Nibbles #27
The history of home refrigeration, how to make skin noodles, and everything you can make with a simple slice of white bread.
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.
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Anne shares the fascinating history of home refrigeration and freezing in the USA:
Kristina turns a chance encounter at the grocery store into a lesson in how to make liang pi, Chinese cold skin noodles:
The Kitchn has performed some helpful tests (so we don’t have to!) to discover the very best way to store a bunch of basil for longevity in your kitchen at home. Personally though, I always keep a couple of fresh pots growing on the window sill rather than buying in bunches.
Debora has some excellent tips for cleaning copper pots and pans:
Issac has written all about sliced bread in modern British culture, and the different ways immigrant communities as well as classic British eateries remake slices of it into something more:
Octavia gives us a masterclass on white chocolate that is well worth reading:
Also from Kitchen Projects and worth bookmarking for when you have a moment, Nicola also schools us all about coconut and it’s many, many forms as a cooking and baking ingredient:
It’s been a crazy busy month so I’ve not had much time to spend in the kitchen, but up on the blog I have thrown together a hearty, main meal-appropriate version of the Alison Roman cucumber salad recipe I shared last month in my White Bean, Cucumber & Sesame Salad which is great as I said, by itself for lunch or enjoyed as a slightly unusual side dish to grilled, oily fish like barbecued mackerel.
Over for my Macknade residency, I’ve made a Halloumi & Nectarine Salad that’s just perfect for these last days of summer with fried sourdough croutons and a clever sweet ginger dressing that works so well with both grilled cheese and stone fruit.
And, over at meal prep website Project Meal Plan I’ve got a delicious Lemony Chicken and Corn Orzo Salad recipe you can either prep in a skillet, or the day before on the barbecue if you’re already cooking something else, and a Zucchini (Courgette) Chickpea Curry Meal Prep with aromatic yellow rice which is just the thing if you have to take a lunch to work and you have a glut of courgettes in the garden.
I can’t find a trailer online that everyone will be able to view (but for my American readers there is one on the PBS website here) but the 2018 adaptation of Wilkie Collins’ classic gothic novel The Woman In White we caught on Netflix this month is worth mentioning. Well plotted, atmospheric and equal parts suspenseful and ghoulish it’s a five part BBC mini series you need to add to your watch list as the nights get longer and autumn starts to draw in.