Beet Risotto with Sumac Marinated Fish

Sumac is not something I ever think of using (I believe it has a citrus like taste) and beet root in a risotto?  Mmmm yet somehow by the end I wish I could jump into the video and  have a bite!  Looks beautiful.

I think Mahi Mahi would work great as a substitute for the Stone Bass if you can't find it.

Strawberry Cheesecake Tart

OK so the reasons I am posting this is not because of the cute kid or her cute dad with his sexy accent, it's because he does something I have never seen done before and it kind of blows my mind.

He is about to blind bake his rolled out tart pastry when he grabs a piece of plastic wrap and covers the tart dough with it and then fills it up with beans to weigh it down then he puts it in a hot oven!  When he removes the baked shell out of the oven the plastic wrap hasn't melted?

Weird, plastic wrap doesn't melt in a 375F oven?  Has anyone ever done this or heard of this before?  I always use parchment or tin foil. Why doesn't the plastic on the bottom melt?  On a side note I think it is in a way kind of hysterical to see this dapper French Chef making a recipe with a little bit of Philadelphia (cream cheese), but I love the creme fraiche and white chocolate.....and late season Strawberries have been at the market....organic cream cheese from Whole Foods, or some good Ricotta....unfortunately there is no recipe except what is given on the video.  I'll see what I can figure out and get back to you.

Grilled Mackerel, Horseradish and Gooseberries

I love this guy's accent and affect very casual and flip. Particularly like how he's not so specific about measurements. You can use pre-made horseradish strained for the saw if you can't find the root to make fresh.

Gooseberries are now at the market and whole Spanish Mackerel is readily available.
Also if you are bone phobic I think this could done with fillets which you could grill as he does with the whole fish.

It's pretty winning! 

Organic Pork

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's pork and Puy lentil salad:

Mix and match the veggies depending on what you have on hand. Photograph:
Colin Campbell for the Guardian

There is an excellent and rather funny article in the Guardian this week on organic pork. I nicked this picture from the article because I thought the salad looked so delicious and also because I love that it's main ingredient is left over roast pork.

Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstall takes to task people's perceptions of organic farming methods and gives some great recipes in this article. Mostly what I admire about him, the Guardian and the British press in general is that within an article which is ostensibly about what to do with roast pork you get a really intelligent discussion about farming and animal raising methods:

Given concerns about the possible long-term effects of agricultural antibiotics in our meat (not to mention chemical pesticide residues in fruit and veg), it's hardly surprising so many of us buy organic these days, though the argument over whether organic ingredients "taste better" or "are healthier" is so often poorly expressed (on both sides, to be fair). The issues for me are animal welfare (organic standards are the highest we have), chemical residues (almost nonexistent in organic produce) and the protection of our environment (land under organic, chemical-free cultivation is the only insurance we have against the polluting, soil-degrading effects of industrially produced agrochemicals).

This kind of journalism isn't something you find on this side of the pond, or at least not that I am aware of. Sure, there are articles by Michael Pollan talking about important issues and then there are articles with recipes, but rarely do the two meet.

For me it's important to constantly be looking at the relationship we have with our food. To be able to look our roast pork in the eyes and make the connection between it and the pig it came from.

It's thrilling to me that a link to the video below is in the same article with a recipe for: Slow-Cooked Aromatic Shoulder of Pork.

Mr. Fearnley-Whittingstall and the Guardian are to be congratulated; in the meantime we here Stateside continue to get our recipes and our politics divided.

Unless of course you read Urban Food Guy.

This Just in From The Guardian...

Tojo, Indonesia: A villager walks through a burnt forest after a slash and burn practice to open the land for agriculture. Photograph: Yusuf Ahmad/Reuters

In the last 6 months I've started to post more and more video from the British paper the Guardian. I think at this point it's my favorite news source. Anyway, this week they had two very different articles that I think are of note and you might want to check out.

The first one is a report about the UN biodiverstiy chef Ahmed Djoghlaf (who knew they had one?) who warns that:

nations risk economic collapse and loss of culture if it does not protect the natural world

Probably not a big shock to most of the readers here, but still very interesting stuff with a good audio narrative.

The second article is a little more fun. It's there list of the top 50 cookbooks of all time, with the top 10 missing (tricky buggers) which they are withholding from us until Sunday (to be continued).

I was particularly pleased that two of my favorite cookbooks make the top 50. At number 17 is David Tanis's brilliantly simple book A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes.

Number 11 (my lucky number!) is Alice Waters first cookbook: Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook.

Now we all have to be on tenterhooks until Sunday!

I think in the top 10 should be The Fannie Farmer Cookbook by Marion Cunningham, Lord Krishna's Cuisine: The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking by Yamuna Devi and The Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters.

They also have to choose at least one British cookbook, I'm not so well versed, but maybe Roast Chicken and Other Stories or The Riverford Farm Cookbook?

It's like the Oscars of cookbooks!

'Boyl a Capon with Ranioles

I've become a huge fan of the Guardian's videos they do a great job and cover food in a very unique and, to me, interesting way. This video is food historian Laura Mason and chef Allegra McEvedy working their way through a 17th century a dish called: 'boyl a capon with ranioles - which in modern day English works out to be: Chicken with Sweetbread Ravioli.

Love the kitchen they are working in and their spirit of fun, I also really appreciate that they hand roll the pasta, my preferred method for making pasta.