My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen...

Looking forward to pea dumplings

2008-04-24T13:01:52Z

I'm not normally a big fan of dumplings. Possibly because I look a little bit like one and possibly because I'm always a bit wary of any kind of food that comes with a 'wrapping' or sauce. Surely, if the ingredients are good, there's no need to coat them in pastry, dough, batter, bread crumbs or thick syrupy, creamy, unctuous sauce?

So I was surprised to find myself thinking how delicious the dumplings, that Filiz just showed me, look.

Peas? I love peas. Cheese? I love cheese. Lemon. Salt. Olive oil. It looks so simple and good. I am now a little bit disappointed that I'm leaving in the morning and won't be able to cook them for a fortnight. But it's something to look forward to when I get back home.

I looked for a photo of some peas to go with this post and could only find this picture of a strange plant I found when I went to Mt Vernon in Virginia. I'm not sure if these are actually peas or whether they are something poisonous. In any case, they look interesting.

Pea_pods

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Last of the cold weather alliums

2008-04-12T16:57:12Z

I love alliums. Leeks, onions, shallots, scallions and garlic; I love love them all. So, much as I'm happy to see that spring weather is arriving, I miss the hearty allium bases to soups, stews and roasts in the warmer months. So today I made my farewell meal: slow cooked alliums, served on a split bread roll that had been covered in grated cheese.

Allium Sandwich

Apart from making toast, this is the simplest cooking you can do. For each person, you just take about a quart of sliced onions, leeks and shallots in whatever proportions you like, add a bit of garlic, put them in a heavy pan with two spoons of olive oil, set the heat low and cover them with the lid. Set the heat very low. It should take more than five minutes for them to start heating through, because you want them to sweat and to soften, not to caramelise and burn.

Alliums

Sliced, Gently Cooking

Stir them every 10 or 15 minutes. You shouldn't need to touch them more frequently as they should take at least 90 minutes to cook, and anything up to three hours is fine. This isn't a race. After 45 minutes they should have started to soften and become pliable but should not be cooked all the way through.

After 45 minutes

After 90 minutes or more the volume taken up by the alliums should have reduced by about 75% and they should still be translucent and soft. They are ready to serve as is, or you can turn the heat up a bit and and caramelise a few to add a little colour.

It's simple (delicious) food and they're great as the main flavour in a dish. Alternatively, they make a great vegetable for a more substantial meal.

Alliums Two Ways

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The eggs I eat and the eggs I don't eat

2007-07-02T18:53:23Z

Frogspawn_closeup

This evening I decided to finish off the quinoa I had in my store cupboard. As I was cooking it I noticed how it looks like frogspawn while it's half cooked and then I wondered why I found the idea unpleasant.

After all, I eat chicken eggs. Regularly. I like them soft boiled, poached, fried, scrambled and as cheese and spinach omelets. And on occasion, they're good raw, too. And I also like the eggs of other species, in particular fish. Caviar is delicious, as are taramasalata and those lovely pink ikura I love on nigiri.

But the idea of eating frogspawn makes me want to vomit. I've never eaten a frog but I definitely don't find the idea disgusting. And I don't think the sliminess factor can be it because I like chicken eggs cooked so lightly they're still translucent and I like fish eggs uncooked. I've even eaten some fairly slimy risottos.

But frogspawn is like devilspawn according to my stomach. It started jiggling around as soon as I noticed the resemblance. It was a bit like looking at a jar of peanut in that respect. I suppose I'll have to add frogspawn to my list of things I don't want to eat, right under dessicated coconut.

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Poached eggs the easy way

2007-06-09T09:28:03Z

When I was in London last week my father told me about a trick he'd heard of for poaching eggs perfectly with relatively little effort. This morning I gave it a go and compared it against the traditional method. To poach an egg using my father's method you will need:

A pan of boiling water
Eggs
A small mug
Butter, margarine or vegetable oil
Cling film
Salt and pepper

Take a sheet of cling film and press it into the small mug, then lubricate the film with a bit of butter, margarine or vegetable oil. Crack your egg into the cling film whole and twist the cling film closed. Lift the little package into the boiling water and wait for up to four minutes. I waited for about three as I like the yolks to be nice and gooey.

Lift the cling film package out of the water and peel it open. You may want to do this on a towel. Then lift the eggs from the cling film to wherever you want to serve it and season it with salt and pepper. As you can see, the resulting egg is fairly circular and no mass has been lost to the water.

IMG_1806_poached_egg

Furthermore, it doesn't taste of vinegar - or cling film.

I also decided that I should compare the cling film method against the traditional method of cracking an egg into some boiling water and waiting for it to cook. I did this and was not surprised to find that a lot of the albumen bloomed into very thin sheets and broke away from the main body of the egg.

IMG_1808_egg_in_salted_water

Again, I waited about three minutes for the egg to cook before lifting it to a serving dish. It was a little smaller and a little more messy but tasted about the same as the egg that had been cooked in cling film.

IMG_1812_poached_egg

I think I prefer the results of the cling film method but it is a little bit more awkward as it involves a few extra stages and is not so easy to use if you want to do several eggs at once.

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