Pasta with tuna, capers and lemon

About 18 years ago I cooked for Paul for the first time. I made a very simple pasta dish, and I still remember even that being a challenge because he was kissing the back of my neck distractingly. I'm not entirely sure what day it is today and yet I also remember vividly that after we ate he said that he really liked the way I put slivers of the lemon zest in with the tuna. I like that bit too, so I think the lemon zest is essential.

I've been making it exactly the same way ever since. The only thing I have done differently this time is boosted the lemon flavour a bit by dropping the shell of the juiced and zested lemon into the cooking water.

Pasta with tuna, capers and lemon (serves 2)

Pasta (you know how much 2 of you eat. I am not going to recommend or judge)
Olive oil
3-4 cloves of garlic
1 tbs capers, drained
1 lemon, zested and juiced
A handful of flatleaf parsley, chopped
Good quality tuna in oil. 1-2 large cans depending on whether you have to share it with your cat

While the pasta (I think this is best with linguine, but we were eating in front of the TV so a smaller shape was more manageable) is boiling, put the capers, lemon zest and juice, parsley and tuna in a bowl. Slice the garlic.

When the pasta is cooked, reserve about a quarter of a cup of the cooking water and drain the rest, discarding the shell of the lemon if you added that to the water. Return the pot to the heat. Warm a slosh of olive oil and saute the sliced garlic until it is fragrant and beginning to brown, then add the bowl of tuna etc. Return the drained pasta to the pot, add the reserved starchy cooking water and bring back to the boil, simmering for just a minute or so. If you want to add some grated parmesan, in the teeth of Italian disapproval, go ahead. Silvio Berlusconi's ongoing career demonstrates that not all Italians get it right all the time.

Curtis Stone's asparagus & taleggio omelette

 This week I Heart Cooking Clubs are celebrating "the most important meal of the day" with Curtis Stone recipes. I have to admit that at the moment for me breakfast is most likely to be two very large cups of coffee and possibly a banana, but I do love a really extravagant breakfast or brunch.

On the weekend we generally have two meals a day - a substantial, late breakfast and then an evening meal - and pretty much Paul's favourite thing for the substantial late breakfast is a very cheesy omelette. Curtis Stone's Lazy Asparagus Omelette is just the thing really!

I've written in the past about my favourite frying pan, and how it makes the best omelettes in the world. It really does.

Paul doesn't like a baveuse omelette, so this technique of putting the pan under the grill to finish, which leaves you with something half way between a French omelette and a frittata, is the one I tend to use anyway. My delicious new season British asparagus were really skinny, so  I just sauteed them raw in the butter before adding the eggs. I also reduced the number of eggs, because 12 is too big for that pan and way too much food, really.

The taleggio melted into delicious runny pools, the eggs were just set, and the asparagus brought its wonderful fresh flavour to the party. It's one of those really simple dishes where everything has to be just right, and the combination of butter, eggs, asparagus and cheese was just perfect.

Fig, feta and almond salad

Paul loves salad - which is a good thing - but really, really loves "interesting" salad. Which tends to mean salads with nuts and seeds, bits of cheese and carefully considered dressings as well as the usual salad veg.

This one I made last night, to go with a roast rack of pork. It's very quick to put together and it's a delicious combination. It would go equally well with lamb or chicken I think. Or just in a bowl by itself as a solo meal.

Fig, feta and almond salad (serves 2)

1 handful flaked almonds
4 ripe figs
1 little gem lettuce
125g feta
2 spring onions
2 tsp honey
1 tsp grainy mustard
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
2 tbs olive oil

Toast the flaked almonds and put them to cool in your salad bowl. Quarter the figs, wash the lettuce and tear the leaves, crumble the feta and slice the spring onions into the bowl.

In a small bowl or ramekin mix the honey, mustard, vinegar and olive oil to an emulsion. Taste it - my mustard is quite sharp so it needed 2 tsp of honey, but a mellower mustard needs less. Just before serving pour the dressing over the salad and toss gently.

No-churn lemon ripple ice cream

I've mentioned that I hate food waste, haven't I? It feels so wrong to throw away ingredients because I've not made it around to cooking the dish I bought them for, or even worse, because I've misjudged use-by dates. This ice cream happened because a carton of cream was on its use-by date and I didn't have any other plans to use it for the next couple of days (I find that sealed cartons of cream are usually fine for at least a day or two afterwards, but I didn't want to push it too far). It also finished up a squeezy bottle of condensed milk that had been in the fridge for a while and the jar of lemon curd left from my raspberry and lemon dacquoise, so definitely a worthwhile, simple and useful little recipe. And delicious. Oh so delicious.

It uses the whipped cream and condensed milk base which makes a no-churn ice cream scoopable straight from the freezer, but I added a little vodka just to help it along. If you have a bottle of limoncello that you bought on holidays and have never got around to using, you could add that instead.

No-churn lemon ripple ice cream (serves about 4)

170g condensed milk
170ml double cream
1 lemon, juice and grated zest
2tbs vodka
good quality lemon curd

Put the condensed milk, lemon zest, juice and vodka in a large glass bowl and give it a bit of a stir to combine. Then add the cream and whip until it forms defined peaks.

Fold in the lemon curd (I had about 3 heaped tablespoons left from the dacquoise and dunking a spoon in the jar every time I went into the kitchen) very roughly, so it's rippled through the cream. Scrape into a plastic box, cover and freeze.

Now, Kavey's Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream event this month has a water ice theme - sorbets and granitas. So this doesn't qualify AT ALL. But it tastes so good that I am going to send it along to her anyway. And lemon is refreshing, so it's almost like a sorbet, right? Creamy, luscious sorbet.

Fish with wild garlic walnut pesto crust

I think about food almost constantly. I fall asleep considering menu plans and recipe ideas: last night I was musing over what summer fruit would work in a coffee and caramel pavlova to give some balance. Didn't come up with anything, so that might have to go on the backburner until the pears come into season. This simple fish dish was the product of one of my bedtime contemplations, and it actually worked on the plate just as well as it did in my head, which is always gratifying.

If you can get hold of some wild garlic I urge you to try it.

Fish with wild garlic walnut pesto crust (serves 2)

6-8 wild garlic leaves (stems, flowers & all)
50g walnuts
50g parmesan
2tbs olive oil, divided
1tbs butter
2 thick fillets of meaty white fish (I used cod loins)

Put the wild garlic in a colander over the sink and pour about half a kettle of boiling water over it. As soon as it is cool enough to handle, squeeze out the excess moisture. Chop the wild garlic, walnuts and parmesan together finely. This is one of the few things I use my mezzaluna for but a knife is absolutely fine. Put the chopped mixture in a small bowl and add 1tbs of the olive oil.

Preheat the grill (that's a broiler to you Americans, not a barbecue). In an oven-proof frying pan on the stove top, melt the butter and the remaining oil. Cook the fish on one side only until you can see it's opaque about half way up the side of the fillet. Divide the wild garlic mixture between the two fillets and press on well. Put the pan under the grill for a couple of minutes until the pesto forms an appetising golden crust and the fish is cooked through.

We had it on a bed of blanched samphire, with asparagus, a little hollandaise (unnecessarily indulgent but lovely and I had a bit leftover that needed using) and a tomato salad.

The road to hell is paved with... salmon tartare

Several of my pals in the blogosphere take part in an event called I ♥ Cooking Clubs, where they cook their way through a different cookbook writer's output for six months or so. It's been going for ages, but I've never really felt drawn to participate before. But now, they have announced that their featured writer for this Autumn/Winter is Diana Henry. As my love for her is well-documented, I just had to get involved.

So the theme for last week was Icy Cold - which played beautifully into my hands as I had the end of a side of salmon left over from some other dishes. Just perfect for a salmon tartare with rye crisps. I thought I'd be able to sneak it under the wire as a light lunch on Sunday, and post about it on Sunday evening. Unfortunately last week it was me who was Icy Cold and Thoroughly Stuffed Up, so on Sunday I found myself being fed a lamb kebab for lunch, having no power to actually make a decision or do any cooking.

My good intentions having come to nothing, the salmon tartare was my lunch on Monday, and I am letting it stand as this week's Pot Luck theme. It's delicious. It's not scary raw fish. It's light and fresh and very quick to put together. Mine was not entirely as it should have been because the supermarket let me down on dill, and I couldn't find the capers. I substituted a pinch of crushed fennel seeds to add the missing aniseed note from the dill, and doubled up on the pickled cucumbers.

Cod & scallops with tomato basil salsa

This isn't a recipe so much as an idea. I had scallops, but there weren't really enough of them to make a main course. But I also had a couple of cod loins, so I decided to bring them together with a sort of sauce vierge type thing, which headed off into being more of a salsa.

I seasoned diced red and yellow cherry tomatoes and seasoned them with crushed garlic, salt and a splash of olive oil and white wine vinegar, then added quite a lot of finely torn basil, and a few chopped black olives. I let that sit while I cooked the fish.

The cod loins just went into a hot pan with a splash of oil. I seasoned them with a little salt and pepper, and when I turned them over I threw the scallops into the pan. By the time the fish was done, the scallops were too.

We had them on a bed of mixed peas, sugar snaps and edamame, with the oily, garlicky tomato salsa providing the dressing for all of it. It was on the table in less than 15 minutes, and tasted wonderful.

Two meals inspired by Jamie Oliver

A couple of weeks ago, I was perusing youtube while I ate my lunch and came across an episode of Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals. To be honest, when that series first aired, I didn't pay very much attention because I like cooking too much and never have the time pressure to produce a meal in only 15 minutes. But the sausage gnocchi and warm bean salad looked really delicious, so I decided to give it a go.

Then of course I realised that if I did both dishes we'd have loads of leftovers, so I decided to split them over two meals.

The sausage gnocchi, even though I reduced the fennel seeds to just less than 1tsp, was way too fennel-y. I think 1/2tsp of toasted and slightly crushed fennel seeds would have been nicer to eat. It was also very soupy. I think if I make this again I won't pre-cook the gnocchi, just let it poach in the sauce. I wasn't timing it, but this can't have taken much more than 15 minutes to make, because Paul was very surprised that tea was ready so soon.

The bean and greens salad was a great accompaniment to a barbecued onglet, although I think I would have preferred it to be just beans or just cabbagey things, rather than the combination. It would also make a nice meal on its own, with some good bread and butter.

These were both good dishes to add to the repertoire. I think this really is Jamie Oliver's strength - he is a very good cookery teacher, and has very good ideas about combining flavours in very approachable ways. If he sticks to that instead of saying ignorant and inflammatory things about poverty, I think it'll be a good thing.

Presto Pasta Nights #289 - prawn & 'nduja fusilli lunghi

Fusilli Lunghi is my new favourite pasta shape

My love affair with 'nduja persists. The heat and rich porkyness of it is totally irresistable to me. And the way it melts as soon as it gets warm means you can make an almost instant sauce.

I boiled my pasta - fusilli lunghi, spaghetti-length curly tubes - and in the few moments while it drained I melted a 100g chunk of nduja in the pot with a packet of large, peeled, raw prawns and a punnet of halved cherry tomatoes. Then I tossed the pasta back through it. Incredibly speedy and an extraordinary amount of flavour for so few ingredients.

Just the thing for the penultimate Presto Pasta Nights this week. It's being hosted by Kirsten at From Kirsten's Kitchen To Yours, as ever under the auspices of Ruth at Once Upon A Feast. Now I just have to come up with something amazing for the very last one.

Turkey taco salad

This is a very quick, very tasty, very satisfying meal. I made it for lunch one bank holiday Monday and it definitely won't be the last time. In fact, I think it would be very do-able as a work lunch, taking one container of salad veg and one container of the turkey chilli, and microwaving it.

I sauteed a small chopped onion in a splash of oil and added 1tbs of ground coriander, 1tbs of ground cumin and 1tsp hot smoked paprika, then browned minced turkey thighs in the spice mixture. I added a spoonful of chipotle in adobo and a bit of water and let it simmer until it was almost dry, then stirred through a handful of chopped coriander leaves.

In our big meal-sized noodle bowls I piled chopped little gem lettuce, avocado and tomatoes, and squeezed a bit of lemon juice over it. I divided the hot turkey chilli between the bowls and topped them with a spoonful of fat-free yoghurt and a small grating of cheese.

Nigella's sweet & salty crunchy nut bars

Becky is allergic to nuts, as I've mentioned, so I don't make treats for work that contain them, because I think it's a bit unfair. By the same reasoning the best possible thing for my waistline would be for a diabetic person to join the team.

But this week Becky is in the South of France, so I wanted to make something that packed in the maximum quantity of nuts. I did think about baklava, but I was away for the weekend (post about that is coming in a couple of days) so it had to be something quick.

The quickest, nuttiest things I know are Nigella Lawson's sweet & salty crunchy nut bars. Butter, chocolate, golden syrup, honeycomb and salted peanuts. I enhanced the nuttyness by using the remainder of my homemade maple and pecan cinder toffee (fascinatingly, given that I made that toffee in October and totally forgot it was there, it had no loss of either flavour or texture. Shows how effective candying is as a preservative!)

These bars would actually be the perfect thing to take on an arctic expedition when you needed really concentrated energy, but it also got an office full of people through a Monday.

Barbecued Mackerel

We've had two weeks of rain. Now, this is a Good Thing because we are in drought, but on a damp-footed day-to-day level it's a bit of a drag. I know they talk fondly about April showers, but these bursts of torrential rain, howling wind, hail, thunder and lightning followed by 10 minutes of bright hot sunshine are very challenging to the wardrobe. Layers come into play (rookie error - I wore a black bra under a white shirt to work the other day, assuming I wouldn't get warm enough to take off my pullover). It makes a girl very much aware that her boots need re-soling and that wet trouser hems just don't dry all day. 

It's weather that makes you want comforting, starchy food, but at the same time fresh, zingy summer flavours are calling.

In one 45 minute gap between cloudbursts, we lit the barbecue. Peppers, courgette and salt-rubbed mackerel were soon joined by some wedges of hispi cabbage. Just before the heavens opened again, we whisked it all off the grill, bathed it in a sort of Asian-y marinade of soy, mirin, ginger, garlic and a little sesame oil and got to appreciate a little taste of sunshine.

Barbecued mackerel, courgette and red peppers

Other Blogger's Dishes: burgers, chicken, pie and snacks

As usual, a lot of the stuff we are eating day to day is inspired by my jaunts around the blogosphere. My usual sort of routine on a Sunday is to sit with blogs open in one tab, a menu plan in another and my grocery shopping in a third, so as I see something delicious I can make a plan to cook it immediately. I usually have a spreadsheet open at the same time, so I can note dishes that aren't for this week but I do want to make at some point. It can be a complicated business being a Virgo.

Technically, these burgers are another blogger's dish, although I actually saw them in Niamh's book, Comfort and Spice, not on her blog. She has blogged about them though, and indeed published the recipe in the Evening Standard! I am a bit of a burger purist, usually using only beef, salt and pepper in mine, but she is absolutely right that the earthy, sweet beetroot and clean, firey horseradish are brilliant additions. They are also a great way of using up the beetroot in the veg box! It's very Australian to put a slice of vinegary beetroot in a burger, so I knew that the flavours would work well. I confess that I didn't have fresh horseradish so I used a spoonful of jarred. Not ideal, but it gave a pretty good indication of what these burgers could be like. And the colour is fantastic.

These chipotle-garlic edamame from Esi at Dishing Up Delights are indeed a delight. Somehow I couldn't spot the ground cumin in the cupboard, so I made it with a spoonful of seeds and it was none the worse for that! It's such a good idea to take advantage of the way you scrape the beans from the pod with your teeth, and pile on spicy seasonings. They made a perfect little savoury snack for a weekend afternoon, alongside a beer.

Somewhat unusually, this bacon and egg pie looks very little like the bacon and egg pie that inspired it on Charlie's blog, Hotly Spiced. I thought her addition of a tomato-rich custard to the classic dish was absolutely brilliant, but I didn't have any tomatoes. Then I thought about how good spinach and eggs are together, and how much I love spinach and bacon together, and the fact that I had a bag of washed spinach leaves in the fridge. I scaled it up a bit, because I wanted 8 tidy portions, and I added a sprinkle of pil-pil mix and nutmeg to the spinach, and I used (bought) puff pastry instead of filo. But aside from that it is exactly the same dish! Anyway, it is really delicious. The mineral-y spinach undercuts the richness of the bacon and eggs and the whole thing is just wonderful. I can imagine the horror from my friend Penny who doesn't eat either bacon or eggs...

If you haven't read Hotly Spiced, I thoroughly recommend it. She's very, very funny. I am certainly going to try this pie using the tomato base too - it's a very good dish.

These hot wings from Emma's blog Souperior aren't precisely as written - Paul doesn't really care for chicken wings so I used drumsticks, and I used my home made smoked chilli sauce, cut with a little tomato ketchup to tone down the heat. It was a gorgeous, messy meal, although strangely my fiercely hot chilli sauce was possibly toned down too much. Next time (and there will be a next time!) I will use straight chilli sauce, I think. I added a big pile of carrot and celery sticks to make it a more balanced meal and we sat with the platter between us and a goodly supply of paper towels. Finger-licking is compulsory.

Haddock Tacos

This was a really good, fast, light dinner. Fillets of sustainably-caught haddock dusted with cornmeal seasoned with some pil-pil seasoning mix (this stuff is great - it's a dried mixture of garlic, parsley, chilli and paprika; friends buy it for us in Spain) and gently shallow-fried, stuffed into soft wheat tortillas with a tomato and avocado salsa, and topped with yoghurt flavoured with chipotle paste.

It took less than 10 minutes from fridge to plate and was very satisfying.

Fish Fight Update and some mussels

We're still trying to vary the types of seafood we eat and to make sustainable choices. These lovely mussels were simply cooked with wine, garlic, tomatoes and parsley for a very quick supper.

There is something more that you can do to preserve our fisheries than making informed purchases when you shop.

On Monday, the Fisheries Ministers from the 27 member states are meeting in Brussels to decide the future of the discards ban - and apparently the French minister is going to try to get it blocked. Richard Benyon, Minister for the Natural Environment and Fisheries has been quite strong on calling for the ban on discards, although his mention of "appropriate timelines" could be weasel words toeing the line with the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee arguing that the ban should be delayed until 2020. You can tell all the Ministers that you support the ban on discards, and a sensible, sustainable, reformed Common Fisheries Policy, by using this nifty twitter tool. This is a Big Yellow Taxi moment - please don't let the ban get blocked.

Iced berries with white chocolate sauce to challenge your resolve

Personally, I haven't made any New Year's Resolutions. I have some objectives for this year (get job, lose weight, get drivers licence) but no actual resolutions because I feel that they are just a way to start the year disappointed in yourself.

So here, even though it is a Wednesday in early January, is a lovely and not diet-focused dessert.

I'd heard about "Scandinavian Berries", the speciality of the Caprice Holdings group (Le Caprice, the Ivy, J. Sheekey etc etc etc in several countries) - frozen berries served with a warm white chocolate sauce - but I'd never tried them. Then in November I was lucky enough to get free tickets to the Ideal Home Show from Fleur de Guerre and David Smith. To be honest, Home Shows are not really my bag. One of the things I really don't like about them is the suffocating crush around fast food stalls to buy ridiculously overpriced grey, mystery-meat burgers, so I made an executive decision. I saw that Gizzi Erskine was doing a pop-up restaurant with a pre-booked table, pie, mash & veg and a dessert for a very reasonable price, so I booked it.

This was a good decision.

In the overheated press of people, we were able to sit in a wide open space, where it was quiet enough to hear each other talk, and enjoy a bottle of wine, a really excellent pie and veg and a rather good dessert. My dessert was indeed the iced berries with a white chocolate and cointreau sauce. Due to the pressures of mass catering, the sauce was served cold, but it gave me enough of a taste for the dish to be very keen to make it myself.

It doesn't need a recipe. You put some frozen, mixed berries in a bowl. You melt some white chocolate over a double boiler with some double cream and add a splash of cointeau (actually, over Christmas you can buy lovely thick Channel Islands cream already spiked with cointreau, and this is what I used) and when it is warm and smooth, you pour it over the frozen berries and serve without delay.

Chard pasta

It's that time of year when food goes over the top. Would you like some brandy butter in your mince pie? Whipped cream on your boozy hot chocolate? A bit of home made shortbread? How about a bacon-wrapped chipolata with your roast turkey and some extra gravy with your mashed potatoes? It'd be rude not to. But somehow the onslaught of festive food seems to drag out through the whole month. It reaches a point where you don't really want another cranberry-topped anything and just want something simple and, well, clean-tasting.

This very straight-forward pasta is just the thing. It's one of those sauces that comes together in the time it takes to boil the pasta, so you can be ready to eat in less than 15 minutes. I added some anchovies to give a salty kick, but if you leave them out and add capers or some sliced olives, you've got yourself a good vegan meal.

Spaghetti with chard and anchovies (serves 2)

Olive oil

3 cloves of garlic

1 large, medium-heat red chilli

4 anchovy fillets (optional)

1 bunch chard

juice of a lemon

pasta, to serve

Warm a good slurp of olive oil in a large sauté pan, add the sliced garlic, chilli and anchovy fillets, and cook gently until the anchovy begins to melt.

Chop the stalks of the chard and add to the pan. When they have sweated down a bit, (which should be about the same time as the pasta is ready) add the shredded leaves of the chard, the juice of a lemon and the drained pasta. As you toss it together, the heat from the pasta will wilt the chard down. Serve in big bowls with lots of black pepper.

Pork miso noodle stirfry

This bowl of noodley goodness came about by happenstance. Paul had bought 3 packs of outdoor-reared pork shoulder steaks because they were cheap. We barbecued them with some lapsang souchong tea leaves on the coals for a gentle smoke, and then had an enormous amount of leftover meat.

I decided I wanted to make a stirfry, but I didn't want to do my usual soy/cornflour based sauce for it. A tub of shiro miso was sitting in the fridge. There was baby bok choy in the veg box. I love it when a plan comes together.

This stirfry was extremely good, and an excellent use for leftover meat, but I actually think it would have been as good or even better with some crispy tofu puffs through it. As ever, the important things about a stirfry are to have everything prepared before you start and have the wok/pan really hot before you add the oil.

Pork miso noodle stirfry (made 3 hefty portions)

Splash of veg oil

1 onion, sliced

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

1" knob of ginger, julienned

2 carrots, peeled and sliced into planks

1 red pepper, cut into chunks

1 bunch baby bok choy, sliced

1 handful sweet potato noodles, soaked in hot water

500g leftover pork steaks, sliced across the grain (or leftover chicken, turkey, tofu puffs, or just add a big handful of roasted peanuts at the end)

2 tbs shiro miso

2 tbs mirin

2 tbs reduced sodium soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

Combine the miso, mirin, soy and sesame oil in a small bowl.

Heat a wok or large frying pan, then add a good splash of oil. Add the onions and stir fry until beginning to catch and take colour. Add the garlic, ginger, carrot and pepper, keep it moving until the peppers are beginning to soften. Add the stems of the bok choy, because they need a little longer than the leaves, then add the drained noodles, bok choy leaves, leftover meat and the miso mixture. Stir fry until everything is well-coated in the sauce and it's all cooked through but with a bite to the veg and piping hot.

I am sharing this with Ruth at Presto Pasta Nights! It's too good to keep to myself.

Sandwich heaven - torta

Continuing my love-affair with Mexican Food Made Simple... I cannot believe I hadn't had a torta before! A split ciabatta bun, toasted in the chorizo juices, laden with refried beans (and as an aside, I can't believe how good homemade refried beans are!) avocado, lettuce, coarsely-chopped fresh tomato salsa. A curl of freshly-grilled chorizo. A little chipotle mayo. Heaven.

It's a very clever combination of ingredients. The earthy beans, creamy avocado and sparkling acid salsa are equal players with the crisp refreshing lettuce, fatty, spicy sausage and subtle fire of the chipotle mayo. All conveniently encased in a sandwich thick enough to keep your fingers moderately clean.

I am particularly proud of this one because I entered it in a competition on Thomasina Miers' facebook page and it won. My prize funded an extremely pleasant dinner at the Covent Garden Wahaca, which was a celebration of the fact that Paul now has a job in London, so not only does he get to come home every night, but we can also do extremely decadent things like meet up after work for a meal!

I am also hoping I can sneak this under the wire to Deb's Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper Sunday (soups, salads and sammies) round-up!

Riding the Bánh mì Bandwagon

Bánh mì are having a moment right now. Or they have been for the last few years, but I am just now getting aboard the Bánh mì love train. There are only so many variations you can see on blogs, so many reviews of Bánh mì-specialist cafes and food trucks that you can read before you throw your hands in the air and cry "Enough! I will make this bloody sandwich".

But not any sandwich. This is the ultimate sandwich. It provides the most exquisite balance between crisp, soft, dry, moist, sharp and smooth. It is a sandwich developed by people who think food should be a pleasure. It is a very fine sandwich indeed.

For my Bánh mì I started with a couple of part-baked baguette (and completed the baking thereof). I applied a goodly base-layer of mayonnaise. I smeared a layer of pork pâté. I placed batons of cucumber. I added warm medallions of sweet cooked pork (following the recipe in my Spirit House cookbook). I topped with pickled beansprouts and beetroot. I applied a final garnish of coriander leaves.

Very generously filled sandwiches! But through sheer greed, I could have eaten another.


This lovely sandwich is going to Deb's Kahakai Kitchen for her Souper (soup, salad and sammie) Sunday round-up.