We’ll start the round-up with a mention for the FT Weekend.
FT Parisian special
This week’s edition was a food special, which was tightly focused on the Paris dining scene. Contrary to traditional belief, it’s easy to eat terribly in the French capital. By picking out a few interesting themes (bistronomy, Japanese chefs, new wine bars, experimental desserts) and providing numerous recommendations from varied sources, this supplement was successful in that it was an engaging read, and (I hope) can be something to return to when putting together a list of eating and drinking spots next time I’m over there. Fingers crossed the recommendations are good ones.
On the recipe front, Rowley suggested we cooked onglet a l’echalot. Perhaps more interestingly, there were a bunch of recipes attached to the bistronomique article.
Autumnal
As always, there were a clutch of columns pinned to the season. Mark Hix’s filled his space in The Independent with mushroom recipes. Nothing of real note, to be honest. I guess once you’ve covered the standard soup and then a sauce to go with chicken, there’s not much room [sorry] for innovation. I liked the simple cep salad, though: sliced thinly and served raw with landcress, lemon, rapeseed oil and Berkswell.
Bill Granger autumn column was along an autumnal comfort food theme. Pot roast chicken, beef rib ragu, Brindisa inspired sausage and pepper buns.
Gizzi’s Sunday Times piece focused on autumn vegetables and fruit – though there was a pot roast chicken again, along with braised cabbage to go with a pork chop, and quince jam to go with whatever you like.
It was the turn of The Guardian’s ‘Cook’ to major on plums this week. Rightly, their ten recipes highlighted the fact that plums carry spice extremely well – we saw pairings with anise, liquorice and cardamom. I thought the most tempting idea was Meera Sodha’s Hyderbadi chicken kofta, which include a healthy load of plum in the mince mix.
Obviously bored of this season already, Skye Gyngell has decided to steal a march on everyone and is opening a restaurant called Spring in a few weeks. She had a few recipes in Diana Henry’s Sunday Telegraph slot. Quail with anchovy and brown butter was probably my favourite. Because anchovy and brown butter make everything good.
The Occasionals
Alongside Gyngell, there were a few other non-regular voices this week.
I noticed that The Sunday Telegraph also snuck a handful of cooking ideas in the gardening pages. This was a good thing. Sarah Raven offered Japanese fried peppers (with soy and bonito flakes) and sambal Badjak and a sambal badjak recipe
Trin Hahnemann subbed in for Nigel Slater with a clutch of Scandinavian baking ideas. I’m writing this on an Air Norwegian flight from Denmark following five days in Sweden … so it’s safe to say that I’m receptive to her recipes for rye crispbreads, savoury muffins and a few sweet Skandi treats.
Tom Kerridge was back in Cook. I suppose his one column every four weeks technically make him a regular. But I still reckon he just about fits under this theme. This edition of ‘Britain on a plate’ was about food from the North East. He counts Yorkshire as part of that region, and included methods for grouse, bread sauce and (tenuous) Yorkshire puddings; slightly premature forced rhubarb and mace crumble; and some fried ‘woof’ fish nuggets from Scarborough.
The Times’ Eat! wasn’t just easy this week, it was “REALLY EASY”. Desserts from Rachel Allan included labneh, pistachio, orange blossom, honey; yoghurt, toffee figs and pine nuts; and coconut and lime ice cream with mango and mint syrup. Each of those will definitely taste good. There were also some “decadent” yet easy desserts from “teenage blogging sensation” Izy Hossack (me neither). Think salted caramel, roast (well, cooked) blueberry frozen yoghurt, chocolate pots, more salted caramel.
The Regulars
Stevie Parle’s column was pizza themed. He veered from a tomato base standard, with toppings such as anchovy bianco and nutella (that’s two different toppings, not a fish and nutella number) and also a beef ragu and pea calzone.
Beef ragu and pea calzone. Beef ragu and pea calzone … is that just a massive beef pasty?
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Guardian column was beetroot focused. He suggested a great looking aubergine and beetroot, coconut and curry leaves salad/condiment, as well as beetroot, peach and goat cheese salad. Not sure I’ve ever matched peaches and beetroot before, but I can see how it works.
Thomasina Miers’ third effort for The Guardian featured Chinese roast duck with plum sauce and then globe artichokes with butter. I don’t quite get this column yet. It’s labeled “The Weekend Cook”, but to me it feels a little unfocused. Credit for including tips for using up the duck carcass, though.
The Times’ “Only Four Recipes You’ll Ever Need” was awesome this week: I now know that poached eggs and hollandaise go with bacon, spinach, mushroom and smoked haddock. Brilliant. You can find the link to that yourself if you really want it.
Supplemental Cooking
I’m afraid I only got as far as the hotel breakfast buffet. Fish roe in a tube. MMMmmmmmmm.
Weekend Menu, 27 and 28 September 2014
—
Grilled corn, smoked onions and fried clams
—
Quail with anchovy and brown butter
Skye Gyngell, Sunday Telegraph ‘Stella’ magazine
—
Jens Jørgen Thorsen meringue
—
There’s a fortnightly newsletter for the blog, which brings together the latest posts on Rocket and Squash and a few other things from elsewhere that you might find interesting. It’s published every other Tuesday. If you’re not already an email subscriber, look down and to the right a bit and fill in your details.
I love how every week you just get increasingly pissed off with that ‘only four recipes’ feature. I have to agree.
Helen – Perversely, on the (very odd) occasion they’re any good, I feel a bit cheated.