American poet Arthur Macy seemed to have a sense of humour. The few poems of his I’ve read are neither grand nor long-winded, but quite touchingly simple, with a good-natured wink at life. Here are two food related poems I…
food
3-Cheese Tuna Bake w/ Semi Sun-Dried Tomatoes
May I present … the colours of Italy in a simple, filling, super-tasty, creamy bake! This lovely recipe is a riff off tuna mornay. Same deal — ingredients in béchamel (white) sauce (butter, flour, milk), with a quick, browning bake…
Let-Them-Eat-Chocolate-Cake Cake
If Marie Antoinette indeed said, “Let [the peasants] eat cake,” she probably meant a kind of brioche, as what we understand as cake, and definitely chocolate cake, wasn’t around yet. However Marie Antoinette did love drinking hot chocolate. I love…
Laid-Back Chicken and Pea Risotto
This is the dish to cook when people are milling in the kitchen, the TV is on in the background, and someone has been thoughtful enough to open a nice bottle of sauvignon blanc. A lot of the cooking shows…
All Your Tinned Fruit & Peach Cobbler
Growing up the child of working class migrant parents in the ’70s, a bowl of tinned peaches with vanilla ice-cream seemed like the height of sophistication. I still love tinned peaches. The beauty with this cobbler recipe is that it’s…
Good Old Pan-Fried Fish and Roasted Vegetables
A meal of “plain”, “simple” pan-fried fish and vegetables is like a breath of fresh [sea] air! We’re lucky to be able to access and eat a wide variety of different cuisines. Our palates get used to the exotic and…
Vanilla Cake with Sassy Vanilla Syrup
Why is this vanilla cake sassy? Because in a world of “flavour innovation”, “consumer-driven brand line extension”, and “multisensory taste narratives”, it’s radical to market a single flavour hero. Vanilla on vanilla? Come on. But the simplicity of this is…
Déjà Vu Slow-Cook Beef Ragu
Why déjà vu? Because somewhere in your memory lurks a delicious home cooked stew you’ve never forgotten, or an idealised image of what one would be like, and when you smell this slow-cook ragu cooking, you get a strange sense…
Back to the Future Tuna Mornay
Bell bottoms, beads, The Beatles, back to the future tuna mornay! Actually, creamy tuna mornay (tuna casserole in the US) dates back even further than the sixties. A version was around before WWII, but it came into its own afterwards,…
What Happens in Vegas Tomato (Napoli) Sauce
YEARS ago, I saw TV domestic goddess Nigella Lawson say to use sugar in all tomato dishes to balance out the acidity. It’s definitely NOT traditional to use sugar in a tomato Napoli sauce. But as far as I’m concerned,…
Frozen Raspberry Nougat Parfait with an Ice-Cream Hack
This has saved Christmas a few times, especially the hack. The parfait recipe below calls for ricotta, sugar and cream, but, I have in my time … replaced all of those … with … softened quality vanilla ice cream. There,…
Super Easy Smoked Salmon Pasta with Sour Cream
This is kind of a prosecco dish, in that it’s both sparkling white and also a cheeky rosé. Easy smoked salmon pasta with sour cream is also the simplest impress-your-friends-with-your-nonchalance-in-the-kitchen recipe I can think of. Plus, pasta. If you can/want…
