The weirdest change since Rob moved in is the way that actually, now I don’t have to cook every night. On Monday (which is usually my turn) I cooked the NYT’s pork larb recipe, which so good. I have it about twice a month, either with ground pork, or sometimes turkey. I also like the larby dressing with chicken thighs if I have everything in (which I usually do; it’s one of those recipes).
Another thing I made this week was Thomasina Miers’ steamed fish with Sichuan sauce, which we also served with rice. It’s so good, even if, like me, you don’t have a steamer (I lined a sieve with tin foil and had it over a pan of boiling water, with the pan lid over the top). This Sichuan sauce is so good drizzled over roasted vegetables, on tomato toasts, or just as a thing to dunk breadsticks in.
Anyway this week’s issue is kind of about the things in the back of the vegetable drawer – as well as a mug’s worth of prosecco I subbed in for a fairly slapdash risotto.
1. The prosecco (that went into a risotto)
It was one of those nights where we had nothing in, but I admit I reserved the prosecco from a couple of weeks ago, when Rob officially moved in. I had this idea that I could use it in place of white wine in a risotto, and it was pretty great. My general risotto recipe comes via Jamie Oliver and I’ve been making it for years, so there is an element of winging it a fair bit. But use whatever aromatics you have (onion and celery is ideal, I had leek, carrots, and shallot), as well as garlic and woody herbs. I made a pork stock with the Iberico pork fat I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, which added real depth. If you use a veggie stock cube, I’d recommend a teaspoon of miso in there for extra flavour.
Risotto is a pretty rustic dish, but I did two things to sort of jazz it up a bit. Firstly, we had some leftover squash after Rob cooked this absolutely amazing Nigella squash and sweet potato curry. So I sliced the squash into half-moons and roasted it with salt and olive oil to have on top of the risotto. The result was shatteringly crisp, so it was perfect arranged on top of the rice. I also made a coriander oil as I had that classic scenario of an absolute ton of coriander in the back of the fridge. I followed the process from this Bon Appetit recipe for parsley oil, and it keeps for a couple of days. It’s really good drizzled over fried eggs.
Since I’ve been making risotto a while, there really isn’t a ton of methodology from me here. I completely winged it. I crushed as much garlic as I could be bothered crushing, and just eyeballed it. I honestly don’t think you can fuck it up – just keep stirring and stick some nice music on. I like the gorgeous, reflective musings of Dijon.
2. The rosemary (that went into a whisky sour)
I got really into sours during lockdown, particularly the egg-less versions (yes they’re not the same without the froth, but eggs were hard to come by early on in the pandemic). Grub Street, NY Mag’s food vertical, ran this fantastic piece a month into lockdown celebrating the sour, and it became indispensable to me as a really easy cocktail.
The trick is the simple syrup: 1:1 water to sugar (I use 1 Cup). It’s so endlessly versatile, and as you can use the above recipe to make whisky sours, gin sours, or even tequila sours, you can flavour your syrups to add depth to the cocktail. My favourite is using a handful of rosemary springs (I can never get through a whole bunch), chucked in the pan with the water and sugar, boiled down to make a herbacious syrup. It’s particularly good in whisky sours (whisky + rosemary syrup + lemon juice). But in lockdown I brewed some decaf coffee to make a caffeine-free coffee syrup for a makeshift espresso martini that wouldn’t keep me up all night. It’s a great way to use up scraps – last year we literally used discarded strawberry tops to make a syrup for margaritas ( but it’s just as good in a gin and tonic actually).
And… that’s it from me this week. What do you do with stuff in the vegetable drawer? I just realised we don’t have any leftover curry in the fridge so I really am going to have to throw something together, aren’t I.