Cold remedy 2: Nigel Slater’s aromatic rice

Posted on January 23, 2013 by Louise

The ideal response to the end of a cold is a Vietnamese soup like this, a Thai one like this or a curry like this. However, since I didn’t have the ingredients for any of those in my cupboards, I was somewhat limited. Constraint, though, as I’m discovering, is a marvellous thing; it is forcing me to be inventive and try recipes that I’ve rarely bothered with because, well, they don’t require much and don’t seem that exciting. This one from Appetite might sound really dull whereas, in reality, it is just wonderful: comforting yet healthy, quick, cheap, perfect on its own but also good as a side dish. And if, like me, you make too much of it, you have the makings of the best fried rice on the planet the next day (refry the rice in a little oil, add some shredded greens, fish sauce and soy sauce; scramble in an egg and voilà). Continue reading →

Posted in Appetite, One pot, rice recipes, Spicy recipes | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Cold remedy 1: potato soup with crispy bacon and sage

Posted on January 22, 2013 by Louise

When I have a cold I go through a few ‘food’ stages. In the first few days I need comfort: soothing soups and lots of toast. Then, when I start to feel the tug of recovery and want to kick-start my system I switch to an obsession with spice and heat, anything that will blast my sinuses or refresh me. This soup, as you may have guessed, falls into the comfort category. I don’t think I have ever made potato soup before and I can’t imagine why not since it is easy, thrifty and gorgeous. And as it is, of course, made with the contents of my store cupboard this is pretty much January’s best friend: culinary paracetamol and an economy drive rolled into one.  Continue reading →

Posted in Appetite, Gluten-free, One pot, Potato recipes, Soup recipes, Winter vegetables | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Alpine food for Alpine weather: Recipe Rifle’s Tartafin

Posted on January 15, 2013 by Louise

The snow may have melted but there is apparently more on the way and you could be forgiven for slathering yourself in duck fat, wrapping yourself in foil and getting in the oven to keep warm. I have thought of it; well, up to the foil bit. It’s all very nice having an Edwardian flat but damn it’s draughty and cold at this time of year. This is the weather when certain foods become indispensable: fat-laden, stodgy, delicious ones. You know, the sort that seem justified after a hard day’s skiing, not that I’ve ever done more than a hard hour’s skiing, when your skin is rosy and your heart pumping and all you want is to fill those recently refreshed blood vessels with a ton of cholesterol. But a hard hour’s commuting is almost as exhausting, especially in London sleet, so reward yourself with the closest thing you will get to raclette or tartiflette this side of the Channel: tartafin. Continue reading →

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Bertinet bread

Posted on January 13, 2013 by Louise

If we are starting on the basics, then there is no more basic foodstuff to make, or learn to make than bread. I have always been a bit rubbish at it and envy my friends who can churn out soda bread (my crust and crumb nearly always separate), sourdough (you know who you are…) and the lightest of wholemeals. Mine tend towards the heavy and worthy except when beginner’s luck saves me so I constantly try new recipes and methods, hoping for a breakthrough. And, since you are now intimately acquainted with the dimensions of my kitchen space, you can probably see that I’m not in the market for coaxing a bubbling sourdough. So far my experiments have led me to Dan Lepard (very good), Delia’s (bit heavy) and Margot Henderson (enormous!) but nothing has yet given me that posh-bakery-bought effect: a bread with big airy bubbles that tear and spring when you pull at it and a delicious sour-ish tang. Or a method that is trustworthy for the most ham-fisted of bread-makers. Until now.  Continue reading →

Posted in Bread recipes, Dough, Richard Bertinet | Tagged , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Cupboard love

Posted on January 8, 2013 by Louise

Happy New Year! I hope that your festive season, if it was festive, was full of good food and drink, lovely people and no nasty lurgies. As ever, I ate, drank and spent too much and although I have no plans to go on any kind of food diet, hoping that the simple acts of moving more and eating fewer cakes will balance me out, after an autumn where work was as thinly spread as January sunshine I am in distinct need of a financial one. However, in food terms, this doesn’t faze me and, in some ways, it rather intrigues me. Food prices are due to go up massively this year so, rather than being a temporary blip, I sense that making the most of less is going to become part of daily life. And since I hate waste and love the alchemy of creating something extraordinary from the everyday this need to simplify, save and yet innovate is very appealing. This, as many people greater than me have already worked out, is the age of frugal innovation and I, for one, am planning to imbue my life, particularly my cooking life, with a little bit of that spirit starting right now with a month of recipes inspired by my cupboards. Continue reading →

Posted in Seasonal store cupboards | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Fast Festive Treats, including Deserve-To-Be-Famous Rarebit Puffs

Posted on December 13, 2012 by Louise

It’s that time of year, the time when you can’t move for cocktail sausages, smoked stuff on blinis and small, overpriced battered things in boxes of 12. But there is another way, a homemade way and although you may scream ‘I DON’T HAVE TIME for such niceties’ I am about to suggest three levels of homemade: the piece-of-piss, the slightly less easy and the little-bit-more-complicated-but-so-worth-it way. I mean, you don’t really want your guests to remember you for peanuts now do you? Continue reading →

Posted in barefoot Contessa, Cheese recipes, Food for friends, Nigel Slater, Party recipes, Real Food, The Cook Shelf | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

An Indoor Party Hog Roast

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Louise

Where have I been? I wish I knew the answer to that. But I’m back! The last three weeks have been a whirl of deadlines, visits and visitors and, for the first time in years, I had a party. And, although I usually hate having parties, I discovered two things, important things, that make them much more fun. Continue reading →

Posted in Party recipes, Pork recipes | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

A new Nigel Slater cookbook and a thrifty risotto

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Louise

When you live on your own buying herbs is truly a pain in the backside. Especially since the ones I buy are almost always the floppy, go-off-in-three-seconds kind that I can’t grow: flat-leaf parsley, coriander and dill. Whereas thyme, rosemary and sorrel seem to struggle along on my high-in-the-sky balcony, buffeted by the wind, soft-leaved herbs don’t stand a chance. And, since I feel ripped off when I succumb to those tiny 20g supermarket packets, I buy the herbs I can’t grow in healthy bunches from my local Turkish shop. So far, so thrifty, except that, even if I use some up in a dish for several people, I always seem to be left with wilting half-bunches and I start thinking that I would actually waste less if I bought the miserly packet ones. I was therefore delighted to come across this recipe for parsley risotto in the new (and wonderful) The Kitchen Diaries II, a recipe that is so bloody useful for the likes of me that I wanted to kiss it as much as cook it. Continue reading →

Posted in Ideas for leftovers, One pot, Vegetarian recipes | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

WTF Do I Drink Tonight: Fizz and Fab Nuts

Posted on November 5, 2012 by Louise

A couple of weeks ago Stella and I ran our second wine-tasting. This time we were trying lots of non-Champagne fizz from the sort of wine countries I usually hate, or can’t afford (New Zealand was in there twice, as were Australia and East Sussex; the whole list is at the end) and, as ever, my cover was blown. I liked at least two bottles that I would normally run away from, both in terms of the (expected) taste and the money involved. So the Lindauer Special Reserve NV, the Jacobs Creek, Chardonnay/Pinot Noir Brut Cuvee (I know! I KNOW!) and the Ridgeview may all find their way into my basket one of these days (more likely the former ones than the latter, in my current work circumstances), whereas the Miolo from Brazil will not. Even, yes even, the Asti had its place but I would only drink it with the sweetest and softest of desserts. Matching food to such a massive range of wines and flavours was not as easy as finding the saline and sharp to go with Champagne last time but Fiona Beckett’s brilliant site helped me get started and then I was off.  Continue reading →

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Peter Gordon’s Double Chocolate Nut Cookies

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Louise

The difference between cookies and biscuits is often missed in the UK. Cookies here tend to be a tad too biscuity (in the UK sense of that word) for my liking: too crunchy, too heavy and too thick. A proper American cookie is both crisp and soft; it should have crunch when you bite it but a slightly yielding interior. This, my friends, is nigh on impossible to find in Britain and I have never found a recipe that works. British ‘cookie’ recipes are always just that bit too biscuity for my liking. Or, even worse, the bloody things don’t set and have far too much give. How ironic then that the perfect recipe should belong to a New Zealander. Not any old Kiwi, mind, but the talented and inventive Peter Gordon who, amongst many a recipe involving coconut milk and lime leaves in Cook at Home, also sneaks in some simple (and completely-going-into-my-repertoire) delights like this one. Continue reading →

Posted in Biscuits and small cakes, Cook at home with Peter Gordon, Peter Gordon | Tagged , , | Leave a comment