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.
Entries Tagged as 'unusual foods'
Pasta with courgette, basil, parmesan and a beaten egg yolk
April 14th, 2014 · No Comments
Tags: Eggs · Main Course · pasta · Sauce · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Strained yoghurt (labneh #2)
July 31st, 2013 · No Comments
Like the yoghurt, this is our second posting for Labneh and also like the yoghurt this uses a simpler Valentine Warner-inspired process. Labneh – strained yoghurt
Tags: cheese · unusual foods · Vegetarian · Yoghurt
Chocolate salami
July 27th, 2013 · 1 Comment
How about something unusual and tasty which requires the minimum amount of preparation and no cooking? You’d be a fool not to. Another recipe from the infallible Polpo Venetian cookbook. Chocolate salami
Tags: Chocolate · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Cuttlefish balls in tomato sauce
July 12th, 2013 · No Comments
I know, I know, you weren’t even aware cuttlefish had balls. Perhaps they do, perhaps they don’t. For all I know they might ride the ocean currents with their magnificent jewels swinging low and proud beneath them. Perhaps the entire aquatic world stares with slack-jawed envy as they swim by with their pendulous plums dragging […]
Tags: Cuttlesfish · Fish · Seafood · unusual foods
Moroccan chickpea stew with fried egg brik & cucumber salad
July 10th, 2013 · No Comments
Now that interesting looking critter below is called a brik and is essentially an egg dropped into the middle of a sheet of filo which is then wrapped up and shallow fried. It comes accompanied by a spicy chickpea curry and a refreshing cucumber and coriander salad. Service not included. Not only is this a […]
Tags: Brunch · Eggs · Main Course · Snack · unusual foods
Calpis
April 7th, 2013 · 2 Comments
As a rule I tend to avoid drinks with the suffix pis, but this sounded so intriguing I had to give it a try.
Tags: cocktail · Drink · unusual foods · Vegetarian · Yoghurt
Chilled beetroot consommé
July 19th, 2012 · No Comments
Middle-class dilemma #23: Lovely things beetroot, but what to do with them when they turn up for a fourth time in your Abel & Cole veg box? In the past we have roasted them, pickled them, rosti’d them, risotto‘d them, borsch‘d them, and even brownied them – all delicious in their individual ways you understand, […]
Tags: Drink · Soup · Starter · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Foraging (an introduction)
October 21st, 2011 · 2 Comments
A few Saturdays back one of us (me) joined the Incredible Edible Foraging Walk which took place in and around the IE Market Garden Training Centre just down the road at Walsden. Contrary to naive expectations I didn’t skip home through the woods afterwards with a trug filled with wild garlic and exotic fungi, however […]
Tags: foraged · Incredible Edible · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Yoghurt & pearl barley soup with spiced chickpea koftas
May 18th, 2011 · No Comments
If you’re in the market for something weird yet tasty then give this recipe a go… I guarantee* you’ve never eaten anything like this before. A word of warning though, pearl barley has a bent for clogging up dishwashers so best go manual on this one. * UK and Ireland only. Terms and conditions apply. […]
Tags: Pearl Barley · Soup · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Spaghetti with Bottarga
November 7th, 2010 · 1 Comment
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 […]
Tags: Fish · pasta · unusual foods
Gremolata Poached Tuna & Bean Salad
August 2nd, 2010 · 4 Comments
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’.
Tags: Fish · Main Course · unusual foods
(A variation on) Raymond Blanc’s Tomato Essence
April 30th, 2010 · 2 Comments
Mucking about with a Raymond Blanc recipe…I know, the arrogance of it. Generally I would follow Monsieur Blanc’s instructions to the letter, but I had no Angostura Bitters and was not prepared to buy a bottle just for required 2-3 dashes, and I suspected my local CostCutter was unlikely to stock either banana shallots or […]
Tags: unusual foods
Socca (à l’oignon et à la tomate)
February 7th, 2010 · 1 Comment
Recently a friend of Yumblog arrived breathless on our doorstep brandishing a bag of chickpea flour and gabbling lavish tales of a crepe-like dish prepared for her by a Frenchman with an impressive moustache. With some reluctance we let her in and once calmed with a Lager & Campari, set about making sense of her […]
Tags: Main Course · unusual foods
One-Pan Pasta With Garlic and Oil
February 3rd, 2010 · 4 Comments
Recently BluSky Innoventions™ the ‘Pseudo-Science, Holistic Wellness, Quantum Synergy & Bio-Weapons Division’ of Yumblog Holdings Plc was given an obscenely large EU grant to investigate whether it is necessary to cook pasta traditionally in a large volume of boiling water, or whether it could be prepared ‘risotto’ style in the merest covering of liquid. Our […]
Tags: Main Course · pasta · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Cheesy Lemons with Basil Oil
December 5th, 2009 · No Comments
I found this Lemony Cheese delight in a back issue of the excellent Donna Hay magazine – the eponymous title from food editor, best-selling cookery writer, and from what I can gather, Queen of Australia.
Tags: Baking · cheese · Main Course · Side Dish · Starter · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Potted Cheese
December 2nd, 2009 · No Comments
As with the mackerel, so with the cheese. It was in the same Fearnley-Whittingstall spread* as the potted mackerel and required cheese, butter and a splash of vin rouge or some vine-based glug, thereby having all the markings of a winner about it. The man himself suggested you play with the recipe and use whichever […]
Tags: cheese · Snack · Starter · unusual foods
Frittelle di Spaghetti
September 20th, 2009 · No Comments
Obviously the most productive thing you can do with an egg is lob it into the fat one-eyed face of <nazi cunt>Nick Griffin</nazi cunt>. However, if for some reason he isn’t goose-stepping through your neighbourhood you could do a lot worse than use it to make these delicious and comforting spaghetti fritters.
Tags: Eggs · Fish · pasta · Snack · unusual foods
Savoury Rhubarb Soup
June 8th, 2009 · No Comments
I know what you are thinking. Rhubarb soup? Savoury rhubarb soup? Never heard of that before. Sounds intriguing. Could be tasty. Could be unpleasant. Could be a toxic coupling of sour fruit and salty meaty water. Must get some rhubarb and give it a go. Well that’s what I thought anyway. Besides, the recipe was […]
Tags: Main Course · Soup · Starter · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Sweet Pickled Watermelon Rind
May 1st, 2009 · 6 Comments
Who’d have thought you could pickle and eat watermelon rind?
Tags: Pickles · Preserves · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Cep
October 15th, 2008 · 3 Comments
As the financial markets imploded and governments around the world desperately threw good money after bad, we were at a market in the South of France spending (accidentally) €6.65 on a single mushroom. At the time of writing that’s about a fiver. A fiver for one bleeding mushroom. It had better be good.
Tags: Mushrooms · Uncategorized · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Pullum Frontonianum (Chicken a la Fronto) – Part 2
September 16th, 2008 · 4 Comments
And so to the cooking of the chicken in the name research for Archaeologist T. That rainy weekend we hastened to Cirencester and having paused briefly at a local butcher selling free range chicken, we hurried on to Waitrose where we knew an organic beast would be waiting. Artist impession of how Pullum Frontoniaum may […]
Tags: Chicken · Main Course · Roman · unusual foods
Sourdough Fiasco
August 20th, 2008 · 6 Comments
Ok, so we now have our sourdough starter sitting ominously in a jar at the back of the fridge gently seeping brown water. Time to make some bread. For a recipe I turn to the Observer Organic Allotment Blog and follow their elaborate and long-winded instructions to the letter.
Tags: Baking · Bread · Disaster · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Making a Sourdough Starter
August 19th, 2008 · 1 Comment
If you believe the hype (well in my narrow Guardian reading world anyway) everyone in credit crunch UK is now an artisan baker spending their precious downtime in the kitchen fashioning crusty bloomers and squeezing out granary torpedoes. Generally (and childishly) if I find myself on a bandwagon I have the irrestable urge to jump […]
Tags: Baking · Bread · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Almond & Grape Gazpacho
June 24th, 2008 · 1 Comment
We’ve gone cold soup crazy this month. This particular variety is based on the classic Ajo Blanco but with the cheeky addition of cucumber and watercress.
Tags: Main Course · Soup · Starter · Tapas · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Stinging Nettle Soup
May 27th, 2008 · No Comments
I’ve always liked the idea of free food, and cooking a meal with ingredients foraged from nature’s bountiful larder holds a romantic and atavistic appeal. Sadly Bethnal Green doesn’t offer many opportunities for living off the land. You’ll struggle to find a morel growing among the KFC cartons and general crap along the Mile End […]
Tags: foraged · Soup · Starter · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Salsify in Garlic Vinaigrette
May 14th, 2008 · No Comments
Poor old salsify. It seems to be either unknown, forgotten or unloved. Virtually unavailable in the shops, not a single search result for it on the usually flawless Waitrose cooking and recipe website, and salsify.com still available and up for grabs. All of which is a shame as it has to be one of the […]
Tags: salad · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Jerusalem Artichoke Soup
April 7th, 2008 · 3 Comments
There were mixed feelings about this recipe at yumblog cottage. One of us had never had Jerusalem artichokes before and so was keen to give them a try, while the other was force-fed them as a child and is still suffering from flashbacks. However, as with most things in life, novelty won out over experience […]
Tags: Soup · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Pimientos de Padron
February 28th, 2008 · 9 Comments
I love these little beasties. Fried and salted and accompanied by a cold tube of Cruzcampo. Tradition and statistics dictate that 29 out of 30 are mild and sweet with the remaining rogue being hot and fiery. I’ve never seen them sold in this country before but have recently discovered them tucked away on a […]
Tags: Starter · Tapas · unusual foods · Vegetarian
Shetland Black Vintage Potatoes
January 29th, 2008 · No Comments
We found these amongst the impressive array of fancy potatoes at Waitrose. As you can see, the flesh is yellow with a markedly blue vascular ring and as with all unusual vegetables, the packaging describes the flavour as ‘nutty’. We roasted ours in their skins in olive oil and they were very good indeed. Nutty […]
Tags: unusual foods
Celeriac & Chestnut Soup
November 24th, 2007 · 2 Comments
This one goes out to VJ ‘Mr Prudence‘ – anarchist, transphormetic blogger, psychic geographer, algorithmic obsessive and occasional ActionScript guru. The other day he confessed he was in possession of a celeriac and asked what he could possibly do with it. I’m afraid my advice was a dismissive “either mash it or chuck it in […]
Tags: Main Course · Soup · Starter · unusual foods · Vegetarian