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Beer Speak My Thoughts On... Best of the Blog
| Latest Blog Entries... Entry 77. Friday 27th June 2008. Holiday! I’m going on holiday! Two weeks of lying on the beach, reading, swimming in warm, crystal sea, drinking ice cold beer and eating lots of local food. Oh how excited I am!
Entry 76. Sunday 21st June 2008. "I want something with saffron!"
“I want something with saffron!” That was the response I got when I asked Lauren what she wanted for dinner. Something with saffron?! That’s like asking for something spicy, or something with peas; it didn’t give me any idea what else she wanted, just saffron. So I did the usual thing of throwing ‘saffron’ into google and seeing what results it shakes up. Unsurprisingly the search wasn’t that enlightening, giving out the expected paella’s, tagine’s and fish stews (it may be immature but 'fish stew' always makes me laugh!). I decided to dig out my thinking hat and come up with a recipe myself.
I go through food phases.
Mustard was a big one a few months ago, before that it was muesli, I’ve
passed the asparagus splurge, but in the middle somewhere I had a
massive thing for chick peas: hummus; in salads; with couscous; curries;
as a snack on their own: you name it. It was also at this time that I
couldn’t walk past a cauliflower without buying it, so that entered the
fray too. The fragrant red flecks of saffron bring out the sea-fresh
flavour in fish, so that was in. At the supermarket – I don’t live near
a fishmonger – they had some juicy-fat pieces of cod. So we got cod,
cauliflower and chick peas so far, and the saffron of course. I saw the
recurring theme immediately and being a lover of symmetry and pattern I
bought some cream and chestnut mushrooms, do you C?
Entry 75. Monday 2nd June 2008. A Light Asparagus Tart.
My asparagus obsession has continued relentlessly this week and I have eaten it, in some form or other, every day – talk about making the most of the short season! On Friday, Lauren, my girlfriend, wanted me to make her a tart (an asparagus tart, nothing else!) but her demand was to “make it healthy”. Searching for recipes on the internet threw out an abundance of eggs, cheese, cream and pastry; not the healthiest of ingredients! Jamie Oliver has a great recipe in ‘Cook You Way to the Good Life’ which uses mashed potato in the base of the tart, but it also requires a hefty load of cream, cheese and butter. He does use filo pastry where most other recipes plump (check the pun) for puff pastry, and this lead me to healthy makeover move number one. The second step was to rethink the base. Mashed potato was a great idea, my trouble with this was time. We were going swimming between finishing work and eating dinner and I simply didn’t want to come home, hungry and tired, and start boiling potatoes (I know, it’s not that much of a hardship, but it was Friday night), so my thoughts turned to the Asparagus Risotto and the soft cream cheese – which also happened to be low fat. Bingo! A creamy, soft base of light cheese with its slightly sharp flavour to work with the crisp pastry and the asparagus. The finishing touches come from a heavy grating of parmesan and some torn mozzarella; not the healthiest choice, but come on, it’s a pastry-based tart after all, and it does need a load of cheese to top it all off! Healthy-ing up an asparagus tart: Done. As my week has been dominated by asparagus, I have become more and more aware of the less glamour side of this gorgeous member of the lily family: the smell of your wee after you’ve eaten it. I was reading up about this, to try and understand my own bodily functions, and did you know that not everyone is affected in the same way by eating asparagus: around half of asparagus eaters have pongy wee, but of those whose wee does carry the distinctive odour do not have the ability to actually smell it. How strange! I don’t know what is worse: to have smelly wee and know it, or to have smelly wee and not know it. (More) Asparagus Tart.
Entry 74. Monday 26th May 2008. Asparagus Risotto.
So it’s been a while since I last wrote. I’ve been pretty busy my end working on my Master’s dissertation – school comes first! – and I’ve barely had time to eat, let alone cook and write about it! But I’m back, and this week, in fact this month, it’s been all about the asparagus. I adore asparagus and I eagerly wait for May each year when the first pointy green bundles appear in the shops, neatly huddled together. For me, asparagus perfection is reached in the simplest of ways with a fear spears, plenty of butter, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Nothing can beat that. The creamy, crunchy, earthy-sweet flavour of asparagus works brilliantly with the richness of butter, and the lemon cuts that richness and freshens the spears. For something extra special then parmesan cheese and a poached egg sit nicely on top too: the cheese acts as extra saltiness and the runny yolk oozes over it all like a gorgeous, saucy warm blanket. And I always cook them in a frying pan or griddle because I want that crisp, charred edge that the hot pan gives. This risotto works on the same principles of simplicity, using a few ingredients that combine perfectly with the knobbled green fingers to create a deeply rich and satisfying dinner that is also fresh and light to boot – comfort food for the month of May! Asparagus doesn’t just taste amazing, it’s also seriously good for you - just look at the list of health benefits on www.british-asparagus.co.uk and you’ll see. It’s got vitamin A, folic acid, fibre, potassium and iron. It energises and protects the body from infection, it assists in weight loss, it’s good for nails, hair and skin, it’s a diuretic (and it makes your wee smell) and wait for it, it’s also ‘helpful’ (whatever helpful means?!) in the bedroom. Oh, and it’s bloody low in calories too! A real super food and the best stuff is grown right here in England. (More) Asparagus Risotto
Entry 73. Monday 5th May 2008. A Family Classic - Picnic Slices
These are one of my ultimate favourite comfort snacks. Possibly, nay probably, the best of the childhood treats that we had when I was growing up. They are an old family recipe passed down from my great-grandma to my grandad who then passed it down to my mum. I now have the recipe in my hands, handwritten on an A5 sheet of yellowing lined paper which is stuck to a piece of grey cardboard. These little beauties are a family classic. The magic of the Picnic Slice comes from the glorious textures. The coconut and dried fruit topping is sweet, rich, crumbly and sticky-chewy, with little bursts of raisin or juicy glace cherry. The chocolate then adds an extra texture, the extra dimension to make these one of the finest treats there is. Generally, I believe that chocolate should be eaten at room temperature otherwise there is an unnatural ‘crack’ to it and the fats don’t melt over the tongue in the same oozy way. These slices are the exception to this belief. When cold, the chocolate layer provides a snapping on the other side of the soft chewiness and that completes the bite. A flapjack is one of the greatest things in this world. Picnic Slices are better. For the first time since starting Pencil&Spoon I am writing about something that I haven’t cooked myself. My mum made these. Only a month ago my grandad visited with a tray of these for us. His mum, my great-grandma, made them for him and my mum. You make picnic slices for the ones you love to see them smile. (More) Picnic Slices
Entry 72. Thursday 17th April 2008. A Spaghetti Double-Header.
Spaghetti is one of my favourite things to eat, and in a rather strange admission I don’t mind telling you that I like nothing more than to put as much spaghetti in my mouth as will possibly fit: I love the feel of the slippery strands as they wiggle around on my tongue. I don’t know why I like this feeling so much, I just do. If I were to write a song or poem about spaghetti then somewhere I would probably say “I love you spaghetti, you are delicious and so much fun to eat. I love to twirl you around my fork and slurp you into my mouth.” Granted this is no wonderfully eloquent piece of poetry, or deep and meaningful ballad, but it tells it as it is. I, like so many people, often need to be able to prepare, cook and eat a meal within an hour, sometimes less than that. In times like this I often turn to my friend spaghetti who I can cook in a few minutes and simply add to a sauce: the spaghetti basically looks after itself once placed it into the boiling salty water, so it is only a sauce that has to be prepared and fussed over. Spaghetti is an ideal canvas to add a layer of whatever sauce and flavours that my tongue and tummy crave. Do I want tomato, or something creamy, perhaps a pesto, something zesty and light or maybe a big hit of spice? I like to think about different textures and tastes and put them together to make a plate of dinner that works on a number of levels – it’s all about balance. A mix of salty, rich, sweet and fresh, with something soft, something crunchy and maybe even a little chew: get this right and you could be onto a (they all have to deserve their place in the dish, of course, and are not added for the sake of it). (More) Spaghetti with Tomato, Mackerel and Peas and Spaghetti with Blue Cheese, Spinach, Walnuts and Raisins Entry 71. Sunday 6th April 2008. Cherry Cupcakes.
I don’t bake nearly as often as I should. There is something wonderfully relaxing and just plain good fun about making a big cake or a tray full of buns, although I am probably the messiest baker in the world. These cupcakes were made in boredom during the recovery from laser eye surgery and because of this boredom I tweaked the recipe to add ground almonds to the mix because cherry and almond is a dreamy combo, and I also added a little amaretto into the icing to enhance the sweet nuttiness. Fresh cherries are one of my favourite fruits and each year I get excited as the local ones come into season, but I think that there is something completely irresistible about glace cherries. The little bright red balls are so sweet and sticky and have a wonderful almost-chewy texture and I could sit down and just eat them straight from the plastic pots they come in. These cupcakes are essentially an ode to the glace cherry and everything that is great about them. A cupcake should be many things: light and airy, sweet and delicious, a texture which fills your mouth and is slightly ‘chewy’, and it has to be thickly iced. But more important than any of these, a cupcake must make you smile when you eat it. If it doesn’t make you smile then you must be made of stone. These cakes are all of the above plus the juicy addition of cherries through the middle to make each bite a happy one. And one more thing; there is a particular way of enjoying them: nibble around the outside first and then save one giant bite with the cherry on top for last - a mouthful of sweet, nostalgic perfection. (More) Cherry Cupcakes
Read these entries in the Blog.
Email me markdredge@hotmail.co.uk
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