Do you cook for your family or your blog?

The arguments about whether or not you should take pictures or notes in a restaurant have been well rehearsed but what about when you eat at home? Should you hold the entire meal up while you style a plate and snap away or should you end up - as I often do (above) - snatching a blurry low light image of your dinner?

If anything it’s a bigger problem because it happens more regularly. My husband has got well used to the routine, sighing wearily as I plate up “I suppose you want to take a picture of that”.

And it’s getting more of a dilemma as the standard of photography goes up. The best blogs, many of which I’ve documented, have photography that wouldn’t look out of place in a glossy magazine and having seen Jaden of Steamy Kitchen and Béatrice of La Tartine Gourmande in action at Food Blogger Connect, probably takes as long to set up. So do you cook, like a professional photographer for the shoot, and expect your nearest and dearest to eat the leftovers? Or, God forbid, cook two meals?

And what about the equipment? What used to be a sideline for many of us becomes an expensive hobby as you invest in the latest flashy digital camera - or two (one for your 'studio' shoots and a pocket sized one for restaurants and food on the go)?

I guess it depends how ambitious you are for your blog and where you see it taking you. If you’re angling for a new career in food writing and photography you’re going to have to behave like a pro with the ensuing waste that involves. I’ve been on shoots where whole meals are discarded in the bin, something I can never quite get used to.

But what about the rest of us with day jobs and partners and families to feed? Are we consigned to a nether world of mediocrity because our photography isn’t up to scratch?

I’d love to hear your views but here's one (heretical) suggestion of my own. Which is to use one of the many wizzy camera apps on your phone to create special effects - or even, if you have a Mac, play around with iphoto as I've done to the rather grotty shot above. OK it’s not going to give your readers the clearest idea of the masterpiece you’ve created but at least it looks a bit edgy.


What do you think? (Not of my photos, obviously - at least I'd rather you didn't tell me - but about the whole issue!)

Six (actually about 10) recipes to make from Comfort and Spice

Publishers have odd ideas sometimes. What possessed Quadrille to call Niamh* Shields first book Comfort & Spice instead of Eat Like a Girl, the title of her hugely popular blog, I can’t imagine. It sounds like a Christmas baking book. Maybe the idea was it would appeal more to the American market? And perhaps they’re right but it in no way conjures up the discursive, leftfield tone of Niamh’s writing (you can actually hear her talking to you) or her wide-ranging choice of recipes.

What I like best about it, I must confess, are the small tips and ingredients made from scratch which, only someone as unashamedly greedy as Niamh - and I say this in the nicest possible way - would have come up with. I can’t wait to make a batch of ham salt, harissa croutons, rosepetal butter and passionfruit and lime curd (1) (All short recipes so I’m counting these as one choice.)


Probably the best section overall is the Eight Great Big Dinners . . . and what to do with the leftovers. The idea of making sausage roll style Lamb and smoky aubergine rolls (2) with leftover shoulder of lamb is genius and you should definitely try her signature two and six-hour pork belly (3) which can be turned into some wicked-sounding pork belly dumplings.


There are also some excellent tips for getting your crackling crisp which I shan’t pass on otherwise you might not buy the book . . .

Niamh’s Irish roots are evident in number of recipes out of which I’d pick the smoked salmon with potato pancakes and cucumber relish (4) using Frank Hederman smoked salmon, as she recommends, if you can get hold of it. She says she’s been making the pancakes since she was at school so they should be good.


I suspect the same is true of her simply named Prawn Curry (5) which she says all her friends now make - the downside of being generous with your recipes. It includes cloves, an interesting touch. Maybe that’s the ‘spice’ of the title’

As well as the butter I’ve mentioned, there are a number of recipes for home-made cheese including homemade paneer (6) which you could use to make her Mutter Paneer. What’s great about this book is how encouraging Niamh is. She almost knows you read a recipe, wondering if it will work then goes on to reassure you how easy it is.

Chicken and chorizo pie (er, 7. I was only supposed to pick six recipes, but never mind) is a winner too. In fact Niamh has obviously got a big thing going about chorizo which appears in rather too many recipes - my one small niggle with the book, apart from its title. But like the rest of this series it has immense charm as does its author. It would be a very good friend in the kitchen.

*Niamh is pronounced neev in Gaelic not nee-am-huh. Just in case you wondered.

Photos are from ‘Comfort and Spice’ by Niamh Shields, the fourth book in the New Voices in Food series, published by Quadrille (£14.99, paperback) Photography (C) Georgia Glynn Smith

What's hot at the London Restaurant Festival

The other night I went to a dinner at Nuno Mendes' Loft Project to publicise the London Restaurant Festival which opens in just over three weeks now. Annoyingly I'm not going to be here the first week (on a wine trip to Spain so don't expect you to feel much sympathy) but I am around for what sounds like the most intriguing event - unless you happen to fancy eating your dinner suspended half a mile above London.

It's a pop-up (what else?) 'dining experience' organised by a German company called Pret a Diner which will take place in the Old Vic Tunnels which will be featuring installations from a number of artists curated by gallery owner Steve Lazarides based on the Greek legend of the Minotaur.

The three chefs involved are Nuno himself, who also owns Viajante, Matthias Schmidt of Villa Merton in Frankfurt and Juan Amador of Amador in Mannheim. Tickets will go on sale tomorrow, priced £75 for three courses - not exactly cheap but cheaper than Thomas Keller's £250 French Laundry pop-up at Harrods. There will be two sittings a day at 7pm and 9pm from the 10th-25th of October. We don't see much in the way of German chefs over here which makes it good opportunity to find out what's going on over there.

Otherwise there are now some 700 restaurants offering Festival menus at four different price bands (£10, £15, £20 and £25) which you can find if you click on Book Table. (I only tell you this because I faffed around the site for 10 minutes trying to find out who was offering what. Even then you could do with a bit more info about what you get for your festival deal. Hawksmoor Seven Dials which I am shamelessly plugging because it's my son Will's restaurant is offering 2 'bridging drinks' (see their cocktail menu) and a mini chilli cheese dog or one bridging drink and a mini lobster roll, for instance.)

There are also going to be three Suppliers' Markets involving chefs' suppliers at Paddington (30th September), Waterloo (7th October) and Liverpool Street Station (14th October), an Eat Film series of screenings, signings and suppers and the annual LRF awards which are given for nicely quirky qualities such as 'bravery', 'passion' and 'fun'.

All in all a good 10 days to be in London.

Thali Café's Bombay chips

It's become a bit of a ritual to head for our local Thali Café for a takeaway the first night we're back from holiday. The justification being we're too tired to shop and cook and besides, if we've been in France, which we usually have, we've had to survive two weeks without spicy food. And if we order the dairy-free, veggie thali it's healthy, we tell ourselves. Ish.

Unfortunately a new temptation lay in wait. On a sign just by the till, as alluring as the display of sweets by a supermarket checkout - Bombay potato chips.

Well, I had to try them, didn't I? In the interests of research.

And regrettably they were fab. Thinly cut from new potatoes, I would guess, dunked in pakora batter and deep fried they were probably as fattening as family pack of KFC. Good though. Oh-so good. Especially with a fresh coconut raita with (I think) mustard seeds.

And they cost just £1.95, drat them.

Just keep away.

Latest food and wine blog finds

Another eclectic selection of blogs for you to dip into:

Poires au Chocolat (@poireschocolat)
One of the great blogs I discovered through participating in Food Blogger Connect the other weekend. I picked this one not only because it's a beautiful, well-written blog but because its author, Emma, has only just finished her degree at Oxford. Apparently she wants to be a pastry chef. I'm sure she'll succeed. I love the look of this Rose and Pistachio layer cake.

Best Emerging Chefs and Creators/Thinkers in the Kitchen @scoffiermag
Not the catchiest of titles, admittedly but an incredibly useful resource if you're interested in the latest hot talent round the globe. Written - surprisingly - by a Frenchman who calls himself S Coffier and intended as a precursor to a magazine. I'm slightly embarrassed to find I hadn't clocked one of his UK finds, Paul Foster of Tuddenham Mill.

Wine Woman & Song @winewomansong
Juel Mahoney has already built a formidable reputation as a wine writer through her clever and original blog Wine, Woman & Song. She recently posted a brilliantly argued riposte to my recent post about what food bloggers could learn from journalists called How to be a Blogger as a Journalist which you should definitely read if you haven't already done so. She also has an Italian wine site called Vinissima.

Turntable Kitchen @TTableKitchen
A San Francisco-based blog by Kasey and Matthew. which matches food and music. Like Wasted Time and Minted Zucchini, Pea and Lemon Cucumber salad. This, I think, is exactly what Juel (above) is on about. You need blogs to express these fresh, zany ideas. Lovely food photography too.

And finally - nothing to do with food - check out Beautiful_Libraries.com a slightly nutty site which catalogues pictures of libraries including Celebrity Libraries and Government Law libraries. A must for geeky bibliophiles. Like me. Here's mine by the way.

Six recipes to cook from . . . Everyday and Sunday

Anyone who thinks that books are dead should pick up a copy of Everyday & Sunday, the latest book from Guy Watson and Jane Baxter of Riverford Farm in Devon, Britain's best known veg box supplier.

The 362 pages are packed with imaginative recipes, mostly based on the veg the farm grows. As the name of the book suggests, they're divided into everyday and weekend meals (though I'd be more than pleased to have someone cook the midweek ones for me) and is divided up month by month.

So it's useful and practical but far more than that because 'Bax', as she's known to her friends, has plenty of attitude and a vigorous, engaging writing style. The pictures (by Ed Park) which are sparingly but tellingly used as are the illustrations by Leanne Shapton that open each chapter. It's a satisfyingly chunky, well-designed book and at £12.90 - the price Amazon is currently charging for it - an absolute steal.

So, which recipes? This is a tough one - so many of them appeal - but if I'm forcing myself to pick six let's start with

* French and Runner beans with sun-dried tomatoes, olives and basil (August, p 201)
A typical Bax recipe, simple, seasonal, slightly off-piste, with the helpful advice that the beans should be blanched until 'not al dente but squeaky when bitten'. I know EXACTLY what she means. Perfect for a runner bean glut

* Corn and courgette soup (September, p 233)
Another good idea for this time of year from one of Jane's co-chefs Anna Colquhoun who used to work at Chez Panisse. Thriftily the cobs are used to make a stock then the kernels are cooked with the courgettes, blitzed and the soup topped with a herb and chilli-flavoured butter.

* Chard, mushroom and walnut tart (September, p 244)
The answer to the problem of what to serve for an interesting veggie main. Great combination of flavours. Good tip that you can bake the filling in a gratin dish rather than in a pastry case which I suspect would be equally delicious

* Quick roasted cauliflower cheese (March, p.60)
Crème fraîche, mustard and gruyère instead of fiddly bechamel, no soggy cauliflower - a clever reinvention of this family favourite.

* New potatoes with crab, chilli, parsley and lemon (June, p. 144)
I normally make this sauce, as Jane does, with pasta but the chance to combine it with new potatoes is too good to miss

* Apricot brioche pudding (July, p. 187)
I've chosen this out of the many outrageously good desserts in the book simply because I tasted it at a demo Jane, Mitch Tonks and I took part in at the Dartmouth Food Festival last year. Basically it's an apricot bread and butter pudding. Gorg.

I could easily have picked out another six. And another . . .

What's really good about this book (and its companion volume, the award-winning Riverford Farm Cook Book) is that you could go off to the farmers' market and buy whatever produce looks most appealing without any clear idea what to do with it, bring it home and find a fabulous way to cook it. Now that's what you want from a recipe book.

Henry Herbert's Scotch Eggs

Henry Herbert's Scotch eggs are a thing of beauty. Not that you'd know it from this hastily snatched photo while I was interviewing him for my article in the Guardian today. He used to be head chef at the Coach & Horses in Clerkenwell where they were his signature dish.

They are served warm (if you're lucky and get to his Chipping Sodbury butcher's just as he's made them), crisp on the outside with the yolk just the right side of runny, gently oozing into the perfectly spiced sausage casing. I almost wept when I ate mine. Oh, alright, I didn't but it was good. The best Scotch egg I've ever eaten.

Apparently there was quite a buzz about them a year ago when he did a Scotch egg masterclass reported here by Cara of Gourmet Chick.

Henry also makes scrummy-looking pies, (I say looking, because I haven't got round to trying them yet), meatballs, terrines and homemade chicken kievs.


At Ruby & White in Whiteladies Road in Bristol, the other butcher I visited, they make up their own marinades which they sell in little pots for £1. I tried a Moroccan-style lemon and saffron one with a guineafowl I bought from them which was really tasty. If you had to buy the ingredients from scratch you couldn't do it for that price.


They also have lots of cheaper cuts like shin and shortrib, and veal offal such as sweetbreads and kidneys as well as supermarket-style 3 packs for £10 offers. So butchers don't have to be expensive.

With their energy and imagination I hope they'll both succeed. They're making the effort to go the extra mile with late opening hours or, in Henry's case, deliveries so it's up to us locals to use them.

Incidentally there's a great follow-up discussion on Word of Mouth about butchers here.

Adam Denton, co-owner of Ruby & White.