Donkeyshott & Xuitlacoche

Liver is lekker… Picture by Thy Tran 1. …if you prepare it right, fried low and light, like they do in Somalia, where by tradition it is a job reserved for men. 2. First, peel off that membrane, the transparent thin skin – or get your butcher to, if (s)he hasn’t already. 3. Cut away any gristly end bits. 4. Slice it horizontally, 1-2cm thick, keeping pieces large as possible. 5. Fry sliced onion in butter for a couple of minutes, add the liver and immediately take the pan off the fire. 6. Back on a low flame for half a minute, then off again, turn it over, another half minute, 7. Then (if you like) pour on a bit of sherry, or a tot of orange juice, for the final half minute, maybe some tarragon. The point is, the meat must not get a skin, not get the least resilient. And if it looks underdone, it won’t stay that way. It will melt in the mouth. If you like it in strips, cut it before you serve it, not before you cook it. 8. And this soft liver can be blended as is, a

We can all attest to the fact that Dad's marmalade was the very best we have ever tasted. It's true that Mom was the excellent cook. But Dad loved making onion butter and Gentlemen's relish and mayonaises and marmalade. He was really good at making condiments. He gave us all pots of this marmalade for the conoisseur and designed the labels. Granny and Mom carrying baskets like peasant women next to the cumquat tree in the Garden. Making the best marmalade with the least fuss the Ouma Smuts Cookery Book way Cumquats From Giddygirlie Unless you are quite old (and white or coloured) or your grandma left you a copy, you may not know this treasured old collection of South African 1940s wartime and postwar recipes and household hints, gathered in the name of General Smuts’ wife by Mrs Roy Hendry. Much of it is social history, but there are great recipes. Notably, there are several for different types of marmalade, which involve 12-24 hours of alternate soaking and boiling.

Hass avocado, from Kathryn This tip, another Mexican one, also includes using the pips: If you’re left with half an avo, leave the pip in; or if you’ve scooped out a couple of avos for a guacamole or dip, put the pips into the mix until ready to serve. This keeps the fruit looking green and fresh, even outside a fridge. By Tony Hall

For those who don’t know, the best way to prepare the lovely cocktail is, your usual recipe (using cointreau or the much cheaper triple sec) BUT instead of just lemons and sugar or ‘limeade’, put a lemon or two cut in half – pips, skin and all – into your blender, with a cup of water and a few spoons of sugar and whirr away. Put it through a sieve, then pour it into the tequila mix, with the half-crushed ice and the salt-rimmed glasses. But serve and drink it within a half hour or so, before tang starts turning to bitterish.

…the way many, if not most Brits use water in the home *After all, why have an instant warming shower, where you can step in every day, soap and clean all the parts, have a last warm (or cool) splash, step out and use less water… when you can run a bath three times a week (or less) using more water and taking longer getting the mix right, climb in, get up and down a couple of times to soap and then rinse the parts, then lie back in a rapidly cooling tub, with a soapy scum lapping around you, and heave your body out when the air is getting colder? *And why have two sinks side by side in the kitchen, with draining board either side on which to place two drying racks, enough to take all crockery and cutlery from a dinner party… when you can have one sink, with a plastic bowl in it ?… and be driven to buying a dishwasher for lots of money, using lots of soaps, and electricity, and bending down to rinse and stack, instead of doing just that in your double sink and drying racks, whi

Aristide of Haiti - a letter to the ANC Aristide: Picture by.... I wrote this as a letter to ANC by Tony Hall, 2004 I would like to join those many millions of people of African origin and those many thousands -- or millions -- of other races like myself who broadly support the progressive struggle of third world nations to achieve genuine social democracy... We would all happily say: congratulations and thanks to the ANC government for deciding to receive and host President Juan Bertrand Aristide of Haiti in South Africa. As a South African I say: welcome Mr President, we are honoured to have you as a guest. I am quite happy to contribute my taxpayer's mite towards hosting you as long as you need to be here, until imperialist lackeys are overcome in Haiti and a semblance of democracy is restored to your country. There is a groundswell of hurt and deep anger, not to be underestimated, against those who have tried to make an issue of this invitation, like South African D

...The very next morning during breakfast on the verandah, while we were watching the traffic in our bird-feeding tree – we suddenly stood up to cheer, like the crowd surging up for a brilliant goal: a small bird pushed the pin-tailed polygamous preening parasite right off the seed-tray – and did it again when the whydah returned. It was the first time in almost ten years that we have seen the pin-tailed whydah bested by any other bird remotely his own size. And we do get annoyed at the way he hovers, chirps and dives on any Little Brown Job that isn't one of his six wives, keeping all the little ones of all kinds away, throughout the season, from the seeds we put out every day. This morning's bold hero was it's true, slightly larger than an LBJ. He may have been a Greyheaded Sparrow, judging by the single white wing-bar. But it's also true that the whydah sometimes sees off birds as big as doves from coming near the tree. This abashed King-of-Six returned only afte