Food

When I lived in Kew there was an american cake shop called outsider tart in Chiswick. I actually first tried there cakes when I was on a date at the IMAX on Southbank with my now wife. Outsider Tart was an utterly guilty pleasure, heart attacks and sugar headaches in every mouthful. At Christmas my elder sister gave me a signed copy of their recipe book Baked in America and it has become my go to book each weekend when I bakes cake, cookies or muffins or some other wat of combining butter, sugar, nuts etc together.

Today has been banana and pecan whoopies (a sort of cake batter but cooked as a cookie shape) filled with a peanut butter and cream cheese frosting.

The first batch I made rather large whoopies, second bake were smaller and more manageable from an eating perspective.

1 Attachment

Does anyone have any good butterfly lamb leg recipes? In particular what heat to cook on? Recipes online seem to vary wildly in time and temperature.

How big is it and how much do you want it cooked?

2kg and probably about medium rare. Not too pink but not over.

https://www.recipetineats.com/slow-cooked-lamb-shawarma/
Or equivalent.

Tonight I attempted making split yellow pea soup in our pressure cooker. I made glue with burnt shit on the bottom of the pan instead.

Anyone have an authoritative source on pressure cooker timings?

Pizza on the way....

Enough liquid? Cooked for too long?

Kenji Lopez does a good one which I’ve made before in the instapot

Too long is my theory. Will look up his version. Thank you!

If you’ve got Sky, the Donut King documentary is so good on so many levels

Made Marcus Wareing's mushroom cobbler.

Added shiitake and porcini for a bit more umami.

Banging.

1 Attachment

My first ever braised beef short ribs turned out a success on Saturday night, and again today for lunch on a bagel with some lettuce and caramelized onions.

2 Attachments

Tell me about salt. Is Maldon just a successful branding story or is there more to it? Is there anything else people use and prefer? I don’t find Maldon salty enough and have to put about 20p’s worth in every meal. But the crystals look cool and so does the box on the shelf.

Sea salt is not as salty as rock salt which tends to be more sodium chloride (sea salt is a wider range of minerals). I ask family members to try and bring back sea salt for me from their holidays so I can have different ones for bread making. I tend to use rock or table salt for boiling veg/pasta/rice etc. Whereas sea salt flakes are used for flavouring dishes.

Any recommendation for a nice 'thank you' gift for foodies around the £20 mark? Would usually go wine but she's not drinking at the moment so looking for something they'd both enjoy...

Dishoom at home kit? I've had the vegan sausage naan kit twice and it was incredible. They do meat too.

Nice idea, thank you, but thinking more something with a longer shelf-life - I guess some fancy olive oil would be a good shout. Interesting suggestions along that sort of route would be much appreciated!

You can’t really go wrong with a big piece of Parmesan.

Coffee or associated paraphenalia?

This looks ace and easy, and it's this?:

https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/mushroom-cobbler-recipe

Tell me about salt. Is Maldon just a successful branding story or is there more to it? Is there anything else people use and prefer? I don’t find Maldon salty enough and have to put about 20p’s worth in every meal. But the crystals look cool and so does the box on the shelf.

Maldon is primarily a finishing salt - a nice crunchy texture that is very good for meaty things and chips.

Due to the way Maldon is made (evaporate sea water) you end up with flakes but that also means you don't end up with a very dense crystal structure. So if you are salting by volume (tsp, tbsp) using Maldon, it is roughly half as much regular table salt of the same volume.

1 tsp of Maldon ~ 3.5g
1 tsp of table salt ~ 7g

Adjust accordingly in your recipes.

I went with this, plus a Tunworth, and the reception suggests it was the correct decision.

Made Putanesca at the weekend - never made it before and it was brilliant

Then made a gnocchi ragu lasagna thing - also brilliant

Both were recipes from Thomas Straker well worth a follow on insta

Whores sauce - a little fishy and spicy.

Cheers! I actually read a few articles about it, really cool story and process. Didn’t realise the pyramids were unique to them, or at least used to be.

Delighted to find a good local place for Wild Garlic in SW London. An early morning walk well spent. This evening will be spent making bulk quantities of pesto for the freezer.

2 Attachments