Stir Fry.

I like a stir fry but as usual its all fits and starts, that is to say we don't have one for ages, then I get all enthusiastic and we have them non stop for a while!
As big headed as it sounds I think I nailed it with the stir fry I cooked last night. Nothing complicated which is probably the key, in the past I think I've probably just over cooked the veg and added too many sauces so it becomes a mass of mush. Having been one of Ken Homs minions at a couple of recent cooking demos he did, I tried to take notice of how the master of the stir fry did it.
Pre cooked cold rice is best for egg fried rice. Add frozen peas & spring onions ( though  last night I used red onion chopped small), cook all that for a while, it seems to dry the rice out abit. The eggs , I used two eggs as it was for two people, I beat up then added to the rice in one go. In the past I've added it little by little. KH say no! add the lot and stir like buggery! ( he didn't say that, that's my interpretation)    
I brought some frozen prawns thinking I'd got a bargain but they needed the shells taking off and de-veining which is a pain in the arse to be honest, I must look more carefully before I buy in future, I'm quite happy to spend abit more and not have the faff. Also now I only buy raw prawns and cook them myself as a while ago I stupidly used pre cooked prawns, heated them for our meal and then froze what was left, weeks later defrosted and reheated it with dire effects on the Memsahib! You bloody fool MM!
Anyway, the pain in the arse prawns were tossed in cornflour  and left on the side before cooking, just before I cooked them I added a little soy sauce. KH says not to add soy long before you cook as the soy sauce itself will start to cook whatever its added to if left for longer than 20 minutes.
For the veg I used onions, garlic, red peppers, courgette, mushrooms  and as we had it use up lettuce.
Get the wok to a thunderous heat before you start, hold your hand 10cm or so above the wok, if you can feel the heat  you're ready! Alittle oil and sling in the onions once they've started I bung in everything else and keep stirring. I didn't mix the sauces as I've done in the past either. I plumped for black bean sauce and added plenty of it, I think I've been abit meager with sauces previously, that's added quite close to the end as well so it stays a sauce and not a gravy, it just needs heating through really, in the wok I cooked the prawns after I'd done the veg. Sometimes I add them to the veg for cooking, not sure whether it makes any difference but this time I did them  separately.
Pour a large glass of red and you're ready to eat ( in fairness this is the second glass of red, its always good to ply the cook with drink I find!)
There you have it, a stir fry fit for a king and a cook fit for nothing! Enjoy!

  

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Olive bread balls.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Olive bread balls.: As you know the Memsahib is not only vegetarian but also wheat intolerant, I well remember not long after we'd met that Tara used to ge...

Olive bread balls.

As you know the Memsahib is not only vegetarian but also wheat intolerant, I well remember not long after we'd met that Tara used to get strange stomachs for no apparent reason, on one occasion  doctor thinking it was a suspected appendicitis & a trip to hospital. Thirty four years later intolerances are only just having recognition they should from the quacks and soothsayers that make up the medical fraternity! 
Any hoo........Kathy's Daughter-in-law has a very interesting website called 'It's a plant based life.' (Follow this link to find out more, including the recipe for the following olive bread, its very good http://itsaplantbasedlife.com/2017/07/25/olive-bread/ )   which is all about not eating meat and the benefits thereof. I think we have enough experience to know that veggie doesn't have to mean bland or tasteless but this site takes it to another level of delicious plumpious-ness.
I'm not a fan of olives really but this bread is great. Tara made a wheat free version  just substituting wheatfree flour for  wheat flour though you do need to use abit more. These are traditional Greek Cypriot bread rolls containing olives,spring onions, dill & coriander an alternative to olives can be dried tomatoes they maybe could benefit from the addition of some cheese but then that's my answer to everything.  Below are the rolls the memsahib made, we had them with dinner oh, & I put butter on mine as well! Brilliant!

   

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Third Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Third Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele.: My Grandads battalion were certainly in the thick of the action during World War One. They were at a  in 1915, on the Somme in 1916 and now...

Third Battle of Ypres or Passchendaele.

My Grandads battalion were certainly in the thick of the action during World War One. They were at Neuve Chapelle  in 1915, on the Somme in 1916 and now at 3rd Ypres, better known as Passchendaele
in 1917. 
The following is from an article I had published in 'Medal News' about my Grandads army service and what happened around Passchendaele.

The diary states that July was spent in preparing & training for ‘forthcoming offensive ops including individual instruction in musketry, bombing, rifle bombing, Lewis gun, map reading, signalling etc as well as actual rehearsals of the attack over ground specially laid out with spitlocked & flagged trenches.’(Spitlocked trenches are marked out but not dug)

In actions that were to become known as the 3^rd Battle of Ypres the Battalion was once more in the thick of it from the end of July & into August. The 8^th Division was at this date part of II Corps, Lieut General Sir Hubert Gough’s 5^th Army.

Zero Hour on the 31^st July was 3.50am when the artillery barrage opened up. By 5am the 2/Middx had reached their first objective point, the Germans retreating on both flanks & in front. The battalion passed through other regiments who had captured Bellewarde Ridge & onto Westhoek Ridge which they captured. The diary states the enemy had ‘stopped running away & was opening fire with machine guns,’ snipers also coming up to do their worst. Tanks were due but the diary states that there was disappointment with their late arrival. Though the enemy counter attacked they were beaten off. There was also enemy aircraft overhead that dropped what is described as a ‘White light.’ This was followed by heavy shelling, and deterioration in the weather which changed from drizzle to heavy rain. They were at last relieved by the 8/South Lancs & the 11/Cheshires late on 1^st August. Losses were 4 Officers & 28 Other Ranks killed 8 Officers & 201 OR’s wounded & 38 missing. Better progress had been made further north of 8^th Div but there wasn’t the breakthrough that Gen Gough was pressing for.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A room with a view!

An idiots guide to an Idiot: A room with a view!: A hotel with a sea view is where I stayed near Cromer last night........unfortunately it wasn't a sea view from my room though, more a ...

A room with a view!

A hotel with a sea view is where I stayed near Cromer last night........unfortunately it wasn't a sea view from my room though, more a view of the local Spar which was very dull and had far less boats, however with a decent pint of Doom Bar on offer in the bar I could console myself about the naff view. This beer had come along way as it's a Cornish brewery & it seems popular just about everywhere at the moment. The cask ale is 4% strength and I have to say one of my faves, incidentally the name comes from the sand banks in the Camel Estuary in Cornwall.
The restaurant had a sea view though, had Whitebait (again, I know but I like it) with a little lemon juice & brown bread & butter then a very acceptable steak & kidney pud, mash & veg. Only criticism would be that the pastry was abit thick and the base was quite hard, however I enjoyed it for all that.
Had a stroll after all that stodge, found a war memorial to the Royal Engineers bomb disposal experts of World War Two that I forgot to photo & saw a lovely rainbow out at sea which I remembered to photo. A pleasant hotel that I'll probably stay in again, Decent brekky then off for another day round Norfolk only being marred by having a flat tyre. Bugger!

     

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Myth and reality of the Great War.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Myth and reality of the Great War.: This was the title of the next in the series of lectures by the Herts At War project  ( follow this link for more info http://www.hertsatwa...

Myth and reality of the Great War.

This was the title of the next in the series of lectures by the Herts At War project  ( follow this link for more info http://www.hertsatwar.co.uk/ ) by Gordon Corrigan a former Gurkha officer, and very interesting he was too.
I suppose much of the lecture was explaining the popular myths and how they came about. The myth that WW1 wiped out a generation for instance is largely untrue, though notwithstanding there was an appalling lose of life. How did people start thinking this? One possible answer is from the soldiers themselves. A local battalion would have men who possibly worked together, socialised together and went into battle together. If they sustained 10% casualties its not beyond the realms of  fantasy to suggest that every soldier who survived would have known someone who didn't. Expand this over all the regiments up and down the country & maybe that's how this became a 'lost generation.'  Infact the loses of France and Germany were greater than Britain.
Lions led by donkeys is another one. That is to say all the Generals were out of touch & miles behind the front line. Infact 146 officers of General rank were killed  by the Germans & others were wounded or taken prisoner. Of course the Generals weren't in the front line, that wasn't their job. Information from brigade, division and army corps had to be passed back to the headquarters for the decisions to be made. There were some old duffers of course, recalled out of retirement on the outbreak of war and had never led men in battle. As colossal  as the casualties were the General Staff were learning all the time & the tactics of 1914 had changed by 1916 and again throughout the war.
British soldiers were shot out of hand at Court Marshals. Abit more controversial this one. There was a Court Marshal process, soldiers were represented by officers who in civvy life were lawyers and barristers. 46 of the 300 or so soldiers executed  were so for murder. In civilian life at that time murder was a capital offence so they were shot instead of hanged. Now that court marshal papers have come into the public domain it appears that alot (but by no means all) were serial offenders. In many cases the death sentence was suspended and the soldier returned to the front only to desert again & again, and shell shock was recognised as a real condition. Also Australia did have the death sentence for their troops but the sentence had to be ratified by the Governor General back in Australia & this was never done so none were ever shot.
 I did know alot of what Corrigan was talking about but not in the depth he went into, for instance it's a common misconception that troops went to France and were in the front line trenches all the time. On average  troops stayed a maximum of seven days in the front line and were then taken back to other bases though alot were then used to take supplies up to the front line. French troops on the other hand were left for months in the front line until the brigade had taken 30% casualties only then were they taken out of the line, this certainly fuelled their munity of 1917.
A war that need not have been fought? Major Corrigan thinks not. Germany were looking to expand, in the build up to war they launched 17 brand new battleships, this could only be in direct competition with the Royal Navy. Had Britain watched while Europe became embroiled in war the probable outcome  would have been a German victory. It's unlikely they'd have stopped there so the thought was that Great Britain would then have had to take on a much stronger Germany. That's just one theory of course and there are no doubt many other different views  but our speaker tonight put his take on things in a very lively and interesting way. I'd go to his lectures again.

Gordon Corrigan in full flight at the Lecture Theatre at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield. 

    
 

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Trains,punts, automobiles and lots of walking.

An idiots guide to an Idiot: Trains,punts, automobiles and lots of walking.: Not exactly 'Trains, planes & automobiles' I grant you but the nearest I could get. Just back from a couple of days away and it...