Spinebreakers

The "Brighton Rock" meeting

2012-01-25T09:47:00.003Z

Meeting at Sarah's 24th January

Menu

Pea Soup
Granary Rolls

Spinach and Feta Filo Pie
Tomato and Horseradish Salad
Tomato Salad
Potatoes
Fennel and Orange Salad

Spotted Dick and Custard

Recipes

Pea and Mint soup

Fran doubled the recipe and added a small pot single cream

Ingredients:

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil + extra for serving
¼ stick /25g butter
1 medium red onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and minced
5 cups/750g fresh peas, shelled (or frozen peas)
1 cup/ 75g mint leaves, roughly chopped
1 3/4 pints/1 liter vegetable stock
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
½ cup/75g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated (optional)
Preparation:

Serves 4

Gently heat the oil and butter in a large saucepan, add the chopped onion and cook on a gentle heat for 10 minutes or until the onion is soft but not brown. Add the garlic and cook for a further 3 minutes.
Add 3/4 of the peas, the chopped mint leaves, and 3/4 stock. Cover the saucepan with a tight fitting lid and cook on a medium boil for 10 minutes.
Blend the soup in a food processor, you will have a thick puree. Return the puree to the pan, season with salt and pepper and add the remaining peas and stock. Cook for a further 5 minutes.
Serve with crusty, fresh bread.
If using Parmesan cheese place a small mound in the center of the bowl and pour the soup around. Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil. This soup is also delicious cold, but not chilled.

Tomato and Horseradish salad

ingredients

• 4 large handfuls of mixed tomatoes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• extra virgin olive oil
• good red wine vinegar
• ½ a clove of garlic, grated
• 2 teaspoons fresh horseradish, grated, or jarred hot horseradish
• a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely sliced

Cut the bigger tomatoes into slices about 1cm/½ inch thick. You can halve the cherry tomatoes or leave them whole. Then sprinkle them all with a good dusting of sea salt. Put them in a colander and leave them for 30 minutes. What's going to happen here is that the salt will draw the excess moisture out of the tomatoes, intensifying their flavour. Don't worry about the salad being too salty, as a lot of the salt drips away.

Place the tomatoes in a large bowl and dress with enough extra virgin olive oil to loosen (approximately 6 tablespoons), and 1–2 tablespoons of vinegar, but do add these to your own taste. Toss around and check for seasoning – you may or may not need salt but will certainly need pepper. Add the garlic. Now start to add the horseradish. Stir in a couple of teaspoons to begin with, toss around and taste. If you like it a bit hotter, add a bit more horseradish. All I do now is get some finely sliced flat-leaf parsley (stalks and leaves) and mix this into the tomatoes. Toss everything together and serve as a wonderful salad, making sure you mop up all the juices with some nice squashy bread.

SB2 Reading Now - Susan's choice

2012-01-25T09:18:00.002Z

Enter a vanished and unjust world: Jackson, Mississippi, 1962. Where black maids raise white children, but aren't trusted not to steal the silver...

There's Aibileen, raising her seventeenth white child and nursing the hurt caused by her own son's tragic death; Minny, whose cooking is nearly as sassy as her tongue; and white Miss Skeeter, home from College, who wants to know why her beloved maid has disappeared.

Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny. No one would believe they'd be friends; fewer still would tolerate it. But as each woman finds the courage to cross boundaries, they come to depend and rely upon one another. Each is in a search of a truth. And together they have an extraordinary story to tell...

Meeting February 28th

SB2 Christmas at my house The "When God was a Rabbit" meeting

2012-01-10T21:17:00.005Z

Meeting at my house 21st December 2011

Menu

Olives
Cheesey mini muffins

Broccoli and Stilton Soup
Cheese bread

Goodwill Pie
(deep filled pie with layers of leeks, Wensleydale Cheese, roasted beetroot, roast parsnips, winter greens and butternut squash)
Sticky cider veggie gravy
Potato Dauphinoise
Brussel Sprout bake with nuts

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Cheeses with lychees, figs
Chocolate covered figs and cherries

SB1 Christmas at Sorrel's The "Pigeon English" Meeting

2012-01-10T20:50:00.010Z

Meeting at Sorrel's on 19th December

Menu

Spicy bean falafels with yoghurt

Leek and potato soup

Roasted root veg and stilton in filo pastry
Potato dauphinoise

Cranberry and Almond Tart

Cheese and crackers

SB2 Reading Now -Sarah's choice

2011-12-27T11:39:00.001Z

A gang war is raging through the dark underworld of Brighton. Seventeen-year-old Pinkie, malign and ruthless, has killed a man. Believing he can escape retribution, he is unprepared for the courageous, life-embracing Ida Arnold.Greene's gripping thriller, exposes a world of loneliness and fear, of life lived on the 'dangerous edge of things'.

Meeting January 24th 2012

SB1 Reading Now - Muff's choice

2011-12-27T11:37:00.000Z

When Julia Rosenthal returns to the suburban estate of her childhood, the unspoken tensions that permeated her seemingly conventional family life come flooding back. Trying to make sense of the secrets and half truths, she is forced to question how she has raised her own daughter. Meanwhile, her brother, Max, is happy to leave the past undisturbed. But in a different place and time, another woman struggles to tell the story of her early years in wartime Germany, gradually revealing secrets that threaten to collide past and present...

Meeting Monday 30th January 2012

The " Trespass " meeting

2011-11-22T19:47:00.005Z

Meeting at Sarah's 20th November

Menu

Olives, snacks
Peppers stuffed with feta
Cheesy pastry bites ( I stole this idea from previous meeting!)

Dover Sole ( Slippers )
Mashed Sweet Potato
Rice
Green salad with edamame beans and feta
Broccoli

Fruit Pie
Apple and Cinnamon cake

Cheeses

The "One Day" meeting

2011-11-22T19:24:00.006Z

Meeting at Angela's on 15th November 2011

Menu

Sarah's Cheesy pastry bites ( which I then copied for our next meeting)

Sweet Potato Veggie Chilli

Sour Cream

Green Salad with feta and Tomatillos

Spicy potatoes

Chocolate Cherry and Raspberry trifle

Recipes

Cheesy Pastry Bites

One pack of ready rolled puff pastry

cut into 2 long ways and sprinkled with grated cheddar cheese

roll up long ways and cut into bite sized pieces - spread with a smidge of wholegrain mustard and bake in oven for 15 minutes

add a sprinkling of sesame seeds and place back in oven for around 5 minutes

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Chilli

(not the same recipe as we had but similar)

Ingredients:

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 small onion, diced

• 2 small sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped

• 2 medium carrots, sliced

• 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped (optional)

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• 1 15 ounce can black beans

• 1 15 ounce can diced tomatoes or tomato sauce

• 1/2 cup vegetable broth

• 1 tbsp chili powder

• 1 tsp cumin

• 1/2 tsp cayenne (or to taste)

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp black pepper

Preparation:

Sautee onions and garlic in olive oil for a minute or two, then add sweet potatoes, carrots and bell pepper until onions are soft, about 5-6 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium low, and add remaining ingredients, stirring to combine well.

Simmer, partially covered and stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes, until flavors have mingled and vegetables are cooked.

Makes 5 servings of homemade black bean chili.

Trifle
Chocolate brownies sliced in two and layered over bottom of dish.
good slug of madeira over the top to moisten and soak through
Blend together two tins drained cherries or bottled cherries and pour over brownie base
Throw over a handful raspberries
Cover with mixture of a whole pot fresh custard and 300mls of whipped double cream
Cover with grated chocolate and fresh berries

SB1 Reading Now - Sorrel's choice

2011-11-22T13:05:00.001Z

Newly arrived from Ghana with his mother and older sister, eleven-year-old Harrison Opoku lives on the ninth floor of a block of flats on an inner-city housing estate. The second best runner in the whole of Year 7, Harri races through his new life in his personalised trainers - the Adidas stripes drawn on with marker pen - blissfully unaware of the very real threat all around him. With equal fascination for the local gang - the Dell Farm Crew - and the pigeon who visits his balcony, Harri absorbs the many strange elements of his new life in England: watching, listening, and learning the tricks of urban survival. But when a boy is knifed to death on the high street and a police appeal for witnesses draws only silence, Harri decides to start a murder investigation of his own. In doing so, he unwittingly endangers the fragile web his mother has spun around her family to try and keep them safe. A story of innocence and experience, hope and harsh reality, Pigeon English is a spellbinding portrayal of a boy balancing on the edge of manhood and of the forces around him that try to shape the way he falls.

Meeting 19th December 2011

SB2 Reading Now - My choice

2011-11-16T10:18:00.002Z

1968. The year Paris takes to the streets. The year Martin Luther King loses his life for a dream. The year Eleanor Maud Portman is born.

Young Elly's world is shaped by those who inhabit it: her loving but maddeningly distractible parents; a best friend who smells of chips and knows exotic words like 'slag'; an ageing fop who tapdances his way into her home, a Shirley Bassey impersonator who trails close behind; lastly, of course, a rabbit called God. In a childhood peppered with moments both ordinary and extraordinary, Elly's one constant is her brother Joe.

Twenty years on, Elly and Joe are fully grown and as close as they ever were. Until, that is, one bright morning when a single, earth-shattering event threatens to destroy their bond forever.

Spanning four decades and moving between suburban Essex, the wild coast of Cornwall and the streets of New York, this is a story about childhood, eccentricity, the darker side of love and sex, the pull and power of family ties, loss and life. More than anything, it's a story about love in all its forms.

Meeting 21st December 2011

The "The Dreamers" meeting

2011-11-05T22:03:00.008Z

Meeting at my house on 17th October

Menu

Carrot and white bean soup

Homemade sunflower seed bread

Salade Nicoise

Walnut Bread

Roast new potatoes

Apple Crumble and cream

Cheeses and Chocolates

Recipes

Salade Nicoise

300.0g small new potatoes
100.0g fine green beans , trimmed
3 eggs , as fresh as you can get them
2 Baby Gem lettuces , outside leaves trimmed off
5.0 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
200.0g cherry tomatoes , halved
2.0 tbsp balsamic vinegar
small handful basil leaves
325.0g piece fresh tuna loin
juice ½ lemon

50.0g black olives , preferably Niçoise, pitted
5 marinated anchovies fillets
1 garlic clove
juice ½ lemon
4.0 tbsp olive oil
1.0 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Serves 2
First, make the dressing. Tip the olives, anchovies and garlic into a large mortar and mash with a pestle until you have a very rough paste. Scrape into a bowl, if you like, stir in the lemon juice, olive oil and vinegar, then set aside.
Cook the potatoes in boiling water for 15 mins until tender, then drain and set aside. Cook the beans in boiling salted water for 4-5 mins until tender with a slight crunch. Drain, tip into iced water, then drain again and set aside. Boil a small pan.
Halve the potatoes and heat 2 tbsp oil in a non-stick frying pan. Place the potatoes cut-side down in the pan and sizzle for about 4 mins until golden and crisp. Toss the potatoes in the pan to brown on all sides, then turn up the heat and add the tomatoes. Fry the tomatoes for about 1 min until just starting to blister, then season. Splash in 1 tbsp of the balsamic vinegar, then turn off the heat and scatter over the basil.
To cook the tuna, place a non-stick frying pan over a high heat, then turn the heat down to medium and add 1 tbsp oil. Season the tuna generously, then sear for 4 mins, leaving it undisturbed in the pan to brown. Turn over and continue to cook for 4 mins on the other side. This will give you very rare tuna. For rare, cook for 2 mins more on each side and for well done, add another 4 mins on each side. Set the tuna aside to rest for a few mins.
To serve, whisk the remaining oil and vinegar with the lemon juice in a small bowl and toss in the lettuce wedges. Place a spoonful of olive dressing into 2 serving bowls, arrange the potatoes and tomatoes over, then put a pile of beans on top. Slice the tuna in half at a slight angle and place each half on top of the beans. Wedge the lettuce around the outside, halve the eggs and position in between the lettuce. Dollop a small spoonful of olive dressing on each egg.

Apple Crumble
For the crumble
300g/10½oz plain flour, sieved pinch of salt
175g/6oz unrefined brown sugar
200g/7oz unsalted butter, cubed at room temperature
Knob of butter for greasing
For the filling
450g/1lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/½in pieces
50g/2oz unrefined brown sugar
1 tbsp plain flour
1 pinch of ground cinnamon
Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Place the flour and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Taking a few cubes of butter at a time rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
Watch technique0:46 mins
Place the fruit in a large bowl and sprinkle over the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir well being careful not to break up the fruit.
Butter a 24cm/9in ovenproof dish. Spoon the fruit mixture into the bottom, then sprinkle the crumble mixture on top.
Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling.
Serve with thick cream or custard.

SB1 Reading Now -Sarah's choice

2011-11-05T21:58:00.001Z

In a silent valley stands an isolated stone farmhouse, the Mas Lunel. Its owner is Aramon Lunel, an alcoholic so haunted by his violent past that he's become incapable of all meaningful action, letting his hunting dogs starve and his land go to ruin. Meanwhile, his sister, Audrun, alone in her modern bungalow within sight of the Mas Lunel, dreams of exacting retribution for the unspoken betrayals that have blighted her life.

Into this closed Cévenol world comes Anthony Verey, a wealthy but disillusioned antiques dealer from London. Now in his sixties, Anthony hopes to remake his life in France, and he begins looking at properties in the region. From the moment he arrives at the Mas Lunel, a frightening and unstoppable series of consequences is set in motion.

Two worlds and two cultures collide. Ancient boundaries are crossed, taboos are broken, a violent crime is committed. And all the time the Cévennes hills remain, as cruel and seductive as ever, unforgettably captured in this powerful and unsettling novel, which reveals yet another dimension to Rose Tremain's extraordinary imagination.

Meeting 21st November

SB2 Reading Now - Angela's choice

2011-11-05T21:53:00.003Z

'I can imagine you at forty,' she said, a hint of malice in her voice. 'I can picture it right now.'

He smiled without opening his eyes. 'Go on then.'

15th July 1988. Emma and Dexter meet for the first time on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways.

So where will they be on this one day next year?

And the year after that? And every year that follows?

Twenty years, two people, ONE DAY.

Meeting 15th November

Stuck for ideas?

2011-10-09T12:17:00.001+01:00

http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/

Enter a book you like and the site will analyse their database of real readers' favourite
books (more than 75,000 different titles so far, and more than a million reader
recommendations) to provide book recommendations and suggestions for what to read next.
(You can register for free on the results page and build your own favorites list.)

Quote

2011-09-19T21:20:00.001+01:00

"She is too fond of books, and it has turned her brain."
-Louisa May Alcott

The "Resistance" Meeting

2011-09-13T15:11:00.004+01:00

Meeting at Fran's 7th September 2011

Fran very kindly offered to cook this meal mostly from everything she had grown in her garden this summer!

Menu

Olives
Crisps
Hummus

Roasted tomato, courgette and goats cheese tart
French bean salad with fresh garlic dressing
Pink Fir potato salad

Fruit crumble ( think it was plum pear and rhubarb)
Fromage Frais

Cheeses

The "The Guards" meeting

2011-09-13T15:02:00.003+01:00

Meeting at Lorna's 12th September

Menu

Hummus, carrots and tortilla chips

Roast Butternut squash, onion and feta tart
Green Salad

Fish casserole
Rice
Spinach
Beetroot relish

Strawberries and Cream

Cheeses

SB1 Reading Now -My choice

2011-09-13T14:56:00.002+01:00

Paris in the spring of 1968. The city is beginning to emerge from hibernation and an obscure spirit of social and political renewal is in the air. Yet Théo, his twin sister Isabelle and Matthew, an American student they have befriended, think only of immersing themselves in another, addictive form of hibernation: moviegoing at the Cinémathèque Française. Night after night, they take their place beside their fellow cinephiles in the very front row of the stalls and feast insatiably off the images that flicker across the vast white screen. Denied their nightly 'fix' when the French government suddenly orders the Cinémathèque's closure, Théo, Isabelle and Matthew gradually withdraw into a hermetically sealed universe of their own creation, an airless universe of obsessive private games, ordeals, humiliations and sexual jousting which finds them shedding their clothes and their inhibitions with equal abandon. A vertiginous free fall interrupted only, and tragically, when the real world outside their shuttered apartment succeeds at last in encroaching on their delirium. The study of a triangular relationship whose perverse eroticism contrives nevertheless to conserve its own bruised purity, brilliant in its narrative invention and startling in its imagery, The Dreamers (now a major film by Bernardo Bertolucci) belongs to the romantic French tradition of Les Enfants Terribles and Le Grand Meaulnes and resembles no other work in recent British fiction.

Meeting 17th October

SB2 Reading Now - Siobhan's choice

2011-09-13T14:53:00.002+01:00

The Lathams seem to have it all: health, wealth and a vibrant family life. As Mary Beth Latham contemplates a life built around home, friends and community, she has every reason to feel fulfilled and content.

Then, for one of her sons, a process of unravelling begins. Mary Beth starts to focus on him, only to find that the comfortable life she has spent years carefully constructing is shattered in a single moment. Forced to confront her own demons, Mary Beth realises how the inconsequential moments we all share - and one shameful act she has hidden from everybody - may have contributed to her fate.

Meeting 11th October 2011

SB1 Reading Now - Lorna's choice

2011-08-11T22:40:00.003+01:00

A woman makes an unlikely choice by asking Jack Taylor to investigate the apparent suicide of her teenage daughter in Galway. Jack is ex Irish police (Garda) but also a known alcoholic with nothing much else in his life. His approach to investigation is haphazard - he doesn't really have a method beyond asking direct questions and, if necessary, using his fists. Predictably, there is more to the suicide case than first meets the eye and Jack, aided by his unsavoury friend, Sutton, uncover some very disturbing secrets and levels of corruption within the city. The Guards is not your conventional crime thriller; it's darker and has a grim realism.

Meeting September 12th 2011

The "An Evening of Long Goodbyes" Meeting

2011-07-19T10:37:00.004+01:00

Meeting at Muff's 18th July 2011

Menu

Roasted red pepper dip
White bean dip
Griddled asparagus with parmesan
Mediterranean Bread

Pasta Puttenesca
Green Salad
Roasted peppers and onions

Strawberries with marscapone vanilla cream in Brandy Baskets

Recipes

Griddled Asparagus

Cut (or break) off the woody ends from the asparagus. Boil the spears in a large pan of salted water for 3 minutes. Drain, then plunge the spears into ice-cold water to stop the cooking and set the colour. Pat the asparagus dry.
Oil the spears lightly. Leave a large cast-iron griddle over a high heat until it's very hot, then arrange the spears on it in a single layer. (You may have to griddle the asparagus in two batches.) Reduce the heat to medium and cook the spears for 3-4 minutes. Turn them with tongs and cook for a few more minutes, or until the spears are tender to the point of a knife and lightly gilded.
Transfer the asparagus to a serving platter and sprinkle on a few drops of balsamic vinegar. Serve while still hot, although the spears will also taste very good at room temperature.
To get ahead, you can prepare the asparagus to the end of step 1 and keep refrigerated for up to 24 hours.

Pasta Puttenesca

Serves 2

250 g spaghetti
3 drops olive oil
1 pinches salt
For the sauce

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 red chillies, deseeded and chopped
2 tsp basil, fresh, chopped
50 g anchovy fillets, drained
175 g pitted black olives, chopped
1 tbsp capers, drained
450 g tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 tbsp tomato purée, rounded
1 pinches black pepper
For the garnish

2 tbsp basil, fresh, chopped
4 tbsp parmesan freshly grated

To make the sauce, heat the oil in a medium saucepan, then add the garlic, chilli and basil and cook these briefly till the garlic is pale gold. Then add all the other sauce ingredients, stir and season with a little pepper - but no salt yet because of the anchovies.
Turn the heat to low and let the sauce simmer very gently without a lid for 40 minutes, by which time it will have reduced to a lovely thick mass, with very little liquid left.
While the sauce is cooking, take your largest saucepan, fill it with at least 2.25 litres of hot water and bring it up to a gentle simmer. Add a few drops of olive oil and a little salt and then, 8 minutes before the sauce is ready, plunge the spaghetti into the water. Stir well to prevent it clogging together, then time it for exactly 8 minutes.
After that drain it in a colander, return it to the saucepan presto pronto, and toss the sauce in it, adding the basil. Mix thoroughly and serve in well-heated bowls, with lots of grated Parmesan to sprinkle over - and have plenty of gutsy, 'tarty' Italian red wine to wash it down.

The "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" meeting

2011-06-30T21:03:00.005+01:00

Meeting at Iona's 28th June 2011

Menu

Pimms
Hummus mini bruschetta and crisps

Cheese souffles

French Onion tart
Green bean feta and olive salad
Green salad

Creme Caramel

Cheese and Crackers

Recipes

Cheese Souffles

Ingredients
1 tbsp flour
1oz butter
½pt milk, warmed
2oz finely grated parmesan cheese
4 large egg yolks
5 large egg whites
salt and freshly ground pepper
cayenne pepper

Prepare the basic mixture by stirring one generous tablespoon of flour into 1oz of butter melted in a heavy saucepan. Gradually add just under ½pt of warmed milk, stirring until your mixture is quite smooth. Let this sauce cook very gently and slowly, stirring frequently, for close on 10 minutes. Now stir in 2oz of finely grated parmesan cheese (or if you prefer, 1oz each of parmesan and gruyère) and then the very thoroughly beaten yolks of 4 large eggs. Remove the mixture from the fire, and continue stirring for a few seconds. Now add a seasoning of salt (always to be added after the cheese) and quite a generous amount of freshly-ground pepper, plus if you like, a scrap of cayenne. This basic mixture can be made well in advance.
When the time comes to make the souffle, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas6. Have the shelf placed fairly low in the oven, and a baking sheet on the shelf. Butter 1½pt souffle dish (the size is important).
Whisk the whites of the eggs, in a large scrupulously dry and clean bowl, until they stand in peaks on the whisk and look very creamy. Tip half the whites on top of the basic mixture. With a palette knife cut them into it again, slowly rotating the bowl with your left hand, lifting rather than stirring the whole mass. Add the remainder of the whites in the same way. All this should take only a few seconds and as you pour the whole mixture, without delay, into the dish, it should look very bubbly and spongy, but if the whites have been over-beaten or rammed into the main mixture with a heavy hand, it will already begin to look flat. With a palette knife, mark a deep circle an inch or so from the edge, so that the souffle will come out with a cottage-loaf look to the top. Put it instantly into the oven.
As to timing, it depends so much upon the size and type of both the oven and the dish that it is misleading to give precise details. I can only say, as a general guide, that in the oven of a representative domestic gas cooker, this souffle is perfectly cooked at 200C/400F/Gas 6 in 23 to 35 minutes.

Green Bean and Feta salad

1 lb green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch long pieces
2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
1/2 cup sweet onion, cut into small dice (about 1/2 medium onion)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest (1 lemon)
1 tablespoon olive oil
fresh ground black pepper
handful of roasted pinenuts
Chopped pitted black olives

1 Prepare an ice water bath for the green beans.
2 Bring about 4 quarts of salted water to a boil.
3 Cook green beans until tender, about 6 minutes.
4 Transfer beans to the ice water bath and let cool about 5 minutes.
5 Drain and dry beans and transfer to a large bowl.
6 Add remaining ingredients to bowl and toss well to combine

French Onion Tart

300g shortcrust pastry , thawed if frozen
25g butter
2 tbsp olive oil
900g onions , halved and thinly sliced
2 medium eggs
300ml double cream
40g vegetarian Parmesan -style cheese, grated

Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and use to line a deep 23cm fluted flan tin. Line with baking paper and fill with baking beans. Bake blind for 15 mins.
Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan, then gently fry the onions, covered, for about 30 mins until completely softened, but still pale in colour.
Beat the eggs and cream together in a bowl, then add the cheese and some seasoning. Stir in the onions, then spoon the mixture into the flan case. Bake for 25-30 mins until lightly set and browned.

SB2 Reading Now - Fran's Choice

2011-06-29T14:09:00.004+01:00

1944. After the fall of Russia and the failed D-Day landings, half of Britain is occupied . . . Young farmer’s wife Sarah Lewis wakes to find her husband has disappeared, along with all of the men from her remote Welsh village. A German patrol arrives in the valley, the purpose of their mission a mystery. Sarah begins a faltering acquaintance with the patrol’s commanding officer, Albrecht, and it is to her that he reveals the purpose of his mission – to claim an extraordinary medieval art treasure that lies hidden in the valley. But as the pressure of the war beyond presses in on this isolated community, this fragile state of harmony is increasingly threatened.

Meeting 6th September 2011

The "Water for Elephants" Meeting

2011-06-14T21:43:00.005+01:00

Meeting at Nina's 13th June 2011

Menu

Wasabi peas, chips and dip

Teriyaki Salmon
New Potatoes
Roasted peppers
Green and avocado salad

Plum, Orange, Blueberry and Almond cake
Creme Fraiche

Cheeses

Recipes

Teriyaki salmon
Ingredients
1 salmon fillet, cut into 2 strips
4-5 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 limes, zest and juice
1 small chilli
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 fat garlic clove, finely chopped
1 chunk of ginger, finely chopped
1 sheet of egg noodles
bunch of coriander, chopped
1 tbsp sesame oil
extra lime juice

Preparation method
Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the ginger, garlic and chopped chilli.
Add the zest and juice of the lime and pour in the soy sauce. Add the maple syrup and cook for 1 minute or until reduced and sticky.
Meanwhile, pan-fry the two pieces of salmon for 2 minutes each side in a hot griddle pan.
When the sauce is reduced add the salmon to the teriyaki sauce frying pan.
Cook and drain the noodles, adding the sesame oil, seasoning and coriander and a squeeze of lime. Serve the salmon on a bed of noodles with more chopped coriander.

Plum, Almond and Orange Cake
From The River Café by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers

Plum filling:
500 g plums, stoned and halved
50 g sugar
juice and zest of one orange
1 vanilla pod, split

Cake:
150 g unsalted butter
150 g sugar
2 eggs
85 g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
100 g almonds, finely ground

Almond topping:
30 g unsalted butter
25 g brown sugar
zest of one orange
50 g flaked almonds

Preheat the oven to 180C / 375F. Grease and lightly flour a 10-inch (25cm) springform cake tin.

In an ovenproof roasting dish, combine the plums with the sugar, orange and vanilla. Bake for 20 minutes. Let the mixture cool, then scrape the vanilla seeds into the fruit and discard the pod.

Meanwhile, make the cake batter: In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder and ground almonds. Set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well and scraping down the bowl after each addition. With the stand mixer on low speed or by hand, add in the dry ingredients and fold in until just combined.

Spread the batter into the cake tin (it will be a thin layer). With a slotted spoon, spoon the plums out of their roasting juices and spread on top of the batter (if you wish, preserve the roasting juices to serve with the cake later. They're delicious!). Bake in the centre of the oven at 180C / 350F for 25 to 30 minutes, until the cake is starting to firm up and brown at the edges but is still quite soft in the centre.

While the cake is baking, make the topping: melt the butter and stir in the sugar, zest and almonds. Scatter on top of the half-baked cake, lower the heat to 160C / 325F and return to the oven for around 20 minutes. The cake is ready when the sides are starting to pull away from the tin, the topping is golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the centre comes out almost clean.

SB1 Reading Now - Muff's choice

2011-06-14T16:52:00.002+01:00

Acclaimed as one of the funniest and most assured Irish novels of the last decade, An Evening of Long Goodbyes is the story of Dubliner Charles Hythloday and the heroic squandering of the family inheritance. Featuring drinking, greyhound racing, vanishing furniture, more drinking, old movies, assorted Dublin lowlife, eviction and the perils of community theatre, Paul Murray's debut novel is a tour de force of comedic writing wrapped in an honest-to-goodness tale of a man - and a family - living in denial . . .

Meeting 18th July 2011

SB2 The "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" meeting

2011-05-20T21:56:00.009+01:00

Meeting at Susan's 17th May 2011

Menu

Watercress Soup
Crusty Bread

Boulangerie Potatoes
Cauliflower Cheese
Asparagus Gratin
Green Salad

Rhubarb Crumble and Custard
Hedgehog Ginger Cake
Strawberries and Cream

Quail chicks ( not for eating )

Recipes

Watercress Soup

4 bunches watercress (chopped)
dollop of butter
1 large onion chopped
2 sticks of celery chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
plain flour (about a tab. spoon)
1 pint of veggie stock
1 pint of milk (skimmed if you are dieting)
salt and pepper as you wish
nutmeg (freshly ground is best - about 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon)
juice of 1 lemon
3 tablespoons of creme fraiche

Recipe Method
Remove very stalky bits from watercress and then chop it up.

Melt butter and cook onion, celery and garlic until soft. Remove from heat and stir in flour. Add stock slowly so it doesn't go lumpy. Then add watercress, s&p, nutmeg and lemon juice - cook for 5 mins.

Add milk then blend mixture together. Warm through then add creme fraiche and any more seasoning that may be required.

Serve with some nice crusty bread.

Boulangerie Potatoes

2 onions , thinly sliced
few thyme sprigs
2 tbsp olive oil
1½ kg floury potatoes , such as Maris Piper or Desirée, peeled and sliced thinly, by hand or using a food processor
425ml vegetable stock

Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Fry the onions and thyme sprigs in the oil until softened and lightly coloured (about 5 mins).
Spread a layer of potatoes over the base of a 1.5-litre oiled gratin dish. Sprinkle over a few onions (see picture, above) and continue layering, finishing with a layer of potatoes. Pour over the stock and bake for 50-60 mins until the potatoes are cooked and the top is golden and crisp.

Cauliflower Cheese

1 large cauliflower, divided into florets
3 tbsp butter
For the cheese sauce

1 cloves
1 bay leaves
1 small onion
600 ml milk
25 g butter
25 g plain flour
200 ml single cream
1 tsp English mustard
250 g mature cheddar cheese
1 pinches black pepper
1 pinches nutmeg, freshly grated

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and lightly cook the cauliflower florets. Drain.
To make the sauce, first stud the clove through the bay leaf and into the onion and place in a saucepan with the milk. Warm the milk slowly, this will allow the flavours to infuse into the milk.
In a separate saucepan, melt the butter, and stir in the flour. Cook over a low heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the simmering milk, a ladle at a time, continuing to stir, until the mixture is thick and smooth. Bubble gently for 5-6 minutes.
Remove the onion and add the cream. Stir in the mustard and 200g of the grated cheese. Season to taste with salt, freshly ground black pepper and a little nutmeg.
Warm 3 tablespoons of butter in a frying pan and add the cauliflower florets. Roll them in the butter, without allowing them to colour, and then season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Set the oven to 200°/gas 6. Spoon a little cheese sauce into an ovenproof dish; arrange the cauliflower on top and coat with more of the sauce. Sprinkle the last of the grated cheddar on top and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the cheese is bubbling and golden.

Rhubarb Crumble

10 sticks of rhubarb
4 tbsp water
8 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp powdered ginger
110g/4oz butter, softened
110g/4oz demerara sugar
180-200g/6-7oz flour
To serve
double cream
Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
Cut the rhubarb into 7½cm/3in long sticks and place on an oven tray, sprinkle with the water and caster sugar and roast in the oven for 10 minutes.
Once cooked, remove from the oven, sprinkle over the ginger and mix well.
Fill an ovenproof dish about 4cm/1½in deep with the rhubarb.
Rub the butter into the flour and sugar to make the crumble topping. Sprinkle over the rhubarb and bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes, or until the crumble topping is crisp and golden-brown and the rhubarb filling has softened and is bubbling.
Remove and allow to cool slightly before serving with double cream.

SB2 Reading Now - Iona's choice

2011-05-20T21:47:00.002+01:00

Renée is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building on the Left Bank. To the residents she is honest, reliable and uncultivated an ideal concierge. But Renée has a secret. Beneath this conventional façade she is passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives. Down in her lodge, Renée is resigned to living a lie, with only visits from her one friend Manuela to break the monotony. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the predictably bourgeois future laid out for her, and plans to commit suicide on her thirteenth birthday. But before this happens, the death of one of their privileged neighbours will bring dramatic change to number 7, Rue de Grenelle, altering the course of both their lives forever.

Meeting 21st June

The "One Fine day in the Middle of The Night" meeting

2011-05-10T14:01:00.006+01:00

Meeting at Sorrel's 9th May 2011

Menu

Crudites and dips and chips
Cashews
Olives
Wasabi Nuts

Baked Dabs
Roasted Cherry tomatoes
Green salad
Warm potato salad with lemon and pepper dressing

Apple Shortcake and Cream

Cheeses

Recipes

Apple Shortcake

Ingredients
100g butter
100g caster sugar
1 medium egg
185g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
4 sliced apples (or stewed apples, very well drained)
100g caster sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
2 teaspoons lemon juice
Icing sugar to dust over top

1. Preheat oven to 180 C / Gas 4.

2. Melt butter, in either the microwave for 1 minute, or on the hob in a pan (remove from heat after melting). Beat in sugar. Add egg, beat, add flour and baking powder and mix well. The consistency should be similar to "playdough" - add more flour or a dash of milk if necessary.

3. Push half the mixture into a pie tin - preferably Pyrex or ceramic. If metal, please grease with cooking oil first.

4. Lay your sliced apple (or other fruits - pears, peaches, strawberries, etc. - they all work well) or stewed fruit (well drained) over the cake mixture. Sprinkle with sugar, spices and lemon juice.

5. Add the rest of the mixture - you can either roll it out and lay it over like a pie crust, pull pieces off and flatten them and lay over the fruit (they spread out and join as they bake), or rub it between your hands to make a crumble over the fruit.

6. Bake approximately 20 minutes. Check it - the cake should be risen, and the top golden.

7. Rest the dessert for 10 minutes, then dust with the icing sugar.

SB1 Reading Now - Nina's choice

2011-05-10T13:57:00.002+01:00

When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits - the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth - a second-rate travelling circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town.

Jacob, a veterinary student who almost earned his degree, is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there that he meets Marlena, the beautiful young star of the equestrian act, who is married to August, the charismatic but twisted animal trainer. He also meets Rosie, an elephant who seems untrainable until he discovers a way to reach her.

Water for Elephants is illuminated by a wonderful sense of time and place. It tells a story of a love between two people that overcomes incredible odds in a world in which even love is a luxury that few can afford.

Meeting 13th June 2011

The "Her Fearful Symmetry" meeting 2

2011-04-11T12:05:00.004+01:00

Meeting at Sarah's 5th April 2011

Menu

Cheese Devils and salad

Vegetable Mousakka
Tomato Basil and Feta Salad
Potato Dauphinoise
Bean and Beetroot salad

Trifle

Recipes

Veggie moussaka

Ingredients
For the filling
400g/14oz aubergines, sliced into thin rounds
50ml/2oz vegetable oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
50g/2oz tomato purée
400g/14oz canned chopped tomatoes, drained
1 cinnamon stick
100g/3½oz Puy lentils, cooked according to packet instructions
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
For the topping
125g/4½oz ricotta
125g/4½oz Greek-style yoghurt
3 free-range eggs
freshly grated nutmeg
salt and freshly ground black pepper
50g/2oz freshly grated parmesan

Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
For the filling, toss the aubergine slices in the vegetable oil, then drain and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Heat a frying pan over a medium heat, add the aubergine slices in batches and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until golden-brown on both sides. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside to drain on kitchen paper.
Add the onion, pepper and garlic to the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes, or until softened.
Add the tomato purée, stir to coat the vegetables in it, then continue to fry for a further 4-5 minutes.
Add the canned chopped tomatoes and cinnamon stick and simmer for 4-5 minutes.
Add the Puy lentils and return the fried aubergines to the mixture. Simmer for a further 2-3 minutes, or until warmed through.
Transfer the mixture to an ovenproof dish and sprinkle over the chopped parsley.
For the topping, in a bowl, beat together the ricotta, Greek-style yoghurt, eggs and grated nutmeg until well combined. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Pour the topping mixture into the ovenproof dish on top of the filling. Sprinkle over the grated parmesan.
Transfer the veggie moussaka to the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the topping is golden-brown and has set and the filling is bubbling. Serve immediately.

The "Her Fearful Symmetry" meeting 1

2011-04-11T11:26:00.005+01:00

Meeting at my house 4th April 2011

Menu

Crisps and Olives
Vegetable Mulligatawny Soup

Potato and Smoked Mackeral Dauphinoise
Green Salad
Roasted Med Veggies
Green Beans

Fruit Salad

Cheeses and Oatcakes

Recipes

Vegetable Mulligatawny Soup

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 large carrots, diced
1 parsnip, diced
1 potato, diced
50g/2oz basmati rice
2 tbsp mild curry paste
1.2 litres/2 pints vegetable stock
small bunch chopped fresh coriander
salt
freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the onion. Cook for 3-4 minutes, until softened, then add the carrots, parsnip, potato, rice and cook for one minute.
Stir in the curry paste, then add the stock and mix well. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender.
Pulse a hand blender in the soup a couple of times to purée it slightly, then stir in the coriander.
Ladle the soup into warm bowls and garnish with a few coriander leaves.
Serve with warm naan bread.

Potato and Smoked Mackeral Dauphinoise

INGREDIENTS
1 pound large new potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick
1/2 pound smoked mackerel or smoked trout fillets, skinned, flesh broken into large pieces
2 bay leaves
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
Salt and freshly ground pepper

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 375°. In an 8-by-10-inch gratin dish, gently toss the potatoes with the mackerel and bay leaves. In a bowl, mix the cream with the mustard and season with salt and pepper. Pour the cream over the potatoes and bake for about 1 hour, or until the cream has thickened and the potatoes are golden and tender. Discard the bay leaves before serving.

SB2 Reading Now - Susan's choice

2011-04-11T10:38:00.002+01:00

It's 1946 and author Juliet Ashton can't think what to write next. Out of the blue, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams of Guernsey - by chance, he's acquired a book that once belonged to her - and, spurred on by their mutual love of reading, they begin a correspondence. When Dawsey reveals that he is a member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, her curiosity is piqued and it's not long before she begins to hear from other members. As letters fly back and forth with stories of life in Guernsey under the German Occupation, Juliet soon realizes that the society is every bit as extraordinary as its name.

Meeting 17th May 2011

SB1 Reading Now - Sorrel's choice

2011-04-11T10:31:00.002+01:00

Gavin is creating a unique 'holiday experience', every facility any tourist who hates abroad will ever want, will all be available on a converted North Sea oil rig. To test the facilities he's hosting a reunion for his old school (none of his ex-classmates can remember him, but what the heck, it's free). He is so busy showing off that he doesn't notice that another group have invited themselves along -- a collection of terrorist mercenaries who are occasionally of more danger to themselves than to the public. And they in turn are unaware that Inspector Mac Gregor has got wind of their activities. Within twenty-four hours Gavin's dream has blown to the four winds, along with a lot of other things. Fast, rabidly funny, and seriously over the top. And for the author's own view on his books visit his website at www.brookmyre.clara.net

Meeting 9th May 2011

The "The Slap" meeting

2011-03-05T11:54:00.006Z

Meeting at my house 1st March 2011

Menu

Cucumber, avocado and Melon Balls in a yoghurt dressing

Spinach and feta pie
Potato salad in yoghurt dressing
Roasted peppers and onions
Green salad with rocket
Tomato and red onion salad

Fruit salad
Rhubarb fool

Cheese and crackers

Recipes

Ingredients
225g/9oz packet ready-made filo pastry, fresh or frozen (you'll need about ten sheets measuring about 34cm x 30cm/13in x 12in or larger in size)
85g/3oz butter, melted, for brushing
For the filling
2 tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion, halved and sliced finely
600g/1lb 5oz baby leaf spinach
freshly grated nutmeg, to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper
55g/2oz sultanas
85g/3oz pine nuts, toasted
225g/8oz feta
3 medium free-range eggs
To serve
rocket salad

Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Remove the filo pastry sheets from their packaging and place them on a clean work surface. Keep them covered with a clean, damp cloth while you're working, to stop the pastry from drying out.
For the filling, heat half of the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the sliced the onion and gently fry for 5-6 minutes over a medium heat, until lightly browned and softened.
Heat the remaining olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan. Add the spinach and cook, uncovered, for a few minutes, until it wilts. When the spinach is cooked, place it in a colander set over a bowl to drain and cool. Discard any liquid that comes out.
Remove the fried onions from the frying pan and place on a plate to cool.
With a sharp knife, trim the filo pastry sheets to a size just smaller than your baking sheet. Place a sheet of filo pastry on the baking sheet and brush with some of the melted butter, using a pastry brush. Repeat with four more filo sheets, brushing with butter as you go. This will be the base of the pie. Cover the remaining five filo pastry sheets with a clean cloth.
When the spinach has cooled, place it into a large bowl. Grate in some fresh nutmeg and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir in the sultanas, the cooled onions and the pine nuts.
Crumble the feta into the mixture and mix together well. Beat the eggs together in a clean bowl. Add some of the egg mixture to the spinach mixture. Add just enough so that the mixture is moist but not runny (you may not use all of the beaten egg).
To assemble the pie, spoon the spinach and feta mixture onto the prepared filo pastry base. Leave an empty 'frame' around the edge of about 4cm/1½in on each side.
Fold the four edges of the pastry in towards the middle to enclose the filling.
To make the top of the pie, trim the remaining five sheets of filo pastry to the size of the base with its folded-in edges. Brush one of the filo sheets with some of the remaining melted butter and place on top of the spinach and cheese mixture. Repeat with the remaining four sheets, brushing with melted butter as you go.
Brush the top layer of filo pastry with the last of the melted butter. Lightly score the top of the pie with a sharp knife. Bake it in the preheated oven for 45-50 minutes, or until the filo pastry crust is a deep golden-brown.
Serve slices of the pie with a rocket salad.

The "Nocturnes" meeting

2011-03-05T11:46:00.003Z

Meeting at Sarah's 28th February 2011

Menu

Chips and dip, olives etc

Summer Veg Lasagne
Potato salad
Green salad

Fruit salad, meringue, cream

Cheese and crackers

Recipe

Summer Veg Lasagne

Bunch spring onions
1/2 30g tin anchovies (
6 cloves garlic
700g asparagus
500g frozen peas (
300g frozen broad beans
large bunch fresh mint
300ml single cream
1 lemon
300ml vegetable stock
2 x 250g tubs cottage cheese
2 x 250g packs of fresh lasagne sheets
Parmesan cheese
couple sprigs fresh thyme

Half fill and boil the kettle.
Pour the oil from the anchovies into a saucepan and place on a medium heat. Finely slice the spring onions and half of the anchovies and then add them to the saucepan.
Crush the six cloves of garlic into the pan and fry for a few minutes ensuring that the garlic doesn't burn.
Trim the pointed tips off the asparagus and put aside, then trim the woody ends from the other side and discard (see this How to trim asparagus video for more information). Finely slice the stems of the asparagus into 1.5cm pieces before adding to the pan with a splash of water from the kettle.
After five minutes, add the peas and broad beans along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir well.
Pick and chop up the mint leaves then add them to the saucepan along with the cream. Grate in the zest of half a lemon.
After a few minutes, use a potato masher to mash some of the filling to create texture. Cover with the vegetable stock and bring to the boil before adding 250g of cottage cheese.
Give everything a good stir and cook for a few more minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Take the vegetables off the heat and spoon around one quarter of the mixture into a 30cm x 35cm deep dish (I used two smaller dishes). Top with a lasagne sheet and a generous grating of parmesan cheese.
Repeat the layers of vegetable and lasagne sheets until you have used all of the filling and then top with a final sheet.
Mix the remaining 250g of cottage cheese with a splash of boiled water and then spread over the lasagne.
Drizzle olive oil over the asparagus tips then place onto the lasagne. Sprinkle over the thyme along with another good grating of parmesan and a final drizzle of olive oil.
Bake in the oven for around 15 minutes until the topping has browned.

SB1 Reading Now - My choice & SB2 Reading Now Sarah's choice

2011-03-05T11:39:00.002Z

Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers – normal, at least, for identical ‘mirror’ twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin ... but have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the twins’ mother – and who can’t even seem to quite leave her flat....

With Highgate Cemetery itself a character and echoes of Henry James and Charles Dickens, HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY is a delicious and deadly twenty-first-century ghost story about Niffenegger’s familiar themes of love, loss and identity. It is certain to cement her standing as one of the most singular and remarkable novelists of our time.

meeting 4th and 5th April 2011

The "The Slap" meeting

2011-02-07T12:26:00.004Z

This was the postponed Christmas meeting at Lorna's on January 24th 2011

Menu

Ottolenghi's Chickpea, tomato and bread soup

Hot Artichoke Dip

Crispy Skinned Mackeral with Asian Inspired Dressing
Rice

Fruit salad

Cheeses

After Dinner mints

Recipes

Chickpea Tomato and Bread soup
Serves four to six.

1 large onion, sliced
1 medium fennel, sliced
About 120ml olive oil
1 large carrot, peeled, cut along the centre and sliced
3 sticks celery, sliced
1 tbsp tomato paste
250ml white wine
1 tin Italian plum tomatoes
1 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp picked fresh thyme leaves
2 tsp caster sugar
2 bay leaves
1 litre vegetable stock
Salt and black pepper
160g stale sourdough bread (crust removed)
400g cooked chickpeas
4 tbsp basil pesto
1 handful fresh basil leaves

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Put the onion and fennel in a big pot, add three tablespoons of oil and sauté on medium heat for four minutes. Add the carrot and celery, and cook for four minutes, just to soften the vegetables, stirring occasionally. Stir in the tomato paste and cook, stirring, for a minute. Add the wine and let it bubble away for a minute or two. Add the tomatoes and their juices, herbs, sugar, bay, stock and season. Bring to a boil, then leave to simmer gently for 30 minutes.

While you wait, break the bread into rough chunks with your hands, toss with two tablespoons of oil and some salt, scatter in a roasting tray and bake for 10 minutes, until dry. Remove from the oven and set aside.

About 10 minutes before you want to serve, put the chickpeas in a bowl and crush them a little with a potato masher or the end of a rolling pin - you want quite a rough texture, with some chickpeas left whole and others completely mashed. Add the chickpeas to the soup and leave to simmer for five minutes. Finally, stir in the toasted bread, and cook for another five minutes.

Taste the soup, and add salt and pepper liberally. Pour the hot soup into shallow soup bowls, place a spoonful of pesto in the centre, drizzle with plenty of olive oil and finish with a generous scattering of freshly shredded basil.

Crispy skinned Mackeral with Asian Inspired dressing

1 mug of basmati rice
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 x 170g mackerel, skin on, butterflied and pin-boned
1 lemon
1 spring onion, trimmed and finely sliced
Couple of sprigs of fresh coriander, leaves picked and chopped
Couple of sprigs of fresh mint, leaves picked
1 fresh red chilli, finely sliced (optional)

For the sauce

1 clove of garlic, peeled
1cm piece fresh ginger
1 spring onion, trimmed
1 fresh red chilli
2 limes
Couple of sprigs of coriander, leaves picked
4 tsp sesame oil
4 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp runny honey
Extra virgin olive oil
Method

Put a griddle pan on a high heat to get really hot. Add the rice to a pan with 2 mugs of boiling water and a pinch of salt. Bring to the boil on a high heat then turn the heat down to low, cover and leave for 7 to 8 minutes.

Once the griddle is screaming hot, add the mackerel skin-side down (you may need to do this in batches). Use a fish slice to press the fish onto the pan. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper and finely grate over the zest of a lemon. Reduce to a medium-high heat and cook for about 8 minutes in total.

Meanwhile, make your sauce. Use a fine grater to carefully grate the garlic, ginger, spring onion and chilli into a small bowl. Grate in the lime zest and mix, you should have a lovely slurry. Tear in the coriander leaves, add the sesame oil, soy sauce, honey and squeeze in the juice of the limes. Finish with a good lug of extra virgin olive oil then have a taste – you want to have a balance between sweet, sour, heat and fragrance.

Check the mackerel, they should be lovely and dark on the skin side so carefully flip them over to finish cooking for a final few seconds. Check your rice; all of the water should have been absorbed. Divide the rice between your plates, top each portion with a piece of mackerel then drizzle over some of that gorgeous sauce. Scatter over the spring onion, mint, coriander and chilli, if using.

The "Case Histories" Meeting

2011-02-07T12:13:00.004Z

Meeting at Fran's on 18th January 2011

Menu

Naan bread
Frijolemole
Salsa

Potato Dauphinoise
Cranks Celery Cucumber and Grape Salad
Tangy Courgette Salad
Green Salad

Fruit Salad
Champagne Sorbet
Black Cherry Sorbet

Recipes

Tangy Courgette Salad

1lb small courgettes
Lemon grated rind and juice of 1
1 crushed garlic clove
3 tbsp oil
salt and pepper

Thinly slice the courgettes. Pour boiling water over and leave for 5 minutes. Drain. Cobine remaining ingredients and pour over the courgettes, add seasoning to taste. Cover and leave to cool.
I added a handful of roasted pinenuts to serve too

Celery, Cucumber and Grape Salad

4 celery sticks
half a cucumber
8oz red grapes
small handful walnuts

Dressing
quarter pint natural yoghurt
1 tsp Honey
1 tsp french mustard
seasoning

Chop celery. slice cucumber,halve the grapes. Put all into a bowl and mix salad dressing ingredients and then pour over top and toss - season to taste.

SB1 reading Now - Sarah's choice

2011-02-02T16:27:00.001Z

In a sublime story cycle, Kazuo Ishiguro explores ideas of love, music and the passing of time. From the piazzas of Italy to the Malvern Hills, a London flat to the ‘hush-hush floor’ of an exclusive Hollywood hotel, the characters we encounter range from young dreamers to cafe musicians to faded stars, all of them at some moment of reckoning. Gentle, intimate and witty, this quintet is marked by a haunting theme: the struggle to keep alive a sense of life’s romance, even as one gets older, relationships flounder and youthful hopes recede.

Meeting 28th February 2011

SB2 Reading Now - My choice

2011-02-02T16:26:00.002Z

At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own...The reverberations call into question the relationships between all those who witness it. At a suburban barbecue one afternoon, a man slaps an unruly 3-year-old boy. The boy is not his son. It is a single act of violence, but this one slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen. In his controversial, award-winning novel, Christos Tsiolkas presents an apparently harmless domestic incident as seen from eight very different perspectives. The result is an unflinching interrogation of our lives today; of the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century, a deeply thought-provoking novel about boundaries and their limits...

Meeting March 1st 2011

The "Cemetery of Secrets" meeting for Christmas dinner

2011-01-10T16:44:00.008Z

Meeting at Angela's on 8th December 2010

Menu

Smoked salmon and horseradish creme fraiche canapes

Ottolenghi's Pumpkin, saffron & orange soup with caramelised pumpkin seeds

Cabbage cake filled with chestnuts, rice, and veggies......
Potato Dauphinoise
Cheesy broccoli with stilton

Delia Smiths Chocolate torte

Cheeses

Recipes

Pumpkin, saffron & orange soup with caramelised pumpkin seeds

Pumpkin, saffron and orange soup with caramelised pumplin seeds. Photograph: Colin Campbell
If there is one time for subtlety in the whole Christmas affair, it is at the beginning of the meal, when you are just about to start stuffing yourself crazy but there is still a sense of civility in the air and you can appreciate something like the warming, light harmony of orange and saffron. We'd like to thank Claudine Boulstridge for developing this recipe, and for greatly helping with the others. Serves six

2 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
550g pumpkin flesh, cut into 2cm cubes
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
1 tsp saffron fronds
1 litre water or vegetable stock
2 tsp grated orange zest
6 tbsp crème fraîche
Salt and white pepper

For the pumpkin seeds

1 tbsp sunflower oil
60g pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp golden (or maple) syrup
½ tbsp soft brown sugar
½ tsp salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 big pinch cayenne pepper

First prepare the seeds. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Line an oven tray with greaseproof paper and brush with sunflower oil. Put the pumpkin seeds in a bowl with all the other ingredients, spread over the tray and bake for 12-15 minutes, stirring a few times, until a nice, golden colour. Leave to cool down.

Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan, add the onion, season and sauté over high heat for a minute, stirring all the time. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft, sweet and golden brown, but not very dark.

Add the pumpkin, carrot and saffron, pour in water or stock to cover the vegetables and bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes, until the pumpkin and carrots are almost tender. Add the orange zest and simmer for five minutes longer. When the vegetables are thoroughly cooked, blitz the soup with a hand blender or liquidiser - you want it with a bit of texture, not too smooth. Add extra water or stock if it is too thick. Season to taste.

Serve in shallow bowls with a dollop of crème fraîche and a sprinkling of the caramelised seeds.

Delia Smith's Chocolate Torte

3 oz (75 g) Amaretti biscuits, crushed finely with a rolling pin
1 lb (450 g) dark chocolate (75 per cent cocoa solids) – the best quality possible
5 tablespoons liquid glucose
5 tablespoons rum
1 pint (570 ml) double cream, at room temperature
To serve:
cocoa powder for dusting
chilled single pouring cream

Method

Start off by sprinkling the crushed biscuits all over the base of the tin. Next, break the chocolate into sections and put them in a heatproof bowl together with the liquid glucose and the rum. Fit the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, then leave it until the chocolate has melted and become quite smooth. Stir, then take off the heat and leave the mixture to cool for 5 minutes or so until it feels just warm.

Now, in a separate bowl, beat the cream until only very slightly thickened. Fold half into the chocolate mixture and then fold that mixture into the rest of the cream. When it is smoothly blended, spoon it into the prepared tin. Tap the tin gently to even the mixture out, cover with clingfilm and chill overnight. Just before serving, run a palette knife round the edge to loosen the torte, then give it a good shake and turn the whole thing out on to a serving plate (don't be nervous about this – it's very well behaved).

To serve, dust the surface with sifted cocoa powder and, if you like, mark the top into serving sections. Have some chilled pouring cream to go with it; if you have any, a couple of tablespoons of amaretto liqueur makes a wonderful addition to the cream

The "The Lacuna" Meeting

2011-01-10T16:28:00.004Z

Meeting at Muff's on 22nd November

Menu

Margaritas, Mexican Beer and guacamole with tortilla chips

Rustic Tortilla Soup/ Stew a la Jamie Oliver
Mexican cous cous with spices, olives, peppers etc
Avocado

Fruit salad

Recipes

Jamie Olivers Rustic Tortilla Soup
Serves 4

For the soup

Olive oil

1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed

2 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

2 green peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped

2 yellow peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped

2 large tomatoes, roughly chopped

2 fresh bay leaves

2 chicken stock cubes, preferably organic

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the garnishes

1 ripe avocado

1 lime

1 fresh green chilli, finely sliced

2 large handfuls of tortilla chips

1 heaped tsp dried sage

Put a large pan on a low to medium heat and pour in a good lug of olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots and peppers and fry gently for 10-15 minutes, until softened, stirring every so often so they don’t catch on the bottom of the pan.

Add the chopped fresh tomatoes and bay leaves, crumble in the stock cubes and add the tinned tomatoes. Pour in about 2 tomato tins’ worth of water, then bring to the boil and turn down to a simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Heat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4. While the soup blips away, peel and stone your avocado and dice into 1cm cubes. Put these on a plate, grate over some lime zest and squeeze on the juice to keep the avocado from turning brown. Put in the centre of the table next to a plate with your slices of green chilli.

Lay your tortilla chips on a baking tray, drizzle with a good lug of olive oil and sprinkle over the dried sage. Heat in the oven for a few minutes until warmed through. Meanwhile, check on your soup. If you like it looser, you can add a bit of water to it at this point; if you like your soups thicker, you can leave it to cook for a bit longer. I quite like to mash the soup up a little to get a bit of pulpiness going, but if you like it chunky, leave it as is. Have a taste, season, then give it a stir and taste it again.

Once you’re happy with the flavours, divide the soup between bowls and take them to the table, with the warm tortilla chips.

SB2 Reading Now - Angela's choice

2011-01-10T16:24:00.004Z

Cambridge is sweltering, during an unusually hot summer. To Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, the world consists of one accounting sheet – Lost on the left, Found on the right – and the two never seem to balance.

Jackson has never felt at home in Cambridge, and has a failed marriage to prove it. Surrounded by death, intrigue and misfortune, his own life haunted by a family tragedy, he attempts to unravel three disparate case histories and begins to realise that in spite of apparent diversity, everything is connected…

Meeting 18th January 2011

SB1 Reading Now - Lorna's choice

2011-01-10T16:22:00.002Z

Winner of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2009, this title is an international bestseller. At a suburban barbecue, a man slaps a child who is not his own...The reverberations call into question the relationships between all those who witness it. At a suburban barbecue one afternoon, a man slaps an unruly 3-year-old boy. The boy is not his son. It is a single act of violence, but this one slap reverberates through the lives of everyone who witnesses it happen. In his controversial, award-winning novel, Christos Tsiolkas presents an apparently harmless domestic incident as seen from eight very different perspectives. The result is an unflinching interrogation of our lives today; of the modern family and domestic life in the twenty-first century, a deeply thought-provoking novel about boundaries and their limits...

Meeting was 20th December but cancelled due to snow and ice.
Meeting now January 24th

The "Music and Silence" meeting

2010-11-10T10:20:00.004Z

Meeting at Siobhan's 2nd November

Also added a couple photos of Blaze, an adorable litle terrier who grins when she has her tummy tickled

Menu

Chips and dips

Goats cheese and caramelised onion tart
Roasted vegetable tart
Roasted tomato and cheese tart

Tomato pepper and mozzarella salad
Green bean, feta, pinenut and lemon salad

Trifle

The " Girl with a Dragon Tattoo" meeting

2010-11-10T10:04:00.004Z

Meeting at Nina's 18th October

Menu

Muff's homemade houmous with tortillas

Fish pie
Pea puree with mint and cream
Chanterelle carrots with roasted seeds

Lemon cheesecake
Gu chocolate brownies
Chocolate seashells

SB1 Reading Now - Muff's choice

2010-11-06T15:52:00.002Z

The Lacuna is the heartbreaking story of a man’s search for safety of a man torn beween the warm heart of Mexico and the cold embrace of 1950s McCarthyite America. Born in the U.S. and reared in Mexico, Harrison Shepherd is a liability to his social-climbing flapper mother, Salomé. Making himself useful in the household of the famed Mexican artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo, and exiled Bolshevik leader Lev Trotsky, young Shepherd inadvertently casts his lot with art and revolution. A violent upheaval sends him north to a nation newly caught up in World War II. In the mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina he remakes himself in America’s hopeful image. But political winds continue to throw him between north and south, in a plot that turns many times on the unspeakable breach – the lacuna – between truth and public presumption. A gripping story of identity, loyalty and the devastating power of accusations to destroy innocent people. The Lacuna is as deep and rich as the New World.

Meeting November 22nd

SB2 - Reading Now - Fran's choice

2010-10-17T17:08:00.001+01:00

In the ancient burial ground of San Michele on an island off Venice, a young woman’s casket is prised open, an object wrenched from her hands, and an extraordinary story begins.

Young academic Daniel Forster arrives in Venice working for the summer in the library of a private collector. When his employer sends him to buy a stolen violin from a petty thief, he ignites a chain of violence, deception, intrigue and murder. Daniel is drawn into the police investigation surrounding a beautiful woman, a mysterious palazzo and a lost musical masterpiece dating back to 1733.

Separated by centuries, two tales of passion, betrayal and danger collide transporting the reader from the intrigue of Vivaldi’s Venice to the gritty world of a modern detective. From the genius of prodigy to the greed of a killer, The Cemetery of Secrets builds to a shattering crescendo – and one last, breathtaking surprise.

Meeting sometime in November!

SB2 - Reading Now - Siobhan's Choice

2010-10-17T16:53:00.003+01:00

In the year 1629, a young English lutenist named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal Orchestra. From the moment when he realises that the musicians have to perform in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, he understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light and dark, good and evil are waging war to the death. MUSIC & SILENCE tells a story that is both violent and tender, shocking and consoling. This is a bold, uncompromising, wildly original book which demonstrates that in the day-to-day business of living, as in a fairy tale, not everything is totally black, nor wholly white

Meeting Tuesday 2nd November

The "The Secret Life of Bees" meeting

2010-10-17T16:47:00.002+01:00

Meeting at Sorrel's 14th September

Menu

Nigella's Sweetcorn chowder

Butternut squash and feta backe
Roasted peppers
Green salad

Honey Cake

Recipes

Sweetcorn Chowder with tortillas

1kg frozen sweetcorn, defrosted
3 spring onions, each one debearded and halved
1 clove garlic, peeled
35g semolina
1.5 litres hot vegetable stock made from concentrate or cube
400g lightly salted tortilla chips
200g grated cheese
2 long red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.
Drain the sweetcorn and put into a food processor with the spring onions, garlic and semolina. Blitz to a speckled primrose mush; unless you have a big processor you may have to do this in two batches.
Tip this mixture into a large saucepan, add the hot vegetable stock and bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and let the chowder simmer, partially covered for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, spread the tortilla chips out on a foil-lined baking sheet and sprinkle the cheese over. Warm in the hot oven for 5-10 minutes or until the cheese melts over the chips.
Ladle the soup into bowls and put a small mound of cheese-molten chips into the middle of each bowl. Sprinkle some of the red chilli on top

Honey Cake

Ingredients

170g/6oz clear honey
140g/5oz butter
85g/3oz light muscovado sugar
2 eggs, beaten
200g/7oz self raising flour, sieved
water
For the icing
55g/2oz icing sugar
1 tbsp clear honey
hot water
Preparation method
Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 3 and butter and line the bottom of a 7in/18cm cake tin.
Measure the honey, butter and sugar into a large pan. Add a tablespoon of water and heat gently until melted.
Remove from the heat and mix in the eggs and flour.
Spoon into the cake tin and bake for 40-45 minutes until the cake is springy to the touch and shrinking slightly from the sides of the tin.
Cool slightly in the tin before turning out onto a wire rack.
While the cake is still warm, make the icing by mixing the sugar and honey together with 2-3 teaspoons of hot water. Trickle over the cake in whatever design takes your fancy.

The "The Piano Tuner" Meeting

2010-10-09T11:26:00.005+01:00

Meeting at Iona's 7th September 2010

Menu

Cheesey tarts in parmesan pastry
Green salad
Potato Salad

Sarah's homemade Key Lime Pie
Chocolate Torte

SB1 Reading Now - Nina's choice

2010-09-19T21:52:00.004+01:00

Financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist has made his living uncovering the corrupt and crooked practices of Stockholm's leading financiers in his magazine, Millennium. But one expose unexpectedly backfires, and Blomkvist's reputation is in tatters. When he is offered an investigative job by powerful businessman Henrik Vanger, he is in no position to refuse. But he is surprised to find it has nothing to do with high finance - this time, it is a case of murder.
Many years ago, Henrik's niece, Harriet, disappeared during a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the Vangers. No-one saw her leave the island, and no body was ever found. Even so, Henrik is convinced that she was murdered by a member of his own family - the tightly knit but dysfunctional Vanger clan.
Blomkvist is soon in over his head. He has linked Harriet's disappearance to a number of gruesome murders from forty years ago, but it has become too dangerous to proceed alone. He needs a competent assistant, and he gets one: the gifted and conscience-free computer specialist, Lisbeth Salander. This truculent young woman has problems of her own. She in unwilling to take orders, rides a motorbike like a Hell's Angel and handles makeshift weapons with a skill born of rage.
This improbably pair unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

Meeting 18th October 2010

SB1 Reading Now - Sorrel's choice

2010-07-13T11:19:00.000+01:00

Lily has grown up believing she accidentally killed her mother when she was four. She not only has her own memory of holding the gun, but her father's account of the event. Now fourteen, she yearns for her mother, and for forgiveness. Living on a peach farm in South Carolina with her father, she has only one friend: Rosaleen, a black servant whose sharp exterior hides a tender heart. South Carolina in the sixties is a place where segregation is still considered a cause worth fighting for. When racial tension explodes one summer afternoon, and Rosaleen is arrested and beaten, Lily is compelled to act. Fugitives from justice and from Lily's harsh and unyielding father, they follow a trail left by the woman who died ten years before. Finding sanctuary in the home of three beekeeping sisters, Lily starts a journey as much about her understanding of the world, as about the mystery surrounding her mother.

Meeting 13th September

SB2 Reading Now - Iona's choice

2010-07-12T20:37:00.001+01:00

On a misty London afternoon in 1886, piano tuner Edgar Drake receives a strange request from the War Office: he must leave his wife, and his quiet life in London, to travel to the jungles of Burma to tune a rare Erhard grand piano. The piano belongs to Surgeon-Major Anthony Carroll, an enigmatic British officer, whose success at making peace in the war-torn Shan States is legendary, but whose unorthodox methods have begun to attract suspicion.

So begins the journey of the soft-spoken Edgar across Europe, the Red Sea, India, Burma, and at last into the remote highlands of the Shan States. En route he is entranced by the Doctor's letters and by the shifting cast of tale-spinners, soldiers and thieves who cross his path.

As his captivation grows, however, so do his questions: about the Doctor's true motives, about an enchanting and elusive woman who travels with him into the jungle, about why he came. And, ultimately, whether he will ever be able to return home unchanged to the woman who awaits him there . . .

Sensuous and lyrical, rich with passion and adventure, THE PIANO TUNER is an unforgettable and haunting novel.

Meeting September 7th 2010

The " Cellist of Sarajevo" meeting

2010-07-12T20:29:00.004+01:00

Meeting at Susan's 29th June 2010

So sorry to have missed the meeting.

Siobhan reported on a lovely evening and Angela took the lovely photos...

"We had olives, crisps & dip.Susan provided a quiche - by Cook! And salad leaves from her garden, new potatoes & tomato salad.Angela brought tomatoe, mozarella & basil salad.I brought a mushroom, garlic & balsamic vinegar salad - as u were not there to partake! Plus champagne.Sarah may have brought the potatoes actually ...? Iona brought a blueberry cheesecake we had with cream."

"We enjoyed a lovely evening at Susan's in the garden and Sarah, Angela and I didn't get home till 1am! We all enjoyed the book and it got the thumbs up all round as none of us had much insight to the war in Sarajavo"

The " The Guernsey and Literacy Potato Peel Pie Society" meeting

2010-06-22T19:58:00.002+01:00

Meeting at Lorna's for Heidi's choice June 14th 2010

Menu

Mackeral on the grill
Tomato and avocado salad
Green seeded salad
Potato Salad
Sourdough Bread

Figs in honey
Fresh peaches
Selection of cheeses

SB1 Reading Now - My choice

2010-06-22T19:55:00.003+01:00

Jem is a joyful mystery to Alice. She is something to give thanks for. And when she disappears from Alice's life, as suddenly as she entered it, a whirl of glamour, subversion and literary references, Alice is left bereft. But then she meets Giovanni, presumptuous and hectoring, passionate and beautiful, who leads her back to her childhood friend and the mystery and chaos still surrounding her. Alice finds herself being seduced all over again

Meeting 19th July 2010

The "31 Songs" meeting

2010-05-30T11:41:00.000+01:00

Meeting at Sarah's 25th May 2010

Menu

Tomato mozzarella and avocado salad

Spinach and feta in filo pie
Tomato and olive and balsamic dressing salad
Potato salad
Radish tsatiki
Green salad

Gu Chocolate brownies with berries and creme fraiche

The "The Song Is You" Meeting

2010-05-29T11:00:00.001+01:00

Meeting at my house 27th April 2010

Menu

Olives and crisps and dip

Parsnip and Squash soup with creme fraiche

Roasted veggie Strudel
Green Bean salad
Green salad
Leek and Potato cakes

Rhubarb Cheesecake

SB2 - Reading Now - Susan's choice

2010-05-28T10:57:00.000+01:00

This is the top 10 bestseller, now in paperback. Snipers in the hills overlook the shattered streets of Sarajevo. Knowing that the next bullet could strike at any moment, the ordinary men and women below strive to go about their daily lives as best they can. Kenan faces the agonizing dilemma of crossing the city to get water for his family. Dragan, gripped by fear, does not know who among his friends he can trust. And Arrow, a young woman counter-sniper must push herself to the limits - of body and soul, fear and humanity.Told with immediacy, grace and harrowing emotional accuracy, "The Cellist of Sarajevo" shows how, when the everyday act of crossing the street can risk lives, the human spirit is revealed in all its fortitude - and frailty.

Meeting 29th June

SB1 Reading Now - Heidi's choice

2010-05-27T10:54:00.001+01:00

The "The White Lioness" Meeting

2010-05-26T11:31:00.000+01:00

Meeting at Heidi's ( for Sarah) 11th May 2010

Menu

Spicy chilli garlic prawns with green salad and crusty bread

Jamie Oliver's Kedgeree
Green beans
Avocado salad

Berries and brownies

Kedgeree

• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 250g basmati rice
• 4 large eggs, preferably free-range or organic
• 2 fresh bay leaves
• 2 lemons
• 500g undyed smoked haddock fillets, skin off, bones removed
• olive oil
• a knob of butter
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• a small bunch of fresh coriander, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
• 1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
• 1 heaped tablespoon Madras curry paste
• natural yoghurt, to serve

Bring 2 large pans of salted water to the boil. Wash the rice in a sieve until the water runs clear and all of the starch has been washed away. Add the rice to one of the pans and cook for 2 minutes less than the cooking instructions. Add the eggs and bay leaves to the other pan and squeeze in the juice of ½ a lemon. Add the squeezed lemon half to the pan too and leave to simmer for 7 to 8 minutes, adding the haddock halfway through.

Meanwhile, get a large frying pan on a medium heat and add a lug of olive oil and a knob of butter. Once hot, tip in the onion and fry for a couple of minutes, then add the coriander stalks and chilli and leave them to sweat away so they get lovely and sweet. The slower you cook them, the sweeter they’ll be.

When the rice is cooked, drain it, and put aside. After 3 to 4 minutes of cooking, your haddock should be flaking apart, so carefully pour most of the water down the sink. Transfer the eggs to a colander and rinse them under the cold tap until they’re cool enough to peel. Discard the bay leaves and lemon half.

Add the curry paste to the pan of onions and stir it through. Fry for 5 more minutes then take the pan off the heat. Tip in your rice and stir it through – don’t totally mix it though, it’s nice to have a bit of a marbled effect. Roughly chop your peeled eggs into the pan, then flake over the haddock. Roughly chop the coriander leaves and add most of them to the pan with the juice from the remaining lemon. Gently fold it all together.

Pop the pan on a low heat for 5 minutes to get nice and hot, then have a taste and adjust the seasoning. You shouldn’t need too much as the smoked fish gives it lots of flavour. Get a fork and fold it over a few times to keep it nice and light. When you hear a great sizzling, take it off the heat, scatter over the reserved coriander, and pop some lemon wedges on the side for squeezing over

"The Road" Meeting

2010-05-26T10:34:00.005+01:00

Meeting at Sarah's ( for Lorna's book) Monday 29th March

Menu

Avocado and parmesan Caesar Salad
Ciabatta Bread

Mediterranean Salmon
Puy Lentils
Potato Gratin
Broccoli

Chocolate Mousse
Cheeses

SB2 Reading Now - Sarah's choice

2010-04-21T12:07:00.002+01:00

Meeting at Sarah's May 25th

Amazon.co.uk Review
There is nothing quite so incomprehensible as love: 31 Songs is Nick Hornby's account of a selection of the music that lives deep in his heart and it is beside the point that most of us would make radically different selections. He makes some useful distinctions--these are not songs he loves for their associations so much as particular songs through which he learned more about his capacity for loving songs in general. Along the way, he talks movingly and intelligently about other matters on which those songs impinge--his relationship with his autistic son, his limited but real capacity for spirituality--but the songs rather than Hornby and his life are his real subject. It would be almost impossible to read this book and not get caught up in at least some of Hornby's enthusiasms--where you read thrillers trying not to cheat by looking at the end, here you spend time hoping the discography will be as good as the rest of it, and of course it is. The book is a serious attempt to define what it is about rock and pop that speaks to us in ways other types of music might not; those who either do not share Hornby's tastes or who have more eclectic ones will find it a useful and enlightening explication of what rock and pop do. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
'I decided that I wanted to write a little book of essays about songs I loved ... Songs are what I listen to, almost to the exclusion of everything else.' In his first non-fiction work since Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby writes about 31 songs that either have some great significance in his life - or are just songs that he loves. He discusses, among other things, guitar solos and losing your virginity to a Rod Stewart song and singers whose teeth whistle and the sort of music you hear in Body Shop. 'The soundtrack to his life ... a revealing insight into one of Britain's most popular writers' Evening Standard
About the Author
Nick Hornby was born in 1957. He is the author of two other non-fiction titles, Fever Pitch and The Complete Polysyllabic Spree (2006), four novels, High Fidelity, About A Boy and How To Be Good A Long Way Down. He lives in Highbury, north London.

SB1 reading Now - Sarah's choice

2010-03-31T19:14:00.002+01:00

In peaceful southern Sweden, Louise Akerblom, an estate agent, pillar of the Methodist church, wife and mother, disappears. There is no explanation and no motive. Inspector Kurt Wallander and his team are called in to investigate. As Inspector Wallander is introduced to this missing persons case, he has a gut feeling that the victim will never be found alive, but he has no idea how far he will have to go in search of the killer. In South Africa, meanwhile Nelson Mandela has made his long walk to freedom. Wallander find himself caught up in a conspiracy involving renegade members of the South African secret service and a former KGB agent, all of them set upon halting Mandela's rise to power. Faced with a world in which terrorism knows no frontiers, Wallander must prevent a hideous crime that means to dam the tide of history.

Meeting Tuesday May 11th

SB2 Reading Now - My choice

2010-03-24T14:55:00.003Z

Julian Donahue is in love with his iPod. Each song triggers a memory - there's one for the day when he met his wife-to-be, and another for the day his son was born. But when a tragedy tears his family apart, even music loses its hold on him. Then, one snowy night in Brooklyn, he stumbles into a bar where a young Irish woman with a shock of dark red hair sings with a voice that demands his attention. Though they do not meet, a strange and unlikely love affair is ignited, and his life's soundtrack starts to play again. Cait O'Dwyer's star is on the rise, and from an anonymous distance Julian guides her along the path to fame - and she responds to the one voice who seems to understand her. As their entanglement deepens, they face the prospect of an inevitable, impossible meeting. What follows is a love story and a uniquely heart-breaking dark comedy about obsession and loss.

Meeting 31st March 2010

The "Juliet Naked" Meeting

2010-03-03T14:13:00.006Z

Meeting at Angela's 2nd March 2010

Menu

Brushetta with beans, roasted peppers, feta and tomatoes
Brushetta with onions, tomatoes, cornish yarg

Asparagus, blue cheese and walnut souffles
Pea Puree
Potato
Mozzarella and tomato salad
Green salad with bean/pea sprouts, fruit, watercress

Lemon Meringue Pie
Lemon Cheesecake

Recipes

Asparagus and Gorgonzola soufflé

400g Asparagus
Salt, and freshly ground pepper
50g Butter, plus extra for greasing
3 tbsp '00' flour
200ml full-fat Milk
4 Eggs, separated
120g Gorgonzola cheese, chopped into small cubes
Conversion Calculator
Method
1. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add in the asparagus and boil until tender, around 3-5 minutes.

2. Drain, allow to cool and chop finely.

3. Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas 5.

4. Melt the butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan and add in the chopped asparagus, cooking it for 1-2 minutes, allowing excess moisture to evaporate.

5. Add in the flour and cook very gently for a further minute.

6. Stir in the milk, season with salt and freshly ground pepper and slowly bring to the boil, stirring often. Reduce the heat and cook gently, stirring, until thickened.

7. Once ready, cool slightly and then gradually beat in the egg yolks, adding in a little at a time and 60g of the Gorgonzola cheese.

8. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff and gently fold into the asparagus mixture.

9. Place the asparagus mixture in a well-buttered 1.3 litre soufflé dish and sprinkle with the remaining Gorgonzola cheese.

10. Bake in the middle the oven for 25-30 minutes until well risen. Serve immediately.

Pea Puree

salt and freshly ground black pepper
450g fresh or frozen Peas
75ml Olive oil
1 squeeze lemon juice

Method
1. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil with 1 teaspoon of salt.

2. Tip in the peas and cook for 2–3 minutes (or a further minute for frozen peas) or until just soft, then drain well.

3. Blend in a food processor or with a hand-held blender with the olive oil until smooth. Add lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients
225 g ready-made shortcrust pastry
3 tbsp cornflour
150 ml water
grated zest and juice of 3 Lemons
160g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
3 Eggs, separated
thick double cream, to serve
Conversion Calculator
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas 7.

2. Roll out the pastry and use it to line a 23cm flan case or deep pie plate. Trim the edges, line with baking parchment, fill with baking beans and bake blind in the oven for 15 minutes.

3. Remove the paper and baking beans and return the pastry case to the oven for 5 minutes to dry the pastry out. Remove from the oven and set aside.

4. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/gas 4.

5. Mix the cornflour with the water in a small saucepan. Add in the lemon zest and juice and bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the mixture thickens, then add in 50g of sugar.

6. Take off the heat and leave the mixture to cool for 10 minutes.

7. Beat in the egg yolks, mixing well.

8. Pour the cornflour mixture into the pastry case.

9. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Whisk in 55g of caster sugar, then gently fold in the remaining sugar with a large spoon.

10. Pile the whisked egg white on top of the lemon filling. Sprinkle with a little caster sugar and bake for 10 minutes or until the meringue is lightly browned.

11. Serve warm or cold with thick double cream!

SB1 Reading Now - Lorna's choice

2010-02-27T18:37:00.002Z

Meeting March 29th at Lorna's

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is grey. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food – and each other.

The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, ‘each the other’s world entire’, are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation.

SB2 Reading Now - Angela's choice

2010-02-27T18:35:00.001Z

Meeting 2nd March 2010

Nick Hornby returns to his roots - music and messy relationships - in this funny and touching new novel which thoughtfully and sympathetically looks at how lives can be wasted but how they are never beyond redemption. Annie lives in a dull town on England's bleak east coast and is in a relationship with Duncan which mirrors the place; Tucker was once a brilliant songwriter and performer, who's gone into seclusion in rural America - or at least that's what his fans think. Duncan is obsessed with Tucker's work, to the point of derangement, and when Annie dares to go public on her dislike of his latest album, there are quite unexpected, life-changing consequences for all three. Nick Hornby uses this intriguing canvas to explore why it is we so often let the early promise of relationships, ambition and indeed life evaporate. And he comes to some surprisingly optimistic conclusions.

The "The White Tiger" Meeting at Siobhan's

2010-02-27T18:04:00.007Z

Meeting January 26th 2010

Menu

This was an evening of fantastic flavours and huge portions!

Chutneys, Poppodums, Cobra Beer
Spicey Lentil Dahl soup with Naan Bread

Lentil Fritters

Roasted Root Veg Kebabs
Tandoori Chicken Kebabs

Sweet almond veggie curry
(one with plaintain)

Aubergine and Lentil Boboti

Jewelled rice pudding with fruit and nuts

The "The White Tiger" meeting at Muff's

2010-02-27T17:50:00.002Z

Meeting 2nd February 2010

Menu

Mango Chutney
Bombay Mix
Onion Bhajis
Veggie Samosas
Potato Pakora

Fish Curry - ( salmon, smoked haddock and prawns)
Rice
Naan Bread
Lentil Dahl
Potato and Spinach Curry
Cucumber raiti

Pineapple, Mango and Grapes

The "The Luminous Life of Lily Aphrodite" Meeting

2010-02-27T17:27:00.005Z

Meeting at Nina's 18th January 2010

Menu

Cannellini Bean and Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta

Roast Cod
Cous Cous and pomegranite
Green Salad with Roasted Veggies
Carrot and Swede Gratin

Chocolate Brownies and icecream

Cheeses and crackers

Recipes

Bruschetta
Toast sourdough lightly and rub sides with cut clove garlic
Spread with olive tapanade
Mix piled on top was roasted tomatoes, red peppers, garlic mixed with green beans and feta cheese

Potato, celeriac, carrot and swede gratin

Ingredients
750g small, similar-size potatoes, such as Maris Piper or King Edward
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 small (about 350g) celeriac
1 small (about 350g) swede
450g carrots
125g butter
3 garlic cloves, crushed
Small handful of fresh thyme sprigs, leaves picked
75ml vegetable stock, hot
Method
1. Use the slicing disc on your food processor to thinly slice the potatoes (you might have to halve them if they don’t fit into the feeder tube). Set aside in a bowl, cover with cold water and add a squeeze of lemon juice, to prevent discolouring.
2. Cut the celeriac and swede into pieces that will fit into the feeder tube, and thinly slice each as before. Set aside with the potatoes, making sure they’re covered in the acidulated water. Thinly slice the carrots.
3. Preheat the oven to 190C/fan170C/gas 5. Melt the butter in a small pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the thyme, then remove from the heat. Brush some of the thyme butter in a 1.8-litre ovenproof dish, about 6cm deep.
4. Drain the potatoes, celeriac and swede and pat dry with a clean tea towel. Arrange a third of the potatoes in a layer in the dish, slightly overlapping. Brush with more thyme butter, season, then layer up with celeriac, then another layer of potato. Butter, season and layer with carrot, more butter and then the swede. Press the layers down well, then brush with butter and finish with the remaining potatoes, overlapping to give a neat finish. Drizzle with any remaining butter.
5. Pour the stock into the dish around the edges, cover with foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake in the oven for 50 minutes, until tender.
6. Increase the oven to 200C/fan180C/gas 6. Uncover the gratin and bake for a further 30 minutes, until golden.

Spicy Couscous
serves 8

Ingredients
675g/ 1lb 8oz couscous
100g/ 4oz golden sultanas
heaped ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
heaped ½ tsp paprika
heaped ½ tsp ground cumin
heaped ½ tsp ground coriander
2½ tsp salt
1 litre/ 1¾ pints freshly boiled water
5½ tbsp vegetable stock
1½ tbsp butter or olive oil
1 pomegranate
handful fresh coriander, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
1. Place the couscous, sultanas, spices and salt into a and mix well.

2. Add the freshly boiled water to the bowl and then cover the bowl . Leave the mixture to sit for 10-15 minutes, until the water has been absorbed by the couscous.

3. stir the couscous with a fork to separate the grains.

4. Add the vegetable stock and the butter or olive oil to the couscous.
. Stir the mixture again and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
place in a warm oven to heat through. Transfer the couscous to a serving dish.

5. Slice the pomegranate in half and extract about a quarter of the seeds by hitting the outer shell of the fruit with a rolling pin. Sprinkle them over the couscous with the chopped coriander and serve

SB1 Reading Now - Muff's choice

2010-01-22T13:32:00.002Z

It occasionally happens that both groups read/choose the same book!!

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Winning the Man Booker prize is something that most authors dream of, although -- ironically -- the reputation of the prize itself was under siege a few years ago. Books that won the award were acquiring a reputation of being difficult and inaccessible, but those days appear to be over -- and unarguable proof may be found in the 2008 winner, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Apart from its considerable literary merit, the novel is the most compelling of pageturners (in the old-fashioned sense of that phrase) and offers a picture of modern India that is as evocative as it is unflattering. The protagonist, too, is drawn in the most masterly of fashion.
Balram Halwai, the eponymous ‘white tiger’, is a diminutive, overweight ex-teashop worker who now earns his living as a chauffeur. But this is only one side of his protean personality; he deals in confidence scams, over-ambitious business promotions (built on the shakiest of foundations) and enjoys approaching life with a philosophical turn of mind. But is Balram also a murderer? We learn the answer as we devour these 500 odd pages. Born into an impoverished family, Balram is removed from school by his parents in order to earn money in a thankless job: shop employee. He is forced into banal, mind-numbing work. But Balram dreams of escaping -- and a chance arises when a well-heeled village landlord takes him on as a chauffeur for his son (although the duties involve transporting the latter's wife and two Pomeranian dogs). From the rich new perspective offered to him in this more interesting job, Balram discovers New Delhi, and a vision of the city changes his life forever. His learning curve is very steep, and he quickly comes to believe that the way to the top is by the most expedient means. And if that involves committing the odd crime of violence, he persuades himself that this is what successful people must do."

The story of the amoral protagonist at the centre of this fascinating narrative is, of course, what keeps the reader comprehensively gripped, but perhaps the real achievement of the book is in its picture of two Indias: the bleak, soul-destroying poverty of village life and the glittering prizes to be found in the big city. The book cleverly avoids fulfilling any of the expectations a potential reader might have -- except that of instructing and entertaining. The White Tiger will have many readers anxious to see what Adiga will do next. --Barry Forshaw

Meeting 22nd February 2010

The " The Catastrophist" Meeting Christmas

2010-01-22T13:15:00.007Z

Meeting December 22nd at Fran's

Menu

French Onion Soup

Goats cheese and cranberry in filo pastry
Potato Dauphinoise
Mixed green pomegranite salad

Coconut glittery cupcakes
Green and Blacks Vanilla icecream
Fruits of the Forest couli

Cheese, crackers and Figs

The "The Handmaid's Tale" meeting Christmas

2010-01-18T14:13:00.007Z

Menu

Roasted pumpkin and Orange soup with caramelised pumpkin seeds and creme fraiche

Potato boulangerie
Green beans
Green salad
Roasted Mediterranean vegetable filo roll

Date and Walnut Pudding
Green and Blacks Vanilla icecream

Meeting December 14th at Sorrel's

SB2 - Reading Now - Siobhan's Choice

2010-01-18T14:08:00.001Z

Amazon.co.uk Review
"Winning the Man Booker prize is something that most authors dream of, although -- ironically -- the reputation of the prize itself was under siege a few years ago. Books that won the award were acquiring a reputation of being difficult and inaccessible, but those days appear to be over -- and unarguable proof may be found in the 2008 winner, The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. Apart from its considerable literary merit, the novel is the most compelling of pageturners (in the old-fashioned sense of that phrase) and offers a picture of modern India that is as evocative as it is unflattering. The protagonist, too, is drawn in the most masterly of fashion.
Balram Halwai, the eponymous ‘white tiger’, is a diminutive, overweight ex-teashop worker who now earns his living as a chauffeur. But this is only one side of his protean personality; he deals in confidence scams, over-ambitious business promotions (built on the shakiest of foundations) and enjoys approaching life with a philosophical turn of mind. But is Balram also a murderer? We learn the answer as we devour these 500 odd pages. Born into an impoverished family, Balram is removed from school by his parents in order to earn money in a thankless job: shop employee. He is forced into banal, mind-numbing work. But Balram dreams of escaping -- and a chance arises when a well-heeled village landlord takes him on as a chauffeur for his son (although the duties involve transporting the latter's wife and two Pomeranian dogs). From the rich new perspective offered to him in this more interesting job, Balram discovers New Delhi, and a vision of the city changes his life forever. His learning curve is very steep, and he quickly comes to believe that the way to the top is by the most expedient means. And if that involves committing the odd crime of violence, he persuades himself that this is what successful people must do."

The story of the amoral protagonist at the centre of this fascinating narrative is, of course, what keeps the reader comprehensively gripped, but perhaps the real achievement of the book is in its picture of two Indias: the bleak, soul-destroying poverty of village life and the glittering prizes to be found in the big city. The book cleverly avoids fulfilling any of the expectations a potential reader might have -- except that of instructing and entertaining. The White Tiger will have many readers anxious to see what Adiga will do next. --Barry Forshaw

Meeting January 26th 2010

SB1 Reading Now - Nina's choice

2010-01-18T14:05:00.002Z

As the clock chimed the turn of the twentieth century, Lilly Nelly Aphrodite took her first breath. Born to a cabaret dancer and soon orphaned in a scandalous double murder, Lilly finds refuge at a Catholic orphanage, coming under the wing of the, at times, severe Sister August, the first in a string of lost loves. There she meets Hanne Schmidt, a teen prostitute, and forms a bond that will last them through tumultuous love affairs, disastrous marriages, and destitution during the First World War and the subsequent economic collapse. As the century progresses, Lilly and Hanne move from the tawdry glamour of the tingle-tangle nightclubs to the shadow world of health films before Lilly finds success and stardom in the new medium of motion pictures and ultimately falls in love with a man whose fate could cost her everything she has worked for or help her discover her true self. Gripping and darkly seductive, The Luminous Life of Lilly Aphrodite showcases all the glitter and splendour of the brief heyday of the Weimar Republic, and the rise of Hollywood to its golden age. As it foreshadows the horrors of the Second World War, the novel asks what price is paid when identity becomes unfixed and the social order is upended.

Meeting January 15th 2010

A Brand New Spinebreakers Baby

2010-01-18T10:51:00.002Z

Congratulations to Iona, Matthew, Hermione, Henry and Justis

Torin Smith
Born January 15th 2010
weighing 8lb 2oz

The "The Other Hand" meeting

2009-12-06T16:37:00.004Z

Meeting at Iona's
18th November 2009

Menu

Sourdough Bread
Minted Pea Soup

Savoury Cous-cous
Roasted Veggies
Green Salad

Plum Tarts

The "What was Lost" meeting

2009-12-06T16:20:00.004Z

Meeting at my house
16th November 2009

Menu

Olives and crisps
Stuffed vine leaves and raosted red peppers

Butternut Squash Risotto
Pea puree
Roasted veggie salad

Lemon cheescake with strawberries and raspberries

Recipes

Roasted butternut squash and sage risotto with pinenuts
Serves 4

Preparation time less than 30 mins
Cooking time 1 to 2 hours

By Jo' Pratt
From Nation's Favourite Food

Ingredients

1 large butternut squash
2 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
about 15 sage leaves, chopped
flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 large knobs of butter
1 large onion, chopped
400g/14oz arborio or other Italian risotto rice
2 glasses white wine
1 litre/1¾ pint hot chicken or vegetable stock
good handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese, plus extra to serve
75g/3oz pinenuts, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Cut the butternut squash into 6-8 wedges, remove the seeds and place in a roasting tray. Pound or chop the garlic and add a generous glug of olive oil, half the sage leaves, sea salt and pepper. Tip into the tray and rub over the butternut squash with your hands. Roast in the oven for 40-50 minutes until softened and becoming golden in colour.
3. Once the squash has cooked, cool slightly, then scrape the soft flesh away from the skin into a bowl. Lightly mash with a fork or potato masher until it is fairly chunky in texture. Scrape any sticky juices left in the roasting tray into the bowl and keep warm while making the risotto.
4. Heat the olive oil and a good knob of butter in a deep, heavy-based frying pan or saute pan. Gently fry the onion until softened. Add the rice and stir for about a minute until the grains are coated with the oil and butter. Pour in the wine and stir continuously until it has cooked into the rice. Add a good ladle of hot stock and the remaining sage and season well with salt and pepper. Turn the heat down so the stock is simmering gently. Keep adding ladles of stock as it cooks into the rice, stirring and moving the rice around in the pan. After about 15-20 minutes the rice should be soft but still have a bit of bite left in it. The texture of the risotto should be thick and creamy, but not too loose. Add extra stock if necessary. It may seem tedious standing and stirring but the end result will be worth it.
5. Remove the pan from the heat and gently stir the roasted butternut squash into the risotto with the parmesan, the remaining butter and seasoning to taste. Add any extra stock if the risotto seems particularly thick. Cover with a lid for a couple of minutes as this will give the risotto an even creamier texture.
6. During this time, place the pinenuts in a fairly hot frying pan and toss around until golden. Spoon the risotto into warmed bowls and scatter with the pinenuts and extra parmesan.

Pea Puree

Minted pea puree is quite a lot greener and very much posher than mushy peas. It's a simple recipe that quickly turns your forlorn frozen peas into the social climber of your meal table.
Serves 6
Ready in 20 minutes

Ingredients
25g butter
2 shallots or 1 small onion,
finely chopped
600g frozen peas
125ml vegetable stock
Small handful of fresh mint leaves

1. Melt the butter in a medium-sized saucepan over a medium heat. Add the shallots or onion and cook, stirring, for 4-5 minutes until softened. Add the frozen peas and vegetable stock and turn up the heat until the peas have thawed and are hot. Reduce the heat slightly and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the fresh mint leaves and cook for a further 5 minutes. Spoon the mixture into a food processor and blend to a puree - stop blending when you have the consistency you like. Season generously, return to the saucepan and heat well. If you prefer, you can make the puree several hours in advance, then just tip it into a bowl, cover and chill in the fridge. Reheat when needed

SB2 - Reading Now - Fran's choice

2009-11-23T16:59:00.002Z

Gillespie, an Irishman, goes to the Congo in 1959 in pursuit of his beautiful lover Inès, a passionate Italian journalist. Unlike her, Gillespie has no interest in the deepening independence crisis, nor in the charismatic leader, Patrice Lumumba. He has other business: this is his last chance to make love work for him.

Ronan Bennett was born and brought up in Belfast. He is the author of The Second Prison (which was shortlisted for the Irish Times/Aer Lingus prize) and Overthrown by Strangers. He has written screenplays for film and television, including the acclaimed Face, directed by Antionia Bird, and is currently working on an adaptation of Seamus Deane's Booker shortlisted Reading in the Dark.

Meeting 22nd December