An Old Friend returns

I don't envy Tom (freakytigger) and the mammoth task he's set himself of documenting every one of the UK's 1000+ Number One hits in his idiosyncratic, and very elegant, way. So I'm not surprised he took a break during 2005, although I love the project and I miss his insights into the music I loved (and loathed) in my youth.

It was great to see him back in action yesterday. He must have been looking forward to it because he's plunged in again at the height of 1966, probably the last and greatest year of the singles market. After that came The Doors and The Velvet Underground and Frank Zappa, none of whom seriously expected to have a hit single. (I have a feeling I've said all this before, now I think about it).

How wonderful to read Tom on one of my favourites of the time, Chris Farlowe's Out Of Time yesterday. And today he's given only his second 10 - and why aren't I surprised that it goes to The Beatles and Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine? No single was ever more pivotal in the history of popular music. Both sides come from the the Revolver album after all.

Gastroblog

Esther (semioticghosts) tells me she enjoys my foodie posts. So I'll make them a regular feature.

There was no vegetable box from Riverford Organics last week, so there are no fresh greeens in my cupboard. I'm using up roots, so today it's time to take another step towards the Best Hotpot South Of Rawtenstall project. This isn't a New Year resolution, it's a long term project. If we were a nation as proud of our food as the French or Italians there would be a Hotpot Trail arnd Clitheroe and pubs and restaurants vying with each other to be recognised as purveying the best Hotpot. These things don't happen and it's a national disgrace.

Of course, you need a proper traditional Hotpot to do it properly - you can get one from the excellent Lakeland Limited. And you really need mature mutton, not lamb, but mutton is hard to find and some neck of lamb just has to do, sometimes.

And this is what you do. You take

• 500g neck of mutton or lam, chopped up
  
• 500g onions, sliced thinly
  
• 1kg potatoes, peeled and sliced
  
• salt, pepper, butter and water
  

Heat the oven to 200C. Put the meat and vegetables in the pot in layers. Season each layer with salt and pepper. Finish with a layer of sliced potato at the top. Pour melted butter on the top layer. Cover the pot and put it in the heated oven for 30 minutes. After this time, lower the oven temperature to 140C and cook for two-and-a-half hours. Take the cover off the pot for the last half hour.

Traditionally Hotpot is served with pickled red cabbage. Sauerkraut goes with it very nicely too, and so does thinly-shredded white cabbage sautéed briefly in hot oil with garlic and ginger.

Today I had a small celeriac that needed using up, so I peeled and sliced that and added it as an extra layer. I'm looking forward to seeing what effect that has.

2006 Reading List - Philip Pullman: Galatea (1978)

Very strange! A young musician travels to South America in search of his missing wife and becomes embroiled with an ex-Nazi and his zombie slaves, a city debilitated by ghosts, angels, erotic spirits made of electricity, intelligent automata, and a sinister foe who is at once a business consultant, an astrologer and a werewolf.

It's all rather cold, soulless and unappealing. It's hard to like the rather priggish protagonist and I never really cared whether he found his wife or not. But it's fascinating to see how so many ideas that bore such luscious fruit in His Dark Materials had their first flowering here.

This book is an American first edition of Pullman's first published novel, and I am offering it for auction on eBay.