Happygun

Ingredients

250g tofu

2 tbsp groundnut (peanut) oil

1 tbsp Thai green curry paste

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 kaffir lime leaves, rolled into cylinders and thinly sliced

2 tbsp granulated sugar

150ml vegetable stock

250g Asian asparagus, trimmed

2 tbsp roasted peanuts

Substitute slim carrot sticks or broccoli florets for the asparagus

Method

Place the tofu between two chopping boards and place some heavy books on top to squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Do this overnight if you have time.

Cube and fry the tofu till golden brown

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok, add 2 tbsp curry paste, cook over medium heat for 1 to 2 mins, until it gives off its aroma

Stir in 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 lime leaves, 2 tbsp sugar and 150ml veg stock and mix well. bring to the boil and reduce heat to a simmer.

add 250g asparagus and simmer gently for 5 minutes

add the tofu and peanuts to the pan, mix.

serve

Notes

This makes quite a hot dish. Half the cury paste for a tasty rather than hot dish.

Stormy day at Dunraven Bay.

Roast Butternut Squash with Sage

Ingredients (for 2)

150g risotto rice

butternut squash

1 dried red chilli deseeded

sage leaves

thyme

1 tsp coriander

pine nuts

bay leaf

1 clove garlic

butter

wine

parmesan

stock

Method

Roast squash in olive oil, chopped sage, 1/2 tsp coriander and 1 de-seeded dried red chilli for 30 mins at 200, mash half, keep half in cubes. (Use potato ricer to mash).

Dry fry pine nuts till golden.

Fry whole sage leaves in olive oil till crisp, set aside on kitchen paper. Be gentle after you have fried them, they will be very brittle.

Make risotto (add 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp thyme and 1 clove garlic to risotto with first ladle of stock).

Add butternut squash mash at end with butter and cheese. Scatter roasted squash cubes, roasted pie nuts and fried sage on top.

My verdict

This dish was lacking a little something, I think next time I will go heavier with the cheese added at end. I am also wondering how flavourful butternut squash is - maybe roast coated in honey next time?

The single de-seeded chilli added just enough warmth.

I didn’t taste much thyme, so will need to add more next time (i used about a tablespoon of thyme including the stem).

After spending some time using http://readitlaterlist.com/ and http://www.instapaper.com/, i thought i'd share my favourite aggregation sites for long form articles.

The first two are pure aggregation sites from instapaper:-

http://www.instapaper.com/browse

http://givemesomethingtoread.com/

The following three are independent aggregation sites:-

http://givemesomethingtoread.com/

http://longreads.com/

http://essayist.tumblr.com/

http://byliner.com/

The next four are sites that have some links to longer articles, but you'll need to dig around a little to find them:-

http://www.theawl.com/

http://thebrowser.com/

http://www.aldaily.com/

http://boingboing.net/

"The Best Magazine Articles Ever", voted by users of kk.org/

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/the-best-magazi.php

"10 Essential #Longreads on Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda from The Atlantic archives"

http://theatlantic.tumblr.com/post/5160260458/10-essential-longreads-on-bin-laden-and-al-qaeda-from

Tumblr posts tagged with "long-reads"

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/long-reads

Tumblr posts tagged with "longform"

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/longform

Two twitter feeds dedicated to long form writing:-

http://twitter.com/#!/IfYouOnly

http://twitter.com/#!/longreads

All twitter posts tagged #longreads

http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=longreads

And finally, a current selection of longform articles from The New York Times