The measure of success of a new newsletter surely centres around two things:

1. Whether, there’s a second one
2. How many people unsubscribe

We’re clearly all good on the first measure, and there’s only been one unsubscriber, so I’m counting that as a win!

I’m still finding my feet with it. Is it all a bit too wordy? Does it need more pictures to break up the Wall of Words (tm)? Does the conflation of personal opinions, traditional Story Factory content and, now, food blogging work at all? I’d love for a combination of newsletter and site to become akin to a hybrid of IndieWire and Culture Whisper‘s newsletter. But that’s a high bar. And it’s often an excess of ambition that ends up crippling these projects.

What I’m watching

Falcon and Winter Soldier - Two episodes in, and it plods along nicely. If this wasn’t part of a franchise, the much-vaunted MCU, with its familiar characters and narratives, this would be written off as mid-level fare. A buddy movie with a political conspiracy story, but with more costumes and punching. There will be people hoping that the pitching of Globalists vs America Firsters will end with a resounding victory for the Symbol of America. I’m keen to see how far Disney is willing to push a controversial political message: Will they pick a side and risk alienating real-world political outlooks, or just slide back into safe status quo.

A Post-Return MCU World bears a similarity to a (hopefully eventual) post-COVID world, in one way: There will be people looking for return to a world exactly as it was before, and others looking to shift the status quo, to use the opportunity to remake a better world. Disney and the MCU tend to be conservative bodies: Even when there’s a big upheaval, the drive is to a return to ‘normality’. An understandable, human reaction: When your world is threatened, it is our instinct to return to safety. The harder step is to return to better.

The Irregulars - A supernatural Holmesian YA story, through the prism of His Dark Materials, there’s a good balance between the progression of the over-arching plot, and the case of the episode. Bit by bit the hidden truths of the world are revealed, while the tendrils of the supernatural world reach deeper into Victorian London. There’s a lot to love with the show, and it held its momentum throughout. It’s hard to see how they’d continue this onto a second season, but as they’ve already established a multiple-worlds, would a cross-voer with the other Holmesian Netflix property Enola Holmes be so terrible an idea?

(Yes. Yes it would.) (Or would it?)

Promising Young Woman - Sadly I’ve not yet watched this movie. It had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 25, 2020. It was due to start it’s theatrical run in April 2020, but due to the pandemic, didn’t hit screens until December, followed by a VOD release in January and a Blu-ray release this month. Sadly, only in the US; there’s been no release in the UK, despite numerous nominations for Emerald Fennel and Carey Mulligan. Happily, there’s now a release date! Promising Young Woman is getting a UK VOD release on April 16th! Worryingly it might look like a Sky exclusive, showing on Sky Cinema and NOW TV, but if that’s the case I fully intend to create a trial account just to watch it!

Other People’s Things

I joked in the last newsletter that while I was sitting with my head in my hands in my loft office, other people were being disgustingly productive and writing novels. One such person is Richard Holliday, who not only wrote a new horror novella, but already has it out for sale on Kindle. Nightmare Tenant is available now.

Music

Rag ‘n’ Bone Man, best known for his 2016 track Human (which my dad particularly, and unironically, enjoyed), has a new single out. All You Ever Wanted is a solid return, but is anybody else getting Bruce Springsteen vibes? Certainly a departure from the heavily produced sound he’s most famous for.

In news far fewer people will be excited about, My Bloody Valentine have signed to a new label. A fact that, on its own, is probably only exciting for them. But, it does mean all their back catalogue is being re-issued, and there’s a chance of a future tour. And if that’s not worth being excited about, I don’t know what is.

What I’m Eating

Steak & Ale Stew Recipe

I asked on Instagram what recipes people would be interested in, as I’ve cooked for, and discussed food with, a large number of people over the years. My steak and ale stew is a favourite in this house, and I hope will be in yours too. You need one large pot to make this (If you want to turn it into a pie, just make the stew, put it in pastry and bake it. I’m not the Pie Minister.)

Ingredients

• Large chunk of dripping, (other cooking fats will do)
• 750g (ish) boneless beef shin, cut into large chunks (you can use ‘casserole beef’ but it’s often of poor quality)
• 20g plain flour, seasoned
• 200g smoked bacon lardons or pancetta
• 250g shallots, quartered
• 400ml ale, such as a porter or ruby
• 400ml beef stock
• 4 sprigs of thyme, leaves roughly chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp cocoa
• Optional veg, such as small amount of parsnips, sweet potato or butternut squash (absolutely no regular potato, carrots or peas)

Process

1. Heat a generous chunk of dripping in a large pan over a high heat, and toss the beef in seasoned flour to coat. Sear the beef in batches, taking care not to overcrowd the pan, until properly browned. Put to one side when done
2. Turn down the heat slightly, and add the lardons and the onions to the pan. Cook until the bacon fat begins to melt, and the onions are brown on all sides. Put to one side when done
3. Pour a little of the ale into the pan and bring to a light simmer, scraping the bottom until no remnants remain. Then re-add everything back into the pan
4. Add the rest of the ale, and the stock, herbs, sugar, vinegar and cocoa and bring to a simmer
5. Add any of the optional vegetables
6. Stir, make sure it’s on the lowest heat your stove can go, cover
7. Realise that you have a little ale left in the bottle, drink it. Consider opening another bottle
8. Check in on it every half hour or so. Stir, taste, adjust seasoning
9. Keep doing this for around three hours
10. After that, take the lid off and cook for longer on a slightly higher temperature to get it to the consistency you like. I enjoy quite a thick stew, but if you’re going to use it in a pie you’ll want more liquid in it
11. Ideally you should now take the stew off the heat, leave it for a day and come back to it the next evening, but I’ve never once managed that, so enjoy!

Denouement

Well there you have it, the second newsletter of this new incarnation. Let me know what you think, or if you have anything you like to consider for submission. Let’s see where this takes us. And maybe next time I’ll try and make this whole thing look a little less spartan.