Some party time recipes
- rosemary
- 3 days ago
- 8 min read
I've spent the morning, no - most of yesterday afternoon as well, making marmalade from a gift of home-grown mandarins, from friends, and a whole lot of lemons that I had in the fridge - 12 assorted jars seen here being the result. It's very satisfying when you get to this point, although there's always the worry it won't set, although this time I think I marginally worry about the opposite - too set.
Anyway it's left me feeling lazy, so I thought I would just provide a few recipes that have caught my eye recently.
It's from Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen, who I now see gives these mildly off-putting words as an introduction to her recipe:
"meals masquerading as toasts. But don’t be deceived by the name; these are no simple, wan crostini. A winter squash of your choice is roasted in the oven while on the stove, you cook an onion with cider vinegar and maple syrup until it’s soft and jammy. You use a fork to half-mash this tangy confit together with the roasted squash, a pile it on bread you’ve toasted in olive oil and spread with ricotta or soft goat cheese. Don’t forget the mint on top; it makes something already good unquestionably perfect."
If you like squash as the Americans call it or pumpkin as we do - somewhat incorrectly I think, then this is for you, because I really don't think it's very difficult.
Now why do I think that something on toast is not really a meal, just a snack or a precurser to the main event? Because after all it has all the ingredients of a main event with the toast just being the carb part of the equation. And they do look pretty. They'd definitely make a good nibble before a meal - in smaller bite-sized pieces anyway.
Roast courgettes, feta and preserved lemon This one is from Georgina Hayden in The Guardian. They were into courgette gluts at the time I think. In some ways it's very similar to the Deb Perelman's squash toasts, but no toast. Although our recipe creator did suggest that it could be served on toast. Or a side dish, or a vegetarian meal. Once again it has all that you need from a meal, particularly if you add that bread.
Preserved lemons are dead simple to make - just cut them into lengthways quarters, pack them into a jar with rock salt, under, over and between with a bit of cinnamon stick and some bay leaves. Cover with lemon juice and/or boiling water, and leave to mature in the dark for a few weeks. The smell when you open the jar is just amazing.
I suspect that that particular edition of the Feast newsletter must have been focussed on zucchini because here are a couple more recipes.
Well there had to be an Ottolenghi recipe didn't there? And like him I prefer making the kind of breads that don't need yeast to the time-consuming and always anxiety producing yeast ones. I leave them to David who has mastered the sour dough loaf. One of Ottolenghi's admirers who made this - one Charlotte Puckette - tells us it comes from the OTK COVID book Shelf Love, saying:
"But of course, when Ottolenghi and his team of kitchen magicians stand in front of their shelves looking for ideas, the recipes they come up with take pantry cooking to another level."
Indeed. Next time tomatoes dip a bit in price - they seem to do this every now and then at the moment - I might have a go. I love this kind of thing, and the tomato chutney is apparently the must have part of the equation - that's what those who tried it say anyway.
Similar but really quite different. This one is from Thomasina Miers, a cook whose recipes very often attract. She has a Mexican restaurant in London I think, and has written books, but I have never seen any of them here.
Slightly in the same kind of vogue as Ottolenghi et al. I suppose. Anyway a few people have had a go. I suppose it's the lemon syrup that makes it intriguing. There is olive oil in the cake itself as well - and lemon zest. If I had a glut of zucchini then this is something I might well try.
Two for the price of one
Quick and sort of cheating upside down onion tarts that is.
My starter here was Tom Hunt's recipe for Quick upside down pissaladière tarts which he says were inspired by the craze for this kind of upside down tart - the ones where you put something on a greased tray of some kind, cover with pastry and cook. I think I've probably mentioned Nigel's apricot ones, and something from Coles. And indeed they are a wonderful way to play around and invent. Tom Hunt is The Guardian's waste not columnist, and he suggests them as a wonderful way of using up leftover pastry scraps. If you have leftover pastry you just roll it into a ball and freeze it, adding to it as you go. Which is good advice. Or of course, you can just use a sheet of frozen puff pastry. Truth to tell his pissaladière version looks a trifle burnt, which is reassuring. It's definitely a quick way to do pissaladière though:
"by skipping two time-consuming steps in the traditional recipe – that is, making the pastry and caramelising the onions – this one comes together about an hour faster."
It takes about 20 minutes to cook and a minute or two to assemble - a slice of onion, some olives and anchovy, not forgetting the olive oil of course. In his article he credits Dominic Frank for being one of the Instagram innovators - and his Upside Down Onion Tart - is the one shown below. His is simpler again - slice of onion on top of olive oil and a bit of herb and balsamic vinegar, spread herb cream cheese on your pastry and put on top. Brush with egg wash and cook. You can watch the Instagram version here.
Once you've made one or two of this kind of thing - sweet or savoury - you can make up your own. People love them, and they are so easy
Back to the Ottolenghi team - well he mentions one of his team Clodagh as having the original idea which used maltersers.
I'm not sure I really approve of this one - Melt chocolate, add lime zest, chilli, cinnamon and salt, then stir in popcorn, rasins and peanuts. Spread out on a tray, sprinkle with more chilli, sesame seeds and more salt and leave in fridge to set. Break up when done and - he says - consume whilst watching a movie with friends at home.
Focaccia made with soup
I'm not quite sure where I found this item - I think it might have been a link from somewhere else. Anyway I was intrigued. I mean isn't it amazing that cooks from here and there dream up new ways to tackle old things? At first you might recoil. Well I always recoil a little at the idea of using tinned things like soups which you can make so much better at home. So it's fascinating to see all these Instagram, TikTok, YouTube ... treating them as ingredients rather than food in themselves. Now I do like focaccia and can sometimes make reasonable versions of it. Not consistently though I'm ashamed to say. Sometimes it's just doughy.
Anyway I followed the link and found this picture which I thought at least warranted further investigation, although it seemed to be behind a paywall. But I noted it down as an idea. Today I looked further and found an Instagram video of its maker Solmaz Saberi doing her thing making Tomato soup focaccia - at speed, so a little difficult to follow I guess.
I suppose you could have a go from that, but I decided to search further and found a guy called Dom Ruane demonstrating three different types of soup focaccia, although. one of them wasn't really. His website is called 12 Tomatoes and begins with French onion soup. The second is a broccoli and cheddar version - but no soup seems to be involved here, but then I see he describes his focaccias as inspired by popular soups. So I guess that's OK. The last is the tomato and he actually includes real cherry tomatoes in the dough as well as the soup. Somewhat grudgingly I admit it might be worth trying this kind of thing one day - or experimenting - like the upside down pastries. Once you have the technique you can extemporise - well play anyway.
This might seem like an afterthought - kind of - but actually I now realise this is where the link came from for the above soupy ones. It was Tom Hunt who set me off on this search with his use of the brine from a jar of olives as an ingredient - not something to throw away. And I have to say that there are also a whole lot of people doing things with brine from various pickles these days. Apparently focaccias are often topped with salamoia - a salty brine used to create the crust. The olives are used as well for this one.
This is a Coles idea - one of a group in the current magazine about party canapés for want of a better word. Worth looking at. This one involves stuffing your dates with goat's cheese, sticking them on mini skewers and grilling before topping with chopped pistachios. I'm guessing from the picture that you then drizzle them with something like chilli oil or honey, although it doesn't say so.
Two in one - a dessert and a liqueur. I'm making this at the moment. My jar is hiding in the dark in the cupboard that contains our wine glasses and liqueurs. It's from Nigel and involves dried apricots. I made it because I thought I had unloved bottles of moscato from Aldi. I didn't but decided to have a go anyway, so went and bought another one. Nigel tells us to:
"Decant the deeply fruity liquor into glasses, saving the plump fruit for serving with thick, strained yoghurt or even, if you are feeling exceptionally decadent, zabaglione."
Maybe even thick cream, ice-cream or crème fraîche. He also suggests you can do the same thing with prunes or figs and you could use the liqueur to make cocktails if you are into them. He says it takes around three weeks - which is probably almost done.
From Alison Roman - at last an actual meal.
"A whole head of cauliflower browns and caramelizes in a skillet before being simmered with heavy cream, pecorino cheese and a bit of lemon zest, breaking down into a special (and yes, decadent) sauce to coat the pasta shape of your choosing."
Not quick and easy and a bit like Jamie's Cauliflower cheese spaghetti with garlicky breadcrumbs which I think I have mentioned before and which I have now made a few times. David is not such a fan, but I love it. Jamie doesn't brown his cauliflower but otherwise I guess it's pretty similar. So I might test out Alison Roman's some day to see whose version is better.
I'm giving up on The New York Times daily recipes. I think you have probably got the picture by now - like today Pork chops with kale and dates.
YEARS GONE BY
November 17
2024 - Nothing
2023 - Focaccia - very old and also new - now there's a coincidence - today was the new.
2022 - Nothing
2020 - Missing
2019 - Nothing
2018 - Red Lion - pubs and things
2016 - Short cuts
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