All posts by Keith

I’m a controversialist and catalyst, quietly enabling others to develop by providing different ideas and views of the world. Born in London in the early 1950s and initially trained as a research chemist I retired as a senior project manager after 35 years in the IT industry. Retirement is about community give-back and finding some equilibrium. Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Anthony Powell Society. Chairman of my GP's patient group.
food+drink

Steaming Beef Curry with Gin

Yesterday I cooked curry. For my birthday. A hot curry. I like hot curry!

If you’ve been following along you’ll know I like my recipes easy, adaptable and forgiving. So here’s my special Steaming Beef Curry with Gin. The gin and the lime give it that extra zing.

[I’ve already posted the method for Noreen’s Very Lemony Rice separately. It makes a great accompaniment to almost any curry.]


I used:

  • Steak; diced
  • 1 large Onion; roughly chopped
  • 4 large cloves garlic; roughly chopped
  • 2 inch piece of fresh ginger; finely chopped
  • 400gm tin Chopped Tomatoes
  • half Cauliflower; in bite-size pieces
  • half jar of Patak’s Vindaloo Paste
  • tablespoon ground Turmeric
  • juice & zest of 2 limes
  • half large wineglass of Gin
  • glass White Wine (or water)
  • small pinch Salt
  • Olive Oil

This what I did:

  1. Sauté the onion, garlic and ginger in some olive oil until the onion is just going translucent.
  2. Then add the diced steak and continue cooking to sear the meat all over.
  3. Slacken the curry paste with the wine (or water) and add this to the pan, stirring to ensure everything is coated in the curry mix.
  4. Add the turmeric and stir that in well.
  5. Now stir in the tomatoes and the smallest pinch of salt.
  6. Followed by the lime juice & zest and the gin; then the cauliflower.
  7. Bring to the bubble and cook for 10-15 minutes.
  8. [If you’re doing Noreen’s Very Lemony Rice to go with this, put the rice on when the curry has been bubbling away nicely for a couple of minutes. This should get the cauliflower just nicely cooked, but not mushy, in time with the rice.]
  9. By the time the cauliflower is done the sauce should be reducing nicely; it should be tick not watery.
  10. Serve with your choice of accompaniments.

Notes:

  1. Despite the big dose of Vindaloo paste this isn’t outrageously hot. (Actually I think Patak’s Vindaloo is milder than their Madras paste.) The heat of curry does seem to me to be ameliorated by the addition of lemon or lime juice. But you could use any strength of curry paste to your liking — or make your own.
  2. Use any (selection of) vegetable of your choice. I happened to have cauliflower to hand.
  3. And of course you could use any meat — or none at all! Yes, I used some steak because I think it is worth using decent meat to make a good curry especially as this doesn’t get cooked to death.
  4. You can use this method for any curry you like. For an “ordinary” version just leave out the gin and lime. The only real essentials are onion, protein, curry paste (or powder) and some liquid.

Picture credit: Fastplaeo

food+drink

Noreen's Very Lemony Rice

I’ve talked about Noreen’s Lemon Rice before. We find that plain rice gets, well, plain and boring, with curry. This special lemon rice makes any curry (or indeed almost any rice dish) both look and taste special: it is very lemony and a lovely golden yellow colour.

This is doubtless not the approved way to cook rice, but it is easy and it works.


You need:

  • 50-60 gm Long-Grain Rice (Basmati for preference) per person
  • 1 large, or 2 small, Lemons
  • half teaspoon ground Turmeric
  • small pinch Salt (optional)
  • Boiling Water

This is what you do:

  1. Grate the zest from the lemon and put it aside.
  2. Now juice the lemon (not too hard, you want a bit of the flesh left) and put the juice aside as well. Keep the lemon half-shells.
  3. Put the rice in a saucepan with the lemon half-shells. Add the turmeric and a tiny pinch of salt.
  4. Add most of a kettle of boiling water, bring back to the boil, stirring a couple of times to make sure the rice isn’t adhering to the bottom of the pan. Cook until the rice is done.
  5. Just as the rice is done remove the lemon pieces to a plate and scrape the flesh and juice from inside them. Discard the lemon peel.
  6. Drain the rice in a sieve and rinse with some boiling water. Shake to dry and tip it into a warmed dish.
  7. Add all the lemon (zest, juice and recovered flesh) and stir it in gently.
  8. Serve with curry.

Notes:

  1. This method produces a slightly wet, but not sticky, rice, which works fine with curry.
  2. The turmeric gives the rice a lovely bright yellow colour — but it needs the acidity of the lemon to do this. If you leave out the lemon (or in fact anything acid) but not the turmeric the rice comes out a muddy beige colour. That’s all down to the chemistry of the pigments in the turmeric which are yellow in acid but red in alkaline (ie. most tap water). I think the acid also helps fix the colour to the rice grains.
  3. You can do this with lime as well, though the flavour is more subtle.
  4. Or you can cook plain rice this way — just leave out the lemon and turmeric.

Picture credit: Robyn Lee

beliefs, nudism


If you’re interested in nudism, need your mind expanding or have kids with body image hang-ups (ie. most teenagers) this should be worth watching.

My Daughter the Teenage Nudist
Channel 4; Thursday 12 January; 10pm
Filmed in collaboration with British Naturism

thoughts

Lessons for Life

Today is my birthday. It is a Feria. Almost nothing of note has happened on this day (except for me, of course!). About the only at all well known person I share my birthday with is former miner’s leader Arthur Scargill. But let us not be forlorn!

I thought that this year I would celebrate my birthday by sharing with you 61 Lessons for Life (one for each of my birthdays). I stole the idea (and a few of the lessons) from here. They are a sort of a logical successor to my New Year post.

61 Lessons for Life

  1. Life isn’t fair. Deal with it.
  2. When in doubt, don’t.
  3. Life is too short to waste time and energy hating others.
  4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
  5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
  6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
  7. Learn to love yourself.
  8. Don’t worry about things you cannot change.
  9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay packet.
  10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
  11. Make peace with your past so it doesn’t screw up the present.
  12. It’s OK to let others see you cry.
  13. Be open and honest in all that you do.
  14. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
  15. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
  16. Don’t be afraid to admit you were wrong. Be prepared to change your mind.
  17. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
  18. Over-prepare, then go with the flow.
  19. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
  20. Listen.
  21. The most important sex organ is the brain.
  22. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
  23. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”
  24. Forgive everyone everything.
  25. What other people think of you is none of your business.
  26. Time heals almost everything. Give time a chance.
  27. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
  28. Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know.
  29. Be curious – about everything.
  30. Be yourself, not who you think you want to be.
  31. It’s easier to get forgiveness than permission.
  32. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.
  33. Your children get only one childhood. Make it as good as you possibly can.
  34. Think as much as possible and to the best of your ability.
  35. Don’t be afraid to tell it like it is. If other people don’t like it that’s their problem.
  36. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
  37. Every decision is the best you can make at the time with the information available.
  38. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
  39. Never forget that your enemy is also a human being.
  40. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
  41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
  42. It gets better.
  43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
  44. Masturbation is good.
  45. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
  46. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
  47. When you do ask, the worst they can say is “No”.
  48. You can never have all the information you want to make a decision.
  49. Every coin has two sides. So does every situation.
  50. Respect other peoples’ beliefs however much you disagree with them.
  51. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
  52. If it harm no-one, do as you will.
  53. Treat others as you would wish them to treat you.
  54. No regrets – just things you now know weren’t the best.
  55. Only one person is responsible for your orgasms – you!
  56. “No” is an acceptable answer.
  57. Be comfortable in your body.
  58. If you need a God, fine. If you don’t, that’s fine too.
  59. You are entitled to believe whatever you like. You are also entitled to express your beliefs. But we aren’t obliged to listen to them or agree with them.
  60. Embrace sex and nudity – they’re a natural and rich part of life’s pattern.
  61. Look under the bonnet of all knowledge. Remember research causes cancer in rats.

Hmmm … now how many of those do I adhere to? Hmmm …

current affairs, environment

HS2 is Go for Liftoff

Another meaty post. Someone please find out what being put in the tea this month!?

So the government have approved the plans for HS2, the high speed rail link to be built to connect London, Birmingham and (maybe) later Manchester and Leeds. The alleged cost is said to be £33bn with a payback over a 60 year period.

Business want HS2, as do the government, the rail industry and the construction industry. So would you if it safeguarded your salary, stock options and pension, reduced unemployment and potentially increased tax take.

Most of the local communities and the environmental groups don’t want it. They believe the environmental costs are too high and the business case doesn’t stack up. Even the Conservative Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is only lukewarm. Added to which governments don’t have a good track record of managing such big projects for the public good.

The Stop HS2 campaign have said “It’s a white elephant of monumental proportions and you could deliver more benefits to more people more quickly for less money by investing in the current rail infrastructure.”

Friends of the Earth have made a similar comment, although as one would expect in more strident terms: “We need to revolutionise travel away from roads and planes, but pumping £32bn into high-speed travel for the wealthy few while ordinary commuters suffer is not the answer. High-speed rail has a role to play in developing a greener, faster transport system, but current plans won’t do enough to cut emissions overall — ministers should prioritise spending on improving local train and bus services instead.”

The Department for Transport has said that 22.5 miles of the first phase (to Birmingham) would be enclosed in tunnels or green tunnels [essentially a deep cutting with a tube put in it, over which grass, trees and soil are placed] and another 56.5 miles of cuttings would significantly reduce “visual and noise impact”.
But the environmental impact will be immense. So there will be a tunnel under much of the Chilterns (and so there should be) as well as large swathes of the London section of the route (we can’t clear enough land to do otherwise). But cuttings and green tunnels do nothing for the environment. They may reduce noise and visual impact but that’s all they do. They still destroy the countryside (taking out swathes of land many times wider than the actual track) through which they are built, cutting through woods, fields, etc. and creating huge piles of spoil.

And that leaves aside the huge disruption that will be created. Disruption not just along the route itself, but to existing rail infrastructure like London’s Euston Station which will have to be largely rebuilt.

Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if the government invested the money in sorting out our current rail infrastructure as FoE suggest? Forget all this franchising and get the rail industry back in public hands where it belongs; re-integrate it and invest properly in the infrastructure to get the network running efficiently and to time. If managed independently and properly by someone like Richard Branson who isn’t going to take any old nonsense from anyone, and who has a track-record of managing corporate business, then we should see increased capacity and reduced fares because the whole enterprise is more efficient and provides the service that’s wanted.

I find it hard to believe that this would cost more, create fewer (local) jobs or bring fewer benefits. Network Rail believe that such investment in the existing infrastructure will cost as much as HS2 for little benefit. But they would, wouldn’t they. They need a huge corporate project to help justify their existence against a backdrop of falling rail performance.

There’s more to any society than testosterone-fuelled corporate bullies building their salaries, share options and pensions. It’s time, once again, to listen to the people on the ground who are going to be most affected. But I doubt it’ll happen, if only because those against this hare-brained scheme are split into some 70 groups — they too need to be integrated if they are to be effective at overturning this nonsense.

[And before anyone accuses me of NIMBYism, it isn’t. I don’t care that the route runs just a mile from my house; the mess and disruption can’t make this bit of west London much worse than it already is. I do, however, care about the impact on Perivale Wood, a piece of ancient preserved woodland which abuts the proposed route; but that’s a relatively minor consideration in the overall scheme of things.]

medical

On the Sociobollocks of Wellbeing

OMG here comes another “deep thought” posting! GOK what they’re putting in my tea this year?!

David Colquhoun at DC’s Improbable Science has a reputation, along with Ben Goldacre, of exploding the myths of bad and pseudo science. In a post yesterday he’s got his knife into “Wellbeing“, that subject so beloved of the much reviled HR departments.

Sure we all like wellbeing. Who wouldn’t. But can we sensibly measure it? Can big (or small) organisations do anything meaningful to change it? I suggest the answers are no and no. It is a wimpy way for terminally ineffective and unnecessary droids to appear to do something useful. In fact I maintain it is divisive and destructive.

Divisive in that it ultimately sets one group of people at odds with another; eg. those who want extra time off for parents against those who have to pick up the extra work; us against HR. Destructive because it wastes time and money which could be better used.

Throughout my working life I have taken part in countless wellbeing type surveys: my former employer conducted just such a survey of employees every couple of years. There was a standard core of questions, and a set which varied according to mood of the year. It was supposedly used to measure employee morale and tell senior management what we thought of company policy, management, etc.

I must have completed well over a dozen, maybe as many as 20, such surveys in the course of my employ. Although optional I always took part on the basis that that however ineffective I thought they were, if you didn’t express an opinion then certainly nothing would change.

And that is exactly what happened: nothing changed. Not once in almost 35 years did I see any action result from survey feedback. Senior management were allegedly incented on increasing morale etc. (as measured by the survey). But this was never more than lip-service. Over the years morale steadily fell as HR policies became less sympathetic to the employee (pay freeze, less empowerment, emasculated pension schemes, downsizing, etc.). But neither senior management nor HR people ever suffered. Unlike the rest of us they always went on to bigger, better and more lucrative jobs.

Should this surprise us? Well no, not really. Because apart from a few headline figures (like the morale index, based on some fixed core questions) all the opinions expressed were aggregated and thus watered down into useless generalisations by the time they reached senior management. So the high-ups could then say things like “But that doesn’t tell us anything”, “That’s meaningless” or “They [employees] don’t understand”. And thus our views were universally ignored, despite platitudes to the contrary.

Result: a huge waste of time and money which could be better spent moving the business forward. At best all it did was to act as a brake on some of the more oppressive ideas which might have come out of the profit-hungry upper echelons. At worst it wasted 2-3 hours per employee. In a company of 250,000+ employees worldwide that’s an extra 400-500 people to develop the business.

Should it have been this way? Of course it shouldn’t. But such, I fear, is the way of the organisation — large or small. It is all too easy to cover a multitude of sins in smooth management platitudes; even I can do it!

But, you say, wellbeing is important. Yes, of course it is, at a personal level. It is at the peak of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and is surely the hallmark of a civilised society. And morale should certainly be important to any organisation.

But I would maintain that wellbeing and morale are best changed at a personal level. They’re my responsibility. We don’t need a “wellbeing industry” composed, as it so often is, of quackery and get-rich-quick scams. Wouldn’t it be better to empower (and teach) people to look after themselves? Empowerment is, after all, one of the quickest ways to improve perceived wellbeing and morale at all levels.

I can’t do justice to Colquhoun’s latest article; it just contains the exposure of too much corporate HR hokum and sociobollocks. You need to go read it for yourselves. It’s too good to miss!

current affairs, freedom of speech

Whither Obscenity?

In the general fallout from the Michael Peacock Obscenity Trial (if you missed the whole unedifying spectacle see, inter alia, the Guardian) the Hersey Corner highlights some important questions about obscenity and the law.

The questions raised by the trial are important, not so much in terms of jurisprudence, but in terms of developing society’s, as well as our personal, views of obscenity and indeed morality.

As usual I’m going to try to condense the arguments for you. Also as usual others express the ideas better, more succinctly and with greater knowledge than I can. So in this case here are some key extracts in the words of the Heresy Corner, with a minimum of comment.

The material in question depicted acts that are legal to perform, which did not fall within the definition of “extreme pornography” contained in the more recent Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2009 but which nevertheless came within the CPS prosecuting guidelines for obscene publication […]

[T]he majority […] has welcomed the verdict, seeing it as another nail in the coffin of a paternalistic, judgemental and outdated piece of legislation, as a victory for free sexual expression, as a sign that the law may be at last coming to grips with a more liberal society […] [T]he guidelines used by the police, the CPS and the British Board of Film Classification are based on the current “best guess” of what would be judged obscene by a British jury […]

The OPA’s [Obscene Publications Act 1959] true significance doesn’t lie in the small number of prosecutions that are brought under it, but rather in that it sets the standard by which the police and the BBFC judge the shifting boundary of what is or is not to be considered “obscene”. It is unusual […] legislation in that it bans nothing outright but instead employs a notoriously subjective test, that of “tending to deprave and corrupt” anyone likely to see the material in question. Therein lies the law’s uncertainty — and, for many, its inappropriate moralism. On the other hand, the very subjectivity of the test does make allowances for changes in society. It gives it flexibility.

[T]he CJIA […] makes no allowances for taste […] And unlike the OPA it targets the possessor — even an inadvertent downloader — rather than the producer or the distributor. Though apparently narrower in remit, in respect of those activities it proscribes […] it is harsher and more regressive.

What of the concept of “obscenity” itself? Many would consider it outdated and illiberal by definition […] [N]ow that the OPA has had the life almost squeezed out of it — between more liberal social attitudes on the one hand and the new extreme porn laws on the other — it’s worth asking […] whether something of value is being lost.

The crux of obscenity law is that it bans the depiction of acts which, in themselves, are not illegal; it declares to be depraved and corrupting activities which it nevertheless acknowledges that consulting adults might indulge in, and still remain decent members of society […] Yet is this not also a way of saying that the needs of society and the needs of individuals might not always coincide, and that there might be a space between what must be privately allowed and what may be publicly depicted? Not everything that is socially unacceptable ought to be illegal, after all: that way lies totalitarianism. But by the same token, the fact that something is legal does not [necessarily — K] render it socially acceptable [nor necessarily suitable for depiction — K].

[T]he Obscene Publications Act sought to strike a balance between private and public rights. It recognised that citizens might lawfully get up to things that the majority of their fellows might consider depraved and corrupted while asserting that the majority also had the right to have their sensibilities protected. Most importantly, by leaving the final decision to a randomly-selected jury of ordinary citizens, it granted custodianship of the standards of decency to the people […] rather than their being decided unilaterally by politicians and police. These are principles worth clinging on to […]

So in short, let’s not kill the idea of a test of obscenity by jury. Consenting persons have a right to indulge, in private, in pass-times which others may find distasteful or worse. The majority, while upholding that right to indulge privately, may feel that such acts shouldn’t be promulgated publicly. Surely only a jury can make such a decision, reflecting the prevailing morality of the time. Which in turn leaves each of us to make our own decisions as to where the various lines (public and private) should be drawn.

And it is only by each of us developing our own ideas, whether in accord with or contrary to society’s view, that society’s opinions and morality can change. After all society’s collective view is but the consensus (average) of our collected personal opinions.

Isn’t that what democracy and free speech is all about: leaving us, the people, in control of our destiny?

food+drink

Colcannon à la mode d'ici

This is the traditional Irish potato, cabbage and bacon dish and served with poached egg. My version isn’t authentic as all the recipes I see use creamed potato and much more potato than cabbage; I prefer roughly smashed potato and a high proportion of cabbage. But it’s still hearty, easy, very forgiving and cheap.

This is what I did for a single-course main meal for two, so adjust as necessary …

You will need:

  • 2 jacket potato-sized potatoes
  • a small green pointed cabbage; roughly chopped and cored
  • a large onion; roughly chopped
  • at least 4 decent rashers of bacon (I used two very thick rashers from a pack of offcuts); cut into 1-2cm lardons
  • as many eggs as you want
  • salt & fresh black pepper
  • butter and/or olive oil
  • half glass of white wine (or water)

This is how I did it:

  1. Wash and chop the potatoes (no I don’t peel them!) and boil until well done, as you would for mash.
  2. As the potatoes come up to being done put the cabbage in a large pot on the hob with the wine; put the lid on and allow it to steam gently for a few minutes.
  3. Meanwhile drain and roughly smash the potato with a fork (don’t purée or cream it; it should be chunky) with some butter, salt and pepper. Keep it warm.
  4. By now the cabbage is almost cooked and beginning to dry.
  5. Sauté the onion in a frying pan with a little butter/oil; when it is translucent add the bacon and continue to fry until the bacon is starting to crisp.
  6. While the onion/bacon cooks, take the lid off the cabbage and add a large knob of butter. Toss it well to coat the cabbage in butter and leave it on a low heat, without the lid, to dry off any remaining liquid.
  7. When the onion & bacon is done, add it to the cabbage along with the potato. Mix well together on the hob, put on the lid and keep warm. (You can probably turn out the heat, especially if using a good cast-iron pan.)
  8. Now poach your eggs by whatever method you favour. The white should be set but the yolk still runny.
  9. Serve the colcannon topped with poached egg(s) and a beverage of your choice.

Notes:

  1. My preference is for more cabbage and bacon and slightly less potato.
  2. Good smoked bacon works best. Bacon offcuts are fine.
  3. Use any type or mixture of cabbage you like, from white cabbage, through kale to sprouts; though I doubt red cabbage would work very well.
  4. You can under or over cook the cabbage to your personal taste.
  5. Add some chopped garlic to the onion, if you wish.
  6. Leftover potatoes and cabbage are fine as long as they are properly reheated.
  7. If you wish you can substitute fried eggs for poached. And of course you could use duck or goose eggs if available.
  8. Go easy on the salt as the bacon may be quite salt enough.