Jesus catches up with the creative agency…

The seasons are finally a changing

Sometimes the seasons turn in a single day.

Today is one of those magical days.

The cool, wet of late winter is finally yielding to the warm, bright sunshine of spring.

Mother Nature has fulfilled her promise with blooms and blossoms, but Jack Frost has lingered, long after his due.

We’ve endured weeks of cold nights and chilly days.

Now, at long last the sun has got his hat on hip-hip-hip hooray !

Problem Solving

Productivity

A useful summary of four of the leading productivity methods:

Peach Mango Pie

Can’t resist Jollibee’s sweet, crispy peach mango pies.

Crunchy, fruity, crispy and sweet all served piping hot and ready to eat.

Yum !

Little Chef

In the mid-90s I used to drive my brother up to Newcastle University a few times a year.

It was a 300-mile round trip and we would do it in a day. An early start, box full of cassettes and a much-anticipated stop at a Little Chef on the way.

We always had the famous Little Chef ‘Olympic Breakfast’. A huge plate of eggs, sausage, beans, fried potatoes, tomato and mushrooms. All washed down with a large pot of tea.

Here it is in all its calorific glory:

How we ate all that and continued our journey without passing out, I do not know. The power of youth, I guess.

The feast was all the more enjoyable because, at the time, Dad used to get luncheon vouchers from the office. They were handed out to staff to help pay for lunch. I’m not entirely sure how they worked, but looking back they seemed a generous perk. Maybe the company thought it more cost-effective than a canteen.

Anyway, my Dad never used them. He would bring the little books of vouchers home and put them on the dresser in the kitchen.

Two hungry sons soon discovered these little blue books and worked out that they could be exchanged for food !

All we needed to do was look out for the green LV sticker in the window of participating cafes and restaurants. You presented the vouchers at the till to pay for your meal. There was no limit to the number of vouchers you could use. If you were lucky enough to have sufficient to pay for the whole meal then you ate for ‘free’.

Thanks to Dad’s lunchtime sandwich, made every morning before work, we almost always had a few thick books of vouchers for the journey north. So we invariably ate our huge Olympic breakfasts secure in the knowledge that we didn’t have to pay for them.

So, my brother and I would set off with a carload of uni gear and a stack of luncheon vouchers in search of a Little Chef and the University of Newcastle. In that order of importance !

Happy days !

Sadly, Little Chef is no more. As roadside dining evolved, Little Chef didn’t keep up. The restaurant chain was sold, taken over, put through a series of turnaround plans and eventually lost most of its prime locations on Britain’s major roadways.

These days you’re more likely to pull in to an American chain, like McDonalds, Burger King or Starbucks. The homegrown variants, like the trusty old Little Chefs, have long since left the roadside.

However, the spirit of the Little Chef endures. I have always admired the AutoGrills dotted along the autobahns, autoroutes and autostrada of Germany, France and Italy.

Good quality, freshly prepared hot food served by the people who cooked it. Something to look forward to rather than something to be endured.

You can read the story of Little Chef’s demise here.

Apple Cake

Came across this simple recipe for a delicious apple cake.

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 apples cored and diced

1. combine flour and baking soda in a mixing bowl
2. whisk in butter and sugar
3. add egg and whisk
4. add vanilla and whisk
5. add flour and whisk
6. add apples and whisk
7. spoon into greased baking tin and bake at 190 C or 375 F for 35 minutes

Gino D’Acampo’s Ligurian Chicken

years ago I saw Gino D’Acampo cook Ligurian chicken on his Italian Escape: Hidden Italy series on TV.

I jotted down the ingredients and gave it a go.

Wow !

What a great chicken dish. Packed full of fresh ingredients and Italian flavours.

The garlic, bay and vinegar reminded me of Philippine adobo. Chicken adobo, the national dish of the Philippines, is an absolute favourite of mine, so I was curious to try an Italian take on chicken cooked with vinegar.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 8 chicken pieces (about 1.2kg)
• 6 tablespoons olive oil,
• 4 anchovy fillets in oil, drained,
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed,
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
• 100ml balsamic vinegar
• 100g pitted green olives, drained
• 200ml passata
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

1. Coat chicken in flour, brown in the olive oil, remove and set aside.
2. Fry garlic, anchovies, olives, bay leaf, chilli, and rosemary in the remaining oil.
3. Add balsamic vinegar, allowing enough time for acidity to boil off.
4. Add water and passata.
5. Return chicken to the pan and cook for 40 mins. Allow sauce to reduce.

Serve with Italian bread, seasonal vegetables or rice.

Jamaican Jerk Chicken

Every country brings a stand-out dish to the table of world cuisine. The British contribute their afternoon tea and cake. The French the croissant. The Spanish bring paella.

The Jamaicans bring their trademark jerk chicken. Hot, spicy and packed full of sweet, smoky flavour. I love it.

As you can imagine, there are as many jerk chicken recipes as there are Jamaican kitchens. Each adapted, refined and perfected to suit the table and taste of the chef and their guests.

Here’s the recipe I use:

• Scotch bonnet pepper finely sliced (1 + according to taste)
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 scallions diced
• 6 cloves garlic
• generous dash of soy sauce (to taste)
• a good splash of lemon juice (to taste)
• vinegar – I use Filipino cane vinegar (Datu Puti)
• tsp ginger
• tsp mixed spice
• tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground pimento (I use Dunn’s River)
• 2 tsp dried thyme
• tsp ground black pepper
• salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Combine ingredients in a large bowl and marinade 1kg of chicken legs for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

Use scotch bonnet peppers if you can get them rather than green chillis or chilli flakes. The Scotch bonnet has a reputation as a fiery hot chilli with a kick, but it adds a rich, deep flavour which other chillis can’t match. Start with one Scotch bonnet and move up to two or more if you dare !

The other must-have ingredient is the ground pimento, also known as AllSpice or Jamaican pepper. Its taste is a combination of warm cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and black pepper and it adds a deep, aromatic flavour to the chicken.

Barbecue, oven bake or air fry.

Enjoy.