Nibbles #33

Brand new forced rhubarb & blood orange recipes, how to craft the perfect custard slice, and one of the best TV series from the previous decade I've just finished streaming.

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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Blood orange and bee pollen yogurt bowls for breakfast on repeat with the leftover fruit from recipe development. Also: not a kitchen injury, suprisingly!

• Julia takes an ingredient deep-dive into one of my favourite jars in the fridge, mustard:

  Mustard - cutting the best of the condiments?

• Julia has also done an interview with Lynn Hill where she shares photos of her unique / genius basement galley kitchen where guests can call down to her as she puts dinner together:

  Other People's Kitchens. Q&A with Julia Watson

• And speaking of ingredient intelligence, Namiko answers the all important question of if jarred miso paste ever goes bad.

• My friend Gem has written an excellent essay on pushing yourself forward in your passions:

  Learning to Push Yourself

• It’s time for my monthly

  Kitchen Projects
  fangirl moment, this month for this super detailed post on how to craft the perfect custard slice:

  Kitchen Project #159: Custard Slice

• Also from Kitchen Projects Louis introduces us to the properties of both common and unusual tropical fruits through the medium of ice cream:

  Kitchen Project #162: An Introduction to Tropical Fruit

For my Macknade residency this month we stayed hyper-seasonal with these pretty, striking Rhubarb & Pistachio Fools. Over at meal-prep website Project Meal Plan I’ve created a Roasted Onion Dip recipe that has serious French Onion Soup and Everything Bagel vibes, and on my blog I’ve kept on the seasonal ingredient theme with a one pan Blood Orange, Mustard and Ginger Chicken recipe, and a hearty Bacon and Lentil Soup.

I started watching The Americans when it first aired in 2013, but the rise of streaming services the the move away from traditional television meant I never quite caught up with the last couple of seasons until this month - it can now all be found on Disney +. Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings are the perfect Cold War-era Americans, with their small travel agency, suburban home and two perfect kids. But they’re also sleeper agents for the Soviet Union, sent to America as spies. Across six seasons the acting, writing and scripts get bolder and richer, the story lines more intricate, all crescendoing into a final episode arc that splits the realities between capitalist America and communist Russia down the middle where the lines had become increasingly blurred. It is brilliant television if you’ve not already seen it whenever you watch it, but even more salient in the world we live in now.