Tag Archives: wok

Tuesday 27th June 2017 – THIS NEW WOK …

… is absolutely superb. The genoux d’abeille as they say around here

This evening I cooked a mega curry, with onions, garlic, green peppers, chick pies, a tin of mixed vegetables and spices (and the ground coriander that I bought at the weekend added a new zip to my cooking).

And not only was the meat excellent (and there’s enough for three more days so it will become even better) the new wok handled it splendidly.

In the past, ‘ve had new saucpans and new woks and the like, and they may have started well but their performance (and the non-stick coating) has always fallen off after a while. But I have a good presntiment about this one. I’ve never had anything that seemed to be as good as thins.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that I’m almost as impressed with it as I am with my galvanised steel dustbin.

I was flat out this morning when the alarm went off and it was something of a disorganised stagger into the bathroom. But sticking my head under the cold tap restored my sanity (such as it is) and I was able to attack breakfast in a reasonable state of mind.

A trip to pick up my baguette was the highlight of my day beacuse that’s the only time that I’ve set foot off the premises. I was intending to go out and sit on the wall above the harbour to have lunch, but it started to rain at about midday – the first rain that we have had since I can’t remember when.

And apart from a crash-out at about 16:00, I’ve spent the rest of the day on the blog, ipdating it. I’m well into February 2012 right now, but I’ll shortly be running aground as there is a spell of 6 weeks at the end of April where a whole raft of work needs to be done before I can prepare anything. This might be another period to skip and to add to the waiting list, along with a few other periods that are far too complicated to handle “off the hoof”.

Just 250 pages that need to be brought up to date before the hard work begins.

But it won’t be done tomorrow as I have a mammoth cleaning session to perform. My calm, tranquil quiet life is about to undergo a major upheaval.

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Friday 23rd June 2017 – I’VE BEEN SPENDING …

… my money again today.

I’ve decided, with a great deal of reluctance, that the second instalment of furniture from IKEA can wait – and wait until I come back from Canada too.

I’m going to Canada for two months and I intend to have something of a good time while I’m there – hence the decision to be careful about what I spend in the meantime. Consequently there are a few things that I need that are very important around here that can’t wait until IKEA.

Like a wok (I bought a new one a while back as you might remember, but it doesn’t work on my induction hob), a dressing mirror for the bedroom, a laundry basket – stuff like that.

GIFI Was having a sale and so I blitzed round there this morning and acquired a laundry basket, a big dressing mirror that hangs on the back of the door, a waste bin for the bathroom, a large set of plastic drawers for the office, a chalk board and some chalk.

I went to NOZ too. And here my luck was in. NOZ is a chain of shops in France that sells bankrupt stock lines, overstocks and all that kind of thing, and is always worth a browse. Today, they were selling inter alia a variety of herbs and spices in those nice little octagonal jars that look so good. All at €0:99 each. And so i stocked up on the herbs and spices that I need and next week I’ll go back for more (if there are any) because the jars, when they are empty, will be ideal for refilling with other herbs and spices.

As for a new wok, a couple of weeks ago I’d seen one that I liked. Aluminium isn’t good for the health and these coated non-stick pans – the coating comes off them far too easily. But they had a range of these ceramic pans in the Auchan. Quite expensive, really heavy, and guaranteed for years.

I enjoy cooking very much, but doing it in sub-standard conditions with sub-standard equipment always gets me down.

And so I but the bullet and invested in the aforementioned. I’m fed up of frying stuff in a saucepan.

While I was there in the Auchan I bought some frozen peas and carrots too. Let’s hope the fridge keeps going until I can buy a freezer. Then I’ll be moving onwards and upwards.

But with the late night last night it was quite something to try to crawl out of bed. But a shower soon brought me round (well, almost) and a shave and clean clothes made me feel much better. The new washing basket is full now, so that will be another trip to the launderette some time soon.

On the car park at the Auchan, we had an exciting moment as some woman reversing out of a car parking space as I was walking past took my trolley with her. Had I been half a second later and she would have taken me with her too. And in the confusion that followed, I became separated from my baguette, and one or two other things too I suspect.

So it was a pretty thin lunch that I had today – and this afternoon I crashed out until … errr … 18:15. Heaven alone knows why. I reckon that it was about three hours that I was away.

There was one more slice of pie in the fridge and so I finished off that with my mash, peas and carrots done in the little steamer. We had mint and garlic in the spuds and rosemary on the veg and it improved everything considerably. I even remembered to make the gravy.

But the pie was delicious – I have to say that. And I’ll be baking another one in the near future. With the herbs and spices that I bought today, it should be even more so.

All in all, my diet is definitely improving and I’m glad about that.

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