Recipe for good food. Just because I can.

Black Truffle Risotto with sautéed Scallops and wilted Spinach. (Starter for 4 people)

(This might make the cooking process tricky but I hardly even use a recipe. On the other hand it might make the cooking process easier as there's no long list of instructions for you to stress over)

Ingredients:
2 Scallops - with pink roe - per person
Some (I told you this was going to be tricky) spinach - probably about 2 bunches, or a couple of handfuls. 3 if you've got small hands or 4 if you like to really scrunch up the things in your hands.
Arborio rice. 250 grams
Salt and pepper
An egg yolk
Chicken stock - preferably not oxo cubes, as they are far too salty.
White wine - don't get cheap and nasty, as you'll taste it.
Half an onion, two cloves garlic, half a stick of celery.
2 heaped t-spoons black truffle paste. I'd love to have written " Fresh Black Truffle" but were not the Champagne socialists now are we.
Organic Olive Oil - not virgin, extra virgin, squeezed between the vestal virgin's thighs or any other such foolishness.

Instructions:
Finely chop the onion, garlic and celery. Sautee onion in hot olive oil for 2 mins. Add garlic and celery and cook without colouring for approx 5 mins. Throw in the rice and stir round. Cook on low heat for further couple of minute. Pour in white wine and stock in equal amounts, to just cover rice. Turn up heat and until liquid boiling then turn right down. Pour yourself a glass of the excellent white wine (like maybe Mount Difficulty Riesling - from New Zealand - mmmmmmm) that you've just sloshed into the risotto pan, go through to join your guests talking about house prices and how they all really want to move to the country but just can't stand leaving behind their favourite deli's! Oh and maybe a minute or so on how hard it is to find a good school. This is a great oportunity for the keener LibDem to bemoan the lack of decent leadership this country has had for the last...years. Maybe something about how we can spend 25Million a day on an ill thought through and illegal war in Iraq but somehow can't even get to grips with our own schooling system. If you throw in a quick line about Gordon being Tony's moneyman for all tof the last 10 years just as a simple reminder?

After approximately 5 minutes, or whenever you need to escape the conversation, go back to the kitchen and stir your risotto. Keep checking it until the rice has absorbed the liquid and when stirred it looks kind of like rice pudding, but hopefully not as thick. Test a piece of rice. It should still have some bite to it but not so much that you have to bite hard to get through it.
Turn off the rice.

In a separate pan heat some oil till hot. Pop in your scallops (just seasoned) and after about a minute (if that) flip the little lovelies over. Cook for another 30 seconds or so and remove from the pan. Replace them with the washed spinach (please wash in a big bowl, not a colander). Cook for about a minute also, moving the top leaves to the bottom after 30 secs.
While the spinach is cooking, test the risotto for seasoning, stir in the 2 teaspoons of truffle paste, and thoroughly mix through the egg yolk.

If you've a kitchen as small as mine, you'll now want to turn off the stove top so that you have enough space to serve up the grub.
Place wilted leaves in the middle of each plate, put a spoon or two of risotto on top of the leaves (but not so as you completely cover them) and place two scallops on top of the risotto. If you garnish the dish with any sprigs of parsley or some such, and add a dash of balsamic vinegar or some other sauce around the edges, I shall personally track you down and remove ALL cooking implements from your home.

Eat. Enjoy, and get on with that riveting house prices conversation. (Reminding your guests that it's omly got worse under Labour, naturally).

Phone Masts - Can We Stop Them?

Many of you will know that a mobile phone company was recently given permission to site a telcommunications mast on Buckland Court just outside Belsize in the middle of a residential area and close to several schools. We’re in a real bind over phone masts. Although health risks and public concern can be material considerations for turning down planning applications, the government has made it very clear that local residents and Council planning committees should not be allowed to prevent phone masts from going up so long as mobile phone base station meets the ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) guidelines for public exposure. As a result, we almost always lose appeals when we do reject phone masts.

We rejected one in West Hampstead recently on the grounds that there was already too much street furniture on the proposed site. We specifically didn’t reject it on health or public concern grounds because it’s almost impossible to win on those grounds. The mobile phone company has inevitably appealed and we may yet lose the appeal.

I find it profoundly depressing. I’m sure this will all come back to bite us one day. But for the moment there’s nothing we can do. Except change the government!