Bob Owston obituary
My friend and colleague, Bob Owston, who has died aged 88, was an engineer; he was also employed as a project architect, in particular on works at York University.He was the structural engineer, working with the architect Jack Speight, on the brutalist York Central Hall, built in the mid-1960s and now listed Grade II.Also at York, Bob contributed an elegant Corten steel footbridge, several halls of residence, language and psychology blocks and the Sally Baldwin building.Elsewhere, he was responsible for the pier approach building in Bournemouth, evocative of seaside culture.Born in Great Ayton near Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, Bob was the son of Henry, a steelworks manager, and Dorothy (nee Prosser).
He was evacuated with his mother and elder brother, John, to the Lake District during the second world war.His father had a motorbike accident and died when Bob was eight.The family moved to Glasgow, where his mother found work at the Harland & Wolff shipbuilding company.A family friend paid for the boys to board at Ashville college, Harrogate.Bob studied civil engineering at Strathclyde University, graduating in 1960, then worked in London at Ove Arup & Partners.
An MSc followed at Northwestern University in Chicago, where Bob nurtured his love of jazz and blues music, returning with a Gibson acoustic guitar.In the 1960s he went as an engineer to Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall & Partners (RMJM), where my father, the architect Sir Andrew Derbyshire, was the partner responsible for designing the new University of York.Andrew supported Bob’s determination to migrate from engineering to architecture, and he passed the RIBA part III examination and interview.He and I became friends, sharing evenings listening to blues records when he moved to join RMJM’s Cambridge studio, and I was at the university doing my master’s.Later in life, we shared holidays with our respective families.
Bob was made redundant at RMJM during the 80s recession and came to work with me as an associate and team leader at HTA Architects.He contributed some wonderfully original yet entirely practical buildings: a tower block renovation at Nightingale Heights in Greenwich that won a Housing Design award stands out, as do two richly inventive community centres, at Waltham Forest housing action trust and Central Oakridge regeneration in Basingstoke.Bob also had a passion for designing, building and flying model aeroplanes, which led on to model gliders.He is survived by his second wife, Jane Steele, whom he married in 1997, and their daughter, Phoebe; his daughters, Sophie and Jo, from his first marriage, to Katy (nee Stenhouse), which ended in divorce; and by five grandchildren, Otama, Evie, Manu, Poppy and Seb.
101 uses for XO sauce | Kitchen aide
I love XO sauce and use it on rice (plain and fried), noodles and steamed fish. But I often struggle to finish a jar – any advice on other ways of using it?Chris, via email“I’m absolutely stunned that Chris has any problem finishing a jar of XO sauce,” says Fuchsia Dunlop, author of Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food. “You can literally eat the stuff by the spoonful straight from the jar, although that would feel quite extravagant.” This, of course, is because the umami condiment, said to have been invented in Hong Kong’s Spring Moon restaurant at the Peninsula hotel in the mid-1980s, is something of a luxury. As Jenny Lau, author of An A-Z of Chinese Food, explains, XO sauce “must contain three core ingredients: dried shrimp, dried scallop and preserved ham”, which don’t come cheap
Ixta Belfrage’s recipes for charutos with spicy tomato broth, and guava, curry and chilli meatballs
Lebanese food is my go-to when I’m back in Brazil and I need a break from Brazilian food. My favourite Lebanese restaurant in Rio de Janeiro, Basha, makes the most incredible meat-stuffed cabbage rolls, charutos Libanais (which means Lebanese cigars and is the Portuguese name for the dish malfouf). They are served in a fragrant tomato broth and come with pimenta caseira (homemade hot sauce) and lime wedges to squeeze over, in a beautiful union of Lebanese and Brazilian cuisine that inspired today’s first dish.Prep 20 min Cook 10 min Makes 12 rollsFor the filling400g lamb mince 40g tomato puree/paste 15g fresh coriander, finely chopped½ brown onion (60g), peeled and grated1 garlic clove, peeled and finely grated or crushed½ tsp medium curry powder ½ tsp dried mint ¼ tsp ground allspice 1 tsp fine sea salt About 50 twists cracked black pepperFor the broth15g tomato puree/paste ¼ tsp fine sea saltFor the chard250g rainbow chard, or Swiss chard 1 tbsp olive oil 1 scotch bonnet chilli, left whole 2 limes, halvedFor the garlic oil1½ tbsp olive oil 20g salted butter 3 garlic cloves, peeled and very finely chopped ¼ tsp urfa chilli flakes ⅛ tsp fine sea saltPut all the filling ingredients in a bowl, mix well and set aside.For the broth, fill and boil the kettle, then whisk 200g boiling water with the tomato puree and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for crispy butter bean, chorizo and cos salad | Quick and easy
I was thinking of billing this as a caesar salad with an extreme makeover. One night, I started making a caesar salad, then wondered what would happen if I made a coriander-pesto mayonnaise and mugged off the anchovies in favour of chorizo. Then I thought about turning it into a full meal, at which point it stopped being anything like a caesar salad. If you’d prefer a vegetarian version, choose a vegetarian parmesan and omit the chorizo in favour of a heaped teaspoon of smoked paprika and a scant teaspoon of sea salt flakes.Prep 15 min Cook 25 min Serves 250ml olive oil, plus 1 tbsp for roasting 100g chorizo, cut into 1cm chunks400g tin butter beans, drained and rinsed well150g Tenderstem broccoli, cut into 1cm pieces50g fresh coriander, leaves and stems20g parmesan, or vegetarian parmesan 25g pumpkin seeds 1 egg yolk Juice of ½ lemon1 tsp salt 2 little gem lettuce, roughly shreddedHeat the oven to 200C (180C fan)/390F/gas 6
Sami Tamimi’s recipes for courgette and maftoul bake, and sumac-marinated feta salad
Bursting with sunshine flavours and garden-fresh ingredients, today’s all-in-one courgette, sweetcorn and maftoul dish is a wholesome celebration of summer in every bite. Layered with tender courgettes, sweet pops of corn, aromatic herbs and warm spices, it’s all brought together with nutty maftoul (or fregola) and a golden, cheesy crust. Then, a vibrant salad combining juicy tomatoes and sweet strawberries with tangy, sumac-marinated feta. Colourful and packed with bold Palestinian flavours, it’s the perfect balance of sweet, salty and zesty – ideal for alfresco dining or picnics.Prep 35 min Marinate 15 min+ Serves 4 as a side150g feta, cut into ½cm cubes1 tbsp olive oil 1 tsp ground sumac ½ tsp lemon zest A pinch of aleppo chilli flakes, or regular chilli flakes Salt and black pepper 300g cherry tomatoes, ideally a mix of colours, halved200g strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered1 small shallot (30g), peeled and sliced into thin half-moons2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil ½ tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp apple cider vinegar 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses 90g mixed salad leaves 30g shelled roasted pistachios, roughly chopped5g fresh mint leaves 3g fresh basil leavesFirst marinate the feta
How to make the perfect fish finger sandwich – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …
I must be the only person in Britain not to have grown up with fish finger sandwiches – we always had them with mash and peas – but after discovering them on pub menus as an adult, it wasn’t hard to see the appeal. These crunchy batons of firm, creamy fish in soft white bread, often topped with a tangy sauce, are surely the UK equivalent of Mexican fish tacos or West African fish rolls – a quick, nutritious and very satisfying light meal or snack.(NB: if you’re skim-reading this before leaping below the line to demand to know who needs a recipe for a fish finger sandwich, I can assure you a lot of people online seem to feel there’s a demand.) Given their popularity (indeed, this column was a reader request), I must echo Helen Graves, who prefaces her recipe thus: “I am bracing myself for the comeback on this one, because everyone (or at least everyone in the UK) has an opinion on what makes the perfect fish finger sandwich.” As ever, all feedback much appreciated!The classic and, of course, the easiest choice is to use readymade fish fingers, as Signe Johansen recommends in her book Solo
Bellota, Bury St Edmunds: ‘Just fabulous food’ | Grace Dent on restaurants
Each dish, as we finish it with a sigh, is replaced by something else magnificentSummer in Bury St Edmunds has little in common with San Sebastián, even if both certainly entice food-lovers. A few months ago, however, Suffolk’s food capital welcomed a soupçon of fancy-pants Spain in the form of Bellota on Churchgate Street, not far from the abbey. Bellota bills itself as offering an “elevated tasting menu” (seven courses, and eight at weekends) and boasts only a maximum of 20 seats, all of them lined up around a counter overlooking married chefs Ruben Aquilar Bel and Gabriella Fogarasi at work.On its website, Bellota promises to be “relaxed and welcoming”, which before going I severely doubted, because tasting menus rarely are: “I found the chef’s 657-word soliloquy on artichoåkes very relaxing,” said no one ever. However, on entering the restaurant on a recent Saturday and finding a room hewn in a rhapsody of calm browns and golds, and Fogarasi herself greeting us at the door, well, Bellota actually felt rather zen
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