce. Something store bought can be ok, but making it yourself is best. This isn't too hard, and canned Italian plum tomatoes tend to yield the best results. I don't really use a recipe, but for guidance google "tomato sauce recipe" or go to www.foodtv.com. Warm the sauce up so it is ready for use.

Anyway, once you've got your sauce down, you'll need to get some chicken breasts or turkey breast steaks (for those of you in the UK, turkey is cheaper and every bit as good. I never buy chicken breasts here because of the ridiculous price). You'll need to pound them a bit so that they are about 1 cm thick. You can use a meat hammer to do this, or your fist. I use a fist. If you hit too hard you can separate the meat. A nice trick is to put the meat between two layer of plastic wrap.

Set the meat aside and put some flour with a good seasoning of salt and black pepper in a plate. In another bowl break in an egg and mix it up. Then in another plate put a couple of cups of bread crumbs (buy them or make them yourself) and add two handfuls of finely chopped pecans.

Now it time to get things rolling. Start by warming up a frying pan to a medium temperature with a mix of olive oil and vegetable oil. Bring a stock pot of water to the boil and get ready to cook some pasta, I like linguine or some substantial noodle. To prepare the meat, coat each piece in flour, then egg, and then the bread crumb mixture. When that's done start frying them. Start cooking the pasta after you start frying the meat. When the meat browns on each side, put it on a wire wrack and put mozzarella cheese on each piece. Put it in a hot oven to finish. When the pasta is al dente drain and put in the warm sauce. Finish the pasta in the sauce. Serve up the pasta on warm plates and take the now finished breaded turkey pieces and serve one with each plate.

Second pasta, with shrimp, mozzarella and rocket (arugala).

Ok, basically you are doing the same thing with the pasta and sauce as above. Get the water boiling, and the sauce just simmering. Only this time toss in some frozen (or fresh) shrimp into the sauce and let them cook (or warm up) depending on what is necessary. When the pasta is finished, toss it into the sauce and stir together over the heat for about one minute. Just as this is finishing off, toss in a few handful of fresh rocket and some small chunks of fresh mozzarella cheese, leaving some rocket for garnishing at the end. Plate up the pasta, put a handful of rocket on each plate, and grate over some Parmesan cheese. I thought these both worked out great.

Here's to cooking inspiration.

Once more into the breach,

Ben