Ooh, the nights are drawing in. A pudding was required for esteemed guests and having banished thoughts of complex custards I alighted on the idea of feeding our friends something sweet and sticky instead, plums and apples away with you and your dull autumnal associations.
Deliciously baked stuffed tomatoes
Baked stuffed tomatoes from yumblog
Clam & white bean stew
Straddling the seasons by paradoxically being both light and summery yet warming and wintery this dish could, if not prepared strictly to the recipe below, set up an inverted spiralling loop of cognitive dissonance capable of causing a brobdingnagian antithetical bi-cranial logic schism (and possible nose bleed). So be warned.
Beetroot, potato and horseradish gratin
If, like us, you thought the tastiest way to deal with a beetroot was to borscht it, you’re in for a treat – this is possibly tastier. Better still, apart from the beetroot and a bit of cream, it can be constructed from what are commonly called ‘store cupboard staples‘.
Prawn and udon noodle salad with sesame ginger dressing
Another dish with an Asian theme. Appropriate considering the news from the Tory party conference this week is that we’ll all (or at least the low paid lesser orders) soon be ‘working like Chinese‘. Excuse the slip of the tongue, but even amongst such stiff competition, the Right Honourable Member of Parliament for South West Surrey stands out as a …
Sesame seared tuna with avocado salad, noodles & chilli ginger dressing
We have just been blessed, here in Brighton, with a visitation from a bearded prophet from the North (Islington). Known variously as the Anointed One, the Author of Eternal Salvation, the Alpha and Omega, the great I am, or simply … Jeremy H Corbyn. A beacon of light in these dark days, and possibly our only hope to oust the …
Borsch s listyami…
…or beetroot soup made with leaves. Not knowing whether beetroot leaves are a tasty and nutritious alternative to chard or a toxin filled time bomb of agonising death, I thought I’d better check their edibility before posting this recipe. Turns out they are perfectly benign and not dissimilar to the aforementioned chard.
Beetroot burger with pickled cucumber & horseradish cream
Hey meat-eaters! Invited a hapless vegetarian over to your barbecue? Why not forego the meat-free delights of (Sp)Asda and surprise them by serving up something which is actually tasty for once – fr’instance, this hearty succulent and colourful burger packed with thought-provoking flavours and textural anomalies!
Sesame prawn toast
Obviously being the unbearable gastro-snobs that we are here at Yumblog Terrace we would never dream of buying a meal from anywhere as common or unrefined as a take away, Chinese or otherwise. So imagine our chagrin when travellers from the Orient told of a rare Eastern delicacy known as a Sesame Prawn Toast which, were we to satiate our …
Herbalicious leek and goat’s cheese tart
On the occasion of impending guests we thought that a butter-rich pastry was the place to start. Then we thought that filling that butter-rich pastry with cream, eggs and cheese might be the very thing. And some wine and a bit more butter. And finally, because we didn’t want our guests to think we were trying to render them obese …
Chocolate Fudge Bars
What to do on a rainy day in Brighton when the girl can’t go to the playground for a solid two hours after school? Well, you make biscuits. Well you plan to make biscuits but then the girl chooses something biscuitesque from a giant biscuit compendium and you adjust it due to the presence of cream cheese in the topping …
Gwydwr Nicholson – Prague 1939
My grandmother ‘Nanan’ was born on 17th May 1914, she would have been 100 today. When going through her files a few years ago my mother found a few sheets of paper containing a typed up account of her experience of being in Prague in 1939 when the Germans arrived, I have reproduced the text in full below. She was …
Baby octopus pasta with aubergine, tomato & chilli
Pity the poor baby octopus, born a hatchling among a thousand siblings, each no larger than a pinhead and yet all filled with the innocent expectation of a future filled with fun, laughter and adventure. Then, just as they open their eyes and blink with wonder at the world around them, they are dredged into a giant net and hauled …
Pasta with courgette, basil, parmesan and a beaten egg yolk
This is number seven in our occasional series ‘In search of the perfect pasta sauce’, and once again we have turned to our adopted Italian granny Marcella Hazan for inspiration. Thus far she’s rarely let us down.
Squid braised in red wine
One of the (myriad) advantages of leaving Hebden Bridge is we are no longer hostage to the weekly visit of ‘Paul the Fish’ with his stall of filleted fish and erratic Welsh mussels. Living in sunny Brighton we now have access to the full aquatic range of anything with scale, shell or tentacle which swims, crawls, drifts or slithers in …
Baked aubergine with tahini yoghurt and coriander dressing
We have been doubly blessed since we moved here to sunny Brighton, for not only do we now have casual access to a Waitrose, but a mere 20 strides away on the opposite side of the street is the Taj grocer, a large independently owned store offering a cornucopia of (eastern) international ingredients the likes of which we’ve not seen …
Fried egg, avocado and chilli tacos
Want to start your weekend with a lime zest and a chilli zing? Then look no further than this curious and surprisingly delicious Mexican inspired egg-based brunch. Arriba! Arriba! Andale! Andale!
Cod cheeks with braised puy lentils and salsa verde
I know what you’re thinking: “What the Fricking Frack are cod cheeks?” The answer (they’re the meaty jowls of the Gadus Morhua) begs the obvious supplementary question “…and where on earth do you expect me to get hold of those obscure little frackers?” The immediate reply is sorry, not even Waitrose stock them, so unless you can find yourself a …
Bream steamed with celery, ginger & preserved plums
Bream steamed with celery, ginger & pickled plums
Nids de Monsieur Fouineur
Turning once again to the esteemed ‘Livre de Cuisine des Monsieurs Hommes’ in search of culinary inspiration, Yumblog Junior chanced upon this complex and controversial confection from disgraced chef de cuisine and one time enfant terrible, Monsieur Fouineur. Hounded by the tabloids and plagued by rumours of espionage and peeping tomfoolery, this once great pâtissier never achieved the same levels …
Crappuccino
Hello again dear reader(s). Sorry about the woeful lack of posts recently but we have been busy upping sticks yet again and moving back down south to Brighton by the sea. Normal yumblogging will be resuming soonish, but in the meantime here is an infographic what I done did to illustrate an as yet unwritten yuckblog on instant ‘cappuccino’. Hope …
Mr Muddle’s Melting Moments
“Oh Pater, dearest…” exclaimed Yumblog Junior from her preferred leather winged Bergere situated in the Soft Play and Cigar Lounge of The Junior Carlton Club, “It says here in the esteemed ‘Livre de Cuisine des Monsieurs Hommes’ that Chef Marcel Muddle has created the most divine cornflake encrusted Petits Beurres which evidently are the talk of Parisian society! Oh Pater …
Pumpkin three ways
There are only 3 shopping days left until Hallowe’en, so why not hot foot it down to your nearest pumpkinorium, grab yourself the largest Cucurbita pepo you can carry and drag it back to the kitchen table, there to prepare it not once, not twice, but thrice-wise as prescribed below – ensouped, seedled and carved.
Roasted sweet potato and carrot soup
I’m always reluctant to write up a recipe for soup as it seems far too simple to warrant a post and possibly risks insulting your no doubt exemplary culinary skills dear reader(s). After all, your average soup is usually just a few veg zhuzhed up in olive oil or butter, simmered for 20 mins in stock and liquidised to the …
Spaghetti with green tomatoes & herbs
As much as I love to cook, sometimes it’s a welcome treat to prepare a meal which requires little more effort than a nifty flip of the switch on the Magimix.
Filoncino
… or an Italian version of a baguette. Not to be confused with the French Stick – the English version of the baguette which is 24 inches of pale bendy disappointment and about as authentic as Peckham Spring Water.
Sweetcorn chowder
A monthly review of this site’s stats shows that in your endless and futile search for all that is novel and inconsequential, on average you lot spend only 11 fleeting and no doubt twitchy seconds reading Yumblog. For fuck’s sake, dear readers, you’re a capricious bunch … sometimes I wonder why we bother. …8, 9, 10, 11, time’s up … …
Romanesco with paccheri
Obviously when I first eyed a display of Romanesco at the local veg market I mused how the inflorescence had an approximate self-similar character, with the branched meristems making a logarithmic spiral and how it approximated a natural fractal with each bud composed of a series of smaller buds, all arranged in yet another logarithmic spiral. (I don’t need to …
Baked green tomatoes at the Yumblog Cafe
Despite your average British tomato being a Dutch grown, prematurely picked, under-ripe, woolly, anaemic, flavourless, blemish-free and over-chilled orb of disappointment, it’s still hard to get a genuine green tomato in this country… unless of course you live in Yorkshire and grow your own, in which case they’ll ALL be green from lack of sunlight. So when I found a …
By the way…
…if anyone is interested I have a new folio site here. Now gis a job!
Stuffed marrow
Don’t roll your eyes, I know what you’re thinking, “Stuffed marrow? When it comes to vegetarian misery, it’s up there with the brown rice and kidney bean salad …or anything involving couscous or a that stalwart of the ‘vegetarian option’, the butternut squash”. Relax, this is like no other marrow you’ve stuffed before, and as well as being very tasty …
Spiced carrot soup with harissa
Matt the Cat loved this soup (once we’d given her a spoon).
Borsch #2
It’s been a while since we’ve borsched a beetroot so when the Hebden Twins paid a brief visit the other morning and dropped off among other home-grown things, these handsome fellows, we knew exactly what to do with them.
Authentic(ish) warm German potato salad
The (ish) is there because to be properly Deutsche this should of course contain in some part or many a piggy porcine element, and if our experience of eating out in Berlin is anything to go by, a solitary pineapple chunk. Well you know what potato salad looks like, and it doesn’t photograph pretty, so here is some graffiti from …
Roasted pepper pasta sauce
The day started with two itinerant cows and ended with a trip back in time to 1978. In between there was a misfuelling which led to three spontaneous guests for dinner. We served them pasta with this simple and deceptively delicious roasted pepper sauce.
Phew …
10 posts in 3 days, I’m off to lie down in a darkened room. How about writing a few comments when you visit … it’s what we live for.
Tuna steak with peas, broad beans & spinach
The beauty of this dish is you can do most of the prep work in advance and spend the afternoon in the pub. Not obligatory you understand, but highly recommended.
Roasted tomato vinaigrette
…not to be confused with a Vinegaroon which is an ugly and menacing critter you definitely wouldn’t want to share the dinner table with. If you are short of time AND have been lucky enough to get hold of some juicy ripe flavoursome tomatoes (i.e. you live outside the UK) you can skip the whole 1½ – 2 hours slow …
Strained yoghurt (labneh #2)
Like the yoghurt, this is our second posting for Labneh and also like the yoghurt this uses a simpler Valentine Warner-inspired process.
Yoghurt #2
It was way back in May 2009 when we first wrote a post on homemade yoghurt – that was 218 miles, 4 houses, 2 floods and one small child ago. I am ashamed to say the whole knit-your-own yoghurt thing was a short lived fad due no doubt to this early technique requiring thermometers, sterilised jars, a Bunsen burner and …