Easter 2018

Happy Easter, to those who celebrate!

Paul's had a break between contracts, so the Easter weekend this year is the conclusion to a pretty restful few weeks. We had a chance to go to see friends, to see a movie, to get away for a few days to the Lake District, to sleep in and do some DIY. Nice.

And on Saturday we had friends over to lunch. Paul's volunteered us to cook at an event in the summer, and we're tentatively planning to do barbecued shoulder of lamb, so we thought this would be a good excuse to do a test run. Unfortunately the weather didn't play along at all. So I slathered the shoulder of lamb with wild garlic salsa verde, poured in some vegetable stock and wrapped it tightly in foil before baking it at 100C overnight. After about 13 hours I opened the foil and put it back in the oven to get a little colour before shredding it with a couple of forks, mixing it through the copious juices.

With it we had one of my new favourite things - the spinach and preserved lemon freekeh from On the Side, although I used a bunch of wild garlic leaves instead of cloves of garlic to add a seasonal twist. And to really amp up the fresh, herbal quality of the meal I also served Diana Henry's wonderful tomato and pomegranate salad with feta and soft herbs.

It was one of the best meals I have cooked in ages. And all doable ahead which made it very low effort. Low effort is definitely what you want for a low-key weekend.

Playing with Pomelo

Steak and Vietnamese-ish pomelo salad

One of the things that people who don't like online grocery shopping say about it is that they like to browse. They also say they'd rather choose their own fresh produce. And I understand that. For me, though, the convenience and ability to take a leisurely approach over the course of the week more than make up for being stuck with Ocado's "New" tab.

But as it happens I was perusing the New tab when I noticed that they had started to stock pomelos. I've been hearing things about pomelos for a while but never knowingly tried one, so I decided to order one to play with. And to be honest, I am glad Ocado were choosing my fresh produce for me, because the pomelo is a curious beast that flies in the face of everything I know about citrus.

For one thing, it was tightly wrapped in plastic, so I couldn't tell if it was aromatic. It was also very light for its size - I'm used to choosing fruit that seem heavy and juice-laden, but apparently that's not something you look for in a pomelo.

I took it out of the plastic and got a waft of a subtle floral, almost jasmine-y fragrance. I thinly pared off the rind, for candying, and then cut off the pith with the intention of cutting the flesh into suprême for putting in a salad.

And discovered that that isn't something you do with pomelos either. The membranes are very thick and the juice sacs quite dry and separated, so it's actually the easiest thing to just pull the fruit into segments and peel the membranes off with your fingers. Which isn't as sticky as it sounds.

The flesh went into a Vietnamese-ish salad with cucumber, shallots, mint, coriander and peanuts. I made a light dressing of chilli, fish sauce and lime juice. Even with all the chunks of pomelo in the salad, it still needed the fresh acidity of the lime juice, as the fruit is fragrant rather than sharp. Wonderful with a steak.

Then I candied the peel. I've been nibbling small chunks of it whenever I feel like something sweet, but I think most of it is going to be adorning my Christmas trifle.

 

Piquet, Fitzrovia

Beetroot & goats cheese

For a few weeks I'd been hearing increasing buzz about Piquet. Well, maybe not buzz. More of a well-mannered murmur of appreciation and licking of well-fed lips. People whose opinions on food I respect were saying it was very nice. And grown-up. You could book a table and drink out of actual glasses. Then I also saw a suggestion that it was going to be reviewed by the big guns, so decided I needed to go while it was still possible to get in.

We chose the "Discover Piquet" menu option, at £29.95 for three courses and a welcoming drink. I started with a heritage beetroot salad, goat’s cheese mousse, black figs and hazelnuts - comfortable in the knowledge that Jude can't bear goat's cheese, so I wouldn't have to share. Beetroot and goat's cheese is such a safe combination, but this was beautifully composed, with the leaves, figs and toasted hazelnuts adding extra dimension. The slices of golden beetroot confused me, because even though I knew it was beetroot my eyes kept telling me it was persimmon and my palate didn't know what to think.

Jude had celeriac velouté, trompette mushrooms, of which I didn't get anything approaching an acceptable photo. The presentation elevated the soup, poured from a jug around the black mushrooms, but the flavour lived up to the theatre.

I had chicken with a wild mushroom raviolo and salsify as my main course. The portion was a touch on the dainty side but it was the most wonderfully chicken-flavoured chicken I've had in ages. The salsify was lovely - it's such a pain in the arse to prepare that I am always happier to have someone else do it. Unfortunately the raviolo was a bit underdone and firm to the bite.

Jude definitely won the main course round. Her casserole of cod cheeks, baby squid & chorizo, haricot blanc and chopped herb oil was a more generously sized portion, the little squidlets on top were perfectly crisp and the cod cheeks sweet and delicate.

We'd both ordered gin and tonics when we arrived, so one of the (well trained, very lovely) waiters offered us glasses of cava instead of the house cocktail included in the menu.  And very nice it was too. So good, we had seconds with our desserts.

Jude finds it very difficult to go past iles flottante on a dessert menu. So she didn't even try. It wasn't as pretty as the one they do at Brasserie Zedel (they use those bright pink sugared almonds as the garnish), but it was good.

My baked almond tart was utterly gorgeous. Thin, crisp pastry, a thin layer of something like powidl, then a lovely frangipane filling and some not-too sweet prunes. It was served warm with whipped cream on the side. Classic and wonderful. Just like the rest of Piquet.

Unearthed Christmas

The view from The Globe

I mainly just potter along, posting what I feel like, when I feel like it and not really bothering too much about how I "grow my brand" or any of that serious blogger business. Which puts me in a position to be a bit smug when something like the tawdry #BloggerBlackmail hits social media.

But of course the week that unedifying hashtag blew up, I had a lovely invitation to do serious blogger business at a brand event. So obviously when I arrived at the Globe for the Unearthed Christmas Press Show I demanded £100 worth of macarons. They shoved a cocktail in my hand and told me to stuff my face with sausage. Fair enough. That sort of free and open communication prevents all sorts of misunderstanding.

Iberico meat platter

Unearthed have very kindly invited me to several events over the years, but this is the first one I've been able to attend. It was lovely putting a face to the twitter account! I am, however, very familiar with many of their products, because Paul has a two-salami a day charcuterie habit and Ocado often has the Unearthed range on discount. They hit a very pleasing balance of quality and accessible pricing which I like and often have delicious and unusual products perfect for savoury snackers like us. I'm still mourning the loss of the smoked semi-dried tomatoes that they ran as a temporary line earlier this year.

Brussels sprout salad. Delicious. Really.

While I love smallgoods, the salads were particularly inspiring. I'm a huge fan of fancying up a salad by chucking on deli items, but these were on another level: feta, artichoke and brussels sprout, and freekeh, tomato and smoked cranberry. The cocktail offered in lieu of macaron was a lovely combination of Makers Mark bourbon, strawberry purée, raspberry liqueur and lime juice which packed a punch but I don't think it addled my palate. So when I tell you that the brussels sprout salad was really delicious, you can trust me. Really. But follow the links to the recipes and see for yourself.

Freekeh, roasted tomato, olives and smoked cranberry salad

As well as trying the salads, I tasted a few of the new lines that are being introduced for Christmas. They are entering into "gifting" (horrible word) for the first time, with some snazzy decorative kilner jars of olives (the citrus Nocellara with garlic were particularly good) and glass beer mugs of snacking chorizo or fuet. Fortunately Kavey recently mentioned on Facebook that she had made fuet so I was able to assume a knowledgeable air on the subject. I think it is safe to say Paul is absolutely going to love those fuets and in a couple of months I will be trying to figure out what to do with a dozen empty glass beer mugs. I might have to open a hipster cocktail pop-up. I really enjoyed the pâté, unusually topped with rhubarb, packed in a cute earthenware dish and sold in a duo with an apple-topped pâté. The apple one looked striking, and the pâté itself was delicious, but I think as a garnish the whole slice of apple would be a bit awkward and it would end up being put to one side and discarded.

They are also expanding their range of platters, which should do very well for them over the Christmas entertaining season. The Iberico meat platter looks particularly good as a more expensive treat. I'm just hoping that the snacking fuet and Iberico meat platters are available on Ocado, so I don't have to venture into actual shops with actual other people.

DISCLAIMER: I was invited to attend the Unearthed Christmas Press Show and given a goodie bag of olives and a USB stick. No other compensation was offered or requested and I was not required to post a review. All comments are my own and some may be hyperbolic for comedic effect.

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.

Coronation Chicken Salad for Mystery Box Madness

I tried, OK? I really did. I approached this week's Mystery Box Madness challenge at I Heart Cooking Clubs with a completely open mind. And I still ended up doing a Diana Henry recipe.

For Mystery Box Madness we're allocated a list of ten ingredients, and we need to find a recipe from one of the featured chefs containing at least three of them. This week's ingredients were chicken, seaweed, sesame seeds, parsley, mozzarella, pasta, mango, brown sugar, zucchini and mint. I was absolutely sure I'd find a Nigella or Ottolenghi recipe using pasta, zucchini and mint. Or a Jamie Oliver recipe using mango, brown sugar and mint. But the first recipe that caught my eye was Diana Henry's take on Coronation Chicken.

Coronation chicken is the sort of post-War British cooking that gets a pretty bad reputation - invented by Constance Spry and Rosemary Hume for the coronation of Elizabeth II, it can be an extremely lurid combination of cold chicken, mayonnaise, curry powder and raisins. It's the dish that Americans should point to every time we say rude things about American food. But it can be absolutely wonderful. Made carefully, with a kick to the dressing and a good balance of fresh ingredients it's a really wonderful combination of savoury, sweet, creamy and crunchy. Diana's recipe uses fresh mint, mango and chicken breast - I used thigh fillets - and the mint gives everything a wonderful lift.

Italian bread and mushroom salad with pecorino for IHCC

This week I Heart Cooking Clubs is exploring Diana Henry's range of dishes featuring curds - yoghurt, labneh and other cheeses. Now, Diana has loads of appetising yoghurt and labneh recipes, but I had a piece of particularly nice aged pecorino cheese, so I wanted to feature that.

Paul commented that this mushroom salad tasted very old-fashioned - and it does, in a good way. Very simple lemon and olive oil dressing, with chunks of toasted bread and beautifully fresh mushrooms, given a salty, creamy lift with the pecorino. We had it as a side dish with steaks, but it would be just as good with roast chicken.

Burmese Fish with Hot & Sour Salad: East Meets West

This week's I Heart Cooking Clubs theme is "East Meets West" - Diana Henry's dishes with an Asian influence. What could be more of a fusion than an Australian woman in England cooking an Irish woman's version of a Canadian woman's interpretation of a Burmese dish?

Anyway, Diana's adaptation of Naomi Duguid's Burmese fish with hot and sour salad may have passed through many pairs of hands before it ended up on my plate, but it is incredibly delicious. I reduced the amount of turmeric just a little because we have a fresh bag and it is very aromatic. And Paul said he was particularly hungry, so I added some ready-to-cook udon noodles to the fish pan. I think cooking some rice would have been a better idea!

Smoked haddock rarebit and winter salad for IHCC

This week is pot luck week with I Heart Cooking Clubs, so I have two delicious dishes from Diana Henry which added up to one delicious meal.

A smoked haddock rarebit, rich, smoky and satisfying, and a crunchy salad with a tangy dressing went beautifully together. It's nice to have a salad that really makes the most of the vegetables that are around in winter, although I think for best effect I should have got out the mandolin to julienne the celeriac and carrot.

Christmas Dinner Recap

I know, it's 2015 now, Christmas is behind us. But I was so delighted with our Christmas dinner I wanted to show the world.

We had a beautiful goose crown from Turner & George, which we simply seasoned and roasted - goose is fatty enough that it doesn't need much extra done to it, and the way the crown was cut it sat up on its bones and didn't need to be on a rack to stay out of the rendered fat.

We kept the accompaniments few and simple but delicious - a celeriac and potato gratin and Diana Henry's stunning persimmon, chicory and hazelnut salad. We omitted the cheese from the salad - with the rich meat and gratin we didn't need the extra fat or salt.

It was celebratory and festive but at the end of the meal we didn't feel ridiculously bloated. We didn't have a dessert - I'd bought some figs stuffed with chocolate truffle and coated in chocolate, but they lived to see another day too.

I stripped the remaining meat off the goose and used it in a hearty bean soup, along with a smoked pork shank and some vegetables. That saw us through a couple of meals, getting thicker and richer each time we boiled it up. As we went from very mild weather on Christmas Day into a hard frost that lasted through to New Year's Day, it was very welcome. The rest of the goose carcase joined some chicken wings, duck giblets and veg to make a nice poultry stock, most of which is now in the freezer.

Happy Healthy feta salad for IHCC

Obviously, I like food. I like it a lot. But maybe it is a sign of old age or something, but increasingly I prefer food that makes me feel good after I have eaten it, as well as while I eat it.

That's the point where this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs falls. The theme is Happy, Healthy! the good-for-you dishes that taste great. And fortunately this is an area where the current featured cook, Diana Henry, really excels. She does the most amazingly enticing things with vegetables and salads...

Deb had already made Diana's orange and fennel salad with feta and pomegranate for the October Potluck IHCC, but it was too good not to feature again. And the version I made, from A Change of Appetite, also included almonds caramelised in honey and spices.

As I was making it in the lead up to Christmas though, I gave it a little twist using pistachios instead of almonds.

I served it with Sabrina Ghayour's za'atar cod with relish. The fish totally fell apart, but it was delicious, as was the relish that went with it. I used a couple of home-pickled habaneros instead of the milder, commercial pickled chillies. It was a wonderful combination! It reminded me a bit of one of my most memorable ever meals, red emperor with tapenade and a Greek salad, at The Bathers Pavilion, back in the days when Victoria Alexander was chef. Even without that bit of nostalgia it was a superb meal - several days later Paul was still saying how much he enjoyed it.

Sausage, roast squash and chestnut salad for IHCC potluck

The picture ain't pretty, but this warm salad from Diana Henry was a very tasty dish! I didn't have any leftover roast pork, so I used extra sausages. And I simplified the method a little bit, starting the squash off in the oven, and then adding the apples, chestnuts and sausages, roasting it all together before tossing it through the leaves and dressing.

It's definitely one to keep in mind if you have leftover pork after Christmas! And a perfect potluck dish for this week's IHCC.

Spiced duck with date and orange salad for I Heart Cooking Clubs

I'd thought that a weekly blogging event like I Heart Cooking Clubs would be way too much for me to keep up with. And it is true that I'm developing fewer of my own recipes, or just randomly cooking, while participating in the Diana Henry-themed events. At the same time, I am enjoying it!

This week's theme is a particularly fun one - "Mystery Box Madness". We had to choose a recipe from Diana Henry or one of the past IHCC chefs featuring any three of harissa, eggs, saffron, pumpkin, maple syrup, dates, rose water, oranges, spinach, and chickpeas. My Eat Your Books membership definitely came into play for this one!

Diana Henry's spiced quail with blood orange and date salad qualified, as it features harissa, dates and oranges. Unless I am at Merchants Tavern, I don't particularly care for quail, so I substituted duck breasts. I slashed the skin and fat, and sat them in the spicy marinade, leaving the skin clear of it. Then I seared them skin side down to render out some of the fat and get the skin nicely coloured before returning them to the marinade bath to bake in the oven.

Apparently blood oranges aren't in season yet, so I used normal navel oranges. I didn't add any orange juice to the dressing, but I squeezed out the membranes left after cutting out the orange segments, which made plenty of juice.

To accompany it I made a warm version of a mushroom and butterbean salad that my family has been enjoying for at least 30 years. Paul claims it was the first time I'd ever made it for him... which can't be true.

This was a fantastic dish. Warmly spicy, sweet and tangy. One to make again.

Other bloggers' dishes

I'm a bit surprised to realise I haven't done an "Other Bloggers' Dishes" post since February. I knew it had been a while, but the year really has slipped away from me a bit. And actually, what with one thing and another, there haven't been that many dishes from blogs, or dishes I was alerted to by bloggers, that I hadn't already written about.

This pumpkin pangrattato with merguez was absolutely gorgeous, although I didn't do the method as written. I blended the garlic, rosemary, bread, coriander, the calamondins I was using instead of orange zest and the gouda I was using instead of taleggio to a chunky paste with some olive oil. I roasted the butternut for 20 minutes, added the sausages for 15 minutes and then topped it with the crumbs for 20 minutes. I really must make it again soon - it's definitely the weather for this kind of one-pot dish!

Pumpkin pangrattato with merguez

My take on the stacked pig sandwich was less stacked, less green and less beautifully photographed. But more mayonnaisey. This is another one that I need to make again, to try and capture the stacked green magic.

Stacked pig sandwich

I used pork escalopes instead of chicken for this dish of escalopes with tomato, olive and caper dressing. Surprisingly, with all those salty ingredients, it wasn't as punchy as I was anticipating, but it was a very nice fresh-tasting sauce/salad hybrid.

I really loved this salad of lettuce, peas and ham, not just for the story about driving down the road with a spoonful of mustard clutched in one hand. I think it'll be a good one to revisit over the Christmas season, where there are odds and ends of cheese, ham and bread about the place, but a lighter dish is called for.

And finally, a dish from Meemalee, although from her book, not her blog. Taiwanese beef brisket soup, garnished with preserved vegetables and, of course, habanero chilli. Fragrant, warming and hearty.

Habanero Harvest

It seemed touch-and-go for a while there. After being very tricky to germinate and extremely slow-growing, the habanero eventually grew fruit. It then took literally months for the mature fruit to ripen. Some of the immature ones got red really quickly, but their flavour was undeveloped.

We waited.

And waited.

Eventually, when I was beginning to despair, we had a flush of orange, and then it was all on.  Then I realised that I was faced with a challenge. We are not chilli heads. We like a moderate amount of heat, not the intense fire of habaneros...

Paul's taken lots into work, and we've been eating lots more chilli than usual, but most recipes we make only use half, or one. Our tolerance is developing though! We've found that the habaneros have a lovely, fruity flavour and the heat lets go quite quickly - you don't have to gulp milk for hours afterwards.

The flavour goes best with Mexican and Caribbean flavours, as you'd imagine.

Mango avocado salsa

Jerk pork, rice & peas, and the mango salsa - excellent jerk paste recipe

Pork pibil nachos with pink pickled onions

Prawn coctel - like a bloody mary/prawn cocktail hybrid. Refreshing and delicious

Fish tacos - this with the innovation of using a mixture of hot fresh mackerel and smoked peppered mackerel fillet

I've also done a bit of preserving, with mixed results. Rachel Allen's Sweet Chilli Jam is absolutely lovely made with 4 deseeded habaneros. On the other hand I followed an American recipe for an apricot hot pepper jam which, weirdly, crystallised.

Later this week I've got another post featuring the habaneros, and I suspect there will be more before the harvest is over.

Hot sweet chilli jam with sour cream, roast chicken and potato wedges

Diana Henry's A Change of Appetite

We've been doing quite well on winning stuff, lately. First that Eat Your Books membership, which I don't think I will ever stop raving about, and then Paul's lottery ticket won £25. And I won a copy of Diana Henry's new book through Ren Behan's site. Which was pretty exciting, since I was planning to buy it anyway (and indeed, I have and gave it to my mother for her birthday).

I first became acquainted with Diana's writing in late 2002, when I was sent a copy of Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons to review for Good Reading. At the time I said her writing was enchanting, and the enchantment has held: only one of her books doesn't have a prominent place on my shelf (The Gastropub book - I gave it to a charity cookbook sale last year). Her dishes combine ingredients in unexpected and alluring ways, drawing on flavours from all over the world, without being inaccessible. And her books always look so beautiful. I'm a shallow creature: pretty counts for quite a lot with me.

A Change of Appetite is about changing your approach to food. Not a diet cookbook, but a book of plant, wholegrain and pulse-focused recipes that tend to be lower or slower carb and contain less animal protein. A book for a sustainable, healthy way of eating (probably... dietary advice seems to change so frequently! but all this advice is well-researched and signposted for further reading).

Anyway, when I get a new cookbook, I like to put it through its paces. We've been eating a lot of dishes from this one! I've enjoyed every dish we've tried so far and would definitely make them all again. The only problem I've had was figuring out portion sizes - some of the recipes say "serves 4 as a main course" and others say "serves 6" without being so blatantly obvious whether that was in the context of a four course supper or a one-bowl meal. As I was serving two, I ended up mix-and-matching to suit our appetites. For example, making a full quantity of gremolata but halving the amounts of other ingredients, or making a full quantity of salad but halving the grain and protein with it, or serving three eggs between us.

The goat's cheese and cherry salad with almond and basil gremolata (p.98 for those playing at home) has already made an appearance on this blog. It was an excellent use for beautifully fresh cherries! The combination of creamy cheese, sweet, juicy fruit and the nutty, herby, garlicky gremolata made an excellent meal-in-a-bowl. I think this one will adapt well to pears or chunks of persimmon later in the year. Maybe even dried figs, when fresh local produce gets more scarce.

For the Israeli chicken with moghrabieh, harissa-griddled peaches and mint (p.136) I just used some regular couscous rather than trying to source wholemeal moghrabieh. Paul had a thing for couscous a few months ago and we ended up with quite a lot of it, so I'm trying to reduce the stockpile before buying new and exciting starches. We don't have a griddle pan so my peaches didn't get those very attractive charred stripes. However, the flavour was excellent. Even with that large quantity of hot English mustard, it only had a mellow mustard flavour.

I adore salade Niçoise, so the salad of smoked anchovies, green beans and egg (p.111) caught my eye. The green beans that I was convinced I had in the fridge turned out to be sugar snap peas, and I added an avocado that needed using. It was all delicious. Paul announced that radishes are one of his favourite things and he didn't know why I didn't put them in all salads. Do use good eggs for this, even if you don't normally worry about free-range or organic produce. Although you should - a good quality egg is one of life's greatest pleasures.

When I tweeted this picture of the Japanese ginger and garlic chicken with smashed cucumber (p.63), Diana responded that my smashed cucumber was insufficiently smashed. So do give it a thorough, stress-releasing whacking. I used red shredded pickled ginger rather than pink because that is what we always seem to have on hand. I made the edamame and sugar snap salad that's a suggested accompaniment, and it was excellent - the miso and ginger dressing is definitely something to keep in mind.

I'd had a very large lunch, hence this uncharacteristically dainty portion

It's a little early in the year for pumpkin, so I used butternut squash for the roast pumpkin, labneh, walnut gremolata and pomegranate (p.254). I used calamondin zest and juice (the calamondin bonsai has a lot of fruit on it at the moment) instead of lemon. This was so delicious! Sweet and savoury, hot and cool, mealy and juicy and creamy and deliciously garlicky. Just wonderful.

I had a bit of trouble getting the dukka to stick to the eggs for the roast tomatoes and lentils with dukka-crumbed eggs (p.164) - which I think is mostly down to taking shortcuts and not crushing it finely enough. The flavours were absolutely wonderful though, so just sprinkling the dukka on top worked fine. I used basil instead of coriander leaves (the basil that we bought at the beginning of summer is doing well), and cherry tomatoes instead of roma. The dish ended up reminiscent of a fairly refined ful medames; very satisfying.

I was very happy with the shawarma chicken with warm chickpea puree and sumac onions (p.217), although when I reheated it, the chickpea puree split and oozed quite a lot of oil. I'm not sure if that was due to the quantity of oil or the fact that I used rapeseed instead of olive oil. Next time I think I'd make the puree more like my usual hummus recipe, with more tahini, less oil and a good slosh of boiling water to bring it together. We had it with some roasted peppers and aubergines. An excellent use for the sumac that I bought and then couldn't remember why.

Sadly, I suspect that a lot of people will be put off the Japanese rice bowl (p.43) because of the raw fish. Which is a shame because it really is delicious. Again, I used red pickled ginger instead of pink, and I used white sesame seeds instead of black. It's so pretty and such a vibrant tasting bowl of food. It's a very good introduction to raw fish if you are squeamish.

While I was working my way through these recipes, I stuck pretty closely to them. As far as these things go with me. But with the radicchio and red onions on white bean puree (p.288), I couldn't help myself. Diana suggests a lentil, roast grape and red chicory salad with it, which sounded so good, but we didn't need that much food. The notion of roast grapes stuck with me though, so I tossed a bunch of red grapes in the pan with the radicchio and red onions. She also mentions that "if you choose the right plate to serve it on, it even looks rather painterly", which made me think of the reds and whites of Carpaccio paintings and of my other favourite red and white food: good cured pork. I laid some slices of proscuitto in silky folds on top. So my dish looks much messier than the original, but it tasted absolutely superb. And I added a sprig of fresh rosemary, finely chopped, to the bean puree, in memory of the rosemary and tuna skewers on white bean puree, which were all the rage about 15 years ago in Sydney.