it's a broken city haunted by broken ghosts, public transport groans and creaks with age as i ride along in the strange grubby underground tubes conceived in the victorian age and abandoned by future generations, it's fast but filthy. makes we wonder why they clean the emissions above ground with u-lez schemes and scams and yet the underground is polluted and filthy, worse than any cigarette smoke. and on the jubilee line as you get past finchley the horrific ear shattering noise that pierces all known audio levels. most people are attached to screens, ipads or phones, there's a disconnection i never see anywhere else and i wonder if it's a desperate need to escape. 

my fellow passengers are part of the zombie horde, skin disorders and rotten teeth, eyes are filled with invisible rats that are bigger than cats and rabid dogs, the sewers overflow down the concrete cracks and a population of the undead drink far to much from anothers cup and chain smoke rothmans cigarettes until they are buried in ash. 

i'm fighting the contagion, i don't want to fade here, i want to burn bright, i feel the tendrils of depression and anxiety, the clutches of the psychic energy off nine million undead. 

 chickpea fritter

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 60 ml
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour 60 grams
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup beer 120 ml
• 1 shallot
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley 8 grams
• 1/2 tsp sweet smoked Spanish paprika 1.25 grams
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin 1.50 grams
• 1 can chickpeas (garbanzo beans) 15.5 oz / 440 grams
• sea salt & black pepper

FOR THE AIOLI

• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 tsp saffron threads
• 1/2 cup low fat mayonnaise 120 grams
• 1 tsp lemon juice 5 ml
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 15 ml
• sea salt & black pepper

Instructions

1. Add the flour into a large bowl, make a well in the middle, crack in the egg and whisk the egg, then add in the beer and whisk everything together until you a creamy batter

2. Add in the shallot finely chopped, finely grate in the garlic, add in the chopped parsley, sweet smoked Spanish paprika, ground cumin and season with sea salt & black pepper, mix together until well mixed

3. Drain the can of chickpeas into a colander and rinse under water, then shake off any excess water, transfer the chickpeas into a bowl and using a potato masher or large fork, mash down on the chickpeas until they're semi-mashed

4. Add the mashed chickpeas into the bowl with batter and mix together

5. Heat a large fry pan with a medium heat and add in the olive oil

6. After a couple of minutes start adding in spoonfuls of the batter, all in a single layer and evenly spaced out, cook in batches, fry for 3 minutes per side or until golden fried, transfer into a dish with paper towels as you finish

7. To make the aioli, add in the cloves garlic roughly chopped into a mortar, along with the saffron and a pinch of sea salt, using a pestle pound down on the ingredients until you get a paste-like texture, then add in the mayonnaise, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil and season with a kiss of sea salt & black pepper, whisk together until you get a creamy sauce

8. Transfer the aioli into a serving dish and decorate the fritters around it, serve warm or at room temperature, enjoy!