Braised oxtail raviolo with wild mushroom risotto, leek cream, braised cabbage and parsley oil
This recipe was the culmination of my week’s experimentation with braising with not one, but two braised elements.
Blog
Exploring techniques: Braising
Braising is its own special kind of magic. You take a cheaper, tougher cut of meat and you let it braise gently, bubbling away for several hours. And at the end, you have a thing transformed. All that sinew and connective tissue that would have made eating so difficult and unfulfilling has melted into a rich flavourful jus to go along with what’s become tender-as-you-like meat.
Opus Restaurant, Birmingham
I recently made the trip to Birmingham to carry out an interview for the podcast I do (it’s not about food, but rather broadly-defined change-makers). I figured that, since the interview was scheduled for the afternoon, I might as well see if I could dig out somewhere interesting to have lunch.
Sous Vide Roast Beef
I’ve had my Sous Vide Supreme water bath for a number of years now. Maybe as long as a decade.
Coconut rice pudding and caramel apple tarts
One of the discoveries of spending a week in Tuscany was the budino di riso - little rice pudding tarts - that were on sale in some of the cafes.
Vegan mushroom mousse with squash, chestnuts and sage
I’ve made a mushroom mousse, or a custard, several times in the last year or so. But I invited a vegan friend to lunch recently, and thought that it would be a great thing opportunity to develop a vegan version.
Fabulous Focaccia
It was a sheer fluke that on the final day of my Tuscan holiday, I ended up watching the first episode of the new Netflix show Salt Fat Acid Heat.
Baked Tuscan pancakes
Having spent a week in Tuscany, I came back keen to spend a bit more time exploring the food culture and trying out a few things in the kitchen.
Slow-cooked goat stew
At this year’s Aldeburgh Food Festival, one of the more interesting supplies I managed to get hold of was some diced goat meat. I’d eaten goat just the once - a rather extraordinarily expensive meal I had once in Dubai having gone to speak at some conference or another.
Eating in Tuscany 2
As we entered the second half of the week in Tuscany, we really wanted to see a great food market, and get to the coast where the seafood would be fresh and abundant.
Eating in Tuscany
No recipes this week - I’m on holiday in Tuscany. You know, the kind of holiday where you spend two hours of every day doing work which, in this case, means writing food blogs and editing and producing podcasts.
Is intensive farming best for the environment?
If you’re talking to anyone who actively campaigns on, or who even just cares about, sustainable food one principle is rarely argued - that standard approaches to food production are all wrong, and we need something else to make it better. Organic. Or Vegan. Or small-scale farming.
The Ivy Norwich
I wouldn’t claim to be especially plugged in to the food scene in Norwich, but even I picked up the buzz that went around the city when the Ivy Norwich opened.
The best gluten-free chocolate brownies
These are wonderful moist hits of chocolatey goodness. The fact that they are gluten-free is almost incidental, since you’d be hard pushed to spot any difference between these and standard brownies.
Tarte Tatin
Considering I don’t have any apple trees, I seem to have a creditable glut of apples going on right now.
Gujarati-style sweet and sour dal
I have a default curry spicing that I lazily use when I need something quickly and I have no inventive energy left after a hard day.
Fabulous dairy-free and gluten-free trifle
One of my favourite desserts of last year was the ‘Nanny Bush’s Trifle’ I had at Benedicts in Norwich. It’s a trifle, but not as we understand it.
Singapore noodles
I’m not sure I can get away with describing these as Singapore Noodles, predominantly because I decided to cut the quantity of noodles by half.
The joys of white fish with mustard sauce
It’s the simplest thing in the world. A meaty white fish. A delicious creamy Dijon mustard sauce. Marriage made in heaven.
Potato, pancetta and goat's cheese salad with tomato tartare
This is a delicious and tasty salad, particularly for a dinner party where you want to eat extraordinarily good food, but you don’t want your guests to be leaving the evening completely stuffed and needing to go onto a diet the very next day as penance.
Page 1 of 7
Next
Subscribe to Delicious and sustainable
Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
We will never share your details with any third party
Welcome to Delicious and Sustainable
I'm Mallen Baker. I've spent thirty years working on sustainability with a focus on business (corporate social responsibility). I'm passionate about great food, and wanted to share ideas, analysis, recipes and information about delicious food with a nod towards sustainability.
