BRINGING HOME THE BOQUERIA
4 February, 2007
Whenever we come back from Barcelona, it’s always laden with anything tinned I can’t get here. One of them is the little baby squid in olive oil
– chipirones. No comparison with the fresh ones but when in need. You don’t have to do anything to them and a lovely comfort dish is
black-eyed beans with garlic and sage, served with these delights.
For a light, dieting tasty dish, toast some broken walnut pieces in butter and add a packet of spinach and the chopped chipirones.
Serve on toast.
It's the hardest thing to wander the Boqueria or Sant Antoni markets knowing that the extraordinary produce has to remain untouched by me. It has to be vacuum-sealed to bring it home and so one is limited.
Even so, another easy win are the thrusting white asparagus spears laid out in tins like bodies; elemental, soft and profoundly delicious with mayonnaise and crumbles
of fresh black pepper. For adventure, lay some anchovies over them and wash down with a René Barbier White Penedès. And why not? It keeps the Spanish moment lingering.
In Barcelona, where the Belgian and I are often found, we have some friends who run a cheese shop. Interesting because there is not
such a thing in Spain elsewhere. Catherine Mclaughlin has become an expert in Spanish farmhouse cheeses over many years of research
and is now the proud owner of the Formatgeria La Seu on the Calle Dagueria in the Barrio Gothic. You bring cheese home from here
you'll be guaranteed to be piggy until it's finished.
TENDER WORDS
Tender (2009) tells the story of Nigel Slater's love affair with his garden in
Islington and the many seedlings he has raised in his box-hedged vegetable patches. It’s a magnificent volume, like a medieval knightly
treatise with pictures of his Eden, its produce and many of the recipes he has created from them.
23 May, 2010
FOOD FROM THE HEART
Cooking is a basic human instinct. We’ve been eating, chopping, shaping, flavouring, enticing ingredients into something delicious
since time began. But as the way many of us live has changed, the basic skills we require to cook, are no longer valued and it’s often easier to
let others take control of what we eat.
21 April, 2010
IN A RIGHT FISH STEW
This week we had sustainable fish stew. It’s a quick and easy way to feed a gang of hungries on a Friday night and
doesn’t need much else but some good bread and wine. Like all stews, you need balance, rich liquid and a range of potent flavours steaming
from your pot.
15 March, 2010