Cooking the Books

[Princess Morripov]

[Hamm]

It is a pretty nail. Thank you very much, I have all the ingredients so that’s tomorrow sorted.

[Princess Morripov]

[Mountain Goat]

I just ordered the Rogan book. Someone mentioned it was good for fish in the review of another book I was looking at, so I looked at it, couldn't tell whether it was good for fish or not as those pages weren't included in the preview, but I liked what I saw generally.

[Edith Bacon]

I’ve just had a look at Rogan and stuck it on my wish list. J took me to Aulis for my 50th and it was the best food experience of my entire life.

I hope your mouth is OK, Goat.

[Mountain Goat]

Oh wow. I am so jealous.

(thank you!)

[Edith Bacon]

We should organise some Michelin meets

[Mountain Goat]

Yes please.

[absley]

I love his cooking - I hope it's good, Goat.

I can't think of a book to meet your criteria though and definitely think you should play with the idea of writing it! Or, I wonder if you could do a charity book, for fish conservation, and just ask the big- names to come up with one unfashionable fish recipe, each. Maybe we can pitch that!

[emma_p]

I bought some lovely Grimsby un-dyed smoked haddock yesterday and thought of you Goat. S then went on to turn it into a fish pie so not exciting although he added saffron and bay to the sauce which made it extra nice (Liv loves yellow sauce ).

I have cooked a bit from my new books! I also went to an event at Italo where the chef cooked a feast from Weligama. I esp LOVED the mango curry, samphire sambal, cucumber curry and all the pickles. S was raving about the lamb one and we both adored the Sri Lankan love cake. I am definitely going to invite some people over to make a Sri Lankan feast soon (I think you need a few of the curries to get the best effect).

I also made her roast spiced chicken with brown sugar, limes and coconut milk which was gorgeous (the was a pretty big proof reading error in the recipe but I contacted her through instagram and she was so helpful ) I loved it as Sunday roast alternative.

From Taverna I loved her way of cooking halloumi. She cuts it like a hedgehog and grills it whole until it's really charred. Game changer!

I've made a few things from Sweeter off the Vine to satisfy my American baked goods cravings - the gooseberry buckle I made yesterday was so delicious. I always buy gooseberries and end up turning them into crumble but the buckle was almost as easy.

[absley]

I need to try the hedgehog halloumi! Was it marinated or anything? I'm guessing you can do it with or without?

[emma_p]

Just a bit of olive oil drizzled over and fresh oregano added after.

[Hamm]

Just a bit of olive oil drizzled over and fresh oregano added after.

That sounds lovely. Can you photo the method please? I think I know how I would hedgehog but...
Also hedgehog

[Mountain Goat]

That is an excellent idea for halloumi!

I'm laughing at the idea of me writing a recipe book. It would be all "I don't know how much you need, just taste it" and "cook it till it's done" and other very helpful instructions. But it would be a good premise and I know Nathan Outlaw has done a few projects creating interesting recipes for fish like ling. Fishbox should do it, it's them that are giving me the unglamorous fish. They have recipes, but they're pragmatic rather than particularly exciting (eg today's was a whiting curry, made from a jar of curry paste and coconut milk. Fine, but my world remains stubbornly unshaken).

Grimsby smoked haddock! Fish pie with bay and saffron sounds like a lovely twist. I did it (smoked haddock) last week with leeks, a potato and caerphilly rosti, a poached egg and a mustard/tarragon beurre blanc. It was really lovely but again all the usual flavours. And I got more in my fishbox today. Just when I was making headway through my stash.

The Sri Lankan food sounds lovely and also pleasingly different, I don't know much about it. I do like the sound of that roast chicken.

Roganic should be arriving today but isn't here yet. Come along.

[emma_p]

The Fishbox recipes are pretty unimaginative. I've not used one!

[Mountain Goat]

Me neither. I don't usually even look at them because I take them off and put them face down immediately as I don't want to spoil the surprise of what's in the box. Then I forget about them until I throw them in the recycling. They are usually either obvious or someone's fever dream.

Rogan just arrived! At first glance it's lovely. Much of it is likely to be impractical as a whole dish - for example I am unlikely to forage mallow the very same day I locate razor clams - but there are a million great ideas and interesting techniques and sauces which I will definitely play with. There are also a lot of small plates and I'm unlikely to make five of them for Tuesday tea, but there are ideas within them that could be used in a bigger dish.

I have my eye on a dish of smoked cod's roe with fennel biscuits and parsley snow - I have the smoked cod's roe in the freezer and it is mostly simple other than the parsley snow, which is a frozen gel - but you could easily just use the same mix of ingredients but make them up as an oil or gremolata. (spellcheck insists I change that to "premolar" which is less appetising).

[emma_p]

Parsley snow sounds amazing!

[Mountain Goat]

It has chervil and chives in it too I love chervil.

[emma_p]

So it turns out that the halloumi hedgehog was from the chef's instagram rather than her book. But here's the method (she serves it with apricot jam which I didn't but I've included it in case you fancy it).

Screenshot 2019-06-18 at 16.58.15.png

@georgiepuddingnpie Whole grilled halloumi is back! Loads of you asked so here’s the info. Basically I did a variation of one of my Taverna book recipes for all my launch parties. The Socratous classic is a halloumi and apricot jam sandwich, and honestly one of the best combos in the world. To make it for 100 people though is too epic so I made it into a meze instead. This is a homemade apricot jam, a whole halloumi that is grilled, fresh oregano (or fried) and drizzled in honey. - for the apricot jam you can use ready made. But I like to finish the dish with honey, so the beauty of making your own is that it won’t be as sweet. A great cheat is to blitz 2 x drained tins of apricots with 175g of caster sugar to a purée. Cook it down for 15 - 20 mins over a low heat till thick and jammy. That’s it. - to grill the halloumi like this simple make a criss cross cut on the top of the halloumi about 1.5cm deep. Drizzle over olive oil and grill till brown and gnarly (see video). - you can finish with thyme, rosemary or oregano. Try lightly frying the sprigs first. - use good greek honey. My favourite are the ones from @odysea_ltd. I used the pine and fir tree one here.

[Mountain Goat]

I would also skip the apricot jam but that sounds so lovely.