a perfect spring pasta supper: spaghetti with leeks, parma ham and hazelnuts

spaghetti with leeks, parma ham and hazelnuts

Have you ever seen a recipe on a website, or while flicking through a cookbook or magazine and thought, I must cook that? And have you, despite modern technology, mobile internet, digital cameras and other technical fol-de-rols, failed to make a note of it, instead relying on your memory and an ability to substitute those ingredients you haven't got or that are hard to come by? So what happened? Did it turn out as expected, or like me, did it turn out that you had substituted every ingredient such that the recipe was unrecognisable and sadly just not terribly exciting.

the gentle heart of a recipe: hilda leyel's salad of mint leaves and beans

hilda leyel's salad of mint leaves and beans

Whenever I can, I like to wallow in old cookbooks. It both comforts and relaxes me; I enjoy immersing myself in the food of older times; ferreting out bits of lost knowledge and useful thoughts.

nigel slater's baked tomatoes (and a few baked sweet peppers) with fragrant spices and coconut

Nigel Slater's baked peppers with tomatoes, spices and coconut

tomatoes, spices and coconut
(it shouldn't work but it does)

Nigel Slater's recipes are often seductive in their simplicity. The Kitchen Diaries II recipe simply entitled tomatoes, spices, coconut is the perfect case in point. Although I have to confess to being a teensy bit perplexed by his addendum ("shouldn't work but it does").

Why shouldn't it work? Is it because Nigel has stuffed tomatoes with well, yet more tomatoes?

It can't be because of a gorgeous combination of onions, garlic, fresh ginger, mustard seeds, peppers, cherry and vine tomatoes, red chilli, turmeric and coconut milk? Can it? No, of course not!

yotam ottolenghi's baharat spice mix

Yotam Ottolenghi's baharat spice mix

Baharat is a Middle Eastern blend of spices popular from Turkey to Egypt and Iran used in a wide variety of dishes from soups, rice and tabbouleh to tomato-based stews and tagines.

I was planning on making the beef and lamb meatballs with lemon broad beans from Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's superb Jerusalem cookbook. The meatballs are spiced with fragrant baharat, which you can buy from the Ottolenghi online store. However the recipe is so easy and I do have a spice grinder, that it seemed easier to make it myself.

an english potherb and soft cheese pie, with a little help from yotam ottolenghi

an english potherb and soft cheese pie

On the rare occasions that the sun has graced us with its presence this summer, my thoughts turn to both picnics and packed lunches in the park - food that is easy to transport, which can hang about for a while without any serious deterioration and which, of course, is utterly delicious. ((Is this a kind of multi-tasking?)

One of my absolute favourite things to bring to a picnic, or indeed any party, is spanakopita, a cheese and herb filo pie (or little triangles) from Greece and popular in many forms around the Mediterranean and Middle East.

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.

spice up your life! chicken stewed with berber red spice paste

chicken stewed with Berber red spice paste

I recently had a forgotten treasure returned to me. Some three years ago a friend asked me what cookbook I would recommend for someone who wanted to broaden their cooking horizons but who refused to buy any cookbook that involved television tie-ins or shouty celebrity chefs.

"Well, Nigel Slater and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall are rather good," I said.

"Are they on television?" He asked plaintively. "Yes," I replied, "but they don't shout". "Then no," my friend said firmly. Well that narrowed things down a lot.

"Not too old-fashioned," he said. "And I want pictures, and a few anecdotes but definitely no shouting. Or models. Or bloody fairy lights!"

scandinavian sweet buns

Scandinavian sweet bun

When I tried to analyse why I love crime fiction so much, I knew that it wasn't because I am particularly blood-thirsty or just that I like a good mystery. What I like about a well-written novel or character is the way that they can bring a city or society to life and what lies beneath the surface. 

One of the reasons why I have fallen for the whole Nordic Noir thing is that this is a region that I know little about and a good Scandinavian thriller gives a real insight into these countries and the people.

Dorothy Hartley's Food in England and a fabulous documentary

Dorothy Hartley's
Food in England

It goes without saying that I have loved food all my life. I have loved history for nearly as long. I still remember my light bulb moment when at the age of four, I was plonked down in front of an afternoon television programme, which in the old days was all Open University educational programming. I sat completely mesmerised in front of a documentary about underwater archaeology and have been hooked on history ever since. It took me much longer to put the two passions of food and history together, but since my late 20s I have been following the trail of what we eat, how and why and have savoured every minute of it.

he goes to my head and intoxicates my soul: calvin trillin

Calvin Trillin's The Tummy Trilogy

You go to my head
And you linger like a haunting refrain
And I find you spinning 'round in my brain
Like the bubbles in a glass of champagne . . .

. . . You go to my head with a smile
That makes my temperature rise
Like a summer with a thousand Julys
You intoxicate my soul . . .  

It was my birthday a few weeks ago and I wish I could tell you that I was awash with birthday champagne or even Pimms, but I wasn't. During the neo monsoon season that had cloaked Britain in grey clouds and downpours for months, I was in a foul mood. Things were bad. I didn't even feel much like cooking. Yes, it was that bad. I even cancelled my birthday drinks due to lack of interest (my own) and had returned to my cave to sulk.

grilled salmon in smoky tamarind sauce

grilled salmon in smoky tamarind sauce

In the past, if asked if I would like to go to a Mexican restaurant, I would typically answer "no". My experiences of Mexican food in London (and New York for that matter) had been typically awful - generally mushy beans, beans and more beans, with overly sweet sauces, uniformly sickly, accompanied by rotgut tequila. It turns out that I had been mistaking TexMex for genuine Mexican and that real Mexican food could be fresh and tasty without any kind of reliance on sugar and powdered garlic!

books galore and a chance to support your local library

BBQ cookbook display
in the window of
my local library

"The sun will come out tomorrow" so said the mawkish song as well as British weather forecasters, but if it doesn't this might be a really good time to check out your local library. You might be surprised to learn that amongst the highbrow, lowbrow, CDs, DVDs and games, that your library has a number of cookbooks to provide inspiration on even the darkest and dampest of days.

At a time of austerity, I had to face up to the fact that I had a serious addiction. A book addiction. A dependence that in frugal times I could no longer afford to support. I would rather feed myself than feed my habit. 

the full english!

the full english!

I have recently been rereading Phillip Kerr's wonderful Bernie Gunther detective novels. Don't worry I am not trying to convert anyone to the joys of detective literature, (although I would if I could get away with it!) No, there is definitely a food point to this posting. I am just going to make you work a little for it. 

A man is in general better pleased when he has good dinner on his table than when his wife talks Greek!

So said Samuel Johnson - a rather strange man; a bit of an odd-ball who was well known for his lack of social skills. (It is now suspected that he may have suffered from Tourette Syndrome). But what he lacked in charm he made up for his incredible contribution to the English language and to English literature. The man was a genius . . . however, very much a man of the 18th century, he wasn't fond of cucumbers (believing them to be poisonous) and he was certainly not in favour of female emancipation.

birth, food, sleep, love, death . . .

E. M Forster said that "The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death" . . . I definitely have enjoyed the first four and am trying to keep the fifth at bay. But I have mentioned before that I wonder if somehow my love of food (and particularly the garden pea) came from the womb. My mother had been eating fresh raw peas for the last few weeks of her pregnancy; indeed at the very moment I started to make my entrance into the world.

I have often wondered whether my love of cooking and of reading cookery books is somehow preordained or just another part of my formative experiences.Is it nature or nurture?

good things of england: oh happy days!

Good Things in England

There is a particular joy of celebrating a glorious spring day with the purchase of a new (and soon to be treasured) cookery book. Yesterday, the daffodils outside my front door were jostling for position like footballers inside the penalty box as a grey wind sent them skittering in the early morning gloom. A day later and the sun is shining. The daffs are beaming beatifically and my mood is definitely sunny. I have finally got my hands on Florence White's Good Things of England. It's enough to bring a smile to any lover of food and history. 

Florence White was interested in retaining all of that culinary knowledge (both foods and techniques) that was in danger of being lost as a result of new fashions and technology. Sound familiar?

it wasn't my fault!

Old books - Marja Flick-Buijs

In the immortal words of  'Joliet' Jake Blues:

"I ran out of gas. I, I had a flat tyre. I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners. An old friend came in from out of town. Someone stole my car. There was an earthquake. A terrible flood. Locusts. It wasn't my fault, I swear to God!"

And that is my excuse for not posting anything recently, and I am sticking to it.