New toys

Just after Christmas I bought the speakers I had coveted for years. I had always wanted a pair of Monitor Audio G660s ever since I heard them properly. I should qualify this remark. A long time ago I had a pair of GR60s auditioned for me at Seven Oaks hi-fi in Sheffield. The guy auditioning them for me has them set up in a room that was too small, and powered by an amplifier that lacked the puff to make them go as they should. Needless to say I was unimpressed and I had no interest in them.

I later heard the same speakers in a large sitting room powered by a meat-head Musical Fidelity amplifier some time later and the difference was enormous. They sounded like full bandwidth monsters that were as equally at home with delicate acoustic music, as they were slamming out nosebleed techno. I was smitten.

I have my new speakers and I’m very happy with them. Well, mostly happy with them. I have been very aware that I’m not getting the most out of them that I could; in terms of the sound its not quite there. The GR60s employ two bass drivers, a mid/bass driver and a tweeter in a large box. These are speakers that need lots of current to make the go and whilst my existing amplifiers are good, I don’t think they are good enough.

Time to upgrade! I have always been a fan of Audiolab amplifiers. The original British made gear sounded great, but they were eventually bought out by Tag Mclaren (yes, the very same fellows who race formula 1 cars). Tag Mclaren produced some great sounding products but they didn’t last very long. The Audiolab brand was then bought up by IAG (International Audio Group), who own lots of other decent brands (Wharfdale, Quad, Mission, Luxman, and Castle Acoustics to name a few). IAG have kept Tag’s innovations in some of the products, but have completely redesigned others. Whatever else IAG has done, they have brought the scale and manufacturing power of China in on the side of Audiolab.

What Audiolab now offers is incredibly well made products at astonishing prices. Some of their gear is brilliant, some less so, but it is all great value. I love the new Audiolab amplifiers. I bought a 8000P a year or two ago to use with a valve pre-amp and whilst it didn’t work too well with the pre-amp, I did enjoy the sound of the power amp and how it drives pretty much anything with effortless ease. On the strength of that 8000P I bought the 8000A, the Audiolab integrated amplifier. This I was less impressed with.

The 8000A had an excellent power amp stage but the pre-map was dreadful; the tonality of the device changed with the position of the volume control. It sounded very flat and treble light at low volumes and only sounded as it ought to once the wick was wound out a bit.

Anyway, the back of the Monitor Audio GR60s have provision for Tri wiring/ Tri-Amping, and I wanted to exploit the speakers as best I could by Tri-amping them. I would need six channels of amplification. The logical solution to this would be the Audiolab 8000x7. This is a home cinema amp that actually just has seven 100W amplifier modules slapped in a box; the same amplifier modules that are used in the 8000P. I was onboard with this but the only problem was that it cost about £1700. The good news for me is that Audiolab is just changing its range over, and that means that old products are heavily discounted as retailers clear their shelves ready for the new products. A check of my bank account revealed that no matter how I cut it, I couldn’t afford it. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Sometimes though, the people you love will surprise you. My partner and I are inclined to buy gifts for one another on valentines day, which falls between our two birthdays, both of which are in February. This year my partner rolled my two gifts into one and bought me the Audiolab 8000x7. What made this all the more impressive is that I never asked for it, I never dropped any hints or in anyway communicated that I wanted her to buy it for me. My darling partner knew I was lusting after something and so back-tracked through my internet history and found what it was I desired. Its all the more impressive because Vicky isn’t the most technically proficient and when I rattle on about hi-fi, to her, its just one faceless black box after another.

So now I’m the owner of an Audiolab 8000x7, which is a potent monster, all 18kg of it. It thumps out a 100W into seven channels, each capable of dumping up to 42 Amps peak, which is a lot of gravy. It offers the usual DC offset protection, thermal protection and short circuit protection and has options for bridging outputs for five or six channel operation. I have had the 8000x7 running for three weeks now and its beginning to break in. The amp was thin sounding and sharp when it was first out of the box but now the sound stage is expanding and the lower registers are filling out. I think it will take another three weeks before it is fully broken in.

It seems to be a good synergistic match for Monitor Audios GR60s and can supply all the power they need. Each frequency band has its own channel of amplification and in time it may be possible to subtly tailor the tone of each band with different interconnectors between the pre-amp and each amplification channel.

Brenan JB7

Nothing trumps the sound of a decent record player. And by decent, I mean good quality (well engineered), and those things don’t come cheap. When CD turned up in 1982 it changed the game. The sound quality was shockingly bad but the level of convenience it brought to music listening was revolutionary. No more having to get up midway through an LP to flip it over, instant track access, repeat etc. Over the years standard CD (red book), quality improved immeasurably but the advent of MP3 brought a new level of convenience, albeit centred around distribution, that wrung the death bell for CD. I’ve always liked the idea of MP3 but not actual MP3. I have plenty of MP3s but it isn’t my chosen file format, in fact, if pressed I will always opt for a WAV File above anything else. Regardless, MP3 has completely reshaped the audio industry (for better or for worse is another debate). Like CD when it first began the sound quality is abysmal but I’m sure newer formats will improve upon that.

The new generation of Hi-Fi centred around wireless connectivity and huge MP3 libraries that are instantly accessible is a very tempting proposition, and it was one that seduced me. Sadly, the price for doing this well is pretty steep, and for a fellow such as myself who doesn’t have the opportunity to while away every evening indulging his music obsession, the price is too high.

Enter the ‘Brenan JB7’. I saw the advert in a magazine and I was intrigued. It is the intermediate between a conventional CD player and a network player. The device is fairly straight forward and very utilitarian in design. You can store your music collection on the internal hard drive as either MP3 or WAV files – no other formats are possible. These files are stored by ripping CDs and then using the onboard database to add the relevant disk information. Obviously, CDs released after the JB7 is purchased will not be on the database but this can be modified with a software update (sadly via CDROM). I’m being churlish complaining about this as the price of the top of the range model (500GB harddrive), is only £480 and expecting it to have wireless connectivity on top of everything else is asking a bit much.

The device has a built in amplifier of 30W+30W which is reasonable in terms of its fidelity. There is a separate headphones out and line out via 3.5mm jack sockets. My JB7 is connected via the line out into my amplifier rig  for better sound quality. Sadly, the device doesn’t have a digital output and this is what would have made it ‘killer-bee’ for me. The onboard DAC is ok, but given the opportunity to decode off board would have meant that it would have been possible to really ramp the sound quality up. A USB socket on the front allows access to other storage devices (and consequently playback of the files stored therein), and a 3.5mm jack for ‘line in’ allows other devices to use the onboard amplifier.

One of the most horrible remote controls ever made allows every function to be accessed remotely, and the blue LED screen is highly visible in low light. I have no issues with the display, but for the iphone generation it does look awfully hair-shirt. 8-bit hair shirt.

So what’s so good then?

I have hundreds of CDs stored as WAV files and I can access individual tracks or albums with relative ease. Various playlists can be made and readily accessed. If you choose you can record direct to the HD via the ‘line in’. The JB7 is easy enough to use, it is small and if you should lose the remote, practically every function can be accessed via the front controls. Speakers can be connected direct to the JB7 so it can be used pretty much straight out of the box (I must add I have never heard the accompanying speakers that are bought separately but are part of the JB7 package so I can not comment on their quality).

The sound quality is mostly good. It trumps an ipod or equivalent and when compared to a CD player of equal cost, it mostly holds its own. Unlike a CD player it has thousand of tracks onboard and one can skip and jump between them more or less instantly.

So where does it fall down?

The display and interface are very utilitarian and clearly mark Martin Brenan out as an engineer rather than a designer. I have always been an advocate of ‘form after function’ in terms of my consumer goods, but nobody is going to find this device alluring. It’s a box. A very dull box.
The amplifier is fine but nothing to write home about. The digital to analogue conversion is likewise fine, but again, this has to be considered against the price. The top of the range model has 500GB of storage which is massive if using MP3s, but is limited when it comes to WAV files. The CD drive is dreadfully noisy, but was only ever intended for ripping, not playback. And on the subject of ripping, expect to spend hours and hours feeding CDs into this thing. It is a slow process, and doubly so if you intend to convert to MP3.

Would I recommend it?  
Yes – if you are someone who wants all the convenience of a network player but doesn’t demand super hi-fi performance. Yes - if you have loads of CDs you want ready access to but don’t want to pay the price premium for a network player. Yes – if you want a stand alone music player to play all your CDs in small space with minimal fuss. It is the ideal solution for those who want the positives of network audio but without the price tag or technical know-how. And yes, if you want most of the benefits of a network player but lack the technical savvy (or inclination), to go this route.

Would I recommend it? 

No – if you are a hi-fi purist and demand the utmost fidelity, or the ability to connect an outboard DAC; you will be disappointed. No - if you need to deal with formats other than WAV/MP3. No if your home is only graced with the most beautiful and elegant of furniture.

If I were you, I’d make up my own mind. Find out more here: http://www.brennan.co.uk/

Plastic Sheds

There are certain things a chap is supposed to own; a toolbox, a dinner jacket, and the obligatory shed. What man is replete without a place to stuff full of unused tools, old plant pots and ice-cream tubs full of random screws and nails. I finally take my place amongst the pantheon of men as I have become a shed owner. A shed I have bought myself, not inherited with a property. And as with all things modern, it is made of plastic.

Anything made of plastic is cheap and nasty, right? Well not so much. The shed I bought is the smallest they make but is still a £100 more than the wooden equivalent. So where is the justification for a plastic shed. Surely a plastic shed is nothing short of environmental terrorism? I’m not so sure. Yes it is made from finite oil resources but it isn’t going up in smoke and the whole point of plastic good is that they aren’t perishable.

My problem is this, there was an existing wooden shed occupying the same site in my garden. It can’t have been that old but where it was situated had resulted in sever water damage to said construct. It is a typical 15mm tongue and groove design that is too thin to resist the weather and once the damp begins to permeate, it warps and makes it easier for further moisture to find its way in. So I have a plastic shed that shouldn’t rot or warp. I’m hoping that it will stand the test of time.

Putting the shed together wasn’t hard work (for the most part), and although the instructions are poly-lingual it was fairly easy sailing. I have to confess that it was frustrating when the diagrams were unclear on how one or two choice parts were integrated, but when all is said and done, the whole thing is light weight and doesn’t require any muscle. The shed has been standing for a month now and it seems to be dry as a bone inside. My initial concerns about this construct being too light and flimsy have proven to groundless. Any doubts I had about the aesthetic component have vanished too; the colours seem to fade into the background and don’t look too drab or dour.

Would I recommend one?  Well, I think it depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to fill it full of shelves and store a myriad of tools and utensils then I suspect a wooden shed would be better as you could add as many shelves as you want and reinforce the structure to support some serious weight. The plastic shed recommends no more that 25kg per shelf (about 6”-8” wide). If you want to keep your bike dry and maybe store a lawnmower or the odd spade than it is more than adequate. 

Television

I’m a big fan of television; the invention. I think TV is amazing. Think of all the mind-blowing things you’ve seen on TV that you would never see in real life. The birth of baby pandas, the Earth from orbit, the fall of the Berlin wall… TV is a medium that has enormous power and has shaped our lives far more than anyone would like to admit. Those who read the Daily Mail would have you believe that TV is mostly sex and violence, and interestingly, it has been shown that since advent of TV into the domestic home, the crime rate has gone up and the amount of sex indulged in has gone up too. Philosophically speaking, I’m a constructivist and TV has only gone to reaffirm my belief in this idea (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(learning_theory)). The good old goggle-box has been a first class tool in modifying people’s behaviour, but I don’t believe it has necessarily been for the worse (although I couldn’t argue it was entirely positive either).

Growing up, we had three TV channels until 1984 when ‘Channel four’ turned up. There will be many who are nostalgic about this state of affairs, but not I. I was only a young fellow and anything I thought was worth watching was on from about four in the afternoon onwards. In the mid to late eighties Sky TV turned up but my father had no interest in this so we stuck to the four terrestrial channels.  Adults of my generation have a shared cultural TV heritage that has its foundations in the fact that there was nothing else on the other two/ three channels.

As a kid, it felt like winter was nine months long and what could a boy do of a long cold, dark, wet evening do other watch the TV. There are lots of shows that I watched as a kid that I believed were good, and I’m sure I liked them till I watched them as an adult. Some years ago I bought the ‘A-team’ on DVD and re-watched it; hilarious, fantastic fun and most entertaining. They even threw in a free episode of ‘Knight Rider’. I never knew what a lame show ‘Knight Rider’ was till I watched it as an adult. And if that wasn’t enough, I later watched an episode of ‘Air Wolf’. I can’t believe how weak that entire show was. Forty minutes of filler followed by five minutes of recycled footage of the helicopter. But regardless of my adult preferences, at the time I was suitably entertained.

I stopped watching TV properly around the mid-nineties. Between then and now there has been the odd hour or two here and there, but I’ve never watched TV the way I used or anything close. This began when I left for university in the early/ mid nineties; the campus enforced a strict TV licence policy and at the time I was far more interested in music so the TV fell by the wayside. When the mid/ late nineties arrived I was out of the habit and the grisly spectre of ‘reality TV’ had arrived. I’m not going to be one of those frightful bores who bemoan reality TV, but it isn’t to my taste, so there was little incentive to turn the TV on. Since then I’ve never really picked the habit back up. I would be lying if I said I didn’t watch some TV. My partner watches the box and from time to time (as we share a house), our orbits collide and so I catch bits of shows.

For me TV has fallen by the wayside and has been replaced by the computer. I’m far more interested in surfing the web, messing around with bits of software and other IT chicanery. It has gotten to the state that I frequently find TV is an insufficiently interactive media form me and I get bored. If TV (whether rightly or wrongly), has made a generation of kids suffer with ADHD, then one can only wonder what impact computers will have on the next generation.

Lego Star Wars miniature figures

Over a decade ago Lego introduced its range of Star Wars Lego models. These passed me by.

Recently I discovered the latest range of products and the super spiffy Lego mini figures that come with them. Words fail me as to how cool they are. My collection at present is tiny, I have Luke Skywalker (original Ep 4), Han Solo (original Ep 4), Princess Lea Organa (original Ep 4) , Obi one Kenobi (original Ep 4), Chewbacca and Darth Vader. I’m smitten. I want more. They are so cool, to the point that they make me gush like twelve year old girl describing the twilight saga. Enough, here are some pictures.

Burgers

Bland and greasy, the only flavour is the washed out tomato sauce that has soaked into an already soggy bun (which is threatening to fall apart with the least provocation). I think we’ve all had burgers like these. They are usually from some fast food emporium that even manages to make the pickle taste of water.

I don’t imagine I’m on my own when I say I love a good burger, and I think good is the operative word here, because it’s easy enough to get a burger, but a good one, that takes a little more effort.

If you speak to any serious connoisseur of beef burgers they will tell you with unblinking severity that the only meat to use is ground chuck (the flavoursome meat from the shin from the cow), and they are likely to have a nasty attack of the jim-jams if you use the word ‘lean’. “You need the fat to hold in the moisture. Kill the fat and you kill the burger”, they will tell you, with flecks of foam at the corner of the mouth. They’re not wrong, but they’re not exclusively right either.

The best burgers I can make are veggie burgers. Seriously! I have to put this in context because I’m talking about using a ready made burger, and this is the crux. Any pre-made burgers I’ve bought have been frightful in the level off grease that has come out of them. They have lacked any taste or texture and have generally been the culinary equivalent of a prostate exam. No, despite being a lover of animal flesh, the only burgers I eat with any regularity are veggie burgers, and although they don’t taste as good as a proper beef burger, they have a superior texture to any ready-made burger.

Here’s how I make a veggie burger.

Firstly I fire up the grill (I never fry burgers). I grill the veggie burgers from frozen, that way the outside can get quite crisp whilst the inside remains moist – and nothing is less appealing than a dried out veggie burger. The variety I use are quite thin so I place two per bun, and usually one burger is about right. The burgers come from Tesco and are just soya, no breadcrumbs, no lumps of vegetables, just soya.

Next, toast that bun. I always use a wholesome brown bread bun – purely because it is healthy, no other reason. Whatever bun you use, cut in half and toast the inside surfaces – you need to do this to limit how much of the condiments soak through as you don’t want a soggy bun.

Once your bun is toasted, let it cool on the grill so that it doesn’t ‘sweat’ and go soggy; it should take a couple of minutes tops. After it has cooled spread a thin layer of mayo on the bottom part of the bun, followed by some whole grain mustard to mix in.  If you like a strong flavour, drop the mayo and whole grain and go straight for the English mustard.

On top of this you want to add a layer of gherkin (pickle to our American friends), the amount and how thick you cut it is entirely up to your sense of taste. I like lots and I frequently throw in some sliced jalapenos.

The next layer is some sauce, and I can recommend some barbeque sauce to go on top of the gherkin. If you want to spice it up, why not throw some Tabasco or peri-peri into the mix.

Meanwhile, on the bun lid; some finely sliced lettuce along with some thinly sliced tomatoes should be placed on top of a decent layer of mayonnaise.

Once the burgers are just about cooked, on goes the cheese. Don’t mess about with good quality cheese; it needs to be those disturbingly plastic cheese slices. One per burger please.

So the burgers are cooked, the cheese has melted, and the buns are ready. On to the base we slap the burgers, followed by another quick squeeze of barbeque sauce and then on with the lid. And that’s it. Eat that bad-boy whilst it’s good and hot.

Fighting Fantasy Books

As a kid growing up in the seventies come eighties, most of our fun was had outdoors. I’m not going to go one of those desperately dull diatribes about how the kids of today have no imagination and are permanently plugged into their playstations (or what-have-you), because I don’t subscribe to it. I’m just saying that we used to play outside a lot because a lot of the toys/ games we had were quite dull and the computers of the time were crap. Seriously crap. If you’re the same age as me then you will remember loading computer games from cassettes that had monstrously huge load times and they were mostly not that good. Quality distractions that could be enjoyed indoors outside were few and far between.

The fighting fantasy books were the real Tabasco. For those not in the know they are a combination of book and role playing game (a blog on Star Trek and then a Dungeons and Dragons-esque book – could this guy get any cooler you ask?). The series began with the title ‘The warlock of firetop mountain’ (originally the brain child of Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson), required the reader to employ a pencil, eraser and two dice in order to play. Throughout the story there are numerous decisions to be made which required turning to a particular entry in the book. Every so often monsters would appear that had to be fought using a simple but ingenious system that pivoted around the rolls of the two dice.

Each book only had one correct solution and it usually took several attempts to work it out.

I loved these books because they offered all the things the computers of the day couldn’t supply. They were fast, exciting, and the graphics were super cool. Best of all, my mother would happily furnish me with books from the series because they were well, books, and books had to be good for young minds. Some of the titles were superbly written and offered a taxing but achievable challenge, others were insanely hard and cheating had to be employed. I don’t know of anyone who played these books who didn’t use their finger as a bookmark on the previous entry whilst exploring the options available to them at some time or another.

By the end they had over fifty titles but by this time I had grown up and moved on to greener pastures. I mention this because I recently bought a set of these books on e-Bay for a ridiculously low price and I have to say it was grand to revisit my youth. The level of imagination and creativity in some of these books is highly impressive, and some of the book art is amazing. If you have as much as a passing interest in the fantasy genre and ever get the chance to have a goosey at the early books I would recommend it.

Whatever happened to Commander William Riker?

My partner and I enjoy Star Trek: The next generation. We have the DVD box set and all the films and we have watched every episode at least three times. Vicky has very fond memories of watching ST:TNG with her father and she has an emotional bond with this show. I’m a big Sci-Fi nerd and enjoy most things related to this genre.

So what happened to William Riker? I know this is not the most germane of matters, what with the show expiring about seventeen years ago, but we have recently been re-watching the show and Riker goes from being this up and coming “wunderkind” in the first season, to a shouty dullard whose only function is to declare a red alert and call for the shields to be raised.

We watched the first season and Riker charges around the cosmos, being the big brave action hero and bedding his way through a plethora of women. Naturally, an archetype of the ideal of western masculinity and perhaps a role model to us all (I remember ST:TNG when it was first aired on UK terrestrial TV and I am as impressionable as wet clay – sans the charisma). By season two Riker has grown 1) a beard and 2) a gut.

Now, I’m no ideal of the male specimen, but neither is my stock and trade my appearance. Riker comes back fat and hairy and at this juncture his character sinks into decline.

Obviously, the superb acting skills of Patrick Stewart make the role of the captain take greater precedence, and this continues till Riker is eventually eclipsed, but I don’t think that Riker’s beard (the sort worn by men who drink ‘real ale’ and wear socks with their sandals), could possibly have helped.

For those that care, the original idea in ST:TNG was to split the role of captain across two characters. Picard would be the completive aspect of Kirk whilst Riker would personify his more active (and rambunctious), nature. Ultimately, Riker gets subsumed however the actor, Jonathan Frakes, who portrays the aforementioned commander, does take up directorial duties and orchestrates numerous episodes. In his career to date, Jonathan Frakes produces the second best Star Trek film (First Contact) and also plums a pretty grim nadir when he knocks out the ‘Thunderbirds’ film.

Whilst Jonathan Frakes has had many roles and duties in his career, he will always be Commander Riker, and in fairness  he always did a pretty good job of raising those shields and getting the red alert, alerting.

Chicken and Mushroom Soup

I love mushrooms and I'm always a little dismayed that 95% of all mushrooms on offer at the supermarket are Portobello mushrooms. That's right, those wee button mushrooms that look so pretty - Portobello - those enormous mushrooms you could float a cat on - Portobello - an yes, those plain, white mushrooms that are the unsung heroes of many a bolognaise - Portobello. They are all the same variety, just picked at different stages of their growth.

But I digress, if like me you enjoy a bite to eat but only have limited prowess in the kitchen, then this recipe is for you. It makes a delicious, hearty and wholesome soup that is ideal as a spot of lunch in the darkest depths of winter. You can use whatever mushrooms you like in this recipe although you will find that Portobello work just fine, and because they are going to be soup, it doesn't matter if they are none too fresh or none too pretty.

All measurement are approximate:

750g of Portobello mushrooms.

2 litres water

150g of button mushrooms (or any other kind you want - these are to make everything look pretty)

50ml Garlic oil

100g of Chicken meat

The stock of one roast chicken

To serve:

Fresh single cream

Salt & Pepper

Firstly, you need some chicken stock. I don't mean that rubbish that come in a plastic bag but the proper chicken stock you get from a roast chicken. Here's my method. Roast your chicken in a Pyrex dish that is only marginally larger than the chicken. Midway through the roast remove the chicken from the dish and pour out the stock into a Pyrex jug (rinsing the dish with a little boiling water to clear everything out). Stick your chicken back in the dish and then back in the oven, and when it is done roasting repeat the stock draining exercise.  Ideally this wants to cool and sit in a fridge overnight. In the morning it should have separated into fat and a jelly of chicken stock. Scrape the fat off and dispose of it. You now have some first class, highly tasty chicken stock that has no added salt or any other rubbish. Good for you.

Coarsely chop 750g of mushrooms and sling them into a big pan with the water. I bring mine to the boil and then leave them to simmer for a few hours. After an hour or two slap that delicious chicken stock in and then leave it for another hour or so.

Meanwhile, quarter the button mushrooms and very gently fry them in the garlic oil. You want to subtly flavour the mushrooms with garlic but you don't want actually add real garlic as it will have a strong back of the throat flavour if you are not careful. You can buy garlic oil but that is a mugs game as it is painfully easily to make; here's how. Peel several bulbs of garlic. Place the garlic in air tight container and fill with the oil of your choice and leave for a few months. Many folk swear by olive oil, but this already has its own distinct flavour and really the purpose of flavoured oils is to gently infuse a flavour into food. I normally use a good quality vegetable oil and then what you end up with is a general purpose oil that tastes only of what it was flavoured with. You can flavour oil with just about anything and they are cheap and easy to make.

Anyway, once you have simmered the mushrooms with the chicken for as long as you feel like, put the whole lot in a jug blender and blend. I normally make mine super fine but some prefer a more rustic soup with larger bits. It is entirely up to you.

Once the soup is blended add it back into the pan. Add to this the sautéed button mushrooms. Also, add some chicken meat. You can use breast or whatever, but what I tend to do is pick the roast chicken carcass over and find all the tasty bits of meat on the underside of the chicken as well as the dark meat of the thighs (this is the best tasting meat on the bird if you ask me). Chop the meat up and sling it in the pan. This just needs to a gentle warming through and then it is ready to serve.

You can eat it as it is, although adding a small dollop of fresh single cream usually finishes the dish. You will need to add a little salt and pepper, but I think it is better to that in the bowl rather than in the pan. When you dish up, make sure everyone get some of the button mushrooms and chicken meat from the bottom of the pan.

Happy New Year

Happy 2012! I assume that most of the inhabitants of merry old England awoke with a hang-over (or are now dealing with the joys of the come-down). Regardless, I hope all had a splendid night.

My partner furnished me with some *proper* curry – the theme being more obscure dishes along with some very enjoyable wines. For those of you who have two minutes to mark, we enjoyed:

Chick peas for nibbling

…page 18 of ‘curry easy’ by Madhur Jaffrey

A tremendous little dish for enjoying with a glass of fizz, this is essentially just some tinned chick peas baked with spices but the resultant dish is something that is tasty, at no point over powering and incredibly more-ish. The added bonus to this dish is that it couldn’t be any healthier and is fairly straight forward to make. Utterly recommended.

Peshawari Broth with Oyster mushrooms and fish

…page 41 of ‘curry easy’ by Madhur Jaffrey

This is a beef broth with chunks of white fish and whole oyster mushrooms afloat in it. The stock is impregnated with a variety of spices but the resultant dish has this intensely complex flavoured broth with the fish and mushroom to offer textural and flavour contrast. I much prefer these kinds of soups to the heavier/ thicker soups that utilise coconut milk/ cream or huge amounts of pureed vegetables. This is a really pleasant soup that feels light but is chock full of flavours; a very interesting experience in terms of the contrasting textures. A bit of a palaver to make, I’m told.

Sea Bass in Green Chutney

…page 51 0f 100 essential curries by Madhur Jaffrey

I’m a big fan of whole cooked fish and I find that cooking the fish on the bone gives a much better flavour and texture, although I recognise that it can be a real pain at times in terms of the bones. The green chutney flavouring that is rubbed onto the outside of this dish is astounding in its depth of flavour but also has this strange kind of refreshing-ness to it. I’m afraid that I can articulate the flavour into mere words but you will have to take my word on it that this dish is a winner.

Served with…

Courgette and Green Pepper ‘Sabzi’

…page 158 of Madhur Jaffrey’s ultimate curry bible by Madhur Jaffrey

The best ever green vegetable side dish ever, this sabzi is fresh, crunchy, packed with flavour and just enlivens any dish it is served with. It does take some skill to get everything piping hot and cooked without the vegetables loosing their snap, and should they lose afore-mentioned snap, it becomes a very average side dish (the magic of this sabzi is the crispness of the vegetables). I have to be honest and say that this dish is a frequent accompaniment in our house but my partner cooked it up for me because she knows just how much I love it. God bless that girl.

Along side…

Rice with fleas

Just plain basmati rice boiled with some onions seeds to give flecks of black (or fleas as we call it); nothing special or clever, but then nothing to detract from the flavours of the fish and sabzi.

After all these delicious comestibles I spent the rest of the evening bemoaning my distended stomach and relishing such an enjoyable meal. Happy new year one and all.

Speakers

I'm a big audio nut. I love music, but I also love the technology, the science and everything else associated with audio. Unsurprisingly I like Hi-fi, or as it was called in my youth "separates".

I recently moved house and I finally have a sitting room big enough to do justice to set a speakers I always wanted but couldn't properly house.

Monitor Audio Gold Reference 60

(Mine are in light oak not rosewood).

Prior to investing in the GR60s I had the GR20s. I have been a keen advocate of Monitor Audio for years but I thought that they got "affordable high-end" right with the Gold Reference series. I'm sure there is no shortage of folks out in the electronic nether-land who will only be too happy to disabuse me of my ignorance regarding my choice of loudspeakers, but I have to say that they suit me and my budget.

Monitor Audio Gold Reference 20

The GR60s ceased being made about seven years ago so mine are second hand. I had looked at the Gold Signature 60 they brought out after they stopped making the GR60. I never much cared for them. They did have a little more bass clout but seemed to be missing the upper-midrange speed that I have always admired in the GR20s (if you are an audio nut you can read a clumsily worded review about the GR20s here:

http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/monitor-audio/gold-reference-20/prd_126028_1594crx.aspx

Monitor audio have a new gold range that is radical departure from the previous gold range. The floorstanders now utilise ribbon tweeters, a 4" midrange driver and then two bass drivers (either 5.5" or 6.5" depending on which model). You can take a goosey here:

http://www.monitoraudio.co.uk/products/gold-gx/

Curry

Every person has to have passions, they are what drive us forward and keep us interested in the cosmic game of life. Some folk collect little porcelain dogs, others have an overwhelming concern for saving the whales, others yet are keen on Jesus, and some us who are a little less altruistic, are concerned with filling our bellies. One of my passions is curry. Not that ghastly slop they have the audacity to serve in the majority of British curry houses - you know the stuff - a few big chunks of some kind of meat swimming in yellow sauce that has half inch slick of oil across the top. I love *proper* curry.

What constitutes *proper* curry?
It is hard to clearly define but I tend to think of Andhra cuisine, Bengali, Bangladeshi and Oriya cuisines, Gujarati and Rajasthani cuisine, Karnataka cuisine, Malayali cuisine, Maharashtrian cuisine, North Indian cuisines, Pakistani cuisine, Punjabi cuisine, Sindhi cuisine, Tamil and Sinhalese cuisines, Afghan and Pashtun cuisine, Northeast Indian and Nepalese cuisines, and Chinese cuisine, Japanese cuisine, Southeast Asian cuisines, Burmese cuisine, Indonesian cuisine, Malaysian cuisine, Philippine cuisine, Thai cuisine, Vietnamese cuisine (and all the other Asian cuisines I have neglected to mention in my ignorance), the native dishes of indigenous people.

There are so many different kinds of curry that utilise so many different ingredients and cooking styles that I always find it a little odd when people say they don't like curry. It is a bit like people who don't like any classical music, the canon of classical music is just so enormous and there must be something, somewhere out there that you can like. Anyway, such is the range of curries (and associated sundries), that a fellow could eat a different dish every day of their life and never have a repeat experience.

So what has spurred me to jibber so about curry on New Years Eve?

My partner and I enjoy a low key start to the New Year (I was always find the mass celebration of this arbitrary date incredibly odd, but in the past I used to revel with the best of them). Our new years eve consists of a nice dinner, some charming wines and the obligatory Champagne at midnight. Each year we take it in turns to cook for one another and this year it is Vicky's turn to cook for me, which means *proper* curry.

As always, it will be a complete surprise what I get but I do know that there will be a pre-dinner nibble (hors d'oeuvre/ amuse-bouche to those of you who are elucidated in the epicurean arts), a starter and a main course.