running with the bulls

BB was helping Mini-B vaccinate his livestock this morning. Anything involving Mini-B and animals usually entails a lot of running around in fields shouting "allez!" and invariably spells drama - and today was no exception, because when they returned at lunchtime, BB's hand was lacerated where he'd been gored by a bull and they were both covered in cow shit up to their necks.

Now, if I was paying a vet €100 an hour to come and stick needles in my cows' bums I might have thought about rounding them up first, preferably somewhere secure where they couldn't run away, like the milking parlour for instance (and maybe switched on the milking machine for some soothing background music). But instead they spent four frantic hours running around in fields shouting "allez!" with a hypodermic needle, which to a casual passer-by must have looked a bit like a Benny Hill sketch as the vet ran after the bull with BB and Mini-B attached to its horns being dragged through the cowpats. Honestly, you couldn't make this stuff up!

Carrot and coriander - what a great pairing - which up until today I had only ever married in a soup, but in this salad it's fantastic, especially to accompany fish such as sea bass coated with breadcrumbs and chopped coriander. This is adapted from Jamie Oliver's carrot and coriander treat for all.

Ingredients

Serves 4

2 large handfuls of fresh coriander leaves

1 large carrot, cut into thin matchsticks

1 tbsp sesame seeds

For the dressing

zest and juice of 1 orange

juice of 1 lemon

olive oil

salt and freshly ground pepper

♫ Cook along to: Randy Crawford Secret Combination

1. Put the coriander, carrots and sesame seeds in a salad bowl.

2. Finely grate the zest of the orange into another bowl and add the orange juice and lemon juice and 4 times that amount of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and use to dress the salad.