It seems many of our food writers have been to the seaside recently. That, or the fish counter at their local Waitrose has been special offer central.
Cockles and mussels (and other sea critters)
There were buckets and buckets of cockles and clams.
Mark Hix ran with a foraging theme in Saturday’s Independent. The foraging aspect was largely for the benefit of his fellow Dorset homeowners, but I got the point and the recipes should be good if you can get hold of the ingredients. Consider sea beet and cockle broth, deep fried sea veg with oyster mayo, or perhaps rabbit and chanterelle salad if you’re land locked.
Over in The Sunday Times, Florence Knight cooked some light but lovely sounding seafood dishes. Clams in riesling and lovage should be simple and magic. Ditto crab with sorrel and gooseberries. I liked the look of red mullet with a garlic cream and crunchy sourdough too. As an aside, I’m fairly sure the (enviable) kitchen used for the photo shoot has been used in at least one other supplement recently. Britain’s most snapped tiled splashback?
Saturday’s Times Magazine housed a number of Italian dishes, including linguine with cockles, sweet and sour sardines, and a fisherman’s stew; and Rick Stein popped up on the Telegraph’s pages with a similar set of recipes. He’s covering food from Italy round to Istanbul in his next book, and his recipes related neatly to this week’s theme as they included a seafood linguine and a fish stew with cornbread. There was also a rogue (but lush looking) Dalmatian fig tart.
Diana Henry suggested three things Sunday Telegraph Stella readers could do with scallops (whilst noting that this ingredient is an indulgence: “make it a treat for two”). Which would you go for? Catalan arroz negro with scallops and allioli, a tartare of scallops with avocado, tomatoes and coriander, or scallops with chorizo, migas (deep fried seafood) and fried egg? Not an easy decision.
Finally on this theme, Bill Granger treated Independent on Sunday types to his own set of seaside inspired dishes. I could be tempted by a pint of Atlantic prawns with different dips. But the crab and courgette fritters with a lime and coriander dressing probably stole the show.
Miscellany in the middle
Not everyone got the seafood memo, though.
Yotam Ottolenghi proposed a few BBQ marinades. Nothing wrong with harissa (plus many spices and yoghurt) marinated paneer kebabs. But the (Le Pigeon inspired) recipe for celeriac slices, which are grilled, smothered in BBQ sauce, then baked, sauced, and baked again really intrigued. I could also take down a few Thai style lamb chops alongside a crunchy salad.
Which leads me to another aside: if anyone could be bothered to do a countback of the last 18 months of #Supplemental, I’d wager you’d find ‘Thai’ and ‘Vietnamese’ style salads (i.e. a fish sauce dressing) the pre-eminent assemblage. Fish sauce is everywhere.
Also in the guardian Magazine, Thomasina Miers dry roasted tomatoes and blitzed them with chipotle into a soup. She also grilled mackerel and doused it with a tahini and za’atar dressing. Nice.
I loved Olia Hercules‘ four things to make from grilled carrots in the Cook supplement (in themselves interesting – sticky, sweet, blackened but still relatively hard). Check it out: two zingy salads, a filled flat bread and a feta spread
What else? Anna Jones‘ vegetarian recipe in The Sunday Times featured lime and sumac flavoured halloumi to go with yoghurt flatbreads. And there were a few other veg heavy recipes from Abel and Cole chef Rachel de Thample, thanks to a set of decent looking salads.
In the Financial Times, Tim Hayward introduced his new The DIY Cook with instructions for a homemade duck press (involves a car, obvs).
Oh, and my face was splashed across the guardian Cook Residency slot. Sorry about that. (I recommend the mascarpone shards to go with poached peaches and apricots this August).
Something sweet to finish
On the subject of sweet things, I’d completely forgotten about Jesuitas until I saw Ruby Tandoh‘s baking column. Man, these frangipane filled triangles are little rippers; one of my absolute favourite types of Viennoisserie / puff pastry thingies. Make sure you’ve a sizeable pot of coffee to hand.
Ella Woodward provided Telegraph readers with some ‘guilt free’ afternoon tea treats: peanut butter and honey slices and a carrot loaf (stacked with raisins and maple syrup) to be leaden with a berry and chia compote.
I dunno. I sort of feel the net effect of a long run followed by one of Nigel Slater‘s berry and stone fruit delights would leave me in a better place; both physically and ‘guilt’ wise. (Cinnamon toast with three-fruit compote, caramel peaches with brioche toast).
From t’internet
There are a few good things in The Kitchn’s pickling guide.
#Supplemental Cooking
Nada. None. Aucun. I was in France, and the closest I got to cooking was the act of spreading butter on croissants and knocking back oysters. You?
Weekend Menu, 1 and 2 August 2015
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Crab, sorrel and gooseberries
Florence Knight, The Sunday Times
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BBQ celeriac
Yotam Ottolenghi, the guardian
and
Carrot, beetroot and apple salad with sesame dressing
Olia Hercules, the guardian
—
Dalmatian fig tart
Rick Stein, The Telegraph
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