A surprise mushroom bourguignon
"I always argued that most of the things people thought they liked about meat they actually liked about the sauces and braises and spices they were cooked in" Deb Perelman/Smitten Kitchen Last night we were invited to dinner at my son's house - for a French mushroom dish - his wife told me - when the invite was issued. A lovely surprise in itself but the meal was also a delicious surprise. I should say here, that although my younger son does indeed cook quite a lot, he most
20 hours ago
The worth of the Michelin star
"Michelin is the only guide that counts." Paul Bocuse Well not any more surely? It's probaby your favourite TikTok influencer if you are young, or Trip Advisor, Broadsheet or The Age Good Food Guide if you are older. Maybe it's even just word of mouth. And surely like any critique of any form of art in the broadest sense the judgement is always subjective. Yes Michelin inspectors, are trained, expert and anonymous, but my limited understanding is that for each restaurant
2 days ago
Breadsticks or grissini - maybe ficelles?
"Bread - the founding food of civilisation ... the two plus two equals five of culinary evolution" Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Not that breadsticks are what we first think of when we think of bread. But then as he goes on to say - bread has many forms: "Bread is also like humanity itself. We come in many different shapes and sizes colours and guises, yet underneath the skin/crust, we're all made of the same stuff. And the trick of achieving happiness and harmony is surely
3 days ago
Lardy cakes
Lardy cake isn’t lardy cake if you hold back." Kimberley Killebrew/Daring Gourmet The lardy cake above is my inspiration today - it's Tom Hunt's version of this traditional British cake from The Guardian - and now having searched the net for variants - one of the best I think. It came from a link in Felicity Cloake's Guardian Feast newsletter, in which she was bemoaning the loss, or at least scarcity of traditional British bakery treats such as this. Potentially unhealthy,
4 days ago
Reflections on a small piece of quiche
"When we eat, we travel." Mina Holland This was my lunch today. A small piece of leftover quiche, so being otherwise clueless - partly because I have not been writing of late - otherwise occupied - and partly because it's an interesting exercise to do every now and then I decided to consider in a more analytical way than usual what my lunchtime quiche. As you know by now I make quiche a lot. It usually begins with some kind of leftover which might well offend the purists,
6 days ago
World food photography awards
"Food is the great leveller, the great unifier and photography captures this so powerfully,” Awards Founder, Caroline Kenyon I don't have much time today, as I'm preparing for tomorrow's lunch, so here is a sort of taster of some of the amazing photographs that won prizes or were highly commended in this year's World Food Photography Awards. This is not the overall winner, although it is the winner of the sponsor's prize. The major sponsor this year is Tenderstem® Bimi® B
Jun 5
Spanish-style - well any '-style'
If you have read yesterday's post, you will know that this is one of two dishes that I am currently considering for our lunch on Saturday. It's from the delicious. book More Please, by Valli Little, and for some reason I assumed that it was a Spanish dish. And so today, I was going to 'research' this Spanish dish and do one of my kind of analyses of a traditional dish. However, when I checked my Spanish cookbooks - Claudia Roden and Robert Carrier being the authors - and al
Jun 4
Rediscovering Valli Little
"our sincere thanks to a woman who changed the landscape of Australian food." Jane de Graaf/Nine On Saturday I'm doing lunch for our lunching friends. We take it in turns to cook lunch every month or so. So I am in early planning mode, and have started looking for inspiration. I decided my starting point would be winter and so I began with Delia and Diana Henry - as I mentioned yesterday. Diana was a bit of a disappointment and Delia did have a couple of things I thought
Jun 3
Moods and leftovers
"such a dish is always ... made more scrumptious by the knowledge of its unpromising beginnings." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall I see I have used this photograph - the frontispiece to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's most wonderful book - Love Your Leftovers - a few times. It's because, in so many ways it epitomises comfort does it not? Even the fact that it's in a cup and you can picture yourself in some comfortable chair with as many layers of clothes on as you can fashionab
Jun 2