A good mix of sweet and savoury this week. Eyes out for Old Skool recipes from Moro, a Sri Lankan feast courtesy of Rosie Birkett, Tommi Miers’ summer puddings, and Tom Kerridge’s alternative Sunday centrepieces.
the Guardian and Observer
‘Twas a summer food special over at Guardian towers. They tend to have the most recipe content anyway (that goes online, anyway), but this was certainly a mast weekend. Think of the normal faces (Yotam and Tommi) just with more pages.
Yotam eschewed shrimps and threw veggies on the barbie. Like grilled cucumber with chilli and ginger (whose picture did not match the instructions), pointed cabbage with nam prik sauce, tropea onions with feta yoghurt, plus grilled apricots and blackberries with ginger nut biscuits and cream.
Thomasina paired cherry fool with spelt and rye choc cookies, suggested a nectarine and goat’s curd tart, and proposed pineapple and coconut tea loaf with lime drizzle. I think, though, that the standout summer dessert was her apricot clafoutis style pudding with basil sugar.
There were also tips on barbecuing from Richard Turner, including a host of ketchups — made from cranberries, rhubarb, gooseberries and more. Note, too (if it gets uploaded), the brown shrimp butter for your fish.
Star recipe column, though, was Rosie Birkett and her Sri Lankan inspired summer glut recipes in the Cook supplement. Everything looked ace: courgette curry, tomato and coconut dal, a herb garden pol sambol, and further curries using runner beans, aubergine and pineapple and beetroot curry. What a feast.
Also in Cook, Jeremy Lee’s intro and recipes for honey ice cream and ginger thins were as sensible as they were lyrical “Honey is the very essence of regional cooking – terroir, even, in current jargon – differing wildly in flavour depending on the flora the bees have feasted upon.” And it’s telling how Rachel Roddy can make something as rudimentary as sausages, pasta and a red pepper and tomato sauce seem so appealing.
In Sunday’s Observer column, Nigel pushed skirt steak and pork chop — suggesting each be charred on the griddle until just so, then served with a simple, summery salad: macerated beetroot and onion for the former; and a stellar grilled courgette ribbon and sauerkraut mix for the latter (love that).
The Times and Sunday Times
Once in a blue moon The Times Magazine has a set of recipes worth running to. Reader, Saturday was positively cerulean thanks to a cluster of ideas from Sam and Sam Clark’s restaurant Moro, which is celebrating twenty years in the game, including: squid stuffed with more squid, onions and herbs that’ve been fried in fino; ried liver with cumin and crisp bread; and the secrets of their Malaga raisin ice cream (soak raisins in Pedro Ximenez, pour over ice cream). All, btw, from the evidently timeless classic Moro: The Cookbook.
Too many courgettes in the vegetable box? Use a couple of them to make Nadiya Hussain’s courgette, poppyseed and lemon cupcakes.
Oh, and there were some things from Gino D’Acampo’s Healthy Italian for Less in the Weekend section. No doubt this book will sell bucketloads. And be as good as new in a charity shop near you soon.
What makes a salad a salad? Florence Knight’s recipes in the Sunday Times Magazine were labelled as such, but I don’t feel any of them really were. “Assemblies” doesn’t scan quite as well, I suppose. No matter, because I was drawn to each of them: a tumble of ricotta, peas, lemon and loose lasagne sheets; giant couscous mixed through with sticky sweet-sour onions, roast peppers and tomatoes, and topped with a fried egg; roast apricots with lentils, watercress and a yoghurt dressing; plus a mixed berry and cassis sorbet.
The FT Weekend Magazine
FT readers woke up to see posh beans on toast by the Honey & Co duo, which made use of seasonal borlotti beans and soft boiled eggs. (Good tip for those with OCD / instagram aspirations: apparently, you should stir the eggs for the first minute of boiling as this’ll centre the yolks.)
The Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
Stephen Harris suggested that if life gives you tomatoes, then soup.
There were a few bonus recipes within a piece on dishy Tommy Banks and The Black Swan. Rhubarb crumble (well, buckwheat topped rhubarb) and thyme ice cream is quite cheffy in form and result, but there’s something there for aspirational cooks, even if it’s just the idea of herb infused frozen custard.
If you got the paper version, you might have spotted some BBQ tips from Genevieve Taylor in Saturday’s paper too, though I think it falls under the ‘never to be uploaded’ category.
In Sunday’s Stella magazine, Diana Henry provided home cooks with three really good (and proper) Mexican recipes. A chipotle, chorizo and cumin chicken stew (tinga poblana de pollo), a simple ceviche for mackerel or bream, whichever is freshest, and a cracking side dish of sweetcorn, red peppers, salty cheese and sour cream (elote con crema). No Old El Paso to be seen.
The march of Tom Kerridge continues. His latest (fortnightly/monthly?) lunch column in the Sunday Telegraph featured three stonking slow-cooked meat options. Purists might suggest the heavy spicing in each of them takes something from the meat you’ve spent so much on. However, I thought each of them were pretty tempting: beer braised ham hock with gherkin and iceberg ham hock, and egg mayo (not sure the egg really needed to be from a duck, mind); pastrami spiced cote de boeuf with pickled white cabbage; madras spiced lamb shoulder with mango salsa. Good stuff. You’re going to need to have a think about some appropriate side dishes though … I know just the thing.
From the Internet
I’d like these cold shrimp noodles for dinner. Please. Thanks.
Helen Graves’ fish fingers look good. She is right about using both ketchup and mayo in the sanger ‘n’ all.
What’s this whole activated charcoal thing about? And would it make turmeric roast cauliflower taste better or worse?
Supplemental Cooking
The second weekend as a Dad saw more cooking than normal; we are pretty much confined to the flat after all. But that latter point means we’re also confined mostly to Ocado and what’s already been ordered. So I played around with ricotta, cherries and puff pastry. And put the ingredients for lots of Rosie Birkett’s recipes in my online basket for delivery later in the week.
Weekend Menu, 22 and 23 July 2017
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Pea, ricotta, lemon and loose lasagne
Florence Knight, The Sunday Times
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Pork chop, courgettes and sauerkraut
Nigel Slater, The Observer
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Apricot clafoutis with basil sugar
Thomasina Miers, The Guardian Weekend
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