Rainy Day at Whitecross St Market

 

I'm quite pleased with this little video I made whilst bored at the market. It seemed appropriate that the Twin Peaks soundtrack kept shuffling into play. This was one of those days when it is pointless to avoid the inevitable thorough soaking headed ones way from either packing up and/or getting home. In my case on this day, it was both.

 

Handmade Pasta - Spaghetti

 

Here is a fifteen second video of my first attempt at making spelt spaghetti. Check out my spelt pasta blog post for the spelt pasta recipe.

Handmade spelt spaghetti with tomato and bacon sauce

Handmade spelt spaghetti with tomato and bacon sauce

The spaghetti was the inspiration for the above print painting that I made.

The spaghetti was the inspiration for the above print painting that I made.

 
Pasta sauce ingredients

Pasta sauce ingredients

 
Spelt Spaghetti

Spelt Spaghetti

Tomato sauce with bacon

Tomato sauce with bacon

Tomato Sauce with Bacon Recipe

Ingredients
450g tin of tomatoes or homemade pomodoro
150g bacon or pancetta
1 red pepper
1 shallot or 1/2 an onion chopped finely
2 garlic cloves sliced thinly
1 medium chilli chopped finely
2 Tbsp coconut or olive oil
2 Tbsp Six-pepper T'chup
salt and pepper and parmesan to taste

*For this recipe I used handmade spelt spaghetti using the recipe as linked above and using my Imperia pasta maker's spaghetti section. The section needed to be cleaned between each passing of the pasta sheets as little bits were getting stuck in the grooves which turn the sheets into spaghetti which was making the spaghetti sort of twisted and broken. I cooked my spaghetti for about 7 minutes which was much longer than the 4 minutes that I needed with my spelt fettucine that I made. I think this was due to me having left the fettucine to dry out longer than I had with the spaghetti.

The resulting recipe was hearty but not overly heavy, this is probably down to the spelt flour. With each bite I was able to taste the ingredients of the pasta and the flavours of the sauce. I find I'm eating less pasta now that I'm hand making it but the levels of flavour make it much more of an enjoyable pleasure. Next up will be lasagna but for now the recipe for the spelt spaghetti and tomato sauce with bacon and red peppers.

Instructions

  1. Chop and lightly fry the bacon in your preferred oil and cook for 5-7 minutes without browning or burning.
  2. Add the garlic, shallot and chilli and cook gently for 3-5 minutes, stirring constantly so that they do not burn.
  3. Add in the tomatoes, salt and pepper, turn the heat up to meduium hot and stir thoroughly until everything is bubbling away nicely. Cook for 5 minutes then place a lid over the sauce, reduce the heat to low and leave to cook for at least 45 minutes, checking occassionally that it is not drying out. If it is drying out you can add 75ml of water, stir it in and continue to cook.
  4. Cook your pasta and once ready and drained stir the sauce into the pasta until it is evenly dispersed, top with parmesan and serve.


 

 

Patterns of 2016 - Week 2

 

Here are some more patterns that I have created from polymer clay slices of canes that I have created over the past fifteen years, some are even earlier. I am having so much fun with these patterns and I almost forgot how much I love creating them as well as finding them in nature, life and within myself. This year I will be releasing some of my favourite patterns in series of prints, paintings and more.

yinka 2

yinka 2

jade squiggle

jade squiggle

grey storm

grey storm

blue brains

blue brains

original trade

original trade

blue spot red atomic

blue spot red atomic

 

Mortar & Pestle

I was trying to capture a bit of grinding action while making some Smy Chutney apple and pepper chutney at my cousins house for an upcoming tutorial. Here's a minute-long sneak peak featuring her stunning antique mortar and pestle.  I love the differing depths of imprints left from thousands of times when the pestle has met its mortar.  I am quite happy with my own mortar and pestle which is not an antique but solid, sturdy and large enough to hold rather a lot of herbs, spices and more and keep them in place as I pummel them to pieces.  I am so used to the rhythm of grinding pink peppercorns in my own m & p that when using my cousin's I felt as if it was gently laughing at me for trying to rely on  brute strength rather than the finesse needed when using hers. It has a basin worn smooth through use and I found I needed to alter my technique to get them to break apart.  The pink peppercorns were a perfect contrast to the creamy mortar and their intense aroma would form the basis of a fantastic perfume.

I also love imagining who has used these tools and for what purposes, what is its history, what time is its place?  That last phrase is a slight amendment to the phrase that one of my historic preservation professors, W Brown Morton III, used to ask us when studying old buildings, sites and items, "What time is this place?"  It has stuck with me and while the people below aren't using the same exact type of mortar and pestle as my cousin's the images capture the differing uses from inside to outside, for food, science, art and more.

Source:

harvardartmuseums.org

via

Smy Chutney

on

Pinterest

Joseph Janney Steinmetz - photographer

Untitled (man with large mortar and pestle), c. 1940

Source:

arcadja.com

via

Smy Chutney

on

Pinterest

A Vanitas still life with an adder in a pestle and mortar, a sculpted head,

an astrolobe, an anatomical sculpture, a musical pipe, a skull,

a violin, a globe, musical scores, manuscripts, a paint pale.

Antonio Cioci, Italian, 1722—1792

Source:

unf.edu

via

Smy Chutney

on

Pinterest

Woman p

ounding rice using a wooden pounding tool and a hollowed out log

on a

British East Florida plantation. 

Source:

bbc.co.uk

via

Smy Chutney

on

Pinterest

Old woman with pestle and mortar  

Caravaggio

1571 -1610

Source:

old-picture.com

via

Smy Chutney

on

Pinterest

Tlakluit woman seated with mortar and pestle. 

Source:

Uploaded by user

via

Lucinda Brant

on

Pinterest

Italian apothecary. 18th-century 

National Historic Museum of the Medical Arts, Rome, Italy.

All Summer in a Day

It seems like it's been raining steadily for the past two weeks.  Or should I say that for two weeks now I have been adorning my sexy rainproof shoe covers, mac and rain cape yet still managing to get soaked while out and about on my bicycle.  Whenever it's as rainy as it has been I always think of a short film that I saw as a child after moving to America.  Years later I was reading a collection of short stories by Ray Bradbury when I realised that one of them, 'All Summer in a Day," was the basis for the short film that I had seen years earlier.

The story and film take place on a colony of Venus where the sun only appears for a few hours every seven years.  A group of schoolchildren are preparing to see the sun as they were too young to remember it the last time it appeared...all except for Margot who is the the only child to be born on Earth.  The other children are skeptical of her memories and drawings of sunshine and flowers as theirs is a grey and dismal world.  The film and story are sweet, funny and sad.  The film reminded me then and now of England and being stuck indoors as a child when it's chucking it down outside.  Playing in the rain, puddles and mud can be as much fun now as it was then but after awhile it gets a bit boring and you just want to see the sun.  For years I looked on YouTube for this film and a few years ago it finally popped up.  I hope you enjoy it and hope that we don't have to wait as long as Margot and these children do to see the sun again.

Part 1

Part 2

Pt 3

Happy New Year!!!

Hoping that 2012 is a stellar year for everyone and thanks to everyone for making 2011 such a great year for me and Smy Chutney.  I absolutely love this video and I hope it encapsulates what 2012 will be all about!


Presenting Smy Chutney

I am really pleased and proud to present...Presenting Smy Chutney, a short film made by Emma Crouch who is a London based photographer, film maker and project manager, a huge Smy Chutney supporter and also a dear friend.  You can see more of Emma's work at her website -

www.isayraar.com

, her

flicker

, her

youtube channel

, exhibited at the

Avo Hotel

and for sale at the

View Tube

.

A few months ago, Emma and I met at

Poppies Fish and Chips

on Hanbury Street for a bit of lunch and a bit of a chat about an idea she'd had about working together.  Emma and I had worked together in the past and I knew her work ethic, attention to detail and resulting work to be outstanding.  I also knew that we would have a lot of fun working together and jumped at the chance to do so.  This was a photo we took at our first meeting at Poppies, we look quite serious, perhaps we were really hungry or perhaps all the other photos we took were a little bit silly.

I am so pleased with the results and cannot praise or thank Emma enough. She has delivered a video that has met, and far exceeded, my expectations from our first meeting.

and remember...

it's not your chutney...

it's Smy Chutney.

Work Them Smy Chutney Batches

Here's a little video to give you an insight into a typical Sunday for Smy Chutney. This one is actually last Sunday but this will encapsulate the past week. You may not find bubbling chutney, or in this case six-pepper jelly, as fascinating as I do but as I was making this video this song happened to get thrown into the mix and it is my favourite song as the minute, Ramadanman's Work Them. Good tunes obviously makes for tastier chutney and this seemed to work perfectly as the potent six-pepper jelly was furiously rolling. The picture isn't brilliant as it was fogging up the camera...probably not the best idea...but I thought it looked like molten lava or a martian firework display.



and remember...
it's not your chutney...
it's smy chutney