[recipe] Healthish Kedgeree
Kedgeree, a traditional Anglo-Indian recipe, often calls for smoked fish, but for a light weeknight meal, substitute it with steaming fresh fish right on top of the rice.
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp. ghee or extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp. (or more) curry powder
3/4 cup basmati rice, rinsed, drained well
2x 160g-170g cod fillets
Kosher salt
1/4 cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced on a bias
1/2 cup coriander leaves with tender stems
Lime wedges (for serving)
Cook eggs in a small saucepan of simmering water for 9 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl of very cold water and let cool until just warm, about 3 minutes. Peel; set aside.
Meanwhile, melt ghee in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook onion, tossing occasionally, until lightly browned, 4–5 minutes. Add curry powder, followed by rice and 300ml water. Bring to a simmer, cover, reduce heat to low, and cook until rice is nearly tender, about 15 minutes.
Season fish generously with salt and a pinch of curry powder, if desired. Lay fish over rice and continue to cook, covered, until rice is tender and fish flakes apart when poked with a finger or fork, 8–10 minutes.
Divide yogurt among bowls. Top with fish and rice. Halve eggs and arrange alongside. Top with celery and coriander. Serve with a lime wedge alongside.
[recipe] KFC salads
As a kid, one of my guilty pleasures was KFC. The chicken, for sure, but also the gravy, and the salads!!!

KFC gravy
1 chicken stock cube
1 beef stock cube
550ml boiling water
60g butter, unsalted
4 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp finely ground black pepper
Salt , if needed
Crumble cubes into boiling water, mix to dissolve.
Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add flour, onion powder and pepper. Mix into butter with a wooden spoon or whisk.
While stirring, slowly pour in half the liquid. Once incorporated into the flour butter roux (it will thicken quickly), add remaining liquid and mix.
Stir for 1.5 – 2 minutes until it thickens to a gravy consistency (it’s quick as water is already hot).
Taste, add more salt and pepper if needed.
KFC Macaroni salad
225g of elbow Macaroni
2 stalks of celery, finely minced
1/4 cup carrots, thinly diced (very thin!, about 1 medium carrot)
1 tbsp onion, minced
1/3 cup sweet pickles, diced
1 1/2 cups Miracle Whip
1/2 cup Hellman’s mayonaise
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp sugar
Salt, to taste
KFC vegetable salad
2 1/2 cups of grated cabbage
1/2 cup of shredded carrot
3 stalks of celery sliced
Half a red pepper diced
100ml whole kernel corn
Half a green onion diced
300ml Miracle whip
1 tsp of vegetable oil
50ml of white vinegar
1 hefty tbsp of sugar
1 hefty tbsp of mayonnaise
1/4 tsp black pepper
Lots of pictures of sleeping cats
Pavel is just… wrong. I’ve never seen a cat so less concerned about sleeping on his back, splayed open to the world. He also has a habit of falling off the side of the sofa arm and being eaten by a pile of cushions. Tolstoy likes to wedge himself between my pillows and my bedside table, or just folds up like an accordion. Reenpig is generally a hot mess.
They’re all defective, but we love them.
Achieving enlightenment
12-step recycling problem
So, following on from this previous post, my recycling bin officially has a drinking problem.
It’s been exactly one month since it got emptied. In that time, it drank 18 bottles of wine, 1 bottle of gin, 1 bottle of vodka and 1 bottle of Kahlúa.
I love my wifey
Mighty hunters
A sparrow thumped into our patio door while two of our useless lumps were sunning themselves on the balcony. For the time it took me to walk from the living room to the balcony, both cats were just sitting there, looking at the poor confused bird. At one point, Tolstoy tried to attempt to poke it but stopped short of actually touching it.
Mighty hunters indeed. We shooed them inside and closed the door so that the bird could come to its senses in its own time. The cats became much braver, confident and vocal when they were behind the safety of the closed patio door.
Virtual wine tasting
A couple of weeks ago, I got an intriguing letter from Celliers de Sion. As a way to drum up business during the lockdown, they were offering “wine in tubes”-based sampling sets of 8 or 16 wines from their selection. The wines are tubed under controlled atmosphere so they don’t oxidize.
Given that all our wine tasting events have been put on hold or cancelled, I suggested this to the wine club at work and it proved to be a popular idea. We all got our kits delivered by post and we met up online tonight.
It was the best use of corporate communication channels I’ve made all week.
Tasty, too!
President Supervilain
This is the best twitter account ev4r: @PresVillain: I take real Trump quotes and photoshop them into comics. Created by D.M. Higgins.











































