Iran Threatens to Boycott the London Olympics
If they didn’t come, will they be missed? I suppose they are favourites to win one of the special putty metals for being undemocratic along with North Korea, Zimbabwe and Libya.
Pork Chops with Cyder Apple Sauce
This yet another of Lindsey Bareham ‘s recipes that I’ve cooked in the past, but in the move the cutting seems to have disappeared. However, I did find it on the web.
The ingredients are as follows and the quantities serve four.
- 4 thick pork loin chops
- 1 tbsp groundnut or sunflower oil for the apple sauce:
- 2 Bramley cooking apples
- 1 medium wine glass of cider
- 25g butter
- 1 tbsp sugar
The method is as follows.
- Heat the oven to 400F/200C/gas mark 6.
- Begin with the apple sauce. Peel, core and quickly chop the apples. Place in a pan with the cider. Cover and boil hard for about 5 minutes until the apple is collapsed. Stir in the butter and sugar to make a fluffy sauce. Keep warm or allow to cool; I like hot chops and cold sauce.
- Prepare the chops by cutting down the rind in 3 or 4 places right to the meat, so that when the chops cook they don’t buckle. Season the chops with sea salt, rubbing salt into the rind. Heat the oil in an ovenproof frying pan and fry the chops for 2 minutes a side.
- Finish the cooking in the hot oven, leaving the chops for 5-10 minutes, depending on thickness, until cooked through and the rind crisp. Transfer to a warm plate and leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving with the apple sauce and mashed or new potatoes.
I’m afraid that I haven’t got an ovenproof frying pan, so I just fried the chops in a little olive oil in my non-stick one.
The Battle for HS2
I listened with interest to the debate on Radio 5 yesterday morning about the London to Birmingham route of the High Speed Rail route called HS2.
On the one side were a few people who feel the line should be built and extended to the north, but the vast majority, including the respected rail commentator, Christian Walmar, were against the proposal. Many on both sides preferred emotive arguments instead of facts.
A classic selfish comment was from a man with a Range Rover, who said that to turn up and use the train cost him much more than the fuel for his gas-guzzler.
He may have a point about costs and I suspect he’s one of those who wouldn’t really wants to be seen dead on a train and say if he had an appointment in the West End of London, he’d drive. He’s probably one of those who rants against fuel, parking and clamping charges too.
I am sceptical about the need for HS2, although I do concede that we need extra capacity to the Midlands, North and Scotland. But a lot of this is to get freight up and down the country. You’d think this was a no-brainer, but any freight developments like the Radlett freight terminal, will get the Nimbys, who are worried more about their house prices than the ecomony of the country out in force.
To be fair to the government, they are trying to get a coherent strategy together on HS2 and the essential freight developments, and realise that if they don’t the problems in the economy will mean they are a one-term government. But if the strategy is accepted by those of sense, the Nimbys will still vote against it, when the election comes.
After all a good rail strategy would mean that people will have to give up some of the things that they consider essential to their life, like the cottage in the country.
So what we see on HS2 is just a small skirmish in the long war against climate change. Many people will never change their selfish lifestyles and will fight and of course voteto keep their large car affordable.
So what would I do?
I did lay out a ladder strategy in Relections on My Journey to Scotland, with better West and East Coast routes. Whether or not we build HS2, some of that strategy needs to be done anyway.
- Higher capacity on the West and East Coast routes.
- Electrify Glasgow-Edinburgh, TransPennine and create a fast Birmingham to Peterborough route via Leicester or Derby.
- Create proper interchange stations, so that changing is easy and quick. We need stations to be proud of that are destinations in their own right at Birmingham and many other places. How many stations are places where you could meet someone special for lunch or a business meeting? It is a list of two; St. Pancras and Liverpool Street. Although to be fair, some could be there fairly easily with vision and a small investment.
- Scrap all of the dreadful rolling stock like Pacers, used in the North, East Anglia, the West and Wales that connect a large part of the country to the fast network and replace them with modern comfortable trains.
- Whether HS2 is built on not, Euston should be rebuilt and be properly connected to King’s Cross and St. Pancras.
- Safeguard the proposed route of HS2.
The Anonymous Widower 