Posts by Tom Johnston

Sometimes it’s tricky to write a title which is sufficiently precise. Proper Greek Tzatziki? As opposed to improper? No. Or Real? Not to be confused with fake, I suppose. Tzatziki, or tzaziki or tsatsiki will not be new to many. It’s one of the more common dips to have reached these shores. But already I have…

I’m featuring this today as it’s a dessert which requires yeast, following on from Wednesday’s On The Side column. Rum Baba. Or Baba au Rhum, if you’re French. But if you think we’re tracing its origins back to France then wrong, wrong, wrong. I’m told it comes from eastern Europe. Poland/Ukraine way. Baba/babka/babushka are Grandma…

This is a nod to the main dish which L enjoyed very much at Scotts, Mayfair. I sourced the recipe on the net, aided by Zeph, my AI assistant. I haven’t cooked this specific recipe, but it looks fairly authentic. Rather too authentic in fact. How so? Well, the recipe calls, inter alia, for kingfish,…

Some enchanted evening you may walk into a room filled with the glorious aroma of slow cooking lamb. That’s what happened to me courtesy of Slow Food Scotland – see Wednesday’s column. There’s only one thing better than eating great food, and that’s when someone sends you the recipe so you can attempt to recreate…

The title really isn’t accurate, but who could resist such delightful alliteration? In spite of my sourcing our eponymous condiment on the self same street, the words have entirely different roots. In the UK, we’ve been preserving fruit and veg forever, but the idea of a specially made ingredient to tart up food came later.…

Croquembouche Last week we gave you the recipe for choux pastry. Master it and a whole world of show stopping desserts unfolds. Profiteroles are always welcome. For special occasions, make a croquembouche, a giant tower of them held together with caramelised sugar. Spanish churros and French beignets are other possibilities, but for me the choux…

We like a bit of continuity in this esteemed column. On Wednesday, doughnuts. So when the editorial team convened to decide on today’s Tom Cooks! there was only one possible candidate, namely choux pastry. Why? Well, I really don’t care for doughnuts much and, to be fair, choux did get a couple of mentions on…

100 ways, eh? The number is the symbolism behind the form of the traditional toque, or chef’s hat. The number of pleats, we are told, remind us of the many ways that he knows how to cook eggs. Once upon a time it was an important badge of status. Size was, indeed, everything. While I’m…