nut-butter diary: pumpkin pecan butter & raw beetroot cashew pate

peanut butter is my first and abiding nut butter love. but lately it’s had to make room for some newcomers like a coarse textured almond butter made with un-skinned almonds. i spread it on toasted brown bread with a little honey for sweetness. i am pretty certain that tweaking my peanut butter cookie recipe by substituting it with almond butter would make very delicious cookies. last week i made a jar of pumpkin pecan butter. i toasted pecans, which were pulsed in the food processor and folded into roasted baby pumpkin puree. my sweetener of choice was a couple of teaspoons of maple syrup and the juice and zest of an exceptionally sweet navel orange. this butter is all about textures and flavours – grainy and rich from the pecans, brightened with orange and finished with the smoothness of pumpkin. it never made it onto toasted bread as i ate most of it with a spoon. 

reflections on the first meal of the day plus a trip to st.ali coffeebar and cafe

banana bread with cult of done espresso mascarpone

breakfast and i were not always on good terms. as a child it was the most fraught meal of the day as mama insisted on boiled eggs that i did not like. along with that my dadi would give me warm fresh milk claiming that she had strained it, which was not true as proven by my gag reflex. during my teens i dispensed with breakfast as a wholly unnecessary meal. all that changed in my late teens though as i got over my dislike of yolks and grew to love eggs. i swirled mama’s homemade jams and preserves into yoghurt and not only discovered granola but also became really good at making it. 

martha stewart's [truffled] crack and cheese

reheated leftovers - martha's crack and cheese

béchamel; that perfect marriage of scalded milk thickened with a roux. the addition of a scant pinch of nutmeg, cayenne pepper, sea salt and a generous grind of coarse black pepper give it some warmth. a trio of cheeses – gruyère, mature cheddar and pecorino romano transform it into a cheese sauce. it helps to coarsely grate the cheeses beforehand so that they dissolve easily in the béchamel. my sister-in-law’s stirred it in batches. truffles have a natural alchemy with cheese and cream and so i finished the cheese béchamel with a couple of drops of black truffle oil. that combined with the aroma of flour toasted in butter and pungent cheeses was an olfactory explosion.

romancing root vegetables (and butternut squash)

salad of yellow and red beetroots with feta, walnuts, pomegranate 
molasses

february was fiercely cold and although the sunshine was glorious it was as cold as its silver light. my eyes and nose streamed constantly every time i went out. with weather like this it’s the perfect time to romance root vegetables and the squash family. i love the irregular globular shaped beetroots with their bright stalks and leaves with pink veins. the knobbly pale cream parsnip has its place as it lends itself well to curried spice. even without spice, root vegetables have the quality of comfort food which is winter food by another name.i know that butternut squash isn't a root vegetable but its elongated body with a bulging end has sunflower coloured flesh that tastes as good as its brightness. i was listening to the food programme on radio four about comfort food and it struck me that these vegetables are basically ‘sugary smooth and carbo-calming’. along side that, the colours are a reminder that spring will come again.

seoul bakery

cold winter days make me want to eat clear soups coloured red with chilli. i do not want broth that has been interfered with by coconut milk or creamy elements to dim the strength of chilli. as i was near tottenham court road i headed to seoul bakery. this tiny eatery is made more cramped by a proliferation of sticky note graffiti. even the front window hasn’t been spared. the menu is short and features things like bibimbap and pajeon which most people are familiar with. i have the soft tofu hot pot which is less formidable than it looks. it gently warms and restores balance to my breathing made laborious by the ice cold wind. the mildness of the tofu along with an egg cooked in the hotpot reduce the strength of the chilli. the kimchi is the cooling element.