Wash the rice under water until the water runs clear. Place the rice in a medium saucepan and add 1 1/2 cups of boiling.
STEP 2 :
Begin stirring the rice and salt. Return the saucepan to heat and allow it to boil over a medium-high heat.
STEP 3 :
Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the saucepan and cook until the rice is tender and all the liquid has been absorbed. This should take between 15-17 minutes.
STEP 4 :
Remove from heat and let it steam for 10 minutes. Then using a fork begin to fluff with the rice.
STEP 5 :
Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan. Once warm add the garlic, ginger, broccoli and half the spring onions. Fry them all for 5-7 mins or until they have softened.
STEP 6 :
Cut the kimchi and add to the frying pan. Continue to stir the pan making sure to fry the kimchi.
STEP 7 :
Once the rice is cooked add it to the frying pan and begin mixing it. Add the carrots and cook for another minute until it all heats through.
Step 8 :
Begin to push everything in the pan to the side and pour the remaining oil into the empty part of the pan.
Step 9 :
Crack in the eggs and start to fry them. Squeeze the lime juice over the rice and eggs and begin to scoop the rice into bowls.
Step 10 :
Top the rice with the egg and add coriander, spring onions and lime wedges for garnish and enjoy.
All images, Ⓒ Pexels / Recipe researched and created by Nazifa Miah
Ingredients
For the Foie Gras:
- 1 lobe of foie gras
- Flaky sea salt
For the Bread Roll
- 15g of fresh yeast
- 250g of water
- 450g of plain flour
- 75ml of extra virgin olive oil
- 16g of salt
Method
STEP 1 :
Preheat an oven to 170°C/gas mark 5
STEP 2 :
To make the bread rolls, add the yeast to the bowl and cover with water. Add the flour in bit by bit until the flour and water are combined. Then add the add the olive oil and salt.
STEP 3 :
Mix until a dough is formed and place in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and place somewhere warm for an hour to rise.
Step 4 :
Once risen, knock back the dough and divide into 6 evenly sized balls. Place these balls onto a baking tray and place back into the warm place to rise again.
STEP 5 :
Once risen for the second time, Brush the top of the rolls with a little olive oil and bake for 18 minutes.
STEP 6 :
Thoroughly clean the foie gras and thinly cut them. Next begin heating a nonstick pan over a high heat and place the foie gras in the pan and begin to sear on both sides until it turns brown. Sprinkle the foie gras with a pinch of sea salt.
STEP 7 :
Once the rolls have baked, allow to cool, then cut in half. Place the foie gras on top of the buns. Add any condiment of our choosing and enjoy with a side of French fries.
A classic roast chicken recipe that is perfect for everyday of the week not just Sunday! Make this easy oven baked chicken that will satisfy your hunger.
Photo by Tim Douglas from Pexels
Dish Type : Meat Dish
Prep 10 mins
Cooking time 1 h 30 min not including resting time
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 1 white onion, roughly diced
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 10 medium potatoes quartered
- Small bunch of thyme ,sage and rosemary
- 1 whole chicken minus the innards about 1.5kg/3lb 5oz
- 25g butter, softened
- 1 lemon quartered
- 1 Lime quartered
- Salt to taste
- Pepper
- 3 chopper Garlic cloves & 3 whole cloves
Method
STEP 1
Pre heat the oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5.
STEP 2
Grab a roasting tray big enough to fit the chicken and throw in all the cut up vegetables, the chopped carrots ,garlic, onion and potato’s. Drizzle some oil over the veggies and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Ensure everything is evenly coated.
STEP 3
Place the chicken on top of the vegetables and heavily season the cavity of the chicken with salt and pepper. Stuff garlic cloves and lemon quarters along with the bundle of herds in the cavity
STEP 4
Then rub butter all over the front of the chicken focusing on the legs and breast and season to taste.
STEP 5
Once the chicken is ready to go, Place it into the oven and leave for around 1-hour 30mins. After the time is up pierce the thigh to check if the chicken is cooked though, if it runs clear the chicken is cooked and can be taken out if not cook for 10 more mins.
STEP 6:
Take the chicken out of the tray and leave to rest for 15mins. Remember to remove the stuffing of citrus and herbs and let the juices run into the tray. As the chicken rests, the vegetables can be taken out.
STEP 7:
Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables and Enjoy!
All images, Ⓒ Pexels / Recipe researched and created by Nazifa Miah
The objects we own share unique insights about who we are, often provoking fascinating discussion. Here, we tell Abi’s story of her pendant that is part of her Armenian identity and a witness to the country’s genocide.
Make the nation’s national dish from the comfort of your own home. This authentic and perfectly spiced curry and fluffy naan bread will make you think twice before ordering a takeaway!
Photo by amirali mirhashemian from Unsplash
Type of dish : Meat dish
Prep: 12 mins
Cook: 50 mins (not including the marination time)
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the chicken tikka marinade:
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 kg boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs and cut into large chunks
- 2 tablespoons Ginger-Garlic Paste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper.
- 2 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- Salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons of oil
- 1 tablespoon turmeric power
- 1 tablespoon chilli power
- 1 tablespoon cumin and coriander power
Method
STEP 1 :
Clean your chicken thoroughly and cut into bite size pieces and place in a large bowl.
STEP 2 :
To create the marinade, Add 1 cup of plain yogurt to the chicken pieces followed by the ginger and garlic paste and all the spices (ground black pepper, garam masala , cayenne pepper, turmeric power, chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder) and give it a good mix. Make sure to add salt to your taste.
STEP 3 :
Once mixed add 2 tablespoons of oil and mix once more until it’s all combined. Leave the chicken in the fridge to marinade preferably overnight. But if you are short on time you can leave the chicken in the fridge for an hour 1 hour before cooking it.
STEP 4 :
After the chicken has marinated, heat up a large pan and drizzle some oil then cook the chicken.
STEP 5 :
For the masala sauce, heat oil and butter together in a pan and add chopped onions, garlic and ginger paste and cook for 10 minutes until the onions are soft and turn a nice golden brown. Add salt and chopped tomatoes and mix thoroughly until all combined. If the onions become too dry or begins to stick add a few teaspoons of water.
STEP 6 :
To the onions, add garam masala, paprika, turmeric ,chilli powder , coriander power and tomato paste and cook until all the spices are incorporated.
STEP 7 :
Then add the marinated chicken and cook for 15 mins. Then add enough water to cover the chicken and leave to simmer with the lid on for 25min. Make sure to occasionally stir the pot to stop the curry from sticking to the bottom.
STEP 8 :
While the chicken is cooked, we can begin making our naan bread. Simply combine the self-rising flour, plain yogurt, and a pinch of salt together in a big bowl and mix until a dough is formed. Divide the mixture into 6 sections and roll out the dough on a floured surface. Roll the dough until you get a circle ,or something that resembles a circle, that is around 2 cm thick
STEP 9 :
Heat a large nonstick pan over a medium heat, and cook the Naan on each side for 5 minutes or until it’s cooked through and slightly brown. Then brush with some butter and keep warm in the oven or microwave while the remaining naans are made.
STEP 10 :
Remove the lid and stir the chicken making sure to scrape the bottom. Remove a piece of chicken and check that it is cooked all the way through. Finally add the cream and mix altogether then garnish with some coriander. Add the fresh warm naans and Enjoy!
All images, Ⓒ Pexels / Recipe researched and created by Nazifa Miah
Food is a global language that is present in practically every moment of our lives. It’s there to celebrate every milestone from life and death, love, and sorrow and is a comforting hand in the lives of humans. Food has always been an integral part of our existence, culture, and history.
This creamy and rich mushroom risotto recipe is the ultimate comfort meal, that is easy and simple to and make that will leave you feeling satisfied.
Photo by jana Ohajdova from Pexels
Dish Type: Vegetarian
Prep: 8 mins
Cook: 28 mins + soaking
Serves 4
Ingredients:
- 60g porcini mushrooms
- 3 finely chopped garlic cloves
- 3 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 finely chopped onion
- 250g chopped chestnut mushroom.
- 1 vegetable stock
- 315 g risotto rice (arborio)
- 1 x 175ml glass white wine
- 30g butter
- Chopped parsley leaves
- 50g freshly grated parmesan
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 litre water
Method
STEP 1
First place the 60g of mushrooms into a bowl and pour 1 litre of boiling water over. Allow the mushrooms to soak in the water for up to 20 mins and then drain the water into a separate bowl and keep them aside.
STEP 2
Crumble in 1 vegetable stock cube into the mushroom liquid making sure to squeeze the mushrooms gently to remove the excess liquid.
STEP 3
Grab a shallow saucepan and over a medium flame, begin to heat the olive oil. Once warm add 1 finely chopped onion and 3 finely chopped garlic cloves, then cook for about 5 mins until soft.
STEP 4
Stir in the remaining chopped chestnut mushrooms and the dried mushrooms, and cook till soft. Don’t forget to season with salt and pepper.
STEP 5
Next into the pan, pour in the 300g risotto and cook for 1 min. Add 175ml of white wine and let it bubble until all the alcohol evaporates.
STEP 6
Continuing to stir, then slowly begin to pour a quarter of the mushroom stock. Let the rice simmer, stirring often, until the rice has fully absorbed all the liquid.
STEP 7
Continue stirring until the rice is cooked. Make sure to slowly add the stock and mix it in until it becomes creamy. If the rice is still undercooked, add a splash of water, and keep the pan hot. Then remove from the heat and add the butter and sprinkle generously with cheese and parsley. Tuck in and enjoy the dish!
All images, Ⓒ Pexels / Recipe researched and created by Nazifa Miah
Raves dilute classism, racism and sexism in a way that conventional club nights can’t. Here, we narrate the birth of Incrypted London, a rave promoter founded by uni students Will, Olen, Louis, Alfie and Sonny
Let’s make the bread rolls: dissolve the yeast in the water, then add the flour little by little. Once the flour and water is evenly combined add the olive oil, salt and liquorice.
240g of water
15g of fresh yeast
450g of plain flour
18g of salt
75ml of extra virgin olive oil
15g of liquorice powder
Mix well and transfer the dough to a large bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and set aside to rise for 1-1½ hours in a warm place. Divide the dough into evenly sized balls, place on a baking tray and leave to rise once more. Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 5.
Brush the the rolls with olive oil and bake for 18 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the mango ketchup. In a medium saucepan heat the olive oil and sweat the onions and garlic. Add all the other ingredients and simmer for 15-20 minutes. With a blender or hand mixer blitz the mixture until smooth, then pass through a fine sieve.
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 mango, peeled and roughly chopped
90ml of orange juice
45ml of dry white wine
12ml of cider vinegar
12ml of lime juice
20g of cane sugar
1/2 garlic clove
1 tsp allspice
1 pinch of cayenne pepper
1 pinch of cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
Let’s make the Passito mayo: combine the egg yolk, a pinch of salt and a few drops of water in a small bowl. Slowly drizzle in the oil, whisking all the time, until emulsified. Mix in the Passito and season with more salt if necessary.
1 tbsp of Passito di Pantelleria wine
1 egg yolk
150g of rapeseed oil
1 pinch of salt
Preheat a deep fryer to 180°C.
For the vegetable chips, dredge the sliced vegetables in flour. Fry in the deep fryer until golden and crispy, then drain on kitchen paper.
1 carrot
1 courgette
use plain flour, for dredging
Clean the foie gras and cut into escalopes. Heat a nonstick frying pan over a high heat and sear the foie gras on both sides until browned. Sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt and serve immediately.
1 lobe of foie gras
1 pinch of flaky sea salt
To plate, put a foie gras escalope inside a liquorice roll and garnish with the mango ketchup, Passito mayonnaise and vegetable chips.
The pink-haired chef Cristina Bowerman is the only female Michelin-starred executive in Rome and one of the very few worldwide. In this piece, she reflects on a life of abrupt changes and leaps in the dark as opportunities to challenge the stakes of tradition.
The novelist from Prague has Gen Z in a chokehold, but any algorithm-induced obsession has its limits.
Image credit: emanionz
Among the things that tormented Franz Kafka in 1912 were his authoritarian father, social alienation and a story that ‘came to him in his misery lying in bed’ – or at least that’s what he told his soon-to-be fiancé, Felice Bauer. Following a three-week bout with writer’s block, The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung) – a ‘bug piece’ (Wanzensache) that would outlive the Czech novelist – was born.
The characteristically nightmarish novella centres around overworked salesman Gregor Samsa, who one morning wakes to find himself transformed into a gigantic insect. Over a century later, The Metamorphosis is making waves in unlikely places. From fancams on TikTok to Kafka-themed birthday cakes on Twitter, young people took to social media to pay homage to the heart-wrenching writer. This begs the question: what do Gen Z and a luminary of twentieth-century literature have in common?
An arthropodan transformation doesn’t ring any bells, but the undercurrent of social isolation that runs through Kafka’s oeuvre hits too close to home. Come to think of it: while Samsa spent the better part of The Metamorphosis imprisoned in bed, we spent the better part of 2022 in a polarising lockdown. Isn’t a global pandemic as perplexing as a grotesque metamorphosis? Considering that it prefaced a cost-of-living crisis that would exacerbate pre-existing anxieties, it’s reasonable to say that modern existence is disconcertingly Kafkaesque.
“Kafka was clearly a point of reference for many people during the pandemic, especially with The Metamorphosis,” said Dr Karolina Watroba, a post-doctoral research fellow in Modern Languages at All Souls College at University of Oxford. “I have a whole section about it in my forthcoming book Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka. Many readers reported rereading the story as a reflection of life in lockdown and estrangement from one’s own body, and there were multiple adaptations in other media that reinterpreted the story in this light.”
Watroba pays heed to the parallels between “German-speaking Europe in the 1920s” and recent times. “Kafka himself fell very ill during the influenza pandemic of 1918, which was widely compared to COVID-19, and he ultimately died of another serious respiratory illness, tuberculosis,” she said. “I haven’t seen such parallels being made to the current economic crisis – at least not yet – but it is interesting to note that Kafka also lived in Berlin in the last year of his life during hyperinflation that peaked in 1923.”
Image credit: rocio perera
The pandemic helped loosen the grip performativity had on Gen Z. We all knew there was no going past our front doors; there was no point pretending otherwise on Instagram. From then on, the facade of social media began to wane, with blurry photo dumps and ‘shitposting’ accounts overthrowing perfectly-curated feeds. Gone are the days of VSCO filters and FaceTune subscriptions; we now live in a collective ‘flop era’ where it’s normal – honourable even – to admit that you haven’t left your bed in 24 hours. On the road to authenticity, Gen Z made a pit stop to read Kafka, whose writing embodies the candour they’ve been hankering after.
“Kafka was actually a lawyer by training and you can see that he writes like a lawyer. It’s very clear. It’s very simple. It’s not fancy or expressive. There’s a timelessness to that,” said Professor Carolin Duttlinger, co-director of the Oxford Kafka Research Centre and professor of German Literature in Wadham College at University of Oxford. Coincidentally, she was a teenager when she first encountered Kafka and recalls being “immediately fascinated.” She adds, “He doesn’t go about a project knowing how it’s going to end. That’s one of the fascinating things about him: he embarks on this journey and you embark on it with him. And so, you don’t feel like someone is trying to teach you something or they’ve got some sort of message behind their work. It’s totally unpredictable.”
Kafka’s plain-spoken prose proves that he was not afraid to say things as they were – even if that meant bidding adieu to happy endings. This also means that his novels, no matter how bizarrely premised, are digestible to the average reader of, say, 16 years old. The Metamorphosis, his lengthiest publication, is only 80-pages long, yet has the potency of a 600-page novel.
As Duttlinger points out, “I don’t think you really need to know much about the politics or the society [at the time they were written] because they’re such universal texts.” Kafka was not so much transfixed by external forces as he was by internal feelings. Duttlinger offers a Marxist reading of the author, suggesting Kafka was fascinated by capitalism, “and the dream of rags to riches. But he’s also very open about the exploitation that’s going on, the dehumanised existence people lead, how people give up their own identity to fit into models of what they should become.” His stories stand the test of time because they are anchored in human emotion, which shifts at a much slower rate than the outer world.
Plenty has changed since The Metamorphosis was published in 1915, but the existentialism that Kafka writes about endures. “I do think that reading Kafka teaches us something,” said Duttlinger. “Maybe not about ourselves, but about human beings: how people think, our ability to deceive ourselves, to lie to ourselves. I think that’s a very powerful feature. They’re great journeys into the human mind. They’re less about what happens on the outside.”
The hashtag #kafka has amassed over 143 million views on TikTok at the time of writing. Gen Z’s adoration is clear as day, with one-liner captions like: ‘I feel Kafka in my soul.’ Another user wrote: ‘This man has my heart’. If you haven’t seen a fast-paced montage of Kafka’s portraits and manuscripts, you’ll likely stumble upon romantic quotes pulled from Letters To Milena (1952).
For Gen Zers, Letters To Milena rekindles a lost sense of chivalry. It sets the standard for matters of the heart, appointing Kafka as an ideal partner. In February of this year, the Daily Mailreferred to him as ‘an unlikely heartthrob on TikTok’. True enough, TikTok user Margarita (@aquariouscat444) posted a video emblazoned with the text: ‘You are out here being excited over a stinky ugly uneducated man texting you back when Kafka wrote “I can’t hold enough of you in my hands” to Milena’. Her caption reads, ‘If the guy you like isn’t WORSHIPPING you then pls don’t waste your time’. There is no shortage of comments that describe Milena as lucky. But I’d be remiss not to mention that Kafka didn’t exactly worship women.
For starters, Milena was a married woman. Kafka, on the other hand, died unmarried. However, Watroba reveals that he had “serious relationships with four women. He got engaged with two of them – twice with one – and broke off all these engagements.” Suffice to say, commitment was difficult terrain for the novelist. “He was secretly horrified by middle class rituals, of what it means to be a married man, a father and a business owner,” Duttlinger said.
Alongside Letters to Milena are Letters to Felice (1967), his former fiancé. “There are many moving and intimate passages in these letters, which suggest that Kafka respected and appreciated these two women, also in ways that were not a given at the time,” Watroba admits. “For example, in both cases he admired and valued their professional activities.” Pleasantries aside, she observes that “other passages in Kafka’s letters come across as rather insensitive, self-centred or possessive.”
“I always feel somewhat uncomfortable reading these letters, partly because they were clearly never intended for publication and so reading them feels invasive and voyeuristic on some level, but also because of how the book editions of these letters frame the women,” said Watroba. “Their responses to Kafka’s letters are largely unknown and the titles of the book editions only use their first names. […] Kafka is always Kafka, whereas Bauer and Jesenská are usually Felice and Milena. This unfortunately makes it too easy to overlook the fact that, just like Kafka himself, these women were fully fledged individuals with their own lives, interests and opinions.” Hear, hear.
Social media is due credit for breathing new life into Kafka. Just as his style of writing makes heavy themes manageable, TikTok’s quick-witted nature makes twentieth-century literature relatable. Indeed, Gen Z’s absurdist humour bridges the gap between one epoch and the next. But what does it mean to leave a man’s legacy up to the almighty algorithm?
Names as ubiquitous as Franz Kafka tend to be simplified into a meme, personality trait or dark academia trend. An excerpt or, in Twitter’s case, a beetle with an edited décolletage has greater potential for virality than a long-winded account of Kafka’s romantic relationships. Perhaps, that’s the problem: we use a singular quote to represent the full scope of his being. We forget the humanity behind the name. We romanticise the story, be it The Metamorphosis or Letters To Milena, without reading it from cover to cover.
“It’s almost impossible to find people who have never heard of Kafka,” Duttlinger concurs. “Everyone thinks they know about him already, which is both a plus and a minus. Because I think the first thing you then do is [avoid putting] him into all these boxes and to [instead] actually read the words on the page. That’s all we have really.”
