Search
Food corner

"Cooking, in effect, took part of the work of chewing and digestion and performed it for us outside of the body, using outside sources of energy. Also, since cooking detoxifies many potential sources of food, the new technology cracked open a treasure trove of calories unavailable to other animals. Freed from the necessity of spending our days gathering large quantities of raw food and then chewing (and chewing) it, humans could now devote their time, and their metabolic resources, to other purposes, like creating a culture."

Michael Pollan

Twitter feed
Tags
Aleppo pepper Alicante all spice almond anchovy apple apricot Argentina artichokes asparagus aubergine autumn avocado bacon banana Bangkok barbecue basil bay leaf beef beetroot bergamot berry biscuit bistro bloggers blue cheese Bolivia Borough Market bread breadcrumbs British budget budwig diet Buenos Aires buffalo sauce bulgar wheat burrata butter cabbage cafe cake Calais Cantonese capers caramel caraway cardamom carrot cauliflower champagne chard cheddar cheese chicken chickpeas chicory chilli chocolate chorizo Christmas chutney cinnamon clams cloves cobnut cocoa coconut cooking class Copenhagen cordial Córdoba coriander cornflakes Corsica cottage cheese courgette courgette flowers crayfish cream cream cheese creme fraiche cucumber culinary catastrophe cumin currants curry daikon Dalmatia dates delivery dessert dill dips dough Dubrovnik duck Easter easy Edinburgh egg eggplant elderflower falafel fennel festive feta fettuccine ffine bean fflour Filipino filo fine dining Finsbury Park fish fish sauce five spice flour food aid food anthropology food tour French game garlic gastropub gherkin ginger gluten free goat's cheese goat's curd golden syrup green tomatoes greengage Guinness halloumi ham Hanoi harissa hazelnut hibiscus Hoi An hominy honey horseradish humanitarian relief Indian Islington Istanbul Italian jam Japanese juniper Kent ketchup ketjap manis kielbasa kinilaw Korean lamb langoustine leek lemon lemongrass lentils lime linseed llime lobster London loquat Madrid market mascarpone Mayfair Mendoza Mexican mid-range milk mint mirin mixed peel mixed spice monk's beard morcilla mozzarella mushroom mussels mustard mustard seed Nahm Natoora Nepalese New Nordic New Year's Day New Zealand noras nose-to-tail NYC oats olive olive oil onion orange Oxfordshire oxtail paprika Paris Parmesan parsley party pastry peanut pear peas pepper Peru Philippines pickle pine nuts pineapple pistachio pizza plum pomegranate pomegranate molasses pop-ups pork Porto Vecchio potato prawn preserved lemon prosciutto Provence providore prunes Puerto Iguazú pulse pumpkin purple sprouting broccoli quail egg quick radish ragu raisins ramen ras el hanout raspberries red pepper paste red wine refugees restaurant rhubarb ribs rice ricotta rocket rosemary runner bean saffron sage San Sebastian sauces sausage scallops seafood seasonal shallot short and sweet shrimp paste slow-cooked smoked mackerel smoked salmon sorrel souffle soy spaghetti spinach spring squid ssauces St Basil's Day stilton stock street food sugar sumac summer supper club Sydney syrup Tabasco tagliatelle tahini take away tamarind tarragon tart Thai thyme toffee tom yum paste tomato tomato paste tortilla tray bake tuna Turkey veal vegetarian versatile Vietnam Vietnamese vinegar walnut water chestnut white pepper wine wings winter yoghurt yum cha
Wednesday
Jul072021

Bun in the Oven

It has been an embarassingly long time since I posted anything here, but I have been busy doing a different kind of baking. In May 2021, the Meat and 2 Veg and I welcomed our first baby, Oliver, into the world. 

I had grand visions of using my maternity leave to get back into blogging and finish the enormous task of moving this website to a new platform. Well if you are a parent you will know how foolish that was. Babies don't give you a whole lot of 'me' time.

I still hope to finish it one day, but I now have more realistic expectations and timescales. None.

So consider this a holding post. It's bye for now, but certainly not forever.

Click to read more ...

Sunday
Dec202020

Edmonds Ginger Crunch

This was one of my favourite biscuits growing up. It is one of 3 that I made on rotation from the cookbook, Edmonds, a staple of any NZ family kitchen. The other two, in case you’re interested, were Afghans and Anzacs. While I still make Afghans regularly and Anzacs at least once a year for Anzac Day, these had fallen off my radar. I decided to revisit Ginger Crunch recently as I thought they’d make a nice festive gift for family and friends. 

The recipe below is has more ginger in it than the original. I remembered adding plenty more ground ginger as a kid and now I am going a step further and adding fresh ginger too. I think it is safe to assume that if you are making ginger biscuits, then you love ginger. I’ve also added an instruction to use salted butter and added some Maldon sea salt flakes to the icing, because who doesn’t like salted caramel? 

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Sep302020

Green tomato chutney

If, like me, you have a glut of homegrown tomatoes that aren’t ripening, this is a great way to use them up. My crop this year was really high yield and there was no way the ones on the lower trellises were going to ripen with all the seasons we are having at the moment, so I removed them.

I am new to gardening, but I have read that at the end of the summer in the UK, you can encourage the remaining trellises to ripen by being quite ruthless with the plants. As well as removing lower hanging fruit, you should also remove any new flowers, small fruit that haven’t developed yet and any diseased leaves or leaves that are blocking the sun. This encourages the plant to put all its energy into the remaining tomatoes. You can also reduce the watering schedule – this stresses the plant and again encourages it to put its energy into producing ripe fruits for reproduction.

Click to read more ...

Monday
May182020

Recipes for lockdown: Elderflower cordial

My first attempt at making elderflower cordial a few year’s ago didn’t go very well. I followed the key piece of advice I had been given, namely, to pick the flowers right at the beginning of the season just as they start opening. I was on the lookout every time I walked or ran along the Parkland Walk in Finsbury Park and, as soon as the little white flowers started blossoming, I started foraging.

I also took care to inspect the flower heads for insects and discarded any that looked like they might have a little colony. I then poured boiling water over them and leftover night to infuse. The next day I strained, added sugar and lemon juice and simmered to dissolve the sugar. The result was… sugar syrup. Not a hint of elderflower. I ended up using it as a sweetener for cocktails and thought no more about it until last year…

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
May062020

Recipes for lockdown: Nasi Goreng

Early in lockdown I went to the mahussive Asian supermarket near me, Wing Yip, and was surprised to find everything fully stocked and no one in there. This was when chicken breasts and thighs were hard to come by. You could get enough chicken to feed all of Joe Exotic's big cats at Wing Yip, and then some.

I wondered whether this was a sign of COVID-induced racism. I heard horrible stories about Chinese restaurants closing down in Sydney because people were afraid to eat there. I mean, really? How stupid are the general public? A Chinese Australian is just as likely to spread the virus as any other Australian, no more, no less. It’s about contact. But you know all that...

Anyway, I didn’t buy any chicken, cause I didn’t need 10 kilos, but I did stock up on all sorts of delicious condiments and sauces to get my Asian cook on. 

One thing I had been wanting to make for ages was nasi goreng, but the two key ingredients aren’t always easy to come by in London: ketjap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce) and properly stinky shrimp paste. Yes, really. The version you can get in Tesco or Sainsbury's isn’t quite right. It's been dulled down for Western palates. I don't understand this – if you are buying shrimp paste it is surely because you have eaten good Asian food and want to make something similar. When I found properly stinky shrimp paste it transformed my dishes. They tasted like the real deal. If you don't have an Asian store near you, then you can order a decent one online; this is the one that I found at Wing Yip and I'd recommend it.  

Click to read more ...