the meatball magnate's prawn balls with vietnamese noodle soup - random recipe #27

The Bowler's spicy prawn balls with Vietnamese vegetable noodle soup

I feel the same way about books as I do about food - I like to explore, have adventures and I have a huge appetite. Unfortunately, like my waistline, my house is not a Tardis and there is only a finite amount of space for books. It was becoming ridiculous. I had moved house in order to accommodate my growing library. I had to make a very harsh choice and a lot of my books just had to go.

from ennui to delight: ottolenghi's hot and sour mushroom soup

Yotam Ottolenghi's hot and sour
mushroom soup

I associate a loss of appetite with Victorian invalid food. Blimey, a diet of bread and milk, beef tea and calves foot jelly would have been less likely to allow me to develop an "interesting" condition and more likely to have me fighting fit in a trice; anything to avoid having to eat such nastiness. That's not to say that I don't agree with Mrs Beeton's assertion that "gruel served in a tumbler is more appetising than when served in a basin or cup and saucer". What she fails to mention is that the tumbler should be empty and the gruel should be nowhere in sight!

a "normal-service-has-been-resumed" sausage sandwich with honey-mustard caramelised onions

sausage sandwich with honey-mustard
caramelised onions

A big part of my life has been missing recently. Not in a lost-in-action kind of a way, just "gone". My default position as food obsessive had changed, so no longer was I eating, dreaming, reading, singing and talking my way through all things food. I had, I am afraid to say, completely lost my appetite.

what's in season: april

purple spring crocus

Side by side through the streets at midnight,
Roaming together,
Through the tumultuous night of London,
In the miraculous April weather.

Roaming together under the gaslight,
Day’s work over,
How the Spring calls to us, here in the city,
Calls to the heart from the heart of a lover!

greek easter bread: tsoureki

Greek Easter Bread - Tsoureki

I find it hard to window shop or merely browse at Phoenicia, my local Turkish and middle eastern grocery in Kentish Town, north London. Inevitably I return home clutching a bag of interesting spices or a jar of preserved vegetables although without any clear idea of what I am going to do with it. The lime powder sat in my larder for over six months before it emerged dustily blinking into the light only to be lobbed into a cold drink for summer and my posh popcorn recipe (more of these another time).

another bit on the side: fennel and tomato stew with aleppo pepper

fennel and tomato stew

Sometimes it is nice to be ahead of the game even if you are completely oblivious to it. Reading a recent article in Observer Food Monthly on some of their favourite things - 50 Best Foodie Picks - at number 31 was Turkish Chilli Pepper (aka Aleppo Pepper or pul biber in Turkish). Turns out I've been fashionable for years without realising my foodie street cred.

a lazy girl's brunch: smoked salmon and poached egg open face sandwich

smoked salmon and poached egg with
beyaz peynir and asian pickle open face sandwich

At some point of an evening out with friends the conversation will inevitably turn to food. It probably always has done, but since I have started blogging about food it has got much worse and I do try to rein it in, but sometimes I just can't help myself. I don't mean "worse" as in "bad", I just mean that given my inclinations I could probably monopolise any and every conversation and turn it around to food. And it's not because I want to talk about what I've cooked, I love hearing what other people are eating and why. Besides talking about food is definitely far more interesting than any discussion of reality TV or the latest budget crisis. But on this particular night I was in for a bit of an unpleasant surprise.

a quick asian-style pickle: cucumber, tomatoes and red onion

a quick asian-style vegetable pickle

While my father's favourite sandwich of pickled beetroot and piccalilli is not for the faint-hearted, it was not enough to put me off pickles or chutneys; I grew up eating them with just about everything.

But one of my favourite accompaniments to a Malay curry was the small bowls of finely chopped cooling vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumber that were simply dressed with a little vinegar, sugar and perhaps soy or fish sauce. Although I have to confess it was as much for the prettiness of little bowls of brightly coloured vegetables as it was for the flavour.

a little bit of food philosophy and Indian potato kofta stuffed with dried fruit and nuts in a light curry sauce

ndian potato kofta stuffed with nuts and dried fruit i
n a light creamy curry sauce

I take my cues on food philosophy from one of the greatest of all food philosophers, Garfield, the cartoon cat, who with jazz hands held aloft, looks as if he is about to dive into a large dish of leftover lasagna and thinks "I eat, therefore I am." He is asked by his owner, Jim, whether he is rationalising another bout of gluttony. Garfield barely turns his head and thinks disdainfully "I don't discuss philosophy with pea brains"!

a bit like marmite: you will either love or hate my singing!

Marmite and music

An open letter to my childhood music teacher (but it comes with a happy ending!):I thought at the time it was quite unkind of you to publicly boot me off the choir in front of so many of my peers. I could have done without the parade. Really, it was a bit mean.

You told the choir that I was incorrigible. I regard this now as a badge of honour but as a 12 year old who was new to the school and new to England, I suspected that you were yet again being rude. You told the choir that my inability to learn a musical instrument was an example of how unmusical I was and that you only wanted musical girls in your choir. I could point out that it is quite hard to learn a musical instrument if you have never had a lesson on any kind of musical instrument at all.

This also applies to learning to read music, another one of my apparent failings that so appalled you. I have never really understood why you seemed to take it so personally when you had done so little to help.

jerusalem artichoke soup with hazelnut pesto and serrano ham and blue cheese toasts

jerusalem artichoke soup with hazelnut pesto
and serrano ham and blue cheese toasts

If you have only ever topped your soup with a just few croutons, a swirl of cream and a dusting of herbs, then perhaps you might consider a nut topping. If you have only used a nut pesto with pasta or on crostini or bruschetta, again I would suggest you might like to think again, because I think I have just the soup for you and just the nut topping!

braised brisket in guinness with loads of mushrooms

Braised brisket in Guinness with loads of
mushrooms served with champ

Did you know that the famous Irish stout, Guinness, is actually a deep burgundy red colour and not black at all? Officially it is ruby red, one of my favourite colours, whether it is what I wear, the colour of my hair, the flowers in the garden, or just a pint!

I have never really understood why or when celebrating Saint Patrick's Day became more about food than drink, but in the spirit of exalting my Irish ancestry, I am cooking one of my favourite cheap cuts of meat, brisket, in a bit of the ruby stuff and lobbing on a little parsley, as a nod to the insane greenness of St Paddy's Day.