Film Review

A few weeks ago W. (apparently he is trying to reclaim the initial - we will need to keep this under review as to how that is working out for him!) and I went to watch a really lovely "indie film", "Away We Go". It was a rough weekend, I had just been involved in a relatively minor and injury free car accident (my first and hopefully last car accident), the week before and so I was feeling anxious and low. We met some great friends and went off to see the movie, it was exactly what I think we needed, or well what I needed, anyway. We all loved the film. In the style of, "Little Miss Sunshine" a similar sense of humor, wit, life affirming "warm fuzziness" without the saccharine sentimentality shoved down your throat. The concepts, of home and family were investigated and portrayed in a sensitive and funny way. I don't want to give the film away but it's a coming of age/road trip film which is not based on teenagers but grown up's trying to decide how and where to have a family. A story very much based in the present, where so many of us are far away from an "ancestral" or "family" home or homes, if we indeed even have one or more, and often also so far apart from family, friends and loved ones, whether out of choice and/or circumstances. The film looks at how we can try to combine or consolidate all of this to create our own "homes" and "families" and what a "home" or "family' means to us. The story touched upon issues currently running around my own little hamster wheel and maybe that is why I loved it so much. It is a warm and funny film, I would recommend you go watch. Jigna

Why jacket potatoes are great

We haven't done any 'great' posts for a while, and this is a dish truly worthy of being described as 'great'.

The humble potato can be cooked in many many ways – mashed potato is the ultimate comfort food, and chips are phenomenal, but you can also boil, sauté and roast them. You can make thin french (or freedom) fries, or thick chip shop style chips, potato wedges, potato dauphinoise, potato salad – with seasoning, herbs and spices the sky really is the limit. And that’s before you even begin to consider the varieties of potato you can get – jersey royals, new potatoes, king edwards, maris pipers, anya’s – and those are just the few I know – according the British Potato Council there are thousands grown around the world, including 80 commercial varieties in Great Britain (I know – hilarious: and it was only set up in 1997, not, as I’d assumed seeped in some historical urgency, demonstrating the centuries old British love of the spud. No – this administration set it up and the next will probably abolish it. And then they wonder where political apathy stems from: success governments who piffle around the edges, political parties who cannot just agree on the need for some basic and important independent state funded organisations.)

Back to the matter at hand - why single out the humble jacket potato? Because it is, quite simply unbeatable. It’s a great hangover lunch. It’s good for an easy- yet filling- supper. how can anyone not enjoy a jacket spud??? But I think its quite a British way to eat a potato: my best mate said they were the one thing she missed whilst traveling. And the fillings: oh where do I start on the fillings?? Lets start simply and build it up:

• Butter, salt and pepper – simple yet satisfying, and a great carb side with a steak.
• Sour cream – very American, nice on its own, or again as a side.
• Grated cheddar cheese is where the spud comes into its own: a meal within itself, you need nothing with this, great when you are getting over a tummy bug and need simple filling food.
• Grated cheese and baked beans – oh how I love this filling. So quintessentially British. Who else would put baked beans into a baked potato fill it with cheese and squidge the lot together? My mouths watering already. This is often my hungover lunchtime choice.
• Tuna (often with mayonnaise and sweetcorn) – nice – I find you have to be in the mood, and not too much mayo. Corn adds a nice sweeness.
• Chilli or veggy chilli nice for dinner, particularly in the winter next to a roaring pub fire, with a big salad or some steamed veg and glass of red wine….
• Broccoli and cheese (the kind of cheese you use changes the taste of this completely – mature cheddar is great, but a salty creamy blue cheese, like stilton is phenomenal) – an amazing summer supper, with a crisp green salad and cold glass of dry white wine. This is a firm fave with me and S this summer.
• A nice spicy twist is to stir fried peppers and mushroom with chilli and spices, and grate some red Leicester cheese– split the potatoes, scoop out the inside leaving the ‘jackets’ to one side: mix it all together then carefully re-fill the jackets sprinkle some cheese on top then grill.

I won’t go on, but you get the idea – so many variations its too difficult to attempt to even list them all, but some others include garlic mushrooms, coleslaw, baked beans, gooey cheese like camembert, steamed green beans, stir fried veg, and many more classic combo’s such as cheese and sweetcorn, bacon and brie etc etc. you can mix it up and there are NO rules - just try different things and see what you like: most things taste better in a jacket potato.

“What kind of potato and how do I make this simple feast!?”

Choose the spud you want (the potato council has some ideas) and then stick them in the oven for as long as it takes to have crispy shells and soft fluffy insides. In my view, microwaved jacket potatoes are an abomination and should be banned.

Every mouthful of a good jacket potato is a joy - and that my friends, is why the jacket potato is great.

the best mum in the world!

left; here we are in the field behind the hotel where the flies attacked dhara.

right; mum and dhara painting their beautiful paintings.

this is David our tour guide who showed and told us everything about wine!

talking about the vines, i had no idea how the grapes are farmed, was truly fantastic to hear so much from someone who knows so much!

a belated birthday weekend for the best mum in the world

Last weekend we gave the supremely wonderful woman, our mother Surekha Vyas a very belated birthday present. She began the fun filled weekend on Friday night with a glass of gold champagne on arrival in st pancras. This was swiftly followed by a lovely picnic for me S and mum watching the weird and wonderful fous de basin . The next morning the sun was shining brightly, Roopa arrived early and off we went. The tomcat wasn’t very well so we took S’s car and went from London to kent to sussex to kent to sussex….and ended up at Carr Taylor vineyard in east sussex. We were taken on a tour of the vineryard, learnt lots about wine and then (our favourite bit) some wine tasting!! The wine was lovely, and it was interesting to talk about the different tastes (we didn’t all enjoy the same ones at all, but the one we all agreed one and I think we would all recommend is the carr taylor brut - third one down. Its crisp and quite dry with a very slight fruity finish. Yummy).

We then had a lovely big ploughman’s lunch and went on to do some art. The artist Katie Sollhub was great, and she took us through some different techniques which we all enjoyed trying out.

We purchased lots of wine (naturally- Vyas’s on tour etc etc) went to our hotel drank a bottle then ended the day with a wander round winchelsea (pretty but dull - see pictiure) and a big dinner.

The next was it was ridiculously sunny again, woke early and went to Rye – but the weather so gorgeous we ended up in Camber – golden sands and sunshine.

All in all a fantastic weekend (with thanks to Ben, Georgie, Katie and all those at Carr Taylor who helped make Saturday fab)

Roops – add some photos to this post?!