May round-up
June 2, 2013 § Leave a Comment
Walnut jam scones
I made these slightly insane ‘scones’ from a recipe by Zoe Nathan at Lottie + Doof, a Los Angeles bakery. When we were in California last year, we visited another of her bakeries, Milo + Olive, and had a rather wonderful lunch. These scones are a long way from cream tea scones, having a ratio of about 1:1 of flour to butter, and including cornmeal and ground nuts. Delicious as they are, they are a bit too crumbly and fragile for me, so I’m going to try and adapt the recipe and reduce the butter somewhat. Watch this space for a recipe.
A plain chocolate cake
I was pointed to this lovely, straightforward chocolate cake by The Wednesday Chef (the same post that also links to the scones above). It behaves exactly as described – is subtlely chocolatey (I would consider increasing the cocoa next time) and needs to be a little underbaked (some ground almonds might help keep it moist).
Different sides of the Michael Pollan story
I picked up Michael Pollan’s ’’Cooked” last weekend, after reading a whole host of interviews and reviews. So far I’m enjoying it a lot. I like Pollan’s writing style, and he blends in the personal with interviews and authoritative references. This article, although the headline is clearly linkbait, is worth reading. I think there’s a useful debate to be had about whether everyone should cook, whether they enjoy it or not.
Amazing MRobin cake design
Via I-don’t-know-who, these cake designs are just beautiful. There’s a lovely video showing how she makes the cakes, which are entremets, a French style of layered mousses with thin layers of sponge. The fantastic exteriors are made by patterning and colouring a thin sponge cake which is wrapped around the outside of the cake. Stunning.
Heale House Gardens
Another beautiful thing – Heale House near Salisbury has an small but enchanting garden that is open to the public. We went at the perfect time, with cherry blossom, bluebells and tulips all out simultaneously. The website doesn’t even slightly do justice to this garden, which is tucked away in an isolated valley below the A303. If you’re off to the West Country this summer, this could be worth a diversion.
As you like it
We spend a weekend in May in Stratford, and although the skies were pretty much slate-grey throughout, there was considerable sunshine in the RSC’s production of ‘As You Like It’. Pippa Nixon as Rosalind was by turns heart-wrenchingly lovestruck, androgynously masculine and then full of sunshine and smiles at the end. There’s a little video that gives you a taste – sincerely hoping this transfers to London.
Cherry Bombe
While on hospital-visiting duties, I picked up yet another new food magazine in Selfridges this week – ‘Cherry Bombe’. What’s unusual about this one (apart from it’s price and thick paper) is that the contributors and interviewees are all women. While I could probably do without the cover interview with model-turned-cookie maker Karlie Kloss, the Oma & Bella behind-the-book feature is very good.
Links and thoughts from April
April 30, 2013 § Leave a Comment
April has been a waking-up month. This winter has seemed so long and cold that when the sun finally came out, and the ground started to warm and flowers started to appear, it was like emerging from hibernation. Suddenly outdoors was something to linger in, instead of something to be battled through as fast as possible.
I was nudged by someone to buy bulbs from Bloms Bulbs in the autumn, and now I am really glad I did. The tulips in particular have been spectacular. I’m always surprised by how many come up from previous years as well. I have a habit of planting them in tubs and forgetting about them as soon as they have gone over. So the ugly pot of weeds I’ve been hosting on my front step for the last six months or so is suddenly filled with creamy tulips.
I said this on twitter but Gluten Free Girl has absolutely floored me with some of her writing this month. She writes honestly and from the heart anyway, but when her car was stolen, and when she marked an anniversary with her husband, it generated some truly absorbing prose.
I found this article about J Crew really interesting, especially the interaction between Jenna Lyons, the creative director, and the Chief Exec. If you’re in the UK, you may have come across J Crew in references to to Michelle Obama – she and her daughters often wear the brand. They are essentially a preppy, clean-cut clothing company, a little like Gap, but have moved towards a more cutting-edge look in recent years, as the article describes. I still have a couple of items from there that I really like that I bought when I was living in Palo Alto in 2004/5.
Although it’s just the two of us that sit down to dinner in our house (and sometimes not even that), I really enjoy Jenny Rosenstrach’s ’Dinner: A love story’ blog and [her book of the same name](“Dinner A Love Story – Amazon.co.uk”). I really loved her 100 Rules of Dinner post – not just rules for dinner, but rules for cooking, good food and life. My favourite is probably #71:
Performance enhancing drugs are to sports as butter is to cooking. Which is not
to say that butter is evil. But it is cheating.
although I am a completely on board with #29 and #54, and a total evangelist for #15:
Resist the urge to apologize when you’re cooking for people. Most of the time your
dinner guests won’t notice anything is wrong until you bring it up.
Favourites – April 2012
April 11, 2012 § Leave a Comment
A few interesting articles, projects and products I’ve come across recently – you might have already seen some of these if you follow me on twitter or pinterest:
- There seems to be a fashion for creating Pantone versions of foods at the moment – there are these tarts and these Easter eggs.
- I got the Penguin The Great Food Box Set
for Christmas. They are little paperback books with beautifully designed covered from a series of great food authors. I’ve just finished ‘Eating with the Pilgrims and Other Pieces
‘, by Calvin Trillin. If you like Jeffrey Steingarten or even Tim Hayward, you might like this little book too.
- Michael Laiskonis organised a special dinner, cooked entirely by pastry chefs, called ‘Killed by Dessert‘. The menu sounds amazing, and you can also see photos from the dinner taken by Shuna Fish Lydon (a.k.a. eggbeater).
- Following my post on miso, there’s a great post here about making your own dashi.
- The next post is going to be about buns. Dan Lepard did a great post for the BBC Food blog on how sweetened, enriched dough works with the yeast, and how to ensure success with your Hot Cross Buns.
- A couple of recent posts about food writing: this article in the New York Times about what it’s like to be a ghostwriter for a chef’s cookbook; and a recent one from Amanda Hesser, who used to work at the New York Times as a food writer, on her advice for aspiring writers. The interesting thing about Amanda’s article is that she advises not making food writing the only thing you do – she says you need to combine it with other things, as it just doesn’t pay enough on its own any more.
Back soon with a proper post.
