Supplemental #83

It was one of those “WHY TF did I start doing this #Supplemental thing?” weekends. So this is just the italicised bullet point highlights package, rather than a full run through.

• The FT Weekend Magazine published their ‘Autumn Food Special’, which housed some really good reads, not least Anissa Helou’s memories of Syria and pieces on Kenyan coffee and soft serve ice cream. On the recipe front, check out Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich’s use of figs. Beautiful snaps and sorely tempting food. (Fig and feta pied; cumin lamb chops with figs sand walnuts; cracked wheat and semolina syrup cake with honeyed figs).
• It was also an Independent on Sunday food special. The piece on Otto Tepasse is super and well worth a look. But perhaps most notable was the appearance of Neil Rankin as ‘guest chef’ in the place Bill Granger has sat for the last four years or so. Rankin made a strong start, providing a base recipe for roti bread, followed by three things to cook up and eat with it: eggs, bacon and chutney; easy chicken curry; condensed milk custard, nectarines and frozen Bounty. All so far removed from clean eating trends, that I did a little (wobbly) jig.
• Baked pears, maple syrup and orange = lovely Autumnal eats from Nigel.
• Pear and chocolate tart is borderline Death Row pudding for me (NB remember I’ve mentioned before that that meal would be a multi-coursed gluttonous one). No surprise, then, that Jamie Oliver’s Vin Santo poached pear and chocolate tart in the Sunday Times caught my eye.
• I loved Yotam Ottolenghi’s Turkish aubergine recipes. There’s some serious comfort to be found in the three dishes that were published in Saturday’s Grauniad. Make the effort to push past the first two and scroll all the way down to Hünkar begendi at the bottom. LUSH.
• Speaking of comfort, I seem to be craving lentils at the moment, so was pleased to see four options in the Guardian’s Cook magazine. Mixed lentil, coconut and coriander broth should work very well indeed. But there’s a lot to be said for simply sticking with a tarka dhal.
• And there was more comfort food from the direction of Telegraph Towers. Diana Henry provided three cheddar based recipes: cauliflower, cider and cheddar soup; chicken and leek pie, cheddar and hazelnut crumble; cheddar, onion and spinach tart. Stephen Harris gave us his notes on apple crumble perfection. And Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries recipes migrated right a bit to the breakfast tables of the Home Counties.