I’m writing this in Germany, using the WordPress app on an iPad mini for the first time, so anything could happen. However, a great week began a week ago last Saturday (2 May): I discovered a new ‘Writers Club’ looking for a permanent venue and arranged one in my village. Sunday the ‘Tour de Yorkshire’ came through my village – a massive turnout, wonderful community atmosphere, to applaud the riders through. Then, I decided to abandon my usual ‘Biftek hache a la Lyonnaise’ hamburger and experiment with making a hamburger ‘Romanesc’ which turned out to be a big hit with my Romanca (ie Romanian lady – wife) so I’m going to tell you about it.
Writers Club
I think it’s fitting that my village, Menston, in which Lassie was created (by Eric Knight, a Menstonite) should become the ‘home’ of a Writers Club, though the club was first formed in a nearby town which has an increasingly renowned literature festival – Ilkley. What might be really surprising to many people, though not to me, is that the club was initiated by a young woman, a graduate in Behavioural Psychology from Bradford University. Not surprising? No, that isn’t; that the club was started in this tyke’s county by a Romanian might surprise most people.
Ruxandra Busoiu, founder of the Writers Club. Pic by club member Bob Hamilton.
She’s Ruxandra (what a great ancient Romanian name that is!) Busoiu and in a very busy life she’s aiming to write a novel. Another member is a mathematician who runs a software development company in the town of my birth, Shipley, now almost absorbed by the Bradford metropolis; he has written a book – not fiction – and been published; he’s also a pretty good photographer. Then there’s a journalist, and now there’s me – blogger, former journalist, occasionally attempting a haiku and a couple of short stories, yet no urge to write a novel. The first meeting with them was nothing short of inspirational so I’m really looking forward to our next meeting on Saturday next, close to my home.
A ‘Romanian’ hamburger
A ‘Romanian’ hamburger?
I often joke with my wife that Romanians (Romanians in Moldavia that is) eat bread with everything. including bread, and cannot cook a dish without a liberal dose of dill. So a very large handful of fresh dill (in fact frozen – one drawer of our freezer is almost full of the stuff), finely chopped, was next to the mixing bowl with just under a lb (400g) of good, lean, minced beef.
The lean beef needs some fat and I usually add butter, but for this ‘Romanian’ hamburger I added some finely ‘chopped’ slanina afumata (smoked pork back fat) bought from the Romanian shop in Leeds Kirkgate market.
A good dose of boia de ardei dulce (sweet paprika) was added after mixing the meat with some gently sweated finely chopped onion with chopped garlic, a little salt and pepper and a pinch of cimbru (thyme).
Formed into two thick rounds, seared in a very hot pan then cooked on a lower flame until just pink inside. The pan was deglazed with red wine for a sauce. Apart from a baked potato, the other accompaniments seen in the picture are pickled gogosari murati (pickled bell pepper) and gogonele murati (pickled unripe tomato), both from the Leeds market shop.
As I said, my wife rated this experimental hamburger very highly and has requested that it be regularly on the menu.
Grumpytyke 