Daube à la niçoise, nationalism and economics, ...

... a competition for a wet August day.

 

 

Serves 4, Prep: 35 min Cook: 2 hr

Ingredients

900g skirt/flank steak
2 tbsp olive oil
75g smoked streaky bacon, cut into lardons
1 bay leaf, few sprigs thyme, parsley and basil
2 large glasses red wine
2 red onions
2 large carrots
4 large vine tomatoes
2 oranges
6 garlic cloves
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley

Method 
 

Following the lines of the meat, slice into big pieces, approx 10x4cm. Heat the oil in a spacious, lidded stew-pan, such as one from Le Creuset. Brown the meat with the bacon, turning the pieces as they form a seal.
While that’s happening, bundle the herbs and tie with string. Place in a pan with the wine and simmer for 5 minutes. Halve and slice the onions. Scrape the carrots and cut into chunky pieces. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, count to 30, drain and remove the skin. Cut into quarters, scrape out the seeds and chop the flesh. Remove the zest from one orange in small scraps. Crack the garlic with your fist, flake away the skin.
Stir the flour into the pan until it disappears. Add the onion, the wine and the herb bundle, zest and juice from the oranges, chopped tomatoes and 4 of the garlic cloves. Season lavishly with salt and pepper, stir and add sufficient water to just cover. Return to simmer. Turn off the heat, drape with parchment paper so it touches the stew, cover and cook in the oven at 180C/gas mark 6, for 2 hours.
Serve immediately, or reheat the next day. Garnish with the last two garlic cloves and the parsley, all finely chopped.

... many thanks to Lindsey Bareham and The Times.

Now over at Wales Home, the "separatist agenda" arch villain Adam Price has his day in court, it makes a very mundane read, apparently he is right and Higgitt is wrong, his familiar spirits will come out in force eventually, they work on the presumption that those who shout loudest win the contest.

 

Unfortunately for the world at large, Price and his familiars are unable to explain how the "separatist agenda" intends to creat its "shangri-la". Who was it that said "the first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."

In a straight contest between Price and the Daube à la niçoise, the summer stew from the South of France wins hands down.

Update, apparently I am an extremist, according to Daran Hill, my wife said "that's from the man that talks the talk rather than walking the walk", then started laughing ... she's still laughing.

Adam Higgitt is still on the ropes but ...

... fighting back with gusto.

The nationalist " Y Teifi " is unable to comprehend that nationalism is a centralist political regime.  He is adament that ...

"nationalism and decentralism DO NOT contradict each other"

... he was shouting at poor Adam at this point of the discussion, unaware that those in the sane hemisphere understand the meaning of his nationalism, from wiki ...

"... the belief that the state is of primary importance, or the belief that one state is naturally superior to all other states.  It is also used to describe a movement to establish or protect a 'homeland' (usually an autonomous state) for an ethnic group. In some cases the identification of a national culture is combined with a negative view of other races or cultures...

... how much of that has been read amongst the recent comments at Wales Home.

Why am I confident that this poor man, or woman, is delusional ?  Plaid is categoric in its constitution that the future of Wales is with decentralised socialism, not decentralism in isolation.  The nationalism on offer is, as with all nationalism, a one size fits all.


Plaid Cymru,  the alma mater of the "separatist agenda", believes it can perpetrate a confidence trick, I say it can only fool the woolly ...

And BartiDdu got really out of shape with Adam ...

... Higgit when he wrote :

... which disease is the most dangerous?  Welsh Nationalism or British Nationalism? ...

The  answer by Adam was "both types of nationalism are equally dangerous";  as the vast majority of democrats in our Britain would agree.

Our angry young (maybe old) man/woman then tried to insinuate that those that oppose his nationalism are nationalists themselves by writing ...

... those who deride Plaid Cymru and the like as ‘Nationalists’ are more often than not ‘Nationalists’ themselves, of the British variety.

... he reverts to "Fallacious Argument", by introducing the false rhetoric that there exists a British variety of nationalist akin to Plaid Cymru that Adam must belong to.


A dangerous lot the "separatist agenda" in Wales, based upon the rhetoric found amongst the nationalist in Wales commentating at Wales Home these past few days, how might the individual or non-BartiDdu-conformist fare were Plaid and its nationalist following able to gain power ?

Wales is punching above ...

... its weight, don't listen to the doom-mongers of the left, the sky isn't falling in, in fact we have two contenders in the top thirty, number 11 is at Cardiff Bay, and who would have thought Ebbw Vale could fight off the competition from the South and West of England and sit at at number 25.


At No. 11 we have Cadwaladers at Bute place, Mermaid Quay, Cardiff, this is where to go for the best ice-cream in Wales, have a peak into the business.


At No. 25 there is Sidolis at Bethcar Street, Ebbw Vale, Gwent, who would have thought there is a shining star of ice-cream excellence to be found amongst the remains of our Industrial revolution, well, for those who write of "Poor Wales", another company with good provenance is serving excellence in the market place.


Spoilt for choice, Cawaladers is found in 9 towns throughout Wales, whilst Sidolis sits in the South, its home since 1922.  

So we have 6% of the top ice-cream parlours with 5% of the British population, punching above our weight I believe.  

There is a man who is punching well above his weight, Adam Higgit at Wales Home, he has been fighting a rearguard action in a battle with the "separatist agenda", this is a man that the Welsh Assembly Government should be employing to organise the defence of  Wales against those that would take us to a dark corner, a corner that is probably not very democratic, and reading the comments attached to the thread "Is there really a linguistic Apartheid in Wales", very definitely xenophobic, bordering on the racist, and not very agreeable,  but only with regard to people like my wife and daughter, they were both born in England.