More Fish and Chips?!

Okay, I'll admit it. Only four days after the London to Brighton cycle, I ate more greasy fish and chips. But this time it was also necessary because I was in Aldeburgh, Suffolk where they have a famous fish and chips shop and they just happened to be frying that day... I was in Aldeburgh for work - the group I work for was playing at the famous music festival in nearby Snape Maltings. We made a bit of a road trip out of it and visited Benjamin Britten's grave next to a beautiful flint church, walked on the stony (mostly flint) beach, and visited the famous Tudor, wood-framed Moot Hall, which features in Britten's opera Peter Grimes. It's a beautiful little town and the fish and chips were pretty amazing. Apparently it's supposed to be the best place on the east coast to get fish and chips - I got haddock and chips - and you must put salt and vinegar on or they will look at you strangely. We ate it on the beach, in the drizzle and wind.

Top 10 chip shops - an article from the Guardian (2002) and it lists the Aldeburgh chip shop as number 1!

London to Brighton - A fast food special

In honor of Bike Week in the UK, we've got a cycling, fast food special. Two of us, and an additional, honorary Carew Pig completed the wonderful London to Brighton charity ride benefitting the British Heart Foundation. Well, us and 30,000 other cyclists! The weather was superb and we all made it to the top of the famous Ditchlings Beacon at the top of the South Downs without stopping. From there it was just five more miles to Brighton where we crossed the finish line and headed straight for the beach. We arrived at lunch time and definitely deserved fish and chips from a local stall along the beach. Never did fish and chips taste so good. We're normally not huge advocates of fast food, but this was irresistible. Brighton was great and I hope to go back soon and get some more of those delightfully greasy fish and chips.

Now get on your bikes and cycle! The more you cycle, the more you can eat. Any excuse, right?
London Cycling Campaign
London to Brighton

On Parade

These are just about the cutest food ever.

If you've got the mini Roma tomatoes, you must try this. Slice open the top of the tomato, but not all the way, so it has a little lid. If they can't stand on end, like in the photo, a delicate trimming of the base would be good to keep them steady. Gently squeeze out the innards. Make up a mixture of nice extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. With a teaspoon fill the tomato with the oil-vinegar mixture. Insert a small basil leaf and arrange artfully on a platter. Eat by popping the whole thing in your mouth and be amazed by the burst of flavor!

Thanks, Miguel.

First Harvest

Our first wave of strawberries from the garden! Aren't they cute? They taste divine.

Birthday

Cooking for eleven can be a challenge, especially in our miniscule kitchen. But somehow I pulled it off for my birthday a few weeks ago. I was too distracted to really take any photos, but did manage to catch the apple-plum pie before it went in the oven and the delicious lemon meringue pie that a friend brought. (Two of five desserts, mind you)

The Birthday Menu - 27 April 2008

Prosecco, Cava and various red wines including a Carménère from Chile and some Rioja

Fennel, beet and potato salad

Fennel, celery, shrimp and calamari salad

Frittata with zucchini, pecorino romano and pecorino sardo

Chicken with olives

Roast chicken with sage, parsley, rosemary, garlic and pancetta

Torta della Nonna (sweet pastry crust filled with lemon, ricotta and pine nut mixture)

Apple - Plum pie

Fruit salad*

Lemon meringue pie*

Marisol's apple tart with custard*

Moscato di Pantelleria (my dad's)

Needless to say, we only got through about four of the five desserts. A success all around with a bit of swing dancing at the end. A * denotes it was kindly made by a friend!

When in Rome

Continuing from a previous post about artichokes, I wanted to share a few more anecdotes from my all too short visit to Rome in mid-April. The last day of our stay, before heading to the airport, my mom and I spent a few hours running around the historic centre of Rome. Our first stop was Campo de' Fiori, which has a posh fruit and veg market in the first half of the day. Come here to buy whatever is in season and locally grown. The produce is gorgeous and so fresh. There is also a cheese and cured meat stall that sells the cheapest parmigiano reggiano I've found - 12.50 Euro/kilo. There is also the guy who sells dozens of different spice mixes! My favorite was seeing two cute elderly nuns picking out some goodies.


Nuns pick out produce in Campo de' Fiori, Rome

For lunch we headed to Da Tonino, Via del Governo Vecchio, 18 (very close to Piazza Navona), my preferred dining spot in Rome when I want something cheap, homestyle, informal and packed with Romans. The food is delicious. It hasn't got a sign on the outside. We had pasta e fagioli (pasta and borlotti beans), a heavy, but thoroughly filling dish. I also indulged in yet another delicious plate of carciofi alla romana. It's a place you can just sit down and [if you know how to speak Italian] just ask them to rattle of the specialties of the day - no menu (though you can ask for one. If you look like a tourist they'll just hand you one automatically). I've seen people come in and do custom orders and the waiters don't bat an eye. The place gets packed by about 2.30 p.m. on a weekday and people share tables and can barely move around. Romans talk and gesticulate loudly and everyone just seems to have a good time.



Da Tonino and carciofi alla romana

They specially trim the artichokes in Rome (see my photo below) with very sharp little knives. I attempted this back in London, but couldn't get the knives sharp enough to do the trimming on the edges. These are rubbed with lemon and soaked in lemon water until you are done trimming them. A mixture of mint, parsley, garlic, olive oil and salt is rubbed into the leaves and then they are cooked in water and olive oil until tender (25-40 minutes). I tried to do this, but the ones I ate in Rome were so much more tender!

Rabbit food

Courtesy of the Times, Letters to the editor (5 May 2008)
Sir, A diet of rabbit can lead to starvation (letter, April 26). Perhaps this may point to a middle path between the increasing costs of a healthy diet and obesity resulting from the consumption of junk food. There is no shortage of rabbits in our countryside, so maybe McDonald's should launch a new "bunny burger" promotion. - Brian Hall, Salisbury.

Merp?

The rising cost of food

The BBC is looking at the latest food crisis in depth.
The cost of food: facts and figures - BBC News
Have your say: Families' shopping lists - BBC News
Global rice supply: Video snapshots - BBC News
Liberians drop rice for spaghetti - BBC News
Is India facing a food crisis? - BBC News
Food price crisis bites in Egypt - BBC News

Carciofi!

Apologies to those who don't like artichokes, but the next few posts are devoted to this huge, edible flower.

My cousin who lives in the countryside just outside Rome got married a couple of weeks ago and my mom and I went, extending the trip by a couple of days on either end to allow time for Roman indulgences. Little did I know (until my cousin made a passing remark about it), that we were in the midst of artichoke fever. The farmland to the north of Rome is famous for it's roman globe artichokes and we just happened to be in town for the famous Sagra del Carciofo Romanesco (Roman Artichoke Festival) in nearby Ladispoli. The artichoke season runs from late January/early February until late May. Taking advantage of their freshness, I ate artichokes every day I was there.

It's a great long street fair and market that leads from the train station all the way down the main drag through town and to the beach at the other end. Many of the side streets are lined with vendors as well. Besides fairly good deals on artichokes (15 for 5 euros) you can buy a Fiat, any household item under the sun, clothes, porchetta (roast pork with fennel - a specialty of Rome and Viterbo), numerous Sardinian stalls selling pecorino sardo and salami... in fact, there were stalls from many regions, selling off their regional specialties.

My favourite part was the artichoke sculptures - the best are below:


Castle on a hill.


Baby cradle.


Artichokes ahoy.


Butterchoke.

Home Alone

This weekend my flatmates abandoned me, but this girl kept herself happy with the leftovers in the fridge. I sit here gobbling down Fusilli with Sausage, Broccoli and Fennel, but this weekend there were peppers and cream... Never be afraid to pamper!

Fusilli with red pepper cream sauce and jamón Serrano (or prosciutto)
Serves 1
Cooking/prep time: 25 minutes

Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 large onion, finely chopped
5-6 pimientos del piquillo (or any small, red, roasted pepper in oil), chopped
3 slices of jamón Serrano or prosciutto, chopped or torn into bite-sized pieces
1/2 pint single cream (though I would only use about 5 tbs, depending on how much sauce you like)
Salt & pepper to taste
Parmesan to garnish
100g fusilli

How it's done:
In a non-stick pan, gently fry the onion until translucent. Put the pasta water to boil. Add the jamón/prosciutto to the onions and fry for just a minute. Then add the peppers and stir just to warm and blend flavors (2 min). Add cream and stir to warm and blend, but don't let it boil. Sprinkle a pinch of salt and black pepper. Add pasta to water. After a couple of minutes, blend the pepper-cream mixture in a blender until smooth. When the pasta is al dente, drain and coat with olive oil and the blended sauce. On your plate, cover in a light coat of grated parmesan and a bit more black pepper.

Tip: As a side dish I had steamed purple sprouting broccoli. Counter that cream with veg!

I also made some sort of rustic egg bread with dried cranberries and poppy seeds. Yum.

Sacrilege

I will admit that in general I don't like cheese with fish and that as a holder of an Italian passport, I feel I need to be more firm in this stance. It's a pretty well known fact that Italians are usually against cheese with fish because it lessens the enjoyment of fishiness in a dish. Or just because everyone else said that it's against the rules. I happen to like cheese with tuna, mostly because of the great American tuna melt. But you can't get me to put parmesan on a spaghetti with clam sauce. It's got so much flavor already!

The following article is a good argument FOR fish and cheese to be united in culinary bliss. I still don't buy it and will continue to cook fish in interesting ways that celebrate its fishiness, but do read on:

Just Grate - NY Times, by Robert Trachtenberg, 30.Mar.08

An alternative to cheese to enhance the flavor of a fish dish, you ask? GRATED/GROUND PISTACHIO. They do it in Sicily all the time and it looks beautiful and tastes divine.

The Great Mozarella Tragedy

Watch out, folks. That pizza could cause cancer. I've personally switched to ricotta. Just made a pizza with it last night and it was divine. But I admit I'd still prefer a little buffalo milk. Campania - Clean up your act!

How Italy's 'white gold' turned sour - BBC News
Italy recalls tainted mozzarella - BBC News
EU warns Italy over cheese scare - BBC News

Also in the news:

The Great Tam Tam Shortage of 2008! What's a Jew to do at Passover?!

It's Hide the Matzo, for Real: Where are the Tam Tams? - NY Times

And finally:

Everything is connected - as we saw with rubbish in Italy... Bees are having trouble in California, so it's time to truck them in so they can pollinate 80% of the world's almond crop!

Season of hope - LA Times

It's hard times for food!

Borshch | Food & History

I highly recommend the following article on the history of borshch from the Saturday Guardian Magazine (15/03/08). Food as a study of culture and politics is always juicy reading material. Who knew there was so much pride behind borshch?

The Story of Borshch: It's just a bowl of beetroot and cabbage in meat stock. But it was the common denominator of the Soviet kitchen. So what happened to the dish after the collapse of the Union? by James Meek, photos by Justin Jin (including photo above, courtesy of the Guardian).

"Our men won't forgive us if we don't make it," said Yulia.
"Can men make it?" I asked.
"No!" chorused the Ukrainians.
"We haven't really taken on board the idea of men cooking," said Volodimir.

I think I'm going to try making it! Perfect for these rainy, cold and very grey days.

Purple fronds

We've got a bit of a backlog in terms of meals that need blog attention. I'll get an easy, and delicious one out of the way before it goes out of season!

The Pigs have a bit of a soft spot for broccoli (especially the Canadian Pig who calls them "the little brushes for the colon".)... We eat it all year, even when it's not in season, but it's a veg that can grow at any point of the year, really. We grew some in the garden last summer/autumn and it tasted marvelous. Iron, vitamins A & C, folic acid and fiber - broccoli is king!

Around 1 March I went to our local outdoor market on the High Road. In a corner near the bramley apples there was a crate of virtually ignored purple broccoli. I don't think I'd ever seen them stock it before. I went a bit mad and bought a huge bag of it. The kid who was at the till only works there on the weekends, I think. He's always yelling out the football scores which they receive on a live feed at the back of the stall. Though he has a remarkably large vocabulary, he's the last one you would think would say in reference to the broccoli, "Aw, these are really nice. I just bought my mum a bunch for Mother's Day; she loves them." I adore that guy. He's my hope for humanity. A working-class, English teenager who likes purple broc, bought it for his mom for Mother's Day, and was happy to tell me about it.

Purple (or normal) Broccoli, Sausage and Fennel Pasta
(extracted and adapted from Pig Out 2007, our first book!)

4 cloves garlic, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil
4 fresh sausages (pork and leek is good; I think I did lincolnshire)
1/2 cup dry white wine
Purple broccoli, cut down to edible pieces
1/4 cup salt water (from pasta water)
1 Tbs whole fennel seeds
Salt & pepper
Parmesan
1 lb/500 g pasta (pref. orecchiette, penne or fusilli)

Steam the broccoli over the boiling and salted pasta water (or blanch for a couple of minutes. This will turn the pasta water purple, which is really cool.) Cook the broccoli less that you would to eat it plain, slightly underdone. In the meantime, fry the garlic and pieces of sausage in the olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook thoroughly. Add the wine and cook it down a bit. Add the fennel seeds, black pepper and fry for another minute. Then add a bit of salt water from the pasta water to the pan and all of the broccoli. Cook on medium with the top on until the broccoli is ready. If a bit too watery, just cook with the top of for another couple of minutes. While that finishes, cook the pasta. When it's done, mix with the sauce, serve and smother each bowl with grated parmesan.
Serves 4.

I had mine with a glass of prosecco.

I found this on purple broccoli:
Early Purple Sprouting: An English heirloom variety, bred for overwintering, produces lots of purple broccoli sprouts in the spring. Grows slowly through the winter, very frost hardy; a great variety that is very hard to find in this country; delicious! rareseeds.com

So you see that, folks - plant your purple sprouting broccoli in May and you'll have it in the winter (providing you live in a temperate climate like good ol' England).

Gastronauts

Gastronauts: People who go out in search of "the rarest, the grossest and the most bizarre foods they can find — delicacies like baby chicken heads, python meat and chicken anus." Uh. Okay. But you've GOT to check this video out. Seriously gross and funny. Mmmm... Risotto with ant pupae?! (click on the video link) Beware - the Gastronauts are soon opening a London club - at least according to their website.

Bug Meat: It's What's for Dinner

"It's like apple sausage!"

NPR is my new friend! Check out their food page for a cornucopia of audio-visual foodiness.

Mac 'n' cheese and american uselessness

Yesterday at work I encountered racism head-on. A posh Lady donor called into the office asking about an event to which she'd been invited. I think she's probably just difficult by nature, feeling like she's entitled to royal treatment even though it's her husband who earned the title for the two of them. At any rate, the 30-second conversation ended with her calling me a "useless American." This was despite the fact that I dealt with her courteously and efficiently.

Not only has she never met me, she has no idea whether I'm American or not. I'm angry because that kind of class entitlement mindset is just SO not cool. So out of line. So pointless. So backward. {Honey, I hate to tell you this, but despite the fact the royalty is still around, the Empire is over.} For the record, she was also rude to my British colleague.

My reaction at home, following work, was to cook up a posh little macaroni and cheese number to spite her. I can be American AND cultured. I cleaned out all of the random bits of cheese left in the fridge from trips abroad: smoked scamorza, some sort of Roman goat cheese, cheddar, parmigiano reggiano, some hard Spanish cheese.

Five cheese revenge mac 'n' cheese

350g of various grated cheeses
40g all-purpose flour or type 00 flour
40g butter
600ml milk
3 finely chopped spring onions/scallions/shallots
pepper
300g pasta

Make a bechamel sauce by slowly melting the butter in a non-stick pot. Keep heat low and add flour little by little until it has formed a roux. Then slowly stir/whisk in the milk until smooth. When it's all nice and smooth and warm, add most of the cheese (save a tiny bit to garnish the pasta). Grind a bit of pepper to taste. When it's all smooth, take off the heat. Cook pasta to al dente. In the meantime, gently fry the scallions/shallots. Drain pasta and stir in the cheese sauce and scallions. Put the mixture into an oven-safe dish (preferably Pyrex). Sprinkle with extra cheese and grill until it's light brown and crispy. Devour (with some veggies) and think of sweet revenge.

A silly radio clip from NPR on mac 'n' cheese: A Brief History of Mac and Cheese

PS My boss says this is very similar to a restoring, traditional Bavarian dish. So maybe it's not so American after all!

A mighty fine meal: 24.02.08

The photos say it all. A guest over to dinner provides extra incentive for dishing up something visually impressive. Of course, this meal also tastes great and it’s pretty much all seasonal stuff.

Starters: munching on some hard, Spanish cheese and salchichón.
Wine: 1995 Chateau des Bertins, Cru Bourgeois, Medoc (Bordeaux)
Salad: Endive, radicchio, pear and dolcelatte cheese salad (dijon, olive oil and balsalmic vinegar dressing). Did you know that endives and radicchio are both types of chicory?
Main: Roast chicken (stuffed with Italian sun-dried tomatoes and a selection of fresh herbs from the garden)
Bread: from our new breadmaker! More on that later...
Dessert: Marisol’s apple custard tart (one of our moms’ recipes, using Bramley apples)

Yummy.

An enchilada amidst the beefeaters

Okay. This is a defining moment in Pig Me Up history. There is a Mexican restaurant in London that actually makes a blog-worthy attempt at authentic Mexican food considering the dearth of Mexican cuisine this side of the Atlantic. Now I’ve never been to Mexico, but I did grow up in California eating lots of the stuff in taquerias filled with Mexican workers, so I think I know approximately what’s authentic. At home, I’m a self-confessed Mexican food junkie. Mestizo does a good job. It still needs some work, but let’s talk about the food.

Décor/Staff: Cool. High ceilings, white leather, dark walls, a huge wall of back-lit tequila at the bar, lounge downstairs. Sort of bizarre Aztec art and awful tourism video loop promoting Michoacan. Nice staff all Latin American and happy to speak Spanish and treat you really well if you make the effort. Nice, quick service and no annoying water refilling or interrupting conversation to ask if the meal is okay.

Drinks: We had absolutely FABULOUS Mojitos (£5.90). If they hadn’t been so delectable, I would have been upset by the price. But oh, it tingles on my tongue still. Nice strong fresh mint and lime.

Starters: The corn chips that came with the table were fine, but the salsa was sad. Give me spice!! Or at least an original flavour. Tomatillo salsa, anyone? They have a menu of “antojitos” and tacos. It’s nothing extraordinary and I’m a bit upset they have nachos on this menu because that’s the little tex-mex cop-out I don’t like to see in a Mexican restaurant. We ordered flautas (deep-fried “flutes” of tortilla filled with shredded chicken, covered in some lettuce, white crumbly Mexican cheese and tomatillo salsa (£5.60). Too expensive for what they are, but spot-on tasty. We also got a couple of tamales (steamed corn husks filled with corn masa and some meat). I had ordered pork-filled ones with salsa verde, but we were given chicken-filled with mole. Still good, but tiny compared to the ones I’ve eaten elsewhere, especially considering the price (£4.80).

Mains: A good test of a Mexican restaurant is their mole sauce. Mole comes in lots of regional variations, but of course they had the king of the mole sauces, Poblano mole. It’s a dark brown sauce and includes at least four different types of Mexican chiles, almonds, peanuts, chocolate (plain), sesame seeds… The chicken enchiladas covered in mole were very good. The sauce was a bit too sweet for my taste, but still pretty much on the button, taste wise. I was most impressed that they served black beans on the side, not pinto beans. Major props for that. The rice, I think, was basmati and just boring and white (£12.00). The chile relleno was tasty, but a bit too much cheese (£9.80). Where are they getting fresh poblano peppers from?

We were too full for dessert, but there’s enough on their menu to drag me back every few months. I’d recommend it as long as you steer clear of the nachos and the “Crepas Mestizo”, which looks horrid. I’m a bit offended it’s on the menu. Apparently the same company has opened a burrito place nearby. Worth trying. Total bill including tip: £44 (for two).

Mestizo
103 Hampstead Road
NW1 3EL London
Tel: 020 7387 4064
www.mestizomx.com
(menu is available online)

Roman Markets 1: Testaccio

I recently had a working trip to Rome and had lots of time off to go grocery shopping. The supermarket near the hotel was mediocre, so I hit some real markets instead.

Il mercato di Testaccio is in the southern part of central Rome, just south of the Aventino hill (Piramide Metro). I’d been there before, but this place is devoid of tourists and has some great specialty shops, so always worth going back. The market is not huge, but has some good quality stalls under a covered square. You can find fruit and veg, all really fresh and mostly local. In February, the romanesco broccoli is enormous and gorgeous. Expect to find pristine radicchio of several types as well as piles of all sorts of greens. Real roman specialties are puntarelle, curly, handcut salad greens often served with olive oil and anchovies.

At a baker’s stall, I bought fresh focaccia and a couple types of cookies. Brutte ma buone (“ugly but good”) are a Roman cookie basically made of a hazelnut meringue. They look a bit like a turd, but taste wonderful. Ideally, they should be slightly crunchy on the outside and soft inside, which means eating them within one or two days of baking. Damn. The other cookies were some sort of marzipan. Yum.

I also bought “transparent” slices of mortadella, cut so thin they melt in your mouth, and prosciutto and a bit of some sort of hard goat cheese. Had I a kitchen, I would have bought some fish. The focaccia, sliced meats and a blood orange were consumed in the Giardino degli Aranci on top of the Aventino, sitting in the warm sun with a view of Rome and a cat politely awaiting a handout.


Where I ate my meal, in the sun, with a view of Rome below.


Check out all of the cool greens and salads to buy!


A close up of huge, fresh, BEAUTIFUL roman broccoli.


Where I bought my radicchio and broccoli.


Fishy fishy. All fresh fish from around Italy.

3 Feb 08, The Southbank

So there.