The goose, the subject of a later blog, has been well and truly cooked. And eaten. And rendered down into stock and tubs of creamy fat. That all sounds a bit slaughterhousey but the end results were very good.
However, even with five hungry (and slightly tipsy) bellies to feed, serving goose usually means there are a lot of left overs. And even a goose lover such as I can get bored with yet more cold roast goose. A middle class dilemma if ever I heard one. Continue reading
Smooth. Slithery. Soft. The texture of well cooked aubergines is their defining characteristic. More so than the gently nutty flavour, the pendulous shape, the glorious shades of purple. The main thing aubergines really bring to a dish is their delightfully soft and fleshy texture.
Not to minimise the taste, which neatly side steps big bullying flavours to come through, between and around them, linking and accentuating as it goes. Clever things aubergines. This particular ugly duckling of a dish, a marriage to an intense, pungent and spicy sauce, highlights this rare ability to shine through. Continue reading
Cha Siu (Cantonese BBQ Roast Pork)
Hi, I’m Mr Noodles from Eat Noodles Love Noodles and I’ve hijacked The Grubworm. Don’t worry though, Aaron will be back from honeymoon (congratulations!) in September but in the meantime he has entrusted his blog to a team of blogsitters.
I was well chuffed when I was asked to write a guest post on this blog and I immediately set about thinking what to write. After all I didn’t want to post any old crap on here; I can do that on my own blog. So after much deliberation, I decided to blog in the spirit of The Grubworm and do something I don’t do enough of. I was going to cook and post a recipe. Continue reading
Nothing beats a good steak and there’s something special about the meeting of hot charcoal and lamb. But the meat I keep coming back to again and again, is that of the pig. Maybe it’s familiarity, maybe it’s that I see something of myself in the pig. Maybe I just love the taste of pork.
Whatever the reason, pork is a real comfort blanket of an ingredient. I feel kinda jumpy if i don’t have hanging around. You can do so much with pork, and I just love versatility. Cut some spicy sausage into a prawn jambalya? Magic. Pork shoulder in milk? Pure comfort food. Sizzling bacon sarnie? Hangover cure extraordinaire. Continue reading
My first brush with proper Sichuan/Szechuan cuisine was something of a sweat soaked revelation. It left me panting for more. The question is, would Chilli Cool get through that notoriously tough second visit? All that expectation and the unrepeatable joy of a new discovery is tough to beat.
I remembered the crispy flavourful intestines, the earthy and hot lamb skewers and most of all that heavenly aubergine. Oh God the aubergine. Obscenely tasty I’d elevated it onto an oil-drenched pedestal. So it was with both trepidation and excitment that I wandered into the dining room. Continue reading
15 Leigh street, London, WC1H 9EW 020 7383 3135 www.chillicool.com
I’ve read about it, heard people raving about it, even attempted to cook it. But I had never, till now, really tasted authentic Szechuan food. The cuisine du jour about four years ago when, with opening of Bar Shu, a chilli-fevered enthuiasm for it swept London’s food critics.
And so, when the call came through from foodie central (well, from Meemalee, which is pretty much the same thing) I grabbed my gear and headed to Chilli Cool in Bloomsbury to get my socks – I hoped – well and truly blown off. Continue reading
88 Middlesex St, London E1 7EZ
Rule number one when you eat somewhere new and unfamiliar: Don’t be timid. I know this rule. I live by this rule. This rule defines much of my eating and travelling experience. So why (Why? WHY?!) was I timid when visiting My Old Place. Half the dishes we had were bold as brass, exciting and new to me. The other half weren’t anything out of the ordinary in terms of culinary mind expansion.
That’s not to say they were bad, quite the opposite. They were well cooked and refreshingly simple in many respects. But after watching dish after dish of deep red chilli laden food waft by, I was suffering from a bad case food envy. Continue reading
You don’t get home till 7pm, it’s cold outside and you’re knackered. But you still want some good home cooked food. What to make when you feel like this can be a real dilemma. Over the years I’ve developed a number of dishes are a good solution to this particular problem. But in the winter the number dwindles drastically and the need for something hot comes to dominate. But this spicy little number is great whatever the time of year.
It’s superbly adaptable and is ridiculously quick to make. More assembling over a flame than actually cooking. I use my magic warming ingredient: Lee Kum Kee chilli bean paste – it gives a wonderfully pungent heat to any dish and has many uses. Here it suffuses the whole dish with its characterful heat, transforming a dish that is usually very simple and clean, into something almost meaty in character. Continue reading
Still going strong on Asian food, although last night’s dinner was something of a mish-mash of regional influences. It was ostensibly Japanese miso soaked salmon, but ended up with a fair bit of Chinese in there too. Not that that had any negative effect on the flavour. Quite the opposite in fact.
The influence and foundation of the dish is definitely Japanese with its balance of sweet, savoury and salty flavours. I wasn’t sure how it would all work out, but the first bite was something of a revelation. The fattiness of the salmon was well balanced by the clean, salty-sweet sauce, and all the flavours were clear but still combined well. And because it was served with salad and tender-stem broccoli (apparently a choi-sum/broccoli hybrid), it was pretty damn healthy too. A perfect January antidote to December’s heavy eating. Of course, I spoiled the effect by indulging in baklava for dessert – all oily, syrupy, nutty finger-licking goodness. Continue reading
For the new year I’m trying to move away from focusing all (foody) things Turkish. We live in area of London chock full of Anatolian grocers full of fresh herbs, cucumbers & peppers galore, and about a billion different types of feta, halloumi, yoghurt, tahini, olives etc. Consequently 2009 has had a definite Levantine flavour.
However, with an austere new year beckoning, it feels right to explore all the cuisines i’ve been neglecting, and bring more variety and excitement to the plate. Far eastern food has a purifying effect suitable to post-excess January, in particular the strong flavours of Thai, the simplicity of Japanese and the warmth of Sichuanese.
Accordingly last night’s dinner was Sichuanese dry fried chicken, sticky rice with peas and green beans with ginger and chilli. Continue reading