21st February 2021

Since moving I’ve spent a lot of time in my food library and have been trying to cook more from my books and magazines. So far it’s been going well, better since we’ve been in lockdown although initially getting all ingredients was less easy. Thankfully things have improved in that sense almost a year on.

My oldest good food magazine dates back to 1996 and today I decided to cook a dish from 1996. What surprised me reading through is just how simple the ingredients are. If I look at comparable recipes from then and now the flavours are so much more complex and interesting now. I read the magazine cover to cover and eventually settled on potato soufflés that a contestant from the old style Masterchef with Lloyd Grossman cooked.  I paired it with a crumbed lamb fillet which I found in the Great British Chef cookbook. Both were really good and they paired well together.  The soufflé’s were amazingly light and the lamb looked exactly like the picture which really pleased me so much.  I have been working on my plating so I was chuffed at how it went.  I need to now just look at my camera skills because they let down every meal I cook.

I also ordered a few cookbooks today, I joined the bookclub a year after it started and wanted to get the books I did not get and so I ordered Sabrina Ghayours Bazaar, Asma Khan’s Indian kitchen, Genevieve Taylor’s Charred, Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gullivers The book of St John, Edd Kimbar’s one tin bakes, Martin Morales’ Andina, Alissa Timoshkina’s salt and time, Mimi Ayes Mandalay, Selina Periampillai’s the island kitchen and Ben Tish’s Moorish. I am so excited to receive them and delve into them.