Phil's Brains

I'm a big fan of making food which is grilled, meaty, and deeply tasty.

That's why last night I made these awesome beef kebabs, and used romaine lettuce in place of a boring wrap.

Don't worry though, I got my carbs via the cous cous.

The beef kebabs were heavily flavoured with fresh chili, salt, parsley, cumin and coriander. They grilled up a treat, and when combined with yoghurt, chili sauce, and the lettuce wraps, were probably one of the nicest things I've eaten in ages.

I wish more restaurants sold food like this. I know that sounds arrogant, but everyone would love it. I would be there every night.

Sure, they look like turds on a plate, but who gives a shit?

This weekend I did some cooking with Shreddies as part of a work thing...

Shreddies represented a unique challenge - they have lots of nice flavour, but without being doused in milk their texture represents a bit of a problem. Too crunchy by half.

In the end I made a batch of Shreddies Brownies, with the Shreddies actually forming part of the batter mix, and a Shreddies Cheesecake where Shreddies were the base, and Shreddies prailine made an interesting topping.



Shreddies Brownies

Shreddies, crushed - 2oz
Butter - 3oz
Dark soft brown sugar - 4oz
Light soft brown sugar - 2oz
Strong white flour - 2oz
Dark chocolate - 4oz
Pitted dates, roughly chopped - 3oz
Ground almonds - 2oz
Brandy
Vanilla extract
1 egg



Take the butter, sugars, and chocolate and melt them together in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Stir until well blended, remove from the heat, then add the crushed Shreddies, flour, dates, almonds, brandy and vanilla extract.

Stir thoroughly, and finally mix in the egg.

Put the mixture into a square baking tin lined with greaseproof paper and bake at 200c for 40 minutes.






Cheesecake with Prailine



Shreddies, crushed - 4oz
Butter - 2oz
Caster sugar - 1oz
3 leaves of gelatine
50ml milk
250g fromage frais
500g soft cheese
Zest of 1 lemon
Honey

For the prailine
Shreddies - 1oz
Caster sugar - 3oz

Melt the butter and caster sugar together. When melted, remove from the heat and stir in the crushed Shreddies. Take this mixture and press it into the base of a deep cake tin, then refridgerate.

Soak the gelatine in cold water for 10 minutes, or as per instructions on the packet. Heat the milk until at boiling point, stir in the gelatine and ensure it dissolves completely.



In a large bowl beat the cream cheese, fromage frais, lemon zest and honey together. Then whisk in the hot milk/gelatine mixture, and pour on top of the chilled cheesecake base.

To make the prailine, heat the sugar until it's completely melted and golden, then mix in the shreddies. Pour this mixture whilst it's still hot onto a sheet of oiled greaseproof paper to prevent it from sticking. Allow to cool completely, then smash up and sprinkle over the top of the cheesecake.




Check out the full Flickr gallery here.

As part of my new job at 1000 Heads I've been tasked with a piece of homework - writing about "What Is Conversational?".

This is a key question in my job. As a "word of mouth" marketing agency it's our job to make sure that our clients are tapped into, and engaging with, customers who talk about them. Not just shouting at them, but talking in a way that is genuine and inclusive.

The three cartoons that I came up with represent the sum total of more than 15 hours solid photoshopping, and I'm quite proud of the results. It's in my nature that I don't think they're perfect, but at the same time they're probably some of the best work that I've ever done with my drawing tablet/netbook combo.

As they were so time intensive and laboriously crafted I thought I ought to share my efforts.

This basically sums up every Saw film ever made...

An interesting issue with London Waterloo's now redundant Eurostar platforms has arisen.

I can think of a couple of cool uses for them:

1. Allow homeless people to sleep there in the cold winter months

2. Concrete in the gap between the platforms and use the whole thing as a massive roller-disco

Jon Purkis is my best mate. He's a cool guy, as you can see from the picture.

He's taken up blogging. Again.

If you click on the link to Spirojunk you'll be plunged into his world of wordy madness.

Jon's blogged many times before. A lot of the time it's ended in controversy. He was once sacked from a job at an amateur radio station for calling the locality a "pit of depression, despair, and crack cocaine".

Of course, he was right - Bemerton Heath is a shithole, and if that local radio station still exists, I want them to know that they're a tinpot enterprise who are missing out on one of the UK's (potentially) best amateur DJ's by leaving Jon in the cold.

I digress. You should read Jon's blog. It's quite good, although he's a sufferer of the same condition as me - irregular updatitis. It's a real burden, so don't hold it against him.

I've suckered you in with a nice shocking headline, so you're probably expecting some political prose about how much of a bastard Nick Griffin is.

But the fact is that It's All Been Said Already.

So I needn't remind you that burying your head in the sand about people like this just doesn't work.

And I needn't remind you that he's a racist. And a homophobe. And a man with a surprisingly wholesale disregard for the facts when it comes to stuff like, oh, I don't know, the Holocaust.

However, I would like to spend a little time mentioning something else. That's right: Nick Griffin has a weird eye.

If anyone wants to clarify the situation on this I'd be very grateful. Nick Griffin's eye, above all else, concerns me. I don't want the future dictator of this country looking at me all weird from his massive podium in Trafalgar Square as the soldiers goose-step past.