Ambition and The Christian Leader, and Ottolenghi Experiments

DJ was kind enough to speak to a small group of us on the topic of ambition – something that has been on my mind in recent weeks as we looked to appoint people to lead and teach groups. I am far too careful by most standards: the usual criteria seems to be some evidence of the ability to teach (1 Timothy 3 – assuming that a small group leader is somewhat like an overseer) and general enthusiasm and energy. People at the School add that he must be well-thought of by outsiders (1 Timothy 3:7) and generally be aware of his own sins and fighting against them. I think it is equally important that he be able to manage and care for his household, and not be a recent convert so that he would not be puffed up with conceit (1 Timothy 3:4-6). The temptation to pride (young convert or no) would be so great that I would think that he/she should already demonstrating servanthood in his life before even being considered for a position of leadership.

Recently, someone put forward a name – a convert of about 2 years, young and enthusiastic, go-getter, bright, outspoken. While attempting to shop for groceries, my two pence (probably given far too loudly over a bad line and to all fellow shoppers) was that this suggested that our criteria for appointment was no different from the world’s standards.

roast butternut squash and red onions, with tahini lemon sauce, and toasted pine nuts, and za’atar and chopped parsley (recipe)

In Luke’s Gospel, the dispute amongst the disciples as to whom was the greatest (Luke 22:14-23) is ironically sandwiched between the institution of the Lord’s supper where Jesus tells them that he will be giving up his body and blood for them (Luke 22:24-30) – even the most privileged moments are tinged with self-seeking, and Jesus warning Peter that Satan will tempt Peter to deny Jesus (Luke 22:31-34).

Romans 12 tells us that the battle with pride is in our minds (Romans 12:2) and that we should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought, but to think with sober judgement, and in humility to count others more significant than ourselves (Philippians 2:3).

There are two things likely to derail the disciples: (1) power; and (2) reputation.

The kings of the Gentiles operate through power and through power, they get their reputation. The proof of the reality of what we believe is in our actions. Do we actively seek to serve others? The warning in 1 Timothy 4:16 for him to keep watch on himself and his teaching isn’t just about ensuring that he can tick all the right boxes in the doctrinal statement. There are subtle things that can get hold of us and mar our effectiveness for the gospel.

sticky roast quail and couscous (recipe)

Ambition is not wrong per se. Competitiveness is ingrained in children in school. But we must remember that we all play before an audience of one. We all want to do well – but for whom do I want to be the best? How much have I imbibed the city culture of being the top dog? Are we still thinking clearly about honouring God? Is my ambition directed towards being a table server or a table owner? Only God can give us the right desire.

All too easily, we can as concerned as the world about number-crunching and customer satisfaction. We can worry about where we are in the pecking order. We wonder what we will be doing next – looking to get up a rung in the ladder. Has ministry taken the place of God? An Aussie preacher was once introduced by an effusive young minister as the leader of a successful church that was growing year by year. “Yes,” said the Aussie drily, “we have about 2 million people in our congregation and more being added every day. We run successful conferences and workshops. This is why we don’t need God.” “Oh dear!,”said the alarmed hapless young minister, “what should we say to that?!” “Just sit down!” shouted a voice from the back. This sort of wrong ambition tends to be self-perpetuating.

hummus kawarma (recipe)

How then can we have a sober estimate of ourselves?

• remember that we are not the Christ (John 1:20). We may think that there is only one Jesus, but we surely are tempted to be that Jesus. We are not omnipresent. There may be plenty of people who have plans for our lives but are we concerned with God’s plan for our lives? Do we have over-zealous ownership over our ministry work? Do we not want other people to get into the same work? Are we following our personal agenda? Are we aiming to be super-successful operators?We can’t do it all. God sets us free to be ourselves – that is, humans who operate locally.Christ’s kingdom is not about outward success but the quality of a life lived in service of others. A small rural church recently had a couple from a good church join them. The guy was always accusing the pastor of not making good use of his gifts – he wanted to lead and teach groups as he had done in his old church. But where was the humility?
• remember that only God can give growth (1 Corinthians 3:7). It is not our service that is life-giving. We are dependent on God. Whenever we are tempted to boast of our success, remember that we are only human, only servants. We are merely clay vessels, or disposable plastic cups. What is required of servants is to be faithful.
• remember that knowledge puffs up but love builds up. The ultimate test is whether there is self-inflation as the result of knowledge. The test is the quality of our relationships – whether they are servant-ly. Love is demonstrated and re-kindled at the cross. That’s why we have, everyday, to come to the cross. Resurrection power is in the Lord Jesus.

We have to say every day that we are only people who serve. We serve for God’s glory, in God’s strength, through the cross of his Son. Otherwise, we will always be on the edge, always looking at other people, always frustrated.

South East Gospel Partnership 2014 and Coffee Pork Ribs

Great time at the South East Gospel Partnership at St. Helen’s Bishopsgate today. Pity David Cook was laid up back in Australia and missed all the fishing banter.

It’s funny how churches and conferences tend to converge around certain books of the Bible within the same timeframe, whether by conscious design or not. In 2012/2013, it was 1 Peter. This year, it is Isaiah – a massive book, full of treasure.

William Taylor spoke on Luke 4:31 – 5:11, with reference to Isaiah 61:1-2 which he saw as the very center of the book:

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; ² to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

Jesus insisted on (1) the priority of his word, and so should we; (2) the power of his word, and so should we; and (3) the purpose of his word in summoning sinners to salvation and service, and so should we.

This means that:

• we do not rely on Christian experience but on the word to create Christian experience;
• we do not believe that the power lies in relational communities but that the word creates such communities.

Kevin DeYoung spoke about the Last Day, and how the assurance that Christ will come again should shape our ministry. He looked at three issues:

• Why has the Last Day not come yet? 2 Peter 3:8-13 (1) Because God does not look at time the same way as we do. (2) Because God is waiting for unbelievers to repent.
• What will happen when it does? Annihilation and also regeneration. Both discontinuity and continuity. We are not to be avatars of Christ but his ambassadors.
• What do we have to do now? (1) Be ready and be prepared. (2) Wait with patience. (3) Hasten its day and speed it along by faith and repentance.

At lunch, there were strong views about KDY’s eschatology, his view on continuity/discontinuity, with people arguing from Calvinist and Modified Lutheran perspectives.

After lunch, Marcus Nodder exhorted us, from Isaiah 2 and Isaiah 4, not to lose track of the time on God’s calendar. This would be a day of terror for the proud and lofty who disdained to rightly honour God:

¹⁹ And people shall enter the caves of the rocks
and the holes of the ground,
from before the terror of the Lord,
and from the splendour of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
²⁰ In that day mankind will cast away
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
to the moles and to the bats,
²¹ to enter the caverns of the rocks
and the clefts of the cliffs,
from before the terror of the Lord,
and from the splendour of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth. (Isaiah 2:19-21)

Pride is the root of all sin, said C.S. Lewis. And we Christians need to continue to be aware of our ongoing need for forgiveness and be humble. How badly do we react when other people are praised and we are criticised? Why do we take it so badly when we think we are snubbed or ignored? Why do we put what we put on Facebook? Christian ministry can too easily be about glorifying ourselves, building our own empires. We should love things that bring humility – like failure.

Good stuff. Caught up with some mates briefly during the breaks, managed not to mess up my role in the event, then went home to continue my coffee pork rib experiments. Ended up with this fairly satisfactory concoction. Coffee Pork Ribs

1. take one rack of ribs

2. marinate overnight with:
4 tbsp pure coffee powder (i used espresso-ground Caravan Market Blend Espresso)
8 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground coriander
generous covering of freshly ground black pepper
generous pinch of Maldon sea salt flakes

3. deep fry in lard

4. deep fry again in lard

5. cover with:
3 packs of G7 instant coffee powder
some water
5 tbsp of sugar
5 tbsp of oyster sauce
a glug of honey
all reduced to honey-like consistency in a pot/wok

6. sprinkle with powdered cinnamon

PS: I’d previously tried the recipe from the plusixfive supperclub cookbook. Decent enough but oven-grilling just didn’t give it that over-the-top crunchy sticky coffee-umami goodness:

Open House London 2013 and Homecooked Tonkotsu Ramen

Open House 2013 in London. Had to weigh, painfully, my curiosity about the innards of various buildings around the city, and the opportunities to serve Christ at our own church building. Ended up covering all shifts over the weekend for the joy of meeting visitors and cleaning the loos.

It hadn’t occurred to me how strange our church building and our church body must be to outsiders. Not official replies but my best attempts at answering visitors:

“Where is the altar?”
There isn’t an altar in this church. The beliefs of the church (that is the people of God gathered together in community) are reflected in the architecture of the building. What happens at an altar? An altar is where a sacrifice occurs. But the Bible tells us that no more sacrifice is necessary. Yes God is angry at humankind because they sinned. Sin is reflected in the bad things that we do to each other, but ultimately, the worst thing that we do is to refuse to acknowledge God as God.

God’s anger at us is righteous, because we as creatures deliberately decide not to worship the Creator. And if we have offended the most powerful person in the universe, there is no way of being saved except if God himself will forgive us. But how can he be righteous and just in punishing us for this offence, and yet merciful in forgiving us?

The answer is that he sent his son to take the punishment for us. That was the sacrifice that was made once and for all, so that sins will be forgiven. There is therefore, no weekly sacrifice on any altar in the building, because there is no re-sacrifice after that event in history when Jesus died on the cross for us.

“Why are there no pews?” or “Why has this church been refurbished in this way?”
The open space and moveable chairs enable us to use this space to suit the needs of the church. The architecture of the building reflects the beliefs of the people who use it.

We believe that Christians should meet together to encourage each other under the word of God. So we arrange chairs for Sunday meetings so that they face the pulpit, where the word of God will be taught. We ensure that this space is well-lit and also place a Bible on each chair so that as people hear the person on the pulpit speak, they can check that what he says is what God is saying in the Bible.

During the week, people come here after school or work to read the Bible together and encourage each other to live with Jesus as master over our lives. So we set up chairs around tables where we can study God’s word together and so understand the truth about our world and about our God better.

“I would like to give you some money.”
Thank you, but please do not give us any money. We are very happy to have you visit us. And God says it is the duty of the church family to support the work of the church and to feed the vicars.

“My church at home is dying. What is the secret to your success? Is it that young charismatic vicar over there?”
[Discussed this briefly with a curate who, having given the sermon at the morning meeting, was sitting in the church office, surrounded by yellow Danger! Large Hole in Ground! Risk of Falling! signs. He asked if we needed to uglify said “young charismatic vicar”.]
Haha, no. In God’s grace, he has given us good faithful men who have preached only what the Bible says, and not something they have made up. They have not swayed from the straight word of God in Scripture; they have not tried to speak to win the crowds; they have not been ashamed of speaking against the things that God is against. They have not taught what the congregation wanted to hear but what God wanted to say in his word. And God promised that his word does not return empty, and also that his sheep will hear his voice and follow.

Quite famished by Monday from not having eaten much over the weekend, what with the incessant chatting with people and identifying tombs and monuments and the like. A proper bowl of ramen would set me right.

And it did. And it sorted out a housemate who was down in the dumps as well. The one from The Continent however, found its savoury-sweetness quite unfamiliar.

Honey and Stout Pork Belly (recipe from Junya Yamasaki of Koya)

ingredients
pork belly
braising sauce mix:
water 500ml
stout 300ml
honey 150ml
ginger
onions

instructions
1. Cut belly pork into big brick size, or buy the bricks of pork belly. Sear them all around in hot frying pan.

2. Boil them with medium strong heat in water for about 1.5 hours (this is to render the fat and leave only collagen in belly). Let them cool down till the room temperature in the boiled water and keep in the fridge. The water will be set like jelly and the belly meat will be kept in it easily for a week if it is properly refrigerated.

3. Take the amount of belly blocks as you want to cook from it. In Koya, we cook quite a lot everyday, but at home you can accommodate with the size of casserole that you have. Cut them into chunk of cubs (3-4 cm) and layout in your casserole. Do not lay one on top of the other.

4. Cover the belly with the braising sauce mix with some ginger and whole small onions, then braise with medium heat till the sauce gets reduced and you get the silky texture. It will usually take around 2 to 3 hours.

[5. Serve with hot mustard.]

Tonkotsu Base
ingredients
pork belly liquid (from recipe above)
1 tub of discounted beef stock
2 chicken carcasses (£0.25 each from Borough Market)
2 leftover pheasant carcasses
kombu

instructions
1. Brown bones.
2. Add water to bones and boil for 5 hours.
3. Add pork belly liquid, beef stock and kombu and boil a little longer.

Ramen egg or hanjuku or ajitsuke tamago (based on J. Kenji López-Alt’s recipe for Japanese Marinated Soft Boiled Egg for Ramen and Joycelyn’s recipe for Perfectly Soft-Boiled Ramen Eggs)

ingredients (yields 6 to 7 nice ones)
10 eggs, room temperature not cold, each weighing about 60 gm, preferably free-range and 7 days old
3 litres water
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
2 tbsp rice vinegar

for the marinade
75 ml light soy sauce
75 ml sake
75 ml water
75 ml mirin
3 tbsp caster sugar

instructions
1. Combine water, sake, soy, mirin, and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

2. Bring water to a boil in a medium saucepan over high heat. Carefully lower eggs into water with a wire mesh spider or slotted spoon. Reduce heat to maintain a bare simmer. Cook for exactly 6 minutes. Drain hot water and carefully peel eggs under cold running water (the whites will be quite delicate).

3. Transfer eggs to a bowl that just barely fits them all. Pour marinade on top until eggs are covered or just floating. Place a double-layer of paper towels on top and press down until completely saturated in liquid to help keep eggs submerged and marinating evenly. Refrigerate and marinate at least an hour and up to 3 hours. Discard marinade. Store eggs in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in ramen soup to serve.

Miso Butter Corn (recipe from David Chang of Momofuku’s Corn with Bacon and Miso Butter)

ingredients
1/4 lb thick-sliced bacon (about 3 slices; preferably Benton’s bacon)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon white miso (fermented soy bean paste)
1 small onion, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced crosswise
10 ears corn, kernels cut from cobs (6 to 7 cups)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions (2 to 3)

Cut bacon crosswise into 1/8-inch strips. Cook bacon in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until browned and crisp, about 8 minutes. Transfer bacon with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain, leaving fat in skillet.
While bacon cooks, stir together butter and miso in a small bowl.
Cook onion in bacon fat over moderate heat, stirring, until golden, 5 to 8 minutes. Add corn and pepper and increase heat to moderatley high, then cook, stirring constantly, until some of kernels are pale golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Add water and butter mixture and cook, stirring, until corn is tender and coated with miso butter, about 4 minutes. Stir in bacon, 1/4 cup scallions, and salt and pepper to taste. Serve sprinkled with remaining 1/4 cup scallions.

Mayu (black garlic oil) (based on Marc’s tonkotsu ramen recipe at, err, No Recipes)
ingredients
1/4 cup sesame oil
5 cloves of garlic finely chopped

instructions
1. Add the sesame oil into a small saucepan along with the garlic. Put the pan over medium low heat and let the garlic cook stirring occasionally until it is very dark brown.
2. When the garlic is very dark, turn the heat down to low and let it cook until it is black.
3. As soon as it hits black, turn off the heat and transfer the hot oil and garlic to a heatproof bowl.

It will taste burnt and slightly bitter, but this is okay as you only add a little bit to each bowl. Put it the oil in a container and refrigerate until you are ready to use it.

Tonkotsu Ramen (makes 2 bowls)
for soup
3 cups tonkotsu base (from recipe above)
1 tablespoon tahini
1 tablespoon strained braising liquid from stout and honey pork belly
2 cloves garlic, finely grated (not pressed)
1-2 teaspoons kosher salt (to taste)
1 teaspoon mirin
1 teaspoon red miso
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

to serve
1/2 batch homemade ramen noodles
2 teaspoons mayu (from recipe above)
sliced pork belly
ramen egg
corn
beansprouts
seaweed
2 scallions finely chopped

instructions
1. Cook ramen noodles according to instructions.
2. Heat the tonkotsu base in a saucepan.
3. In a bowl whisk together the tahini, braising liquid, garlic, salt, mirin, miso, and white pepper. Add this to the hot broth and whisk to combine. Taste and adjust salt as needed. Bring to a simmer.
4. Split the cooked noodles between two bowls. Pour the tonkotsu soup over the noodles. Top with pork belly, egg, corn, beansprouts, scallions and whatever else you want to add. Finish the ramen with a drizzle of mayu on each bowl.

End of Week Snack: Double Deep-fried Korean Fried Chicken Drumsticks

What synonyms can one use to convey the extreme fried-ness of the chicken drumsticks that were going for £1 for six at Sainsbury’s? None that I could think of after a small group leaders’ evening and two staff days.

Needed to express excess energy in some productive way. So still agog with the thought of poking stuff round boiling oil and spotting some cheap chicken in the supermarket, hit upon trying to replicate some fried chicken someone let me have off their plate a few years ago. There was, of course, nothing organic, biodynamic, or healthy (in the modern #firstworldproblems sense) about this snack. Much encouragement from Acts 10:34 – 11:18 and Acts 20:17-38, from team meetings that were not about corporate strategies and new programmes but about trusting in God’s promise that speaking the plain word would fulfil his purposes, and also over meals with church planters and people who have been reading the Bible with senior management in the Square Mile for decades and writers of soon-to-be-published books and materials and stay-at-home mothers whose children just had their first day at school.

Double Deep-fried Korean Fried Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
2.5kg of discounted chicken drumsticks (dark meat being better for deep frying due to the larger percentage of connective tissue)
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp freshly ground black pepper

½ cup potato flour
¼ cup plain flour
¼ cup glutinous rice flour
(but really, just proportionally 2:1:1)
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda

vegetable oil

4 cloves of garlic, minced or thinly sliced
1 cup of tomato ketchup
½ cup of hot pepper paste
½ cup of honey
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

Directions
1. Marinate chicken with salt and pepper for an hour while you cycle out to get the other ingredients.
2. In a separate container, mix the flours and the baking soda.
3. Beat the eggs in a bowl.
4. Dredge chicken in beaten egg, then cover with flour mixture. This gives a thicker crust (which is preferable in these parts) than real proper KFC (korean fried chicken). Set aside.
5. Heat oil to 180°C. Spread old newspapers on the floor next to the cooker to absorb oil splatters.
6. Fry chicken while talking to housemates about the ins-and-outs of the Church of England.
7. Make the sauce by saute-ing the garlic in some oil, then with the heat on lowest setting, adding the ketchup, hot pepper paste, honey and cider vinegar, stirring to combine.
7. Re-fry chicken – the curate’s genius idea from Sunday lunch for a superior crunch.
8. Immediately coat chicken with sauce.
9. Set aside and sprinkle with roasted white sesame seeds.
10. Think of buffalo wings and look around for blue cheese dips and carrot and celery sticks but find none. Offer a plateful to health-conscious housemates. Feed hopeful neighbours who, nosing the air, have appeared in the kitchen. Deliver a tupperware-ful to brothers living a 5 minute ride away.

Sunday Lunch: Double Deep-fried Pork Belly Confit

It is probably not the best time to experiment with new recipes and techniques when people are round for Sunday lunch. But my curiosity got the better of me. So had a go at confit-ing some pork belly (obtained on discount from Waitrose at less than £4 for about 2.5 kg):  – exciting stuff (for me at least):

the contemporary Asian bit of me shrieked silently at the sight of FOUR! BLOCKS! of LARD! melting in the cast-iron pot

marinated pork belly, slow-cooked for several hours in the oven in said lard, then left overnight on the kitchen table

collagen from the tough connective tissues turned to gelatin – to be reserved for ramen stock.

Excavated from the solidified fat (an exciting task in itself, pretending to be archaeologists etc), the pork belly slices were then to be deep fried in the same fat. As first-time visitors to the church and old hands sat chatting in the sunshine, nibbling hold-the-fort tapas, I contemplated the hazards of a virgin attempt at deep-frying. Being fully aware of my innate incompetence (having already had to rescue some plastic sausage packaging melting on a hot hob), a curate decided we needed a powder fire-extinguisher on standby.

Then, when it became apparent from my standing halfway across the kitchen, timid of the popping and spluttering hot oil, that there would be no lunch if he didn’t do something, the curate hazarded his shirt and, despite having no experience in the matter himself, played with the bubbling stuff (optimum temperature: 180°C). Refining his methodology and technique as he went along, there was soon a good supply of crispy double deep-fried pork on the table. Unfortunately, as he overloaded the penultimate batch into the small pot, hot oil frothed and bubbled over and flooded the hob and cascaded down the oven. Even more unfortunately, i then attempted to mop up the oil with a paper kitchen towel that soon started to smolder from the heat of the hob. The observant and quick-thinking curate had to save the kitchen and our collective skin by snatching the towels and dowsing them in running water.

Thus pre-emptively rescued from no main meal and an early death, we sat down to a late Sunday lunch with a big bowl of spinach + strawberry salad with balsamic + honey + poppy-seed dressing and sweet potato mash. It was good that we had a buffer for people we happened upon at the morning meeting and spontaneously asked along. And it was great to have brothers and sisters from all over the world (America, Martinique, England, Ghana, South Africa, Malaysia) working to assemble the tapas and the salad, and serve each other, and be generally good at this disastrous attempt at feeding.

A very small picture of the challenge from that morning’s John 17:20-23 – “What can we do to demonstrate unity and love with the people God has made us one with, because of his love for us?”

grilled apricots, peaches, and figs. with fragrant yoghurt. topped with crushed fennel seeds and fresh basil leaves

Jim Drohman’s Pork Belly Confit Recipe

Ingredients

For the dry cure
2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3 bay leaves, crumbled
10 sprigs fresh thyme
4 tablespoons Morton’s kosher salt [used a mixture of Maldon flakes and table salt]
1 teaspoon pink salt (see Note) [left this out]
6 pounds pork belly, skin removed and cut into 1-by-3-inch chunks
dry white wine, as needed
rendered pork or duck fat, as needed [used 4 blocks of lard]
canola oil or rendered pork or duck fat, for deep-frying [used the confit-ed fat]

Directions
1. Combine all the cure ingredients in a bowl and stir to distribute the seasonings evenly.

2. Toss the pork with the cure to coat evenly. Pack into a nonreactive container and cover with white wine. Cover and refrigerate for 24 to 36 hours.

3. Preheat the oven to 120°C. Remove the pork from the cure and pat the pieces dry with paper towels. Place the pork in an ovenproof pot or Dutch oven and cover with the rendered fat. Bring to a simmer on the stovetop, then place in the oven, uncovered, and cook until the pork is fork-tender, about 2 to 3 hours.

4. Remove the pork from the oven and cool to room temperature in the fat. If you simply can’t wait to eat this succulent bundle when it has finished its confit (we highly recommend chilling all confit, which intensifies the juicy tenderness of the meat), you can pour off and reserve the fat, then return the pan to the stovetop over high heat until the meat is nicely browned. If you have the stamina to wait, refrigerate the pork in the pan it was cooked in or transfer to another container and add the fat; the pork should be completely submerged in fat. Refrigerate until completely chilled, or for up to 2 months.

5. To serve, remove the pork from the refrigerator, preferably a few hours ahead. Remove the pork from the fat and wipe off the excess. In a deep, heavy pot, heat the oil for deep-frying to 175°C to 190°C. Deep-fry the pork belly until crispy and heated through, about 2 minutes if it was at room temperature. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Note: Pink salt, a curing salt with nitrite, is called by different names and sold under various brand names, such as tinted cure mix or T.C.M., DQ Curing Salt, and Insta Cure #1. The nitrite in curing salts does a few special things to meat: It changes the flavor, preserves the meat’s red color, prevents fats from developing rancid flavors, and prevents many bacteria from growing.

© 2005 Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn

Spinach salad
spinach, snap peas, other discounted leaves
four-parts olive oil
one-part aged balsamic vinegar
one-part floral honey
one tsp poppy seeds
strawberries, hulled and halved

Duck Hearts on Sourdough Toast

“Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.” (Genesis 9:3) + good stewardship of the life of an animal + preparation for serving in frugal circumstances where good stewardship of money would require accounting for every penny (or should that apply not the future but, in fact, the present?)

Lightly grilled with aged balsamic and thyme, these were delicious. But overdone, a bit more liverish.

Lamb “Tagine”

Have been experimenting with Sunday lunch food – stuff that can be prepared beforehand and heated at the relevant time or left to cook in the oven at a low setting until people troop back from the morning meeting. A hot (especially since London’s summer heat appears to have slunk away rather suddenly) ready-cooked meal at someone’s home would be a good opportunity for new people to meet the rest of the crew and for all to carry on chatting about things learned from God’s word that morning.

Unfortunately, the number of people we can have over will have to be directly proportional to the size of our cookware, the largest of which currently is this enamel roaster tin.

Happily, the “tagine” worked in ye olde trusty tin – the lamb was literally fall-off-bone tender (said a visiting Melbournian who had obviously watched enough cooking programmes on telly) and fairly flavourful, but perhaps the stew needed a bit less boiling water. By no means refined food, but will feed the hungry and not distract people from the business at hand.

Lamb “Tagine”

ingredients
lamb neck (cheapest cut: scrag end*)
garlic
onion
ground ginger
ground cumin
ground coriander
paprika
saffron threads
dried chilli
tomato paste
anchovy and black olive paste
Marmite XO
courgette

instructions
marinate, brown, top with boiling water, then chuck in oven at 170 for 3 hours. serve with couscous.

*a stewing cut that’s difficult to find in summer when all stewing cuts are boned-off (butcher’s term, not mine) into burgers. Used lamb shoulder in this experiment.

Banana Loaf Cake

The church kitchen was throwing out bad-ish bananas (they were a corrupting influence on the rest of the fruit! Ah but we know that corruption comes from within…) so i grabbed several bunches for banana bread / banana cake experiments.

Started with Nigella Lawson and Nigel Slater recipes. The Slater recipe, in my incompetent hands, yielded a loaf that had a larger cake-to-banana ratio than i liked. It was barely saved by the emergency nutella frosting, though the banana taste peeked out a bit after a 3-day maturation period.

The Nigella one, perhaps due to the lower flour to fat ratio (Tesco‘s Everyday Plain Flour – 55p for 1.5kg), was far more forgiving of my lack of skill and produced a tender moist loaf full of banana goodness interrupted only by roasted walnut chunks and melty 72% dark chocolate chips (Tesco Finest Swiss 72% Plain Chocolate, on sale at £1). Made a second with Nutella swirls – excellent.

I brought half a loaf to a screening of The Rugby (it is referred to in the definitive here!) and after a rather lacklustre showing by Wales and France in the Six Nations, those decompressing from their university mission week raised, for further discussion, the issue of the good news not being proclaimed at lunch bars. While raising questions about the legitimacy of worldviews was well and good, it would just be as pointless to point out that someone was bleeding profusely and would soon die without at least pointing them to the hospital (yes, lots of pointy finger work). The explanation given by the speaker for this silence was that the message of salvation would be reserved for the evening talks. Many thought was coyness quite inconsistent with the whole motive of evangelism – love for fellow men, urgency in seeing them saved.

Banana Bread (recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson, via Cocoa Shutter)

175g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt [left this out]
125g unsalted butter, melted
150g sugar [used 133g]
2 large eggs [only had medium-ish eggs]
4 small, very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed
30g chopped walnuts [replaced with chocolate chips]
30g chopped pecans [60g for me]
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Butter and flour or line a 23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin.

Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3 and get started on the rest. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well.

In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the walnuts, pecans and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-11/4 hours. When it’s ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.

Nigel Slater’s Chocolate Muscovado Banana Cake (from The Kitchen Diaries II via The Wednesday Chef)

250 grams all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
125 grams softened butter
235 grams muscovado or dark brown sugar
3 to 4 ripe bananas
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
100 grams dark chocolate

1. Heat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Line a standard-sized loaf pan with parchment paper. Sift the flour and baking powder together in a bowl.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs into the butter and sugar one at a time until fully incorporated.

3. Peel the bananas and mash them with a fork in a small bowl. When you are done, the bananas should still be slightly lumpy and not entirely puréed. Stir the vanilla extract into the bananas.

4. Chop the chocolate finely and and fold it, along with the bananas, into the butter and sugar mixture. Gently mix the flour and baking powder into the banana batter.

5. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and bake in the oven for 50 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until the cake is browned and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

6. Remove the cake from the oven and let sit on a rack for 15 minutes. Then, using the parchment paper as a sling, remove the cake from the pan and let it cool completely on the rack. When the cake has fully cooled, peel off the paper and use a serrated knife to slice.

Beef Stew and Trials of Various Kinds

“Hooray, the house hasn’t burned down!” cheered a housemate, returning from The Annual Student Conference. I’d left the oven on, wandered out for evening service, stayed around to chat over dinner, and realised belatedly that we might not have a place to live in when we returned. Fortunately, the only thing that was stewing was what was well-contained in the pot. So not only were we not homeless, as a bonus, there was a hot supper waiting as well.

The Sunday morning message on James 1:1-8 has been the topic of many a conversation this week.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,

To the twelve tribes in the Dispersion:

Greetings.

² Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, ³ for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. ⁴ And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

⁵ If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. ⁶ But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; ⁸ he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

As people who profess to have faith in God, how we respond to all sorts of testing situations – whether suffering or temptations – will have a major impact on the steadfastness of our faith. This is in a sense circular, though not as a logical fallacy – but rather, by way of reinforcement and refinement.

Knowing that this is the purpose of trials of various kinds, we can therefore count it all joy. Not in a masochistic sense, not that baseless positive thinking nonsense (“Why so grumpy? Just smile a little.” “Think good thoughts, it’ll all work out in the end! I promise!”), but relying on our assurance that God is sovereign and in control of everything, and that these things stabilise and strengthen the nature and quality of our relationship with him.

(This was something The Tutor had pressed on me way back in September last year, but being quite hard-of-hearing, I’d thought he was trying to lay on a Gottfried Leibniz Die beste aller möglichen Welten (the best of all possible worlds) and responded with the same incredulity as Voltaire in Candide. Alas. {But then again, don’t think he showed his working on a scriptural basis. Aha.})

And so how do we go about this? Ask God, because what faith in God includes is trusting that he is a good God who doesn’t throw out a few obstacles and then fold his arms and wait to see how humans perform; he is a Father who cares deeply for the welfare of his children and will not withhold anything good (that is, good according to his criteria – good for our relationship with him, not the prosperity and health that we humans assume are the ultimate good) if we ask. And this, even though we do not deserve his gift of wisdom.

__________________________________________________

Recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Jools’ Favourite Beef Stew
(because, to quote numerous uni students,”you can’t go wrong with Jamie”)

Ingredients

• olive oil
• 1 knob butter
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 handful fresh sage leaves from housemate who didn’t manage to use them all on the Christmas turkey
• 900 g quality stewing steak or beef skirt, cut into 5cm pieces
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• flour, to dust
• 3 parsnips, peeled and quartered (a bagful at Marylebone Farmers’ Market was £1)
• 4 carrots, peeled and halved
• ½ butternut squash, halved, deseeded and roughly diced (oops, forgot about this)
• 1 handful Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and halved (also £1 for a bagful)
• 500 g small potatoes (forgot)
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée (replaced with tomato ketchup because couldn’t find the can opener)
• ½ bottle red wine (a cheap ASDA Extra Special Cabernet Sauvignon 2011*)
• 285 ml organic beef or vegetable stock (random Waitrose house brand)
• + chestnut mushrooms
• +4 sticks of celery
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon (oops)
• 1 handful rosemary, leaves picked (drats)
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped (fergeddit)

Method

Preheat the oven to 160ºC/300ºF/gas 2. Put a little oil and your knob of butter into an appropriately sized pot or casserole pan. Add your onion and all the sage leaves and fry for 3 or 4 minutes. Toss the meat in a little seasoned flour, then add it to the pan with all the vegetables, the tomato [purée], wine and stock, and gently stir together.

Season generously with freshly ground black pepper and just a little salt. Bring to the boil, place a lid on top, then cook in the preheated oven until the meat is tender. Sometimes this takes 3 hours, sometimes 4 – it depends on what cut of meat you’re using and how fresh it is [or until you remember to rescue it from its slow death]. The only way to test is to mash up a piece of meat and if it falls apart easily it’s ready. Once it’s cooked, you can turn the oven down to about 110°C/225°F/gas ¼ and just hold it there until you’re ready to eat.

The best way to serve this is by ladling big spoonfuls into bowls, accompanied by a glass of French red wine and some really fresh, warmed bread [or mashed sweet potato stirred through with English mustard…mmmm]. [Mix the lemon zest, chopped rosemary and garlic together and sprinkle over the stew before eating. Just the smallest amount will make a world of difference – as soon as it hits the hot stew it will release an amazing fragrance.]

*ASDA Extra Special Cabernet Sauvignon 2011

This was a pays d’oc of indeterminate origin within France. Blackcurrant on the nose but didn’t translate to palate. Very short. Was not sorry to bung it into the casserole.