I was away from home AGAIN this weekend, this time in a stunning part of Wiltshire rolling around with hogget carcasses and ginger pigs. So it’s yet another #Supplemental in bullet form. I reckon I’ve managed to get most of the recipes from the papers in the links below, but do shout if anything particularly good (or bad) has been missed.
- A topical theme in the Sunday Times: four recipe reasons to stay in the EU, including José Pizarro’s rather superb aubergine, blue cheese and honey tortilla. Though I was also drawn to Jamie’s thoroughly British gooseberry fool. What to do?! (In)
- Some brunch things in The Weekend section of Saturday’s Times Mag, but nothing you’ve not seen before. Donna Hay’s ‘Summer on a Plate’ in the Magazine was more interesting – I really liked the idea of a corn and cucumber freekeh salad, with a buttermilk and raisin dressing; also the sweet potato chips with nori and pearl barley (with peanuts and a Japanese condiment dressing).
- Still struggling a little to be enthused by Nadiya Hussain’s baking recipes in the same supplement as it continues to feel a little … inexperienced. This week, tiramisu.
- Compare Nadiya’s blog-style intro with the confident, wise words of Diana Henry over at the The Sunday Telegraph, where this week we learned of a multitude of things to do with the humble carrot. These include: roasting, then dressing with yoghurt and coriander; making bread; or slicing into thin strips and dressing with mint, chilli and ginger.
- No Stephen Harris this week, if my quick glance served me right. I think I saw some US BBQ recipes in the paper version, but am yet to see them online.
- Masses of food content in the FT Weekend, not least my list of five places in eat in central Lisbon. On the recipe front it was difficult, nay, impossible, to flick quickly past Honey & Co’s summer desserts: frozen meringue with strawberry and lime; a bitter chocolate cloud cake with black and red currants plus a sprinkle of cinnamon; and fruit and custard tarts. Definitely take a peek. And HELLO lobster arroz with oloroso sherry – from Sam Clark of Moro / Morito fame.
- Some weekends there are barely any sweet recipes, on others there’s a glut. We were in bumper sugar territory on Saturday and Sunday. Nigel Slater’s Observer column contributed sweet treats such as pistachio and blueberry pastries; and watermelon with ginger, lemon and cherries (intriguing).
- Clair Ptak provided Guardian Cook readers with a recipe for gooseberry compote, and gooseberry bars – an oat base, gooseberry topping, then a crumble to go on top. I might have to pop round to her Violet café for a mug of each of rice flour, tapioca flour, sorghum flour, and oatmeal flour used in the base.
- Love love love Anna Jones’ cardamom and vanilla apricots with a frangipane crumb. Ditto Rachel Roddy’s baked tomatoes with breadcrumbs.
- And though they’re savoury dishes, there’s still much that’s sweet in Thomasina Miers’ cracking hibiscus syrup dressed beetroot, feta, tarragon, chilli pickled onion and watercress salad. Plus, blimey, pork shin braised in milk, wine, anchovies, sage, and lemon zest with a butter lettuce and pea salad.
- From Yotam with love: lamb Wellington with manchego, almonds and smoked aubergine; braised broad beans with lamb and cumin; and lamb meatballs with avgolemeno (Google it).
- Finally, a fist bump for Jamestown grilled prawns and coconut rice.
Pretty strong weekend, really. What will you cook?
Weekend Menu, 11 and 12 June 2016
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Lobster arroz with oloroso sherry
Sam Clark, The FT Weekend
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Pork shin braised in milk, wine, anchovies, sage, and lemon zest
with a butter lettuce and pea salad
Thomasina Miers, The Guardian
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Bitter chocolate cloud cake with black and red currants
Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich, The FT Weekend
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That’s a hoooge comparison between a beginner food-writer and Diana H who is right at the very top of her game atm? I do agree with your point however. Nadiya’s copy and recipes are sub-par for the company she is keeping. (I feel like I am kicking a kitten by saying that as she’s such good people.) 🙁
The fault lies with her agent and editor because they are potentially screwing with her career by placing her in this position in the first place. It’s also worth bearing in mind that quite a few foodwriters and chefs with cookbook deals have ghost writers because their own writing is bloody awful but they are happy to let readers believe that their words are all their own work. I have encountered some critical comments about Nadiya by one of them which kind of made me want to mutter away at them…
At least Nadiya writes her own recipe introductions, even if they are rather baggy. As for the recipes, the problem might lie in miss-identifying her market and readership?It’s not the food-obsessed Times reader, I suspect, and simple twists on well-known recipes would be better-placed elsewhere.
Hi Nicola. She seems like a smart, genuine, likeable and very capable person, and good on her for the success she’s achieving. What I find odd, whether it’s the writing or the editing, is that most of the (relatively classic) recipes appear to be introduced with a “I’d never made this before” or “I’ve made this once”. This must be disconcerting to recipe readers, who surely look for inspiration, experience and an assured guiding hand from food writers, rather than to be inadvertently accompanying a writer on the early but public stages of their personal food journey. That was the comparison with Diana, really – whether D had cooked her carrot recipes once or twenty times, there was an authority and certainty to how they were introduced.
Can’t disagree with your point. Recipe testing is key and I like to know it has been done too.