Owner: Pomiane URL:http://www.pomiane.com Join Date: Sun, 03 Feb 2008 07:37:57 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: After many years' experience in both professional and private kitchens, this blogger divides his time between London and Italy, eating and drinking in both places. The blog contains recipes, comments, ideas, stories, and the occasional rant. Site statistics:Click here
The Egg-White Mountain... 2008-03-15 11:46:51 May soon become a thing of the past, in this household!As any regular reader here will know, the egg-white imbalance is a given, here. Always, in the fridge, can be found lurking a plastic pot, generally impressively full of egg-whites, which have accumulated over time as the result of a series of yolk-only sauces and custards, crèmes and mayonnaise. If I'm particularly lax about reducing the EWM, then I occasionally find myself separating eggs and merely letting the whites slide down the drain - which really goes against the grain.......but it's either that, or else starting a second pot in the fridge. And that would be a Very Bad Idea. (Yes, I know they freeze wonderfully well, too, but ditto; already the elephants' graveyard approach towards use of the deep freeze means regular archaeo Read more:White
, Mountain
Deconstructing Jamie..... 2008-03-19 03:38:02 Jamie Oliver, that is.A comment left on here the other day blithely opined that I probably regarded him as 'complete anathema'. I'm not sure why. I recall once having included in a blog-post a picture of him looking rather naff in a bath-tub full of pieces of fruit.....as part of a dismissive reference to the generally insidious influence that celebrity chefdom is having on aspiring young chefs in the UK....but, apart from that, I don't think he's particularly featured in anything I've ever written. So, I can only suppose the assumption that I'm anti-Jamie is based on an extrapolation from my overall positioning on food and cooks, and on those I think truly worthy of respect in the culinary firmament.So, let's get something straight, from the outset: I do not regard Jamie Oliver as 'comple Read more:Jamie
The Food Miles Conundrum.... 2008-03-21 13:12:14 Can anyone tell me where exactly the 'Food Miles
' concept originated? Wherever it was, it's been a stunning PR success, if the result when you google 'food miles' is anything to go by - listing upon listing of people all greeting the idea as if it's the answer to the maiden's prayer. It's all so simple: climate change is a bad thing; climate change is caused by carbon emissions; planes emit carbon; food transported by planes are therefore responsible for carbon emissions; therefore food transported by air is A Bad Thing. Aha! So, we can feel better about ourselves and our contribution to the general good if we forswear bananas and pineapples (even though they are so tantalisingly cheap) and opt instead for Scottish Raspberries and Asparagus from the Mendips.....The problem with that, is Read more:Conundrum
Recipe: Egg-White & Almond Biscuits 2008-03-20 10:13:32 Sunday Morning. The four-footeds had raced around in the park for twenty minutes or so, before heading home to doze in front of the fire. We had exactly half an hour to spare before heading out to the Royal Academy to see the Cranach Exhibition - so, time enough to make some almond biscuits to have with coffee before we left. Approximately three minutes to make the mixture, and a further two to pipe the biscuits onto a baking sheet; ten minutes later, and they're done!Yet another way of ploughing into the Egg White
Mountain, these biscuits are simple and delicious, and come across as surprisingly sophisticated for the amount of work involved. When first out of the oven, they are quite soft and could easily be moulded to use as the outer form for a charlotte; after a couple of hours, they Read more:Almond
, Biscuits
Recipe: Crab Tart 2008-03-23 09:54:58 This has evolved from a recipe originally taken, I think, from Michel Guérard, from many years ago. The original magazine cutting has long since gone the way of all flesh, so it's now impossible to be sure. In any event, whatever the provenance, it is fairly delicious....Separating the white and dark meat within the tart is a clever trick, as it means you get two clearly different flavours, rather than just having a rather indistinct compound. The layer of sautéed Leek between the two also works well - not only does it introduce a different flavour-hit, but Leek marries particularly well with any seafood (which is why I always use Leek rather than Onion for the sofritto for any fish-flavoured risotto)Although this tart rises spectacularly well in cooking, it's best to let it sit and coo
Recipe: Fennel, Tuscan Style 2008-03-26 04:32:36 Normally, I would think of Fennel as something to accompany fish - its delicate liquorice flavour marrying well with the subtle qualities of a perfectly cooked Bass or Bream. In this treatment, however, it takes on a more robust character, and would go well with roast Pork, say, or an old-fashioned flavoursome roast Chicken.Why 'Tuscan
'? I have no idea. I first came across the recipe in the scribblings of an obscure french chef from the fifties, who was unlikely to have known 'Tuscan' from a bull's foot, I should think! The use of cloves is also suspect, and to me suggests a provenance nearer to the Veneto than Tuscany......although, as ever, the appearance of Cloves in the list of ingredients implies a pleasingly early provenance.This is a dish which can be cooked in advance to the final Read more:Style
Eating well and staying trim.... 2008-03-24 14:02:46 It is possible. And without having to resort to odd dietary or lifestyle regimes, either.As any 'foodie' must know, the challenge of enjoying good food as part of a daily routine sits uncomfortably with the process of maintaining control over the waistline - and over the decades regular recourse has been had in this household to various expedients in an effort to get rid of some of the excess pounds. The problem with all of them was firstly, that they were only ever departures from normal behaviour, and secondly that they were always deeply, deeply dull! And so, on both counts, unsustainable. Which is the problem in practice with pretty much all weight-loss initiatives - after a while, you heave a sigh of relief, return to your earlier habits and - surprise, surprise - any benefit you mi
Recipe: Apple & Vanilla Tart 2008-03-27 05:46:00 For years, I've made Apple
Tart in the traditional French fashion: concentric circles of apple slices, baked on top of a rich, thick purée of apples, lemon, cinnamon, butter and cognac. It's good - actually, it's very good - but it isn't a last-minute job, given the time needed to make the purée and to reduce it to the right consistency. This alternative version is lighter, and has the obvious merit of suiting those "Oh, God!....It's seven o'clock already and I've planned nothing for dessert!" occasions. From start to finish, this recipe takes half an hour - and fifteen minutes of that is elapsed time, when the tarts are in the oven, and you can be concentrating on something else.But the merit of this recipe isn't just about saving time: the combination of flavours and textures is Read more:Vanilla
Recipe: Almond Semifreddo 2008-03-30 09:24:23 Memory is an unreliable thing For years, I was convinced that this recipe originated with Claudia Roden, and came from her ' Food of Italy' - it was faxed to me by a friend as a post-dinner-party thank you, many years ago, and the sheet of faxed paper was used repeatedly over the years until the letters had faded to indecipherability, and the detail had anyway been mentally filed away as the inevitable result of such regular use. When it came to stocking the library shelves in Italy, when we first came here, a copy of the original 'Food of Italy' seemed like a good idea, since I'd so much liked the one thing that I knew came from it. Except that I then found that it hadn't. There is a recipe in its pages not a million miles different from the one I had in mind - but with the crucial diff Read more:Almond
, Semifreddo
Meanwhile, in Pisa.... 2008-03-29 17:47:31 While global warming and climate change meant an Easter weekend of flooding and blizzards in the UK..... in Tuscany, instead, we've had the early and unexpected arrival of summer! Very unexpected, since it isn't even the end of March, and already today the french windows were left wide open for much of the day, as gloriously warm sunshine streamed in, and shirtsleeves were in order for some heavy-duty garden work. Many of the spring bulbs are in a state of shock, as they've been politely following the dictates of a more normal weather progression, and have been behaving until now as though it should be jacket-and-scarf weather here for at least another month......(a little like the Italians themselves, who tend to keep strictly wrapped up until after May 1st, just in case....by which time
Recipe: Pancetta-wrapped Roast Pork 2008-04-03 08:55:34 This recipe was a recent and splendid new discovery - hailed by the Technical Department as the best version of roast Pork since the classic version with a mustard-and-herb poultice that was immortalised by Julia Child, forty years ago now, in 'Mastering the Art.I was sceptical when I first looked at this one. Having long been devoted to the Barbara Kafka method of roasting (heat the oven to smelting temperature, and then blast the meat for as short a time as possible), the idea of heating the oven to only 175 degrees C seemed highly dubious. And then the fact that the meat only cooks for fifty minutes at that temperature.... Hmmm..But, it works! Even the slightly unexpected combination of Pork wrapped around Pork works well, as the Pancetta becomes beautifully crisp, while the loin wit Read more:Roast
Napoleons... 2008-04-02 12:54:28 ....come in a number of forms.It's the name in French for the Humphead Wrasse, for a start - an enormous blue-green fish to be found in great quantities in tropical waters, with a wise and avuncular face, and a huge blocky body that it manoeuvres delicately by the use of tiny little fins, managing to resemble an articulated lorry doing a three-point-turn in a very confined space. They're rather beautiful things...Then, of course, there are any number of many-layered dessert confections which go under the name of 'Napoleon' - I've no idea why - from the banal to the knee-weakeningly delicious. Amongst the latter, Raymond Blanc has one concocted from melt-in-the-mouth rectangles of buttery pastry, interleaved with slices of poached pear and a vanilla-flavoured Crème Anglaise; and my favour
Recipe: Pasta cooked in the style of Risotto 2008-04-09 23:51:48 Apparently, this method for cooking pasta came from the chef at the Hotel Tre Vasselle near Perugia – an establishment of some culinary renown in years gone by. We stayed there once for the weekend, as part of attending the International Chocolate Festival in Perugia sometime in the late nineties. Sadly, by that stage, The Tre Vasselle had sold out to the package tour market, and was already coasting along on the basis of its former reputation Sic Gloria Transit.The method for pasta, though, remains uncompromised in any way. Pasta
– a short tubular form is best for this, as it gets knocked around quite a bit in the process of stirring – is cooked
in chicken stock, and then finished off with cream and a thick, coating sauce. Not only are more flavours absorbed along the way than with Read more:Risotto
An Englishman Abroad.... 2008-04-08 23:31:40 As any regular reader of these jottings will know, Moscow is NOT my favourite city in the World. The inhabitants are notable chiefly for their sour disposition, which is reflected in the grimy and depressed spirit of the place. For the most part, the architecture is a cross between the least salubrious kind of Housing Project and a spuriously cheerful and intellectually bereft building style, not unlike a series of Travel Lodge Motels, for instance….or 'Toys R Us'….. or Burger Kings ......I say ‘for the most part’ since, periodically, this depressing sprawl is punctuated by the soaring towers of some Stalinist palace or other, which can’t help but inspire feelings of awe – until, of course, you recall the nature of the regime that was responsible for them in the first instan
Global Warming? 2008-04-13 13:32:20 A week ago, I was sitting in Pisa, french-windows wide open, the sun streaming in from a garden filled with birdsong, blossom, and the button-sharp freshness of new leaves opening on the Pomegranate and the Persimmon trees. The first roses of the year were already visible on the pergola, and the water-lilies were starting to carpet the surface of the pond with a new growth of lily pads. Winter was definitely packed up and put away.....So why is it that I'm now keeping close to a blazing fire, having spent the day watching - in relative disbelief - a succession of hailstorms, thunder, lightning and what the Met Office would presumably describe mellifluously as 'sunny periods'. And there was I under the mistaken impression that climate change was supposed to herald the arrival of olive gr Read more:Global
, Global Warming
Recipe: Lemon & Gin Syllabub 2008-04-14 13:55:02 With thanks to John Tovey. This is a couple of steps on from the straightforward nursery-favourite lemon syllabub, where the lemon-flavoured cream is delicious......but is recognisably nothing more than just that: lemon-flavoured cream. In this version, the introduction of Gin does a very strange thing to the lemon, and in fact the end result doesn't taste obviously either of Gin or of Lemon
. Possibly, it tastes of juniper? I'm not entirely sure....Somehow, the Gin changes the shape of the lemon flavour on the tongue in a way which is difficult to describe, but the end result is quite tight and complex on the palate. Anyway, delicious, and definitely worth trying, if only to see what I mean.It's very important to leave these syllabubs to chill for at least a couple of hours once they've b
It's a Sad Fact... 2008-04-15 17:30:52 ....but, when it comes to the British National Cuisine, there isn't in practice a great deal to write home about. I've always been aware, to a degree, of this fact - but I suppose some innate sense of patriotism has generally dredged up happy memories of the delicious Jugged Hare or Spotted Dick that used to be served in days of old in The Hungry Horse in Fulham Road, and I would persuade myself that these were just the tip of a gastronomic iceberg, and that a cornucopia of mouth-watering regional delicacies exists just out of sight ...........all that's needed is a bit of effort to remember exactly what they all are.Well.......not so, it seems. Not really.Over the past few days, I've been picking at an intriguing volume that the Brancolis dropped off when they came for dinner at the week
Recipe: Excellent Fruit Cake 2008-04-17 17:44:01 I've been exploring fruit cake recipes recently, in search of the wonderfully moist and fruit-laden version that I remember from my childhood. To my surprise, actual recipes are a little thin on the ground, and I've found I've had to cast my net quite wide. I found one flourless version from New Zealand which involved soaking all the fruit in quantities of Orange Juice, and which emerged from the oven looking like a large muesli bar (although, to be fair, it tasted better than it looked as though it was going to) ; another one which included vast amounts of demerara sugar, and which used mincemeat rather than dried fruit - the end result was light and delicious, but was consumed in its entirety in twenty minutes flat! There was a recipe from the Scottish Tourist Board which - rather poi Read more:Fruit
Marzipan..... 2008-04-19 08:54:24 On reflection, I would definitely have to include Almonds in my Desert Island 'Eight Top Foodstuffs'. Increasingly, I find they feature in my cooking: roast with paprika and coarse salt, to serve with aperitifs; slivered and sprinkled between sheets of phyllo pastry when making tart shells (the almonds give a good crunch to the shell, and the flavour of almonds goes with absolutely everything, from cheese to chocolate to shellfish...) ; as the basis for praline, and every dessert that stems from that; and increasingly, as the predominant ingredient within marzipan, which is creeping ever more frequently into my kitchen, these days - most recently, as the secret layer of extra flavour concealed within rich fruit cake. Marzipan combines particularly well with fruit of any kind, and for yea
Recipe: Blanquette of Lamb 2008-04-21 13:28:27 Probably for ever, whiteness has been associated - in food, at least - with elegance, refinement, and luxury. White sugar and white bread in more modern times, white asparagus and white chicory before them, and all in unbroken descent from the blancmanges, syllabubs and marzipan creations of medieval and renaissance ages. I suppose the process of whitening food has always been associated in some way with removing the natural 'impurities' - although increasingly these days there would be schools of thought that go entirely in the opposite direction, and favour instead leaving the 'natural goodness' in (hence their equally baseless and irrational faith in brown eggs, wholemeal bread, and 'natural' pulses).I've always thought of blanquettes as falling within this cultural tradition
Riga... 2008-04-27 13:57:18 ...on a Friday night, is enough to make one feel ashamed of being British!I hadn’t before been aware of its reputation as a booze-fuelled mecca for stag-night parties from the UK…..but that is definitely what it has become. The combination of cheap flights and cheap alcohol means that the streets of Old Riga at weekends are given over to groups of blobby-looking Brits – youths for the most part, although some hen parties are in evidence as well – who are clearly out to get as wasted as they can manage in as short a time as possible. Already by eight in the evening, some of them can be seen weaving unsteadily around the cobbled streets, clearly the worse for wear.And equally depressing is the idea that presumably one from amongst each of these groups of nerdish-looking lumps is the
Recipe: Chicken with Porcini & Marsala 2008-04-30 09:21:45 Who could resist this combination? The seductively earthy tones of porcini, along with Marsala, in all its rich complexity. In Italy, a standard chicken from the local Polleria will have enough flavour to do justice to the dish - but I suspect that in the UK you'll need to shell out for a free-range bird if you want something with sufficient flavour to punch in the same weight as the other ingredients here. The recipe is very straightforward, good enough for a dinner party, and robust enough that you can do the entire thing in advance, and just reheat gently when the time comes to serve it. Since there's a lot going on in this particular dish, then I think it goes best with a vegetable which is plain but good - broccoli, for example, or green beans (something which has a slight crunch Read more:Chicken
Recipe: Amaretto Soufflé 2008-05-09 03:39:18 Quick, simple, and elegant. The texture of this soufflé is agreeably chewy, from the presence of the chopped almonds, and the flavour hit from the liqueur contained within the biscuit base gets a thumbs-up every time. As a trick whenever making individual soufflés, the presence of an alcohol-soaked layer of cake is something always to remember - with the layer of cake either being put in the centre of the soufflé, as Alain Ducasse advises, or in the base, as in this recipe (which is marginally less fiddly). Pierre Hermé uses a variation on this theme with his light chocolate sponge discs, for use in either chocolate tarts or chocolate soufflés. However you prefer to do it, it introduces an 'event' into the dish which otherwise can seem too much on one note.For two individual souf
May.... 2008-05-08 05:37:41 ....has started in a storm of activity. Well - for us, at any rate. In fact, the first of the month, which for everybody else in Italy is an annual holiday, in this household is the day in the year when we forget that the whole place is closed down, and invariably have forgotten to provision in advance......I don't know the reason for the mental blockage, but the process of forgetting happens every year, as regular as clockwork. The provisioning aspect would have mattered less, this year, were it not for the fact that my parents were arriving that day for a visit.......and menu plans for the weekend were instantly thrown into complete disarray. Quick thinking and recourse to the store-cupboard ended up with a scratch supper of Rabbit Terrine, Sage & Onion Risotto, and Vanilla Apple
I woke up... 2008-05-10 04:53:16 ....yesterday morning with Gordon Ramsay. Not an encouraging image - but, to be more precise and to reassure those of a nervous disposition, he was merely pontificating on the radio. I half listened, and as he appeared to be saying that restaurants should only serve fruit and vegetables when they were in season, it seemed to have a kind of logic. I mean, strawberries and peaches out of season are dire - and increasingly ubiquitous - and I fully agree it's time that we reversed the trend of ' everything available, all the time' since it appears to be sending overall standards of quality down the pan as part of the process.But, no - apparently, this wasn't what he meant at all. As the Technical Department - who had been listening properly - subsequently communicated to me. It was an entire d
Recipe: Poor Man's Ratatouille 2008-05-14 13:51:47 In fact, this might more accurately be described as 'lazy' ratatouille, since it leaves out only a few of the ingredients from the classic version, but omits quite a few of the step from my preferred approach, and thus takes less than half the time. The introduction of Orange rind towards the end takes it in a noticeably different direction from the provencal flavours of the original; if this
The Spice of Life..... 2008-05-17 13:19:27 I'm in the middle of Reay Tannahill's 'Food in History', a book that's been hanging around on the bookshelves for a very long time, but which has only now pushed itself to the front of the queue. The subject is fascinating, not least because the title leads one to expect a History of Food, whereas in fact what it's about is the influence that different kinds of food production over the ages have Read more:Spice
Gala Night at Cheslea.... 2008-05-21 04:47:44 The rain held off, at least - but Chelsea could have done with being a few degrees warmer for the preview evening on Monday. Champagne flowed, and the canapés were really rather good, for a change - particularly a miniature spoon-shaped affair made of a biscuit pastry, which was filled with a delicious foie gras pâté. Definitely more-ish. So, I did. Those and some splendid colchester oyst Read more:Night
Recipe: Farfalle with Lemon & Hazelnut sauce. 2008-05-25 06:26:13 First cousin to the wonderful recipe for Risotto with Lemon
& Sage, this is one of those dishes where the first mouthful is greeted with an exclamation of surprise, quickly followed by an exclamation of pleasure. The flavours here are as unexpected as they are delicious, and the overall effect is light and unctuous - perfect to be included in any summer menu.I once heard Matthew Parris wax lyr Read more:sauce
A discovery.... 2008-05-28 15:47:00 A real one. Strawberries in Balsamic Vinegar."Oh", I can hear you yawn...."that old chestnut!" And you'd be right, if you meant the way I've been doing it for years (and, let's be honest, so have you) - i.e. Strawberries, doused in a slug of said vinegar, all whisked around for thirty seconds and presented with a flourish that encompasses how modern and clever and 'nouvelle' and sophisticated we a
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