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
Carottes râpées - too simple to mess with?
"it’s one of those things, the simpler the better. Simple restaurants like Chartier just toss a plate of carrots at you with a wedge of lemon." David Lebovitz I don't think that's quite true because of the above picture on the left which I found. The lemons here seemed to have been whipped into a slightly eggy looking sauce. I suspect he was really talking about something like the one on the right from Leite's Culinaria. And this is something else again - Sesame and Aleppo
Sep 23
Preserving capsicums
"It is not possible to have too many sweet peppers." Hank Shaw/Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook Oh yes it is. Yesterday I stupidly bought this - a bag of - in my case - red capsicums. A kilo of them. So at the moment I feel that yes it is possible to have too many of them. I mean they go off fairly quickly don't they? But they are expensive - really pretty expensive, when they used to be cheap, so finding some that were cheaper - not exactly cheap - was too much of a temp
Sep 22
Poffertjes, puff-puffs, doughnuts ...
"the yeasted drop doughnuts that many different food cultures seem to have a beloved version of." Jimi Famurewa/The Guardian I marked this page in the latest Coles Magazine because of (a) its reference to Dutch poffertjes and (b) its mention of 'trending brekkie bites' as well as the fact that Coles has decided on this as a product to develop. I thought there might be something to investigate. And indeed there is - well too much really. If you look up poffertjes in Wikiped
Sep 21
COVID's Caramelised shallot pasta
"Pasta that takes half an afternoon to cook. A pasta that can – should – be cooked in pyjamas. And a pasta that is on a whole other level of amazing. Two-hat Italian amazing." Robby Dog Cooks The collage above from Alison Roman's own website on a page headed Click to watch me cry is of some of a dish of Caramelised shallot pasta made by literally thousands of people. She calls the collage 'Beautiful children'. For it is a selection from those ordinary people who have p
Sep 19
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
Gremolata - to reduce into grains
"you can't have a fancy food blog without a recipe that has something topped with gremolata." Culinary Lore Or reduce into a few words, and even fewer recipes. It's curious is it not, how some foodstuffs, which are so vital to a particular cuisine, have so little to say about them? Gremolata is fundamental to Italian cooking - particularly in Milan from where it seems to have originated. Well nobody knows really. Suffice to say that one writer - Danny Palumbo on The Take
Sep 6
Sweet and sour pork
"its fame has spread worldwide for the very simple reason that it hits all the right notes, wherever you are. Savoury and crunchy, sweet and tangy: it’s addictive stuff. Treat with caution." Felicity Cloake Sweet and sour pork may well have been the first Chinese food that you ate. I think it was mine anyway - although I suppose it could also have been lemon chicken, chow mein or chop suey. And it probably wasn't all that good but as my Felicity Cloake quote at the top of
Sep 5
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
Veal on a skewer - old-fashioned
Lucky dip time - and I'm sitting here wondering where to start. I spent a little time wondering which recipe to choose - there were six on a double page spread of veal recipes, but then I noticed that there was a photograph of one of them, on a different page, so I decided to go with that - Spiedini di vitello alla Romana. And here it is photographed in a way that somehow looks old-fashioned. But what is it that makes it look old-fashioned? Maybe it's the faint yellowish c
Sep 1
A rambling change of plan
"The cream of enjoyment in this life is always impromptu. The chance walk; the unexpected visit; the unpremeditated journey; the unsought conversation or acquaintance." Fanny Fern Today I was facing the eternal problem - the dual one of what to cook for dinner, and what to do with a problem ingredient or, indeed, ingredients. Nothing new there. The starting point was romanesco, the end point after an enjoyable ramble around the net which encompassed life, the universe and
Aug 30
Beer cheese soup
"two ingredients that don’t immediately scream soup to much of the world" Felicity Cloake Beer and cheese however, are perfectly common and indeed a winning combination. Well I imagine to the experts you have to have the right cheese with the right beer, but to those with no savvy palate like me, most beers and most cheeses are a perfect match. And in Winconsin - famous for its beer, and for its cheese - it's apparently the dairy king of America - they have used their prim
Aug 29
Coffee and walnut - a cake to die for?
"No wonder the infallible Nigel Slater has chosen it as his last meal on earth." Felicity Cloake I'm trying to remember whether I have ever eaten a coffee and walnut cake. Surely I have somewhere. It's so quintessentially English. And this version from Karen Burns-Booth on the Great British Chefs website, may well be the quintessential version of Coffee and walnut cake loaded with buttercream and very home-made looking. As Nigel says: "there is a fragility to a well-made
Aug 27
Anna's potatoes - who was Anna and are you up to this?
"the supreme potato dish of all time" Julia Child and Simone Beck I have no idea now how Potatoes Anna, crept into my Ideas list. I thought it might have been a Felicity Cloake 'perfect' dish but no. Never mind I decided I really had to tackle some of these long ago 'Ideas' so here I am with Pommes - or more correctly Pommes de terre - Anna. The picture is from my rather wonderful, but basically ignored by the internet The Cooking of France - published by Bay Books with r
Aug 24
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
The joy of the galette
"flat, round and quintessentially French." Great British Chefs This not terribly prepossessing photograph is the remains of last night's dinner - cold from the fridge. I should have taken a photograph last night but didn't. Anyway it was a dish that gave me great joy and satisfaction for a number of different reasons. Perhaps the main reason, was because in complete contrast to my previous night's dinner - the very disappointing pasta and romanesco dish - this was really,
Aug 22
Small fry
small fry - "somebody or something that is not considered to be important" Cambridge English dictionary Well the entire blog is not important - it is to me I suppose - but not to the world in general. Which could of course be said of any number of things from what Prince Harry is doing now, to what anybody thinks about what you are wearing today. So on a dreary and somewhat angst ridden day I am turning to small things to make me reflect on this and that. So small fry in
Aug 21
Abundance - a challenge
abundunce - "the situation in which there is more than enough of something" or "the quality of having what you want in life" Cambridge English Dictionary Yesterday we lunched with our friends with the superabundant garden. We over indulged in the most delicious food and wine, which has led to me feeling marginally poorly - mild alcohol poisoning to be blunt. On top of the wonderful food - the best lamb shank tagine I have ever tasted, and some orangey poached pears, not to
Aug 20
à la barigoule
"One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy." Jane Austen This is my 'natural production' the Saffron milk cap mushroom - botanically known as Lactarius deliciosus - or the red pine mushroom. But in this case although it is the beginning of the food story here, it is not really the beginning of my ramble today. For this has indeed been a ramble - but it didn't begin with Lactarius deliciosus - no matter how delici
Aug 17