Tuesday 22 July 2008

Not al my dentes

I had a thought the other night (I had been drinking ...): good restaurants should ask how you'd like your pasta cooked in the same way as they'd ask about meat!

Chefs always rave on about how pasta should be al dente - I saw Gordy on TV just the other day ripping seven shades out of some poor restaurateur in Spain because his penne was too mushy. But is it not down to personal choice?

I don't really like it al dente. That's just uncooked in my opinion and I don't like the feel of it. For me, that's the same as finding a hard, glassy bit in the middle of your baked potato or a still-chilly pea among your petit pois. Would it be so challenging to give me a choice? After all, I know that fillet steak tastes far better cooked rare, but if I were a chef I'd still have to give paying customers the chance to have it incinerated and leathery!

Or am I mad?

Thursday 10 July 2008

I've gone all brunch!

Scrambled eggs and asparagus on toast

I came back from Spain recently with a tremendous and very seasonal appetite for asparagus. I've been eating it a lot lately and, in my opinion, its natural partner is egg (and egg!).

One Saturday at about 11.30am I made up this brunch, based on egg/asparagus desire and a severe lack of food in the house.

I don't know if I'd go so far as to call this a recipe but I'll tell you how I put it all together. First I chop the asparagus spears in half to create lengths of about 5-6cm and put them into a saucepan of boiling water over a very low heat for about three minutes. I cut some ciabatta rolls open into halves and toast them, drizzling on some olive oil about halfway through the process.

My egg-scrambling method is unorthodox, but tried and tested. I crack some eggs (normally three for two people) into a bowl and whisk them with a bit of black pepper and a dash of olive oil. I then microwave them for roughly two minutes, stopping every 20-30 seconds to do the 'scrambling' bit with a fork. The oil helps them to stay moist and a bit runny.

To make it all deli and brunchy I serve the eggs delicately dolloped onto the ciabatta, with asparagus criss-crossed on top and a spoonful of hollandaise sauce on the side.

Incidentallly, I recently received a fantastic Gordon Ramsey cookbook as a birthday present and he writes about a similar recipe, but with the addition of anchovies. Back off, Gordon!

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