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I‘m a fan of bread. I love home made bread. I love sourdough bread, traditional loaves, Pumpernickel, Baguette, speciality breads, bread with cheese, seeds, onions, spices – this blog is small to list them all. In short, there are enough types of bread around to keep anyone happy any day of the year. In short the word bread doesn’t do the varieties that exist no justice.
Wikipedia claims that there are “About 600 main types of breads” in Germany alone. Which is (as a German living in the UK) I can’t wrap my head around why a large part of the English bread market is “stuff in bags”. And more importantly, I wanted to know what is in the stuff. Let’s have a look.
Wholemeal Breads
There are a few things to look out for in food labelling. There are tell-tale so dodgy product around. Food labelling is a minefield, and the laws of food labelling are in my opinion not doing the consumer justice, because often the consumer doesn’t know what an ingredient really means. There’s a website dedicated to sources of MSG here: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html
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So I’ve got the kit for my sous-vide cooking and I am the (proud) owner of a LAVA V1.00 Premium vacuum sealer. It’s cost me a fair bit of money, so it better makes itself useful around the house.
Here are a few ideas:
- I cycle a lot, including my daily commute to work. Bicycle Panniers a re tough place for anything, as keys, spare clothes and essential tools all grind against anything else in the bag. I want to have a decent first aid kit with me, that survives the inevitable sand and grit influx into the bag. Vacuum sealed, the first aid kit becomes rigid, dust & waterproof and hard wearing.
- Bicycle repair kit. I’ve tried to carry a spare inner tube before, but the cardboard box in which they are sold barely survives a couple of days and if that doesn’t finish the tube off, then the constant grinding of sand and grit will chafe it to pieces by the time you need to use it. Vacuum seal ahoy!
- I’m a lover of warm winter clothes, in particular high quality wools. Unfortunately the local moth population has also figured out how tasty my jumpers are. I’m no fan of saturating my living room with moth poison, so I figured the best way of keeping my winter outfit in good shape is to seal it in.
- Love computers, help people out repairing stuff and and always have a box of untidy, unwieldy cables using up valuable space. You’ve guessed it, shrink’em down.
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I was so impressed when I saw Heston Bulmenthal demonstrate sous vide cooking that I knew on the spot that I had to try it myself.
The idea is simple, and I’m not going to re-iterate what it’s all about – more importantly there’s a bit of fiddling involved. Most people will agree that a hand-controlled waterbath is a tough tricky, so you can’t easily get around investing some cash. Unless you’re good with electronics and have some time to burn, it’s far easier to go and make a few purchases.
Here are the things you need:
- a water bath
- a vacuum sealer
The water bath:
You got in principle two options, a all-in-one device, i.e. a purpose built sous vide bath or split heating and controlling into two. The former option is easier, unpack and plug-in, the second option a bit more customisable. Most people who search on the internet will have found the SousVide Supreme bath, but it’s probably worth while that another company also known in sous vide circles makes a water bath: Lava. Famously known for their vacuum machines.
I opted for the latter option convinced by two arguments. Firstly an independent controller is small and doesn’t limit me to one water bath. I can take it around to friends houses and cook there, plus the thing is tiny and doesn’t take up space. I say that, then again the water batch I chose a Burco commercial rice cooker isn’t exactly a s space saver. Secondly, When adding it all up it worked out about 1/4 -1/3 cheaper to buy separate components than the all-in one.
Vaccum Sealer:
Here things were a bit easier to decide. A vacuum sealer is more than just a sous-vide appliance, it’s very useful to have around the house. As soon as it arrived, I started to crunch down all manner of things into small, space saving parcels. (It’s great for storing rarely used cables, preserving wool clothes during the summer months from moth attacks and filing old documents in tidy, small parcels. Think about all seven years of financial records that you have to keep!)
Rather than buying a cheap machine now in a bid to save money, I decided to do things properly and got myself a LAVA V1.00 Premium. It works a treat.
Now that’s it’s all set up, I’m very excited to get cooking!
I keep you posted!
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Last Spring, the sun was out, temperature rising, and the pubs overflowing with people. Clerkenwell is a delightful part of London, with pubs, character buildings, narrow roads, and large swathes of London’s Architects and designers making it their home. I’ve had this picture on my hard disc for a while, and it’s given me such joy, time to share it with the world!
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I cycled past and had to stop to take some pictures. I’m not going to say much more, but isn’t it just cool?
The Heron Tower in evening light:
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It looked promising from below, was high to climb and looks outright scary from on top: Panorama from the Lighthouse on Big Brother Island, in the Egyptian Red Sea.
Live aboard dive boats are anchored of the reef in the lee of the main current, little brother rests in the haze on the Horizon. There’s some fantastic diving to be had around the brother islands, and apart from a supply boat to the lighthouse crew, divers are main human interest in the area. Enough, isn’t it gorgeous?
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Discipline of the week: Cycling
The Majority of London
Where do I start? Boris bikes, cycle super slipways, crowded roads. If you ever cycled to work around London you’d know for yourself that there are 7 million of us. And somehow we’re all squeezing through the same tight roads. But what if you need to leave your beloved velo somewhere?
We all own two locks. My bike is electronically tagged. I didn’t wash mine, on purpose. The lights are detachable as a matter of course. Quick release fasteners replaced with nuts and bolts and the fancy paintwork covered up with shabby bits of inner tube so it’s less shiny and attractive than next bike. You need to keep you head down, not be noticed or prepared to be your bike dealership’s best friend. Hopefully they’ll steal the one next to you. Not that I wish anyone’s bike to be stolen, good gracious, no. But we all know that a bike will be stolen from this rack today, that much is certain.
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MDR (medium dynamic range) image of Lloyds Underwriting Room in the City of London. Iconic Building, streaming evening sun light, Nodal Ninja.
Why I didn’t get arrested putting down a tripod in the City beats me – London cops are known for harassing and intimidating photographers.
But hey ho, job done!
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an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe…
Inspired by this post: http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/31/symphony-of-science.html, about a new autotune track from the cool gang over at Symphony of Science, I went on listen and download all the tracks from the Symphony of Science. And once catch phrase (because it is so brilliantly executed) was Carl Sagan singing:
“If you wish to make, a pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe”
Awesome. Check it out yourself!
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