Pasta cakes
"peak What I Want In A Recipe" Deb Perelman/Smitten Kitchen I'm trying to clear my email inbox a bit. Some of the emails in there are newsletters from various foodie sources, so today I checked the oldest of these, a newsletter from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen which celebrated 20 years of writing her blog by posting 20 of what she considered to be the 20 most iconic recipes - the 'peak What I Want in a Recipe' thing that I have quoted above. There are some pretty good
6 days ago
What can I say about parsley and garlic?
"Such an Italian flavour" Giorgio Locatelli "Parsley loves garlic, and their marriage rarely fails to be a happy one." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall/The Guardian I'm very slowly working my way through this book - another Op shop find and gift from my friend Monika. It will take me a while as there are a whole lot of mini, and not so mini essays scattered throughout the book about Locatelli's life, and also about ingredients. One of the earliest of the ingredient ones was ab
Oct 23
Too easy - that book
"It's a noisy world out there, and simple cooking is our solution." Yotam Ottolenghi The quote is both on the back of the book and begins the Introduction - the latest Ottolenghi and co blockbuster book. It's probably sold millions. And I rushed to buy it too, although I think I took the time to order it from Amazon because it was cheaper. And before you are outraged at my use of Amazon - yes I felt very guilty. Apologies to my favourite bookshops. It's actually a co-aut
Oct 20
So - Robert Carrier classics
"He made making food seem a joyful art." Dennis Barker/The Guardian In our family some of our very favourite recipes are courtesy of Robert Carrier. Possibly the collage of photographs on the left that I took for a kind of cookbook I produced of our COVID cooking classes, really demonstrates the joy that Carrier often talked about. My grandchildren are making Robert Carrier's spaghetti and meatballs from The Robert Carrier Cookbook shown here in 60s style in my copy of the
Oct 19
So much from one plate of food
Somewhere or other I had a quote about there being a whole world on a plate of food. But I have lost it. Mostly this kind of quote -and I have seen this kind of sentiment in several places, refers to the history of the dish itself, and its ingredients. What I am looking at today is rather more personal but it has indeed been a ramble. As I have intimated in the last few posts I'm working in my head towards a post on Robert Carrier classics but then the night before last I
Oct 18
Pasta, flying saucers and grannies
"a personal undertaking to try every single type of pasta available the length and breadth of Italy" Jacqui De Bono Time for a look at a foodie blog and the next one on my list is The Pasta Project, which is probably one of the first that I recognised and visited from time to time, so I'm not sure why it took me so long to get to it with my website posts. I probably came across it long ago because - well it's pasta isn't it and I guess we are all pretty much obsessed with
Oct 3
The romanticised flavour of Tuscany
"The three basic elements of wine, oil and bread which to the Tuscans are almost sacred" Lorenza de' Medici I meant to sort of do this yesterday as an example of 'the geography of flavour'. Mostly because I have two Tuscan cookbooks sitting on my desk waiting for their moments in the sun. Not that there is much sun here in Melbourne at the moment. But look at a cookbook on Tuscany and the sun is always shining is it not? There is almost always a touch of soft focus, hon
Oct 1
September 28th - a first recipe
"We are not here for long. So, let's at least make ourselves something good to eat." Nigel Slater Sorry - Nigel again. But he's next on my first recipe trawl through the bookcase with volume three of his Kitchen Diaries which he called A Year of Good Eating. And September 28th is obviously not the first recipe - but it has a kind of relevance - mostly because that's today's date and as usual in my investigations here I have rambled into three or four different areas. Firs
Sep 28
That postponed 'review'
"There's a quiet confidence in recipes that have so few ingredients, take so little time and yet promise so much." Alison Roman Hello, Again - these are the first words of this book - well the first words from the author - which are sort of relevant to this post because I suppose in a way I have reviewed this book already. I have mentioned it a few times, but today I am in tidy up mode and it's been sitting on my desk, waiting for its official 'review' for a while. When re
Sep 25
Putty in their hands
"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy." Marcel Proust This is a first recipe and the book is Toast: the story of a boy's hunger, by Nigel Slater - his memoir about his childhood and youth. So not really a recipe book, but rather than disregard it I checked the first short piece - it is really a collection of chronologically arranged pieces - and I thought it was so wonderful really that I would go with it. The piece is called Toast 1 and it's about burnt toast an
Sep 20
Menemen, Ottolenghi and cultural appropriation
"something hot with eggs on it" Itamar Srulovich For Ottolenghi fans the 3rd of this month was a big day - the publication of his next book - this time with long-time colleague in the OTK (Ottolenghi Test Kitchen) Verena Lochmuller - Simple Too. For me the big day was yesterday when the book arrived here. I realise that this is not necessarily a big thing for any of you, but for me it certainly is. And this is the first recipe in the first section Breakfast/Brunch - Meneme
Sep 7
Some Charmaine classics
"I love cooking but I'm bored stiff by the idea of preparing the same kind of food day in, day out. For me, and I hope for you, the excitement of cooking is to be found in creating new dishes, playing variations of old and familiar ones, and in trying recipes from other countries." Which just about sums up my attitude to cooking too. Particularly the boredom of same old, same old, which was a bit of a thing when my sons were teenagers and I was working. Partly because of t
Sep 3
Boring - but it's Neil Perry!
Neil Perry is one of Australia's earlier celebrity chefs I guess. I don't know whether he still cooks in an actual restaurant or just manages his restaurant and business empire. But he is indeed much admired. However, somehow or other I have never really encountered him through books. Maybe he just doesn't put himself out there like Jamie Oliver, Curtis Stone and the rest. Maybe he just stuck to being a restaurant chef writing the occasional cookbook - and indeed he has
Sep 2
Invasion or evolution?
"A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows." Doug Larson Nature is reasserting itself in our garden. This is our back 'lawn' - and as you can see it is very lush and green. But it's not grass - we have struggled for literally decades to grow grass here - battling drought, dogs, rabbits and just rotten soil. But now it is almost covered with oxalis which seems to love growing here - and everywhere else at the moment. N
Aug 26
A recipe, Coles and Curtis Stone - this and that
The recipe in question is from Curtis Stone, in the current Coles Magazine - Lemon-garlic fettucine with crisp chickpeas. I started out today thinking I would do a whole post on crisp chickpeas as they seem to be turning up everywhere I look these days, so when they turned up in the Coles Magazine in this very tempting recipe, from a professional chef, such as Curtis Stone - well he does have at least one Michelin star - I'm not sure how many - I thought I might look closely
Aug 23
"Live each season as it passes;
Breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each" Henry David Thoreau I'm not going to ask you to admire this painting, and I'm not even going to reflect upon it really - it's just that it's the starting point for today's post. No it's not even that - that's the above quote which accompanies the painting in my desktop diary/calendar - a new painting and quote to consider every day. The painting is by Jan Davidsz de Heem - wh
Aug 16
High-low pantry/cooking
"An extended love letter to simplicity, this book is about finding joy and satisfaction in the tiny miracles of cooking - all of the deliciousness that comes from making something from nothing." Alison Roman Yes it's another book, and this was going to be an overview/review of this wonderful book - Something from Nothing by Alison Roman - a cook of whom I was dimly aware via the New York Times I think. It has been sitting on my desk waiting for its moment for a while now, s
Aug 15
Some Delia classics
"They are not so much the recipes that people dream over; this is the stuff they actually cook." Nigel Slater Indeed they do - as I did yesterday for my older son's birthday party. I made her Piedmont roasted peppers as part of an antipasti spread. I did cut out the stems - against her advice not to because: "they're not edible, but they do look attractive and they help the pepper halves to keep their shape." Well I was cooking for twelve and had decided to cut my large Au
Aug 3
Why did Louise stop writing?
WTF Do I Eat Tonight? a daily solution to an eternal problem It's a website - WTF Do I Eat Tonight? - now apparently dead. Which is very sad, because it's the kind of website I like to read. Not that I do of course, unless I come across a post here and there. And, because, I think this one, though much more popular than mine, nevertheless was tucked away in an internet corner. It rarely pops up in any of my searches. Actually if it wasn't dead I would subscribe to this o
Jul 30
Confused by trends
“Like dogs, foodies wag their tails at the slightest sniff of new and exciting. Then bark at each other on social media. Food is fashion. If you’re into that stuff, it matters.” Perry Haydon-Taylor/The Guardian I was going to call this post two trends in one - illustrated by this Coles recipe for Fluffy Cheesecake with matcha icing sugar from their Food Director, Sarah Hobbs - the two trends being Japanese cheesecake and matcha desserts. The trends were based on the list pu
Jul 29