Archive for the ‘Reading’ Category
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been looking at new features to add to Hand To Mouth. My friend Dazzler suggested I try re-creating recipes from weird and wonderful books, which I thought was a great idea. This first ‘Tried & Tested’ post fits more into the latter category, as it comes from a rather lovely new cookery book called ‘Great British Food‘.
Put together by the guys behind the brilliant Canteen mini chain of restaurants, this Lancashire Hot Pot stays true to their ethos of cooking gutsy, tasty, good quality, British grub. The recipe calls for leg mutton, which I couldn’t get hold of at the time of cooking, so instead I used shoulder of lamb.
The recipe takes a bit of prep, but once you get going it’s pretty easy, and it tastes reet good.
Ingredients (serves 6)
50g butter
250g onions, sliced
1kg boned leg of mutton, 3-4cm dice
150g carrots, sliced
10g fresh thyme, leaves picked
3 bay leaves
700g floury potatoes (Maris Piper), peeled ad thinly sliced
500ml meat stock
100ml meat stock
Salt and black pepper
(more…)
Tags: Bay, Book, Canteen, Carrot, Lamb, Lancashire Hot Pot, Potatoes, Recipe, stock, thyme
Posted in Dinner, Reading, Recipes, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Monday, March 1st, 2010
It’s been around for a while, but I first read about Jim Lahey’s ‘no knead bread‘ in a Saveur magazine when I was in New York last year. I’d already got the bread baking bug, and the idea of a loaf that required no kneading seemed a bit odd, even a bit sacrilegious. I did a bit of research on line, and found out that everyone raves about the loaf, and it basically put Lahey’s Sullivan Street Bakery on the map.
Anyway, it definitely got me interested. How could a loaf requiring so little work be so good? Life just isn’t like that. So I gave it a go. The loaf is cooked in a cast iron pot, a bit like an Australian damper, so you’ll need a Le Creuset or something similar for it to work.
Ingredients
3 cups (430g) flour
1½ cups (345g or 12oz) water
¼ teaspoon (1g) yeast
1¼ teaspoon (8g) salt
Olive oil
Rye flour (for dusting)
Method
Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix together for a minute or so to form a ’shaggy’ dough. Transfer the dough to a larger bowl oiled with some olive oil. NB. the dough will expand to around 4 times the size, so make sure your bowl is big enough. Cover with clingfilm and let the dough develop for 12-18 hours at room temperature.
(more…)
Tags: Baking, Bread, Cast Iron, Home, Jim Lahey, Le Creuset, No Knead, Strong White Flour
Posted in Equipment, Reading, Recipes, Reviews, Snack, Travel | 2 Comments »
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
The final course of our valentines meal was a lemon posset with heart shaped shortbread biscuits (forgive the cheese).
The Posset is pretty much as old school as it gets with roots in 12th century England where it was drunk for it’s medicinal properties. I’m not sure this recipe could ever be described as good for you, cream and sugar tend to be frowned upon these days, but it is delicious, and very easy to make.
Ingredients
For the Posset
300ml double cream
75g caster sugar
1 lemon zested and juiced
For the shortbread
45g icing sugar
90g plain flour
30g cornflour
15g ground almonds
125g butter
Lemon zest
Golden caster sugar
Method
First up, put the cream and sugar in a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 3 minutes, making sure it doesn’t boil over, and then take off the heat. Allow to cool to room temperature, add the lemon juice and then whisk. Divide the mixture by pouring into two glasses and then put in the fridge to set.
(more…)
Tags: Almond, Biscuits, Buter, Cream, Desert, Flour, Lemon, Posset, Shortbread, Sugar, Zest
Posted in Reading, Sweet Stuff | No Comments »
Monday, February 22nd, 2010
So, catching up, the second course of our valentine’s dinner was baked cod and baby leeks straight from the pages of Jamie at home, which if you don’t have it is a brilliant book (IMHO). The cod is marinaded in a lemon and herb mix before cooking. We had ours served with garlic mash.
Ingredients
10 baby leeks, trimmed
2 x 200g fillets of cod (with skin and sustainable if possible)
4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
Juice of 1/2 a small lemon
Olive oil
1 large clove garlic finely chopped
2 sprigs rosemary
(more…)
Tags: Bacon, Baked, Bay, Cod, Garlic, Jamie at Home, Jamie Oliver, Leeks, Lemon, Mashed Potato, Olive Oil, Rosemary, thyme
Posted in Dinner, Reading | No Comments »
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
My friend Darren sent me a link to this insane blog on Friday (via his lady Thais) and I can’t stop looking at it.
It’s called Selleck Waterfall Sandwich and does exactly what it says on the tin. It features pictures of actor Tom Selleck and sandwiches badly photoshopped onto waterfall scenes. My favourite is the little animation of Magnum blowing away a ham bagel with a shotgun.
This is what the internet was invented for 
Tags: Blog, Sandwiches, Selleck, Selleck Waterfall Sandwich, Tom, Tumblr, Waterfall
Posted in Opinion, Reading | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
I meant to blog about this Starbucks un-branding story when I read about it last year, but totally forgot until my mate Toby reminded me about it yesterday, so now seems like a good time.
The long and short of it is that Starbucks is going to pick a few select outlets and un-brand them in order to create coffee shops with a more old fashioned and local feel. If this test is successful, they will then roll it out to other sites. Some people have described this move as a demonstration of a business being mindful of what their consumers want, but in my mind is proves what a cynical and aggressive brand Starbucks has become, and to be frank it pisses me off.
How Starbucks started as a business is a million miles away from where they are now. Originally a one off shop in Seattle’s Pike Place Market that sold artisan coffees and equipment, it didn’t become the phenomenon that it is today until it was sold to an entrepreneur called Howard Schultz in 1987. Famously in the 90s, Starbucks opened a new store every working weekday, and this pace was maintained well into the noughties. (more…)
Tags: branding, business, Coffee, cynical, shops, Starbucks, UK, Un-branding, US
Posted in Opinion, Reading | 3 Comments »
Saturday, November 21st, 2009
It’s arrived. The inaugural edition of ‘Fire & Knives’. I’ve been excited about this new ‘Food Quarterly’ since Tom at Nation told me about it a couple of months ago. The way it was described to me was a food magazine written by and intended for enthusiastic amateurs, and despite contributions by undoubted professionals like Matthew Fort and Ton Parker Bowles, the magazine sets out it’s editorial stall very clearly.
”Fire & Knives’ has to be about love of, enthusiasm for and fascination with food, in all its aspects. It could never be about being a connoisseur – literally ‘one who knows’ – it has to be about being an amateur – ‘one who loves’. Everybody eats. And a fundamentally elitist ‘connoisseurship’ is no longer appropriate in a country that’s finally maturing into a proper relationship with it’s food culture.”
(more…)
Posted in Opinion, Reading, Reviews | No Comments »
Friday, August 7th, 2009
I LOVE New York, and a big part of this has to do with the food. There are obviously lots of great restaurants, but that’s not really what I’m thinking about. It’s the diners, the hot dog stands, the dollar slices of pizza and the local institutions that really get me excited.
- Kenny Shopsin. Photo: ThinkFilm
A couple of years ago whilst planning a trip to the apple, a friend told me that I had to check out this guy called Kenny Shopsin’s place in the Lower East Side. I’d never heard of him, but after a bit of digging I discovered that he’s a bit of a local hero. The best way I can think of describing Kenny is that he’s a kind of gutter Heston Blumenthal. He’s become ‘famous’ for his innovative combinations of foods, but not in a molecular gastronomy way. More thinking laterally about whats really tasty. His menu lists over 900 items, which he creatively names; dishes include ‘Slutty Cakes’ and ‘Blisters On My Sisters’. He’s also well known for his slightly unpredicatable temprament and strict house rules that are supposed to have partly inspired the ‘Soup Nazi’ character from Seinfeld. (more…)
Tags: Food, Kenny Shopsin, Mac and Cheese, New York, Pancakes, Philosophy
Posted in Reading, Recipes, Reviews, Travel | 1 Comment »
