Thanks Phil Vickery

Alway concerned for my well-being, my mother bought me a cook book last Christmas called "Ready Steady Cook - The Ten-Minute Cookbook". It was a shrewd purchase because she knows that I like cooking for myself at the weekend but that I'm disinclined to devote hours and hours to creating something different every time (and getting off my back-side to search out the basic raw ingredients down at the supermarket). Hence this book!

Thing is, the problem with trying to do Jamie Oliver fancy Dan type recipes that feature ingredients like rocket, parmesan, balsamic vinegar and pine kernels is that the average German supermarket often doesn't have half of what you need. Unfortunately, Edeka and Rewe are not as good as Morrison's or Tesco. Admittedly, the Hieber's chain of local supermarkets down here in Weil, Lörrach and surrounding towns are better, but they're the exception to the rule. Globus in Basel have a brilliant fruit, veg and delicatessen department, but it costs a bomb there - something I was reminded of today when I bought a lemon that cost CHF 2. Okay, it was "organic", but still.

Anyway, a recipe by England rugby player Phil Vickery caught my eye in this book, so I decided to give it a go (see photo below). Edeka didn't stock any chickpeas, Chorizo or coriander, so I bought a tin of white beans (weiße Bohnen) instead, bought the coriander later on in Globus and got a big Mettwurst instead of Chorizo. They didn't have any roasted pepper in a jar either, but I managed quite alright with normal red pepper.

Anyway below is the result. Looks disgusting, eh?! The photo on the left is the book open showing the recipe in question. The photo on the right is my creation (half eaten already by that time). Btw, note the salad "spoons" - I made them in 1987/88 in CDT ("Craft Design and Technology") at school: