Supplemental #53

Once again, an eclectic set of recipes in the weekend papers.

Cheers Mum

Yotam suggested a fish salad would please the old dear on Sunday. We could do that via one of three pretty original ideas. Both the sea trout with baked celeriac salad (complete with Jerusalem artichoke crisps), and a warm red mullet salad with olives, potatoes and a harissa dressing, are properly tempting and feel new yet comforting. Crisp oysters with soba noodles and funky radish is a bit more out there.

Gizzi provided a fine Mothering Sunday menu in The Sunday Times. Start with scallops, sage and a squash purée. Follow with a classic fish pie (good use of tarragon). Finish with the pièce de résistance: a ginger, rhubarb and orange trifle. Some modern trifles feel half hearted, but this one ticks all the boxes. Interesting sponge layer (homemade, black treacle fuelled ginger cake). Great, sharp fruits. Loads of shezza, Jelly. Oui.

Jamie also aimed sweet things at his Mum. His Sunday Times column featured a cappuccino cake, a great looking lemon tart rippled with raspberry coulis (good idea), and some sort of chocolate shard thing that’s supposed to be a tribute to an After Eight (though I’m not sure it’ll work for the whole getting from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands game).

Some more sweet things

This was one of those weeks with a fair smattering of sweet treats.

In his Independent on Sunday pages, Bill Granger pushed biscuit and cookie baking. I was drawn, in particular, to hazelnut macaroons, and shortbread with honey, orange and thyme. Some Anzac biscuits in there too for the home sick Antipodeans.

Ruby Tandoh’s baking column in Cook was centred on pistachios. The little rose, pistachio and raspberry tartlets will be lovely.

There was a salted caramel whiskey bread and butter pudding in The Telegraph. Crowd pleaser central/how to mainline sugar without the needle.

Some savoury things

At the other end of the spectrum, there was a delightful pig’s blood boudin recipe strip from Len Deighton in the OFM. All the deets you need in three small pictures. Save how to get your hands on fresh pig’s blood.

In Saturday’s Times, Donna Hay put forward a set of ‘family classics’. As well as a vanilla pound cake, there was a herb and garlic lamb roast, piri piri chicken and a ‘ham and cheddar impossible pie’ which looks a bit like a quiche to me. You say bone broth, I say tomato and all that. I preferred Georgina Fuggle’s ‘veg with attitude’ in the same magazine. Chard and herb panzanella stood out.

Whisper it, but there was a decent enough ‘only four recipes you’ll ever need’ in Saturday’s Times Magazine, thanks to a selection of ways to jazz up polenta by Ben Tish.

The FT’s Rowley Leigh suggested cooking a leek and bacon quiche-pie. Not his most inspiring recipe ever, though I liked the idea of serving it with a bowl of Romesco sauce.

Five veggie recipes from Nigel Slater. Wowzers, the aubergine chermola sounds good: dark, soft and sticky aubergines spiced with ginger, cayenne pepper, coriander, paprika and more. Loads of lemon too (preserved and fresh). Also the freekeh with dill, peppers and preserved artichoke hearts. Oh, and the baked dal and sweet potato – there’s a classic Slater food cuddle, right there.

A bit of both things

The remaining writers couldn’t decide on sweet or savoury, so did a bit of both.

Diana Henry’s delicious looking date recipes were savoury-sweet. Persian eggs with dates and chilli look particularly good. Though no one would complain about cumin roast aubergines with chickpeas and dates, nor a date and orange salad with fennel and feta. Vibrant and tempting fodder.

Cook’s ten recipes were lemon coloured. I reckon Olia Hercules’ quick preserved lemons are worth a try and the Honey & Co fruity lemon, mint and apricot chicken tray bake looks to be a must do.

Mark Hix promoted the ancient grain, spelt: spelt pudding with prunes, spelt bread, spelt cheese and onion madeleines and spelt and corn drop scones with bacon and chilli honey. So yeah, spelt.

After Ruby a fortnight ago and Yotam last week, this Saturday it was Thomasina Miers’ turn to be the Guardian foodie writing about baking eggs. She gave us a sformarta, which is basically a cross between a soufflé and a frittata, and a sweeter baked custard and rhubarb.

I never quite understand how The Telegraph fits together online. So this Rick Stein snapper, tomato and tamarind curry may or may not have been this weekend, but it’s a cracker regardless.

Finally, do have a read of Xanthe Clay’s nod towards a new cookbook for cancer patients and friends. A very worthy underlying cause and a host of great ideas.

#Supplemental Cooking

I’m sort of on holiday. So whilst the papers were read, I couldn’t really be bothered to tie myself to any of the recipes.

Loads of cooking though – curry spiced kid goat liver and onions, sumac quails, fish sauce chicken wings, fish stew and rouille, mega pork chops with rhubarb and sprouting … and I’m completely won over by my friend’s breakfast routine: yoghurt with seeds, goji berries, salt and olive oil; and coffee laced with PX. 

Weekend Menu, 14 and 15 March 2015

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Cumin roast aubergines with chickpeas and dates

Diana Henry, The Sunday Telegraph, Stella

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Date liquor and lamb stew

Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer, The Guardian, Cook

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Ginger, rhubarb and orange trifle

Gizzi Erskine, The Sunday Times

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