Ding dong merrily, most of the recipes are Christmassy this week. Any of them going on your table?
The Telegraph
A couple of pear recipes from Stephen Harris in The Telegraph, to solve any vegetarian catering conundrums you may have: charred celeriac with stewed pears and mustard; and pear, coffee liquor roast walnuts and roquefort salad.
On Sunday, Diana Henry noted that Brussels sprouts aren’t just for Christmas, lightly sautéing them, roasting with bacon and apple, and deep frying and slathering them with reduced soy, Sriracha garlic mayo and togarashi seasoning. Oui. Or hai.
The Times and Sunday Times
Candice from Bake Off has a Sunday Times ‘The Dish’ column. Cakes.
Also in that supplement, Jamie’s stress free Christmas roast. Plan, prepare, get ahead, blah, blah. You know the drill. The best, or perhaps most intriguing recipes were: a baked bread sauce (like a bread pudding, or Portuguese migas, really); a cheese tart with chestnut pastry, and hazelnut and bread crumb topping (labelled a pie but, hey, no lid); and filo and puff pastry mince pie swirl things, which I remember him doing about 15 years ago (and which are really good).
Saturday’s Times had easy crostini in the Weekend (meh). Then Paul Hollywood bakes in the Magazine. There’s a good cherry kirsch croissant bread and butter. But the is-it-or-isn’t-it-maybe-it-is-because-he’s-so-dishy innuendo of the ‘come-again’ cocoa fruit loaf made me throw-up in my mouth. Oh, also, four things to do with an aubergine.
The FT Weekend
Moving swiftly on, the Honey & Co ‘morning after Christmas’ recipes in the FT Weekend Magazine were brillo pads. Luxurious and lush, basically: clementines with cranberries and star anise; stunning looking eggs baked in saffron yoghurt and caviar (dahhling); pecorino crepes with ratte potatoes and truffle; and medjool date, manuka honey and macademia breakfast loaf. Incidentally, that last one will be particularly good — I’ve made another of their breakfast loaves before and it was supreme.
Tim Hayward proposed gravy.
The Guardian and Observer
Nigel Slater let the Christmas train pass him by this week (thank you), instead suggesting we all braise some brisket — simply with dried porcini, onions and thyme — and serve it with swede. Should you have some left over, then pull it and mix it into a crunchy slaw.
But maybe he was only able to do that because Saturday’s Guardian was so Christmassy, it may as well have been cut in the shape of a fir tree.
The shiny magazine included a variety of festive ideas, including Felicity Cloake’s top 10 cheats (check out the gorgeous spiced chestnut and squash filo pie, and buttered rum puds); Thomasina’s party food (the salt cod fritters, and mini roast potatoes with ajo blanco dip, and sticky chicken wings and pomegranate); plus sweet things from Yotam (LOVE the cinnamon pavlovas with pear, chestnut and walnut, and the spiced cranberry and red wine tiramisu).
‘Cook‘ was Christmassy in tone, too, with various gift lists etc (and lovely ‘make your own’ edible presents). But the theme didn’t carry through to the recipes. Huzzah. Rachel Roddy’s pork, chicken liver and mozzarella arancini-ish suppli look awesome (so much better than any ‘festive’ canapé). Anna Jones’ hot drinks much more appealing than I thought at first glance (the cardamom, cinnamon, honey and turmeric milk, and vanilla and lime in mulled wine). And, once again, if Ben Chapman’s rural Thai recipes are even close to the versions he serves in Kiln, then they’ll be superb. I’m trying the Isaarn mushroom salad asap.
There was also an interesting rundown of how food writing has evolved in the Observer since the first column in 1952 (the paper was marking its 225 years and getting all emosh). Naturally Jay Rayner’s narrative culminated with Lord Nigel, and a bonus and very he recipe for slow-braised beef cheeks with prunes and anise.
From the internet
I had some superb chicken wings at Black Axe Mangal on Saturday night — seasoned with the spice mix that Lee Tiernan has nicked from his mate Danny Bowien at Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco in New York. The mix is an awesome dust made up of cumin, Sichuan pepper and who knows what else. You should try it. By some coincidence I then saw Mr Bowien had a recipe in Lucky Peach for chicken nuggets and battered pig tails, to go with some homemade McDonald’s style sauces.
Did I mention Helen Graves’ steak slices the other week? Should’ve done.
#Supplemental Cooking
Nothing from the papers for me this weekend. I’ve bookmarked Diana Henry’s okonomiyaki deep-fried sprouts and Ben Chapman’s Thai recipes, though.
Weekend Menu, 3 and 4 December 2016
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Pork, chicken liver and mozzarella suppli
Rachel Roddy, The Guardian ‘Cook’
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Herbal pork curry soup (gaeng om)
Ben Chapman, The Guardian ‘Cook’
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Cinnamon pavlova, pear, chestnut and walnut
Yotam Ottolenghi, The Guardian
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