I’ve always been a sucker for confort food, and when I saw this recipe for a Polish mushroom and barley soup on Susan’s blog, I immediately hankered after a hot bowl of the rustic looking food. And I’m pretty susceptible to good photo and recipe too.
Happily I’d been making beef stock not long before and had a freezer full of the stuff. So I set about defrosting it and hunting down the pearl barley from the back of the store cupboard. Continue reading
Sitting in airport hotels as a child, excited about the impending hours in the air. On family holidays to the Dordogne, days in the car, followed by weeks in the sun. In posh London restaurants for a special occasion. The eighties for me was full of French onion soup.
And then it just disappeared. Did I stop eating it, stop noticing it? Or was it just considered untrendy and old fashioned? Whatever happened, it’s only recently I’ve begun to rediscover it. The first taste brought memories of those airports, restaurants and rustic French tables rushing back. It was pure warm nostalgia. Continue reading
I don’t tend to mess too much with Thai curries, at least not with their spicing. The rest of the ingredients are usually fair game though. But this time I decided to go one step further.
It probably helped that the recipe I first looked at was written by Nigel Slater in The Observer. And I feel comfortable with Nige (as he is known at home) and his recipes. After all, Real Fast Food was the first cookbook I ever owned. Continue reading
MORE quinoa? Yep, I’m afraid so. It’s January, the time for austerity, of body as well as mind. And there’s nothing more crushingly austere than a super-douper health food grain. Right?
Wrong. Quinoa, despite its, holier-than-thou goodie two shoes reputation, is actually pretty tasty. Delicious even. I know! I was as surprised as you. Nutty, just the merest hint of crunch, and it stands up to sauces. So good, in fact, that I had to have it twice. In quick succession. Continue reading
Soup is a constant. From slurping French onion soup at Gatwick as a child to being blown away by the sour spicy hit of Tom Yam on my first trip East, soup appears all over the world. It must answer a deep seated need for nourishment and warmth that goes beyond simple degrees celsius.
Sometimes, particularly when I’m under the weather, I crave a clear meaty broth, simple chicken and ginger or a more complex Pho – which many consider to be the ultimate soup. Clean, crisp and subtle flavour. Other times, when it’s cold and I’m hungry, I need a soup with substance. Something that will slide thickly over the tongue, smooth and soothing and full of taste. Continue reading
If you’re anything like me (gluttonous, food-obsessed and perpetually peckish) then healthy light meals will only get you so far on cold January nights. But bigger meatier fare doesn’t have to be totally unhealthy. It makes you happier, and a healthy mind leads to a healthy body, right? Right?.
With that in mind I spent a Sunday lovingly cooking this little beauty. And red meat aside it really isn’t particularly unhealthy. The motivation came after spotting a big ol’ hunk beef shin in Meat N16 (our local butcher), all gnarly and full of connective tissue. Just what you need for a bit of slow cooking magic. Continue reading
As The Grubworm is two years old it feels like it’s time for a bit of a refresh, hence the new look. Expect more small changes over the coming weeks as the blog evolves.
It’s January, traditionally a time of restraint and moderation. And so I thought I’d kick off 2012 with something healthy and tasty. Spinach for the iron and vitamins, and quinoa because it’s damn tasty (and makes a change from cous cous or rice). Continue reading
There I was, sat there glumly swooshing my spoon back and forth through the pale white sludge. It was somewhere between mashed potatoes and parsnip soup and was the consistency of slurry. This was proof, as if I needed any, that I’d lost my cooking mojo.
I searched for it high and low, far and wide. I set a course for the heat and aromas of SE Asia with an aubergine and coconut curry. But it failed to excite. I stayed in the east – usually the source of so much inspiration – with some spicy prawn cakes. But they were only so much salty rubber. Continue reading
The first bite yields tender and tasty meat with undertones of warm spice and fresh orange. It’s redolent of dusty streets and bright fruits, secret blue tiled courtyards and bustling souks. This is a Sunday roast that’s holidayed in exotic locations.
Chicken is rarely better than when it’s roasted. And that usually calls for lemon and thyme, onions and black pepper. But sometimes, just sometimes you crave something a little different. Continue reading
I’m going bite-sized today. That’s bite-sized in terms of the blog post, not in terms of food. I rarely go bite-sized when it comes to dinner. Unless we’re talking elephant, or in this case very large bull, size bites.
When the nights close in we seem to become unaccountably busy, at both work and play. And sometimes, just sometimes, I may not have the time, or energy, to cook a proper dinner. Thank goodness for leftovers. Continue reading