Posts by Tom Johnston

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…

When eating at an Indian restaurant, sometimes the vegetable side dishes can become the star of the show. Hardly surprising since India has by far the largest percentage of vegetarians in the world. Read to day’s review of Bell Bottom Indian Eatery and you’ll see the highest praise reserved for the Aloo Gobi Masala (potatoes…

Easter. Lamb I suppose. Regular readers know my views on that by now. But hey, lamb/hogget/mutton is delicious at any time of year. As with many culinary delights, the two optimum cooking options are hard and fast or low and slow. Thus I like a lamb leg done at a fairly high heat, pink and…

Hadn’t been to the shops for a while and no clear plan on what to make for the memsahib’s dinner. The fridge had a vat of stock from a chicken earlier in the week. The veg drawer had half an onion and half a red pepper, plus a bag of spinach. The stock was the…

Well, after we came out of the restricted March offering, and had an article on Luxury on Wednesday, you could have been forgiven for expecting larks’ tongues or lobster Thermidor this week. But before you start to complain, pause for a moment. Pine nuts are one of life’s more expensive store cupboard ingredients and this…

Continuing the vegetarian theme, I turned for inspiration, as I so often do, to a thick red folder from Let’s Cook Scotland. As many of you are aware, that’s where I spent a game changing fortnight under the Sarah Mellersh tutelage of the very lovely Sarah Mellersh. There are hundreds of recipes in the book…