Comforting Ottolenghi cardamom chicken

Posted on October 26, 2012 by Louise

Winter hasn’t even begun and the weather is already starting to get on my nerves. In my world the only way to counteract the horrors of dark nights, clocks going back and overhearing endless Christmas muzak is by finding glorious food that fills my kitchen with wonderful smells and my stomach with warmth and flavour. And this easy and short Ottolenghi recipe has ticked all my boxes twice already in the last week. Continue reading →

Posted in Chicken recipes, One pot, The Guardian, Yotam Ottolenghi | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

WTF Do I Drink Tonight…craft beer, if you have any sense

Posted on October 18, 2012 by Louise

A long long time ago, in a galaxy far away I worked in a microbrew pub in Paris. It was probably the worst eight months of my life and, although that’s more my fault than Paris’s or the pub’s, I still associated both with misery for a good decade afterwards. Working there reminded me of some interesting vocabulary (houblon: hop; cuivre: copper and, er, malt for malt…), taught me that I completely and utterly hate routine and paid for a rather lovely dressing gown, which I still have and adore. Two very good friends kept my spirits up for as long as they could until, eventually, I could stand it no more and I rushed out of the city on Eurostar on Valentine’s Day, as every other fucker rushed in. It was not a happy time. Continue reading →

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Roasted lamb shoulder with lemon zest, chorizo and cannellini beans

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Louise

North London ran out of pork belly yesterday and Friday. I mean, what is the world coming to when an Islingtonian can’t get their favourite cut of meat? Yes, I am taking the piss out of myself…but when you have a recipe in your head and you can’t get the main ingredient, it’s a bit frustrating. However, I was spending the day looking after the lovely Andy Bates at a Food Network blogger event and, on a whim over a glass of Camden Town’s Pale Ale, I asked him what he would cook for dinner that night. Continue reading →

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Champagne, cheesy biscuits and celebrating

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Louise

I am celebrating. The bathroom is done-ish, I have some more work when the landscape was looking distinctly bare and I have just made peace with my oldest friend in the world, probably one of the few people, bar my family, who remembers me aged 11 (hmm, maybe that’s not such a good thing…). Which all calls for bubbles and things fizzy. Usually I am a Cava-drinking cheapskate so I know very little about the biscuity festive drink. However recently, along with the legend that is Ms Stella Kane, I helped organise the first of a series of wine-tasting pop-ups. SK did the drinks, I did the food and it was bloody brilliant if I say so myself. We tried an awful lot of champagne and my job was to find foods that were both perfect matches and perfect ballast, not easy when fizz goes with very little. But we managed it… Continue reading →

Posted in Cheese recipes, Food and wine matching, Patricia Michelson, WTF do I drink tonight? | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

From Lot-et-Garonne to N7: gratin Dauphinois gets an upgrade

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Louise

For a long, long time I was a purist about gratin Dauphinois both in terms of how I cooked it and when I ate it. As far as I was concerned, it only had six ingredients — potatoes, garlic, milk, cream, salt and pepper (at a push, I’d allow a bit of nutmeg) — and it was a ‘dinner party’ dish, something I made for others not myself, mainly because it was a bit of a faff. But recently I have started fiddling with it, adding other ingredients and, even more interestingly, thinking of it as something I can make just for me, for dinner. Because it isn’t a faff at all really; it’s dead easy. Layer up loads of potato, milk and cream in a dish, flavour it with garlic, or, as I am discovering, with courgette, speck or anchovies, shove it in the oven and, an hour later, one of the yummiest dishes in the world is ready and waiting, requiring barely a salad to embellish it. Continue reading →

Posted in Delia Smith, Jane Grigson, Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book, One pot, Potato recipes | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Friday Night Fixes: feta-basil crostini and anchovy dressing for green vegetables

Posted on September 16, 2012 by Louise

My cooking life has, rather unexpectedly, been turned upside down by renovations that don’t even touch the kitchen.  A new bathroom. moving the washing machine and new doors would, in most people’s houses, not even stroke the edges of the cooker but, since I live in a flat that makes ‘bijou’ look generous, I have stuff everywhere, including the kitchen floor. I keep retreating to baking every time the plasterer/carpenter/plumber arrives but it’s not quite working; I just feel trapped and not in the least bit inspired. And every morning, instead of a soothing shower followed by a cup of Earl Grey (I typed Early then, which is pretty apt) I have to get dressed, leave the house and go to my neighbour’s house for a shower. Evidently this is better than being smelly but, still, it’s not quite the calming routine I’m used to. And I really really owe my neighbour lots of favours as a result. Continue reading →

Posted in David Lebovitz, Fast food fixes, Green veg recipes, Random bits that don't belong in a category..., Salsa and sauce recipes | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Salted caramel butter sauce…oh and chocolate prune cake

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Louise

I don’t make dessert very often. I never make it for myself, since a square of chocolate or, erm, a handful of Haribo usually suffices, so I only ever practise on my unwitting guests. As a result I don’t really have a repertoire of them and don’t therefore think that they are very WTF-friendly. But then, a bit like my beloved chocolate mousse recipe, sometimes something comes along that you love SO much that you are happy to wrap it in cling film and risk the horrors of walking up Hornsey Road with a jarful, just so that you can share the experience with a friend. This was what happened with David Lebovitz‘s salted butter caramel sauce (or salted caramel butter sauce; once you’ve tried it you really won’t care what it’s called). Continue reading →

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Duck parmentier

Posted on August 29, 2012 by Louise

I’m back! Did you notice I’d gone? Did you know that I was in Port Eliot, then Suffolk, then France then the Edinburgh Festival? What do you mean you had better things to do?! Ah well, me too, but now I am all knives blazing for another winter of cooking and writing and what better way to start it off than with this delicious, simple-to-make yet very impressive duck dish.

I’ve had it twice in France, once before starting the first leg of the Camino de Santiago in St Jean-Pied-de-Port (carbs and protein needed in bulk) and once in Paris at L’Ourcine which is, probably, one of the best places I’ve ever eaten in that city. Sadly that’s not saying much these days. On both occasions I was bowled over by its sheer wonderfulness and I decided that I had to learn to make it myself. Continue reading →

Posted in Duck recipes, Potato recipes, Random bits that don't belong in a category... | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The importance of a lemon zester and courgette, lemon, basil and Parmesan salad

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Louise

What is the one piece of kit that you can’t be without, not in general circumstances but if you are facing the seasonal challenge of a holiday in a rented house? The clichéd response is ‘a good knife’. But doesn’t it depend on the time of year and what you might, as a result, be cooking? When I packed for a week away in not-so-sunny Suffolk, I only included two bits of kitchen kit: my Kuhn-Rikon knife and my lemon zester. Surprisingly, it was the latter that proved to be the most essential: I used it to add zest to dressings, to a lemon and basil risotto and to this salad, my current obsession. Continue reading →

Posted in Fast food fixes, One pot, Salad recipes, Summer recipes, Vegetarian recipes | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Smoked haddock, chilli, coriander and ginger pilaf

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Louise

There are three things that make cooking go well in my opinion: a complete immersion in, and love for the process, the best ingredients and the sort of hunger that allows you to appreciate and wait for the results, rather than eat whatever you can shove into your mouth. On that basis last night’s showing should have been a disaster: I’d been cooking all week for friends so was a bit half-hearted about making something just for me; I was using up stuff from my fridge defrost and leftovers which are never particularly inspiring; and, whilst trying to think of what to cook, I’d consumed half a bag of salted pretzels. The fact that this dish wasn’t, then, the aforementioned disaster, and that it actually taught me something (how to put together flavours that I would never have thought of combining), suggest that this is definitely one for the family album. Continue reading →

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