Le sandwich brunch(1)

Well it is Sunday morning and I have to go Phitsanulok where I shall look mournfully at what passes for food in Tesco and Big C, and dream of this….

This is so obvious as to be banal…but my friend said it was the best sandwich he had ever eaten..ooh such flattery will not get you a decent bottle of Pinot Noir, tonight, nor tomorrow! And where do you ever see such simple things written down?

For two

2 Ciabatta Rolls..though four slices of decent wholegrain bread will do..
2 Free Range Eggs
4 rashers organic Streaky Bacon
2 Organic Tomatoes
Unsalted Butter
Tablespoon Mayonnaise, preferably home made…!
Tablespoon Tomato Sauce or Salsa
2 Cornichons
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Olive Oil

Fry the bacon rashers in Olive Oil until crispy. Reserve to a plate and keep warm with all what follows.
In the same Oil fry the Tomatoes until tender. Remove and reserve
Clean the pan and add some more Olive Oil. Heat until very hot. Add the first Egg, cook quickly on one side and then flip over, cook further..the Egg must not set. Remove, reserve and repeat for the second Egg. Reserve.

Cut the Ciabatta Rolls in half. Toast. Butter both sides of the inside. Spread the lower half with the Mayonnaise and Tomato Sauce or Salsa.
Finely chop the cornichons and sprinkle over.
Finely chop the Bacon and distribute between the two rolls, similarly add the cooked Tomato.
Sprinkle lightly with Sea Salt, ground or not to your taste, and freshly ground Black Pepper

Place an Egg in each Roll. Close the Rolls and Serve

(If you do not chop the bacon it will come out in unpleasant strings when you bite into the roll. You will already be having to deal with runny Egg yolk!)

I find this more satisfying than Oeufs Benedictine; though I would never sniff at that dish properly prepared. You could, of course, if you had time and ability, substitute Sauce Hollandaise for the Mayonnaise. You could also exchange HP Sauce or your own home-made good Salsa for the Tomato Sauce.It is good with Jambon de Bayonne or Jambon Serrano-any wind dried ham rather than the bacon, again finely chopped so you don’t have stringy mouthfuls. I am partial to substituting Jalapeno Peppers, finely chopped, for the cornichons, or in addition. Like all simple and great dishes it bends to your taste and the ingredients to hand. But no wet lettuce leaves, which most hotels and restaurants seem unable to resist...

If you are nifty you will already have been preparing some Pommes Sautees, ie last night’s potatoes fried in Oil and Butter…but never mind. A few slices of Black Pudding add variety as a side order!. A large glass of Freshly Squeezed Tangerine Juice is a bonus..given where I am… and a large simple sweet black Coffee! I would not refuse a large jug of Bloody Mary either. Plenty of Ice and Tabasco. Black Pepper and Lemon Juice…Perhaps a small dish of Papaya/Mango/Watermelon, to finish, too.
I cannot abide boxed juice, which is made usually from fruit concentrate and neither Cappucino nor Café Latte. With a dish such as this you do not need milk.

Now here is some nicely presented fish!

Came back from BKK

One day I shall write an account of a w/end in BKK.....thank the lord we live here not there. The babe leaping up and down in the airport, having rung me every six hours day and night for four days. Monday 5.00 am wakes K...time to go airport get Daddy...yeah yeah another 5 hours....I bought her a Thomas The Tank Engine train. Very big in Japan!! Brian Wildsmith's The Hare and The Tortoise-in Thai and Dr.Seuss.....

We cannot think straight by way of HAVING to decide whether to come back to the UK at the end of March..as at 14.00 hours No, but at 11.00 was Yes...How can we tell?
Whatever v. pricey...though discovered cheap tickets on Thai. Come live the post Tsunami Experience...better Not.....

Here, by request!!..."well really!! said Cat", hope you know your Russell Hoban/Maurice Sendak??

Les Cotes de Chevreuil facon Milord Byron

One could say that this was the final meal of the war party at Missolonghi-don’t they now make radiators for Argos? Cumin having penetrated Greek Cuisine through the influence of the Turk on his way to conquer Macedonia., or more likely through Averroes and Galen.

However, in truth, this dish was also a result of the last visit to the Tung Kwian Market, between Chiang Mai and Thoen. Next to the stall selling the Sanglier and what I took to be a skinned dog, but turned out to be a calf foetus …eat on…was some Venison.

500g Loin of venison
1 Red Onion
5 Cloves Garlic
Dessertspoon Black Peppercorns
2 Tablespoons White Cumin/Jeera seeds
Teaspoon Juniper Berries
Good Pinch of Sea Salt Crystals
Juice of a Lemon or Lime
Olive Oil
Coriander Leaves

The venison should be cut into fillets about the thickness and size of a veal escalope. 500g should provide enough for four people.

Peel and Chop the Onion roughly. Crush it a bit so some of the juices come out.
Crush and skin the Garlic cloves.
Crush the Juniper Berries

Put Black Pepper and Cumin into a blender/mill and grind until finely ground. Add the Garlic, Black Pepper, Juniper Berries, a little Lemon/Lime Juice and a little Olive Oil. Blend further until you have a decent paste

Put the Onion in a dish, spread the paste over both sides of the Venison fillets, place on top of the Onion, pour over a little more Olive Oil and the rest of the Lemon Juice. Place in refrigerator and marinade for at least an hour. The meat should be turned and the marinade redistributed after half an hour. The longer it is left the better.

Remove fillets from the refrigerator and leave at room temperature for 10 minutes or so. Heat a grill and lightly grill the fillets on both sides. They should be as a good steak, browned on the outside and pink inside, so grill quickly.
They can, of course, be fried if you prefer.

Serve on a dish, with any juices poured over and a sprinkling of Salt and Coriander Leaves.

We eat this with a Green Salad and a version of Pommes Parmentieres, which is easy:

Peel Two or Three Large Potatoes
Cut into Cubes about Half an Inch Square.
Place in a bowl and pour boiling water over to cover. Leave for a minute or so, drain and dry.
In a Grill or other pan heat 1 Coffee Cup Olive Oil and 125g of butter.
Place potatoes in dish and make sure all cubes are coated with oil/butter.
Grill until browned, turning regularly.
Drain Potatoes and place on dish with kitchen paper to get rid of any excess fat. Remove paper and serve with the Venison.

Some Red Currant or Apple/Mint Jelly or whatever should be offered.

I am going to bangkok for a week
I leave you with this!!

We have been talking about ghosts and spirits in Thailand. Belief in them is far from limited to Mirror readers and indeed a bit like Zimbabwe or wherever their influence is quite deep
Bpi, Phee and Phii, Phee or whatever are synonymous

Some definitions for starters

phee ghost, spirit; pertaining to sorcery
win yaan soul, spirit

variations of a theme ...
Jao phaaw a god or spirit
Spirit of man/father..phu yai
Jao mae spirit of/woman mother
Jao pha/jao khao looks after hills
duaang win yaan soul, spirit
bpi saat a spirit, a ghost, a devil
Bpi graseu sai awk ie entrails hanging out..girl
Bpi grahang… boy chawp jap jim,,ie e likes to eat ..well this is a family webblog,…can fly..
phi kradsong..has wings ie baskets under its arms
Eats girl saliva
theh phaa rak guardian spirit
phee thee spirit of an object or place
phee baan spirit of a house

and the ubiquitous spirit houses ...

saan jao shrine, not a spirit house
saan phra phuu mi spirit house

Jaao Pha/jaao khao looks after hills
Jaao Paaw Ruk Muang..Spirit looks after Amphur and Jangwat

Bpi Baan also Bpi Reuan..another word for house (Mae says if she dies that is what she will be)

Bpi Ga…m/F
Body changer
Eats sick people….all to do with entrails!

Bpi Pob
Disguised a a person..eats animals/people alive

Bpi Takian
Lives in trees-girl...if you cut tree down you have a problem

Mae Ya Nang..looks after boats and cars

Bpi Ta Nee
Lives in bananas and wears green clothes..girl

Bpi Dai Hawng
What I become if I die in an accident

Bpi Dai Tong Kom
Turn into this if you die when pregnant

Bpi Prai
Lives in river or even sea…kills swimmers

Bpi Pa/
Bpi Khao
Wild spirit of woods and hills

Bpi Fa
Spirit of old queens… I mean real ones not katoeys..
And their families.looks after villages and hills

Bpi Dip
Back from the dead..ie zombies kills everyone

Bpi Hua Kat
If someone cuts off your head…

Bpi Paa Chaa
Graveyard Souls..You need 7 of them to make a little buffalo…which then looks after house..need Paw Mot to do this!…If I am a pain she will go to the mor doo and get him to make the buffalo make my stomach hurt and then I will die!
Also
Bpi Kwai
Bpi Kwai Tanoo

Bpi Sing
Lives in body makes you mad…same as Bpi Khao

Bpi Kanoon (ie stands under Jack Fruit Tree…hello!)
Prostitute (not a Bpi at all is real!! And found in Lumpini and Sukhumvit!)
Also Bpi Garooa..husband of garee..more abuse..! Real person

Bpi Mae Mai
Dies Not have husband so comes back to f**** man!

Luk Yom, Luk Gok, if pregnant 3 months girl born…keep the baby foetus and dry it,,helps father mother ..

Winyaan Dek.. Gooman…good spirits of children

Paaw Gae..Ghost of old Likay Teacher

Bpi Praet
A very tall Bpi, with everything big-except mouth cos cannot eat and lies to everyone, like a coconut tree-one to whom Sai Baat has not been offered
Big hands, lies to and , hits mother and father.
Like the ones we saw at Awk Phansa

1.Yom Ma Tud/ 2.Yom Pa Baan also Yom Malat..knows when you will die
1 helps 2
1 gets your soul when you die comes with
Sam Wan Ga Suwan comes to see 2 what been up to good or bad
If you have been good Yoo Bon Faa ie send you to live on the star.
.Teeawada..Nang Fa is girl, If you bad…send you Kan Nai Din ie to hell ..just like Brueghel has a dish boiling water..
They? Who? have the book to write what you have done wrong..The Book is made out of Dog Skin..Banchee Nang Maa

If you have been adulterous..you have to climb a tree with big thorns..ouch!..under the tree has a man stuffs spikes up your arse.and when you come to the top has the bird eats your head.
So that deals with farangs in LOS na?

ps
Bpi Takorn appears to live in the sticky rice basket..but now we are into Issan ghosts and spirits ..I think they are all quite regional. local…Can someone come up with some more Issan/ Khon Phu Khao ones??.

Briefly, two nice pieces of Thai 'Wisdom'

1. You cannot use scissors, knives, nail clippers, and presumably shears etc. when you are pregnant as the baby will have a hare lip...Read this somewhere, and vigorously confirmed by wife and mother in law. Sounds like another excuse for idleness to me.

2. Never mind the fishmonger...the real problem here is that they had already abandoned westerners as a lost tourist cause..what they really wanted were Chinese and Koreans...and who, from there, is going to go swimming, let alone sit, on a beach haunted by all those dead spirits. Not my wife.

Oh Dear. Back to the European lager swilling wads o' money

Oh for heaven’s sake
Let’s have something to eat

Garlic Soup

This is really good and easy

6 or so Large Heads of Garlic
2 pints+ Mushroom or Chicken stock
500g Mushrooms. Preferably picked from a field in Pen Llyn in October but failing that supermarket ones will do. If you want the soup strong and brown, open caps, otherwise normal ones. If they are to be had mix 250g of field Mushrooms with 250g Shiitake Mushrooms or 250g of dried Chinese ones…In which case soak Dried Mushrooms in hot boiled water for an hour and reserve the liquid to add to the stock
Pinch of whole dried Chillis or 4 Bird’s Eye or Mouse Shit Chilis (Prik Kee Noo!)ie. Hot ones. For children can be omitted.
Tablespoon chopped Parsley or Coriander..whatever looks pretty..even Mint is quite an addition.

Put Heads of Garlic in a saucepan with the stock and the Chilis. Just as they are.
Cover the pan, bring to the boil and simmer slowly for about 40 minutes.
When the Garlic is done the skins will just slip off the cloves. Remove all the skins, roots etc and throw the skins away and return the cloves to the pan.
Mash a little in the liquid.
If the liquid is reduced to less than you need for your lunch/supper add some more!
Add the Mushrooms, whole if they are dried or small, chopped if flat.
Return to the boil and simmer for about 15 minutes until the Mushrooms are done.

You can serve up a dish of croutons if you like them, or even a dash of double cream at the end.

Serve in nice white bowls and garnish with the leaves of your choice…

Had last weekend. … excellent. Am now Jan 11th experimenting with Saffron Chicken Tempura! Might be the last you hear of THAT!

And for dessert:

Nice dish of Mangoes purchased this evening for 45 pence

If you were unlucky enough to miss the real pandas because they either had their backs turned or they were up in their tree house scratching their... you got this

January 2005 Sawankhalok

OK I won’t stop…popular demand! But it will be a little ‘attenuated’.. and wouldn’t you like to know who else reads this?! Probably not.

Oh wow I was looking for that reference to French law on Islamic terrorism and I just got this....look at the bits on Thailand...How much to live in Korat/Nakhon Ratchasima?...which is to Thailand as Oldham is to the UK or St.Etienne to France......:

your next holiday mansion

With reference to the USA below and where to be :;!!This is the kind of crap that you get in UK newspapers
A decent 4 bedroom concrete/brick house with garden...even Bangkok... in Thailand costs about £70,000. Of course if you want to be well positioned for the next sea surge it will cost you...
My brother in law, of whose odd marriage you may have read, just bought a 2 bedroom house in Korat for 900,000 Baht that is £12,500..so he could have got 27 of them at that price. I don't suppose he has the view or the maid's quarters, but probably not that fussed.
I mean, he works in Korat; but once you've been to Khao Yai a couple of times..oh you would need to spend a further £35K on a Toyota Landcruiser to really get the best of its nightlife..animals I mean, what would you do all day or night?..Tesco and Golf, I suppose.
Also Morocco has earthquakes,even if the King did ask to join the EU, Bulgaria close to Chechnya...see below, too!, true extremely beautiful..must ask D to use the photo he sent me....Nicaragua..am I to believe it has changed permanently that much? I think not.
On Estonia I have no view or knowledge.

Month has got off to a bizarre start. The echoes of the tsunami are all over us. .satellite photos, endless coverage, slow realisation by Brits that some of them might have been there.. devastation of Swedish Villages….
Turns out the little house in Patong survived happily ..but who wants to go there?.. it was already colonised by Khmers (with our agreement)..and will live on.
And looks like those accidents of geography may well have protected Myanmar…
There has been much discussion in the media about.. ‘Whether to got to Thailand..or anywhere else in the region?’…
Don’t be daft! Have you any idea of the scale of mayhem in Phuket and Khao Lak, even if the Thais are desperately trying to ‘import’ beaches!! ??
Stay home! Go somewhere else

Photos are reduced due to purchase of handycam..so now we have hours of wobbly footage of yowling infant, wonky bananas and other dross. K has a habit of turning the camera on and then letting it dangle from her wrist while she answers the mobile. As her sister said..Headache!

On to the big questions!..
And the more I think about it the more serious it seems to be..but I am not going to write a text book about it.
How any of us come to be living where we are is complex enough…but just to reduce it to the particular…
I was born here, I went to school here, my family lives here as do my friends, I have work here…I married the girl next door..well within 20 miles… We speak the same language
But for so many people that was and is not the case..transported and deported by dreams and ambitions, fear and atrocities, circumstance and opportunity..
I once had a thought to write a series of articles to make a book about unusual ‘expatriated’ communities..Japanese in Argentina or was it Peru?, Welsh in Patagonia, Finnish peoples in Oregon (and Pen Llyn..also) Polish villages in Pwllheli, Thais in Finland, Hmong in California etc. etc, not the Brits in the Dordogne and Spain in other words.
Nor the great historic migrations..just displaced by disaster, ambition or happenstance.

So what about you and me?

If I am a victim, I am a victim of dreams. Elsi wanted to get away from London. RS had his ‘Dream of the setting Celtic Sun’ While they both achieved it I think RS was the luckier. He even wrote to Fraser Darling about setting up a self -sufficient community on some Irish or Welsh Island! RS was, if anything more cack handed and incompetent than ‘Leave it to me, Peg! Crash’ Tommy Twice. Fraser Darling being of a more sensible and pragmatic character advised him, strongly, NO….but I think the dream did not die!

And I guess I inherited.
You probably never saw a most execrable and sentimental movie in which Hayley Mills careered around a few hot islands in an old boat in an reasonable state of undress and a bandana..looked good to a 17 year old…and then there was Pierrot Le Fou.
Maybe Phuket was that too..I think not!

Growing up in Manafon attached me to the place. And Elsi loved it. But no reason to live there or return.. also Eglwys Fach and Aberdaron.. as I have said elsewhere their dream not mine. Sarn is a bit different. It is, well was-thanks Gwynedd C, quite exceptional by any standards of ‘good location’…. But still not my dream in adult life…

But for RS certainly and . to a degree Elsi , it provided them with the solution to their dream. Neither was much interested in ‘Abroad’. Elsi thought that she had ‘been there and done that’ and now it was ‘dangerous’; while RS at one point threw away his passport as he would not go ‘abroad’ as a ‘British’ citizen1 The offices of a restless wife and the prospect of some birds, some prizes and a few good lunches as the guest of honour and changed that!

I went to Cambridge to study (reasonable? Not sure) Maybe Shan had something to do with it. Stayed for Margaret. Went to Middle Barton half way twixt Ealing and Birmingham ie. Work. Went to Whitebrook-stupid ..looking for country living but had to go to London to work. Went to Kew
a. for Rhodri.. not a lot of use had to drive to Westminster every day and
b. for work.
S and I explored going to France, but gave up on the idea

We had dreams of other places..Is this a British problem? Dream of California not so dissimilar nor the wandering Chinese. Is Ahasuerus the prototype?

There is that little snippet in Lawrence Durrell’s Clea…he sits writing, while the child plays…
He had the sea..I just have the waving coconuts and bananas!

Discovered Corsica, Arizona and Phuket..no work in Corsica, unpleasant people in Arizona and for reasons already explored Phuket not wonderful.
So here we are in Sarn…Got it Use it!
And Sukothai..back to family

If you try to really escape this mesh is it worth the candle?

It is really now a case of fortune telling and future watching

Rhodri will make his own choices..but for E?

I shall be repetitous
For E lots of good reasons for staying
Family
Quite a wealthy province. The land fertile and sufficient water (true?) Not an accident that it was the original capital. You come down off the Lamphun Hills, which are fairly barren-though good trees onto the plain. Sri Satchanalai is lovely. Bit like Richmond Park!
Don’t suppose anyone starved here in many a year
Perhaps one day Thailand will be as wealthy as it can be..When?
If the dollar collapses..
If America is in trouble..Britain too?
If China grows stronger…and then there is an E Asian currency…
Many wonderful things in Thai Culture…
Entrepreneurial, Confident…

BUT

Education system presently appalling.. why do all rich Thai, Malaysians, Hong Kong and Singapore Chinese send their children abroad to school and university?
Class ridden more than UK
Dirty beyond belief
Enormous rich/poor divide… therefore huge amount of theft
Thai plutocracy possesses very high percentage of the wealth
Violence against women commonplace
Racist in the extreme.. and E does not look Thai.. whatever languages she speaks
Corrupt. Not just the Police. And in many ways it is a police state
Thai boys a complete pain, undisciplined, indulged, irresponsible, violent. .same everywhere!?
Water resources undermined by logging and theft in many places
‘Insecure’ Sound like mother..’ abroad dangerous’.. but now I think Bognor quite dangerous too!


If Mr. Bin L manages to bankrupt America..what will happen. On the one hand good luck to him,
See these two articles

us fun 1

us fun 2


(You don’t know what I spend the day reading!!)

but on the other the fallout will be horrendous and I do not see he has much to offer other than beards and burkhas.


Notice he has been quiet about the tsunami, while others have said: How does Islam explain this to its believers.. After all Aceh is quite significantly Muslim

Waiting for the answer!

Here is an interesting article from France..on the same subject.. Islam is not presently my domiciliary difficulty!! Though in the future....? if what follows pertains

Judge Dread!



I am old, so for me it is really immaterial now. K is Thai. So she has to sort that out. But we can choose for Elodie.

The most conservative sides of me opt for Australia. ie. How far away can you get from ‘dangerous abroad’ where they are (mostly) white and speak English..and it is sunny so better than Ireland!

The middle ground says go for the EU. Take a risk that it will work, in spite of the US, and won’t come to blows again..so France or whatever.

Or we could just stay here and in time she will have to decide whether to cash in her option on a UK passport.

When the heady 1990s were with us it was projected that Thailand would be the 9th biggest economy in the world in 10 years. Might still be
Thais far more savvy and contrary and thus independent than Latin America…but they have not got much in the way of natural resources,(left!) as opposed to human ones. Still it is quite a big country, very fertile.. Just need to do something about Knowledge!!

Anyway we have been here for nearly 4 months now and have had ONE day of rain. Does not appear to have made much difference. The level of the river is quite low but I see the paddy fields being flooded and planted fairly normally..but maybe I am missing something. The large stand of bamboo looks a bit yellow, but then it is winter. When we went up to Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Lampang looked dessicated.

Chatted for hours to both D and B. Cheaper to ring them from here than in the UK…we have been trying to nail down the thing about Ronnie and Millie and ‘class’. Some one told B that as RS was an outsider at Bangor Coll that was when he started to affect the toff pose. Elsi on the other hand did move in some fairly bohemian/wealthy circles. Mostly as a result of Royal College of Art stuff. While she abandoned that she kept on quite a few friends and correspondents.

RS used to moan that he had never provided Elsi with a ‘decent residence’. By which he meant a Rectory with croquet lawns, French windows and maids. Mind you both Manafon and Eglwys Fach had those strings of bells in kitchen and bell pulls in all the rooms. To summon the lackeys. Manafon had fires in the bedroom and I had a nurse so he must have thought that was OK…and then he pushed me off to ‘be educated’ As I have said pity he did not go for top of the range. Might as well have been abused at Eton or Winchester rather than by the River Pang!

There were a whole series of things that they considered indicators of ‘good breeding’..no milk bottles or jamjars on the table, no light bulbs without lampshades etc. Please say either not eether. Definitely lavatory not toilet. Really just normal bourgeois stuff. In Eglwys Fach they might as well have had a Club. It was a sort of colonial posting with RS as the Padre I suppose. There were all those retired people; many of whom had indeed done service in far flung parts Louis Behrend had been in Egypt, Hunter was Cap’n Norman. Mrs Gall in India, .Cap’n Ransome and the notorious Gen. Lewis Pugh. Girls all in good thick skirts and sensible shoes. They lunched (Mary and Bow Behrend had a cook and a maid) and the little Grey House at Llanwrin stuffed with Henry Lambs and Stanley Spencers , where the swans loomed over you as you chewed the leg of lamb and splintered the meringues, had sherry parties and went on ‘trips’ and ‘hunting parties with picnics’ to view exotic flora and fauna together with the architectural remains of ‘celtic culture’!

At the end he dressed like a retired brigadier. I think he would have quite liked to be George Herbert! The squire and the parson measuring out charity and grace. Is that unkind?

B and I also talked about ‘The Last Days’. Which is sufficiently St.John The Divine or Revelations.

Yes, I think there is a big unanswered Q. When he left Sarn in 1995 he was elderly but fit. He had some heart flutters and a previous history of ‘nerves’..no more. He went to Llanfairnghornwy in 1995/6 and within 5 years he was dead…what happened? I have neither seen his death certificate nor know from what ailment he died!. I have reported he is to be found, in Thomas Hardy like repose, under a gargoyle/drainpipe in Porthmadog churchyard with a pricey bit of stone.

It is a bit addictive. I am trying to keep away..and then things like this come along which are better shared!
Thursday is the only day we can get fresh sea fish here.
So off we go to see what has drifted in.
Nothing and No stall.
Us: ‘Where is she?’
‘Oh. She not come today’

..pause..

‘Not sure when she will come back…’
Us:

(thinking )

’Oh because the boats have been badly damaged there is no fish or it is too expensive?’

‘Oh no. There is plenty of fish. It is just that Thai people here will not eat sea fish because the fish have been eating farangs ie.Europeans…….’

So on that charming note I shall leave you with another recipe! And maybe a pic to follow

Poulet aux piments et poivrons

Now here is a dish pungent with both western and eastern flavours.

1 fresh Free Range Chicken about 1.5kg. No point to do this with a frozen or standard supermarket bird. It will be tasteless. Don’t bother to go for Corn Fed birds. We use tender ‘Gai Ban’ ie House Chicken! as opposed to the tough ones we use for making stock!
You can make the same dish using a good duck. If so add some tomato juice to the stock, but not much!
4 Sweet Red Peppers
2 Onions or 8 Shallots
20 Large Cloves Garlic..we would probably use about 40 small ones, but they are really tedious to skin.
2 Carrots; not essentiall. You can use Fennel or Parsnips, Butter Squash etc. if you prefer.
Small amount say .25 litres very strong chicken stock. Tub from supermarket , if you must, or cubes! Not difficult to make own, but needs time!
1 litre boiling water
10 strands of fresh green peppercorns. These are about 3-4 inches long and will probably cost you -unless you can find a Thai shop with them freshly in. For some reason supermarkets sell them in tiny packs. The most you think it worth affording the better to get the balance of the sweet peppers and these. Not a jar of multicoloured corns in brine!
2 Lime leaves-fresh, dried or frozen-they are very amenable!
Stick Fresh Lemon Grass
3 decent sized well dried Chilis. On no account use ‘chili powder’, whatever that might be. nor Paprika
Juice of a lime-lemon will do.
2 Coffee Cups Olive Oil


Joint the chicken. Remove breast from bone-cut into 4 pieces if you wish - or simply (better) cut breast in one piece from the carcase, then chop-with a Chinese cleaver, of course, ..you cannot do it cleanly with a knife.. and joint breast into about 6-8 pieces.

Assemble carcase, neck, head, wings and feet of chicken for the stock.

Reserve the legs, thighs, breasts or pieces.

Roughly Chop 1 Onion or 4 shallots, 1 Carrot, 10 cloves Garlic and One Red Pepper..no need to peel or skin anything, just wash if you are worried about surface chemicals.

Heat 1 Cup of Oil in heavy pan. Add Onion, Garlic, Pepper and Carrot, cook until colouring, then add chicken carcase chopped up, wings, feet, neck and head. Colour further, then add stock and water.
Cook for about an hour and a half until you have a well flavoured stock.
Remove all debris and give to pets.
Reduce stock until you have about 500cl.

While this has been going on, cut red peppers in half, remove stalk, cores and seeds and dry roast (ie. don’t brush with oil!) under a grill or over a flame until the skins are black and they are quite tender. Remove charred skins and then clean in fresh water.
Dry and reserve. Do not chop up!
But do chop finely the other onion or shallots and crush and skin the remaining garlic, peel and chop the second carrot quite finely.

In a new pan heat the second cup of oil.
Add the Onion or Shallots and the Garlic and Chilis. Cook until colouring.
Add the chicken thighs, legs and breast pieces.
Brown.
Add the Carrot, the Sweet Peppers, Lime Leaf, Lemon Grass, and the Green Peppercorns.
Cook a little then add the stock. If the stock does not cover all add a little water and check for seasoning-salt mainly.

Cook for about 45 minutes on a low heat.
When the chicken is just done, remove the pieces to a dish, cover and keep warm. Then slowly reduce the stock to a thickish sauce.
Try not to stir too much as that will break up the peppers and peppercorns. Just shake a little.

Towards the end add the juice of a lime-maybe more than one-When the taste and texture is to your satisfaction pour the sauce over the chicken pieces and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

We just ate that for supper on January 5 2005 with a little dish of pig’s tongues and another of fried dried tuna! (and some rice) eaten by E also!
Should be enough for 4 but only for the two us ! Larger chicken will do, but not much over 2kg.

With a duck it would be better to leave the sauce to cool and remove the fat, both when making stock and with final cooking.

I have made this with game birds, too, partridges in particular in France. Benefits from the addition of a glass or so of marc and 1 of white wine.

This weblog is going to take another rest!

There are three reasons for this:

1. I don't think anyone reads it!

2. Weblogs have become the flavour of the month and I certainly do not want to be that! I have no interest as do most weblogs in promoting my arcane political views and opinions..even at a price, nor in peddling my sexual proclivities in the WasgingtonDC manner, nor in writing an intimate 'diary' of my tired and confused emotions!
and
3. I am spending far too much time on the internet rather than writing
So
The archive will be there if you want to explore the past...but for the present

Also if you send emails you might get a 'gone away' message as my Inboxes are clogging up

The phone number here is 0066 55 643 534 Please..it has not occurred to some people that Thailand is 7 hours ahead of the UK!

and there is a new email address which is linked on the right side of the page

I don't want to go on about this ..but, Asia Times Online, having woken up, is good as usual...I am going to go back to food, Elodie, and what I have been writing, thankful we were not there.


fullbrook on thailand

sweden

tsunami bloggers

Good grief!!
Again I am remiss...
Never mind Elodie..
There are people who have never seen a picture of this lovely, talented, person:
Sawankhalok High School, Ramkhamhaeng University, Entrepreneur, Mother, Wife....who has chosen to live with me...! What can you say!? Well, she says..when I was 20 years old everyone said I looked 30..now I am 30 everyone says I look 18..If that is what comes of having Elodie and Gwydion...Go For It!!
(psst..she is trying to buy the old bits of the temple..some of which look like background rubbish..but old teak!!)

This is what weblogs can do...Pretty good. No!?

tsunami help weblog

It has been an interesting time for media watching. The Guardian/Observer have been pretty good as has CNN and The Nation, Bangkok. Asia Times Online was 'on holiday', the BBC bland and the Bangkok Post so appalling I shan't bother to read it again. As for Thai TV??..well smart suits, natty frocks and terrific hairdos...they did wear black which no-one here did..as one guy I spoke to said..well most people here have never been to Phuket and hardly know where it is..as for Aceh or Sri Lanka!!

The best report I have read is this:

Observer Focus:After The Flood

Most sadly this is some of what I was writing a year ago

December (2003)in Sarn

I was reading another scented book about the charms of European country cottages. After Peter Mayle, Tim Parks, Stewart, Hawes and now this one an American called Greene…I wonder why I read them. I am looking for something. But it does not emerge. Of course what has happened is that ‘Travel Writing’ has been supplanted by these ‘chez moi’ monologues of dunkshy interior decoration and ‘ooooh what food’. There is no longer any travel involved at all. Being has replaced Travelling as a way of narrating and explaining. I suppose that by writing about Pen Llyn I am doing the same; but you will find no sentimental encounters with gnarled locals here and no eulogies of primitive food cooked on open fires, though to tell true the interior décor continues to be amusing; but hardly in Fulham taste! I was eyeing the roof plaster the other night as the gale whistled through it trying to detect the major wind faults; and of course at every join of plaster and wood the wind screeches in. It blows so hard that the Japanese paper lights bounce around as though out at sea.
Sarn is far from any dreams of Corsican or Provencal homes; though we do have Fennel and Sorrel in the garden and the sea is probably prettier in winter than in Tizzano.

We have, too, rejected living in Samui. Too small, no water, too may Europeans, nasty houses. Good for holidays but not to live. Phuket also: been there, done that, also no water and too many tourists.. Anyway one of these days a tidal wave will wash away Patong.

We might go to Hua Hin, but I think we will opt for Bangkok or Chiang Mai in the winter and Romans/Tournon in the summer