I’ve just been musing on what ingredients are “having a moment” on menus. It seems salt-baked vegetables are the only way to go. The first time I had salt-baked anything was “lomo a la sal” in Soria, Spain. I was teaching English in this small northern Spanish city for a year and it was there I learned to truly adore the pig. That cliche that they use “everything but the squeal is so true. Pig’s ears fried in a strawberry and pineapple salad, scored pig cheek’s and the “lomo” or loin covered in sea salt and baked until a crust formed was truly moist and curiously not salty at all. The trout I had in Bilbao a few years later was the same. I was sure protein worked being cooked in this way, but turnip or carrots? Turns out they’re delicious too! I had salt-baked heritage (is there any other type these days?) carrots at Ox, Belfast and salt-baked beetroot at the Galway Bay Hotel. This method is age-old but I love that it’s being revived. I wonder if root vegetables are the best option? Can’t see it working with courgettes or asparagus, but Heston or Simon Rogan may work out a way to do it.
Another ingredient which is achingly hip is milk. Chefs are breaking the white stuff down and building it up again. Little Miss Muffet’s curds are all over the place. They’re in salads with cripsy chicken skin and onion galette and milk jellies are quite the thing. I heard of the whey from goats milk being fed to suckling pigs in Cavan. Gearoid Lynch from the Olde Post Inn serves the cheese in a salad and then roasts the pig (which has been compressed with a cast-iron radiator).
Wonder if salt-baked cheese would work?
Having a moment
Talking turkey
If you’re like me, you probably only roast a turkey once a year. I’m a big fan of the Kelly Bronze, as it happens. Thank you Delia, but have you found that when you order a decent free-range bird, it’s always MASSIVE. Why can’t they rear eight-pounders for sale? Ten pounds at most. My oven and fridge would be much happier.
A friend of my husband’s sold us one four years ago, but neglected to tell us that it would be 15lbs! So, we spent Christmas Eve trying to saw the thing in two. We were too embarrassed to ask a butcher we hadn’t purchased from, and ended up prising open a knife set in a briefcase looking for something that might do the job.
We roasted half of it and froze the other half. We ended up throwing it out two years later. What a waste!
Anyway, I digress. The thing is, you have to be really careful about how you store and cook turkey.
Every year around 4,500 people in the UK suffer food poisoning in December as a result of campylobacter bacteria in turkey.
To avoid spending Christmas Day feeling very sicky bad, make sure you
1. Store it in a properly chilled fridge, on the bottom shelf, with enough cold air to circulate.
2. Don’t mix raw and cooked foods.
3. Wash your hands and utensils, not the bird.
4. Check the juices are running clear in the thickest part of the thigh to see that it is cooked.
5. Use leftovers within two days. (Much easier when the turkey is a reasonable size in the first place.)
Check out the Food Standards Agency Advent Calendar for more
Live tweet chats this week, too
World Cheese Awards dispatch
I’m just back from Birmingham. This cheese judge virgin has now been initiated into the world of lactic length, mushroomy brie (it’s the good stuff) and ammonia on the back of the throat. Who knew there could be SO many dimensions to artisan cheese? I was starting to sound like Jilly Goulding by the end of it. A particularly earthy brie tasted like a country pathway on a dry summer’s day. The less said about the cowshed goats cheese the better! And who on earth entered the jar of orange baby sick???
Tapatastic
White bean puree with sherry vinegar…rico rico at Cava, Galway.
Why rate my opinion?
I was asked a very pertinent question by a friend the other day. She wasn’t being rude, but as a follower of my foodandfinds facebook/twitter feed, she just wanted to know why she should rate my opinion about food? It got me thinking. It’s not like I’m professionally trained, but I have worked on developing my palate for decades and make a point of trying as many new places as I can. The reason why I publish what I think is to spread the word when I like what I eat and drink. I’m not saying my opinion is gospel, but it is honest and I only talk about the good stuff. If you don’t see a place mentioned, it’s either because I haven’t been there yet or I have, and was disappointed. It’s tough enough to make a living selling food, but I for one, want to have as many choices as possible. That’s why I share my food opinions with you, and why I thoroughly welcome your feedback.
I shouldn’t like them but I do…
I might think of myself as a woman with a sophisticated palate..something I’ve worked on developing for many years, but why is it that sometimes only the most low-brow, one dimensional convenience food will hit the spot? I’m talking chicken supernoodles (full-fat version, of course); ambrosia tinned rice and custard; potato waffles and birds eye fish finger sandwiches made with white plastic bread.
I think it’s the fact that I am a child of the 1970s; the golden era of the dinner and dessert in packets. I remember Sunday lunches being rounded off with Arctic Roll and bought flan cases filled with tinned fruit and Quick-Jel, accompanied by a cheeky drizzle of topped Carnation milk. My mother thought these desserts were much more sophisticated than the weekday apple crumbles and homemade custard she whipped up in a matter of minutes. Obviously it became ingrained somewhere in my young psyche that shop-bought was better than home-made, and even after decades of worshipping at the altar of local, seasonal and organic, sometimes I can’t deny the lure of the lurid.
This “appreciation” of the synthetic occasionally manifests itself as a craving; an itch that must be scratched..which is why tonight for dinner, it’s a Fray Bentos steak and kidney pie….can’t wait to taste that flabby bit of pastry immediately underneath the crust. I bet you want some now too…
Magic muffins
On Saturdays I like to bake. But I’m impatient, and I don’t like having to wait around for dough to prove or pastry to chill, so I’ve found the answer to my prayers in the muffin.
You can knock them up in a matter of minutes and they really lend themselves to seasonal variations. Today, I went out to get the last of the blackberries (the vodka for Christmas is doing nicely, thank you), and I returned with about 500g.
I adapted Nigella’s blueberry recipe…300g of blackberries instead…then I added some lemon zest and a little grated apple…a spoonful of demerera on top and they were ready to go. Nigella puts sour cream and vegetable oil into hers…pear and ginger, apple and cinnamon….you name it, and it’s a great tip. They stay moist for days.
Twenty-five minutes later and the brambly mega muffins were ready to cool. They were so good with a cup of Marks and Spencers Extra Strong tea.
What did I do with the other 200g? A mini kilner of more blackberry vodka, of course! I have a darling little empty bottle that will be just right to hold a quarter litre come December!
What’s next on my foraging list? Well, the elderberries are out soon and I have some new jam jars from Carraig Donn, so I’m going to make Paula McIntyre’s elderberry and port jelly from her fantastic cookbook A Kitchen Year
