Preserving with 'Pam the Jam'
"they waste not, so we want not" Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall This is a first recipe book and I have come to a boxed set I bought at some bargain price ages ago - because I was interested in the River Cottage vibe. It was a bit of a mistake really because it is heavily British. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his River Cottage come and go team are very much into foraging, and so most of what he forages is British - and not available here. I think I can say that really the
19 hours ago
Mary Cassatt - what's missing?
"Women should be someone and not something." Mary Cassatt I've been looking at this painting by Mary Cassatt - the American Impressionist painter - or rather the detail - on the right - of the full painting on the right. It's this week's Met picture in my desk diary. Because a cup of tea is involved - the painting is in fact called A cup of tea - I thought I really ought to be able to use it in some way for a blog. But I know I have done bits and pieces - indeed entire p
2 days ago
Boy kibble - so sad
"a ruthlessly efficient male-coded rejoinder to the extemporaneous charms of 'girl dinner'." Max Berlinger/AFR I found the illustration above heading an article in the AFR at the weekend, about the latest TikTok sensation Boy kibble - sometimes called - in a nod to not being sexist - human kibble. What is kibble? I actually thought it sounded like some kind of Middle-Eastern grainy something, but no. Kibble is: "a popular, cost-effective, and convenient dry pet food made
3 days ago
Celery and beans - a quest
"Celery and white beans are an Italian truth" Yotam Ottolenghi I was very taken with that quote which appeared in a recent Ottolenghi newsletter - Chickpeas, lentils and every bean in between - and I definitely thought it was a good start for a post, and yet I cannot find a single recipe from Ottolenghi that combines the two - white, green, or every other kind of bean there is. So what on earth is he talking about? And to add to that, I couldn't find a classic Italian re
4 days ago
We cannot do perfection
"Natural timeless motion." Tamara Adler Every now and then I change my computer's desktop wallpaper, choosing a photograph from my own collection. This is the one I chose yesterday. It must have been taken in autumn because there are berries on the hawthorn tree outside my window. The bird sits behind my computer, behind the window and its flyscreen - hence the hatched pattern across the picture. The bird is an Eastern rosella - a small but a stunningly beautiful bird th
6 days ago
Quiet satisfaction
"Cooking at home, you don't need to hit the bull's-eye, you just need to hit the target." David Chang This is last night's dinner. We thought it looked impressive enough to photograph and also because it illustrated for me some of what I was saying in yesterday's post - and elsewhere in the past - about how important it seems to be that things look good. In every aspect of life really - beginning with ourselves, and leading to just about every choice we make in life. We a
Feb 16
'Yada yada' or indeed blah, blah, blah?
"I found page after page after page celebrating the passion the purveyors of ingredients have for their product … before finally finding a recipe." Lisa Hill/ANZ LitLovers Time to tackle this book which has been sitting around for me to (a) read and then (b) sort of review. I thought it was just me in not recognising how wonderful it is - and it is in a way that I shall come to - but honestly most of the food did not really appeal - but that I think is just me - as I am not
Feb 15
A quickie about a specific omelette
"the salty sharpness contrasts exquisitely with the rich fattiness of the eggs; against which too, the fresh hit of mint is positively exhilarating." Nigella Lawson Nigella is talking about what she (and lots of others) call a Corsican omelette - or Frittata incu a menta (e brocciu), as it's called in Corsica. Of course like those of us who live nowhere near Corsica, or even France and can therefore not obtain brocciu cheese, we will not be able to make the dish in an auth
Feb 14
Corn ribs
"The possibilities are endless" This post actually comes from my poor memory forgetting a postscript that I meant to add to yesterday's post. It was a postscript, because it was about vadouvan - that I wrote about a few days ago. The January Coles Magazine had a recipe for the above dish from Curtis Stone - Corn ribs with Vadouvan-spice butter and coriander chutney - in fact it had been my original inspiration for writing about vadouvan, but I failed to mention it I think
Feb 12
Toblerone
" Finally, the recipe is quite simple, but paradoxically will never be equaled ... obvious ingredients, inimitable mixture" Eugénie Rousak/Now Village You may or may not remember, but quite a long time ago now, on one of my walks I decided to photograph everything with a link to food. I think so far I have tackled one, maybe two of those. Today I'm on to this one - Toblerone. A wrapper tossed away by a walker or from a car, on a semi busy road. I don't think that's a bit
Feb 11
Smidgens
"a very small amount" Dictionary.com "Just a smidgen" - it's one of those mildly irritating things that people say when you are offering them a treat of some kind - some cake, some cream to go with the cake ... isn't it? In this case it's going to be a number of smidgens - little things from here and there. Almost exclusively recipes from here and there this time. But isn't English a wonderful language? I looked up the etymology of this rather cosy sounding word - and var
Feb 10
Just too simple? - walnut sandwiches
"These sandwiches are very good with ices, instead of the usual biscuits or wafers." Elizabeth David This is a lucky dip - from Elizabeth David's Summer Food , a book that is full of simple - and sometimes not so simple food for summer. I've used it a lot in the past, and there are lots of really wonderful things in there. This was a lucky dip however, and the page that I randomly selected did not fill me with joy and the excitement of exploring something with maybe a few s
Feb 9
Arty brioche
"Rather a piece of bread with a happy heart than wealth with grief." - Egyptian proverb So it's the Met's first day of the week - Sunday - and facing my new week of happenings - actually a few this week - is a detail - the brioche, the flower and the peaches - from this painting - La Brioche - as painted by Edouard Manet in 1870 and now hanging on the walls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Well it's food, so I ought to be able to write something about it. Firs
Feb 8
Picking apart a quote
"The reality is that the best way to become a better cook is through failure, and learning from it to tweak the dish for next time. If you are going to take chances in life, cooking at home should be one of them. There's no feeling in the world like the one that comes from making something delicious by pure instinct - like you stepped up to the podium without writing a speech and delivered the monologue of a lifetime." David Chang I confess I almost am tempted to say - "if
Feb 5
Robert, Tessa or Rachel?
or maybe Elizabeth or Richard? What do they all have in common? Provence. Well every now and then not always. What do they not have in common? The years in between them all. The times. Why am I featuring them? Well this is another account of another potential meal, and how I decided on what to cook. On Friday we are entertaining friends for lunch together with my sister and her husband. Maybe, at least for some of the time my niece who is driving her mother to and fro
Feb 4
David Chang, my microwave and I
"How I learned to stop worrying about recipes and love my microwave." David Chang I'm returning to my kitchen tour and at the same time trying to say a few things about one of the books sitting on my pile. Not exactly a review - just a few words. Above is my microwave in situ, that cleverly looks as if it is really built in, although its actually just sitting on a shelf with a manufacturer supplied surround to hide that fact. It's not a very classy one - a fairly basic Sme
Feb 3
Koofteh berenji - Persian meatballs
Number 46 in the 80 meatballs from around the world are Koofteh berenji - as made here by Bunny Banyai. I made them last night for the family - we were welcoming back the European travellers - and of course I forgot to take photographs of mine. I was just glad to get it all ready for people to dive in, after working most of the day in the kitchen, so I forgot. I mostly enjoyed the day in the kitchen by the way. However, I was mildly disappointed with them, even though eve
Feb 2