Beatty Zimmerman's Banana Chocolate Chip Cake

This is a recipe you need to know and make! It will bring you praise, because it is delicious, and  it comes with a story which is kinda handy for wherever you're taking it. (Clue: the story is in the name.)

I am no cake maker. I have made fewer than half a dozen in my life and unlike a lot of really good bakers I don't particularly enjoy it. Except for this one. And there are two reasons...

Firstly, it's really easy and never goes wrong. Secondly it's a recipe from BOB DYLAN'S MOTHER. That's good enough for me and there's your easy conversation point for all occasions right there!

Yep, Beatty had a son called Robert Zimmerman who changed his name and, well, the rest is history. That's her on the right. And Beatty was cool. She even appeared on stage during the famous 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue (see the pic below).

This recipe came from one those community cookbooks put together to raise money for a good cause and it is simply brilliant. I make it. Jan makes it. Jan's mother makes it. Everyone who has tried it makes it and everybody who has made it loves it. 

Don't for a minute think the lack of anything unusual about this makes it ordinary. Make it and you will have a lot of happy friends (if there's enough left over to share with them...) 

BEATTY ZIMMERMAN’S BANANA CHOCOLATE CHIP CAKE  

(Beatty calls it "loaf bread")

NOTE: You can always make one bigger one rather than two smaller ones. The recipe seems pretty foolproof, even for a cake novice such as me.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup white sugar
• 120g butter or margarine, softened 
• 2 eggs 
• 4 Tbs sour cream 
• 2 –3 ripe bananas, mashed 
• 2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 tsp baking soda 
• 180g chocolate chips (or up to 360g - go wild!) 
• 2 medium disposable foil loaf pans (about 20-by-8-by-5 cm)
  

METHOD

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Cream together the sugar and butter. 
• Add the eggs and beat well. 
• Add the sour cream and ripe bananas - mix well. 
• In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda. 
• Add the dry mixture to the sour cream mixture, then fold in the chocolate chips. 
• Divide the batter between two greased loaf pans. 
• Bake for about 50 minutes.Check if an inserted skewer comes out clean
• Turn the loaves out on to cooling rack or aluminium foil as soon as they are done.

 

 

Waiting For The Barbarians review

WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS (2020)

Director: Ciro Guerra

Stars: Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson

Runtime: 112 min

 

Recently I was wondering whether watching a film with subtitles gives it an extra caché because of the exoticism of watching something foreign. That Waiting For The Barbarians, director Ciro Guerra's first film in the English language, is such a slow dull and largely unbelievable exercise in colonial criticism seems to back up that theory.

He is currently most known as the director of Embrace of The Serpent (2015) a strikingly stylised black and white film that won several awards and still sticks in the memory. Its themes also resolved around the oppressive nature of colonialism. And it was mesmerising.

Here, in a story based on the book by J.M. Coetzee which explores similar themes, we find ourselves in an isolated fort in the dessert. A colonial outpost. French perhaps. In charge is Mark Rylance's very decent magistrate who has forged a good relationships with the locals and seems to have a genuine interest in the area and its well-being.

Enter Depp's unforgiving and oppressive Colonel, out to stamp out imagined insurgencies. Soon things are getting fraught and he is torturing locals in a hunt for his mythical villains. Eventually his sights turn towards the magistrate. Things continue to go downhill as various the approaches and contradictions of colonialisation are examined.

Now that all sound okay. The problem is that it both happens at a glacial pace and that it isn't either especially involving or novel. This is perhaps where subtitles might have made things seem exotic and interestingly foreign. But Rylance's decency in the face of overwhelming unpleasantness is so extreme as to be unbelievable. It limps along.

And I guess I should mention Robert Pattinson - playing Depp's 2IC - since he seems to be in every second film I see these days, much as Michael Fassbender was a couple of years back. I have no idea what inspired Pattinson to take this role. I can only assume he really wanted to work with either the director or Johnny Depp since he serves pretty much no function either as a character or plot device.

Sorry, the best I can say here is that the scenery and cinematography are both very good looking.

The Devil All The Time review

THE DEVIL ALL THE TIME (2020) 

Director: Antonio Campos

Stars: Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Bill Skarsgård, Haley 

Bennett 

Runtime: 138 min

The Devil All The Time is an ambitious and complex film which has divided critics as to whether the timeline, moving between various periods, is too confusing and whether the narrative becomes too disjointed to follow comfortably. I thought it was remarkably well-handled, producing a film of real depth that lingers in the mind long after viewing.

 

Though perhaps one of the reasons it lingers in the mind is the sheer unpleasantness of much on display. The Devil All The Time is a veritable redneck epic, packed to the rafters with crooked sheriffs, malignant preachers, violent religious obsessives, serial killers and pretty much everything else that might make you want to avoid ever living at the hillbilly end of West Virginia or Ohio.

 

The film spans two generations, opening as Willard (Skarsgård) returns from World War Two and closing in the mid-sixties with his son Arvin (Holland). Presented as it is you are continually reminded of the William Faulkner observation that the past isn't dead, or even the past. Sons and daughters find themselves constantly trapped by the actions of their parents: Arvin is shaped by childhood horrors while step-sister Lenora (Eliza Scanlen) suffers the consequences of trusting a preacher just as her mother Helen (Mia Wasikowski) did years before.

 

In an all-star cast Pattinson stands out as the abominable preacher who abuses poor Lenora, all syrupy vowels and self-regard with a most eccentric but no doubt authentic regional accent. He is only one of many religious crazies, preachers who molest children or pour live spiders over their heads, or sacrifice animals or... suffice to say praising the Lord in the backwoods attracts unusual practitioners. 

 

Also making their mark are Sebastian Stan as a haunted corrupt sheriff and Jason Clarke and Riley Keough as a pair of horrific peripatetic serial killers. On a musical note - and there is a bunch of great Americana on the soundtrack - Pokey LaFarge makes an impact with his singing as yet another iffy religious type.

 

But everything revolves around Tom Holland's Arvin, despite his absence from the story for extended lengths. He is the glue that ultimately ties together the disparate threads and he gives a naturalistic and sympathetic performance. A little patience is required to get there but everything eventually slots into place, teased along the way by the rich melancholy narration of Donald Ray Pollock, author of the 2011 novel. 

 

Tom Holland

The narration reinforces ideas of fate and destiny, often revealing the violent futures of characters well before they occur. But instead of this acting as a device to raise tension, the reveals function more as sad unavoidable predictions, as the downtrodden characters try but seem ever bound to fail to escape lives that with unshakeable inevitability keep dragging them back to past sins.

I saw someone describe this as Pulp Fiction meets White Lightnin’ and that's not too far off. Let the time-line confusion roll over you and you will be rewarded when it all comes together. But be warned: this may be a fascinating glimpse of a world we rarely see (think Winter's Bone), but that doesn't mean it's a place you'd want to spend too much time.  

  

Lunch at The Cider Factorie

The Cider Factorie

Cuisine: mainly sharing plates

Address: 50 Oikimoke Road, Te Puna, Tauranga

Phone: 07 552 4558

Website

Drinks: Homemade ciders & a few wines

Reservations: In summer and at weekends definitely

The Cider Factorie has gone from strength to strength in the couple of years it has been open. The seated area has expanded and been part covered and the cider itself has got better and better as the growing collection of medals on the walls attest.

      

It really is a lovely spot with a small, well-chosen menu running from pate and charcuterie through small plates, a few stand-alone meals (duck confit, burgers), and sides. (A shout out for the fact they do Poutine, that wonderful Canadian mess of chips gravy and "squeaky" cheese!). 

We checked out a few ciders. I'm partial to the fiejoa and apple, Cohen liked the plum (not too sweet) and we both enjoyed the straight apple. There are several others and they also have half a dozen wine options. 

From the selection of small plates we chose:

Miso Roasted Cauliflower, sauteed chickpeas, on creamy hummus with fresh herbs, olive oil, flatbread - $15

Japanese Fried Chicken, slaw, pickled ginger, kewpie mayo - $16

Pan-fried Prawns, shallots, garlic butter, white wine, lemon - $17

and a side of

Stir-fried Green Beans, garlic, whipped feta - $8.5

 

And everything was very tasty. The Chicken Karaage was moist and gingery, and crisp without being in any way greasy, the sauce on the prawns was rich in onion and garlic and butter, and the beans were still crunchy, with nutty hits of fried garlic scattered on top and feta underneath.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cauliflower was also very good, with fresh flatbread to scoop up the hummus and a crunch from the chickpeas. Like many cauliflower dishes these days I thought it could have done with slightly higher temperature roasting to accentuate the nutty char on the cauliflower but it was pretty damn close!

It was a lovely day so we sat in the sun for a while and looked out over the water with a couple more ciders. Now that there are no wineries to visit in the Bay we're lucky to have somnewhere like the Cider Factorie, with its beautiful setting and laid-back friendly vibe.

 

 

The Gin & Jam Cocktail

Yesterday I shared a gin cocktail - actually more of a mixed drink - which was particularly suitable for the particular Four Pillars Sherry Cask gin I'd been given. Here's one that works with any gin. Perhaps a London Dry gin. You can use one of those fancy new floral numbers if you like but a good solid well-priced London brand such as Hayman's will do just fine.

This is a very simple gin cocktail recipe, an old English one, and one that is especially useful should you want to whip up something unusual for a guest and find yourself lacking exotic components. You're more than likely to have all these ingredients in the house already.

This is the famous Gin & Jam Cocktail.

NOTE: On sugar syrup... These can vary slightly in ratio. I use a 50/50 mix of sugar and water, heated to dissolve the sugar, cooled, and kept handy in the fridge at all times.  

ANOTHER NOTE: On shaking... jam tends to put up a bit of a fight so a little extra vigour may be required.

A FINAL NOTE: If you want to be really cutting edge (for Tauranga), serve it in one of those faux hipster jam jars that have become so popular. With a striped paper straw, naturally. 

You can of course vary the drink by using strawberry jam, blackberry or even cranberry, but here at the Debt To Pleasure Test Kitchen we recommend the original raspberry, which tastes delightfully English and fills the mouth poetically with a confectioner's dusting of candied fruit. 

GIN & JAM COCKTAIL

INGREDIENTS

• 40ml Gin

• 15ml fresh lemon juice

• 15ml sugar syrup

• 5ml raspberry jam
  

METHOD

• Shake all ingredients vigorously with ice
  

• Strain over ice
  

• Garnish with blackberries / raspberries / other berries 

Winter Storm (a gin cocktail - sort of...)

I am a big fan of Four Pillars, the Australian gin maker who have brought the world such delicious innovations as Bloody Shiraz Gin, wherein they add gin to Shiraz grapes, soaking before pressing them. Like wine, each year's batch is subtly different

They're regular gin is pretty damn fine too and they make a good over-proof Navy gin and a Negroni Gin. I'm not a big Negroni lover but friends who are really rate it...

They've been at it again, getting into this new trend for aging gin in barrels. There seems to be no limit to what sort of barrel you can use, but I think Four Pillars started with Chardonnay barrels and then tried sherry casks.

And what with Father's Day 'n' all I got righteously spoiled by No.1 Son who gave me a bottle of Four Pillars Sherry Cask Gin. 

It comes in a 500ml bottle and is I imagine frighteningly expensive. Most gins that come in 500ml bottle seem to be (yes Monkey 47, I'm looking at you, you little beauty). It seemed rude to check the price - thanks for the pressie Cohen!  

But this is special stuff, rested in a sherry cask for 12 to 15 months and then with a little Amontillado Sherry added at bottling. I don't really enjoy sipping gin - yep, li'l ol' philistine me - but I did give it a try neat over ice as suggested on the bottle and it was rather good - oily, a tiny bit sweet and clearly great gin to start with.

As it's not recommended for a gin and tonic (my usual go-to) I went with one of the cocktails from their website, a Winter Storm. Mainly because I had all the ingredients in the cupboard. Their recipe didn't specify the amount of ginger beer, which with such a fine gin is a serious oversight. Too much, which is easy when making a highball-style drink, will swamp the gin and be a complete waste.

This is what I arrived at after a couple of test runs. It's not so much a cocktail as a light refreshing drink with a citrus spiciness and a complex undercurrent from the gin. Very good. (As the caskiness of the gin is a big part of this it probably won't be of much interest with a more regular style gin. I'll have a cocktail for that tomorrow.)  

WINTER STORM

INGREDIENTS

• 45ml Sherry Cask Gin

• 15ml fresh lemon juice

• 15ml fresh orange juice

• 45ml Ginger beer

  to finish

• Angostura Bitters

METHOD

• Stir together in a tall glass

• Fill completely with ice

• Top with 6 drops of Angostura bitters 

The Rental / The Quarry reviews

THE RENTAL (2020)

Director: Dave Franco

Stars: Dan Stevens, Alison Brie, Sheila Vand

Runtime: 88 min

This is Dave Franco's directorial effort and as such he makes a good fist of it. The problem, however, is a script which tries to do two different things and consequently doesn't entirely succeed at either. Since Dave also gets a screenwriter credit, amongst other writers, we can probably assume he is at least in part to blame.

The plot involves two couples who decide to hire an Air b 'n' b for the weekend, a luxury house by the sea. The only problem is that the guy who rented it to them and who caretakes seems to be a bit of a redneck racist.

That looms as an issue because in its first two thirds the film takes a lot of time with its characters, setting up insecurities and small fracture points and slowly revealing past sins that will predictably come back to haunt them later.

The problems come about after things have really fallen apart for the quartet. About three quarters of the way in the film takes a different tack, one that it seemed possibly destined to do from the beginning, but all that good character work made you hope the filmmakers were aiming at bigger game.

But no, The Rental opts to take the Anonymous Slasher route and becomes exactly the same as 1000 other films that exist solely for cheap thrills (of which there are sadly very few on display) and a quick profit.

Hopefully Dave Franco will use his experience here on more ambitious projects and Dan Stevens will find something to star in that isn't such a low-rent B movie. 

 

THE QUARRY (2020)

Director: Scott Teems

Stars: Shea Whigham, Michael Shannon, 

Catalina Sandino Moreno 

Runtime: 98 min

 

 

Shea Whigham is one of those actors that you instantly recognise but whose name no one seems to know. He is, as you can confirm on IMDB, in pretty much everything, and always brings a touch of naturalistic low-key authenticity.

 

You used to be able to say that of Michael Shannon except that these days everyone knows his name. Together they make a great pairing in a movie that is absolutely dependent on its actors to bring life to the two central characters.

 

Whigham is an unnamed drifter. In the opening scene he kills a priest for no apparent reason. Then he takes the man's identity and becomes the new priest in a small desolate town where Michael Shannon is the sheriff. Guilt slowly envelops him and his sermons reflect this inner turmoil (and attract increasing numbers to his church), and things shuffle towards some sort of a reckoning. That's most of it... 

 

In case it isn't immediately obvious we are in modern Wesern noir territory here - a drifter new to town, tentative relationships hampered by hidden secrets -  and we are definitely in slow cinema territory: every subtle gesture and tiny detailed moment adds to the drama but you're going to need a little patience if the poster image of Michael Shannon with a gun leads to expectations of action. Different film.

 

This is one of those perfectly acted, perfectly realised little films that is both satisfying and rewarding. It is a joy to watch these great actors really giving their all in such a tightly controlled scenario. Michael Shannon's line readings are worth the price of admission on their own - he really is a fascinating actor. But be warned, The Quarry may also bore the crap out of people more used to less patient pacing.   

Mulan review

MULAN (2020)

Director: Niki Caro

Stars: Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen, Li Gong

Runtime: 115min

 

OK. First I should say that I've never seen the animated Mulan. I have no interest in Disney princesses. But I thought I should check out the huge-budget live action remake since it was directed by New Zealander and much of it appears to take place in Middle Earth, or possibly the South Island.

And I must confess I find myself a bit baffled by how this sort of stuff is okay for kids, though the film and and its story are actually very well handled. 

Mulan is the least annoying Disney heroine I can remember. The story follows her donning the disguise of a boy so she can use her extraordinary fighting skills – ascribed by wise elders to her (inexplicably powerful) chi – to help save the Emperor (Jet Li) from an uprising of evil swordsmen who have a sorcerer helping them.

And it all goes as expected. She proves herself in the army, and eventually fights the (female) sorcerer who has seen through her disguise from the start and is actually a relatively sympathetic character, despite killing many people. “Hiding your true chi makes you weak” the Sorcerer says or some such and you know that to complete her journey of empowerment Mulan must cast off the shackles of disguise and show her chi as a proper woman. Hooray! It's perfectly well handled and I'm sure will help empower young women the planet over.

The issue I have is the violence. This is an incredibly violent film, a large part of its runtime seemingly taken up by battles, battles in which soldiers hack away at each other with swords, stab and gouge their way with great enthusiasm. There are corpses piled as high as the Great Wall. And yet, despite all this, there is not a drop of blood anywhere to be seen. Not one. Perhaps to make up for this there is a lot of red in the costuming.

For those who care I understand there used to by a comedy dragon sidekick voiced by Eddie Murphy and much other cartoon business which has been dispensed with. Thankfully. What is left is – aside from the violence issue – a terrific film by Disney standards: as well as not getting too cloying or heavy-handed with its messaging it looks great, even if the familiarity of more than a few of the majestic vistas suggests that Frodo is lurking just off-camera; the cast is universally strong, including as it does a bunch of very qualified Chinese talent. 

                          

It's just that weird bloodless violence thing that bugs me a bit. Hell, I don't really care about the warping of young minds but there really is so much full-on fighting here that it must have some effect on them, and I can't imagine it being good... 

Lunch at Bar Centrale

Bar Centrale

Cuisine: Italian

Address: 51 Willow St, Tauranga

Phone: 07 574 8200

Website

Drinks: Extensive cocktail list, wines, craft beers

Reservations: probably for dinner

Back out for lunch and since we're celebrating Cohen's new job (you can now find him tending front-of-house down at Oscar Restaurant on The Strand most nights) we though we'd check out the recent changes at Clarence.

A lot has happened since we went to Clarence Bistro for lunch last month. On the Bistro side the menu has changed, the Express Lunch deal has gone and there are more various set menu options. But the real action has been in the bar...

It's only a week or two old now but the Clarence bar has been rebranded. Once an Asian fusion affair, it is now Bar Centrale, describing itself as “A bar straight out of a Piazza in any bustling Italian City. Fast. Fun. Casual.”

And I must confess, to my slight surprise, that description turned out to be right on the money.

From the friendly welcome by one of two clearly Italian waitstaff  to the whole look of the room, the classy menus and drinks lists, to the actual food and drinks, Cohen and I liked everything about it. Bar Centrale immediately leaps to the front of the queue if you fancy a trip to Italy without leaving town.

The menu is a mix of small sharing plates, including beef carpaccio, Kingfish crudo, croquettes, breads, cured meats and other Italian treats. There are a couple of larger plates but the main deal is pizzas, again absolutely authentic both in flavours and execution. You won't find Thai Curry pizza here or Greek pizza – this is the proper stuff.

Most impressive of all though is the drinks list, with bespoke cocktails divided by season into different styles, a full page exploring the history of Negronis, a page of specific G&T pours, and a good collection of wine, much of it Italian.

We started with cocktails, Cohen the Mezcal No-Groni - Mezcal, Campari, Umeshu, Fernet, Grapefruit bitters, $19 - and me a Welcome To Sorrento - Gin, Italicus, lemon juice, champagne syrup, egg white, burnt absinthe, $19. (The No-Groni in the pic had been pre-sipped. Sorry. It looked so good...) 

 

Mezcal No-Groni

Welcome To Sorrento

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The barman - clearly an experienced mixologist - talked us through them and even brought over a sample of some rum he has been ageing in the Umeshu barrel (Umeshu is a Japanese plum wine). He obviously takes great pride in these cocktails and they were both excellent, particularly the No-Groni which was remarkably smoky and complex and well-balanced. BTW, Italicus is a Bergamot liqueur, and this is the only place in the Bay to stock it.

Food-wise we shared some prawns and had a pizza. Specifically, we had Gamberi - Black Tiger Prawns, Confit Garlic, Olive Oil, Chili, $24, and Salsiccia e Radicchio - Pizza with Tomato, Mozzarella, Homemade Pork Sausage, Bitter Leaves, Fennel Seeds, Oregano, $24. I didn't actually spot any chili in the prawns which wasn't a problem because the oily garlicky sauce was lovely. 

The pizza, to my surprise didn't actually feature radiccio (perhaps I was being a little literal in my Italian translation) but was instead strewn with rocket (arugula to you Americans). It was a pretty damn good pizza too, great light crust, slightly charred at the edges, tasty homemade sausage and the fennel seeds giving it a nice lift.

After that I could have happily sat there all afternoon and tried the rest of the cocktail list. But we'll have to do that another time. Several times I'd imagine...

Lazy Seville Orange Marmalade

I have been told by people who should know that I make marmalade wrongly. I'm sure they are right. However, it seems to work. This recipe is for the bittersweet marmalade so beloved of the English. And me. However, you do need one essential ingredient and in that regard I am very lucky, because...

I have friends with a Seville orange tree. That's one of the most welcome sentences in the English language for marmalade-makers. If you are lucky enough to be able to use it then cherish your friends and cherish the wonderful and sadly rare fruit they can give you. 

The reason the oranges are rare is that you can't eat them raw. They are bitter and have very little juice. So supermarkets aren't interested. Or any other shops really. Shame, because they are handy for cooking all sorts of stuff (Sauce Bigarade with duck for instance...).

As I say, this is lazy marmalade. It's still a bit of an effort but I reckon it is about as simple as you can go if you want to make Seville Orange marmalade. And, yes, it really is better than the store-bought varieties. 

And, being lazy, I tend to do this in quite large quantities. Recipes I've found use 1kg or even 500g of oranges. I reckon if you're going to this trouble then go big! This makes around 18 jars of various sizes - see the pic at the bottom.

INGREDIENTS

2kg Seville oranges
5 litres water
4kg sugar

Some extra juice (a couple of lemons, navel oranges, blood oranges, etc)
A liqueur of choice (very optional)

NOTE: I haven't specified any particular kind of sugar. Some recipes go for Demerara or other darker sugars, I tend to like plain white sugar as I reckon it messes less with the flavour of the oranges. But then I like white sugar in my coffee for the same reason. You may feel differently - go for it! (Yes I know, it's a horrendous amount of sugar. It might put you off jams for life. But they really are all like this, I haven't just gone completely sugar-crazy)

FURTHER NOTE: When making the batch in the photos I realised I'd forgotten to actually buy sugar so used a mix of white, caster, raw brown, brown crystals and a tiny bit of leftover Demerara to make up the weight, every bit of sugar in the cupboard except the icing sugar. And the result was delicious. Marmalade is pretty amenable to tweaks and experiments as long as you follow the basic cooking guidelines...  

METHOD

Scrub the oranges, remove the buttons at the top of the fruit, then cut them in half. Squeeze out the juice and reserve it. Get all the seeds. Dig them out with a knife if you have to. These are what will thicken the marmalade. Gather up the seeds in a square of muslin. Make a little bag. Tie it up with string.

At this point some people carefully slice up the skin into neat little bits, tiny thin slices for very posh marmalade. I don't. I cut the skin into smaller pieces (about 12 per orange). Whatever size goes easily in the food processor. Then blitz it in batches for about 30 seconds each to make little bits. It's pretty easy to see if they're right – don't go too long or they'll be mush and no good.

Put the processed peel, the pip bag and the juice in a big bowl, add 2.5 litres of the water. Leave to soak overnight, or for up to 24 hours. Next day, transfer it all a preserving pan or really large saucepan and add the other 2.5 litres of water. Add the sugar, heat, and stir while it dissolves.

Bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer slowly until the contents of the pan have reduced by a third. Measure the level to check (it's usually quite easy to see because of marks on the inside of the pan). About 2 hours. Maybe 3. The peel should now be soft. The marmalade should be looking a bit thicker and darker. Take out the bag and squeeze it into the pot to release any extra juices and pectin.

Now add that extra juice, just to brighten the flavour, and bring it back to a rolling boil. Boil for about 20 minutes stirring frequently to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom. There are now two ways to tell when it's ready...

1. A sugar thermometer should read 104C. That's what they say. I reckon about 108C is better but my thermometer may be off. So I do the other thing...
   

2. Put some small plates in the freezer for 5 minutes. Three or four. Drop a little hot marmalade on a plate and put it back in the freezer for 15 seconds. If you run a finger through it does it stay separate? Does it wrinkle a bit? I know this requires judgement but it's actually pretty easy to tell. Test till it seems ready.
   

                      
   

Then remove it from the heat, leave to cool for 10 minutes, and stir gently to disperse any scum. It really helps at this point to have a little equipment. It's pretty messy ladling marmalade into jars so a funnel is handy (and cheap). It's also BLOODY HOT so take care. Sterilize the jars by putting them in a 140C oven for 25 minutes. Take the lids off first and put them in as well. 

Then fill those jars, after mixing 80ml/100ml of a liqueur of your choice into the pot should you desire. I like Cointreau, but Drambuie would be good, or just a little Scotch or Brandy, whatever you fancy. (In all honesty it doesn't actually make much difference, but it's nice to write on the jar...) 

I just save all my jars and use whatever is handy, not even bothering to remove the labels. Told you this is lazy marmalade. You might want to take a flasher approach - especially if they're for presents and, believe me, people LOVE home-made marmalade as a present. Unless my friends have been humouring me all this time. Have at it - homemade marmalade may change your life!

The Owners / Possessor reviews

THE OWNERS (2020)

Director: Julius Berg

Stars: Maise Williams, Sylvester McCoy, Rita Tushingham 

Runtime: 92 min

 

 

 

Home invasions have in recent years become increasingly risky propositions. If more than a few films are to be believed it pays these days to be a bit careful about whose home you are invading lest they turn out to be deranged psychos, bitter ex-marines or, in this case, a harmless-looking country doctor and his somewhat loopy wife.

 

It's certainly a plus that when the four young thugs here break into the local manor in search of a rumoured safe that the two old dears in residence are played by Ex-Doctor Who Sylvester McCoy and the ever-wonderful-but-little-seen-these-days Tushingham. 

 

But the safe proves tricky to open and a hostage situation develops as they attempt to discover the combination. Things quickly escalate and eventually get out of hand as the none too bright invaders fall out with each other. Tables, as you expect, are slowly turned and secrets slowly revealed.

 

Though there's nothing here that really surprises it's a tense and involving ride, with some quite nasty if only occasional gory moments. Frenchman Berg is a seasoned TV director and for this, his first feature, uses some interesting tricks including changing the aspect ratio during the finishing stretch to restrict the frame, presumably for added claustrophobia. 

 

The pacing is good and the young thugs, especially Jake Curran's violent and obnoxious Gaz are well drawn, though what attracted Masie Williams to this film is anyone's guess as it doesn't exactly seem a role worthy of a Game of Thrones alumnus. Maybe it was the chance to hang out with Rita Tushingham. 

 

 

POSSESSOR (2020)

Director: Brandon Cronenberg 

Stars: Andrea Riseborough, Christopher Abbott, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Runtime: 103 min

A woman injects herself with a big needle in the top of her head. Then, looking into the camera, she turns a dial which abruptly changes her expressions: laughter, crying, anger, pain and more. That's how Possessor opens; it is quite disturbing.

Being the second film by Brando, son of David Cronenberg it is tempting to look for stylistic or thematic similarities with his famous father. It not very fair but it's hard not to.

That's particularly true since his striking debut, Antiviral (2012), certainly delved into similar “Body Horror” territory as Dad's earlier films. You could say the same of this film but it is clearly the work of an exciting new talent – it is both formally controlled and wildly free in its imaginative and hard-hitting visuals.

Ironically, after complaining recently about the glut of “assassin movies” around these days this is actually one more. But it's a very left-field one. In fact it's hard to exactly pigeonhole genre-wise, but is certainly one of the most original, intelligent, and impactful indie's for a while.

Riseborough works for a sinister company using a process that allows her to inhabit another person. While strapped on a table she is actually controlling someone else's body and being them. And she does it in order to be an assassin, killing others then killing the "host", before being re-awakened on the table. Jennifer Jason Leigh is her cold-blooded handler. But it is not an easy process and reality is beginning to collapse for the Possessor, who is finding it increasingly hard to kill her hosts and return to her own body...

This all takes place in an unspecified near future; the society is deftly sketched with neat touches such as a full-wall TV (shades of Fahrenheit 451) and the peculiar digital job of one of the main "hosts".

Along the way there are a bunch of very cool effects illustrating the possessing process. And as reality disintegrates the accompanying images are striking. I enjoyed this immensely though it should certainly come with a warning for very violent and generally weird content. There is more than a little blood.

As to comparisons with David C? There are certainly moments where you could say that Brandon had learned things from his father. But then his father has grown to produce films in many styles and genres. I thought I spotted notes here reminiscent of the older Cronenberg's Spider, Dead Ringers and Videodrome for instance. They do both seem to have similar regard for architecture. Or perhaps I'm just projecting...

Certainly, to see this as purely tethered to Dad's early films because of the horror element is reductive and unhelpful. If I was likening him to anyone stylistically it would be Panos Cosmatos who recently made the much-hyped Mandy. And, despite not featuring Nick Cage wigging out, I liked this film a lot more.

I'm Thinking Of Ending Things review

I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (2020)

Director: Charlie Kaufman

Stars: Jesse Plemons, Jessie Buckley, Toni Collette, David Thewlis

Runtime: 134 min

 

 

Everyone cites Being John Malcovich or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when they mention director Charlie Kaufman, perhaps forgetting that those were his screenplays not directorial efforts. In fact those are two of his more accessible works - his films as director have been trickier to negotiate.

2015's animated Anomalisa and Synecdoche, New York (2008) were both mind-bending propositions, certainly too weird for mainstream tastes and I'm Thinking Of Ending Things is possibly even more abstract, involving as it does the logic and feel of a partly-unexplained dream.

The film opens with the title words in the voice-over of a never-named young woman. She is about to embark on a road-trip to visit her boyfriend's parents. These two central characters are never named. No one is. They drive through constant snow while chatting in a cut-up disconnected manner. She is an artist and poet and recites some poetry. Her concern is that now the title phrase has entered her mind it can never leave. Should she end the relationship?

The structure of the films is road trip, visit, road trip, coda. The central visit itself is a strange nightmare, as time appears to become unmoored and The Man's parents (a very effective Collette and Thewlis) are continually getting older and younger, things appear and disappear, and general weirdness occurs. Because of this sequence the film has been described as a horror film and although it is somewhat unsettling I think "horror" is a descriptive step too far. 

It is completely baffling, though I'm prepared to believe that it might conceivably make some sort of sense upon repeat viewing...

This is also a long film. During the drives much stilted intellectual conversation occurs. They discuss Wordsworth, musicals with a special emphasis on Oklahoma!, Cassavetes' film Woman Under The Influence and its star Gena Rowlands, they discuss the sexual politics of “Baby It's Cold Outside” (very rapey apparently), and there is much loose philosophical rambling. Think Before Sunrise as directed by David Lynch. 

A little Lynch with your milkshake?

All this climaxes during the return trip in a detour to The Man's high school where the big finale takes the form of a long ballet sequence, performed by a pair of dancing surrogates (the female dancer is Unity Phelan, who is going to be a BIG star). Yep, it's a dance off.

So expect time shifts, inexplicable moments and the possibility that a school janitor hanging round for the entire film is actually The Man in some future iteration. Perhaps the entire film is a memory taking place in the janitor's head? There is a lot that you might understand better if you have read the book by Iain Reid and I found much of it inexplicable, if undeniably atmospheric. Yep, definitely more than a hint of Lynch.

Possibly oddest thing though is that after starting the film with the focus on The Woman, she very much becomes peripheral and by the finale it becomes very much just The Man's story.