In At The Deep End - Literally!

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Were your childhood monsters in the wardrobe or under the bed? Jake Tilson’s monsters were in the attic. They sprang from a book he discovered there, illustrating the violence to be found beneath the sea – bloodied waters during a dolphin attack, and “gaping, skeletal jaws of a great white”.  To tackle his fear of all things fishy, he undertook to cook his way out of his phobia.

Venice...

Even if you never cook a morsel from In At The Deep End, it is still a great read for the armchair cook/traveller. We start off in Jake’s family kitchen in Venice (brings back some lovely memories for me as I honeymooned in that strange and lovely city). Venice is photographed as if by tourist camera.

We travel with the Tilson family (Jake, his wife, Jeff and daughter, Hannah) to Sweden, and experience such luscious dishes as Jansson’s Temptation and Gravadlax.  Sprats feature quite a lot in this section in one form or another as do fishballs. I’d like to have seen a greater range of dishes in this section. Jake raises his concerns about over-fishing and gives some advice on how to fish local!

It was this big...

 Aberdeen in Scotland is next – again with the tourist photos, which work extremely well. It wouldn’t be Scotland without kippers and we get a bbq, several pates (or does he mean pâtés?), and potted kippers as well as a crab soup called Parten Bree. There is a lovely collage of tiny houses (some barely more than sheds) in the village of Footdee - or Fittie to the locals.

We cross an ocean to New York for the next leg of the trip and make Salmon and Dill Baked Fish Cakes using canned Alaskan salmon. I can’t bear tinned salmon so someone else will have to try this recipe and report back. I’ll happily try the Crab Cakes with fennel and tarragon though.

You needn't shell out to make a fabulous seafood meal...

Jake gets a commission to write about Australia, so with a wave of his magic wand – ok, just turn the page – and we land in Sydney. We’re straight into one of my favourite foods – mussels – and he’s grilled them three ways – with feta, pinenuts and mint, with chilli and coriander, with nuts and garlic. Yum, yum, and yum! There are a few fish in this chapter that I know I am not going to be able to get at my local market, but hey, if I get to Australia, I’ll know how to cook barramundi and red emperor. Meanwhile, I can substitute similar local varieties.

Japan is next where Jake discovers that no morsel of fish is wasted. After all the exotic travel, it is rather deflating to end up in Peckham for the final chapter of the book and as if Jake feels this, he carries the influences through to the first dish in this section – fried fish with wilted herbs and noodles.

Pasta is kinda noodles right?

The whole book hangs together extremely well so it is no surprise to learn that Jake is the designer and photographer as well as the author.

I’m not going to cook everything from this book, but it is a book I shall enjoy reading for many years to come, with as much a right to space on the bedside table as on the kitchen bookshelf.

(Review copy supplied by Quadrille Publishing. Opinion supplied by Hester Casey!)

In At The Deep End  by Jake Tilson
Quadrille Publishing
ISBN 9781844009756
Price: £20.00

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Happy "Arthur’s Day" - A Stroke of Guinness!

Pin It My Goodness! The marketing machine over at Guinness is Genius! When Obama visited Ireland to find the lost apostrophe of his Irish roots (O’Bama) the money shot was that pint of the black stuff in his hand. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth was a little more canny on her visit, and merely looked at her pint of plain with suspicion. It still made headline news.

This bread is a stroke of 'Guinness' - and it's perfect with my mum's Plum and Ginger Jam

In a nod to “Arthur’s Day” - another stroke of Guinness from the marketing department - I made Guinness and Cranberry Bread from TV Chef, Catherine Fulvio’s new book. In Catherine’s Family Kitchen, she shows us around Ballyknocken House, her cookery school and home. As the title of the book suggests, this is all about family. Catherine says “There is nothing quite like sitting around the dinner table, laughing, joking, catching up, and, most importantly, enjoying good home-cooked food.”

The book revolves around the number 5… 5 useful gadgets… 5 ways with chopping… 5 quick soups…  soda breads… scones…  pasta… mash… sauces – you get the picture - all easy ways to ring the changes and keep the family menu from ever getting boring.

There are plenty of simple-to-prepare dishes to tempt your tastebuds and also to broaden the palate of any younger members of the household. It is an eclectic mix – Asian, Italian, Irish – with the emphasis on dishes that are quick and easy to put together, and even easier to eat.

The Guinness and Cranberry Bread (a soda loaf) took about 3 minutes to put together and just under an hour in the oven. It was dark and sweet and the perfect partner for my mother’s incredible plum and ginger jam. Himself and I demolished several slices before it had even cooled.

On my list to try are: Marinated Aubergine and Courgette with Goat’s Cheese and Hazelnut Dressing; Orange and Oregano Cod; Seafood and Spinach Open Ravioli; a show-stopping Thyme-infused Raspberry Chocolate Meringue Tower and how could I resist the Orange Mocha Crème Brulée.

I have two criticisms, and they are both aesthetic. Firstly, while most of the recipes are dark type on a light background making for optimal readability, there are several on brightly-coloured pages with white type in a script font, which I found hard on the eye – and my eyesight is pretty close to perfect.

Secondly, Catherine is one of the most animated and energetic people you could possibly meet and yet there is a ‘posed’ stiff quality to several of the lifestyle portraits in the book which doesn’t do her justice. On the other hand, the food photos are stunning; so less lifestyle and focus more on the food perhaps… These are minor complaints. I’ll definitely be cooking from this book.

As for “Arthur’s Day”, where does it all end? Next thing you know the Whiskey companies will be clamouring for their day… What’s that? They already have one? So they do - Paddy’s Day!

Review copy of Catherine’s Family Kitchen, courtesy of Gill & McMillan Publishers

Catherine’s Family Kitchen by Catherine Fulvio

ISBN: 9780717150571
Hardback: €22.99 Pin It

My Bread – well, it’s Jim Lahey’s bread really...

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Robert Browning said “If thou tastest a crust of bread, thou tastest all the stars and all the heavens." Try saying “tastest” with a mouth full of bread J but he’s right. I could happily work my way through an entire loaf, warm from the oven and slathered with butter – fresh raspberry jam optional.

Flour, water, salt, yeast... and time



Bread has the power to win hearts and sell houses. When I say bread, I mean the sort made with love, not with industrial machinery.

In a recent giveaway, Absurd Baker very kindly sent me Jim Lahey’s My Bread: The revolutionary no-work, no-knead method. Jim is a man in love with bread. The introduction follows his progress from Tuscany in the ‘90s, through selling bread in a SoHo street market, to the Sullivan Street Bakery and beyond.

Bread in a pot - weird... but wonderful!

He talks about the ‘singing loaf’ in his overview of the method: the loaf crackles as it cools in the final and very important phase of baking as the damp crumb forces steam through the dry crust. Cut into the loaf before it sings and suffer average bread. Defer that pleasure until the bread has sung, for an entirely different experience.

I’ve made two of Jim Lahey's breads: the basic recipe and the Pane Integrale – a wholewheat version – both using his bread-in-a-pot method.

In some ways, if you’ve never made bread before, you have the advantage with this book because you are not comparing it to traditional kneaded doughs. In the recipes I’ve tried so far, I’ve found the dough alarmingly wet - almost porridgy. However, because this bread is no-knead, handling is minimal and the dough firms up a little as it rises. Lahey uses a mere 2 grams of yeast – a quarter of what I would normally use. 2 grams of yeast is sufficient because of the long rising time.

From porridgy dough to 'Pane' perfection

If you are a seasoned baker, hold your nerve. You think it’s not going to work out and the whole cook-it-in-a-pot thing is downright weird... but actually, it’s how my great-great-grandparents would have cooked their bread and the result is sensational. The basic loaf didn’t last long enough to be photographed.

After commenting that the finished Pane Integral looked like a cowpat (it is rather flat) my beloved helped me polish off half the loaf in one sitting. The crumb is open and even and the bread has real flavour despite having the most basic of ingredients: flour, water, salt and yeast.

I am going to work my way through this book: there is carrot bread, peanut bread, chocolate bread. There is foccacia, and pizza, and olive bread, and the book’s party pieces such as Stecca (next on my list to try). The book is illustrated with clear step-by-step photos where needed.

Absurb Baker, you said I’d enjoy this book. I LOVE it!

My Bread: The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method by Jim Lahey with Rick Flaste

Published by W & W Norton and Co

ISBN 978-0-393-06630-2

Hardback

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