Supplemental #23

There was too much sport (#allezyorkshire) and afternoon sun over the weekend to really get stuck-in to the papers. So this summary of the recipes should be reet useful.

Is it summer? I hadn’t noticed.

Oh yep. The writers keep declaring summer. Which means this is really happening, people.

Stevie Parle set out some easy summer recipes in Saturday’s Telegraph. I have to admit I wasn’t taking notes, and can only now remember one of the dishes. But what an intriguing little dish beef and bream tartar is: aged beef, fresh fish, a scattering of capers and pea shoots and a hint of horseradish. Nice one.

It’s been so hot that Gizzi Erskine only fancied making salads for the Sunday Times. Pickled samphire to go with rosemary salted sardines as part of a Greek salad caught the eye.

Bill Granger put out a few picnic recipes in The Independent on Sunday. As I write, I’m really very tempted by his cucumber and coconut water drink (preferably with a splash of vodka or cachaça). Ditto a lettuce leaf or three full of Thai style toasted rice and chicken mince larb.

In fact, Sunday’s Indy mag was full of food, with any of its pages were devoted to BBQ. Smokestak’s trade secrets might be worth taking a look at. Though I reckon the three vegetarian BBQ recipes from @veggie_heaven stole the show: tandoori paneer kebabs with Asian slaw; teriyaki aubergine with cucumber pickle and herby rice; and smoky pulled jackfruit sliders.

On a more subtly seasonal note, in the FT Rowley Leigh recounted a glorious sounding, Puglian summer holiday feast. He gave us one of the dishes from that day: mussels with new potatoes. Which is a sort of inverted moules-frites.

Apricots mean summer too, don’t they? Rose Carrarini, Leigh’s pink pages stablemate, suggested we used them in a gallete.

Spiced puddings

Dhruv Bakers spiced puds elevated an otherwise fairly typical Saturday Times food offering (4 ways with chorizo – whoop-de-do). Picture watermelon, ginger and mint granita; cardamom, salted pistachio and rosemary meringue; and rum and star anise poached figs.

Those treats must’ve put me in a spicy-sweet mood whilst I was scanning through Diana Henry’s summer fruit recipes “with a twist”. For though gooseberry and lemon thyme cake tempted, once I spied anise and ginger spiced baked nectarines,  I had eyes for little else. More on how those cooked up below.

The rest of the peloton

The Guardian’s pro team had a mixed weekend. I felt it was an off day for ‘Cook’. Nothing really grabbed me. Even the ‘Ten Best‘ feature failed to inspire; a green minestrone the best of the basil themed ideas. Yotam gave us three noodle dishes in the main paper. Fine.

So, for me, Mary-Ellen McTague’s broad bean column was the most interesting of York Way’s Saturday’s offering. Yes to the broad beans with tomato, anchovy and pecorino (“sort of like baked beans, but nicer”). Yes to broad beans with pastrami, crayfish and nasturtium. And yes to a broad bean and wasabi radish salad.

By the way, is MEMcT the permanent new HFW? She’s a few weeks into a seconds stint …

In Sunday’s Observer we started seeing the fruits of Mr Slater’s recent trip to Japan. Cod’s roe wrapped in shiso leaves and tempura batter, then deep fried. OH OUI CHEF. I’d take a little pepper stuffed with smoke cod’s roe and basil too.

Bottom of the class

I don’t normally do this, but I’m going to single out Mark Hix. He’s usually a dependable favourite. Not this week.

Mr Hix was promoting some mates of his who make cheese and vodka (from milk). Crumbs, the man must be on a decent retainer … because adding cubes of hard cheese to a tomato, cucumber, lettuce and red onion salad for one recipe, and the same cubes into a quinoa, bean and pea job for another, doth not a great food column make. More effort next week, please.

T’internet

HELLO Lizzie Hollow Leg’s stir fried pork with black fungus and celery.

And don’t hate me … but Martha Rose Shulman’s quinoa ideas over on the NYT’s cooking site are half decent. I particularly liked a basic cucumber yoghurt mix, which was loaded with black quinoa and dill.

Supplemental cooking

I laced my nectarines with ginger and star anise as per Diana Henry’s recipe, and made some caramel sesame tuilles too (though these were studded with almonds, not macadamias). The cooking took longer than prescribed as my fruits were not on the ripe side. But the end result was divine. Suitable for a low effort, high reward dinner party, or simply a summer time week night treat. During summer. Because it’s summer. Didn’t you know?

Weekend Menu, 5 and 6 July 2014

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Cod’s roe tempura

Nigel Slater, The Observer

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Stir fried pork with black fungus and celery

Lizzie Mabbot, Hollow Legs

and

Broad bean and wasabi salad

Mary-Ellen McTague, The Guardian (Saturday)

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Rum and star anise poached figs

Dhruv Baker, The Times (Saturday)

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