My first husband’s idea of wit was to exclaim, whenever the opportunity presented itself (surprisingly, gratingly, often); ”Anchovies? Smelly little fish!” The marriage didn’t last long, but if by some warped circumstance we had found ourselves strolling the markets of Vieux Nice last week, I should have been delighted to waterboard him with a [...]
Archive for the ‘ingredients’ Category
this poutine, not that poutine*
Posted in ingredients, overseas, restaurants, shopping, spring, tagged anchovies, poutina, poutine, sardines, Vieux Nice on April 13, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
brandade fumée – a mash of smoked fish
Posted in Autumn/Fall, Summer, Winter, credit crunch, fast food, ingredients, recipes, shopping, tagged Lidl, recipe, smoked fish on December 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
One of my all-time favourite dishes is brandade de morue – salt cod whipped up with olive oil and mashed potato plus a wee hint or more of garlic and a scatter of parsley. Much as I adore the taste, though, I’m not about to pack in my suitcase a whiffy hunk of dried North Atlantic [...]
rata-tata-touïlle retro
Posted in Autumn/Fall, Summer, ingredients, recipes, tagged ratatouille, recipe, vegetables on November 18, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Well hey, I’m not going to pay a visit to our place in Nice and swan about its perfect little kitchen, brave the snooty sales ladies at Alziari for a tin of their unctuous olive oil, fossick about the farmers’ stalls for vegetables and forage for fresh herbs on the Cours Saleya and NOT idle away an [...]
duck and cover
Posted in Autumn/Fall, Winter, ingredients, slow food, tagged cooking fat, duck, duck fat, preserves, roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding on September 18, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Following the laziest roast crispy duck in history my duck fat jar runneth over … almost. So it should see us through the coming winter unless we take it into our heads to make confit and, considering the mess involved, I rather hope we don’t. Duck fat is by far the best medium for roasting potatoes or greasing Yorkshire [...]
I gotta ricotta
Posted in Summer, artisan bread, herbs, ingredients, recipes, slow food, tagged buttermilk, food, homemade cheese, ricotta on July 19, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I don’t know about you, but I adore la cucina casalinga – Italian regional home cooking – so simple, so hearty, so life-affirming; but dependent as it is on the quality of ingredients, my heart used to sink whenever a recipe called for fresh ricotta. There’s no such thing for sale in my home town, no [...]
fregola sarda, seafood, bottarga
Posted in Summer, ingredients, recipes, shopping, slow food, tagged bottarga, food, fregola sarda, pollack, seafood on July 18, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Last time I visited Fortnum & Mason I picked up a packet of fregola sarda. Interesting stuff, fregola: it’s pasta, but of Sardinian origin and in appearance it’s couscous on steroids, reminiscent of pollen grains at a billion magnification. Also, unlike any pasta I can think of, fregola nuggets are toasted, which not only explains the colour variations, but also adds [...]
strumpet in a sleeping bag (aka whore in a blanket)
Posted in ingredients, olive oil dough, packed lunch, picnic, recipes, restaurants, tagged food, olive oil dough, puttanesca, store-cupboard recipe on June 30, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I mean this most sincerely, it’s not some cheap trick to lure porn-surfers to my food blog; why would I want to do that? It’s wordplay on Pigs in Blankets but to satisfy those at the back, here’s an uncut image (for illustration purposes only, please) from the mind-boggling immeatchu blog. Not sorry to disappoint, I’m referring to [...]
You say Menorca I say Minorca
Posted in Summer, ingredients, overseas, picnic, recipes, tagged Balearic, gazpacho, lycopene, Mediterranean diet, Minorca, tomato juice on June 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In the hope that the sun shines bright enough to make a lycopene boost imperative, I bring you my easy but delicious version of Gazpacho
Maldon salt – smokin!
Posted in ingredients, shopping, tagged condiments, Maldon, salt, smoked salt on June 11, 2008 | 2 Comments »
The folks at Maldon have a lot to smile about. Their sea salt was singled out as the best by Jamie Oliver, Angela Hartnett, Rowley Leigh and Sally Clarke in last week’s Guardian article Kitchen Confidential: inside the chefs’ larders, and was the most mentioned item by miles. Pretty good salt, then. The fragile, friable beauty of [...]
tapas time
Posted in Summer, ingredients, recipes, tagged sangria, Summer, tapas on June 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Aha! The sun’s back and that means it’s time for tapas. Lovely summery little dishes: as I now have an enormous collection of the real deal terracotta, courtesy of Waitrose (again), plus a handy mini toaster oven, I make a batch, keep it in the fridge and portion it out in tapas or raciones as [...]
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