Some news

Hey hey!

It's a long time I haven't post something here. Sorry, busy times recently. Including few days working in France.

Some news so:
1) To improve my culture I took some very legendary movies from one of my French colleague/friend. They are in French but at least I will watch them! And I will tell you what I thought about them.

2) So many moves in F1 recently. It's official, Kimi has gone and will try a new career next year in WRC. This news in not such bad as I'm sure he will put some interest back in Rallye which really needs it. Also, I prefer seeing him impressing the world than being criticized in F1 despite his fantastic last year.

Lotus seems to be definitely ready for next year with the anoucement of its drivers. And what drivers: Trulli and Kovalainen! They are not my favourite ones but it's quite impressive to see a begining team able to hire such experimented drivers. Virgin looks good as well with its drivers, Timo Glock and Lucas Di Grassi. They are young and agressive, it would be interesting to see what these 4 drivers can do next year with that debut cars. The two other new teams, Campos and USF1 are too quiet at the moment. It smells bad for them. Campos is maybe better because they already hired Bruno Senna. But for me, I think USF1 will not be in Bahrain next year. This team has nothing, even not drivers!

The big rumour is the coming back of Schumi for Mercedes. I didn't believe it at the begining but now, considering what said his Ferrari's boss, his press attache, it is clearly possible. I am very interested to see that!

Still in F1, Jean Todt has started quite well his new job of FIA president taking good decision: changing the point scale, now rewarding the 10 firsts. But the new gap 25 points for the winner, 20 for the second doesn't change a lot as every points from 6th place have been multiplicated by 2.5. Todt also decided to include a former F1 driver in the decision of the marshalls about incidents and accidents. It's a very good point to stop seeing very stupid penalties.

3) In music now, I fell in love with a song from Blondie. A song which has been a hit here in the UK in 1999. It was the return of the band after their successes in the 80s. We didn't get it in France, but now I know it, I love it!

Blondie - Maria | Music Upload

Gone Baby Gone

I have recently watched with the housemates, this interesting movie. The first one of Ben Affleck as a director!

Starring? Casey Affleck... In morality: if you have trouble to find a job, try to have a helpful brother!

Despite that shame, the movie was quite great. A very good thriller using the theme of kidnapping to, eventually talk about the good and the bad. There is two situations that you really ask yourself "is that good or bad?" Because considering points of views, these acts can be good or not.

Casey Affleck is quite good. Just his voice, a little bit too high sometimes for a thriller...
Again Morgan Freeman... I will not say more about him.
The character of the little girl's mother is very well played by Amy Ryan I have never noticed her before. His brother in the movie is a good character as well. He is played by Titus Welliver. Ed Harris is good, as everytime. Actually the cast is very good for this movie with stars Ed Harris and Michelle Monaghan. The first one is good, as usual. But I did not feel Monaghan's performance incredible.

Anyway, a good time of cinema!

The day I tried to make my own pork pie

I don't know why, two weeks ago I started to have a big craving for pork pie. I also remember now as well, that few weeks ago I saw on TV a food magazine about doing your own Ploughman's: giving the recipes of farmhouse-style bread, paté and pork pies!

I didn't use this recipe anyway because I could not find it back. I found my inspiration in several recipes on the net and my own tastes. Very disapointed by the always high-fat pork pie you can find in shops and supermarkets, I tried to make a lean one... And then, I understood why commercial pork pie are fat.

My recipe:
The dough:
300g flour,
100g lard (yes, i know, for a less-fat pork pie it's not ideal, but there are some ingredients you cannot avoid!)
Salt
Warm water

Of course, mix the salt with the flour before. Then add the lard cut in dies. Try to mix it. Add as much as warm water you need to make a dough.

The stuffing:
400g lean mince pork (the double mistakes of my pork pie)
100g lardons
1 small yellow onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 glass of white wine
Parsley
Salt and pepper

I fried the lardons with the onions. Not the garlic! Keep it raw at the moment but cut it in dies. Then I mixed with my hands, the pork with the lardons and onion, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper and... the wine.

Spread the dough, put it in a pot. Stuff the dough. Design a dough cover and close the die. Just open a hole on the top. Cook it. I think 2 hours in a oven is necessary. Better to start to cut it and eat it ater cooling a night in the fridge.

My critics: choosing lean mince pork has been a mistake. Eventually my pork pie was low-fat as I wanted it. But at the same time, it was too dry! And that's the big problem. I tried to put geltine at the end but there was no space to pour it inside the pie...
So to make it less dry, I think it is better to chose fatter meat. The mince is also a mistake. Pieces of meat like lardons, chopped ribs, mixed with lard would have been better. And next time I will try to add the gelatine before covering the pie. And see what happens!

Before that, let's see the result (presented with chutney and salad):

A must-see I eventually saw: Million Dollar Baby

Culture lacks, I told you!

Anyway, this is done. I always heard so many people talking about this movie as a very good movie, a must-see! It has won 4 oscars.

This is what I thought about it:

For me this movie treats several subjects, and more than this sport which is boxing:
- the lost love between a father and his daughter reached in the idealization of another person,
- the equality between men and women, especially in a very violent and macho sport,
- the feeling to be graceful to our parents even if they do not deserve it,
- fairplay,
- and of course, euthanasia.

Everything was really well told in this movie. Some characters were very interesting: Frankie, Maggie, her mother and the funny Danger! Clint Eastwood is very good, Hilary Swank, perfect! But I have a problem with Morgan Freeman. He is a brilliant actor but I think I am bored to see him everytime, everywhere, a bit like Gérard Depardieu in France: he does too much movies! He was good in this movie anyway and he won an Oscar for it by the way!

This movie was a good moment, moving and interesting. It makes think about euthanasia, and alos the wills to live after reaching the top of your dreams and dropping in happiness then...

I tested for you: electric karting

As promised for Olivier's 25, I offered him, and to myself at the same time, a session of karting in London!

Sadly, there is not a lot of tracks around this city. But I found one in Mile End, east-London. We eventually went karting last Saturday. We arrived: the tracks seemed to be a bit wet at some points despite the good weather from the begining of the day. The track didn't look very quick at a first view: only one straight line.The briefing was given by a very cool old marshal!
Then we discovered the machines: electric go-karts!
It was the first time I tried this! Of course, we did not know there were electric when we booked the session. I have always been sceptical about electric go-kart before, thinking it was for sure not as fun, not as quick and not noise, no smells!!

Well I was wrong because these go-karts were just amazing! The feeling of speed, and power is very good! I would add that the acceleration even seemed to be more powerful! The noise: no problem when you are in, you forget there is no noise of the engine as you can hear the wind, the tyres. The main problem is that you hear less your competitors... Anyway, they were far far behind me! I may just have afraid some by overtaking them quickly without the time for them to see me arriving :=))

Oh dear...

A very good fun so! I am looking forward to see electric motors going more and more in cars now, and even motorsport!

Soups!

Already three soups tried this year, and not an article about them yet!
Yes, I have made my first soup of the winter last week and made two other ones on Sunday. A soup can contain everything you want. It can be blended or not, whatever you prefer. You do not really need to follow recipe: follow your imagination! If you do not have any idea, follow one simple rule: build the recipe of your soup around a principal "theme", for example: countryside, seafood, chinese food, italian, etc...

Let's me give you the three themes I have explored and the recipes I have done with:

COUNTRYSIDE:

Oignons,
Potatoes,
Celery,
Leek,
Mushrooms,
Cloves,
Bacon

Put the quantities you want, how much water you like. Cook it slowly for two hours, mix it. And don't forget, add salt only in the plate, not in the pot. It's better to put a bit of salt in the plate, than a lot in the pot!

MEDITERRANEAN

Red Peppers,
Red Oignons,
Courgettes,
Pesto,
Tomatoes,
Potatoes.

I first fried the peppers, oignons and courgettes in a wok. I then added pesto and tomato purée. It was looking like a pasta sauce. Then I added more courgettes, potatoes and a can of chopped tomatoes, water and I cooked that slowly for 2 hours. And blended it. Enjoy!

ROOTS

Carrots,
Potatoes,
Swede,
Sweet potatoe,
Butternut squash (I know it's not a root but it goes very well with this theme)
Creme fraiche,
Fresh coriander.

Again, cook the vegetables in water, slowly for 2 hours. Add only after the crème fraîche and the coriander. Blend the mix!

Soup is a perfect dish because you can do it quickly the weekend and keep it for the rest of the week in fridge or freezer. Then it is easy to use, cheap, and it provides a widen range of products, flavours, vitamins and other essential nutrient in the same dish!

Enjoy!