Simonkey's Ginger Chicken ramen

Ingredients:
4 x Sainsburys free range chicken thighs
big lump of Sainsburys fresh ginger
Bunch of Sainsburys spring onions
pack of Sainsburys chestnut mushrooms
3 x cloves of Sainsburys organic garlic
Amoy reduced salt soy sauce
Sainsburys toasted sesame oil
small pack of Sainsburys fresh coriander
Blue Dragon ramen noodles
1 pint Kallo organic chicken stock

To cook:
cut the mushrooms into quarters or halves so they make nice sized chunks and sauté them in sesame oil till they are brown and smaller in size. Put them to one side. Chop the spring onions into 1cm lengths so the retain a bit of size. What them in the bowl with the mushrooms.
Peel and chop the ginger into 1-inch juliennes and soften them in a bit of sesame oil. Take the ginger out of the pan, leaving as much of the oil behind as possible. Pull the skins off the chicken thighs and sling them in the lovely gingery seasoned pan and seal them off. after they've got a bit of brown on them, take the thighs out, leaving the oil behind and cut the meat off the bone lengthwise so you have little strips of roughly cut chicken. don't worry if it's pink inside, it'll cook in the soup. sling all the ingredients thus far into a large enough saucepan with the stock and bring to a simmer. Simmer it all for about 30 minutes and then think about doing the ramen. They only take 4 minutes, so do them for 3, then fling them in the soup.
Chop up the coriander and stir that in before serving.
Mmmmmm nice.

High Steaks

Organic British beef Ribeye steaks from Chadwick's of Balham.
Cut straight from the bone and an inch thick. They had a lovely dark colour to them with a discreet bit of marbling throughout.
I rubbed them with sunolive oil and salt/pepper and left them to reach room temperature for 45 minutes
I seared them individually in a small frying pan, which gave them a richly crisp outer surface, almost caramelised, but still blue-rare inside. Marvelous.

I have to say, I am spoiled now. I shall be keeping my red meat consumption down to rare treats like this, which can only be a good thing, health-wise. After you've tried Chadwick's, there really is no going back.

Comic Book Guy

Yesterday was my first real run as a comic book guy. Jasmin and I had tables at the South West Jumble at the Tooting Tram & Social http://www.yelp.co.uk/events/london-south-west-jumble-3

Jasmin sold a bunch of her hand made jewellery, which made me very happy and proud, as it was her first foray into direct selling of the stuff she had made. I managed to sell one item, a collected Farside cartoons book. for £1.50. Great. See you on the beach!

But that's not what was the only great thing about yesterday. For me it was the discovery of what a great job being a comic book guy really is.Sitting in what is essentially a huge comic book and memorabilia collection, reading new and re-reading old comics all day long, seems like the best fun an old geek like me could have, and get paid!

I'm sure many of the operating store owners in the business right now would have a thing or two to tell me about the reality of such an enterprise, but I'm not listening. lalalalalalala!

For now, I'm just basking in the afterglow of a Sunday afternoon spent reading comics and having an excuse to do so. And I was spending quality time with my missus simultaneously, how's that for a slice of fried gold?

The Devil's Cellar

I cannot extol enough, the virtues of the fine red that is Casillero Del Diablo - Pinot Noir.

I have a bottle with me in the studio right now and am in danger of drinking the lot if my beloved Jasmin doesn't collar me for a due share. She's a one-woman frenzy of activity as I write, preparing for the South West Jumble on Sunday. The flat is her workshop and I'm consigned to the computer table where I can do no harm nor obstruct. This suits me just fine. This wine is absolutely gorgeous. The review on Oddbins has the following tasting notes: : Aromas of strawberries and toasty oak precede a medium-bodied palate with good structure and lengthy finish. http://www.oddbins.com/products/productDetail.asp?productcode=75208

Which is fair enough. I don't have the nose nor the buds to taste any strawberries in it, but I can taste the oakiness a mile away. naturally once the idea of strawberries is suggested, I can taste them more and more with every sip. Typical wine buffs, they're all hypnotists I tell you!

Uber Junkies

With Eminem's 'Not afraid' doing it's thing in the charts right now, it got me to thinking about uber junkies again. Mega stars with prescription addictions are nothing new; Elvis and Judy Garland come to mind and I suppose laudanum-heads like Byron and Shelly are earlier examples still. So why is it, after all these scandals and overdoses, the likes of Eminem and Michael Jackson have so recently fallen into the Rx pit, when they should have and could have known better?

I understand the need for painkillers for performers and athletes, because the show must go on. I assume that the doctors near these stars must issue the necessary drugs to their customers to get the job done, otherwise some other, less scrupulous medic would take thier place and garner the kudos and fees they command.

So is that how the slippery slope starts? A pill here or a shot there, gets the job done. Then a course of pills to take on tour for that ongoing ache. Then a whole slew of different drugs for different ailments real or imagined?

Take Heath Ledger for example, no less than 6 different drugs in his system at the time of death. Diazepam AND Tamazepam among them. No wonder some thought that was suicide, that's just a mental drop!

I can understand maybe celebs getting on the Rx carousel to avoid the scandal of getting nicked for traditional illegal highs. The Doherty method is not for everyone. But seriously, Rx highs have to pale in comparison to a good spliff or a nice uncontaminated E or two.

That's what gets me; all that money and they get addicted to pharmaceutical company products, bah, it's just not rock'n'roll is it?