mountain masala

Potato and Leek Soup with Tortilla and Poblano Rajas

Leek and potato soup topped with crispy bacon, a dollop of sour cream + smoked paprika mixture and parsley. The soup recipe came from Stephanie Alexander. What's different here is that I use chicken stock instead of water. I also added a 200 ml bottle of cream at the end and the bacon and cream-paprika idea. I used good Spanish paprika which is amazing.

Served with home-made tortillas and poblanos rajas (strips of poblano pepper/chilli fried with onion, oregano, thyme and garlic.) We normally roll out out tortillas thinly but tonight I wanted them to be more like chunky bread with soup. Poblanos were canned as you can't buy fresh ones here.

Poblanos Rajas was spooned into the bread which was folded and eaten alongside the soup. I thought the combination worked really well. I've never made Poblanos Rajas before.

Tea Smoked Rainbow Trout

I bought a 750g rainbow trout yesterday and thought I'd try tea-smoking it. I hunted for recipes online and finally used one from The Spirit House Cookbook which we have at home. Line the bottom of a wok with 3 or 4 layers of foil. Add 200g black tea, 200g jasmine rice and 200g brown sugar. I also salted the trout as suggested in another recipe. Then cooked it on a little camp stove outdoors for a bit over an hour while watching out for the local cats! Don't try this indoors!

The fish turned out amazingly well. Peeled easily off the bone but still moist.

I served this up with jasmine rice cooked in coconut milk with lime juice, coriander and diced chilli, and a stir-fry of onion, asparagus, capsicum and green beans with 1 1/5 tbsp garlic, 2 tbsp ginger, 2 tbsp kecap manis, 2 tbsp fish sauce, 1 tbsp palm sugar, 1/2 tsp white pepper and slivered almonds (recipe said cashews) - spring onions as garnish. The stir fry was a bit strong for the fish, so I served them side by side. The fish needs a lighter accompaniment and would be excellent with an Asian salad.

I'll definited be smoking fish again!

Shakshuka

Here's a Middle eastern vegetarian dish that I adapted slighty from Yotam Ottolenghi's fabulous "Jerusalem". It's really a breakfast or lunch dish, but we had it for dinner. Here's my version:

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp harissa - recipe here (original uses 2 tbsp)
2 tsp tomato paste
2 cups diced red capsicum (0.5 cm cubes) - I used 1 red capsicum and 1 canned poblano pepper
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika (not in original recipe)
800g diced tomato
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed (not in original recipe)
3 large eggs (original has 4 eggs plus 4 egg yolks - I didn't read it properly...)
1/2 cup thick yoghurt
Salt

Heat oil in pan and cook harissa, tomato paste, capsicum, garlim, cumin, paprika and 3/4 tsp salt for about 8 minutes on medium heat.

Meanwhile cook the potato cubes in oil until crisp.

Add tomatoes and simmer gently for about 10 minutes. Add potatoes towards the end. Taste and season.

Make little dips in the sauce and gently add eggs and yolks. Use a fork to swirl the whites a bit into the sauce (I didn't).

Simmer gently for 8-10 mins until eggs are cooked but yolks still runny.

Serve with yoghurt. I added a garnish of coriander.

Simply, tasty and looks great.

Alive@5 - Sunday 5th May

new music

a friend was recently surprised to discover that I like Led Zeppelin. he thought I was a folky kind of guy. little did he know that I grew up with Deep Purple, Slade, Jethro Tull, The Who, Uriah Heep, Buffalo and even Black Sabbath... but i digress. here's what's new on my playlist...

Ray Charles - really! a bunch of his old stuff. loved the movie.

Dr John - as above. a man and a pianoand a whole lot of attitude.

"Behind the Parade" - Tommy Keene - jangly 8o's guitar stuff. think Matthew Sweet or the Jayhawks. saw him live in Raleigh NC once...

"Swarthmoor" - Pete Morton - UK folkie. think Mick Thomas

"Lady" - Lady - modern take on classic soul music

"Down the River of Golden Dreams" - Okkervil River - gnarly but sweet, folky-country Texans... click the link for some free music too!

"Alice's Restaurant" - Arlo Guthrie - yep, the album with that very long song...

"The Execution of All Things" - Rilo Kiley - Jenny Lewis and friends' play poppy-countryish-folk

"You Are Everything" - Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy - a cracker new album of mystery and intimacy

"Screws" - Nils Frahm - ambient piano - FREE

"The Invisible Way" - Low - stunning new stripped-back album from the dour Minnesotans...

And from NoiseTrade... pay what you want... some stunning music below.

- Limited Fanfare Records Spring/Summer Sampler 2013

- ATO Records Spring Sampler 2013 and 2012 Sampler

- Songs for West

- Bonnaroo NoiseTrade Sampler

Smoked Salmon Pasta with Capers

Smoked salmon, cherry tomatoes, capers, basil, chilli, parmesan in a reduction of white wine infused with onion and black peppercorns. Plus lemon juice. i was going to add rocket at the end but forgot.

The problem with Christian Education - Part 1

In framing my research I've suggested a disconnect between Christian education anf missiology, but I've also had an underlying question about the capacity of Christian education to help people make sense of and live their faith in the postmodern world. I believe that in many places the theory, methods and resources of Christian education have't helped people to live out their faith. Put simply, there's a parallel between the sense of powerless that citizens have in relation to the big forces that shape their lives (hence a response in consumerism - BTW I don't simply mean consumption) and Christian education for a privatised faith.

Everything that I've ever read by Rick Osmer has been excellent. Deep, thoughtful, scholarly and  foundational. It has been a watershed to come across "Religious Education between Modernization and Gobalization", co-authored with Friedrich Schweitzer.

"We both had come to the conclusion that the most important difficulties faced by religious education in the present were deeply intetwined with long-term cultural and social developments related to processes like modernization snd globalization." (p25)

Both of these guys have been formative in establishing a global network in the field of practical theology. I've previous blogged about Osmer's "The Teaching Ministry of Congregations" here.

First up, this book says that there hasn't been enough contextual study of religious education: it has primarily been about models and philosophy/theology with little regard to context. Hence this study compares the US and Germany. Secondly, the authors suggest that modernization and globalization represent key challenges to the theories and practices of religious education. This is precisely what I've been thinking. So their exploration of what these terms mean has me hooked, particularly the definitions that they have gathered of modernization based on differentiation.

As someone who has come to sociology indirectly (economics in the 70s, some anthropology in the 80s, communication studies in the 90s, cultural studues more recently), this is helping me fill in the blanks. One of the key notions is that modern society has developed different spheres of working, living, learning, knowledge, language (how authors distinguish these differently matters), and that religion in particular has great difficulties in educating within and across these boundaries. The problem is not simply method or resources.

I won't say more just now as my brain is jumping out of its skin with the next bit... (not that i have 'answers' yet...)

Chicken and Spinach Tortellini

Clearly this is turning into a food blog. Here's tortellini made from gow gees pastry. Filling of chicken mince, spinach and mozarella, with 2 chopped figs and 2 tsp goat curd added as an experiment. (Couldn't taste the fig or curd). Sauce made from a reduction of buttered leeks, white wine and black peppercorns, then added parmesan, aged havarti and cream. Pasta topped with fired haloumi, charred leeks and parsley.  The gow gees pastry is really too thick for this, but otherwise fabulous.

Vegetarian Pizza

Asparagus, cherry tomato and leek pizza with mozarella, parmesan, fresh basil and goat curd. You can add a squeeze of lemon or yoghurt or sour cream instead of the goat curd.

Beetroot Moutabel

Last night I BBQed chicken in Moroccan spices with lime juice. It was served with sweet potato mash (with honey and ginger), couscous (with barberries and toasted almonds, beetroot moutabel, fig and olive tapende and home-made pita bread. The beetroot recipe is from the excellent "Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume" by Silvena Rowe.

Beetroot Moutabel with Tahini and Toasted Orange Peel

Bake 500g medium beetroot at 200C for 5-50 mins or until cooked. (Drizzle them with olive oil and season them.) Peel beetroot.

Grate half of the beetroot with a fine grater and roughly puree the other half in a food processor. Mix the two together (this gives it varied texture).

Get peel of 3 oranges (I used a peeler but I think they might mean using zest instead, Also this seemed to be a LOT of peel). Toast in a dry pan on medium heat for one minute.

To the beetroot add juice of 1/2 lemon, 2 tbsp tahini and 2 tbsp thick plain yoghurt.

Top with the toasted orange peel.

This is a dip, hence the pita bread.