Tag: food
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Pantry Pasta with Pickled Anchovies
Some nights aren’t about cooking. They’re about getting something good on the table without overthinking it. It was one of those evenings. I had work still to finish, Louise wasn’t sure when she’d be home, and I wasn’t interested in shopping. A quick look through the pantry and fridge turned up a can of tomatoes,…
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An Afternoon with a Trout
Some meals begin with a shopping list. Others begin with a recipe. This one began with a trout. It was lying on the fish counter this morning, its skin glowing with soft pinks and golds, looking almost too beautiful to cook. I hadn’t gone looking for fish, but sometimes the best meals aren’t planned. They’re…
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Not Every Steak is a Good Steak
Not my actual kitchen! Last night’s dinner was a reminder that even after years of cooking, and years of raising good beef cattle, it’s still possible to get it wrong. The meal itself was simple enough: steak with creamy mashed potato and asparagus, blanched and finished with butter and a squeeze of lemon juice. The…
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Leftovers Don’t Have to Look Like Leftovers
One of the pleasures of cooking at home is discovering that yesterday’s dinner can become something entirely different today. After a roast chicken dinner, I found myself with half a chicken still sitting in the fridge. There was plenty of meat left on it, but not really enough for another roast meal. The obvious answer…
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Eat Fresh. Eat Simply.
One of the things that struck me most during our time in France was not the sophistication of the food, but its simplicity. Before travelling, it is easy to imagine that French dining is all white tablecloths, elaborate sauces and chefs performing culinary magic behind kitchen doors. Certainly, those places exist, but what we found…
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From Passata to Pantry
One of the challenges of making things from scratch is that you occasionally make more than you know what to do with. A little while ago I found myself with a substantial quantity of roasted tomato passata sitting in the refrigerator. The passata itself had come from an excess of tomatoes that had been roasted…
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A Quick Update from France
If you’ve been wondering why things have gone a little quiet lately, there’s a good reason. The plan had been to spend some time travelling through southern France while still keeping up with writing and posting. As it turned out, the weather had other ideas. During our week on the Canal du Midi the heat…
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Lunch and Art at Château La Coste
Today at Château La Coste in Provence felt like one of those places where food, landscape and art all become part of the same experience. Before lunch we spent time walking through the grounds looking at the outdoor artworks integrated into the vineyards and hillsides. The standout for me was the Oak Room by Andy…
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Tortilla for Two
1. The Situation The potatoes are ready and sitting there. If you leave them, they go soft or start sprouting. The hens are laying steadily, so eggs aren’t scarce. This is one of those moments where doing nothing wastes both. 2. The Approach This is a holding dish as much as a meal. You’re turning…
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Rough Cut Kitchen – Notes from the Calanques
We spent today in the limestone country of the Calanques National Park outside Marseille, and it is impossible not to think about food when you walk through a landscape like this. The Mediterranean landscape has a particular harshness to it. White limestone cliffs. Thin dusty soils. Dry wind. Salt air. Everything is sun-bleached and water…