Timed Eating

Mushroom farro

Mushroom farro, I’m told it’s very in vogue – who knew? I guess I think Farro should be spared the trials of fashion – it’s a so called ancient grain that’s been eaten since pharoahs were in nappies, the world was flat and you could walk from Indonesia to Australia across an ice bridge – it deserves some rest.  However, as rice is maligned and people try and recapture the healthy way of eating which led to very long lived cavemen and cavewomen the “alternative” grains have seen a faddish resurgence. Spelt (which is actually a type of farro), farro itself, quinoa and buckwheat all seem to pop up all over the internet. I must admit, therefore, that I’m a relatively late convert. Inherently sceptical of foods which insist they’re more nutritional yet somehow end up tasting less good I’d always been somewhat hesitant to try them. I’d stuck with rice or other wheat based products like couscous, even convincing G that couscous can be inherently delicious if you only follow a couple of simple tricks. Only occasionally would I venture into the brave realms of quinoa just to prove to myself that I was smugly right all along and these alternative grains were kinda rubbish. Then I had a mushroom farro “risotto” in a restaurant and two things happened. Firstly, the farro tasted amazing – nutty and complex with more bite than rice but still a pleasing creaminess. Secondly, much to my chagrin and humility I didn’t get the same tired carb spike that would normally be the price of a delicious risotto. Since then I’ve been cooking farro left, right and centre and I’ve finally hit on my ideal mushroom farro recipe after some trial and error which uses a technique for cooking mushrooms I shared a few weeks ago which really should be part of any cook’s arsenal in my opinion.

Like all my posts, there are tips and tricks for cooking this dish ahead of time at the bottom of the post. Mushroom farro is perfect for making in advance as either parts or all of it can be made up to days in advance!

Continue reading →

Couscous

Couscous is one of those foods that G didn’t used to like. She’s not a picky eater by any stretch of the imagination, but if there was a choice between couscous and pretty much any other filling side the couscous was being left on the bench. So that meant I didn’t really cook it much. To be frank, I could see her point – it’s so often dry and mealy with very little flavour and feels like it’s just there because someone thought their tagine needed a side dish more authentic than rice. Also, why would you go with couscous when you could eat a different more flavoursome grain like freekeh, farro, or Israeli couscous? Well, this all changed when we went to Morocco and realised we’d never had real couscous before. In Western countries we buy instant couscous and it struggles to match the heights of the slow steamed version. Although that is delicious, it’s very time consuming and non-instant couscous is actually hard to buy so I wanted to make instant work. Despite what the guy in this video might say you can make instant couscous delicious! After a few early blander versions, I’ve come up with a few rules that have transformed both G and myself into die hard couscous converts. It can be completely delicious whilst still being fast and easy, can be made in advance for a picnic, is delicious the next day, and goes with everything. It’s so good that if I came home after a few tipples and saw both leftover couscous and left over Chinese food in the fridge, the Chinese food will still be there in the morning!

Continue reading →

Chicken Pastilla

I love chicken and leek pie. I’ve posted chicken and leek pie recipes which avoid the starchy nature some commercial ones have. I have fond chicken and leek pie memories dating back to Mrs Patchett’s chicken and leek pies in Sydney and I obsessively order them if they’re on a menu. However, Chicken Pastilla may be my new favourite chicken pie. Well I say pie, for me a pie has to have a pastry base and lid (The English obsession with pot pies baffles me). Chicken pastilla fails this test as it is more open topped. However, despite its dubious pie credentials, it’s still delicious and has me questioning life long allegiances so I think it’s worth writing about. At its heart it’s braised chicken thighs with warming Moroccan spices and citrus notes wrapped in filo pastry tasting slightly of beurre noisette. Frankly, of course it’s delicious – I mean how could it not be.

Continue reading →

Pavé potatoes are something I hadn’t heard of until recently. I mean really outside of professional cooks who has heard of pavé potatoes and what even are they? Pavé is French for paving stone and in culinary terms generally refers to a slice. In this case, pavé potatoes are layered  a bit like dauphinoise or boulangère so they’ve got lots of very thin slices on top of each other cooked with a bit of butter. Served like that they’re delicious and rich but to really push them over the edge you cool them down, slice them thickly (like a pavé stone) and roast them until crisp and crunchy. At that point they’re the single most decadently delicious roast potato you’ve ever had, somehow creamy and crisp at the same time, buttery and sweet yet savoury and intense. I mean pavé potatoes, who knew and if they knew why didn’t they tell me sooner?

Continue reading →

Cabbage photo sourced from Flickr. For rights and link see bottom of the page.

Cabbage is one of those vegetables I didn’t know I loved until I came to the UK. I liked it in Sauerkraut, Bigos and Kimchi but hadn’t really had it plain as it’s not a very popular side dish in Australia. When I had eaten it, it was invariably boiled until almost mushy and was rather bland until it was smothered in butter and salt at which point it just tasted like butter. However, this all changed because of my wife. My wife loves cabbage, I mean she really loves it which is why it turns up in so many TimedEating posts (Herb Crusted Cod and Duck breast being just a couple of examples). Therefore I learnt to cook it and have been asked by a couple of people how – so I figured I’d write a quick post about it as it’s all in what method you use.

Continue reading →

I don’t know when I started loving mushrooms. I remember as a kid reviling at their slippery nature and finding them bland. Partly it was how they were cooked and partly I’m pretty sure I just didn’t like them. Then, when I was about ten years old I went to a restaurant called Bill’s in Queen Street, Sydney. I didn’t order the mushrooms, I had the sweetcorn fritters with avocado and bacon which to this day remains one of the truly great breakfasts the world over (and coincidentally the first thing I ever cooked for my wife). However, my dad had sourdough toast with mushrooms and avocado and I had  a bite and from there the love affair with mushrooms started. They were meaty yet subtle, tender yet robust and all while being deeply earthy. Now I add them to dishes left right and centre like the recent tahini crusted beef which gets a big umami kick from shiitake mushrooms. Normally I’m in favour of pan roasting them until they’re deeply browned like you would for mushrooms on toast or a good beef stroganoff. However, here I wanted to share a different method for cooking mushrooms, one that’s super easy, very quick and is so versatile that you can use it in dishes as varied as soup, beef wellington, ravioli, pasta sauce, risotto, a dip, mixed into stews or even a crackingly good fried snack with beer. Oh, and it only takes 15 minutes and doesn’t have any ingredients except mushrooms.

Continue reading →

Confit salmon

Confit salmon was one of the first things that I cooked and thought, “huh, not everything fancy has to be hard”. It sounds fancy – it looks a little fancy and it tastes a bit fancy. But really it’s perfect to do for guests or a special dinner and the hardest part about it is not letting the cooking oil get too hot. I like to serve it with a vanilla mayonnaise, some cucumber pickled in cucumber syrup and a little grapefruit for a subtle play of contrasts against the meltingly tender fish. However, you could just as easily serve it wish a simple fennel salad (As the great Wakuda Testuya does) or you can even lightly smoke them and serve them with a sweetcorn velouté and toasted hazelnuts. You can mix up how you flavour the confit salmon itself. I infuse the oil with citrus and lemon thyme but you could spice it up with dried chillies and szechuan peppercorns and serve it with a soy honey dressing and some pak choi for an Asian twist. I guess all I’m really saying is it’s pretty versatile and once you’ve learnt the technique you can play around to your heart’s content and people will be super impressed.

Continue reading →