Couscous and comfort

We held our first Soul Food small group meeting of the new term on Sunday. It was a lazy afternoon time at our new apartment. I prepared lunch; a main course of Moroccan inspired dishes- marinated lamb, spiced vegetables and couscous (recipes below!) and the others brought soft drinks, wine and pudding. None of us has a problem chatting (!) and so the conversation freely flowed from day to day life to serious issues such as our thoughts on the ‘Prosperity’ gospel teaching that seems prevalent. We prayed particularly for a group member who is going through a tough time and also for changes at St Georges as more staff arrive and the congregration increases in number (St Georges on Sunday evening was packed out!).
It was an afternoon that embodied the vision of Soul Food and I can’t wait for next time!

We’ll be meeting next on Monday 9 October – give me a shout if you want to come.

Moroccan Menu:
to serve 4

Marinated Lamb

8 small lamb chops
a large tsp of ground cumin
1/2 a tsp of paprika
2 tablespoons of freshly chopped coriander and parsley
a small onion, finely chopped or grated
a clove of garlic crushed
juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Put all of the ingredients in a large glass bowl, bar the lamb, and mix up. Add the lamb chops and using your hands, make sure they are coated with the marinade. Cover the bowl and put in the fridge for 2 hours.

When you are ready to cook, pre-heat the grill and place the chops on the grill tray or in a baking dish. Cook under the grill for 5 minutes or so then turn and cook the other side for 5 minutes again. If you like your lamb done so there is no pink in the flesh, leave under for a while longer. Serve.

Spiced Vegetables

1 small butternut squash
3 carrots
1 onion
2 courgettes
runner beans
olive oil
1 tsp of ground cumin
1 tsp of paprika
1 tsp of ground coriander
chopped dried apricots
150ml boiling water

You can use any vegetables you have in – these were the ones I used. wash, peel if necessary and chop the vegetables into small chunks (1 inch size), apart from the onion which you can chop in segments like a Terrys Chocolate orange!. Place them in a pan with the olive oil to fry for 5 minutes, then cover with a lid and leave to cook for 10 minutes or so. Add the spices, apricots and boiling water and leave to simmer for a short while until the veg is tender and ready to serve. This can be made in advance and heated up as the lamb is grilling.

Couscous (this needs to be done at the last minute)

250g Couscous
250ml boiling water
1 vegetable stock cube
handful of raisins or sultanas
1 tsp of cinnamon
sunflower seeds

Put the kettle onto boil and whilst you wait, measure out the couscous, place it in a bowl and crumble one stock cube over the top. Stir the stock cube crumbs in and add the 250ml boiling water. It has to be precise otherwise the couscous is too dry and bitty or too damp and claggy. As the water absorbs into the couscous, soak the raisins or sultanas in a small amount of boiling water and cinnamon. After about 5 minutes the couscous will be ready, so fluff the grains up with a fork. Drain the dried fruit and add to the couscous along with the sunflower seeds. Stir up to make sure the fruit and seeds are evenly distributed and serve.

Artichoke Risotto

Have you ever seen fresh artichokes? There are many different varieties available but the one that sticks in my mind is one that looks like a spiky purple-green cabbage on a stick. When I lived in Lyon, I used to stroll along the riverside where an arts and food market was often held. I remember buying artichokes there, like big armfuls of flowers and taking them home to steam. After steaming the flowers, you peeled off the petals to dip in a vinaigrette. I read this poem and it took me back….

Ode To an Artichoke by Pablo Neruda

The artichoke

of delicate heart

erect

in its battle-dress, builds

its minimal cupola;

keeps

stark

in its scallop of

scales.

Around it,

demoniac vegetables

bristle their thicknesses,

devise

tendrils and belfries,

the bulb’s agitations;

while under the subsoil

the carrot

sleeps sound in its

rusty mustaches.

Runner and filaments

bleach in the vineyards,

whereon rise the vines.

The sedulous cabbage

arranges its petticoats;

oregano

sweetens a world;

and the artichoke

dulcetly there in a gardenplot,

armed for a skirmish,

goes proud

in its pomegranate

burnishes.

Till, on a day,

each by the other,

the artichoke moves

to its dream

of a market place

in the big willow

hoppers:

a battle formation.

Most warlike

of defilades-

with men

in the market stalls,

white shirts

in the soup-greens,

artichoke field marshals,

close-order conclaves,

commands, detonations,

and voices,

a crashing of crate staves.

And

Maria

come

down

with her hamper

to

make trial

of an artichoke:

she reflects,

she examines,

she candles them up to the light like an egg,

never flinching;

she bargains,

she tumbles her prize

in a market bag

among shoes and a

cabbage head,

a bottle

of vinegar; is back

in her kitchen.

The artichoke drowns in a pot.

So you have it:

a vegetable, armed,

a profession

(call it an artichoke)

whose end

is millennial.

We taste of that

sweetness,

dismembering scale after scale.

We eat of a halcyon paste:

it is green at the artichoke heart.

A jar of roasted artichoke hearts given to me for my birthday last March by the lovely Jo has been sitting in the cupboard, waiting for her to come round and eat them! She came round the other night with her boyfriend Al for dinner with Dave & I and we had artichoke risotto.

Artichoke Risotto

1 white onion

1 tablespoon of olive oil

275g arborio risotto rice

1 glass of dry white wine

1 litre vegetable stock

1 jar of roasted artichoke hearts

grated parmesan

Finely chop the onion and put in a heavy based pan with the olive oil on a medium heat to sweat. When the onions are translucent, add the rice and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the wine and allow the alcohol to evaporate (the smell will go) and then add a ladleful of stock. Risotto is a labour of love; you need to add a ladleful of stock at a time and stir in until all the liquid is absorbed into the rice, then add another ladle and stir and so forth until all the stock is gone. To check if its cooked, bite a rice grain and the texture should be soft but firm, the rice holding in all that lovely stock.

Drain and chop the artichoke hearts into pieces, then stir into the rice. Cover the pan with a lid for a few minutes to warm through then serve with sprinklings of parmesan.

Rib coating comfort food for autumn!

From the heart of Habakkuk

Last night at St Georges’ evening service, Jonathan Clark, the rector of the church preached on Habakkuk 3 and one of the points he made was that Habakkuk was a songwriter – his final prayer, chapter 3, was annotated with ’selah’ a musical term that is untranslatable. We don’t know whether he wrote the music but he is a fine poet! As a response to the sermon, some of us were able write down our own prayer songs and here is mine:

From the heart of Habakkuk

A child abused and now healed
addiction vanished; a man set free
the deaf enabled to hear
Lord, do it again – in my day.
disability defeated, a lady can walk
a relative, thought dead, is alive, restored
war ravages unending, yet a chance for peace talks
Lord, do it again – in my day
Infidelity beaten, trust renewed
famine a distant memory, abundance of food
drought reversed, harvest fields sluiced
Lord, do it again – in my day
Environmental damage, the reactions reversed
HIV and Aids undone, a lift of the curse
Injustice broken, the widow and orphan come first
Lord, do it again – in my day
Pervading terror halted, freedom now found
A church worships in the open, emerging from underground
A country of unbelievers now heavenward bound
Lord, do it again – in my day
Such wonders have I heard and miracles shall I see
a nation humbled, brought to their knees
Your coming again, a fulfilled vision, dream
Lord, do it again – in my day.

Small Group

‘Soul Food’- the blog is a product of ‘Soul Food’ the Lifestyle small group at St Georges Church, Leeds. So this post is to let anyone who is interested in joining our small group find out a little bit more of what we’re about.

Soul Food is a raggletaggle bunch of people, different backgrounds, different ages, male, female…. what we all have in common is that we love food, we enjoy sharing meals, cooking, chatting and we love God. As a group we explore who God has made us to be and how we serve him, serve each other as a community and how we serve the world around us – reflecting the UP-IN-OUT structure of the Lifestyle groups.

Simple things, simply life.

UP – when we meet, group members bring something to the group to share about God, for example; from personal bible study someone may bring a passage that has taught them something, a song that we can all worship to, a meditation, a prayer, a testimony of an occasion which God has spoken through……. Just meeting together in God’s name is often our worship.

IN – We meet, cook food and eat together. As we grow into a community of friends, we feel able to share our experiences, our burdens, our joys and we pray for each other.

OUT- At the moment, Soul Food group members are encouraged to join the volunteer rota to serve food to the homeless at St George’s Crypt – please see a previous post ‘Examen of Consciousness’ for more about what that is like.

At the moment, we don’t have a set day each week for meeting – we meet when we can.

The aim of the group is to grow to be like Christ as a community.

Mighty Rivers

On the mount of crucifixion
Fountains opened deep and wide
From the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide
Grace and love like mighty rivers
Flowed incessant from above
Heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love

At the weekend, we visited High Force in Teesdale, apparently England’s largest waterfall. I sat at the edge of the pool on rocks that had been smoothed by the blast of the water and watched the waterfall spill over. The pool was a reddy brown colour because the volume of water had churned up the peaty mud at the bed of the river. What struck me was the immense noise of the rushing water and the verse of the popular hymn above came into my head. People may have made this observation many a time:

God has lavished a mighty river of grace upon me but in the knowledge of that, do I bestow my best to others around me?

As Christians, do our actions of grace and love drown out the voices of our critics & sceptics?

A Chinese Feast *Updated*

*UPDATE* I forgot the main ingredient so apologies to anyone who tried this and it tasted rough!

Whilst on holiday last week, Dave persuaded his mum to teach me how to cook the Chinese food that he grew up with. So one evening, armed with pen and paper I took notes as she prepared each of the dishes; Char Siu barbecue belly pork, steamed ginger & spring onion trout, stir fried crayfish, veg & noodles, chicken & pepper stirfry, foo yung (like an omelette) and egg fried rice. For me it was fascinating to see Dave and his brother and sister eat with chopsticks and bowls with utter ease whilst his step-dad (welsh) and I (english) laboured on, swilling our rice around the table and getting sauce on our chins….

Here’s the easy recipe for the delicious bbq pork:

4 strips of belly pork
Clear, runny honey
Soy sauce
Tomato puree
Rice wine/white wine vinegar or sherry
Olive oil

Mix 3 tablespoons of soy sauce and clear honey together with a generous splash of the rice wine. When the two are combined to make a brown liquid, squeeze in enough tomato puree and stir to make a loose smooth paste. Chop the belly pork into small bitesize pieces ( you can take the rind off or leave it on). Pour over the marinade and leave for an hour or two, covered, in the fridge or even overnight.

In an oven proof dish put a small amount of oil and pour in the meat. Put the oven on a gentle heat maybe Gas Mark 4 or 180 C and put the pork in the oven to roast slowly for an hour or so. If you are preparing other dishes such as quick stir fries, the pork will cook as fast or as slow as you need. Before serving, place under a heated grill for 5-10 minutes to crisp up the meat. Serve with fluffy boiled white rice and a sprinkling of spring onions. Yum.

At lot of my measurements and cooking times are guesswork – different ovens/kitchens produce different products. It’s worth experimenting to see what works for you.

Crash – a film not to miss…

Last weekend, we sat down to watch the DVD of the film Crash. A profoundly thought provoking film. Set in Los Angeles, the plot weaves the lives of diverse characters together to meet at the scene of a car crash. The film opens with the police investigating the highway for clue and one of the first lines in the film is a police officer saying that in L.A. nobody touches anyone else when walking down the street – it is only when they crash together that there is human contact.

As the film goes into flashbacks of the previous 48 hours, slowly the themes behind the plot are unravelled – this is a comment on issues facing modern America; gun culture, immigration, race relations, violence, police corruption.

The film hits you like a fist against a punch bag, it turns your own stereotypes and prejudices on their heads portraying supposedly bad people doing acts of heroism and apparently good people sinking to lower depths. Swathed in a depressive gloom whilst watching the first hour, I didn’t know if I could watch anymore – it certainly didn’t feel like a good saturday night’s entertainment but I couldn’t tear my eyes away either. By the end, I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the conclusion.

The film demonstrates the world’s very papable need for love. Everyone fears everyone else, sometimes for good reason, often not. But fear is futile. And corny as this may seem, as I write, the power of redemptive love heals, rebuilds and restores community. As a Christian watching ‘Crash’, I am compelled to hand over my fear of the ‘other’ and to reach out in love to a world that has yet to experience the greatest love of all.

See this film if you can. It will speak to you and change you.