Nibbles #15
Things to do with your tomato & courgette gluts, on making the perfect ice cream at home, and some excellent Jewish food writing.
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 (it’s a bumper edition today in that respect!), and other miscellaneous ‘you really need to know about’ updates.
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A lovely ode to Pasta Mista - or, what to do with all your leftover, end of packet shapes:
Giulia has explained why as tourists we should try and stray away from the well beaten path (excellent as I will indeed be skipping Florence in Tuscany next month!):
Some brilliant methods for peeling fresh, seasonal tomatoes:
I loved reading Jolene’s super nostalgic piece on the history of Wisconsin’s supper clubs:
I did some catching up on Kitchen Project’s fantastic long reads whilst I was away, and I can highly recommend their recent columns on gluten-free baking, cooking with fig leaves, vanilla, and summer preserving.
Nik interviews King of ice cream David Lebovitz on getting the perfect homemade scoop at home:
Felicity meets the Ukrainian chef cooking feasts in the forest outside Kyiv to share Ukraine’s rich food culture with the world:
Vidar has written a brilliantly informative ingredient focus on za’atar (additional reading from 2013, David Lebovitz visits a za’atar farm):
What I’ve been cooking: Only three recipes elsewhere from me this month (I was away for a good chunk of it!) On the blog in case you’ve got a courgette glut I present to you this excellent slow cooked Courgette, Garlic and Yogurt Dip (which I just finished the last of for breakfast spooned over rounds of ciabatta leftover from dinner last night), over for my Macknade residency we (I roped my Dad into this one to play pit-master whilst I filmed for their Instagram account!) made Skirt Steak with Charred Pepper Salsa, and over at Project Meal Plan I’ve created a meal prep-friendly Chicken Club Pasta Salad.
What I’ve been growing: I keep saying it has been a terrible year in my garden because to me it has, but when I tell people what I’ve got out there they’re wide eyed. As you’ll see from the top of the post I’ve had my best borlotti bean crop yet, double what I managed last year and enough to make two pots of my Slow Cooked Borlotti Beans (which usually set me back £4.50 a portion from Natoora to make!)
I am hopefully my fennel will actually survive this year (I’ve already started garnishing fish dishes with the fronds) and I need to check the packet to see when my mini pumpkins will be ready to harvest, having put too many of those in because last year barely any of my squashes came up! We’ve been having the thinnings from the first carrot row with our Sunday roasts, and whilst my French beans have had too low a yield for a portion this year, I’ve been mixing them in with thinly sliced and blanched runner beans from my parents garden.
We’ve been enjoying the corn, reminding me how much better it is from the garden just picked and still sugar sweet, and my tomatoes are finally managing to pick up pace so I don’t need to steal as many from my parents greenhouse (though a friend gave me some San Marzano’s, I’ve never had them home grown and they were a revelation so I’ll be getting seeds for next year!) Also: I have a courgette problem, but I always see it as a good problem. I’m actually pleased the weather compressed my yield because I have double the plants I usually do and I was worried about keeping up!
I had a couple of evenings between recipe commissions when J was away visiting his parents so I got to cook whatever I wanted and I want to give a special shoutout to two incredible dinners I had using that garden produce I’ve had bookmarked for ages.
First Kristina Cho’s recipe for Tomato Egg: I’ve got lots of Chinese and Japanese-inspired tomato and egg preparations bookmarked but this one looked the most tempting. Easy to make it was so simple yet so delicious, showcasing seasonal tomatoes in a slightly spicy, slightly sweet, slightly savoury sauce.
Next, Anna Jones’ Corn Risotto from One Pot, One Pan, One Planet1 is now the only thing I want to make to eat during a summer thunderstorm - tender, comforting rice, sweet corn both whole and blitzed into a sauce, stock made from the cobs, and a clever, unexpected chilli topping. I should have made a bigger portion.
What I’ve been reading: I think I’m going to dedicate an entire post to fellow Substacker
‘s brilliant new book Portico2 - and exploration of the food of Rome’s Jewish community - (I have been considered bringing some cookbook reviews to ingredient, what would people’s thoughts be on this?) but it is one to order (US) or pre-order (UK) as the writing is evocative and informative, the photos beautiful, and so far the one recipe I’ve made from it, the Braised Oxtail Stew, was sublime. And as a Jewish food writer who pretty much only connects with my culture through food, I found a sense of instant connection reading the introduction. For now, a brilliant review of and another recipe I want to make from Portico from :
What I’ve been watching: I rarely enjoy new TV programmes and films these days, choosing to re-watch old favourites when TV is our relaxation activity of choice after dinner, but if you have Apple TV (translation: if you’ve had a new Apple device recently and you’ve activated the free trial) Hijack with Idris Elba is excellent and they’ve now uploaded it all (I was watching as each episode dropped every week!) Idris Elba (excellent as always) is a corporate crisis manager who happens to be on a plane that gets hijacked en-route from Dubai to London. Everything unfolds as you’d expect, until the moment it doesn’t.
This was gifted to me by the publisher several years ago but I still cook from it often when I’m home alone and I have to option to go totally meat-free with abandon!
Another cookbook gifted to me by her publisher!
Courgette gluts, pasta mista, borlotti beans...I’m feasting on your words too!
Thank you so much, Rachel!