Category Archives: Eating in

Posts on food and drink

Baked butternut squash, figs and cheese

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Roast squash and figs with cheese

You know what I like about this dish? It’s the contrasts, the surprises you get when you take a mouthful. Like the way the squash dissolves into a sweet caramel mush in your mouth, whereas the fig is slightly crunchy, almost vegetable like as it bursts between your teeth.

Throw in the salty cheese, a citrussy-sharp, sweet and slightly hot glaze and you have a melange of tastes and textures that really ought to collide messily. But they don’t. Sure, they clamour for attention, but all that taste and texture walks a finely balanced pathway, never straying. Continue reading →

Aromatic Thai style steamed fish

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Asian baked fish

There are times in the last three months that I would have crawled over broken glass for a taste of fish. If my right arm had been made of fish instead of meaty flesh (or should that be fleshy meat?) then I probably would have gnawed on that. That’s what a two-week diet of nothing but meat and potatoes does to a person.

At that moment, if somebody had produced a plate of steamed fish, I would have considered something close to a miracle. Hell, I might even have converted on the spot. But they didn’t, and I didn’t. Instead, that need just quietly grew. Continue reading →

Spicy Sichuan style partridge noodles

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Sichuan style partridge noodles

Never one to leave well enough alone, I’ve once again been tweaking and twisting, adding and amending. Often this is through store cupboard necessity, sometimes just sheer perversity. Whatever the reason, the results are always interesting.

Sometimes they simply don’t work (one memorable attempt to modify carbonara ended up with scrambled egg pasta), but sometimes they come out better than I expect. Substituting pheasant for chicken led me into a whole world of Indian game cooking, and maybe this’ll do the same for Sichuan food. Continue reading →

A quick and spicy rice noodle salad

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You know that feeling where you just can’t really be bothered? Don’t want to spend ages cooking, don’t want to go out, want something tasty to pick you up after a long and hard day? This is a dish for those desultory days. Those days full of meh.

It’s quick and pretty straight forward to make. It’s both soothing and peppy. It packs a flavourful punch and is also pretty damn healthy. What more do you need? You might even, after eating this, feel all refreshed and ready to cook up a storm. If you hadn’t already eaten that is… Continue reading →

Gong Bao chicken with leeks and pistachios

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Gong Bao chicken

You just know a dish has got something going for it when it had to undergo name changes and “political rehabilitation” in Communist China. Named for a 19th century Qing dynasty governor of Sichuan, it’s one of the spicy provinces best known culinary creations.

Packed full of signature Sichuan staples like dried chillies and the eponymous lip-tingling, head-spinning peppercorns, it’s a fast, fragrant and exciting dish to make. And surprisingly not too tongue numbingly hot, considering the chillies are in the double digits. Continue reading →

Sichuan style Chinese spinach

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Sichuan style spicy spinach

Sometimes simple is best. And the Chinese, along with the Vietnamese, Japanese and the Italians seem to have a real penchent for making simple dishes sing. A few ingredients, cooked fast, and served straight away. Ideal food for a light post-work dinner.

While eating at Sichuan specialist Chili Cool I’m always blown away by their dry fried beans with pork mince. Similarly, while travelling around Vietnam, simple bowls of stir fried greens were an eye-opener and have left me yearning for them more than any other dish (except maybe those crispy spring rolls). Continue reading →

Spicy roast tomato and red onion bulgar wheat salad

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Spicy bulgar wheat salad

I’m always a little over-whelmed by the multitude of grains, rices and dried pulses at our local Turkish grocer. An aisle piled high with bags of different sizes and shapes seems to stretch as far as the eye can see. It’s like looking into the store house of Suleiman the Magnificant’s army.

All these exciting things to play with and what do I do? I reach for the cous cous or red lentils every time. Until about a year ago, in a fit of bravery, I branched out and grabbed a bag of coarse bulgar wheat. I’ve always enjoyed the creamy toothsome grains in restaurants but had assumed it would be a faff to cook. How wrong I was. Continue reading →

Aromatic lamb pilaf and dreaming of distant lands

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Lamb pilaf

I’ve always loved tales of travel and far off places, adventures under a burning sun, crumbling desert fortresses and high mountain passes. Travellers like William Dalrymple, Bruce Chatwin and Robert Byron have long captured my imagination with tales of Afghan chieftains, nomads in the dessert and forgotten ruins.

And they always seem to end up sat on low divans in a tent, or around a fire under the stars tucking into mountains of steaming rice studded with chunks of tender spiced goat or mutton. Their writing is redolent of heady aromas and strong tastes as well as being full of striking descriptions of lands travelled and people met. Continue reading →

Saag gosht: a tender lamb and spinach curry

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Lamb & spinach curry

This is one of those curries where if you throw it a hard stare, the lamb just kind of sighs and falls to pieces. There’s nothing tender about about the taste however, a meaty, earthy spicy hit that floods your mouth when you take a bite.

It’s this melting but flavourful effect that makes lamb shoulder my favourite meat to slowly cook in a curry. The lacing of fat and connective tissues that run through the meat give it a glorious texture, and hold a decently strong flavour that stands up well to spicing. Continue reading →

A spicy but soothing potato curry

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Potato coconut curry

Everything about this dish cries out comfort. The creamy coconut, soft potato, even the chilli heat brings a certain loving warmth to your mouth. Definitely one for eating on the sofa, with a fluffy pile of white rice,and a good book.

Curry is one of my standard fall back midweek dishes when I want something simple, tasty and not too labour intensive. And this is certainly straightforward. It’s an evolution of one of my standard veggie curries – spicy potato, pea and tomato. Continue reading →