Spaghetti alla Bottarga

Sardinia’s opal tinted waters that lap against the island’s crinkly coast are awash with bronzed Italian bodies and most excitingly, are wriggling with grey mullet. The history of Sardinia, the Mediterranean and these wriggling mullet is so intertwined that you could write a compelling anthropological thesis about their relationship that would reveal the island’s true character.

Sardinia’s location makes the island a sponge for outside influences. Over the centuries Sardinia has been invaded by the Vandals, the Byzantines, the Ostrogoths and the maritime republics of Genoa and Pisa as well as being inundated by Arab raids. It’s this influx of external influences that makes Sardinia’s food culture so interesting. A quick look at the culinary palimpsest shows what a strong influence Arab culture has had on Sardinia with the legacy of fregola and most interestingly, bottarga.

Bottarga (AKA Sardinian Caviar) is the preserved roe sac from grey mullet and tastes deeply savoury, super salty and very grown up. Just imagine a firmer, nuttier version of an anchovy. It is made by salting a mullet roe sac and then pressing it between two pieces of wood and air-drying it. When cured it is then covered in a layer of beeswax and sold for an extortionate price in flash delis all over the world. It gets its name from the Arabic batarekh and is found in various guises across the Middle East.

Like all seafood and Italian food it is at its best at its most simple. Just grate it onto a bowl of pasta that’s been doused in garlic infused-olive-oil and lemon zest and shower it in parsley and you will be eating the very essence of Sardinia.











We had a go at cooking an improvised version of spaghetti alla bottarga in our outdoor kitchen at Casa Teulada whilst we were in Sardinia and loved it so much that I made it my mission to recreate it properly back in my kitchen in Sweden. With a recipe from Mario Batali as a guide I put my waxy block of fishy gold to good use.




Ingredients:

Top quality spaghetti
Bottarga
Italian parsley
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 lemon
Chilli flakes
Salt and pepper

Method:

Boil the pasta in salted water.

Meanwhile gently heat an indecent glug of olive oil in a cast iron pan and add the thinly sliced garlic and chilli flakes. You just want the garlic to warm through and lose its raw edge which will take no more than a few minutes. If you've got some bottarga powder as well as the roe, sprinkle some into the oil for a deeper flavour.

Then when the pasta is cooked use a claw and add the pasta to the garlicky oil. Flick in some of the magical pasta water and toss. Then serve in a bowl and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley, lemon zest and then triumphantly grate over a generous amount of bottarga. Make haste and serve pronto.



Washed down with an icy bottle of Vermentino, each forkful transports you back to the warm, breezy shores of Sardinia.

This post has been entered into the Grantourismo HomeAway Holiday-Rentals travel blogging competition which you can read about here and on www.homeaway.co.uk

For more information about bottarga and Sardinia have a look at these sites:

Gastroanthropology on bottarga
Granturismo themselves on the delicacies of Sardinia and even more bizarrely their account of staying in our apartment!
Practically Edible on Bottarga
One Bite on Bottarga

Pancake Competition '09 Round Up

Having gloated long and hard about our winning pancake in the savoury category of this year's pancake competition, with our crispy aromatic pork belly pancakes, it's only fair that we show how doubly impressive this feat was, given the stupendous competition we were up against.

Anna and Edwin's smoked salmon with rocket and creme fraiche was delicious. I deliberately chose a nice, fat pancake that gave it the feeling of eating a Russian blini. With a dollop or two of caviar and a glass of ice cold vodka this would have been an outright winner.



Nick and Daryll served up a treat with their cranberry and brie pancake with rocket. The brie was so strong it needed a police escort. It reminded me of one of EAT's best baguettes but without the ham. Super stuff,



Heather and Blades also came over all veggie with their Mediterranean inspired pancake. Full of peppers, courgettes and feta it was deliciously Greek. You'll have to take my word for it that it tasted a lot better than this picture makes it look...



Having gorged ourselves like famished pilgrims in preparation for the big, pre-Easter fast, we readied ourselves for the sweet pancakes. Amazingly there wasn't a lemon and sugar entry in sight. And bravo to that.

Cowie was in charge of our sweet entry, which came in the format of a very elegant strawberry and passionfruit creation that lifted our battered palettes. Unfortunately for young Edwin, he bit a bit too hard into a passionfruit seed and snapped a tooth! Luckily, because this was a proper event, we had a full medical team in attendance, who made fun of him and were generally obnoxious, before realising that it was actually quite serious. Edwin, knowing what was at stake, put pain and discomfort to one side, collected a few man points, and carried on.

Edwin's joint entry with Anna was spectacular. Banoffee is an underused filling. In many ways, I think it is better when there isn't too much cream swimming around. Their banoffee sludge came studded with salted pecans which Anna apologised for profusely some reason. When it turned out that the saltiness of the pecans was a good thing, victory for Anna and Edwin in the sweet category was all but secured. Again, forgive the appearance and imagine tucking in!



Heather and Blades produced a stirling effort with their apple sludge with creme fraiche. There was something very comforting about it. A homage to British food.



Then came a great deal of controversy that is yet to be put to bed. Nick and Daryll had the audacity to enter a supermarket bought, pre-prepared, fruits of the forrest pancake into the contest. Whilst it looked and tasted good it has caused us to form a committee to write up a code of conduct document for next year!



We had a wonderful evening feasting on pancakes. Thank you Blades and Heather for being such brilliant hosts. We're now looking forward to Edwin hosting it next year. If you have a look at last year's competition you can see that the standard has really stiffened. God only knows what heights we'll reach next year.

The Restaurant Show: Adnams Ale and Drink Pairing

In search of the perfect demonstration for how to pair food with drinks, Jess and I explored the art of pairing beer with food. Interesting territory. Whilst the demonstration from Adnams itself was perfectly fine, it wasn't terribly inspiring. Pairing their brilliantly refreshing eco-friendly new beer with crab seemed a bit strange to me. Chorizo and cheese worked far better.



I am really interested in the science of pairing different food with drinks. I wish I had been invited to the recent sherry evening with Heston Blumenthal that Chris from the Londonist has been getting very excited about. It's a fascinating area to work in. I just feel that Adnams could have done a more interesting job in explaining why their choice of cheese, crab and chorizo work with their beers. But maybe the publicans that surrounded us didn't really care.

The highlight came on my return to the office. Adnams sent me a crate of their beer having won a competition for simply putting my business card in their pot! I love it when I get lucky! So I am now the very proud owner of 12 bottles of some of the most interesting beer on the market: East Green Carbon Neutral Beer. All the bottles are lighter than normal and are made with very locally grown hops in the most green and efficient machinery known to man!

Pie Off

We've been planning to do a culinary competition for a while now. And what better food to get competitive about than pie. Puns all round.

There was an ample sur-pie of puns and banter. We all like puffing our chests out and won't roll over easily. Oli even went to the extraordinary, and possibly illegal, level of asking the lovely chaps at Great Queen Street for their ham and chicken pie recipe. And the bastards gave it to him - hence his awesome pastry for his game pie.

The rules were simples. 2 pies per couple. One savoury and one sweet. Both made with pastry. (You wouldn't believe how long it took to agree on these rules!)

The teams were selected carefully... but not as meticulously as the team names.

Erin and Ed: American Pie
Mariana and Oli: Paela Gavella
Cowie and Brown: Cow Pie

To clear up any name related confusion... Erin's American and Mariana is a proud Spaniard.

The competition took place at Erin's amazing flat in Islington. So Oli and myself were at an immediate disadvantage given that we were on foreign territory,,, albeit in the best kitchen I've ever had the pleasure to cook in.

American Pie opted for a highy creative opening dish - a chicken fajita pie. The likes of which I have never heard of before. If the taste of this bad boy is anything to go bye.. this pie could become a 21st century classic. Rich, spicy, sweet, creamy and smoky; the filling was exceptionally fun. Oli and I are really hoping that our new nickname for Ed, "EID", sticks.





Delicious filling. Great decoration.

Paella Gavella's Pie was in a different league in the pastry department. And completely stole the show from a creative stand-point. Oli nailed it. It was a game pie, cooked with pigeon, rabbit and venison with a rich gravy topped off with the most professional suet crust pastry you will ever see... probably even better than you'd find at GQS where he stole it from! But the best thing was the heat resistant board he chose to present it on. Ed and I normally try our hardest not to offer the slightest bit of praise to Oli. But unfortunately we had to eat some serious humble pie here. Fair play to Oli - this game pie was top class.



Cowie and I, in the form of Cow Pie, played it relatively safe. We concentrated on the filling. I spent 8 hours cooking a fabulous shoulder of lamb with anchovies, rosemary, bacon, red wine, dried porcini and a touch of cognac for good measure. It fell of the bone and had great depth of flavour. We topped it off with some of Sainbury's best puff pastry and hoped for the best. We were pleased with the result. Meaty and full bodied. Just how a good pie should be.



So by this stage we were completely stuffed. What better way to push on from this than to have 3 more pies! Talk about punishment!

American Pie delivered a very flavousome all American classic Apple Pie with sultanas and cinnamon. Bursting with flavour, or should I say flavor for our American audience, it was a lot of fun.

Paela Gavella yet again pulled off a masterstroke. Their pastry was exceptional and we loved the numerical reference to Pi on the lid. It was packed full of autumnal fruit that bled across our plates like some sort of masacre on a pheasant shoot. Good pie.



Cow Pie did some last minute improvisation and rustled up a pie from no-where. Imagine how tasty a mango and pineapple strudel would taste! Well that's what came out of the oven!

It was one of the most fun evenings I've had in a long time. But, the embarrassment of losing a couple of buttons from my shirt and a gentleman offering me his seat on the tube home because he thought I was pregnant mitigated against this! If oysters, sea food and sushi are good romantic foods... pie is the polar opposite!

Berocca Blogger Relief Pack

A week or so ago I entered the Berocca blogger relief competition and somehow sneaked through and won. They sent me a blogger relief pack which is full of things to clutter up my desk a bit more. All of it themed around stress busting...

Here's the blurb from their site:

"Blogging can be stressful. We live in a world where millions of people
read and demand new content from websites every day.

The Blogger Relief Pack comes to the rescue of those tired minds. Be part of the Blogger Relief campaign to rescue those we rely on to feed our insatiable hunger for the weird wide web.

If you’ve got a blog, fill in your details and you could receive a Blogger Relief Pack from Berocca. Keep on blogging and we’ll feature some of the best blogs we see on this page in the coming weeks."

So in my pack I got:

A tube of Berocca and a branded glass



A stress pen holder



A stress relief button that triggers an explosion on my computer screen





In addition to this was a stress ball that has been causing chaos and a device that makes the sound of popping bubble wrap. Odd. But fun.

It's a great idea and has introduced me to Berocca. Having never tried it before this programme has transformed me into a bit of a brand fan... I've already written about Berocca three times now. Not to mention I have now got Berocca related goodies strewn around my desk.

Importantly, I opted in to this promotion and have been given the chance to opt out. This fits in very well with Seth Godin's marketing principles. I wonder if similar schemes could work for our brands?

Quick San Lorenzo Lunch

Whilst watching the dire England performance against Scotland on Saturday Cowie russled me up a delicious lunch using goodies from Tentazioni and San Lorenzo. Both brilliant freebies!

The Tentazioni pasta was still slightly chewy which was great whilst the sun dried tomatoes from San Lorenzo added a bit of class to Lloyd Grossman's tasty tomato and chilli sauce.







To make things a little bit more special Cowie even used my extra special tin of tuna.



What a great way take your mind off the awful rugby!

Rhubarb Souffle

This month's "In the Bag" competition over on A Slice of Cherry Pie asks entrants to incorporate forced rhubarb, an orange and sugar into a recipe. After last month's lamb and pear tagine we decided to create a sweet recipe rather than savoury.

Cowie has been making some very good souffles recently, so we decided to create a rhubarb and orange souffle. I bought some nice rhubarb from Waitrose and chopped it up before simmering it. The pink, fibrous stemmed rhubarb crunched like celery as we prepared it.



We simmered some rhubarb with some sugar until it became thick and syrupy.



We mixed some eggs yolks with sugar, orange zest and stem ginger.



And whisked up some eggs whites with some sugar.



Before gently folding them together.



Meanwhile we buttered and dusted some ramekins with icing sugar.



And then spooned the mixture in.



We cooked them in a pre heated oven for 12 minutes, making sure that the tops didn't burn.



They emerged from the oven with beautiful golden tops and a wonderfully sharp smell of rhubarb. Best of all though, their tops didn't collapse and they stayed bouyant and perky!



And they tasted even better. The rhubarb was the star of the show with the orange peel and stem ginger coming in to balance out the sharpness with some warmth and zing.



Well done Cowie for being so creative on a weeknight. After a long day of work it was so much fun to create something so light, tasty and exotic. And it was fun taking the photos too.

Pancake Competition Results

Pancake Day, AKA Shrove Tuesday is one of the most exciting days in the foodie calendar. It's the day when you are encouraged to gorge on all the good stuff before you fast for Lent. Given that I'm not religious and am not planning to give anything more significant than stamp collecting up for Lent, Pancake Day is essentially a wild card to tuck into whatever you want with impunity! Hahahah!

Cowie organised a brilliant event. About a month ago we invited some close friends to come round for a pancake party. At first it started out as being a simple affair with Cowie planning to cook an industrial amount of batter and do something simple with lemons and sugar. But this didn't last long. Instead we set up a competition whereby each couple had to supply a different filling with the most innovative filling winning the kudos of being the Paunch's 20008 Pancake Champion.

Being a competitive bunch of surveryors, lawyers, recruitment consultants, insurance brokes, university lecturers and ad men we took up the challenge and all brought our attempts at glory!

Anna and Edwin did a great job with their "Italian Job". A tasty combination of pesto, sundried tomatoes from Sainsbury's and supplemented by some San Lorenzo classics and finished off with some mozerellla was delicious. It was inspired by Anna's friend who has a pancake stall in Borough Market. Well done Anna and Edwin. Good depth of flavour and good originality.







Well done the Emissons. Top work.

Cowie and I supplied a delicious treat of smoked salmon with dill and creme fraiche. Simple. But utterly gorgeous. Very luxururious indeed. And great colours too.





It felt quite Russian. All we needed was some chilled vodka and some fur coats! Although it wasn't voted as being the best filling, I was still pretty proud as it was colourful and full of flavour.

Blades and Heather came to the party with goat's cheese and honey roasted ham. A great, simple combination that tasted gorgeous. Salty and full of creamy meatiness. And with a smear of bruchetta topping it was even better!







The beauty was that we could mix and match the various cheeses and cured meats that everyone had brought along. The demand for the large meat platter was pretty agressive, resulting in a Mexican stand off for the salmon, meat platter and Victoria's delicious and award winning wild mushroom and bacon sludge. It might not look that amazing, but it was sublime. Especially when you throw some goat's cheese and rocket in there as well!





Well done Victoria. Good stuff.

In return, we also had a prociutto, bufallo mozerella and balsamic tomato salad which was stunning. Sweet. Salty. Sharp. Mmmm.









Jack and Keira brought along some lovely Ementhal and some plastic ham which they intended to be made into an alpine racklette style pancake. Unfortunately, we didn't have the kit to make the most of it. But to be honest you can't go wrong with ham and cheese pancakes anyway!



Now for the sweet pancakes! In brief:

The San Lorenzo "Nutella" spread was amazing. So naughty and o so tasty!



Jack and Keira had an absolute blinder. Sultanas with cinamon and ice cream was immense and rightly picked up the sweet pancake of the year award! Well bowled!





Ian and Emma covered off the classic base with lemon and sugar which you simply can't go wrong with. Sharp and sweet. Nice.

As a finale I had bought some passion fruit and creme fraiche which brought back amazing memories of eating fresh chapatis in Zanzibar. That tropical clarity of taste. Yummy! Sadly this one was wolfed down so fast we didn't get a picture!

Well done everyone and especially to Cowie for hosting a brilliant event. Particular congratulations go to Jack and Keira for their sultana, cinamon and ice cream dessert and to Victoria and Alex for their delicious savoury bacon and mushroom extravaganza. I can't wait for the next Shrove Tuesday. Pancake Day rocks!



Jack's clearly praying that the white chocolate hasn't run out... and below, 2 very talented cyclists prepare to ride their tandem back to Pimlico!