Editor's blog: eating, drinking, out and about...
Jo’s blog... Delia Online’s editor files the first in a regular series of blogs, in which she makes recommendations, tells us what she’s been up to and offers up delectable recipes!
Tastes of Sardinia...in London!
The past couple of weeks have been exhilaratingly busy on the food front: I was invited to an event run by the Italian trade mission where we got to discover the culinary creation that is pane Carasau – a lovely crisp flatbread that would be a wonderful vehicle for all sorts of ingredients. One such was bottarga – the straight-from-the-sea-flavoured roe of the grey mullet. A real delicacy around the Med, it’s not that well known here but I’d urge you to try it if you come across it. Claudio, the charming chef at The Banana Store, prepared it by shaving it over strips of celeriac, seasoned with lemon juice and pepper. A taste revelation!
I've finally caught up with the rest of you
That weekend I enjoyed another brilliant discovery. I know Delia’s Oriental Chicken (left) is a recipe you all love making from the site but for some weird reason I’d never tried it, until my recent book club, where the hostess served it up. What a lovely recipe...if you’ve never tried it, please do. Although it’s low-fat and hence virtuously good for you it has none of the deprivation factor of so many low-fat foods. Rice wine, soy sauce, ginger and garlic add plenty of flavour to the chicken. This is now going to be a regular in my repertoire.
The best chocolate cake (apart from Delia's, naturally!)
Of course, such slimline eating didn’t last long. The very next day I made a choccie cake to die for. I had been asked in the summer to judge the chocolate cake competition at my daughter’s primary school during the summer fete. Helped by Sarah Randell (a friend and editor of Delia’s cheat book and the Collections, and the Vegetarian Collection) we ate our way through about eight slices. Now, when it comes to chocolate cake, I find they can be too dry, too dark, too light...you name it. The winning cake was perfectly poised between milk and plain and had a wonderful chocolate buttercream icing and filling. I can’t believe what an easy recipe it is and how impressive it looks. Adored by all my family, it vanishes in a couple of days. If anyone wants the recipe please email me at jo.hill@deliaonline.com and put choccie cake in the subject field.
Grains of truth with Tilda pure basmati rice
I’ve also been out and about. Tilda (of rice fame) kindly invited me to a press event where we did a blind tasting of Tilda pure basmati and other less pure rice (you can guess which one, rightly, won!) then cooked up stir-fries using their fabulous steamed rice pouches, which come in myriad flavours. As 10-minute suppers go it was fabulous: steamed sun-dried tomato rice was added to the pan, with prawns marinated in soy, ginger, garlic and spring onions.
A foodie pub worth visiting in SW11...
I also tried a newly revamped pub, The Northcote on Northcote Road, SW11, a few minutes’ walk from Clapham Junction. In an area not that well served by pubs, it was a great find: recently revamped it now has a fab menu. The starters of coarse country pate with chutney; smoked salmon on a herb blini and superb baked tart of pumpkin, goat’s cheese and onion were perfect. Mains were salad of roasted beetroot, goat’s cheese and bitter leaves; chicken curry and pearl barley-stuffed Portobello mushrooms and poached egg (which was a tiny bit bland). Portions are large so we all struggled with desserts, but the summer pudding is highly recommended! With starters from £4.50 mains from £7.75 and desserts from £4.50, this is a good place for reliably good food in a comfortable, and stylish setting.
The heyday of the boudoir biscuit!
At the weekend we invited friends for one of those long boozy Sunday lunches that goes on all afternoon. My husband made a fabulous couscous and we started with mechouia salad – just roasted, skinned peppers and tomatoes, pureed with loads of garlic and oil. Served with pitta bread it’s a real treat, especially with tuna and olives. I did a dessert from Galton Blackiston’s Summertime book. Now this pud is one I’ve made twice in the past month and I don’t think I’ve ever had such a positive reaction to a dessert! Called whim wham it’s a boozy concoction of cream, sugared nuts, peaches and booze-soaked sponge fingers. Reminds me of 1970s’ desserts which all too often seemed to feature sponge fingers. Time for a revival?
Swiss curry? Surely not...
On the subject of retro, friends cooked us supper last weekend and served a dish I’d never eaten or even heard of: chicken Casimir. Our host, Scott, told me it was a recipe his mother had had at a hotel in Switzerland in the 1970s that had then become a family favourite. Have any of you had it? It wasn’t very Swiss - a chicken curry with cream and fruit. Unusual but very edible!
Gingerbread with Peggy Porschen
My latest foray was to L’Atelier des Chefs in Wigmore Street – a lovely space where you can go and learn how to cook in your lunch hour! Billingtons sugar organised an event hosted by Peggy Porschen*, the cupcake queen, who was totally charming. We made gingerbread dough, Christmas pudding mixture and then decorated some gingerbread cookies Peggy had made earlier, drawing no doubt on her German heritage. Tasting Billingtons compared with other sugars was an interesting process: their sugar has much more depth and flavour, so will be a must-have in my shopping basket from now on, as this affects the outcome of your baking.
*Peggy's latest book, Cake Chic, makes you want to get out those cookie cutters and get into the kitchen to create small masterpieces and large works of art! Highly recommended for the experienced cake maker...
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