Fragments

"Fragments - "a small piece or a part, especially when broken from something whole" Cambridge English Dictionary

Busy, busy, busy today, so not time for a long train of thought. So fragments it is. Things taken from here and there, although I'm not sure I have many left, after my list of recipes earlier this week.

Fragments, as in this picture, imply broken don't they? Broken usually being a negative thought whether it be applied to a plate, or a person.

But I did find a happy Instagram blog called Food Fragments in which the author wrote: "Hello! I try to catch delicious parts of my day." We should all try to do that - 'delicious' in every sense that is. And today I'm looking forward to dinner with one of my sons and family, before they head off on a road trip to Sydney and back in the school holidays. The food may or may not be delicious. I just made some hummus for starters, which doesn't taste that good to me. I think my tahini was too old - and I am tempted to throw the whole thing away. Not delicious at all. I think the mains and the dessert will be good though. One of Nigel's chicken dishes and the plums I made the other day.

What is your salt tolerance? - I am slowly working my way through Cooking at Home by David Chang, founder of Momofuku aided by Priya Krishna. It's a little disappointing, but that's for another day. Early in the book he has a segment on seasoning and I found this little fragment interesting - because I think that David and I for example have a different salt tolerance. I mostly do not add salt to the food that I am cooking - good for your health, bad if you consider yourself a good cook. But I mostly add some salt at the table. David does not. So here is how David Chang tells you to test it. Make any simple broth, - chicken or vegetable - with no salt. Arrange ten cups in a line and add the broth - to the same height in each cup. then add incremetally larger amounts of salt to each cup. Taste them all and "decide which one allows you to really taste the flavour of the broth without it tasting like salt. That's your sweet spot."

Interesting.

A paneer tip Now I don't use paneer very much but I noticed this tip the other day when checking out a recipe from Rukmini Iyer in The Guardian.

"once cut, soak it in boiling water for 10 minutes, then drain and pat dry – it improves the texture no end."

Now I admit I didn't really know what the texture of paneer was supposed to be like - I thought it was supposed to be sort of hard and rubbery. But no, because then when I went searching for an appropriate picture I found a very detailed article in Serious Eats, by Swetha Sivakumar. After a lengthy explanation of why shop bought is more rubbery than home-made, he or she - I'm guessing she - set up a scientific experiment:

"I experimented by soaking different packets of store-bought paneer in cool water, hot water, and for different intervals of time from 15 minutes up to overnight in the refrigerator, and then documented the changes in their weight to see if they absorbed water, and if so, how much."

And it didn't work - well not enough to be worth it, because the paneer is so tightly bound together the water cannot penetrate. So what to do - fry it - and then soak it. More delicious result and used by many Indian chefs apparently. Who knew? Seems that Rukmini Iyer is wrong.

Such a lot of science in the Serious Eats article - well it's alternative name is The Food Lab.

Jay Rayner's last column for The Observer After fifteen years, Jay Rayner has retired from writing for The Observer. Mostly a restaurant critic, Rayner is also an occasional amusing general food writer, and has, indeed written a few books. It's a light read in which he summarises the key points of "interrogating the way we cook and eat now." To give you a taste here is one paragraph:

"Brown foods and messy foods are the best foods, and picnics are a nightmare. Buffets are where good taste goes to die. Most dishes can be improved with the addition of bacon. The kitchen knives in holiday rentals are always terrible; take your own. Hyper-expensive foods are never about deliciousness; they are about status. Don’t bother with them. Béchamel sauce is easy to make; just follow the damn recipe."

I liked this too: "Eating alone in a restaurant is dinner with someone you love and a delicious opportunity for people watching."

I shall miss his occasional articles in The Guardian newsletter.

YEARS GONE BY

April 5 - the end of summertime. Summer officially done.

2024 - Hidden potatoes and apples

2023 - Shreds

2022 - Black mark to Ottolenghi - or was it me, or maybe it was God?

2021 - Nothing

2020 - Deleted

2019 - Nothing

2018 - Flight in the wind/windblown

2017 - Managing bananas