Supplemental #135

Barely a hint of Christmas in the recipes this weekend. Phew. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Here’s a summary of the highlights.

The Times

Lots of food in Saturday’s Times. But the best of it revolved around simple Spanish from Nieves Barragan Mohacho — she of the brilliant Barrafina (red mullet rice, chicken with romesco sauce, grilled leeks with picada and a glorious looking monkfish recipe involving new potatoes, spinach and garlic oil); and a bunch of Aussie stir-fry ideas courtesy of Donna Hay (look to the kimch chicken with green tea noodles, and cashew and tahini satay).

The Telegraph

Whether it was their intention or not, The Telegraph’s food crew nailed the food we should be eating on the final few days of November.

We’re about to go into party overdrive — over eating, over drinking, over complication, faff and frills — so to see Stephen Harris suggest a simple baked Bramley (albeit with the addition of salted caramel and crumble), and Diana Henry a set of winter soups was something of a relief.

That said, Diana’s soups sound pretty luxurious — chicken and saffron with hot red pepper purée, parsnip with chorizo and Marcona almond, beetroot and fennel with sour cream and salmon tartare.

Guardian and Observer

In the Observer, Slater played a man-marking role on Harris, with recipes that were also on a baked apple theme. Classic Nigel, really: pot roast pork chops with wedges of apple and Jerusalem artichokes; and a twist to the usual baked apple, which involved melting quince paste and mixing the usual sultanas, raisins and sweet spices through it, before stuffing into the space that once was the fruit’s core. Over the page, his mid-week dinner also suited the moment — an orzo, cavolo nero, cream and smoked cheddar bake. They’ll publish this online in the next day or so.

Keeping the Guardian and Times battle going, it looks as though Thomasina Miers had been asked to pre-empt Diana Henry’s column, as she provided Weekend magazine readers with two hearty soup options: ribollita and a tempting squash, pasta, fried sage and Parmesan number.

Yotam’s recipes in the same supplement were eye-catching. This week his recipes all featured sesame seeds. And though a kohlrabi and apple salad, and sushi rice cakes with miso and ginger sauce both looked excellent, surely everyone will have gone straight for the sesame, date and banana steamed pudding with sesame caramel sauce. Holy shit.

I have a feeling Rachel Roddy‘s recipe will make it to my lunch table this week — a pumpkin, onion, sage and potato frittata.

And Ben Chapman provided Cook readers with a claypot crab noodle recipe. Add some fatty pork belly, and you could be in Kiln. I’m onto that like a pig rolling in an Ottolenghi steamed pudding.

FT Weekend

Rowley Leigh put forward a few of his snacks being served up at the new Design Museum restaurant — including, of course, his well known Parmesan custard and anchovy toast, and salsify and sage fritters.

On the internet

If you like Ben Chapman’s Thai recipes, check out this one on Munchies from Som Saa’s Andy Oliver and Mark Dobbie: stir fried duck, crispy egg, loads of Thai basil and prik nahm pla dressing.

#Supplemental cooking

Back from a flying but fattening visit to Tel Aviv, my appetite was all over the place on Sunday. I found time, though, for a mid-afternoon baked apple treat.

Inspired by Nigel Slater’s recipe, I added some damson paste (no membrillo in the house) to his other stuffing ingredients, loaded a couple of apples and chucked them in the oven. Doesn’t look much, but the result was a fine one.

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Weekend Menu, 26 and 27 November 2016

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Chicken and saffron soup, hot red pepper purée

Diana Henry, The Sunday Telegraph ‘Stella’

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Monkfish, new potatoes, spinach and ajillo

Nieves Barragan Mohacho, The Times

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Sesame, date and banana steamed pudding

Yotam Ottolenghi, The Guardian

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