Goodbye Old Car

Well, I loved my little BMW M Roadster, with its two seats, RWD, 3.2 Litre M-spec engine producing 321 BHP, but it was getting a little impractical...As well as leaking like a sieve!

Time for a change!

New Blog!

Well, thanks to the hard work of my good friend Andy, I have now added a Blog to this site. Well, actually, the whole web site is constructed around a blogging engine built in some magic called Symfony.

All of the (very limited) content from my previous site will be including on the new site over the next couple of days and I will be writing about anything else interesting as it happens.

(Oldstuff) Crypto Quotes

My previous collection of crypto quotes are available here.

(Oldstuff) Spaghetti Bolognese

Everyone thinks that their Bolognese sauce is the best, and I'm no exception ;) This is an old family recipe.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• 1lb Mince
• 1 large onion (very finely chopped)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 2 to 3 carrots, grated.
• 1x red and 1x green pepper, finely diced
• 1 tin of tomatoes. Separate liquid from tomatoes.
• Mixed herbs
• Ground spice
• Fresh nutmeg
• Pinch of ginger
• 4 bay leaves
• Generous handful of chopped mushrooms
• Grated cheese
• Squirt of lemon juice
• Butter.
• 1x Tablespoon of Bisto

Method:

Heat a large pan with a little oil. Heat mince until it's browned thoroughly (stirring occasionally). Drain off fat and add a knob of butter.

Add onion and fry for 5 minutes or so. Add the rest of ingredients, apart from the cheese and tomato sauce.

After a couple of minutes mix the Bisto with the liquid from the tomatoes and add to the pan.

Cook for 10 minutes or until it's a thick sauce and add the cheese. Stir well over the heat for a further minute and serve.

(Oldstuff) Peppered steak - hot! ;)

A simple peppered steak for those that don't mind it hot.

Serves: 3

Ingredients:

• 3x pieces of steak. Fillet is best I find, but sirloin is ok
• 2x tablespoons of brandy
• 3x tablespoons of peppercorns. For best taste I'd strongly recommend a milder blend of different corns like these.
• Pinch of salt.
• 300ml of single cream.
• Butter

Method:

Crush the peppercorns with a pestle and mortar. Don't even think of using ground or pre-crushed pepper, it's just not the same.

Press the crushed peppercorns onto the steaks firmly and sprinkle a touch of salt on each side. Leave to sit for 10 minutes or so.

Heat a heavy based frying pan until very warm and add half of the butter. Heat until nearly fully melted and then add the steaks. The idea is to sear the outside of the steak and seal the peppercorns. The steaks should be heated for about 45 seconds each side and then the gas turned down significantly. Add the rest of the butter and sprinkle liberally with freshly ground pepper. Cook to the desired taste on each side. Medium rare should take about 2 minutes each side.

Once cooked, remove the steaks to a covered dish in a gas mark 1 pre-heated oven (it's important to cover, this prevents the steak from drying out). The frying pan should now have a fairly significant amount of cooked pepper, and this will form the basis of the sauce. Heat the peppercorns heavily for half a minute or so and add more freshly ground pepper. Remove the pan from the heat for 30 seconds and add the Brandy. With any luck, the brandy will just gentle boil but it may set alight.

After 10 seconds of stirring, return the pan to a low heat and stir constantly. When there is only a little brandy left, pour in the cream. Turn up the heat and stir constantly for a couple of minutes. When the sauce has thickened, remove from the heat and serve.

I'm a heathen and enjoy this meal with onion-rings, potato wedges and broccoli. It goes very well with a full bodied red wine, though I'd specifically recommend Clancy's 1998 - surely one of the best wines for under ?10!

(Oldstuff) Chinese Chicken and Noodle Soup

A filling chinese soup.

Serves: 4

Ingredients (Soup):

• 1/4 chicken stock cube + 1/4 vegetable stock cube in 200ml of boiling water OR 200ml chicken stock.
• Large pinch of Salt
• Small Handful of Coriander
• 1x Teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
• 1/4 Teaspoon of Sesame Oil
• 1x Red Chilli chopped
• 1x Green Chilli chopped
• Flat Teaspoon of Chilli Flakes
• Big Pinch of Sugar
• 2x Tablespoons of concentrated white wine

Ingredients (Marinade):

• ???

Ingredients (the rest):

• 4 Chicken Breasts
• Pack of noodles
• Peanut oil
• Chinese Five Spice
• Star Anise
• Handful of mushrooms, sliced.
• Small handful of Coriander

Method:

Start by preparing the soup...In a big pan place all of the Soup ingredients along with 7 50ml of water. Simmer very gently (for around 20 minutes in total) whilst preparing and coo king the chicken and noodles.

Mix all the ingredients for the Marinade in a large cup and let to settle for 2 minutes t hen mix again. Marinade the chicken breasts in the mixture for a minimum of 30 minutes, tur ning occasionally.

To cook the chicken, place 4 tablespoons of peanut oil in a wok and heat. When quite hot , (carefully ;) place in the chicken. Cook at a high temperature in the oil for 4 minutes t hen turn. Cook for another 4 minutes and turn again. Rub the chicken with more of the mar inade and cook for 4 minutes, turn and finally cook for a further 4 minutes after having the last of the marinade poured on. The chicken should now be blackened on parts of the coatin g. Remove from the wok and place on a wire tray to cool.

Now cook the noodles as per instructions. Whilst cooking add a healthy pince of Five Spi ce and some Star Anise. Cut the chicken in strips width-wise.

To serve, place noodles in the bottom of each serving bowl. Place chicken on top, and th en ladel in the soup. Add mushrooms and coriander to taste.