The Lectio Letter - Issue #103 - A Late April Miscellany
“What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure.”
— Samuel Johnson
Dear Lectio Letter Readers,
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As you’ll have read in the last Lectio, I’m experimenting with a new approach to this newsletter. If you’re a longtime reader, you might be wondering if it has failed due to the dearth of publishing activity.
Well, old habits die hard. ; )
I’ve cyber-surrounded myself with unfinished digital drafts, which together represent a word count that could become a hefty booklet.
I began a piece on the ascension which ended up at nearly 3000 words. Bloated and slow…
So instead of leaving you in the dark while this, not-exactly-writers-block, but maybe writers bloat (?) passes I thought I’d concoct some miscellany for your enjoyment.
I leapt about the thematic world that makes up the Lectio letter with a few cooking/kitchen tips (The perfect roast potato, the best knife setup..), a few notes from books, and some travel hacks.
So here goes.. this is not a long term vision but I do feel indebted to you kind folks out there continuing to pay attention to my small corner of the Internet.
Watching
We watched Truffle Hunters after a recommendation from a guest. It was beautifully shot sequences of vignettes around a fading culture and its relationship toward the dogs that make the hunt possible. Beautiful, fascinating but somewhat lacking the clearer narrative thread that satisfies those curious for the details.
I also watched “Don’t lets go to the Dogs tonight” which was beautifully shot, incredibly acted and heartbreakingly broken. A insight into the dysfunctional world of late Rhodesia and the lives and narratives that sought to stay.
Finally, this trailer sent to me made me keen to watch My Father’s Shadow. Released this year, it tracks a Father’s relationship through tumultuous times in Nigeria.
Book Reviews
A little late, but Im a sucker for short line book reviews like this from Andrew Wilson. Makes me wish I was more succinct. I’ll say no more.
Sometimes I feel like Judas
Joshua Luke Smith is deservedly having “a moment”. His poetry is worth your pondering;
A closer look at ADHD
The conventional medical model treats attention as a resource—something you have in limited supply, like willpower or glucose. People with ADHD, in this view, have depleted tanks. They can’t sustain focus because they lack the necessary cognitive capacity.
But the attention paradox suggests a different model: attention is better understood as a relationship between a person and a task, shaped by meaning, structure, reward, and context.
We attend to what feels consequential. We attend to what we understand. We attend to what offers feedback and progression. We attend to what connects to our identity, interests, or social world. When those conditions are met, even people diagnosed with severe ADHD can demonstrate remarkable focus.
Imitating me as I imitate Christ — Four laws on Saints
I’ve been reading through Chris E.W. Green’s book of sermons entitled “All life comes from tenderness”. Growing up in classical pentecostalism, publishing books on (Barthian-ish?) theologian Robert Jenson, and blogging on patristics makes him a fascinating preacher. On a sermon given on All saints day, he pulls up Jenson’s (who is a also protestant) rules about saints and then adds some of his own. I thought they were great;
“the saints are not our way to Christ: He is our way to them”
Our communion with departed saints is not fundamentally difference from our communion with living saints
Chris Green then enthusiastically adds two more
the Saints aren’t our betters; they show us how good it is to be bested by God
the Saints know how not to get in God’s way, but they also never let God get away with anything
p. 192, All life comes from tenderness, Green
A journey of carry on bags
One of the ways to make the 6000+ mile, 17-20 hour flights we take between South Africa and Europe around 6x (3x roundtrip) a year tolerable is to be somewhat organised.
One of the ways I’ve sought to do that is to overthink about how the whole process can be maximised (while of course remaining right where I belong on a discounted economy ticket). I don’t mean maximised in the sense of getting things, but made efficient. One of the truest ways to make air travel and travel in general less arduous is not to bring those big cases that you have to check in.
As crazy as that might sound if you’re accustomed to stuffing large case full, it’s actually a growing trend called “One Bagging”. It certainly does take an adjusted approach to travel but here are a few tips I’ve picked up thought trial and error in the last few years;
1) Remember, you get a carry and a personal item
When leaving behind the “big” bag, you have to change your mindset. You’re taking clothes for a week maximum and then you are making a plan to do laundry. Beyond that, you have to get sub 100ml containers to decant toiletries or you can cheaper things on arrival. These are the biggest hurdles to get over and honestly they’re mostly psychological.
Once you don’t have your check in luggage what you can bring on board with you comes into much sharper focus. On most flights you get a carry on bag and a personal item. A Carry on can be a backpack or roller luggage that measures 56 x 36 x 23 cm and can fit into the overhead locker, while a personal item can be something that fits underneath the seat in front of you.
The key is to pack your carry on like the check in luggage and put everything you might need to pull out during travel into the personal item. So, passport, laptop, books, even a few clothing items should go in this small bag. If you are taking a backpack, consider a tote or large sling as a personal item. If you are taking a roller bag then a personal item (like a tote or small duffel bag with a “pass through strap” that can sit on top of the roller luggage is ideal.
2) Backpacks get gate checked less but can be a hassle
If you are flying on a smaller plane or on a budget airline you can get flagged to gate check or pay more for a larger carry on. It’s not worth protesting too much at this stage, after all the gate agent is just doing their job (if not a little over enthusiastically!). Repacking a bag at the gate is the kind of stress you are trying to avoid by travelling with one bag in the first place, so you want to avoid it.
There’s lots of evidence to say that gate agents looks for larger roller bags to gate check and pretty much ignore backpacks. The only exception is when someone decides their ‘gap year’ 70L hiking backpack is an appropriate carry on.
On most large planes you don’t have to worry too much about gate checking luggage and when you fill a 30-35L backpack you are looking at more than 10kg, which, after a while can feel pretty uncomfortable. After spending a couple of years carrying a large bag and sling, I’m strongly considering moving back to roller luggage for this very reason.
3) Premium cases actually make sense if you travel regularly
If you go on a plane every other year then whatever you can borrow or pick up at T K /J Maxx will be fine. But if you’re travelling a few times a year the value of a well made and easy to use bag becomes much more justifiable.
Lighter, easier to move, more straightforward to pack bags and cases make an exponential difference to travel feeling like it’s working. Especially when you consider what the average person is willing to spend on a Phone, Clothes or daily take away food, it’s time to invest in bags that actually work.
Chasing the Best Roast Potato
The only discernible evidence of my half Irish DNA is my love for potatoes.
In my (not so humble) opinion, it is inarguable that the very best thing you can do to a potato is to roast it.
Over the last few months I’ve combined insights from some cookbooks (Trullo) and YouTube guides (Fallow) and landed on a process that makes reliably excellent roast potatoes.
Find the right potato (this could be a long point all on its own!): We don’t have many varieties available in South Africa and although I began using new potatoes unpeeled, half boiled and then lightly crushed, the varietal of new potatoes available here are too waxy.
So take a medium size potato; peel cut them into equal sized parts. Ideally around 3-4cm, so that might mean halved or quarters depending on the size of potato you have. You want them to be as close in size as possible because otherwise you end up with some over and under done.
Rinse them and place them in a pot full of cold clean water and begin heating the pot. You are effectively par-boiling by slowly heating them instead of placing them into already boiling water. If you have some good quality chicken or vegetable stock you can add as a part of the water. For example I used good quality stock concentrate which would make 500ml into about 3litres of water (look out here, the quality is everything, cheap stuff is just salty and falsely flavoured). You can also add a handful of fresh woody washed herbs like rosemary or thyme for an additional layer of infused flavour. The goal here is to build layers of subtle flavours into the body of the potato.
Pre-heat your oven to 200C
Once the pot has come to the boil (around 15-20mins) and a fork can pierce the potato but does not lead it to fall apart (a par boil), then pour the potatoes out into a large colander and allow them to ‘steam dry’ for about 5-7 minutes at least.
Then tip the potatoes back into the pot, return the lid and give a few vigorous shakes. You don’t want to break the potatoes apart but give them some rough edges. Then take white or yellow semolina and shake enough to give a light dusting over them all. This will all add to the potatoes gaining those crunchy edges.
A quick mention of a key factor here, the oil. I’ve had delicious roast potatoes using olive oil and canola/rapeseed oil but I wouldn’t recommend them. Both have quite a low smoke point, which means they start scalding or souring when cooking extensively at high temperatures. I would recommend trying to find beef tallow or goose/duck fat as they tolerate much higher temperatures. People often scoff at the decadence of these fats but let’s be honest, are you roasting potatoes to be healthier? Maybe cut something else out, praise God and enjoy the decadence of an amazing roast potato!
When the oven is at, or close to temperature, put a tray that will comfortably fit all your potatoes into the oven. While most people are prone to overcrowd the tray, what happens is that the potatoes steam each other and the edge potatoes crispen but leave the centre ones that overlap still soft. So some space is key.
After 5mins in the oven bring the tray out and add your oil/fat/tallow and allow it to melt. It should cover the entire tray by a couple of millimetres. All the potatoes should be sitting in oil. If it’s pooling somewhere add enough so that the whole tray has a clear layer (see note above on being health conscious). Pre-heating the oil helps the oil sear the layer of potatoes whereas cold oil gets drawn into the potato more making them, in my estimation, less healthy if you are still concerned about that.
Once the oil is heated up (shimmering not smoking), add the potatoes (careful here, splashing and spitting is part of the mortal danger you are enduring for the sake of the best roast potato of your life).
Give it 20-30mins, then turn the potatoes or if you are less worried about even browning give a vigourous shake of the tray to turn as many as you can.
Depending on your oven your should be looking at 50-75mins. Most people pull potatoes out in a rush and they were only 10mins away from being incredible crispy and brown. Slightly over is better than slightly under.
Finally, leave the potatoes on the tray right up until you serve them. They will still be releasing heat and steam. If you pile them up in a bowl or server, they begin to soften themselves again thanks to the steam.
If you have a large bowl, then break up about 10% more finishing salt (like maldon flakes) than you are comfortable with over them. If you want to make things a little more mediterranean then a little smoked paprika, oregano, cumin and cayenne with the salt can make things interesting.
Only 3 knives
I imagine I picked this up in some Marie kondo-esque advice column, but it has stuck with me.
Think about when you open the drawer to pick a knife, or other kitchen implement. You tend to pick the same two knives, yet you have 10.
Take the rest and give them away right now! I’ve come to realise that I constantly use three knives and only really would like one other. Here’s what I think every kitchen should have;
A Chefs Knife
This is the knife you pick up when chopping pretty much anything. Raw meat, veg (although I’ll make a counter suggestion on that soon). The Chef’s knife is the one size fits all, thing you pick up each time. I got this Wusthoff as a gift a few years ago and It’s still my favourite and most regularly used knife.
Serrated Bread / Carving Knife
Once you use a good serrated / slicing knife you realise what you’ve been missing. I was very grateful to receive this as a 40th gift from my friends Matt and Cam and it has served me almost daily. Slicing up a loaf of crusty sour dough, thinly slicing a deboned leg of lamb, cutting through an overstocked bagel without pulling back and forth. This knife is a delight and it’s power is going forward and back, in contrast to the chef’s knife where the power is in chopping down.
Short serrated knife
These cheap and cheerful Victorinox knifes are commonly used for tomatoes and bread rolls but they have proven themselves to be endlessly useful. They have yet to go blunt and when I was packing for a cooking weekend away I had to throw one into my knife roll.
A Nakiri Knife?
Although this looks like a cleaver it is actually a Japanese designed Nakiri knife designed for chopping vegetables and allows lots of direct pressure and stability for chopping harder items. It’s on my Wishlist and I think if you had these four knives you’d be almost covered for every circumstance.
Some Music I’ve been listening to
I don’t quite understand how the recording of this worked so perfectly, but it’s an interesting approach
This might be the perfectly understated guitar playing of all time
This will not be for everyone, Dijon at Coachella. I’ve been fascinated how Dijon has pulled off a lo-fi less is more approach. On another note, this is the video from Coachella’s live stream. They managed to process it very cinematically which made watching it more captivating.
Momo Boyd has a pretty incredible voice and I couldn’t figure out how to put this in a box. Impressive.
The End of this ‘one time’ Miscellany
I hope you’ve this unedited miscellany. Feel free to comment with requests for anything you’d like to see included next time,
That’s all for now…
