feast with bron

Black Garlic Siew Mai

2011-12-21T15:42:00.004Z

Surprise! Here's a new post on Feast with Bron. Has to be said we've been eating well and variously in the intervening time but the actual writing about it has not happened of late. With the new year on its way that is set to change - probably! I have come close to posting - particularly for a recipe with spiced lamb balls and chickpeas, and another of lentils with minced pork and chopped kale. I especially liked autumn vegetables braised in stock and herbs and daube with tagliatelle - a trick I learned from eating more than occasionally at our fabulous local, The Canton Arms. And yet, somehow, though I thought about the elements and took some lovely pictures, the posts didn't come. Apologies.

What tipped me over into finally starting again was being sent some black garlic to try. It's amazing looking stuff - garlic cloves black as pitch, as though remade with molasses. They are gorgeous things, fragrant and sticky and chewy and vaguely shiny. I do love shiny. Best of all there is a delicate garlic undertow when sink your teeth in. It is made using regular garlic that is gently heated over a few weeks till the heads are a rich sweet black. There's none of the harshness of raw garlic in taste or perfume - when I showed the man what I was using he tried a clove. Tentative at first he soon declared they would be a great addition to a plate of nibbles with drinks - and he's absolutely right. Match them with some marinated olives, a little cheese and a few oatcakes and you have fabulous with Christmas drinks ready on a plate.

I googled to find things to cook - found an interesting Singapore site with lots of interesting ideas. I really fancied steamed wantons, so made a version of the siew mai and served them up atop jasmine rice and greens stir fried with garlic, chilli and oyster sauce. Total delight.

Black Garlic Siew Mai

Though you can make your own wanton skins they are readily available in Chinese grocers, sometimes fresh but always frozen. They don't take long to defrost. The pork comes from the Ginger Pig and you can buy black garlic at some supermarkets and good deliscatessans.

4 dried shitake mushrooms
3 cloves black garlic, thinly sliced
150gm minced pork
1 small egg, lightly beaten
1 tbspn cornflour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
25ml vegetable oil
25ml water
20 wanton skins

Soak the mushrooms in boiling water, stalk side down, for 15 minutes or until they are softened. If they are quite old they may need a second covering in boiling water before they are good to use. When properly softened, cut away and discard the stems and finely chop the caps.

Mix the mushrooms with the black garlic, pork, egg and cornflour and stir in one direction only until sticky. Add the salt, sugar, oil and water and mix well.

Dollop a teaspoon of mixture into the centre of each wanton wrapper and gently fold up the sides around it. Trim off any excess skin.

Put the siew mai into a bamboo steamer over boiling water or into a perforated tray for a steam oven. Steam for 8-10 minutes till cooked through.

Don't know why you are instructed to stir only one way - I did it, and included it here, just in case it has some mysterious effect!

It produced a fabulous tray of siew mai with lovely textures and flavours. It worked a treat as dinner but would be just as good as hot nibbles dipped in a little Japanese soy with cocktails.

New treats for Christmas!

Hope you have a good one, full of joy, happiness and lots of great food.

Pumpkin Soup

2011-10-27T15:58:00.004Z

According to the BBC's Wheel of Hunger Pumpkin Soup is the most searched for recipe this week. Look no further, this is a sublime soup and ethereally beautiful to boot. I heard Heston Blumenthal on Women's Hour last week - yes I'm obsessed but it was actually by chance. He was talking about the delights of this soup and its relative simplicity to make and its resulting complexity when you taste it. With the recipe posted on the BBC site (I seem to be getting my licence fee's worth this week) I couldn't resist.

I love pumpkin, always have. It's a wonderful veg to roast or mash with cream, its vibrant colour brings joy to curries and soups, particularly this time of year as the days get shorter and colder and wetter. We ate it a lot when I was a kid, my mother was a huge fan, with a particular fondness for a type called Queensland Blue. It's a huge beast with steel blue skin and riotously orange flesh, with a good texture and not too sweet. It's only negative is the skin is spectacularly difficult to cut through - I was endlessly trapping a big knife halfway through cutting unable to take it further or get it out again.

Friday I set out to hunt me a piece of pumpkin, a proper tasty thing like we used to eat. I knew Brixton Market would have a good selection and would cut me a hunk to match my specifications. Though there was no chance of the Aussie favourite I was looking for similar - and found a lovely steel blue specimen that turns out is called Crown Prince. Smaller and neater it still has a wonderfully ridged exterior and a smooth orange interior. Perfect. For some reason I assumed it would be easier to peel than the ones of my youth but no, just as infuriatingly difficult as I remember. But worth it.

I was faithful to the Heston version Friday night, coating the inside of the bowls with a nubbly aromatic mix of rosemary, breadcrumbs and hazelnuts but for lunch next day I simply toasted some nuts and crushed them before scattering them over the soup with dots of pepper oil and a light sprinkle of salt chrystals.

This is a wonderfully complex soup with incredible depth of flavour. I must warn you to start early - it takes a while to put it all together but you will be richly rewarded. I can imagine it served in tiny bowls at the start of a long meal, perfect for Christmas Day perhaps at the end of a long bracing walk.

Pumpkin Soup by Heston

It seems odd to weigh liquids but it's actually quick and easy

850g Pumpkin flesh

Olive oil

250g Unsalted butter

3 Onions, peeled and finely sliced

400g Whole milk

4 sprigs of rosemary

Pinch of cayenne pepper

40g Sesame oil (or to taste)

40g Balsamic vinegar (or to taste)

Salt

20g Hazelnuts, toasted until golden brown

½ sprig of rosemary

20g coarse dry breadcrumbs

1 tbsp melted brown butter (see tip below)

1 Red pepper, de-seeded, roasted and peeled, then cut into diamonds

Pumpkin seeds

Red pepper oil (see tip below)

Thinly slice half of the pumpkin on a mandolin and cut the other half into large cubes. Roast the large cubes of pumpkin drizzled with a little olive oil at 180 for 40 minutes.

Melt 200g of the butter in the saucepan and sweat the onions and pumpkin slices for approximately 10 minutes.

In the meantime, in a second pan, heat the milk until almost simmering. Turn off the heat, add the rosemary, allow to infuse for 20 minutes. Strain the liquid and discard the rosemary.

When the onions are translucent, add the rosemary milk, 600g cold tap water and the roasted pumpkin, bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer for 10 minutes until the sliced pumpkin is soft. Remove from the heat, liquidize and pass through a fine sieve. Season with cayenne, sesame oil, balsamic vinegar and salt.

When ready to serve, combine the toasted hazelnuts with the rosemary and blitz to a coarse powder. Combine with the breadcrumbs. Brush the inside rim of the soup bowls with the brown butter and coat with the hazelnut and rosemary mixture.

Place some red pepper diamonds and pumpkin seeds in the bottom of each bowl.

Warm the soup, add the remaining 50g of butter and aerate with a hand blender. Ladle into the nut-encrusted bowls and garnish with drops of red pepper oil.

Brown Butter

Melt unsalted butter in a medium pan over a gentle heat, whisking continuously, until the solids turn golden brown and give off a nutty aroma. Take the pan off the heat immediately, strain the butter through a coffee filter and store in the fridge.

Red pepper oil

1 Red pepper, de-seeded, roasted and peeled

100g Groundnut or grapeseed oil

Put the pepper and oil in a liquidizer and blitz until fine.

Strain through a fine sieve and pour into a bottle. Keep in the fridge for 4-5 days only.

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-10-20T18:05:00.003Z

Really enjoyed these lentils and kale, perfect autumn food

I know I have been a bit intermittent - can you be a bit intermittent? - with this section of the blog of late. It is mostly because now that I am at home, making sweet Wolfe things for the stall at Brixton or for my new clients, I have less need for an overarching plan each week as I can pop out for things when I need to. It is also, it must be said, because Borough is becoming less home cook friendly - I have mentioned before the loss of Booths - my once favourite place for vegetables whose removal made the weekly shop unbalanced, like a wheel had fallen off my trolley. Many of the people working there are new and it takes time to know them though often they are too busy for that to be realistic. It is though still a treasure trove of good things and it will have to change much more before I could contemplate not heading there each week. So I guess I need to try a bit harder with this round up!

Friday I want pumpkin soup, from a recipe I heard on Women's Hour with Heston Blumenthal - ah the joys of working at home. There is half a rye loaf in the freezer that will be the perfect accompaniment. Thoroughly fabulous. Saturday the man is threatening to have to work so perhaps sausage and mash would be a cheering sight on his return - he worked Sunday so Saturday we had his favourite of cold collation, bits and pieces of cheese and olives and saucisson with good bread to go with. Sunday I think roast lamb - we have some in the freezer kindly given to us by the man's sister and brother in law from their farm, needs roasted root veg and perhaps a parsnip puree - we also had pork spareribs in the freezer I noticed as I fossicked so I steamed them with black beans, did cabbage with ginger and served the lot with rice. Monday the man is out so might just have an omelette had an exceptionally good lentils with minced pork, garlic and curly kale, Tuesday I think butterbean puree and steamed aubergine, perhaps a beetroot salad to fill pitta with a little more of the lamb we had the lamb from Trew farm roasted with root veg and potatoes dauphinois. Wednesday noodles actually a simple pasta with tomato and balsamic sauce, I still love noodles, and Thursday tortilla - more freezer treasures we had grilled pork chops with mashed swede and wilted greens for a very wonderful autumn repast. Should be a tasty week.

The market was busyish Friday morning, started at Neals Yard and bought milk, yoghurt and cream but no spaghetti as they had run out, spent £9.70

At Ginger Pig John was back from his holiday, cheerful as ever. Bought smoked bacon, minced beef and pork chop - all for the freezer in the end - for £13.87

A pork pie from Mrs Elizabeth King - I had a sudden hankering and the moment I got home I cut me a huge hunk for my lunch, ah the fabulous smell, the amazing textures of meat and jelly, the rich pastry, no surprise they won gold at this year's Melton Mowbray awards. All that joy a mere £5

Cheese from Gastronomica - a rich old Pecorino, a creamy dreamy rocchetta and a crumbly chunk of Parmesan - £19 the lot

Round to the fish man and joy! he was there but hadn't made a plan for fish so bought a tranche of smoked bass to be getting on with - £3

From Lizzie at Wild Beef I bought eggs and sausages, not as a breakfast surprise but should have! £7 She was telling me about getting a kindle and wanting a particular book which turns out is not available till January, so she has put the kindle away

Fancied salted almonds so wandered through Brindisa - £4.50 a pack - definite treat territory

Then to Fresh Olive where I was told with some certainty that Friday may be cold but Sunday would be 20C. I doubted but I was wrong! Bought a tub of luques £3.50

That was all - bought veg from the organic stall at Oval Market Saturday - spent £65.57 at Borough

Caramelised Onion Tart

2011-10-20T17:45:00.003Z

Have been busy lately and out and about and my cooking has mirrored that - sometimes thought through, sometimes rushed but usually interesting! I found the recipe for this on Splendid Table, I think, though I know it comes from Grand Central Bake, and anything New York will always snag my attention at least for as long as it takes to decide it's level of fabulousness. Loved the sound of this so copied it to my recipe file which, often as not, is where my untried recipes stay, sometimes for months, other times for going on forever. This one, however, hung around the edges of my mind partly because I am a total sucker for caremalised onions with anything and partly because theoretically I am trying to expand the great meat free dinner repertoire. But it was mostly the onions, you understand.

So this week, when I had half a carton of cream to use and plenty of onions I couldn't resist. Definitely one of my better ideas - all manner of textures and flavours, a lot of them associated with the last taste of summer, it made for a great supper and good next day for lunch.

Caramelised Onion Tart with Roasted Vegetables

Serves 4 with salad

20 x 30 cm ready rolled puff pastry sheet, defrosted if frozen
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium-sized onions, thinly sliced
2 teaspoons salt
¼ cup cream
1 egg
¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
250 – 300g sliced (to coin thickness) courgettes and tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large, heavy pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onions and sprinkle in salt. Cook onions until they release some liquid and begin to develop a few dark spots, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat and continue cooking until onions are soft and toasty brown, 35-45 minutes. Do not stir too often during the caramelizing process. Instead, give the pan a good shake about every 5 minutes to redistribute contents. Allow onions to cool. Taste for seasoning and add more salt if necessary. Whisk the cream and egg together and fold in cool onion mixture and parmesan cheese.

Pull puff pastry from the refrigerator and place onto a baking sheet lined with parchment – or a silicon mat if you have one. I used to have one, never used it, gave it to the charity shop, and now have many times I wish I hadn’t. Pfff. Use a paring knife to trace a smaller rectangle on the puff pastry, leaving a 1 cm border. Be careful not to cut all the way through the dough. The border will puff up and be the edge of the tart. Use a fork to poke small holes in the centre rectangle.

Spread onion filling in centre of tart inside the central rectangle and arrange tomato and courgette slices decoratively on top. Chill tart for 20 minutes.

While tart is chilling, preheat oven to 400F/Gas 5. Bake tart for 15-20 minutes. Turn oven down to 350F/Gas 4 and bake another 10-20 minutes or until pastry is rich golden brown. Garnish with fresh basil after baking. Serve warm from the oven or at room temperature.

We had it simply with alfafa sprouts for a really clean fresh crunch.

Barbecued Vegetable Salad

2011-10-13T10:48:00.007Z

Autumn is peeking over the parapet and then ducking away in London at the moment. We have cool grey days and, soon as the cardies are definitely out of the closet, the high cloud dissipates, the sun shines down and the cardigan is redundant once more. At leastun til the next day. Hot enough for sleeveless tops and flip flops one day it's coats and boots a few days later but either way it's clear that summer is gone. Pffff.

To treat ourselves to a small extension of the pleasures of blue skies and clear seas and lovely hot sunshine the man and I have been to Corsica, an extremely attractive island off the coast of France. There is a tiny frill of coast around the edges and all the rest is mountains rising steeply, scrubby green and criss crossed with madly winding roads, hairpin bends and stunning views. It is a wonderful place to catch the end of summer.

The local produce is wonderful. I didn't know the Corsicans are such extraordinary producers of charcuterie, exquisite pork products like the lonzu we bought on the first night, a lightly smoked pork loin that was delicate in both texture and taste. It came from a little village grocery where we also bought blood sausage and some wonderful sheep's cheese which made for a perfect supper on arrival. The local wine of Patrimonio was a good match.

Getting up to sunshine we found the barbecue in the garden, after we'd found the pool and the dining table on the stone flagged terrace. I am a woman who loves barbecue and don't indulge that love with anything like sufficient frequency. Most nights we ate at home. I couldn't resist the lovely vegetables - fat red slices of tomato on baguette for breakfast followed by generous chunks of sweetest canteloup melon, glossy aubergine, bulbous peppers and seriously pale courgettes cooked on the barbecue at night, dressed in nothing more than the local olive oil scented with the basil that came in huge fragrant bunches in every shop it sums up the pleasure of doing not much in a foreign land.

For those out there who are lucky enough to have summer on its way, here is a simple salad for the barbecue, and for those, like me who have a long time to wait till it's a good menu option it's something to keep us warm through the autumn.

Barbecued Vegetable Salad

100ml olive oil
Leaves from a bunch of basil
1 clove garlic, peeled but left whole
1 large aubergine
2 medium courgettes
1 tablespoon salt
2 red peppers
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper to season

In a small pan warm the olive oil, basil leaves and garlic clove on a low heat till small bubbles appear in the oil. Turn off the heat and leave the oil to cool.

Slice the aubergine and peppers lengthwise into strips the thickness of a pound coin, put them into a colander and sprinkle with salt. Leave to drain for half an hour or so, then pat the vegetables dry with kitchen paper.

Put the vegetable strips onto a plate and brush with a little of the basil oil. Halve the red peppers and coat with a little more of the oil.

After the barbecue has been lit and burned for a while, about the point where the flames are just calming down and the charcoal is beginning to be a little ashy, lay the vegetables onto the griddle. Watch carefully, they will cook quickly, and turn them as they start to char, no more than a couple of minutes. When both sides are nicely charred take the vegetables off the fire onto a chopping board.

As soon as they are cool enough to touch, roughly dice everything and tip into a bowl. Gently stir through a couple of tablespoons of the basil oil, lift with a generous squeeze of lemon and season.

Let the salad cool a little while the meat cooks and serve with a glass of wine all the better to watch a glorious sunset.

First Day at the Market

2011-09-16T10:15:00.010Z

Last Saturday was my first stall at Brixton Market and it was a fascinating day for me. With absolutely no experience as a trader it was always going to be a steep learning curve!

I was convinced that the thing that would sell best at Wolfe was savoury muffins - lovely fresh ones stuffed with fresh ingredients - pesto and salami topped with Pecorino, three cheese - count them cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan to make a cheesy gooey centre - with spring onions and the totally wonderful pizza flavoured ones with sundried tomatoes and turkish olives rounded out with fresh basil and rosemary. So convinced was I that I got out of bed at 5am and baked six dozen of the little beauties to go with the previous two days worth of sweet baking - coconut ice, anzac bikkies, coconut raspberry slice like my aunty made me when I was a kid, seasonal slice of oats encasing fresh apple dipped in cinnamon, more cinnamon with gorgeous golden biscuits and of course chocolate because everyone loves chocolate.

I am delighted to say I sold my wares steadily all day. I really enjoyed handing out lots of samples, chatting to lots of new people and getting to know a little of my fellow traders. Sad to say, the only thing that didn't sell well were my lovely muffins. My little savoury delights did not hold their own in the midst of the sweet things on offer. I admit I was surprised - and disappointed - but that is definitely balanced by how well the rest sold.

There will be no more mixing of my message - next month will be exclusively sweet treats at Wolfe. See you in Station Road Brixton Saturday October 8th for the second Make It, Grow It, Sell It?

Make It Grow It Sell It

2011-09-07T13:14:00.004Z

Delighted to say I have a market stall this weekend. Brixton Market Traders Federation are hosting Make It Grow It Sell It in the Station Road section of the market from 10am till 6pm on Saturday. It brings together a whole lot of local people who make or grow different things and gives us the chance to share our wares with the community.

There's so much talent out there and now there are some stalls to display it! Not just beautifully made arts, craft, food and homegrown plants and flowers but also live music and lots of workshops, should be a good day out.

I'm planning on baking lots of delightful things, some sweet some savoury, so if you're around it would be great to see you!

My stall is Wolfe - so do drop by for some Wolfe biscuits...

Salami & Pesto Muffins

2011-08-30T13:11:00.003Z

What the Americans call an English muffins used to be known here in England as, well, a muffin. Bit like calling poodles French poodles when in France, just confuses things. While the French continued with their exquisite patisserie the Americans developed a fabulous line in muffins that has crossed the world and landed here. Trouble is they are almost exclusively sweet. Good for those who love desserts not so much for people like me that loves bread and baked and all things savoury. With the aid of Australian Women's Weekly Book of Baking I am on a mission to redress the balance with these lovely salami and pesto muffins, chock full of Italian goodness, they are a pale and gentle green inside from the pesto. Gorgeous.

Salami & Pesto Muffins

Makes 12, quick and easy, about 20 minutes for the batter and the same for cooking.

300g self raising flour
200g thick sliced salami, roughly chopped
80ml pesto
3 eggs
80ml vegetable oil
125ml creme fraiche
60g Pecorino, finely grated

Preheat the oven to 200C/Gas 4.

Grease a 12 hole (80ml) muffin pan.

Sift the flour into a large bowl then stir in the salami, pesto, eggs, oil and creme fraiche. Resist the temptation to overmix! Spoon the mix into the muffin pan and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Bake for about 20 minutes till gold topped. Stand the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes to cool slightly then pop them onto a wire rack to cool down to just warm.

The other local use of muffin term I know is aimed at those wearing their jeans low slung and too tight causing a sort of ruffle of fat to hang over their belt. Then you have a muffin top.!

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-08-30T10:18:00.003Z

Highlight of the weekend was definitely Jaey and Marie coming for dinner Sunday, the house in France was finally sold and they are the ideal people to celebrate with. Making a plan for the week Friday I was thinking tofu and steamed peppers made the tomato and aubergines from a recipe by Skye Gyngell with plenty left to be a side dish to sausages Saturday then aubergine and tomatoes baked with herbs Saturday, Sunday had to be whole ends of rump roasted rare with chips and watercress and bearnaise with pear and gooseberry crumble to follow turns out gooseberries are no longer in season so made a beautiful prune and almond cream tart and the whole meal kicking off with fish - cured mackerel, hot smoked salmon and cucumber lightly marinated with soy and sesame. Monday was bound to be a little quiet so figured leftover beef with salads creamy potato and steamed beetroot with the last of the cress for simple and perfect plate of food. Tuesday risotto lentils with a light topping of chorizo, Wednesday chicken with lentils realised I did fancy risotto so had it with wild mushrooms and the last little piece of smoked ham, Thursday there is always the noodles actually there was still the chicken so had it marinated with garlic, pepper and coriander then grilled and served with cucumber salad!

Went to Rippon Cheese in Pimlico to start as I wanted some aged gouda and they usually have some. They did and I also bought a small goat cheese, soft and delicate and wrapped in vine leaves. Spent £9.70 then back out to catch the bus in pouring rain

Then to Greensmiths for vegetables - aubergine and plum tomatoes, Maris Pipers, and a giant beetroot - cost me £7.40 when I added in a little seeded loaf. The rain set in before I made it back to the bus stop.

Then to Borough, set out in watery sunshine, first to Ginger Pig for some truly amazing end section of rump left in a piece to roast and some sausages, Cumberland are the man's favourites, spent £30.80

Neals Yard was busy, the market in general was building up for the Bank Holiday I guess, bought milk and yoghurt, £4.70

Went to the French salt and butter stall for creme fraiche, they sell it in little jars and it's the best - £2.20

Cheese from Gastronomica, a piece of Pecorino and a lump of Parmesan, £12.40

Eggs from Lizzie at Wild Beef as the skies started to darken - £3.40

Then off to find the Sussex fish stall via L'Artisan for a bag of chocolates - £2.50

But was no fish, bugger! Has been mega windy so wasn't sure if it was because the boats weren't going out or it was the Bank Holiday. Bought olives from Fresh Olive - £3.50 - and was delighted to eavesdrop the young man next to me explaining that though he didn't like olives he tried them once a year in the hope that one day he would as it was a really posh thing to eat!

Sampled some of the beautiful smoked scallops at the Irish smoked stall but bought a beautiful piece of salmon hot smoked with whiskey and molasses - £12.50

And the rain started teeming down. I popped back into the market to the Marché for a baguette - £1.30 then ran for the last bus of the day, skies black, streets awash. This is not summer!

Lack of fish to cure meant back to the market Saturday morning, with the man for the first time in ages. Went to Neals Yard and bought a white loaf - £3.90

Then to find the Sussex fish stall wasn't there, damn! Went to Shellseekers who had lovely mackerel but would fillet them but not skin them for me as the skin was too thin. Peeved I went off to Furness where they also tried to talk me out of skinning the fish but agreed to try doing one. It was fine so they did another - £5. It is one of the things that is really changing at Borough, traders used to always do what customers want but now they don't care so much, I guess the huge turnover of shoppers doesn't require it

Then back for more creme fraiche - £2.20 on the way to Gastronomica for a La Tur and a couple of interesting looking little discs of cheese marinating in chilli oil, £8.50

Off to the French cheese stall out the back for a tin of olive oil, costs £15.95 but lasts for ages

Finally picked up some apple juice from Chegworths, a bargain £5 for 3

Spent a massive £113.85 - it's good to celebrate!

Roast Red Onion and Cucumber Salad

2011-08-25T12:14:00.004Z

Though it is August most of this week has seemed like deepest autumn, with days of rain, endless cloud and insufficient light. When the sun comes it is too low, the shadows thrown are longer, thicker and somehow insistent to be noticed.

I refuse to give in just yet, I still plan salads in my head to go with quick grilled meats and easy to rustle up and delightful to graze cold collations, as if trying to keep the kitchen cool against sultry summer nights. It's working, too well. I've been wrapped in cardigans for days, sandals gone in favour of shoes that keep the puddles at bay and my latest pedicure out of view. Pffff!

Fightback Tuesday involved little spicy meatballs tucked into pita with steamed beetroot salad topped with this wonderfully complex yoghurt dressed salad. I am endlessly taken with the pairing of yoghurt and dill, most herbs really but dill in particular, and here it was put to brilliant use dressing umami rich grilled onions and sweet cucumber with little sour bursts from tiny salted capers wrapped into the richness of tahini. It was the tahini that made me pair it with lamb but it would work equally well with chicken and perhaps grilled fish.

Roast Red Onion & Cucumber Salad

This makes about 2 cups and should be perfect at a barbecue but will have to wait till next 'summer' to test the truth of that!

Adapted from Weeknight Kitchen of The Splendid Table

1 large red onion, sliced into thick rounds
1 1/2 tbspns olive oil
1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
1 tbspn salted capers, rinsed
150ml plain full fat yoghurt
1 tbspn tahini
1 tbspn lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tspn ground cumin or use cumin seeds lightly toasted
1 tbspn mint, finely chopped
3 tbspns dill, finely chopped

Brush the onion slices with some of the olive oil, and season lightly. Grill them under a medium-high heat, turning them once, until the slices are tender and a little bit charred round the edges, about 10 minutes.

When the onions are cool enough to handle, chop them into 1 cm dice and put them into a bowl. Add the cucumbers and capers and stir to blend.

To make the dressing, combine the yoghurt with the remaining olive oil tahini, lemon juice, garlic and cumin in a small bowl. Stir through the herbs then season.

Add half the sauce to the onion mix and stir to coat the vegetables. Add more dressing to get the consistency that works for you. Serve immediately though it will keep for a couple of days in the fridge, if it lasts that long.

I wanted...I bought... I made

2011-08-19T10:40:00.007Z

Lovely little balls, no? Wish I'd taken the photo but it's not my food, rather a little of what's being served up at Meatballs, a new restaurant that has opened in the old Quality Chop House in Farringdon. I was invited to dinner by their PR and I was both intrigued and a touch troubled. I love the old site with its six seater booths from its days as a Victorian working men's dining room but it went bust and closed a while ago. Glad it has re-opened but I admit I assumed it was the first of what was no doubt intended as a chain - chasing 'roll-out' with concomitant mediocre food and attention focused too firmly on the bottom line. How wrong can you be?! What I found upon arrival is a shiny clean version of the old interior, a nice selection of meatballs with sometimes eclectic sides, a fab drinks list under the label Hard Drinks including a very seasonal blueberry G&T. Hard to resist. The food is good, freshly made and not expensive, and a chat with the new owner Hugh Fowler, who I know of old from the Pasta House on Shaftesbury Avenue, has no intention of expanding, he and his wife are putting all their attention and considerable skill into this one site. All in all - great balls!

Last week I made a vague list that didn't make it on to the blog but it included chicory cooked in cream and pancetta and lamb burgers with roasted onion salad, neither of which made it on to the table either. I did buy cream and used it to make pasta with lemon, chilli and cream richly scented with sage from the garden. The rest of it I used in fairly decadent scrambled eggs for lunch one day - the joys of being home alone with frugal tendencies and half a pot of Hurdlebrook Farm cream. The lamb is in the freezer and may well be defrosted for dinner next week. Or perhaps I'll defrost a tub of lamb and chickpeas instead and save the burgers for the week after.

Had a lovely fish based collation last Friday - fresh mackerel I lightly cured with coriander and ginger, fresh prawns, a whole dressed crab and some salmon that had been hot smoked with whisky and molasses. All totally wow with a little bread and salad. This week I think I shall repeat the cured fish as a little starter then have the chicory we missed last week cold platter of parma ham and sweetly scented melon. Saturday there will be some swearing no doubt as we rearrange the cupboard under the stairs, think we need soothing dinner, sausage and lentils perhaps spare ribs sticky and spicy with rice and greens. Sunday roast pork might be nice with roast spiced sweet potatoes. Monday I am out for a little while so shall make some savoury muffins for grazing both out early so great dinner at the Canton Arms later, Tuesday spicy chicken lamb burgers and a gorgeous grilled onion salad, Wednesday we are out, Thursday noodles because I love noodles salami and pesto muffins and a crunchy salad which was pretty much as good as noodles.

Started not at Borough Market but at Greensmiths on Lower Marsh SE1, a lovely little food shop with butcher and baker and high quality fruit and veg as well as a café and lots of friendly staff. There was a huge and exquisite smelling canteloupe melon which I could not resist. There was my new favourite raw veg - runner beans - discovered after a colleague of the man's gave him some from her allotment, so fresh, so beany. Cucumber because mine are not quite there yet, beetroot because my current delight is steaming them whole then dressing with walnut oil and strawberry vinegar, tomatoes because they are sun ripe and gorgeous, cornish new potatoes because I like them even more than Jersey Royals - is that sacrilege? With carrots, a couple of endive and a fennel bulb it was £12.21 - not bad.

Then to Borough and the Ginger Pig for pork to roast, spare ribs because they inspired me when I was unsure what to buy, and some bacon to round out the piggy treats - £23.25 Elliots, the new restaurant/cafe is open, definitely on my list, all the produce comes from the market so a very good starting point. The little Turkish cafe is open too, from the Taste of Turkey, another that is seriously on the list. Didn't dally, headed to Neals Yard for milk and yoghurt and a tub of discount cream which freezes well and is handy for many things. Spent £8.30

At Gastronomica I bought a rocchetta and a different Pecorino to last time that is utterly extraordinary, rich creamy and moreish. £12.50

Wanted parma ham to go with the lovely melon, bought it from the ham and cheese stall - £6.70

Headed to Wild Beef for eggs only to discover was no stall, turns out Lizzie had a horse in a race elsewhere but will be back next week so I went to Northfields and bought eggs there £1.50

Olives from Borough Olives - I am currently much enamoured of their fat green ones with taragon - £3

Almonds and handmade olive oil biscuits flavoured with rosemary from Brindisa - £6.50

A good haul - spent £73.96

Ostrich Dinner

2011-08-11T16:53:00.012Z

Is size important?

See that ostrich egg? It was my prize in a great thing to do with eggs competition. I am a huge fan of all eggs but I've never tried one of these enormous beauties. Though they often catch my eye at Borough on the Gamston Wood stall and I start to wonder... Was more thrilled than perhaps I should have been when my name came up. Unbelievable when it finally arrived, up close it's not just huge but HEAVY. We're talking an egg you weigh by the kilo.

At which point I suddenly realised I had no idea at all what to do with this exotic monster. It is a rare instance when google offers little by way of practical instruction - I was a touch flummoxed. The Clarence Court box it came in cheerfully informed me it contained the equivalent of 24 hen's eggs and suggested boiling 50 minutes for soft - 90 for hard - or scramble for a family size omelette. Hmmmm. We are but two.

I put it aside for a few days, thought about it, looked at recipes for eggs. It had to be special - slowly but surely the challenge was beginning to delight me. I found a recipe in Christine Manfield's Spice for kangaroo fillet atop a nori omelette and decided to adapt it. Out went kangaroo and hen's eggs, in came ostrich egg and ostrich steak to make a sort of mother and son ostrich delight.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The ostrich egg is a thing of simple beauty and I wanted, if possible, to keep the shell when the rest was but memory.

First? Drain your egg. Definitely needed the man's help. The shell is thick and strong so we used a metal skewer and a hammer to make a hole in one end and repeated the same thing at the other. Takes no time at all to realise these dinky holes will never let the yolk out whole so back to the skewer. Insert it far as you can into one hole and swizzle it round to break up the yolk - you will encounter some resistance to start. This is a bit icky but it gets no worse. Take the skewer out and reinsert it in the other end and repeat.

Place the egg on top of a large jug - I ended up with just over a litre of liquid - and let it drain. Patience is required - it takes about 45 minutes to empty out.

The man - though usually more patient than me - tried to help it along by blowing. Mostly it just made him go red...

While he helped in his own special way, I set about making the nori omelette - chosen in part because it uses 10 eggs. Ten! I loved the idea of this omelette - you make lots of little thin ones then roll them into a big fat one for an egg lovers treat.

Sesame Ostrich Fillet with nori omelette, ginger pikelet and chive cream

Serves 4

Though there are lots of elements, this is really very simple to make and very elegant to serve

1/2 tspn white sesame seeds
1 nori seaweed sheet
100ml olive oil
1 tspn mirin
1/4 tspn fresh ground white pepper
1/2 tspn dried bonito flakes
250g ostrich steak
4 tspns of sour cream mixed with 2 tspns chopped chives

Pikelet mixture
350g maris piper potatoes, peeled
1 large egg (or 50g ostrich egg)
1 tbspn plain flour
2 tspns chopped chives
1 tspn finely grated ginger
1 tspn salt
1/2 tspn fresh ground black pepper
50ml double cream

Nori omelettes
2 nori seaweed sheets
10 large eggs - or 500g ostrich egg
pinch of salt
1/2 tspn fresh ground black pepper
1 tspn sesame oil
1 tspn fish sauce vegetable oil

Dry roast sesame seeds over gentle heat until just coloured. Toast nori sheet by running it over a direct flame for a few seconds, then chop it finely. Combine sesame seeds, toasted nori, oils, mirin, pepper and bonito, then add meat and refrigerate for at least 5 hours.

To make the pikelet mixture, cut the potatoes into 2 cm dice. Put them into the blender with the rest of the ingredients except the cream and blend briefly. Add the cream and pulse until just incorporated. Pour mixture into a plastic jug, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

To make the nori omelettes, toast the nori sheets over a direct flame - use a match or candle if you don't have gas hob - then cut into strips. Lightly whisk eggs (don't aerate them) then season with salt, pepper, sesame oil and fish sauce and stir in nori strips.

Heat a small 20cm non stick pan and brush it lightly with oil. Ladle in just enough egg mixture to cover the base of the pan, spreading it very thinly. Cook until just set over moderate heat, then turn out onto a clean tea towel. Continue process with remaining mixture, stacking omelettes on top of each other as you go.

Roll omelette stack into a roulade, then wrap firmly in plastic film and secure ends. Allow to cool for 30 minutes.

To cook the ostrich steak, heat a heavy based chargrill pan until extremely hot, then remove the steak from the marinade and sear quickly on all sides to just seal - this should take 2 minutes all up. Transfer meat to a plate to rest for a few minutes before slicing.

To cook the pikelets, heat a large non stick skillet and oil lightly, then pour pikelet mixture into 4 oiled egg rings. Cook over moderate heat until bubbles start to appear in batter, then flip them over and cook the other side, removing the egg rings as you do so.

To assemble this amazing dish, cut the omelette roll into 2cm thick slices. Place a hot pikelet in the middle of each plate and top with an omelette round. Finely slice the ostrich steak and carefully arrange 4 or 5 slices on top of the omelette, then season with a little black pepper, add a dollop of chive cream and scatter the rest of the chives.

Serve immediately.

This was as fabulous to eat as the egg that inspired it!

Obviously I still had a vast amount of egg to use - next day I made a decadently rich quiche and an even more decadent baked chocolate mud cake that kept us in treats for days.

Big thanks to James Ramsden for running that competition!

Chocolate Caramel Slice

2011-07-08T12:42:00.004Z

Reading this recipe it sounded good, simple and hopefully more successful than the last attempt at caramel topping for biscuits. Certainly quick and easy the whole thing went like a dream, poured over the melted chocolate and put it into the fridge to set. Next morning when I came to cut it into lovely squares it was a nightmare, both the caramel and the chocolate had set hard and even with my very sharp knife and lots of welly I basically ended up hacking at it just to mke smaller bits. It was really messy and all the cuts were crooked and no two pieces were the same size. Decided it would never be made again.

Boxed up most of it for the man to take to work and left a couple of pieces in the fridge for me. Later that day when I came in I was hungry so, perusing the contents of the fridge, decided I'd try the slice. One mouthful and I was smitten - this is a seriously 12 out of 10 fabulous thing to eat. Crisp texture of coconut in the base, lovely lightly buttery caramel and the bitter tang of dark chocolate. Wow.

Man came home and said those biscuits today have to go straight to the top of the A list. He's right. Now I have to work out how to cut them up neatly without resorting to a hacksaw! All suggestions much appreciated.

Chocolate Caramel Slice

makes about 20 depending how you cut it

Biscuit base
80g dessicated coconut
220g brown sugar
125g butter, melted
75g plain flour
75g self raising flour

Caramel filling
1 tin (400g) condensed milk
2 tbsp golden syrup
30g butter

Chocolate topping
200g dark chocolate
2 tsp vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to180C/Gas 3. Grease a 20x30cm pan then line it with baking parchment, extending the paper 2 cm over the long sides.

Combiner sifted flours, coconut, sugar and butter, then press the resulting crumbly mix evenly over the base of the pan. Bake for about 15 minutes till lightly browned.

While base is baking, make the caramel filling. Place all ingredients in a small saucepan and stir constantly over low heat for about 15 minutes till it is thickened and light gold. Spread onto the cooked base and return the pan to the oven. Bake 10-12 minutes till a deep golden brown. Cool.

Melt chocolate and oil in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Spread it over the caramel layer. Put it in the fridge to set before cutting into squares.

Maybe I need to bring it back to room temperature before slicing?

I wanted ... I bought... I made

2011-06-30T16:58:00.004Z

After last week's setbacks, this week might still need to be a little gentle. Friday a little fish a cold collation of lovely things from Borough, Saturday the pork chops with the braised fennel from last week lamb chops with new potatoes, Sunday ham and eggs potato salad not eggs! Monday chicory roasted with cream and pancetta ham and salad as the man was now very ill and giving me a lot of retrospective sympathy for my flu last week, with salad obv! Tuesday lamb casserole ma po tofu and rice v spicy v nice, Wednesday tofu and greens steamed eggs and steamed peppers, more rice, Thursday aubergine and something fennel and pasta bake!

At Borough I bought a piece of smoked gammon and some lamb neck chops at the Ginger Pig - £28.30

Milk, yoghurt and bread at Neals Yard - £9.70

Melon and new potatoes from the organic veg stall £4.70

A hard unpasteurised sheep/goat cheese and a robiola that was not a rocchetta but rather a soft creamy cheese from Gastronomica - £12

Peppers from the veg stall out the back - £1

Smoked bass from the Sussex fish stall - £3

Olives from Borough Olives - green ones with tarragon and kalalmata's - £5.60

Eggs from Lizzie at Wild Beef who is off on holidays this week - £3.70

Strawberries from Tony - £2.50

Spent £70.50

Am off to France for a week. Normal service will resume after that!

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-06-23T15:13:00.004Z

Chicken roasted with peppers

Friday I think will be fishcakes that we didn't have last week - a couple of fillets of salmon simply fried with a lemon sauce and shallow fried potatoes. Saturday I think some asparagus in one form or another lasagne, Sunday drunken chicken and spicy noodles chicken roasted with peppers and chorizo after a day out beekeeping.

But then I got hit with the flu that is currently doing London - boufff!

Monday tofu and greens I struggled to make tuna salad, Tuesday lamb stew but a delicate thing - the man made omelette and salad! Wednesday steamed pork and eggs - lentils with a poached egg and yes I had eggs, Thursday curry - a good generalised idea! It will be noodles as I finally feel a little better.

At Borough I started at Neals Yard for milk, bread and yoghurt - £10.40

Then a chicken and some pork chops from Ginger Pig as they had no neck chops but have promised me some this week - £22.65

Salmon from Furness - £6.70

Asparagus from Organics - £6

Lovely fat green olives from Borough Olives - £2.80

Chorizo from Brindisa - £9.70

Eggs from Wild Beef - £3.40

And Chegworth now have their own shop, a cut out bit left over from where Elsey and Bent were next to the Brindisa bar, it's nice, and they will be trading Monday to Saturday. I bought strawberries and cucumber - £4

I have discovered Solstice at Greensmiths down on the Cut near Waterloo, bought some good veg from them, potatoes and fennel and a lovely melon - £6.10 - am wondering if it is a good option now for most of my weekly veg

Spent £71.75

But no recipe post this week but more next week as I am on the way to recovery!

Turkey Noodle Soup

2011-06-21T16:18:00.017Z

Turkey Tikka Masala

They say you regret the things you don't do. I never flew on Concorde though I watched it arc overhead a thousand times and marvelled at its beauty every time. I didn't buy the set of 'How to Grow Everything' books at Sutton Hoo a few months ago and now I don't know when my potatoes will be ready - mind you I don't know what variety they are either so I may well regret not checking that before they were interred. I never ate at Harveys when Marco Pierre White was at the pass - even now I don't believe it. Here was a chef who had trained under Raymond Blanc and the brothers Roux who went on to have Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal, amongst many others, in his own brigade. He is the link between old school and new in British gastronomy - unrepentant in his quest for perfect food. Somehow I never made it - there's regret writ large.

So last week when I was invited by Clarion Communications to have lunch with the man himself I was intrigued. He has gone on to more of the business side of restaurants and in public has been tapping his enormous carving knife in a menacing fashion on Hells Kitchen on TV. On the day he was charm itself. He headed up the table in a downstairs private room at Wheeler's of St James's and served up a tasty selection of turkey. Not much used in the UK outside christmas there is a campaign afoot to bring this bird to our kitchen all year round. I confess I never think of it much myself as a starting point and yet, as I discovered it is a versatile meat and lean and healthy with it.

Lunch started with a turkey liver paté, a luscious delicate thing topped with a raisin sec jelly which Marco himself had never before eaten. He explained it was easier to work with turkey liver as they are larger than their chicken counterparts and less likely to need soaking in milk. He spooned quenelles onto plates and passed them round (I am always impressed by the making of quenelles!). Spread thick on toast it was amazing. Then onto simpler fare - a Norfolk pie. Think that family staple cottage pie but use turkey rather than beef mince and voila! Norfolk pie.

Turkeys are on the big end of the bird scale - it's the one on the outside of those fabulous multi bird roasts that have become popular lately at christmas. As well as boning them out to stuff them, the individual elements are also scaled up. The breasts are large enough to cut into steaks which offer lots of possibilities - beat them out and crumb them like escalope, char grill them after marinading in something garlicky for an hour or two. Or do like Marco and top with a spiced crumb and serve with the most exquisite Parmesan cream sauce I have ever had the good fortune to eat. It was so spectacular that one of the others suggested she could happily bathe in it. I know what she meant!

A simple turkey masala like the one pictured at the top of this post, was the next dish and for me it was the one that worked best. Big chunks of mixed thigh and breast meat in a lovely masala sauce it was a pleasing match of flavour and texture atop a mound of lightly spiced rice. The final dish was gnocchi topped with turkey bolognese. Had to confess to MPW that I'm not really a fan of gnocchi even when made by someone who had Michelin stars before he was 30. The turkey mince gave the sauce a lighter texture than a beef version, it would work well on a hot day.

Turkey Gnocchi Bolognese

Inspired by my brush with brilliance I decided to make a pan of soupy noodles with little spiced turkey balls and shredded cabbage topped with fresh carrots and herbs for a light and lovely supper last night.

Turkey Noodle Soup

Serves 4

You are aiming for a bowl of noodles with lots of liquid rather than an actual soup

150g dried noodles - I use the kind that come in 'nests' in bags in Chinese supermarkets
1/2 sweetheart pointy cabbage, shredded
300g minced turkey
1tbspn finely chopped fresh ginger
3 stems of coriander, leaves and stalks finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tspn rice wine or sherry
1 tspn light soy sauce
1 tbspn peanut oil
500ml of chicken stock
1 star anise
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely cut to matchsticks
2 small carrots, peeled and thinly sliced into coins
Fresh coriander and chopped spring onions to garnish

Fresh bits

Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the noodles till tender - about fifteen minutes. Drain into a colander, rinse then mix in a little bit of peanut oil to stop them all clumping together.

Put the pan back onto a high heat and add the rinsed cabbage with about a tablespoon of water. Cover and cook for a couple of minutes until the cabbage has just begun to wilt. Drain.

Steamed bits

For the meatballs, mix the turkey mince with the finely chopped ginger, coriander and garlic along with the rice wine and soy sauce until it all comes together. Using about a tablespoon at a time make little balls, put them onto a plate and refrigerate for 30 minutes or so just to firm them up. Heat the oil in the large pan (one pot dinner this!) over a moderate heat and fry the turkey balls until they caremalise on the outside and smell divine. Remove them from the pan with a slotted spoon onto a plate covered with absorbent paper.

Fried bits

Don't wash the pan - all the caremalised juices and sticky bits on the base add a depth of flavour to the soup. Put the pan back on the heat and, when it is hot, add the stock. Scrape all the bits from the base into the liquid til they dissolve. Add the shredded ginger and star anise and simmer for a couple of minutes, then taste the soup. Season and add some chilli paste if you fancy it a bit spicy. When it's to your taste add the noodles, cabbage and the carrot coins. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then top with chopped coriander and spring onions and serve in big bowls.

Just add noodles and all the bits together make a bowl of joy

A great dinner. Particularly in this funny on/off summer when you can never tell if it will be hot/wet/dry/cold/windy. This one covers them all!

I wanted..I bought...I made

2011-06-19T14:49:00.004Z

A quick list on the back of an envelope, transferred here later. Friday mussels pizza muffins as the carb content of a cold collation on a wet and stormy night, Saturday the lovely Vicki is celebrating her birthday and we are all out to dinner at the Canton Arms. Sunday burgers and salad slow roasted ham hock with onions and steamed potatoes. Monday turkey noodles. Tuesday steamed eggs and peppers, Wednesday we are at the theatre and Thursday there will be fishcakes with sorrel sauce as I have been reading about fishcakes and wondering about sorrel sauce as I have a pot in the garden burgers and rice salad as I have a recipe for salad I'm wondering about!.

Friday afternoon was wet and cold and horrible at Borough. I started at Neals Yard and bought milk and yoghurt, and a st john stick £10.65

Then coffee from Monmouth - £12 - coffee prices are rising

From Harriet's organics I bought garlic, carrots, potatoes, radish and a beautifully scented melon for £8.90

A fennel from Turnips - £1.30

Strawberries and lettuce from Chegworth - £4

Cheese from Gastronomica - a soft cow and a hard sheep - £10.80 and later in the week some braesola £4.50 for a sandwich before the theatre

Eggs from Wild Beef - £3.40

Tomatoes from Isle of Wight - £3.50 - wildly expensive but so very good

Black and green olives from Vahid plus some sundried tomatoes for muffins - £8.60

That was all £76.15 - a lot in a week without buying fresh meat

Bought other things too - cabbage and bananas round the corner, and butter, chocolate and cherries to make a cherry ripe cake to celebrate Vicki's birthday

For anyone interested in what's going on with traders and trustees at the market this is a good round up Turns out the building that the trustees have agreed to be built by Network Rail for the new market front is all glass, and so unsuitable for fresh produce. Odd, at the very least.

Roast Tomato Pasta

2011-06-17T17:15:00.008Z

You know it's summer when the sight of deep red tomatoes brings a smile to your face. Bright and shiny they are harbingers of joy - for me at least. The man won't eat them raw but has a liking for them cooked. I found this recipe on the Splendid Table email last week and it was so easy to imagine how good it would be. I had the last of the sourdough bread to use up, there is always pasta and Parmesan round ours, so all I needed to pick up mid week was a bunch of basil. I have started some in the garden but while summer appears to be in retreat it has stopped growing. Just like pretty much everything else.

Roast Tomato Pasta

The prep for this takes less than ten minutes, it is a really easy quick mid week delight.

500g ripe cherry or plum tomatoes
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup fresh breadcrumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup olive oil 300g penne, fusilli or farfarallini pasta
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh basil

Preheat the oven to Gas 4/180 C/400F.

Place the tomato halves in a baking tray. In a small bowl, combine garlic, breadcrumbs, cheese and salt and pepper. Spoon it evenly over the tomatoes and then drizzle with the olive oil.

Bake for 30-35 minutes until the mixture is bubbly, browned and slightly thickened.

While the tomatoes cook bring a large pan of salted water to the boil then cook the pasta till al dente. Drain well.

Add the pasta to the tomatoes (I added the tomatoes to the pasta but you could serve it all in the baking dish). Add the basil and toss to combine.

Dinner is ready!

I wanted... I bought... I made

2011-06-09T17:19:00.007Z

We have not much on this weekend, but I already have a sweet smelling canteloupe from the local Portugese bakery and can think of nothing better than some ham and cheese to go with it for a simple Friday dinner. Saturday asparagus lasagne couldn't wait, had to have the roast beef with - simply - chips and watercress for a most divine dinner, Sunday beef made pizza muffins and salad to share with David after a pint at the pub. Monday noodle salad pork and noodles soup, Tuesday steamed pork and eggs omelette with steamed aubergine salad as well as fennel and radish salad for crunch, Wednesday we are off to see John Cooper Clark at Meltdown, Thursday a little tomato pasta. I know I definitely need garlic and coffee, and will go early to get me some bread!

Was at the market by 11 - not bad! Started at Neals Yard and they did still have bread! Bought a lovely white sourdough as well as milk and a couple of tubs of yoghurt - £11.20

Coffee from Monmouth - £11.50

Then to Ginger Pig for a forerib of beef, expensive but a truly remarkable piece of meat. John cut me a thick piece of richly marbled meat and chined the bone for easy carving. A beautiful thing! Also got some chicken carcasses to make more stock - £23

Then to Harriet's organic stall for carrots, potato - one enormous one to go with the beef! cucumber and a couple of heads of garlic - £4.80

From Turnips I bought fennel and breakfast radishes - £3.80

Bought some butter from the french dairy stall, the kind with big flakes of salt in a rich and creamy butter - £2.70

At Chegworth I could not resist the divine scent of the strawberries, 2 punnets for £3

Parma ham from the parma ham and cheese company - £4.90

Tomatoes from the Isle of White, they are very good at the moment - £3.60

Eggs from Wild Beef - £3.40

Tarragon olives from Borough Olives, an old favourite - £2.80

And then, just as I was finishing, the skies turned black and lightning rent the sky. Rain came down like a solid wall, just running across the road for the bus had me drenched. Squelched home having spent £74.70

Went out later to retrieve the umbrella I had very cleverly left the previous day in a cafe in Pimlico and bought watercress from the veg stall there and cheese from Rippon Cheese, a really interesting shop. Also bought peppers and aubergine and a bunch of basil locally.

Cinnamon Wolfe Biscuits

2011-06-07T08:50:00.005Z

I do love cinnamon. When I was a kid we used to go the local shopping plaza in Sydney, a place called Miranda Fair, built and owned by none other than Westfield, the very same people who have opened in White City and are currently building the largest shopping complex in Europe at Stratford. But I digress. Saturday mornings my father would drive the family to Miranda Fair and we'd be allowed to go off on our own on the condition that we met back at a specified time at the raindrop fountain, a magnificent thing that was fine threads guiding tiny water droplets that ran from the top of the central atrium to an enormous bowl on the ground floor, like a beautiful circular rain storm in the middle of all the shops. I loved wandering about, finding new things, sniffing perfume samples and looking in bookshops trying not to spend my pocket money. That resolve would last perhaps an hour and then there would be the siren call of the donut stand, that lovely smell filling the air. My favourite thing, without doubt, was blowing my hoarded pennies buying hot donuts liberally dipped in cinnamon sugar and wrapped in a napkin to be scoffed fast as possible. At that age, sharing was not my forté.

A variation on the theme, when I was a teenager and allowed to make my own way to the shops on a Saturday morning was to while away an hour in a café drinking bottomless cups of coffee and feasting on cinnamon toast. This was the bread version of those donuts - hot buttered toast generously sprinkled with a mix of cinnamon and granular sugar. Versions of it were made at home on occasions, but it's been a while since I saw such a delight on a menu. Peculiarly Oz thing perhaps.

My baking challenge this week was an easy one after I caught sight of this recipe in the Australian Women's Weekly Bake. All that childish pleasure ripe to be revisited. It is really quick and easy, even the rolling of dough in the coating. I'm pleased to say that cinnamon and sugar tastes as good in the mouth as it does in my mind.

Cinnamon Biscuits
Makes 40-50

Crispy edges with a chewy centre, these are a delightful biscuit with coffee

250g butter, softened
1 tspn vanilla extract
110g light brown sugar
220g caster sugar
2 eggs
410g plain flour
1 tspn bicarb of soda
1/2 tspn ground nutmeg
1 tbspn caster sugar, extra
2 tspns ground cinnamon

Beat the butter, vanilla and both brown and caster sugars in a small bowl with electric mixer until it is light and fluffy - about 7 or 8 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl then stir in the sifted flour, soda and nutmeg in two batches. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes, or longer.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Combine the extra caster sugar and cinnamon on a small plate. Roll about a tablespoon of dough into a ball then roll the ball in the cinnamon sugar to coat. Place the balls about 7cm/3 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake biscuits for about 12 minutes till golden and smelling gorgeous. Cool on trays.

And that's it - easy peasy and a total delight.

I wanted... I bought.... I made

2011-06-02T16:26:00.006Z

I love great vegetables!

Apologies for intermittent blogging lately, not keeping up as well as I should but have had trips away and folks to stay. Normal service should resume...

Friday we are out and Saturday the lovely Marie is coming to visit with baby Teddy which will be a treat. Planning muffins for lunch, easy and good with salad. Dinner might be pork chops leftover muffins and snacks and bits. Sunday I have a chicken in the freezer that I want to steam then crisp the skin, think it would be good with salads roasted in plain and simple with hot boiled veg that became potato salad for lunches. Monday tofu and greens salad nicoise, Tuesday pork balls, spicy with sweet potato and salad pork chops!, Wednesday dal as I've been reading about it and have a hankering tofu and greens. Thursday omelette and salad risotto with the last of the chicken with spring onions.

Borough was busyish Friday afternoon, very odd to approach and find Flour Power gone, no more famous brownie towers or toast bread for that matter. They were told to go as the trustees claim they have grown too big, but that doesn't seem to apply to Hotel Chocolat's multinational status. The space is now filled by the plant people - largely decorative rather than edible.

Started at Neals Yard to discover they had no bread left. With flour Power usually the first stall you come to, now everyone is round the corner and into Neals Yard, cleared the lot before lunch apparently. The guy serving was just about to increase the order for the next day but not good for me. Pfff.I bought yoghurt, milk and pasta, spent £8.40

Then to Silfield as I have been fancying ham hock recently and I always buy theirs. Glad to see a hock mountain - one for me £3.50 though the guy serving said I could have 2 for £7

To Chegworth for exquisitely scented strawberries and a lovely fresh lettuce - £4.50

Cucumber from Organics - £1.30

Chocolates from L'Artisan - still a totally bargainous £2

Eggs from Wild Beef - gone up 40p a dozen but they are worth it - £3.40 now

Suddenly fancied grilled pork chops, so to Ginger Pig for 2 lovely specimens - £6.50

Wanted olives so was round to Fresh Olive, looking for green ones with tarragon but no joy. Bought green ones with jalapeno and garlic stuffed inside and they are divine. £3.50

Spent just over £33 but had very little veg.

With Booths gone shopping at Borough is a much less satisfying experience, it is such a good fruit and vegetable monger, great range and quality at reasonable prices. Turnips is still trading but they are seriously expensive, and Secretts don't even bother to put prices on their produce. Chegworth have a few little bits of very nice vegetables, Harriet has good organic stuff but a very limited range, and Ted's Veg is only there Saturdays. I've tried our local market at Oval but their veg is not very good, the fruit shop round the corner has good stuff sometimes but is not reliable and they are currently selling carrots from China. Decided this week I'd try the farmers market at Brixton Sunday - bought beautiful watercress, nice looking potatoes that sadly had almost no flavour, some fresh peas that were nice but not more and a cabbage I've yet to try. It's really frustrating after years of great produce. Next I will bite the bullet and shop at Turnips as the alternative is shopping at Maltby Street, which I'd love to do but it is a considerable schlepp, a couple of hours extra at least which is lot every week. But I may do it!

Do read about the current Borough scenario here if you have some time.

Also went to a new cheese shop in Victoria and bought some lovely bits there to top up our snack repertoire and was back to Borough early in the week for more yoghurt and milk as smoothies delight for weekend breakfasts meant we used loads.

Pizza Muffins

2011-05-16T15:13:00.006Z

Fusion food at its best - pizza muffins! Giant ones at that. I'm never entirely sure where in the day muffins are meant to be eaten. I cooked up a batch for dinner Sunday night as we'd been out for lunch and these are a delightfully savoury number. Definitely not a breakfast treat but lunch? I think so. Warm from the oven they made a fab supper.

I am in the process of teaching myself to bake in the hope of opening a cafe that sells all manner of lovely salads and cakes to go with seriously good coffee and juices. It's harder than it seems - there is a requirement for precision that is simply not relevant for casseroles and soups, noodles and risotto. When it's a success I find it fascinating, when it fails I find it hugely frustrating partly because I hate failing and partly because I have insufficient understanding of the process to know where I went wrong and how to fix it. So I'm baking a lot and gradually improving.

In my quest for baking brilliance I bought the Australian Women's Weekly 'Bake' which is ENORMOUS and full of interesting recipes, some old familiars from my childhood like melting moments and coconut slice and some new things like this muffin recipe. I have made those as well a coffee walnut cake, an orange yoghurt cake and a spiced banana cake. Mostly the man takes them to work to share and get a little feedback. He is becoming very popular.

Pizza Muffins

Makes 6 but to make them again I would use a smaller hole pan and make 12

1 small red pepper
375g self raising flour
1 egg
310ml milk
80ml olive oil
60g coarsely grated cheddar cheese
20g finely grated Parmesan
60g seeded black olives, halved
35g sun dried tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
2 tbspns basil, finely chopped
t tspns rosemary, sinely chopped
30g cheddar coarsely grated (extra)

Preheat oven to 200C/Gas 4. Grease a 6-hole texas (180ml) muffin pan.

Quarter the pepper, discard the seeds and membrane. Roast in a very hot oven, skin-side up, until the skin blisters and blackens. Put hot pepper into a bowl and cover tightlyw ith clingfilm for 5 minutes. Peel away the skin and then cut the flesh into strips.

Sift the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the egg, milk, oil, cheeses, olives, tomatoes and herbs. Do not over mix, a bit lumpy is fine. Spoon mixture inot pan holes, top with the slices of roasted pepper and then the extra cheese.

Bake muffins for about 25 minutes. Stand muffins in pan for 5 minutes then turn out, top-side up, onto a wire rack to cool.

These tasted great. I am beginning to enjoy baking so there will definitely be more - there's a whole chapter on muffins alone!

They are bigger than they look in this picture!

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-05-14T11:34:00.006Z

Really fancy making a raw mackerel tartare that I learnt to make the other day at a Total day out for a fishy Friday but there was none as the seas had been too rough so I crumbed and fried whiting and had it with jersey royals and salad, definitely asparagus for Saturday simply roasted with steamed potatoes and more salad, Sunday I would like spicy pork with rice and greens big fat pizza muffins after a fabulous lunch at Gastronomica, Monday I'm thinking noodles spicy pork rice and greens, Tuesday perhaps burgers and salad lamb burgers with the fabulous roast vegetable cous cous pictured above, Wednesday omelette with jersey royals the man was out so I made lamb burgers again only better with grated ginger, garlic and chilli and a salad of tiny greens from my garden.The joy of spring. Thursday I'm hoping for dinner out. Disappointed in that - the man is out (again!) so I'm planning pork chop soup which I love.

Borough was fairly tense Friday, a lot of the small traders are really concerned with what's happening with evictions and developments. Flour Power have now been given 30 days notice to quit for being too big?!

John was cheery as ever at the Ginger Pig though, and happily diced me some pork and I added lamb mince for burgers for a cheap total of £12.20

Then to Neals Yard for milk and bread - they now sell St John bread and it is endlessly wonderful - and yoghurt - £9.80

Coffee from Monmouth - £13

Veg from the organic stall - asparagus, a new kind of lettuce which I forget the name of but looks a bit like oak leaf, and some lovely garlic - £8.20

Needed Parmesan from Gastronomica so bought a small sheep/goat cheese as well - £16

Over to the Sussex fish stall to find the seas had been so rough Thursday they had no mackerel - so much for plans! Bought a couple of whiting which the monger kindly filleted for me - a bargain at £2

Eggs from Wild Beef - gone up 20p a dozen as the price of wheat continues upwards - £3.20 but still great value for lovely eggs

Sundried tomatoes from Borough Olives, a while since I shopped there and was served by a delightfully cheerful young woman - £1.90

Lastly olives from Turkey for a change - love their semi dried kuru sele, oily and salty and wonderful - £3

Spent £69.30 in total

Asparagus Lasagne

2011-05-14T11:23:00.006Z

It is spring and the sun is shining practically daily and that is strange and wonderful after such a long cold winter as we've had. It is asparagus season and we have been eating it joyfully and mostly simply, just lightly steamed with a little melted butter and some cracked black pepper for a few weeks. I could happily continute to eat it like this for months.

Then I came across this recipe for lasagne and was instantly smitten. Not just because matching crisp asparagus with silky pasta is a kind of genius when you add cheese sauce, but because the sauce was made with chicken stock rather than milk and so has both greater depth of flavour and is lighter and more delicate at the same time. I used rocchetta for it's balanced rich creaminess but any spring like cheese would work a treat.

You could serve a salad after but it needs no accompaniment at all apart from a little crusty bread to guarantee that you mop up every skerrick of sauce.

The recipe comes from Jane Lear's blog and is an adaptation of an earlier version on Gourmet. She uses goat's cheese which would also be great, though not round ours as the man is not a fan.

Asparagus Lasagne

Serves 4

1kg asparagus, trimmed

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Coarse salt

60g unsalted butter

2 tbspns plain flour

400ml chicken or vegetable stock

½ cup water

200g rocchetta or other soft cheese, softened to room temperature and crumbled

About 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest

About 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Gruyère, plus a handful for topping

1 box no-boil lasagne sheets, the best quality you can find

200ml double cream

1. Preheat the oven to Gas6/500ºF. Cut off the tips of the asparagus spears and set them aside. In a large bowl toss the asparagus spears with the olive oil, and spread them onto a rimmed baking sheet. Roast them 5 to 10 minutes (depending on thickness), stirring them around halfway through, until they are crisp-tender. Season the roasted asparagus with salt, and, when cool enough to deal with, cut the spears into fork-friendly lengths, about ½ inch or so.

2. Melt the butter in a medium pot, add the flour, and cook over moderately low heat, whisking, about 3 minutes. Whisk in the stock and water and simmer 5 minutes. Whisk in the crumbled cheese and lemon zest and season with salt to taste; whisk the sauce until it is silky smooth.

3. Skim-coat the bottom of a buttered 20cm square baking dish with a little sauce, then make layers of pasta sheets, sauce, roasted asparagus, and Parmigiano, ending with a layer of pasta. Scatter the uncooked asparagus tips on top. In a bowl beat the cream with a pinch of salt until it holds soft peaks, and spread it over the asparagus tips. Scatter that handful of Parmesan over the whipped cream and bake the lasagne on the middle rack of the oven about 30 minutes, or until it’s bubbling around the edges and golden on top. Let it stand 10 minutes to collect itself, then cut into slices and serve.

I wanted...I bought....I made

2011-05-06T09:45:00.009Z

Went to a day of cooking and eating with Total - the Greek yoghurt people - recently and made this orange yoghurt cake with some of their lovely product after as I teach myself to bake

Back again after a couple of pleasurable staycations, one south via Wiltshire to Cornwall and Dorset and another to the lovely Suffolk coastal town of Orford to make the most of lots of bank holidays and, more surprisingly, endless (feels like) sunshine and blue skies. It is lovely this spring we are having.

To follow that mood, Friday night we are at the theatre to see I am the Wind, but only for a short show, so cold collation at home after will be the perfect way to round out the evening. Saturday I am making asparagus lasagne, an outrageously decadent idea I came across on the web. Sunday we are out to lunch at the endlessly fabulous St John so dinner will be simple, perhaps spiced chicken and salads which will be good for lunch for a day or two as well. Monday more theatre, this time Rocket to the Moon at the National the man was unwell so a simple supper at home with cold chicken and fennel salad, Tuesday a book launch for Tim Wilson's Ginger Pig Meat but may have a quick pasta supper after missed the launch but had the pasta, Wednesday the lovely Vicki is over to bleach my hair so think some Chinese would be good steamed meatball pasta after home made taramasalata, Thursday salad I think - nicoise in fact.

Friday the market is much more pleasurable than Saturdays, it's not so mobbed and the traders tend to be cheery rather than overwhelmed. Started at Ginger Pig where they were selling 45 day aged rump for £18.50 a kilo but I was only momentarily tempted, bought bacon, pork mince and a chicken - £22.40

Then to Neals Yard for milk, cream, yoghurt and bread - £7.80

Tony was his cheery self at his veg stall selling english asparagus 3 bunches for a fiver which was what I needed for my lasagne

From Gastronomica I bought fresh pasta, a rocchetta and some spring goat/ewe's milk cheese that is utterly lush - £18.60

Then to the Parma Ham company for their exquisite parma ham and a couple of balls of buffalo mozzarella - £10.80

Wandering around to find Richard at the Wild Beef stall I noticed a sign at the Mons stall saying it was their last week and sadly I've just heard that they have been evicted from the market along with The Ham & Cheese Company and Kappacasein, in fact a total of eight traders are out, as 'punishment' for also trading at Maltby Street. More here

Thankfully Wild Beef is still there - got eggs for £1.50

Then to Turnips in search of rhubarb - was rewarded with a huge bundle which cost, with a lemon as well, £3.86, and noticed on the way out they have Lincolnshire asparagus at only £1.50 a bunch - really good value

Food sorted I rewarded myself with a hot sausage roll from Ginger Pig as a late lunch - £3 well spent!

Total this week is £72.96

Pasta with tart greens and braised garlic

2011-04-06T16:31:00.011Z

Late last summer I planted a couple of dozen brassicas - not with any real idea of what would happen but just to have something in the garden that didn't look entirely bleak.

Mostly they did nothing.

These plants had been dormant for months, surviving short days, cold nights, heavy snow, on and off frost, and the unwelcome visits of the neighbourhood cats. They simply sat in little dark green bundles, unmoved and unresponsive. Nature's way to cope with winter.

Then, just like in all the best tv gardening shows, they suddenly sprang to life. The days got a little longer, the air a little warmer and kerching! they were reaching for the sky and bulking out sideways, filling the available space. Amazing.

I must confess I did not know which would turn into what. I know there are four varieties - even I can see they are different collections of plants - but the magic of planting unlabelled things six months on is *surprise* and a big grin! The fastest to grow, and the first to be harvested, is curly kale, lovely matt green leaves belying their sturdiness by being all frilled at the edges.

I'm watching the rest. It is becoming apparent which are the cauliflowers - they are starting to have creamy white heads - small yet but growing. I'm fascinated - I have never before seen a cauliflower come into being.

This dinner was a celebration of the arrival of spring, a quirky mix of things from a recipe from the splendid table, another food mail I subscribe to. It's actaually an American radio programme which reads like it sounds amazing.

Pasta with tart greens and braised garlic

Serves 4

Note the recipe says braised garlic - you need nice big fat juicy cloves for this

500g greens, trimmed of thick stems and chopped into 5cm pieces,

Sauté and Pasta:

Good-tasting extra-virgin olive oil

½ cup water

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

8 large garlic cloves, cut into 1cm cubes – big chunks!

500g Orecchiette pasta, or other little ones but the ears are very cute

150g Italian fennel sausage, cut into 1 cm pieces

¼ teaspoon hot red pepper flakes, or to taste

1 tablespoon tomato paste

Finishing:

2/3 cup pasta water

½ cup toasted pine nuts or coarsely chopped hazelnuts

1 to 1 ½ cups shredded Pecorino Romano, or Ricotta Salata. Lacking either I used Parmesan

Have a large pan of salted water at a full boil, drop in the greens and boil, uncovered, 2 minutes, or until just tender. Lift out with a big strainer (you want to cook the pasta in the same vegetable water), drain, and set the greens aside. Keep the water at a bubble.

In a large sauté pan, pour enough oil to film the bottom. Add the ½ cup water with salt, pepper and the garlic. Heat over medium, cover and cook 8 minutes, or until the garlic is soft. Check that the garlic doesn't brown, adding a little more water if needed. Once the garlic is soft, scoop it out with a slotted spoon and reserve.

Have the pasta water boiling, then drop in the pasta and cook, stirring often, as you finish the sauté.

Have the sauté pan over medium-high heat and add the sausage. Sear it until it starts to colour, then lower the heat to medium. Cover the pan and cook the sausage about 5 minutes, or until it's no longer pink inside. Stir in the tomato paste and hot pepper and cook another minute, uncovered. Add the cooked greens and the garlic. Raise the heat to medium-high and sauté them for a few moments, tasting for seasoning. If necessary, set aside the sauté until the pasta is ready to be drained.

Before draining the pasta, scoop about 2/3 cup of the pasta water from the pot and set aside. Put the greens back on medium-high heat, add the pasta water and simmer a moment or two. You want them moist, but not soupy. Once the pasta is tender but still a little firm to the bite, drain it and add it to the greens mixture. Toss in the pine nuts and the cheese until combined, and taste for seasoning. Serve the pasta hot.

A word of warning - I tend to use lots of salt in the water to cook pasta which resulted in a fairly salty finished dish after I added pasta cooking water to the sauce.

Otherwise this was a great supper - lots of flavour and textures, little nubbles of toasted nuts and prickles of chilli and the garlic in the end is gently mellow. The greens were the best!

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-04-01T12:25:00.007Z

Fried rice from last weekend - liked the textured colour in this picture

Thinking fish for Saturday a brilliant rendering of a mushroom and spinach sauce to go with cod and new potatoes, lamb roasted for Sunday with an interesting chick pea and sweet potato salad amongst others, and hope to be out Monday home and cold and wet so venison stew from the freezer with mash and peas to bring us cheer. Tuesday will be spring pasta, Wednesday might be venison stew from the freezer kofta from the freezer with a dry curry of aubergine and onion that was a revelation, Thursday we are definitely out and Friday is the start of our holiday. YAY!

Sunny and not very busy - my favourite way to be at Borough. Started at Ginger Pig where John was cheerful to be working in sunshine. Baought a shoulder of lamb - which he kindly cut in half for me - £15

Then to Monmouth for Colombian beans - £12.50

Just milk and yoghurt and bread from Neals Yard - £7.25

Fancied fish - and the Sussex fish stall is slowly building a following with their fabulous fresh catch - bought a whole cod that the monger kindly filleted for me, and having tried a sample of his own smoked bass couldn't resist some of that too - £8

Eggs from a well holidayed Lizzie as well as a pack of beef sausages - £6.44

Couldn't resist a small tub of olives from Fresh Olive - was thinking my usual melange but tasted a few different ones and bought a mixed tub of creamy little green ones and quite small sharp black ones for a change - £3

Home on the bus - spent £52.19 - but veg and things to get

Giant 'Couscous' Salad

2011-03-31T15:37:00.006Z

There has been some talk of frogspawn round my blog recently. I put it down to being an indicator that spring is here, reason for a heartfelt *yay!* all round. By extension I think frogspawn can only be a good thing, though others have worries. For example -

Why is my frogspawn a milky colour?

It's most probable that cold weather has caused this effect, and the frogspawn will probably not develop into tadpoles. Other hatched tadpoles will eat the jelly though, so nothing is wasted!

Will my goldfish eat my frogspawn and tadpoles?

In a word - Yes! Goldfish are carnivorous and will also eat newts eggs, dragonfly larvae and anything else that moves! A contirbutor to the Beautiful Britain site shares - Several years ago I put all the spawn in a tank and it all hatched.... when I thought they were large enough I put them in the pond and the fish ate the lot!'

Yet people warm to goldfish in a way they don't to frogspawn.

It is estimated that the average female frog can lay up t0 4,000 eggs at one go although many of these eggs will not survive to turn into frogs. After a period of a few weeks the baby frogs (i.e. tadpoles) will come out of the frogspawn. They will then eat the frogspawn that is left over for the first few days after they emerge until they move on to other foods. Frogspawn is a good thing in so many ways.

Spawn was on my mind again this week when I made an experimental new salad - the making of salads, and particularly the trying out of new ideas is a sure sign round ours that spring is most definitely here. My mother gave me a packet of giant couscous to try, but it was the start of winter then and so it sat, ignored and neglected, until this week.

I had read of this stuff but not actually tried it, and for some reason was convinced it would be sort of toasty crunchy. Couldn't have been less so, it cooks up as little shiny soft balls, hence the reminder of spawn. Giant couscous is sometimes referred to as jumbo couscous, Israeli couscous, Mougrabieh, Fregola or Pearl couscous, depending where in the Mediterranean you are. Essentially it is little pasta balls, and it's easy to believe it was originally intended as a child's food.

Foodista finds the history fascinating: rice was scarce during Israel's ten year (1949-1959) austerity period, so the prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, commissioned the Osem food company to create a rice-substitute, as rice was a staple for many immigrants. For this reason it is often referred to as Ben-Gurion's Rice. The original Israel couscous was indeed shaped like rice, much like orzo, but over time has developed its round shape.

I fancied it with aubergine - I fancy a lot of things with aubergine - and that was my starting point. Had a bunch of parsley in the fridge that needed using and some fresh mint happily sprouting in the garden. Such things speak of salad to me, so I checked the instructions on the packet and they suggested frying a little onion first then adding the couscous and hot water. Worked a treat but all sans crunch. Rummaged and found a big bright bunch of radish and salad success was imminent.

Giant Couscous Salad

This looks a lot for one salad but it is pretty quick and easy, and keeps well in the fridge for a day or two, not collapsing the way some pasta salads do

Makes 6 generous helpings

1 medium aubergine, diced into 1cm cubes
1 tbspn salt
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 tspn chilli flakes
3 tblspn olive oil
250g packet of giant/israeli couscous
2 cups boiling water
1 bay leaf
6 tbspns chopped flat leaf parsley leaves
1 tbspn chopped fresh mint leaves
4 radish, thinly sliced
2 spring onions, sliced into small rings, green and white parts
2 tbspn lemon juice

Put the diced aubergine into a colander, sprinkle with salt and leave to drain for half an hour.

Fry the chopped onion in one tablespoon of the olive oil till the edges are golden, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and chilli flakes and stir for a minute. Add the couscous and stir to coat with the flavoured oil. Add the boiling water - but be careful it may well spit.

Reduce the heat to a simmer, add the bay leaf, cover, and cook for about eight minutes. The couscous should have absorbed all the liquid and be al dente to the bite. Tip into a large salad bowl, disccarding the bay leaf.

Lightly rinse the aubergine. Heat the remaining oil and fry the aubergine for a few minutes, till it is soft and tinged with colour. Add to the couscous, loosening the whole lot with a fork. Allow to cool.

Add the herbs, radish and spring onion and mix well. Add some of the lemon juice, taste and add more if it needs it. Add seasoning.

It was great as an accompaniment to quiche and simply gorgeous with grilled lamb chops next day, the small amount of mint adding a lovely freshness to the finished salad without overwhelming it.

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-03-25T10:43:00.006Z

Chocolate cupcakes with passionfruit icing - taste just like summer

Saturday I have food chain so dinner will be simple, venison stew perhaps, as I accidentally got the game stock out of the freezer and it would be a shame to waste it - lovely it was with boiled potaotes and curly kale. Sunday pasta had some rice over from foodchain so turned it into fried rice, Monday perhaps roast with salads as it seems spring might just be here - pork roasted with potato salad, fennel, carrot and celery salad and a pile of rocket, Tuesday I am out so the man will fend for himself, Wednesday noodles smoked bacon quiche with couscous salad, Thursday risotto grilled lamb chops with the rest of the salad, Friday omelette! actually sausage sarnies - Friday food.

Started at the Ginger Pig for a lovely piece of rolled pork shoulder, as well as eggs and smoked bacon - £19.45

Then to Furness for venison, a very reasonable £11 for a kilo and lovely it was

Milk and yoghurt from Neals Yard - £5.70

Quick in and out, spending only £36.15 but bought veg for salads, bread, pasta, nibbles, butter and bits through the week

Passionfruit Curd

2011-03-22T10:51:00.006Z

Passion fruit are rich in vitamins A and C and are a good source of potassium and iron. The seeds are high in fibre. What they are really good at though is bringing the taste of hot sunshine into your life, even if it's the tail end of winter. They are little crinkly black balls, with thin brittle shells, and when you cut one open it is full of glorious golden pulp, really intensely coloured, and spotted through with small edible black seeds. The perfume that assails you is divine. The seeded pulp is sweet and sharp in your mouth, a wonderful palate reviver after so many months of rich stews and roasted root veg.

I had forgotten how much joy they bring.

I bought a lot a few weeks ago, made some melting moments stuck together with passionfruit icing, and froze the rest of the pulp in ice cube blocks till I had a plan. Anne left a comment suggesting I try Nigella's Passionfruit Curd which was a stroke of brilliance on her part. When I was a teenager I used to make lemon curd at home, totally loved it on toast or dolloped onto hot scones for morning tea, feeling myself to be at the very height of sophistication.

The idea of using a lot of my stash this way hadn't occurred to me, but I was more than happy to go with the suggestion. Much stirring and spoon licking later I had a big pot of beautiful passionfruit curd, which mostly I've been eating on hot toast as weekend breakfast treat. Every mouthful a delight.

Passionfruit Curd

11 passionfruit
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
150g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter

Cut 10 of the passionfruit open and scoop the seeded pulp into a bowl then blitz with a hand held processor for a minute or two just to loosen the seeds. Strain through a fine sieve into a jug or bowl.

Beat the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together till pale and creamy.

Melt the butter over a low heat in a heavy- based pan then stir in the sugar/egg mixture and the passionfruit juice. Cook over a low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, unitl the mixture thickens to the consistency of double cream. This takes about ten minutes so you need to be a little bit patient.

Off the heat, whisk in the pulp - seeds and all - of the remaining passionfruit, let cool slightly, then pour the curd into a large clean jar.

Keep refrigerated for as long as it lasts!

As with all things Nigella the final result was rich, voluptuous and totally gorgeous.

I wanted,,,I bought....I made

2011-03-18T12:16:00.004Z

The pig skin I bought last week sat in sea salt in the fridge for a week and has since been soaked and then confited. One day soon it will be crackling

Quick trip Friday afternoon for the market, good as it's quiet but one or two stalls not there. Swings and roundabouts.Friday dinner was slow roasted ham hock with cider and onions sliced hot into sandwiches, doesn't get more fabulous. Saturday will be steak and mushrooms just to be decadent and because I had some tarragon that I wanted to use before it went limp, Sunday I have some food blogger friends coming round for a lunch session - a delightful afternoon with 5amfoodie and simplysplendiferous with crisp olive oil crackers topped with a carrotty dip, gorgeous green bean and hazelnut salad, charcuterie loaf finished with chilli chocolate brownies and amazing chocolate brittle, it's a treat to have foodbloggers round for pot luck. Dinner was so simple - omelette and the last of the salads. Monday vegetable curry was the pork slow cooked in game stock served with tagliatelle, Tuesday I think some pork slow cooked in game stock was a repeat of Monday but with cyprus potatoes and buttered spring greens, Wednesday tofu and sesame spinach, Thursday pasta deliriously good lamb kofta, Friday omelette off to the theatre to see Betty Blue Eyes.

First stop Ginger Pig where I bought a piece of rump and some diced pork - £21.35 then stopped for a chat with Charlie, last ever at Borough as the lucky people of Greenwich are about to have him as their butcher. He's been so great, I hope the future works out brilliantly for him.

Went to Silfield for a ham hock - have always bought them there for some reason, old habits and all that - £3.50

Then to Monmouth for coffee - £10

Brindisa had no pancetta ready diced - they normally have little tubs of it on the counter - so I bought a thick slice from an enormous whole - £2.20

A cauliflower from Turnips - they are one of the few vegetable options now that Booths have gone, expensive but very good produce - £1.20

Eggs from Lizzie, who's delighted to be off on holidays for a week and hoping for sunshine - £3

Bread, yoghurt, sour cream and milk from Neals Yard - £11.20

Spent £52.45 and bought more in the week - tofu and minced lamb, butterbeans and leeks, a couple of bunches of spinach and some coriander, and a packet of tagliatelle

Chicken Chasseur

2011-03-18T10:32:00.006Z

I made chicken chasseur to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. I know, I know it's a French bistro classic, redolent of the seventies and sleek dinner parties but my recipe comes from Cookery School - the cook book from the Channel 4 series of that name currently running most afternoons. The chef is none other than Richard Corrigan, a proud Irishman and extraordinarily talented chef. The show is great - and fast becoming a secret guilty pleasure.

There is a varied bunch of people who cook with different degrees of talent/competence and he takes them through three recipes each day, basic, intermediate and advanced, focussing on one ingredient. Food writer Gizzi Erskine oversees the process, highlighting techniques and explaining processes while wearing the most fabulous collection of sixties inspired frocks. The contestants watch Corrigan's demonstration, make notes and, after tasting his perfect version, must replicate the dish within a very specific time. As they struggle and panic he visits their cook stations, offering advice, demonstrating techniques and being at times really harsh about the food being produced. This is no mythically cuddly Oirish man but someone intent on raising the skill and realising the talent of his pupils. The whole point of the show is that they must demonstrably learn. Showing off is pointless. And it's that which I find fascinating.

Last night I made my first attempt at one of the recipes from this comprehensive book. Chicken Chasseur was from the advanced section and I suspect chef would be less than pleased with the slight modifications I made which would more realistically place it in the simpler categories. I had chicken in the freezer that the butcher had already jointed for me, but then their skill is so much greater than mine and it would be a shame not to utilise it.

The next alteration was to buy dried tagliatelle rather than make my own. Thing is, I used to own a pasta machine, and it did indeed make spectacularly wonderful pasta. But I was very very very slow, so while dinner is usually lateish round ours, if it was fresh pasta on the menu it was past bedtime before dinner was served. I got better, it's true, but never fast!

The final difference was unintentional and, it turned out, not too serious. I was convinced I had a bottle of Madeira, so sure in fact I didn't bother checking till I was actually cooking. Turned out it was Marsala. Oops. The final dish tasted divine so not a disaster. So good in fact that I have a sneaking suspicion Chef Corrigan would approve.

Chicken Chasseur

Not making my own pasta meant this was ready in less than an hour, so definitely one for the midweek repertoire

Serves 4

30g plain flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 chicken, cut into 8 pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
20g unsalted butter
2 shallots, peeled and cut into quarters
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
175g chestnut msuhrooms, cut into quarters
3 tablespoons thyme leaves
100ml Madeira
200ml fresh chicken stock
100ml passata
100ml double cream
4 tablespoons finely chopped tarragon

Place the flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper, then roll the chicken pieces in the flour.

Heat a large casserole pot and add half the butter and half the olive oil. Once hot, put in the floured chicken pieces. Cook over a medium to high heat for 4-5 minutes, until golden brown. Remove the chicken and leave to rest.

Put the other tablespoon of olive oil into the pot and add the shallots. Cook for 3 minutes until they begin to go soft. Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms and thyme. Cook for a further 2 minutes.

Pour in the Madeira to deglaze the pan. Return the chicken pieces and add the chicken stock and passata. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes.

Just before serving add the cream and simmer for a further 5 minutes. Serve with tagliatelle, spooning on lots of delicious sauce, and garnish with the chopped tarragon.

Recipe extracted from 'Cookery School', brought to you by Channel 4 with recipes by Richard Corrigan. Published on the 3rd March (Penguin HB, £20)

The show is back next week if you fancy learning a thing or two!

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-03-11T11:01:00.008Z

Spring onion and gorgonzola quiche as seen from above

A quiet week coming up. Saturday night I fancy fish grilled venision sausage sandwiches, Sunday we are out in the day so roast beef of old England will be a treat. Monday a delicate steamed eggs, rice and cabbage still asian but noodles stirfried with mushrooms and greens, Tuesday perhaps a vegtable curry decadently fabulous goose neck stuffed with foie gras that I crumbed and fried and served with boiled new potoatoes and salad, Wednesday some noodles used the last of the gorgonzola and some spring onions to make a quiche, Thursday chicken chasseur and Friday I simply don't know.

It is definitely a little more spring like, but only randomly, and it is still cold, specially at the market. Started at Ginger Pig for a gorgeous hunk of topside as well as both smoked and unsmoked bacon. I like having it in the freezer, it's the start of so many good dinners. Spotted an enormous roll of pig skin which, glutton that I am I simply had to have. Paid £24.30

Went to the Sussex fish stall but couldn't decide so left it. I am still a bit intimidated by fish, knowing what to cook and how best to do it. Went to Furness instead and bought some lovely venison sausages - £6.50

Eggs from Wild Beef - £3 for a dozen

Bread, milk and yoghurt from Neals Yard - £8.70

Then home spending only £42.50 but in need of veg and noodles and other things

Bread - Dough for Pizza

2011-03-11T09:56:00.011Z

One millilitre of water weighs one gram. That is one of the simpler things I learnt this week at a bread making class with Paul Rhodes and his master baker Jan, organised by the real bread campaign.

Other liquids need to be weighed because there is no such simple correlation, but all liquids for baking are measured by weight not volume. Baking is such a precise art. When presented with the consummate skill and obvious passion of both Paul and Jan it is also a real joy. They take time out of a very serious schedule - Rhodes uses 2 tonnes of flour a day in its baking which translates into a serious number of loaves - to bring real bread to a wider public. They are part of this campaign to have bread made in schools and other public institutions for its simplicity and nutrional value, but mostly for its wonderful flavour and texture and the pleasure that gives.

We made a simple white dough - starts out sticky and unmanageable but add only the smallest dusting of flour or the fine balance of weighed ingredients will be lost. The dough quickly becomes manageable and then, with a couple of lessons from both bakers, I was throwing the dough onto the bench, stretching it up and kneading it into a ball, making a quarter turn before throwing and stretching and kneading and turning again. The dough went from very soft to resilient in less than ten minutes, beautifully smooth it bounces back when you make a finger indent. Almost magic.

Left it for a while to decorate our wholemeal cottage tin loaves that we made first and came back to find each ball of dough smooth and risen and smelling wonderfully of yeast. Punched it down, rolled it out and made a base for pizza. Lunch!

I have always shied away from making bread - my few previous attempts have been genuine total fail - so it was a surprise to discover how good it could be. The first thing we were told - great bread needs no more than flour, yeast, salt and water and a small amount of attention to detail is so very true. The only other trick is that a golden crust needs steam - if you don't have a combination oven then simply toss a cup of water into the base of your hot oven before you put the bread in and you will have your own steam cloud, and a lovely crust.

Basic White Bread

500g strong white flour
10g salt
325g lukewarm water - yes you should weigh it!
15g fresh (live) yeast

Sift the flour and salt together. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.

Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the liquid. Mix it all together with your hands, it starts off a wildly sticky mess but gets better!

Very very lightly dust the bench with flour and roll the dough into a ball. Knead it well using the fat base of your thumb till it becomes smooth and elastic. This takes about ten minutes.

Leave to prove for about an hour. The dough will have grown larger and smoother. Knead it again for about five minutes till it feels smooth and resilient rather than soft.

Flatten the dough into a rectangle then roll out till it's about half a centimetre thick. Carefully put it onto a flat baking tray being careful not to tear the dough. Leave to rest again for 15 minutes, then push the edges out if it has shrunk.

Spread with a thin layer of tomato passata and top with whatever it is you love most on pizza.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in a hot oven.

Yum.

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-03-04T11:00:00.006Z

This one has my name on it!

Saturday is cinema in the afternoon with my sister and a cold collation on our return but she left a message while we were at the market to say she wasn't coming so we had cheese sandwiches for lunch and grilled lamb chops from the freezer with lentils for dinner. Sunday we are out to lunch so dinner should be low key more cheese sandwiches and crab paté with olives and nibbles and bits, there is a little cheese sauce in the freezer that would go nicely with pasta and cauliflower, Monday harissa chicken we had the cauliflower pasta, Tuesday dinner at Moro one of my sister's favourites. Wednesday sausage and lentils the last of the lovely venison faggots with mash and spinach, Thursday risotto but sadly not a terribly good one!, Friday probably omelette because I write that every week as a forecast and sometimes it comes true but this week will in fact be spiced chicken with rice and roasted cauliflower as a farewell to Jane.

We were vaguley late to the market - and wow was it cold! The number of tourists seems to increase exponentially every 5 minutes late you are. Busy busy! Didn't need anything from Ginger Pig, rare I know, so started at Shellseekers for a tub of their fabulous crab pate - £4.95

On to Fresh Olive for a melange topped with some chilli stuffed lovelies - £4.50

Chocolates from L'Artisan - £2

Gorgonzola, a semi hard cow's cheese and some truffle studded mortadella from Gastronomica - £15

Apples and pears from Chegworth - £1.80

Eggs from Wild Beef - £1.50 - stamped for the first time, some further extension of pointless bureaucracy into fresh food while the processed industry runs amok

A pork pie from Mrs Elizabeth King - £5

A stick of bread from the Marché - £1.30

A creamy cauliflower from Tony - £1

Yoghurt and milk from Neals Yard - £5.25

A change - a poppyseed loaf from Flour Power for toast - and good toast it was! - £2.20

Spent £44.50

Tartiflette - sort of

2011-03-03T14:55:00.008Z

Tartiflette is an eye popping mix of potatoes, cheese and cream flavoured with bacon and onion and garlic fried in butter. The polar opposite of low fat and not really the kind of food I make, at least not all in the same dish. Yet it was dinner Tuesday night.

I blame myself. Left a few food magazines on the kitchen table. The man found came home. Found them. He browsed, flicked through the bits he wasn't interested in, stopped to read bits and share his thoughts about new ideas and good things.

Then he came upon good cheese - a magazine produced by the Guild of Fine Food and suddenly he was all attention. Cheese is one of the great loves of his life, nothing perfects a meal for him like a squeak of cheese at the end, something fine and interesting, possibly new, possibly a known delight. He was delighted to find a serious piece about matching cheese with British beer, another of his true loves. It is something we might actually indulge in one day soon.

Then he found it. A recipe from Charles Campion. Tartiflette. The potato based treat made a hat trick of his food loves - mashed, boiled, baked, fried, chipped, salad, jacket - potatoes are his constant joy. Rarely for him, he asked me to make this for dinner. Usually he is happy to eat whatever I make, the ongoing menu of our meals is my domain. The pleasure of sharing new things and good things binds us almost daily. We have learned a lot together over the years.

How could I refuse?

Tartiflette - sort of

This dish is a paean to winter food - decadent, rich, comforting and outrageously calorific. Winter has returned to London this week with a biting northwesterly wind and a heavy pressing of grey cloud. Bitter is a good description. This is the antidote.

2 for dinner with a proper serving for lunch next day

750g waxy potatoes
150g smoked bacon, cut into 1cm strips
1 large onion, sliced finely
50g butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
salt and pepper
142ml double cream
250g round pie d'Angloys or similar soft well flavoured cheese, diced

Halve the potatoes then cook in boiling salted water till just al dente. Drain.

Meanwhile cook the sliced bacon and onion in a sauté pan over a low heat till the bacon starts to rend its fat and the onion becomes translucent. This takes about 15 minutes. Add the butter and the chopped garlic and stir for a couple of minutes till you can smell the lovely smell of cooked garlic. Season.

Put half the potatoes into a casserole dish, then add all the bacon/onion/garlic mix. Tip the rest of the potatoes on top then pour in the cream. Dot the diced cheese all over then bake in the oven at gas4/180C for 25-30 minutes till it is all bubbly golden gorgeousness.

Leave to sit for a few minutes then serve, with a little salad for contrast.

Blissfully good on a cold night.

It's a 'sort of' rather than a 'real' one as traditionally it would be made with Reblochon cheese, possibly without cream or possibly with lots more, and almost always served after a day on the ski slopes. This is an adaptation for a mid week dinner for a city dweller, aghast at how long winter seems to be with us.

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-02-25T09:49:00.005Z

Coffee beans - the start of every day

Food chain this weekend so need to be quick at Borough and have some easy things for the weekend. Saturday a simple pasta sausage and mash with a puddle of peas, Sunday venison faggots with onion gravy from the freezer omelette and salad that I brought home from food chain, Monday noodle soup faggots and mashed swede with a drizzle of onion gravy, Tuesday I have a jar of stuffed goose neck from France in the fridge that I fancy coated with breadcrumbs and served with potatoes and salad a sort of tartiflette for a different kind of decadent. Wednesday some tofu pork chop noodle soup, Thursday might be chicken and mushrooms my sister is here so we had a lovely chinesey feast with steamed tofu and aubergine and hot sticky ribs, Friday sausages perhaps a little stir fry and rice leftover from Thursday.

We were early and Borough was blissfully quiet. Started at an almost empty Ginger Pig where I bought some skinny little sausages and some pork spare ribs for £11.20

Then to Monmouth for coffee - espresso beans - £10

Eggs from Wild Beef - £1

Potatoes, lovely marfona, from Teds Veg as well as swede, carrots and Savoy cabbage - £4.80

A hunk of truffle studded sheep cheese from Gastronomica - £8.50

Bread, yoghurt and milk from Neals Yard - £9.70

Then run run run home - £45.20

Curried Lentil Soup

2011-02-23T10:57:00.003Z

Really this is a creamy curried soup, but made without cream.... Not entirely a soup, either, more a dal but not really a true dal as the lentils are small and green and French. An enigma in a bowl.

Winter is revisiting London and it's all a bit bleak and damp and not quite light during the still too short days. Spring has arrived in the garden - buds are bursting out all over, pale new leaves are shyly displaying themselves and the snowdrops and crocuses are looking a little bedraggled by their rainy welcome - but in the kitchen winter reigns still.

Veg being less than inspiring, most of it the last of the winter store, I'm turning often to pulses. I have a secret supply of an exquisite french lentil - lentilles verte du berry - which were the first to come under Label Rouge - a distinct sign of quality. The friend, who acquires these lovely little things on her visits home, assures me they are best when served as a base for sausages, preferably toulouse but definitely garlic in one form or another. I will try that for sure come spring, but this week they made for a lovely rich warming dish.

The man loves curried parsnip soup with something approaching an unbalanced passion so I was fairly sure a midweek offering of curried lentils would be welcome. What intrigued me when I found the recipe on Serious Eats was using a chickpea purée to thicken the lentils and make them, it turned out, intensely gorgeously dreamily creamy.

Curried Lentil Soup

Lentils, chickpeas, curry powder, water - a dish where the whole utterly transcends the sum of its parts. Serves 4 with a side of crusty bread

4 tablespoons olive oil,

1 medium onion, chopped

1 medium carrot, finely chopped

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

2 large garlic cloves, chopped, divided

2 tablespoons curry powder, or more to taste

1 cup French green lentils

4 cups water

400g can chickpeas, drained, rinsed or a large handful of dried ones, soaked and cooked

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons butter

2 green onions, thinly sliced

1 lemon, cut into wedges

In a large heavy pot, heat half the olive oil over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion, celery and carrot, season with a pinch of salt and pepper, and cook until onion is translucent, 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and cook for an additional 2 minutes, then stir in curry powder. Cook, stirring constantly to prevent spices from burning, until spices are fragrant.

Add lentils and water and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.

In the meantime, puree chickpeas, lemon juice, remaining olive oil, and 1/4 cup of water. Stir puree into lentils, along with butter. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and/or additional curry powder, then thin soup with water until desired consistency.

Divide amongst soup bowls and serve garnished with green onion and with lemons on the side.

The man was delighted, so much so he suggested they should be packed into jars and sold in shops in the way the french do with all things good. Bonne idée, non?

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-02-21T17:43:00.006Z

Look at that bottom shelf - beer to the left of me, yoghurt to the right! Balanced lifestyles...
Thanks to Total for my yoghurt mountain

We are out with the man's folks Saturday for a serious lunch at the Anchor & Hope then on to Southwark Playhouse for Company so supper will be simple and light - a little toast and cheese and salami with olives after a really pleasant afternoon. Sunday have some ham, thinking eggs and chips we had an unfortunately fairly unpleasant lunch out after wandering the streets in persistent drizzle so had hot toast for comfort. Monday lentil soup pitta breads with roasted vegetables, haloumi and spiced butterbean paste, Tuesday we are probably out we were in for a bowl of lovely creamy lentil soup, Wednesday we are definitely out for the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Simon Rattle which was extraordinary even to me who knows little about classical music, Thursday chicken and mushrooms we were out (not in!), Friday omelette or perhaps pasta.

Market was quiet, bought some gammon from one of the new butchers at Ginger Pig, then got chatting to Charlie who dropped a bombshell. He's leaving! Moving on to hopefully better things he's off in a couple of weeks and I will miss him though I wish him well. Gammon cost £15.40

Eggs from Wild Beef, a dozen for £3

Skate wings from the new fish stall from Essex who till now have been next to the game people but no more. Turns out the game dealer was told they couldn't sell chickens so they had a hissy, insisted they would not be told what they could sell and so bof! they are gone. Bad news in the sense that they were the source of home made pork scratchings that were divine and, sadly, fleeting. Skate cost £7.20

Apples from Chegworth - £1.03

Saw Ian at Mrs Kings, his plans for a new venture outside Melton Mowbray are proceeding well, hoping it can be realised in all its glory

Olives from Fresh Olive - a mix of melange and chilli stuffed green ones - £4.50

Almonds and fried broad beans from Brindisa - the beans to try atop as crunch atop a salad - £5.25

Bought milk, yoghurt and bread from Neals Yard - £9.70

Home again spending £46.08 but getting veg locally and other bits and pieces in the week

Passionfruit Melting Moments

2011-02-14T16:31:00.004Z

It is cold and grey and still February. On the other side of the world it is hot and bright and indeed also February. What they have, and we don't, is passionfruit. It is an integral part of Oz culture - it is hot, you have a passionfruit vine overladen on the back fence, there is to be a barbie on the weekend, dessert will be pavlova, and pavlova is topped with passionfruit, unfailingly and always.

They're a funny thing, small like an egg, thin black skins that are tinged with purply green and shiny smooth to start with, but that is when they are not yet ripe. They are not at their best till the skins are crumpled and puckered, the whole sort of collapsed in on itself. Open one then and you find a glorious burst of vibrant orange pulp full of sharp little black seeds. Suck the contents immediately into your mouth for an extraordinary hit of sugar and sharp, sticky and sweet.

Wandering past my local fruit shop last week I saw they had passionfruit 10 for £1. Bargain! Was on my way somewhere else but knew they must be mine. Found a recipe for melting moments, another oz icon, which are a 'sandy' textured biscuit often stuck together with some kind of butter icing for double the treat. The best of all flavouring for the sticking together stuff is, of course, passionfruit. Took myself back to the fruit shop to discover they were no longer 10 for a pound but rather 'pound a scoop'. Except that my shop uses plastic washing up bowls rather than metal scoops so, to my delight, I ended up with about 3 dozen little wrinkly fruit. Joy.

This recipe only needs the pulp from one or two, but the pulp freezes brilliantly. I did it in ice cube trays then packed the resulting blocks into a zip lock bag for future use. Each fruit seemed to contain a slightly different colour making for the gorgeous variations above.

Passionfruit Melting Moments

This recipe comes from Taste - an Australian site that has lots of other local treats to try

Makes 32 - they are nice as single biscuits with a cuppa but the passionfruit makes them special

250g unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup pure icing sugar, sifted
2 cups plain flour
1/3 cup cornflour
Passionfruit filling
60g butter, softened
1 large passionfruit
1 cup pure icing sugar, sifted

Preheat oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, cream butter, vanilla and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Sift flours over butter mixture. Beat on low speed until a soft dough forms.
Roll heaped teaspoonfuls of mixture into small balls. Place on trays. Using a fork dipped in flour, lightly flatten each biscuit until 1cm thick. Bake for 15 minutes or until firm. Cool on trays for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Make passionfruit filling: Using an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy. Stir in passionfruit pulp and icing sugar.
Spread flat side of 1 biscuit with 1 teaspoon filling. Top with another biscuit. Repeat with remaining biscuits and filling. Dust with icing sugar. Serve

So now I have lots of pulp - am thinking cupcakes with passionfruit icing, possibly a cake, any other suggestions or favourites?

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-02-11T13:41:00.005Z

Riso gallo pronto - dinner in 20 minutes!

Am out for the day Saturday so thinking supper needs to be simple - perhaps fish - some lamb chops from the freezer with hot veg. Sunday I am ecstatic to say we have a reservation for lunch at Dinner, Heston Blumenthal's new restaurant. Thinking the following dinner will be minimal - a small amount of salami and toast. Monday we are out, Tuesday I think some risotto would be nice made venison faggots with venison liver that was gifted me by Jon and Marie, served up with mashed swede and cabbage, even better than the ones made with pig liver, Wednesday the rest of the lamb stew made a brilliant risotto with riso gallo quick cook risotto with porcini worked a treat with added chicken and the lot cooked in stock, Thursday pasta had the rest of the lamb stew with mash and Friday omelette and salad skate wings with leeks and new potatoes. Easy peasy.

Quiet at Borough - Charlie is back at the Ginger Pig complete with suntan from a couple of weeks in Sydney - least he got lucky with sunshine. Only bought some pork mince - £4.30

Espresso beans from Monmouth - £10

Went to the new game dealer, wanting venison and hoping for pork scratchings. My wants met, hope remains unsated £8.50

Loitered by the Essex fish stall for a couple of minutes but there was no one serving so I wandered off, fish free

A dozen eggs this week from Wild Beef - £3

A lovely crumbly piece of toma from Gastronomica - £6.50

Milk and yoghurt from Neals Yard - £4.90

Thought about bread from Flour Power but they had run out of small loaves and I still had half a rye loaf so decided to try for bread at Oval from the Old Post Office people instead

Bought veg locally on Brixton Road and a lovely bunch of muscat grapes

Spent £37.20

Ribollita

2011-02-07T13:22:00.008Z

I was looking for a way to use the chicken carcass from last weeks' roast chicken as stock as well as half a bunch of parsley and possibly some potatoes and cabbage too. I'm not convinced that I am essentially frugal but I really hate throwing food away.

Recently I found a large cookbook in a charity shop in Brixton. Decidedly battered but holding together well between hardback covers, it is a copy of The Conran Cookbook published originally in 1980 but this was republished in 1997 with the original work of Caroline and Terence Conran now supplemented by additions from Simon Hopkinson - he of Roast Chicken and Other Stories, author of the 'best' cookbook ever. Had to be worth a look.

There's no way of knowing who wrote what but it quickly became clear why the book had been so well used. It's stuffed full of fairly simple recipes, real week by week stuff, largely European in style, with lots of interesting stuff about ingredients. Indeed the purpose of the book is to chart the progress of food from market to kitchen to table, with half the book devoted to the purchase and preparation of food before you even get to the eclectic collection of recipes. A seriously good browse that assumes a fair amount of intelligence in its readers.

Checking out the offerings in the soup section I found this Ribollita, an almost perfect use of everything I had still left on Friday, with the addition of a couple more veg for what turned out to be a deeply flavoured soup, with lots of lovely textures and properly robust.

Ribollita

You're aiming for a thick 'stewy' broth. It's traditional to ladle the soup over chunks of stale, country style bread but I had none, but fresh rye on the side made a great accompaniment

Serves 6

170g dried borlotti or pinto beans, soaked overnight
4 tbspns olive oil, plus extra for serving
1 red onion, chopped
A bunch of parsley, big stalks discarded, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
225g Swiss chard or curly kale, wahsed and coarsely chopped
1 sweetheart cabbage, coarsely chopped
4 tomatoes, skinned and chopped
Heel of old Parmesan rind
3-4 medium potatoes, peeled and diced into 2cm pieces
2 litres of chicken or vegetable stock - use the cooking water from the beans for part of it
1 or 2 courgettes, halved lengthways then cut across into 1/2 cm slices

Drain and rinse the beans and cook in unsalted water till al dente. Drain but be sure to keep the cooking water for the soup base.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and soften the onions with the parsley and the garlic. Set half the chopped kale and cabbage aside, and add the rest, with all the stalky bits, to the onions. Put in the tomatoes, potatoes and cooked beans. Stir for a few minutes to coat all the vegetables in oil then add the stock, the bean water and the Parmesan rind and bring to the boil.

Simmer for an hour then add the courgettes and season with salt and pepper. simmer for a further 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, blanch the reserved kale and cabbage by plunging it into a pan of boiling salted water and boil for 2 minutes. It should be tender but still bright green. Drain and add to the soup. Bring the soup back to the boil.

Put chunks of bread into soup bowls and ladle the soup over the top. Everyone can serve themselves with extra drizzles of olive oil and sprinklings of grated Parmesan.

This reheats really well, the flavour intensifying int he same way as stews, without the vegetables collapsing. Deeply satisfying food.

I wanted...I bought,...I made

2011-02-04T13:13:00.007Z

I was just as surprised as Teddy to see how much he'd grown!

We are away for the weekend visiting the lovely Marie and Jon and the fast growing Teddy which is a treat. Am planning reheating soup Sunday night on our return - more cheesey crackers and a glass of red was all we needed after a wonderful and well fed weekend. Monday I think will be roast, perhaps with salads rather than hot veg hot roast beef sandwiches with grilled onion salad, Tuesday we are out, Wednesday could be the lamb stew that didn't happen last week the man was out so I had a grilled pork chop and salad and steamed the lamb stew, Thursday I think risotto stew with a hunk of crusty bread, Friday noodles the last of the roast beef with some olives and cheese and salad and bread = cold collation. And we have most of all of that and I don't have noodles!

Went to Borough Friday and it was so different to the scrum that is Saturday. Wandered around and chatted with people, only buffeting came from a gale blowing through every space. John at Ginger Pig found a beautiful piece of topside for me roasted Monday night and lunches in the week, along with a couple of chicken carcasses made stock for the freezer for £18.70

Then over to Wild Beef where the stall was momentarily unattended but I left £1.50 for a box of eggs with the guy at the neighbouring stall

Chocolates from L'Artisan du Chocolat - 2 bags for a treat - £4

Hoped for some pork scratchings from the game poeple, but alas, was not to be though they had lots of lovely looking produce as did the Essex Fish people on the next stall

With Booths gone and Teds not there on Fridays, got my veg locally as our greengrocer often has good Brit produce like curly kale and onions and cabbage

Was really delighted to see Ian back at the Elizabeth King stall - his son has been running it for a few months - had a long catch up chat about future hopes and plans, seriously enjoyed it. Bought nothing!

Bought milk, pasta and an exceptionally good rye loaf from Neals Yard £9.20

Not bad for the week - £33.40

Aubergine Pasta Bake

2011-02-02T18:47:00.005Z

Aubergines - silky, sexy, fabulous in so many forms. Its mild flavour and spongy texture means it can be transformed into the most extraordinary variety of dishes from hot spiced brinjal pickle (an absolute favourite), creamy moussaka, summer in a bowl ratatouille, extrordinary sea spice aubergine - it is one ingredient that has travelled the world and become integral to nearly every cuisine. They are popular in Asia, America, the middle east and across Europe ranging in shape from a shiny deep purple truncheon common here to small shiny white ovoids mostly in Africa where they are called garden eggs. See one and you will immediately understand!

I have been meaning to make this pasta dish for a couple of weeks - show me a new aubergine recipe and I will immediately plan to make it - and finally managed it this week. In her introduction Anna del Conte says this excellent pasticcio is another testimony to the aubergine's rare ability to blend with other flavours while retaining its own. Another reason perhaps for its ubiquity in world cuisine.

Pasticcio di pasta e melanzane in bianco

4 generous servings

The only change I made was to top it with fresh breadcrumbs before baking to add a tiny crackle of texture

For the bechamel
600ml full fat milk
2 bay leaves
60g unsalted butter
30g plain flour
60g Gruyère, freshly grated - I used the last of a piece of Coolea
60g Parmesan, freshly grated
Salt and pepper

700g aubergine
sea salt
1 small dried chilli
2 garlic cloves
a bunch of parsley
5 tbspn olive oil
pepper
350g penne

Handful of fresh breadcrumbs (optional)

Heat the milk with the bay leaves to boiling point, turn of the heat and leave to infuse for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile...

Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water. Drain when very al dente.

As the pasta cooks...

Wash and dry the aubergines. Cut them lengthwise in 1 1/2cm slices, then into 2cm strips and finally cut these strips into 4cm length pieces. You're aiming to match the shape of the penne.

Chop the chili, garlic and parsley together and put it into a frying pan with the oil. Fry gently for a minute then add the aubergines. Sauté over a low heat for 10 minutes or so, turning them frequently, until soft and cooked through. Taste and adjsut the seasonings. Add the cooked pasta and sauté all together for 2-3 minutes, mixing it well with the aubergine. Turn into a buttered casserole dish.

Back to the bechamel...

In a large saucepan melt the butter, add the flour and cook for a minute or so until the flour loses its rawness and becomes biscuity in smell. Add the infused milk a little at a time and beat hard to incorporate. When all the milk has been added add salt and pepper to taste and bring to the boil. Simmer very gently for 10 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Add the grated cheeses to the bechamel and stir until they have melted into the sauce. Taste and check the seasonings.

Pour the bechamel over the aubergine and pasta, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, then bake at Gas 6/ 200C/ 400F for 20 minutes until there is a light golden crust. Leave out of the oven for 5 minutes before serving, for the flavours to blend.

When I read the recipe initially I wondered how much infusing the milk would really add to the finished dish. Don't be tempted to skip this step as it adds a deep savouriness to the sauce that perfectly complements the aubergine and so takes it from good to seriously great.

I wanted...I bought...I made

2011-01-28T10:05:00.009Z

Steamed Game Pudding

Out for a posh lunch Saturday so I'm thinking cold collation in the evening - all things fishy for a change from our usual cheeses and salamis. Sunday I'm hankering for roast chicken - ages since we had that - lunch out so dinner was toast with the rest of the crab pate and taramsalata. Monday might have another go at aubergine pasta - full on roast chicken dinner with gravy and sprouts and stuffing and everything, Tuesday noodles aubergine pasta, silky as sin, Wednesday steamed savoury pudding with the last of the game stew from christmas the rest of the pasta reheated in the steam oven with crusty bread, Thursday I'm wondering about belly pork made a lovely suet pastry then steamed it full of game and served it with buttered cabbage, Friday omelette and salad chicken soup with the remnants of our lovely chicken using the carcass for stock.

Borough was picking up a little busy wise this week, but still easy going and great shopping. The boys at Ginger Pig were well wrapped up against the bitter wind, John particularly in a tweed cap as well as a nice big hoodie, but they all looked a bit raw even at 9 o'clock. Bought a chicken and, as a direct result of the cold, bought some lamb neck chops dreaming of stew. Spent £20.04

Coffee next from the newly, and beautifully simply, refurbished Monmouth, espresso beans £10

Then smoked salmon from the Irish stall - £5 - a total bargain it is so beautiful

Then thinking of prawns but bought instead a tub of crab paté from Shellseekers, mainly because I have always wanted to try but haven't - £4.95

Finally returned about 1000 empty egg boxes to Lizzie at Wild Beef - and bought another box to start the new fridge top mountain - £1.50

Then into the new bit of the market where the man had bought good bread the week before, found the stall, found the bread - a lovely seedy malted loaf - £2.20

There is also a game dealer there, who also trades at Oval, and they sell the most fabulous pork scratchings at a bargainous £1 so had to have some. They also were selling partridge legs for 10p each. Yes, ten pence. A challenge I think you'll find. They are on the plan for next week...

Ted's Veg for potatoes, sprouts and a lettuce - I am beginning to hanker after salad - spent £4.90

At Tony's I wanted a cabbage and bought chicory and an aubergine too - £2

From Neals Yard I got lots of milk, some of it 50p a litre short dated, £3.20

Enough for the week, or the time being at least spent a not too bad £54.79

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