…which makes this three times better than a mono cheesed risotto.
3 Cheese Risotto
Happy Christmas from Yumblog
Herbed Trout with Crushed Potato and Leek, and Fennel Salad
If you take nothing else from this recipe, you will at least leave with an unusual and delicious new way of cooking potatoes. Not bad. Consider it an early Christmas present.
Seafood Spaghetti en Papillote…
…or Seafood Spaghetti baked in paper parcels. To be honest, this method doesn’t particularly impart any more flavour than if cooked in the more traditional way, however there is something satisfying and vaguely theatrical about peeling open the paper and wafting aside the aromatic steam to reveal a hearty mound of spaghetti and seafood.
Porcini fondue
The last six months have seen many changes here at Yumblog Towers. Saturday nights are no longer a time of cage fighting (for her) or pole dancing (for him) but instead spent indoors looking after our increasingly fidgety but exponentially lovely offspring. Although compensation is not necessary, we do like to remunerate our parental devotion with a slap-up Saturday evening …
Spaghetti with Bottarga
I came across the mention of Bottarga relatively recently and was intrigued by both the descriptions of its flavour (along the lines of ‘like nothing you’ve eaten before’ or ‘tastes just like the ocean’) and its impressive price tag (roughly a tenner for 100g). For those of you not in the know, Bottarga is fish roe which has been dried, …
Yuckblog 10: Stretchable ‘Cheese Food Snack’ Sticks
Team yumblog have recently returned from a fashionable late summer staycation in Lyme Regis – a town famed for its fossil strewn Jurassic coastline, historic Cobb and a love-lorn Meryl Streep. Less well known is its enthusiasm for the unimpressive pastime of stone balancing, a strange obsession with anything ‘gluten free’, and the universal practice of removing the seeds from …
Fennel & Green Bean Soup with Ricotta Toasts
When it comes to fennel, my co-blogger has a cool detachment only slightly less chilly than her contempt for cauliflower. This recipe was an attempt to warm her to the idea of eating this hardy, perennial, anethole-rich, umbelliferous herb. Success was moderate.
Yuckblog 9: The Four Saucepans of the Apocalypse
The 2010 audit of a little used top shelf revealed these four delights which we bought nearly a year ago on our annual jaunt to Madrid. In fact so forgotten and neglected were they that one packet was even a few months past its 100 year shelf life. However as these products are little more than a cocktail of preservatives, …
‘Masterchef: The Professionals’ is back
Michel Roux Jr shows Monica Galetti his enormous cardoon
Review: l’Artisan du Chocolat Couture Chocolates
Living as we do on the very crux of the nucleus at the epicentre of the heart of London’s fashionable East End*, we are lucky to be a brisk Lambeth walk away from the Smokery and epicurean nirvana that is Forman & Field. We were therefore rightly chuffed when they got in touch and asked if we’d like to sample …
Gregg says…
Our latest MasterChef apron would make an ideal gift for a mother, sister, aunty or granny… and all for less than £20. Buy this Apron from Zazzle.
In Search of…the Perfect Pasta Sauce No 4
Pesto Although I’ve made pesto many times before, I’ve generally haphazardly chucked the ingredients into the food processor and left it to chance. Despite the results usually being good, I thought it was about time I consulted the mama of authentic Italian home cooking, Marcella Hazan and see if she had an angle on this classic sauce. And indeed she …
Travels: Marie Celeste Ward, Whitechapel
A belated thanks to all the staff at the Marie Celeste Maternity Ward, The Royal London Hospital. In these dangerous Cameron days it’s important to fight privatisation and commercialisation and support the NHS. View all images
Lemon Thyme Cake
I’d never made a lemon cake before and we have thyme aplenty on the balcony so how about a lemon thyme cake as featured in the Observer mag a few weeks ago? Oh and the cake master herself was coming to visit Yumblog Junior, perhaps I could show off my culinary skills – she’s tasted my flapjacks and chocolate biscuits, …
Friet? T-Shirt
No longer available
Yumblog Celebrates 100 Days of the BIG SOCIETY
If you had any doubts about the half-arsed nature of Dandruff Dave’s BIG SOCIETY, visit the official website.
Baked Cod* with Prawns, Tomato & Butter Beans
A recent trawling of the recipe archive of the excellent Australian Gourmet Traveller Magazine website, produced among other things, this simple ‘one-pot’ fish dish. Instead of cod we opted to use the (considerably) cheaper and (coincidentally) sustainable whiting and spend the money we saved on an impressive quantity of prawns.
Shakshuka
There are some recipes you can taste just by reading them. This was one such recipe and it read delicious.
Raspberry Flapjack
Bored with biscuits out of off of the cupboard? Want to eat a flapjack that will taste nothing like the dense sugar marathons that you can get in packets labelled ‘Mrs Futtocks’ home-baked country goodness treats’? Have you a spare half hour? I have the answer.
Chocolate & Honey Meringue
In our new guise as parents we have entered a world where being invited to someone’s house for lunch doesn’t necessarily mean that you will be leaving at midnight having drunk the Rhone valley dry. It’s novel and despite our underlying fatigue, sensible drinking on a weekend still seems inherently wrong. So we had been invited round for salmon barbecued …
Jme’s Double Chocolate Biscuit
In the lull between milk extraction and nappy changing I remembered the vast amounts of 85% plain chocolate I had bought and sought to put some of it to work. I was looking for a chocolate biscuit with a melty bit as I’d never made one before and none of my books could help. A quick google later and Jme …
Gremolata Poached Tuna & Bean Salad
As soon as I saw this recipe with it’s unusual ‘Boil in the Bag’ cooking technique, I knew I had to take it to our experimental kitchen here at Yumblog Towers and see if it was worthy of a place on the menu of our amusingly post-modern and knowingly ironic restaurant ‘The Yummy Duck’.
Garlic & Rosemary Prawns with Butter Beans
In theory you could arrive home from work after an exhausting day Ice Road Trucking, and 10 minutes later be sitting at the dining table sipping a chilled white Rioja and tucking into this tasty treat… quicker than it takes to microwave a bowl of Batchelors UnSavoury Rice.
Minted Chick Pea & Aubergine Salad with Griddled Halloumi
In the spirit of Dandruff Dave’s Big Society we here at Yumblog have served each other redundancy notices so that you, dear reader, can volunteer and write this blog yourself. So come on Dirk, Tony, Helen, Scooter McKenzie, Mimsy Swallows, Zucchini Breath, Briony Bob et al, step forward and become part of this radical new age of Victorian philanthropy. We’re …
Paccheri with Roasted Peppers
Mealtimes have changed here at Yumblog Towers. Top scientists have proved there is now a 99.74% certainty that as soon as we plate up, pull the cork and sit down to enjoy our evening meal, Yumblog Junior will wake from her slumber/get bored with whatever devious distraction we have devised for her, and demand our total and unconditional attention. As …
Aligot
For anyone who hasn’t eaten this butter and cheese laden French take on mashed potato let me tell you it is more comforting than being hugged by a 6 foot Angora rabbit with a PhD in Applied Cuddling. More comforting than lying in a bath of warm Lenor as a Labrador puppy nuzzles your neck and Nurse Gladys Emmanuel whispers …
HF-W’s ‘Ginger’ Lemonade
The ginger is in inverted commas because this ‘ginger’ lemonade didn’t turn out to be particularly gingery. HF-W specifies you use a piece of ginger the size of a thumb, so I can only assume he is the proud owner of digiti primi as big as cucumbers … great for hitchhiking but about as arbitrary as a cup as a …
Elote (Corn on the cob with mayo, cheese & chilli)
I’ll never forget the charming little threadbare street vendor on the dusty corner of Presa Las Virgenes and Paseo de la Reforma where we would regularly purchase our Elotes at the end of a frantic day’s shoot. We’d take these tasty corn ‘popsicles’ up to the terracotta rooftops of our rambling majestic casa and accompanied by an iced bottle of …
Celebrity Masterchef
Don’t forget, 20:00, tomorrow, for the next 128 weeks. The first crop of celebrities are: Neil Stuke (Game On/The Bill), Tessa Sanderson (Javelin Gold Medal/The Bill), Richard Farleigh (Dragons Den/The Bill), Alex Fletcher (Brookside/The Bill) and Nihal Arthanayake (Radio One/The Bill) Next: Colin Jackson (5 ft 11½ in), Tricia Penrose (From Heartbeat to a fitness video via a failed music …
Chilled Pea(+pod) & Mint Soup
Readers who feel more comfortable living their lives to a strict set of arbitrary rules will be pleased to discover this recipe adheres to the Four ‘S’ Dictum of Culinary Correctness: 1. Fresh peas are currently available – Seasonal. 2. Our balcony is resplendent with home-grown mint – Sustainable. 3. It’s eaten cold and it’s hot outside – Summery. 4. …
Butterbean Soup?
The question mark is there because if eaten immediately this is a thick wholesome soup, but if left in the fridge overnight and eaten cold, it miraculously transforms into a tasty bean salad. Two different foodstuffs for the price (and effort) of one. Well bargain, innit.
Roasted Anaheim Peppers with Anchovies
Anaheim peppers are essentially mild with an unexpected and pleasing peppery warmth which registers a modest 500 to 2,500 on the Scoville scale. If you can’t get hold of them use the common or garden red pepper and cut it into 1 – 2cm strips.
Chickpea Soup
The chefs at our flagship eatery ‘Chez Yumblog’ are always on the look out for new and exciting ways to add the humble, nutritious and CHEAP chickpea to the menu. Consequently there was much excitement in the kitchen when Pascal le Plongeur nervously presented this recipe to the Kitchen Porter, who passed it on to the Commis Chef, who passed …
In Search of…the Perfect Pasta Sauce No 3
Tomato & Cream Sauce The third in this occasional series and the third taken from ‘The Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking‘ by Marcella Hazan. The marketing department here at Yumblog (Yumedia Communications) believe this to be the most comprehensive, authentic and definitive cookbook on the subject, so if you like Italian food (and who doesn’t) you should really consider investing …
Cheese S’gone
Victor: A scone and tea at half past three, makes the day a little brighter. So you can keep your cakes and fancy tarts…. Jack and Victor: …and stick them up your shiter.
Dog Toast
In lieu of a proper posting, here is a photo of a dog-shaped piece of marmalade on toast which miraculously appeared at a recent breakfast.
Yumblog Junior
We here at Yumblog would like to announce the addition to our team of Yumblog Junior, who arrived last Wednesday weighing in at an impressive 9lb 12oz. Normal Yumblogging will resume soon and we promise no cutesy baby anecdotes or amusing tales of parenthood.* * probably
Baked Beans on Toast
Relax, these are obviously middle-class baked beans which involve overnight soaking, an hour and a half in the oven and plenty of extra virgin olive oil.
T-Shirt: Ribbit Rabbit Robot
Got a kid or thinking of getting one? Why not spoil it with this exclusive yumblog ‘Ribbit Rabbit Robot’ T-Shirt and be the envy of the other NCT yummy mummies. Let’s go shopping