First copy of Street Knowledge drops through my door

After 25 years in the making, this finally arrived today. Still taking it all in but it does what is says on the cover and drops the knowledge for any fucker out there who's interested in street culture.

Peace+love to all those who got on board!

God of the Bends

This statue was on a bend in the road beneath a house I rented in Corfu last week. Lorry drivers would stop and give thanks for a safe ride up (and down) as the road was choc-full of hairpin bends and wasn't that wide.

Books books books

Books seem to be all about the fucking idiot box these days. I'm 65,000 words into a novel (the fourth I've written and the first to be published) and I'm hoping to bring reading back to the people who make it interesting - the young. I don't mean kids here but the 15-45 age bracket of people who like a good read about some counter-cultural shit. Not the nice educated middle-class women who have hi-jacked the literary festivals of the world.
I recently went to a party thrown by my publisher and was looking forward to meeting some legendary writers who I could talk to about writing. But it was full of people from the telly. All the 'famous' people there had TV shows which feature food, and they were all sticking together like icing to a cup-cake.

In the taxi outta there I realised that I had to take my shit back to where it belonged: underground. Not underground as in some kind of bullshit counter-culture sense, but underground as in I don’t give a flying fuck about projected sales; about the state of the industry or the current climate of the market (completely fucked); about promotional (boring) or legal shit (complicated); about anything other than writing a killer book that I absolutely love and other people may or may not like. It made me think that what I should be doing is writing something that I just have to get out there to keep my sanity from evaporating along with my meagre advance. A book that I have absolutely no choice in writing, not something that’s been focus grouped or tested for viability, but something real.

It is safe to say that in the last few years I had become caught up in the idea of some mainstream success from my work. This was down to the fact that I had a mortgage, a car loan, 2 teenage kids, blah blah blah, but mainly due to the fact that I was thoroughly bored of being skint. I wanted the finical stability that this kind of A-list success would bring and thanks to years of no drinking and drugs (the curse of the Banksy Generation), working my ass off 7 days a week, years relentless self-promotion and – most importantly – getting a powerful agent, I was in a position to become richer and just a little bit famous (comes with the money.) Or so I believed.

But then the writers party shook me out of my trance-like state and everything went and changed inside my head. All I ever wanted to be was a writer of books; books that talked about what it was like to be one of us (the Chemical Generation), books that dealt with coming out of suburbia in the 1980s and being so fucking bored with the surroundings that sometimes, you went and did crazy shit, in-between the usual middle-class suburban bullshit. I certainly didn’t want to be knee-deep in projects that were tailored to a certain market or engineered to be commercial successes.

What the fuck is going on? Really? Then this hit me: How do you have the strength to sit down and write a book knowing that no books really sell unless they accompany some lame-assed god-awful TV show presented by some half-witted inbred twat who’s just going through the motions, doing what they’re told just for the money, or a biography of a z-list sleb/slag/WAG with more tits than sense. What do I do to break out of my life even though I need some mainstream success just to live? There is no way I am going back to working a real job as I’m too far down the road and have burnt (blown up) all my bridges. I’m fucking unemployable. Add this to the fact that just about everything has been done before and nothing is original?

What happened was that there was a blip in the work load in between writing and designing my next non-fiction book Street Knowledge, and the promotional activities beginning, and so I got to work on the novel and I'm nearly there.

See you on the other side...

This is just a test...

There is an interview with me up at 405 magazine whatever thing (not sure what the fuck it's about). It's a nice piece and definitely the calm before the storm, as I've started having meetings with my publicist about Street Knowledge and y'all gonna be sick of the very mention of King Adz by the time Street Knowledge hits the shelves in a coupla months...

INTERVIEW HERE

Work in Progress

Been spending a bit of time recently (in between falling in love with sumac*) creating a series of 5 fly-posters for the launch of Street Knowledge.
Here's a preview of one of them, the colour will be done by hand once the posters (A1) are printed in black and white...
*Sumac recipes on the way...

Cold Killer Pasta

Hung out with my Roman Bella Granny this weekend, and as usual, she cooked a pasta dish. And I got the recipe and cooked it last night...

500g Italian Pasta (Bows, whatever)
1 large Mozzarella
1 pack quality small plumb tomatoes
1 pack Sunblush Sun-Dried Tomatoes (in oil from Deli)
Bunch of fresh basil
Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper
Olives (stuffed with anchovies or garlic or nothing)

Cook pasta an allow to cool in big bowl.
Chop up Mozarella into 1cm chunks.
Chop both Tomatoes in half.
Chop basil.
Chop Olives in half

Bung tomatoes, mozz into pasta bowl, mix, then add Olive oil, S&P, Olives.
Mix well and then serve.

Bella!

BBBBBB BEASTIE BOYS REMIXED

 By Mos DUB: Wicked shit... love remix culture...

Beastie Boys - Doublecheck Your Head by Max Tannone

Weapon of Choice

Mine has to be Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. Anyway enough of the random shit, here's a preview of the back bookends of my new book, featuring my brother from another mother Pilpeled's wicked wicked artwork. Yes Baby!

Mali Video

Have a butchers a this...My Mali Diesel/Only The Brave Film...

Watch it here!

Old School Recipes up at NoNewEnemies

One of the creative crews I belong to is called NoNewEnemies, and they have a killer site filled with all things creative and art-related. They have recently been putting out some of my old recipes. Straight Outta Brussellllllssss....
Click here to make the jump

More Mali Photos up

Just uploaded some more Mali Photos on to my Flickrrrrrrr.
Check them here...

And now for something French!!!

I have a french mate who is a DJ and Food writer, which is a interesting combination. 

He's just put up hisfirst film about a visit to Paris by the DJ Hugo Mendez. It's a interesting combination...

Watch the film here

Segou City Scores!

Just back from Mali, where I took this shot in a town called Segou. The most friendly people and the most amazing shoot for Diesel. More pics here!

A.F.R.I.C.A.

I'm going back to my favorite continent next week. This time I'm off to Mali, where you can't get in unless you actually get the jabs, so I'm writing this with 2 aching arms. I usually just cross my fingers!
But now my paperwork is up to date and all is well. Proofing the new book before I fly and then getting it off to the printers (well, HarperCollins do that), so things are moving along. Books take fucking forever to get out there...(Photo is one of mine from Rwanda, but will keep you posted!)

Orders are to be obeyed at all times: Follow your Leader!

Okay, so as some of you may know I was born out of advertising (hence the name - doh!) and so I still keep my hand in from time to time with some ad work. It is a great time to be looking at the whole ad game as it has changed beyond belief since the interweb revolution, and it is mutating into something that is a cross between entertainment, aural pyramid-selling, soft-porn, and a video game.

As a 'Cultural Leader' I am involved in the UK launch of the Honda CR-Z (I'm holding out for my free car) which is all about Cultural Engineers - people who are being creative and yet at the same time are doing some good. I applaud this as usually it's just about fuckers lining their pockets and trying to get out of paying the creatives for their hard work. (You'll get paid on the next job...)

So put all your prejudices about selling out and advertising aside and follow me into a world of pain, sorry, I mean the dream factory. There are some decent peeps in there...

http://www.dreamfactoryuk.com/cultural-leaders/

And now for something completely fucking different!!!

Been working on a kinda graphic novel for over 10 years now. Here's a couple of pages to jump start your working week after too much 'chocolate'...

It's totally fucked-up and mental view of the world of advertising and creativity.

Fresh Direction for Food/Blogs/Art

These guys got in touch with me from Australia and I love what they're doing. They're called the 'Bookery Cook' and they are doing something very unique with their recipes, art, design, and whole approach to food. As you might have read (check it here) I'm not that fond of what is happening right now with food in the media. You have to check out their blog and join them on FuckBook. Lots of wicked recipes, has to become a great cookbook...

Monday Night is Pasta Night

I'm sorting out a new pasta dish tonight (more later if it's successful), so I thought I stick up a classic NYC dish...


Penne in vodka sauce


Although this dish has not been anywhere near Italy, it is still one of the tastiest pasta dishes, and really easy to make too. Pretend you’re in the New York mafia when you’re eating it and talk about getting someone wacked. Let's just say that this comes under Italian-American cuisine!!!

Feeds 4

salt and black pepper
a good knob of  butter
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 pack assorted Italian meat (Parma ham, salami etc), thinly sliced
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon caster sugar
2 red chillies, chopped
25ml/1fl oz vodka
500g/18oz penne pasta
1 small pot double cream
freshly grated Parmesan

Put a large pan of salted water on to boil.
Melt the butter in a large frying pan, add the garlic and fry for a couple of minutes. Then add the sliced meat and fry for a further 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, sugar, chilli and some black pepper, and cook for 5 minutes before adding the vodka.
Then it’s time to put the pasta into the boiling water and cook for 10 minutes (or whatever it says on the packet).
When the pasta is ready, add the cream to the tomato sauce and cook gently for 2 minutes. While this is simmering, drain the pasta and put back into the big pan. Add the tomato sauce to the pasta and mix well.
Cover with grated Parmesan and serve.

Pro Bono Street Recipes - TRINCHADO

I used to eat this at the Dias Tavern in Cape Town as often as I could. Each time I'd go there I'd alternate between this and the Espedata (a serious Kebab) and I'd always be dragging my copywriter or whoever there for a quick lunch (2 hours that would then turn into a serious Jol).  Last time I was in Berlin I bought this dish from a crazy food stall (actually an old caravan) on a visit to a street festival held in June around the Kunstraum museum and park. It’s from Portugal originally but the recipe has mutated into something very Eurocentric. Bring it on!


Feeds 2

15g/1/2oz unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
675g/1 1/2lb rump steak, cut into small cubes
1 large onion, chopped
3 or 4 small hot red chilli peppers, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
725ml/scant 1 1/4 pints/3 cups beef stock
1/2 bottle red wine
1 bay leaf
1 tin black olives, or a couple of good handfuls
salt and black pepper

Heat a large pan over a medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Add the butter and oil.  Once the butter is melted, add the beef cubes a few at a time and brown well on all sides. Don’t cook too many cubes at once, crowd the pan or rush this step: this is what gives the dish its flavour. Remove the cooked cubes and leave to one side on a plate.

Lower the heat to medium, add the onion and chilli and cook until softened, about 10 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Pour in the stock and red wine. Stir until the sauce thickens a bit, about 3 minutes. Then add the bay leaf, olives, browned beef cubes and any juices that may have accumulated on the plate.  Bring to the boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

Serve with lots of crusty French bread for dunking.

Killer!!!

My Street Food Cookbook is sizzling on the fire. Been checking out some killer ideas from around the globe, but then again isn't that what it's all about?
Photo above is of an ingredient from back a yard Trenchtown, from one of my new new new recipes that I'm mixing up right now, and the photo below is an inspiration for a dish from a township in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda...

Roll on Summer...

First real day of spring! Sun is shining and everything is sweet, makes me want to move my dancing feet. Praise be to Robert Nesta Marley - rest in peace bru! Roll roll roll on the summer months and outdoor times!!!
I'm gonna leave you with a shot from a festival last year. Don't know who the fuck he is but he was certainly cuddling up to the one he loved!!!

Church of London and No New Enemies

Okay so I don't just fly solo, I work with a ton of peeps around the world and two of the organizations I work with are Church of London and No New Enemies. All good stuff, all lekker people.

The Church of London

No New Enemies

Bunny Chow Recipe

This is a recipe straight outta Durban, South African, home to the largest Indian population outside of India, but today the Bunny is now eaten all over SA. The dish originated from when some kids wanted some curry from a street stall and didn’t have any plates, and so used a holed-out loaf of bread instead.

Part 1
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
3 cardamom pods
1/2 tsp fennel seed
3 tsp cumin (ground)
1/2 cup oil
1 onion (chopped)
Part 2
3 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cayenne pepper
2 tsp turmeric
Part 3
1 tin of tomatoes.
2 lbs leg of lamb or beef or chicken (cubed)
75ml stock (matching whatever meat)
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground ginger
6 curry leaves
Part 4
2 potatoes, (cubed)
½ bunch fresh coriander
1 tsp peri-peri spice
1 Large French Stick or White Loaf.

In a large pan, fry ingredients from Part 1, until the Onion begins to brown.
Then add Part 2 and when everything beings to stick, add part 3
Cook for 1 hour (30 mins if using chicken) then add part 4.

Cut bread in half and hollow out . Fill with curry. Eat. Lekker!

RWANDA!

This is the film to accompany my feature in this weeks (the 17th Jan) Independent on Sunday on the music scene in Rwanda.
Oh to have my feet back on the red earth of Africa!

250 SECONDS IN RWANDA from king adz on Vimeo.

DRINK OF THE MONTH!

HOT VIMTO! This season's apre-sledging must have!
Just ad boiling water to shit-loads of Vimto!

Next Film Up!

A visual Remix of the first film. The idea is to show how much difference a soundtrack can make to how you see the visual. Oh, yeah, and I made it B/W.

45 SECONDS IN L.A. (GOMEZ REMIX) from king adz on Vimeo.

New Year New Project

Go and check the 100proof FILM Series.This is a project about story-telling using film/video, music, typography, and voice-over. The length of each piece is the same as your average TV spot (30 to 90 seconds) and so is easy for all you web-addicted ADD motherfuckers out there to digest. The subject matter is the usual bullshit that interests me: (places, faces, stories, talent).
First film up now and more to come...

30 SECONDS IN L.A. from king adz on Vimeo.

but I went via

Nairobi...
Busy typing this shit up...

and then I had to

go to Rwanda...

Sorry for no words... But I went to...

Dublin...

Sound of Silence

Sorry for the absent words, been busy finish off the new book.Can't say or show anything at the moment and so I will just have to post this photo I shot in Venice Beach. Fuck-know why but this should slate your thirst...
Some nice food coming your way this week, promise...

1percent

Okay, alright...It's been 14 years since the beginning of '1percent'. Now on line for the first time in ages, you can have a butchers at what it was like in the old days, before...
DOWNLOAD HERE

Chicken & Egg Pilau

Sorry for the distinct lack of action on this here blog but it's been a busy week and lots has been going on (nothing I can talk about, yet). In between the madness I cooked a Pilau for my mates Walks+Kirsten who have no kitchen (it's being fitted as we speak) and a 6-week old baby daughter. So the best thing was to cook a rice dish, keep the lid on the pan and make a Rasam that could be nuked in a microwave. Cooked the pilau (chicken) and shot round there. All good, rice was still hot and banged some rasam on the top. Sat around nashing, cooing over the baby and laughing at the crap telly.

PRO BONO STREET FOOD RECIPES #3

C’mon! Double Bubble – 2 recipes today!!!

Rice & Peas



I used to live in Balham, South London, and my flatmate’s mum would send round rice and peas and hot pepper gravy on a Sunday (a Jamaican Sunday lunch). This was the best thing we’d eat all week. 

Feeds 4-6  

300g/10 1/2oz/1 3/4 cups long-grain rice 
1 bunch spring onions (or just a regular onion), chopped 
1 tin kidney beans 
4 teaspoons allspice 
4 tablespoons soy sauce 
4 cloves garlic, chopped (or 4 teaspoons garlic paste from a jar) 
1 chicken stock cube 
1 x 200g block creamed coconut 

Wash the rice and cover with water to about 3cm above the top of the rice. Mix the onion into the rice and water. Open the tin of kidney beans and pour into the rice, brine and all. Add the allspice, soy sauce, garlic and stock cube. Chop the coconut block into pieces and add to the mixture. 
Mix thoroughly and then cover the pan and bring to the boil. Cook for 20 minutes on a very low heat without taking off the lid. 

Turn off the heat and allow to the pan stand for 10 minutes before serving with jerk chicken and hot pepper gravy (see the following recipe). 




Jerk chicken with hot pepper gravy 



This is a recipe from Ladbroke Grove, West London. A guy I knew back inna day had a shop there selling hip-hop clothes and trainers that he and his partner imported from New York by the bag load (as many as they could get on the plane). This was in 1989 and good gear was hard to get. I used to hang with him sometimes and we’d eat jerk chicken for lunch. Those were the dayz. 

Feeds 4 

8 chicken portions (thighs and drumsticks) 
jerk seasoning (Encona or similar) 
1 large pot yoghurt 
juice of 1 lime 

Hot pepper gravy  
2 teaspoons ground allspice 
1 teaspoon jerk seasoning 
1 chicken stock cube dissolved in 450ml/16fl oz/2 cups water 
1 tablespoon soy sauce 
2 teaspoons chopped garlic  
1 teaspoon chopped fresh root ginger 

Wash the chicken pieces and score each piece deeply with a sharp knife three or four times. 

In a large bowl mix 1–4 teaspoons  jerk seasoning (depending on how hot you want it!) with the yoghurt and lime juice, and then add all the chicken pieces, one by one, coating each piece with the mixture. Marinate for as long as possible (overnight is best). 
Bake in the oven at 200°C/400ºF/Gas 6 for 60 minutes, or cook on a BBQ for 30 minutes. 
Meanwhile, make the hot pepper gravy. Mix all the ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil.  
Simmer for 10 minutes. 

Serve the jerk chicken with rice and peas and hot pepper gravy.

Window Shopping

Food Porn

(The above picture is my favourite shot I've taken so far of one of my recipes. This apparently is food porn, but we'll get to that in a moment...)

Does anyone really want to see people actually cooking on TV? Is it that important to see how it's done? I mean most of the great recipes are not that difficult and the only reason to see someone actually doing it is to get it right. Good food is all about simplicity and not some major fucking campaign to construct a piece of art. This is where food porn comes into it. Apparently people only cook the recipes from books that have colour photos of the finished dish, and most people only cook one or two recipes from each book. Does this mean that the cult of food porn is all about the voyeurism and not the participating in the actual cooking?
If it is then I call bullshit on this. For me food is all about actually doing something that creates something, unlike sitting on a computer all day surfing, watching, reading, which is what a lot of us fuckers do in our down time (as well as at work). I love cooking because it is the antidote to the virtual world of instantly available nothingness. You really produce something that is of use. I mean, once a you've given up the 24-hour drinking, the drugs, the orgies, what is left? Food... that's what!

Going Back to Cali

Picture this: Summer has kicked-off with a bang, you are a rich white suburban teen and the year could be 1978 or 1988, it doesn’t matter. You and your friends all have convertibles with high-grade stereos in them and an endless supply of weed, and all you have to do is hang out and keep cool: In every sense of the word.
You spend you days sleeping till noon and then after a quick dip in the large blue pool behind the house you jump (literally) in your Firebird or Freebird or Thunderbird and cruise through the valley to pick up your best friend, Kenny. The two of you then go to a sweet leafy spot high up in the hills to kick back and smoke some weed, over looking the city suburbs, until you are really stoned and then cruise about the streets listening to KROC or a mixtape that one of you have made. The tunes are all blissed-out west coast shit, and the tunes play loudly as your skin blisters and burns in the sun, from white to red to brown. You and Kenny begin to look alike and a couple of times you get so wasted that you forget your name, you forget who what when where why, until you spot Kenny sat in a corner sat by the pool sat in the passenger seat and it all comes rushing back to you. It could be said that Kenny keeps you grounded, that he keeps you from floating off and never returning. But this would never happen, as that would be just too deep for you to imagine: beyond comprehension.
After a few hours of cruising you float down from the hills into the valley and hook up with your close circle of friends every night in a car park behind the 7-11, which by 9-o clock looks like a convertible car show complete with beautiful girls lolling about stoned on the hoods and seats of the cars. By midnight the party has moved on to wherever is available; whoever’s parents are out of town, you move from one to another in heavy rotation. You drift through a steady supply of girls, nothing heavy and nobody gets hurt when you trade in one girl for another. This is all part of it. The girls are into the brief, intense, relationships and after a couple of hazy days of love they want something new, something fresh. This is all you do all summer. This is all you want to do all summer. This is summer. You have absolutely noting to worry about…

PRO BONO STREET FOOD RECIPES #2

CHICKEN BICKEN CURRY
I spent some time getting this one right: Beginning in my tiny kitchen in Brighton in 1993-1996, then in Cape Town 1996-1999, New York 1999-2009 (I cooked it for my mate Charlotte in NY this year). I've served this for many a dinner guest and it always goes down well. Okay it's nothing like a real curry but it is a real English Curry, whatever the fuck that means (bastardized!) but it will still make you sweat...


Feeds 4
1 onion
4 chicken breasts
a small lump of fresh root ginger, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 jar Patak’s balti paste (or similar)
1 bunch fresh coriander
6 curry leaves
2 teaspoons each of ground cumin, coriander, turmeric
and garam masala
4 cardamom pods
1 chicken stock cube
600ml/1 pint/2 1/2 cups water
1 x 200g block creamed coconut
1 green chilli (chopped)
a good knob of butter

Chop the onion. However you want. Small is good. Fry until golden. This is important as you don’t want to make everything taste of onion.

While the onion is cooking, wash and chop the chicken breasts into smallish chunks. Add the chicken to the onion when it looks like it’s about to burn. Then add the ginger and the garlic.
Fry up for 5 minutes or until the chicken turns white. Add the curry paste.

Chop and add three-quarters of the bunch of coriander (save the rest). Add the curry leaves, ground spices and cardamom pods. Add the stock cube and enough of the water to cover the meat. Put the pan on the lowest heat setting available and cook for 20 minutes.

Chop the coconut block, then add it to the chicken with the chilli, remaining water and the butter too. Cook for about an hour and then remove from the heat and allow to stand for a couple of hours.

Gently reheat, sprinkle with the remaining coriander, and serve with basmati rice and/or naan bread.

Nice Beach 1989

Me and my mate Ali had come down to Nice after the 1989 bicentennial celebrations in Paris. We checked out Jean-Paul Goude‘s parade and then jumped on the overnight train to Nice. The previous day, Ali‘s credit card had been swallowed up in a cash machine and so we were well under manners and a tight budget, until his girlfriend could make it down to nice and hook us up with some cash. On the train I hooked up with a French/African guy going south into the army who sold me a large chunk of hash. We smoked all night in the corridor from Paris to Nice We checked into the temporary youth hostel (a fire station) that opens each summer, and lived out a meagre, but chilled, existence, trying to make the money I had last. Each day we‘d get up and walk to the cheapest supermarket and buy some food: Salami, Laughing Cow cheese and a couple of baguettes. This would last us all day. We thought about buying and selling soft drinks on the beach (BOISSON FRAIS!) but the competition from the Moroccans was a bit fierce. After tanning all day listening to Balearic beats on the Walkman, we‘d go back to the youth hostel and shower. I‘d wrap up a joint and then we‘d go back to the beach to eat the other half of our daily food ration and watch the night descend, stoned to the bone. Sometimes we‘d throw stones at floating Evian bottles, just for the thrill of hearing the crack of stone on plastic, and the sea would merge with the sky and I‘d have to look away. This was how we spent the summer. Ali‘s girlfriend eventually turned up and that night we went out and eat at a small Italian restaurant in the old part of town that served up killer pizza. One of the best tasting meals ever. Peace+love to Ali, wherever you are.

Free Range Kosher Chicken Noodle Soup

Okay, so chicken was this week's meat of choice for the sunday roast and today I'm gonna turn it into the best soup. Just like that... Make sure its a decent bird (Kosher/Free-Range) and after it's been ravaged by the hungry hoards take a big fuck-off pan with lid and put what is left of the chicken in with a couple of liters of boiling water. Boil for a couple of hours, with the lid on.
Using a colander drain off the stock and then pick out what meat is left and return (with stock) to the pan, discarding the horrorshow bits in the bin. Add chicken stock cube (Knorr or Kallo is best) 2 cloves of chopped garlic, two peeled and sliced carrots (or any veg left over from the sunday dinner - chopped roast potatoes are good), some lemon juice and salt and pepper. Add a knob of butter and a sprig of rosemary and then boil up for 15 mins. Add the noodles ( Lubella Filiini no 2 are the best) and cook for 5 more mins.
Optional Peri-Peri powder is great but not essential.
Serve and watch it go... Yam yam yammmmm. Lekker!

The Happy Mondays

It's wicked to get up on a cold Northern Monday morning and knowing that you've got a day of hard yakka of pure creation in front of you. My working life is divided into food, travel, and people and I love them all. The people bit covers everything: talent, stories, and often leads to the discovery of new food. This in turn is linked to travel and so the circle is complete. It's a good job I just don't do one thing as I get bored very easily and bouncing from one thing to another keeps me distracted. Talking of getting distracted and into trouble, this leads me to The Happy Mondays, who are on my list...

Hush Hush it's illegal

Spent most of today in Newcastle with my pal Hush, shooting/filming him create an fucking huge piece in his all-new style in an abandoned warehouse in Gateshead. I've not done anything so illegal in a long time (well, not since I was in LA with HUSH...) and it was good to get my heart going a little. All will be revealed in the Hush film I'm half way through shooting... Then I drove home and eat a killer Sunday lunch with my family: the Ying and the Yang - the big wheel keeps on turning...

Pesto Pastie

Had some pastry left over from the steak pie and so made a proper fusion of street food - Cornwall meets Rome - mushroom, cheese, and red pesto (with optional bacon/ham) pastie.
Okay what you do is roll out an oval piece of short crust pastry (or puff - whatever you have) and spread a decent teaspoon of red pesto, like a mini pizza. Fry some mushrooms and bacon or ham up in a pan with some butter for 3 mins and then wack on top of the pesto. sprinkle with cheese, salt+pepper and pull up the pastry around the edges, making it into a pastie-like shape. Brush pastry join with milk and then stick in the oven for 20 mins at 160. Makes a change from the usual!

The Reamins of the Pie (Steak & Guinness)

Yesterday my son (hero of post below) said that he was bored of all the Italian food we had been eating (okay he had a point, I have been hammering my Bella Granny's recipes since getting back from Rome) and when I asked him what he wanted he said 'something tasty'. Both my kids like decent food. My eldest (daughter) likes anything I cook and is up to speed on proper spicy food, but my boy likes his traditional English Fayre: Shepard's Pie, Fisherman pie (both not really pies as there is not a scrap of pastry in sight), Meat (usually mince) & Potato Pie, Spag Bog (a very English dish!). And steak pie. He loves one of them, and so I got a few recipes together and decided on the best form of attack. He's not that fond of too much veg so no mushrooms or celery (both of which go well in the pie)-  just the carrots then. Braising steak is best for this job so buy it before it's chopped up and then you can make your own whatever size you want. Oh and apparently you have to have some bacon in there... Anyway it went down like a 747 (quickly) and made me think more about traditional English food. Recipe will follow when it's 100% perfected...

Get Your Drink On

This is one for the hardcore gangbangers out there... My latest favourite beverage is the Earl of Bosh.
My boy made me a cup of tea the other night and used the wrong teabags. But it was dope!
1 Earl Grey + 1 Roibosh teabag = The Earl of Bosh.
Take it with milk and you're laughing all the way to your nearest meth dealer. That's street living alright!

PRO BONO STREET FOOD RECIPES #1

As the season of good will to all (wo)men approaches I've decided to start giving it away! I'm sending my tried and tested recipes from year dot to yesterday out into the digital ether...

Straight from the streets of Bo-Kaap (google the fucker) this is the killer Cape Malay Curry that tastes like it should -- Outta this world.

CAPE MALAY MINCE & PEA CURRY (okay so it has potato in as well)

Feeds 4

2 teaspoons vegetable oil

1 large onion, sliced

1 tin tomatoes

3 pieces cinnamon bark

5 cardamom pods

3 cloves

3 teaspoons garam masala

1 teaspoon turmeric

4 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ginger paste from a jar

3 teaspoons garlic paste from a jar

500g/18oz minced steak or lamb

425ml/3/4 pint/scant 2 cups stock (the same as your meat of choice)

4 potatoes, peeled and quartered

200g/7oz frozen peas

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion and fry until golden. Add the tin of tomatoes and cook on a low heat for 10 minutes. Then add all the spices and simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently.

Add the mince, allow to brown, and then add the stock and cook for at least 30 minutes on the lowest heat, stirring constantly.

Add the potatoes to the mixture and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the potatoes begin to crumble, adding more stock if needed – you want it to be fairly wet. Finally, add the frozen peas and cook for 5 minutes.

Serve with Indian breads such as rotis or parathas.

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