Tiny kitchens and a tiny recipe

Posted on October 21, 2011 by Louise

I have lived in many many places but only twice have I lived in places with really large kitchens. One of them was big enough to waltz around: the butcher’s block looked like a toy in the middle of the floor and a good ten people could stand in a crowd between one side of the room and the other. But both before and since that dance floor of a cuisine, in the UK and France, in the US (ironically, in the country with the biggest homes I had the smallest kitchens) and in Spain (the smallest and not really a kitchen: more a fridge with a chopping board on top) I have usually been consigned to little more than a broom cupboard. My current kitchen is big enough for two people to stand in but no more and yet, out of all my kitchens, it is my favourite. Why? Because I can reach everything I need without moving. By standing at the crappy electric stove, I can reach the tiny under-counter fridge, the too-small draining board, all the dry ingredients and spices and all the pots. Only if I want a cake tin, a bottle of wine or the food processor do I need to move off my sweet spot and stand on a chair to reach them. It is both the smallest and the most functional. And, even though I have plans to update and improve it (dishwasher, did anyone say dishwasher?), alas I cannot really make it any bigger. Continue reading →

Posted in Cheese recipes, Tips you won't want to live without | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Perfect fried rice

Posted on October 20, 2011 by Louise

After last night‘s very northern, wintry food, I wanted something different tonight, something that would use up the leftover cooked chicken yet taste completely fresh. I was, as ever, expecting a lot. At first I thought of risotto but that is just as heavy and I wasn’t in the mood for arm-wrestling with a pan. Then I thought of a laksa soup/stew but I didn’t have any coriander or beansprouts and I wasn’t in the mood for shopping either. And then, finally, I remembered my other new rice discovery: how to make homemade fried rice taste like the stuff in restaurants. Continue reading →

Posted in Bill's Everyday Asian, Ideas for leftovers, rice recipes, Tips you won't want to live without | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Midweek roast chicken recipe: not an oxymoron

Posted on October 19, 2011 by Louise

There are two things that might put you off roasting chicken midweek…no, make that three: the time, the mess and the expense. However, if you own a good casserole dish (a Dutch oven to you ‘Mericans) you can a) make it in an hour, b) make it with only one pot and the plates and cutlery to wash (give or take a knife and a chopping board) and c) well, c) is pretty relative. What is a reasonably priced meal to me will seem cheap to some, ridiculously overpriced to others. I can’t, obviously, judge your budget. But since supermarkets often try to do this (offering a meal for two for a tenner, including wine, main course and dessert; both M and S and Waitrose do this sporadically) then let’s use that as a guideline. This afternoon I bought a 1.6kg free-range chicken for £7.73 (organic is beyond me), three onions (50p), four carrots (44p) and a bag of potatoes (£1.15): total cost £9.82. If I use those ingredients to make this dish, I’ve spent (just) less than a tenner on dinner for four, not including wine and dessert, and I still have some vegetables left. So with a bottle of cheap wine I can match the supermarkets’ deal, since it works out at £4.91 for two. Without the dessert, agreed, but I do have leftovers, the makings of a chicken stock and some spare vegetables. I’d say that was quits. Continue reading →

Posted in Around My French Table, Chicken recipes, Floyd on France, Food for friends, One pot, Tips you won't want to live without, Wheat-free | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Blue cheese soup

Posted on October 18, 2011 by Louise

Ah, the heating is on and it’s time for soup. And this is one of the simplest you will ever make. The name of this reminds me of the Clangers, a British children’s TV programme from the 70s, in which the characters were always eating something called blue string pudding. No, there’s no string in the soup and no pudding…but somehow it is as comforting and soothing as a cosy afternoon wrapped up on the sofa after school watching television.

Though it is based on a classic chef’s mirepoix of celery, carrot and onions this is a soup for everyday. It’s perfect if you don’t have much equipment because you don’t need anything more than a knife and a saucepan and it’s also perfect for using up odds and sods in the fridge. I didn’t do any shopping for this because I already had a small lump of blue cheese, half a tub of cream and the veg. You can whip this up in the time it takes to say soup dragon…well, almost.

Continue reading →

Posted in Cheese recipes, Ideas for leftovers, One pot, Soup recipes, Vegetarian recipes | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

WTF Do I Drink Tonight?: matching wine and cheese

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Louise

Everyone has their odd food likes and dislikes. I can’t bear jam, or anything sweet or sticky, on toast but for some reason jam filling in cakes and honey baked in something savoury doesn’t bother me. I love corn on the cob with HP sauce as well as butter, a touch of sea salt in any kind of chocolate cake or bar is my idea of heaven and cheddar cheese, as far as I am concerned, is at its best served with some Patak’s spicy lime pickle (even though I don’t technically like pickle…). But it’s always lovely to challenge your tastebuds and not take what you like for granted; otherwise many of us would still be drinking milk and eating mashed vegetables. This weekend I challenged mine by attending Food Network‘s tutored wine and cheese tasting with Tim Atkin and Patricia Michelson at the South Bank’s cheese and wine festival. Though a dyed-in-the-wool-red-wine-with-cheese and preferably-after-dinner-and-before-the-dessert sort of person, I came away, after six wines, 12 cheeses and an hour’s information, completely converted to eating cheese with dry or sweet Alsacian white wine, and convinced that they are perfect before and after dinner. Continue reading →

Posted in Tips you won't want to live without, WTF do I drink tonight? | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Failure…

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Louise

A long time ago I was a lectrice in Nantes; what that means in practice is that you teach French university students how to speak English. In as far as we knew how to teach anything, being barely more than students ourselves, we did our best. But what we spent most of our time doing was enjoying having a first proper, and rather ridiculous, salary, drinking lots of Muscadet and eating rather too much food. It was the second year of my life spent in France, and my second, as someone used to being naturally skinny up to this point, learning how to deal with being a tad overweight, never a pleasant task in the land of the fascist-look-you-up-and-down-and-dismiss-you-for-being-more-than-size-6-and-not-wearing-bleu marin. But God it was fun; every minute of it. Nantes, unlike Paris, is a relatively friendly (relatively because, well, it’s still France) and accessible city about two hours west of Paris and about an hour or so from the Atlantic which prides itself on its fish, its white wines and its crêpes. I was naively hoping that I might learn to cook more than leek and potato soup and pasta bake but there were just too many restaurants to try and too many vineyards to visit. Continue reading →

Posted in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, One pot, Soup recipes, Vegetarian recipes, Wheat-free | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Perfect steamed rice

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Louise

Once upon a time I was quite good at cooking rice. I never even thought about the process, it seemed so simple: in a pan with some cold water, bring to the boil, cook for ten minutes, check every so often and, voilà, lovely fluffy rice. Then along the way two things happened: first, my ex-boyfriend became a real expert on all things foodie and I stopped cooking so often, since he was much better and his rice, well his rice was, is always perfect and, second, I learnt how to cook Thai food (albeit a taught-to-Westerners-travelling-through-tourist-spots version of it). Now, you’re perhaps wondering, why should learning about Thai food upset my knowledge of how to cook rice? Well, once I started making my own curry paste and soups, I also started cooking jasmine or basmati rice, instead of the more usual easy-cook long-grain variety. And every time I ended up with sticky rice. Not deliberately sticky in a good way, more sticky in a clogged-up-detracts-from-the-rest-of-the-dish way. Continue reading →

Posted in Bill's Everyday Asian, rice recipes, Tips you won't want to live without | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Cook Shelf: Made in Sicily and a simple tomato sauce

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Louise

As a non-pasta-eater I am not the biggest fan of Italian food. Yes, I know there is a lot more to Italian cuisine than durum wheat but, you have to admit, many of the greatest recipes revolve around it. Which leaves me a tad out in the culinary cold. Gnocchi is a close second to pasta, in terms of carrying a sauce, but spooning it up isn’t as much fun as twirling spaghetti round a fork. So when I worked on this book during the summer I wasn’t expecting to have much use for it. Continue reading →

Posted in Giorgio Locatelli, One pot, Pasta and gnocchi recipes, Tomato recipes, Vegetarian recipes | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Roasted lamb shanks with mash: the antidote to cold windy days

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Louise

Shank, I have just discovered, is another name for shin and for some reason, at least in the UK, it is a term that is only used for lamb and no other meat. A few years ago this lost bit of the leg was barely available but these days you can’t move for shanks on menus and in recipes. But I’m not complaining: they’re cheap (well, relatively), tasty and need very little (bar time, for marinading and roasting) to turn them into a wonderful warming dinner for blustery days. If you have friends coming round this is a very forgiving cut too: shove it in the oven and it will happily roast without complaint or intervention for a couple of hours. I have made these both in a roasting tin and in a lidded casserole dish and my vote is for the latter since it leaves you with more sauce. Serve with some buttery mash (potato, or potato and parsnip go well) and a cold night. Summer, who needs summer? Continue reading →

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

Comfort blanket: chestnut and pear soup

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Louise

It is officially cold. And there are two or three things I do when the mercury drops so far: first, I put a blanket on the bed, second I think about turning on the heating but resist it as long as possible and third I start making soup. For me, soup is to winter what salad is to summer: a fast and (mostly) healthy food that is endlessly interesting because there are so many possible variations. Who, for example, has ever heard of putting pears into one? I hadn’t until this morning but it works. The sweetness of the fruit is barely evident except in the way it softens the dryness of the chestnuts. I had several packets of chestnuts in the cupboard (they were on 3 for 2 last winter…luckily they keep) and this is a brilliant way to use them up. It tastes velvety and autumnal, like an internal comfort blanket. Continue reading →

Posted in Around My French Table, Dorie Greenspan, Gluten-free, One pot, Soup recipes, Vegetarian recipes, Wheat-free | Tagged , , | 4 Comments