Indian cookbooks - then and now
"Books, even cookbooks, are written for a diversity of reasons and it is often more profitable to enquire why they have been written than analyse their contents in an uncritical manner. " Shylashri Shankar/The Peepul Tree I guess this particular post stems from one of those books on my desk - The Food of India - a large beautiful book which I picked up from the op shop for a song. Like it's companions in this series from the Murdoch stable on various world cuisines, it feat
Nov 4
Aubergines on top of yoghurt
"the composition is inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s unbeatable formula of flavoured yoghurt base + roasted aubergines + vibrant toppings." Ixta Belfrage This is Ixta's Aubergines with lime yoghurt and tomato, cinnamon and chilli oil - a recipe from I'm not sure where. Anyway I thought her words might be an opening into a post - most likely I thought - about how everyone was copying the technique. You know the one - I talked about it recently - a base of something creamy. yo
Nov 1
Old-fashioned canapés - first recipe
"If you don't have the time to prepare something good then just serve some olives or nuts." Beverley Sutherland Smith Well you would perhaps wouldn't you? - or just open a bag of crisps because canapés - the retro kind - often take a lot of work. This is a photograph of some of Beverley Sutherland Smith's canapés, styled in a very old-fashioned way on a silver platter with the bottle of champagne in a silver bucket. The kind of thing you would get served at a fancy cocktai
Oct 30
Disappointing
"Disappointments are inevitable; discouragement is a choice . " Charles Stanley I like to have on my desk, a desk calendar - one of those things that stands on your desk waiting for you to tear off each day as it passes. I also have a diary - yes I use a paper diary. My excuse is age. Normally I have an art based one. I like to see paintings I don't know, discover beautiful pictures and new artists, even occasional blog inspiration. However, last year as the possibilitie
Oct 26
Cookbook covers
"Cookbook covers are tricky because they need to convey the story and concept of the book in one photo." David Lebovitz 'You can't judge...
Sep 30
Eggs flying off your TikTok app
"There is ultimately more shopping than cooking involved." Tim Dowling / The Guardian This lady's name is Alice Choi, a Korean American...
Sep 29
Defeated by a first recipe
"sometimes the wall is just a wall. There’s nothing to be done but go somewhere else." Margaret Atwood This book has been sitting on my...
Sep 18
Acai bros come to Eltham
“We want to be a one-stop health food café and the inter-section between health food stores and restaurants, making unbelievably...
Sep 14
Coles' new look
As with almost every topic I choose to write about on this blog, I discovered bits about today's topic that hadn't occurred to me. Even...
Jun 8
Angel hair
“Angel hair just lands on your chin like the strands of a wet mop.” Bon Appétit "The thin strands absorb sauce like few other pastas...
May 23
Baked oats
"Everything looks like cake, but is not in fact cake." Emily Gerard/Today This is one of those posts that began with me thinking I was...
May 17
Granules
"granule - a small piece like a grain of something" Cambridge English Dictionary "a small particle; especially : one of numerous...
May 12
I found it - sort of
"Passing time adds false memories and modifies real ones." Stephen King Remember yesterday my despair at not finding the tube of hot...
Apr 26
Roasting vegetables
"Clearly, roasting is really the only way to treat vegetables if one hopes to be modern." J. Bryan Lowder/Slate In 1993 Delia Smith...
Jan 12
The cheese board
"When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?" George Carlin The inspiration for this particular post, although I have thought...
Dec 11, 2024
Why is distressed so loved?
"Indulge in noncommittal decorating" Domino Last week I treated myself - I think I told you - to three new cookbooks. One of these was...
Dec 10, 2024
An Italian day out in the city
It's Italian Film festival time and my friend Clare proposed going to see something with a lunch beforehand. I, of course, agreed and so...
Oct 1, 2024
Do you plan a week's meals?
"Is "planning" this stuff just for people who need another thing to make their life more difficult?" dethwatch/Reddit I have just spent...
Aug 9, 2024
Peanuts
"Peanuts: something so small it is not worth considering, especially an amount of money" Cambridge dictionary "an insignificant or tiny...
Jul 22, 2024
Tablecloths
"A kid under a tablecloth insists he’s a ghost. A table underneath a tablecloth is, I guess, like the rest of us, only pretending to be...
May 16, 2024