Nibbles #10
A disturbing discussion about recipe copyright with Chat GPT, why we were asked to sip beef broth on the rocks, and the fascinating history behind the All-American bundt pan.
Welcome to Nibbles where once a month I share everything brilliant I’ve been reading on the web as well as some general updates from my kitchen, my vegetable garden during the growing season, and other miscellaneous ‘you really need to know about’ updates.
If you’ve arrived here from elsewhere and you’re not yet a subscriber, you can sign up here so not to miss out on monthly ingredient essays (featuring a different ingredient every month), exclusive recipes, sneak peaks into some of my favourite food people’s kitchen cupboards, and the occasional long read!
I became a paid subscriber to Diane’s newsletter just so I could finish reading the interview she did with ChatGPT about how it can create recipes and it’s views on plagiarism in the food space. It made me so incredibly angry as a food writer (£):
If you live in the UK, you can now get a gourmet tinned fish subscription. (Thanks for the tip Florence!)
Settle down for a brilliant long read because Nicola has interviewed five brilliant female cookbook authors about how they develop recipes:
Samantha and her husband took a Nile cruise of Upper Egypt and now it has been firmly added to my travel bucket list. I’ve travelled up the Nile before by boat, but nothing like this:
The church in Jordan that also doubles as a pizza restaurant for the very best of reasons.
The history and science behind the American classic bundt pan (via Nik).
Julia, on the magic of foraging:
Florence runs us through some of the brilliant store cupboard vegetable ingredient options that are ‘always in season’:
Perzen shares the heartwarming - and at times heartbreaking - story of her grandmothers prawn curry:
Also, she’s shared a series of vignettes about how food became such an important lifeline as new arrivals in New Zealand:
A potted history of absinthe. Also: of course the British won’t ban an alcohol.
A fascinating, informal history of how Indian food has been packaged and sold:
What I’ve been cooking: I’ve been busier than usual in the kitchen this past month! On the blog I’ve shared a speedy weeknight recipe for Bacon & Mushroom Egg Fried Rice, a Smoked Salmon Bagel Brunch Platter as inspiration for Mother’s Day, a recipe for a Classic Lancashire Lamb Hot Pot that took me two years (!) to perfect, and a simple yet impressive recipe for Sri Lankan Yellow Rice which is J & I’s new favourite thing to eat in 2023 since I started exploring Sri Lankan cooking - I just need to find a delicious curry to pair with it!
For Mother’s Day, but useful always over at my Macknade food hall residency I've made Sweet Potato Waffles with Crispy Parma Ham.
Also a massive shout out to the lovely Danielle who writes the excellent meal prep website Project Meal Plan who generously asked me if I was happy being credited on recipes I wrote for her site instead of my acting as a ghost writer. So far I’ve had published over there a delicious Spring Vegetable Quinoa Salad which would be perfect for Easter guests - it includes instructions for prepping it either 3 hours or up to 24 hours ahead - these No Bake Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Balls which are my new favourite healthy thing to stash in the fridge for afternoon snacking, and this Mediterranean Inspired Grain Bowl Meal Prep which is packed with roasted veggies and chickpeas, fluffy quinoa, and a genius (if I may say so myself) sauce mixed right in the hummus tub.
What I’ve been watching: Big Formula 1 fans that we are we briefly reactivated our Netflix subscription to watch the new season of Drive To Survive and whilst trying to get out monies worth for the rest of the month reminded us why we’d cancelled (don’t talk to me about the travesty which was the Luther film) we did watch the forth and final season of You. Based on Caroline Kepnes’ novel of the same name (affiliate link) the first two seasons of (accidental) serial killer and antique book lover Joe Goldberg were brilliant, but the third lost it a bit. The fourth however seems to have thrown everything that came before out the window turning itself into an Agatha Christie-style Whodunnit so gripping and so twisty it is the first show in months I’ve been texting my best friend about desperate to see if she’d seen it yet so we could pick it apart together.
What I’ve been listening to: I work my way through an insane number of Audiobooks a month in the kitchen but Audible’s version of Susan Hill’s chilling ghost story The Woman In Black read by Paapa Essiedu is fantastic - atmospheric, and using sound effects (which I usually loathe in audiobooks) to great effect. What is more, it is free to listen if you have an Audible subscription.
What a fun roundup! I do have to comment however that beef consommé on the rocks technically IS a cocktail, in the original sense of the word. In the same category as shrimp and fruit cocktail.
During the pandemic, I actually gave the related "beef fizz," which was canned consommé with ginger ale and lemon juice, a go. It wasn't terrible! https://www.thefoodhistorian.com/blog/food-history-happy-hour-beef-fizz-1960s
Lovely post! I will try the mushroom fried rice recipe soon. Thanks :)