Get Stuffed!
The title of today’s column really should be Get Stuffing! That exhortation is less likely to get you a punch on the nose, but equally it is less attention grabbing. Today’s recipe is inspired by a pork fillet which I bought at the butchers for this weekend. It’s not the most exciting of meats, and can go…
Read MoreWhigham’s Wine Cellars
Whighams Wine Cellars 13 Hope Street, Edinburgh EH2 4EL 0131 225 8674 www.whighams.com The Bill A la Carte Starters £4.95 – £6.95 | Mains: £10.50 – £38.95 | Desserts £5.95 The Score Cooking 6/10 | Service 4.5/5 | Flavour 4/5 | Value 4.5/5 TOTAL 19/25 Envy, if thy jaundiced eye, Through this window chance…
Read MoreThe Gastronomical Me by M F K Fisher – Book Review
I have to say that the readership numbers for the book reviews in this column have been a bit on the slack side. This surprised me a little. If you are interested enough to read this blog, I thought you might appreciate being directed to people who really can write, as opposed to my scribblings…
Read MoreLesley Johnston’s Shortbread – 3 Ways
It is a little known fact that my wife is a top class baker. Little known, because here at Casa Johnston we try not to eat sweet things, we don’t do coffee mornings, and so far as I’m aware afternoon tea is not an event which has ever happened in this house in my time…
Read MoreSoleto – Guest Reviewer Miranda Heggie
Soleto Bistro Trattoria Italiana 11 Commercial Road, Southampton. SO15 1GF 023 8023 4044 http://www.soleto.co.uk/ The Bill A la Carte Starters: £3.50 – £16.00 (includes sharing portions) Mains: £12.50 – £23.00 The Score Cooking 8/10 | Service 5/5 | Flavour 4/5 | Value 4/5 TOTAL 21/25 Living south of the border sometimes has its advantages, and…
Read MoreB is for Banana
It was an early holiday in what is now the not so far east which opened my very blinkered eyes to the topic of fruits from the tropics. On visit to a fruit farm/botanical garden I tasted fruits which I thought I knew. I was amazed that they seemed so different. Slowly it filtered into…
Read MoreTom Eats! Best Dishes
When I first set up the predecessor to this blog, my good friend Michael G, now a proud resident of County Cork, suggested that I was making a rod for my own back. Five years on, I felt well qualified to say I had proved him wrong. That, however, was before lockdown. Other reviewers have…
Read MorePizza Takeaway Classics – Made at Home
While we are hoping to see Scottish restaurants reopening soon, I predict that for many months to come the eating out experience will not be as we have known it. Having said that, this will be the last takeaway at home column for a while. Let’s get out there and help the beleaguered restaurant sector…
Read MoreFood and Racism: An Interesting Debate
This column will travel a very long way to avoid political comment; however, I was alerted for the very first time to this possible issue by reading some of the considerable commentary following the death of George Floyd. Black Lives Matter is not a new organisation. As a network, it was formed in 2013 by…
Read MoreTom Eats an Awful Lot in One Day in Bologna
The article on Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale in this week’s On The Side blog attracted a lot of interest. Many were completely unaware of the existence of the stuff, as was I before a trip to Bologna, capital of Emilia Romagna, and now my favourite Italian city. The highlight was the food tour. Now before you…
Read MoreIndian Takeaway Classics – Made at Home
Last week I gave you a couple of Chinese dishes which I reckoned you could do just as quickly and just as well at home. Indian* food is a different beast. As any of you who have tried it will know, many good curries benefit from a long slow cook. Indeed, I have seen lots…
Read MoreA is for Avocado
From time to time on the old website, Tom Cooks! would feature one particular ingredient and develop from there. Many of you have commented over the years that you have enjoyed the *history/useless trivia (*delete whichever you fancy) which went with that. For my own part, I thoroughly enjoy the research, in particular the often…
Read MoreChinese Takeaway Classics – Made at Home
As you may have gathered by now, I do not rush to embrace takeaway food, with or without a lockdown. In current times, there is no doubt that there is some fabulous food to be had out there, being produced by some of our top chefs; however, many are just sticking to their tried and…
Read MoreBalsamic – No, not vinegar
This week I had my first post lockdown pint. The Raeburn in Stockbridge has opened its outdoor bar as a takeaway. They have a large beer garden, which they can’t use just now, so you have the daft sight of people leaning on the street side of the railings, looks of rapture on their faces.…
Read MoreChef Watch – Paul Askew, The Art School, Liverpool
CHEF WATCH Featuring Paul Askew, chef and proprietor of The Art School, Liverpool How long have you been a chef? This year I celebrate forty years in the hospitality business, starting as a 15 year-old kitchen porter. Why did you become a chef? Singapore provided me with one of my first and greatest inspirations…
Read MoreAnnie Gray’s Boodle’s Orange Fool and Chocolate Cake
In last week’s On The Side column I reviewed Victory in the Kitchen by Annie Gray. My thanks to Annie, who has very kindly allowed me to reproduce a couple of the recipes which appeared in the book. These in turn came from notes left by Georgina Landemare, the subject of the biography. They have been updated by…
Read MoreDavid Dickson reviews Wild Hearth Bakery and Belhaven Smokehouse
Wild Hearth Bakery, Comrie The bread baked by Wild Hearth Bakery of Comrie by John Castley is to be found being served at Gleneagles Hotel. The late Andrew Fairlie endorsed it thus – I thought I had tried the best sourdough in the world in San Francisco – that was until I tasted Wild Hearth’s.…
Read MoreThe Narcissistic Fish by Scottish Opera
Narcissism in a professional kitchen? Whoever could imagine such a thing? No point in mentioning names, but anyone with more than a passing interest in food has encountered, either in real life or on screen, a chef who struggles to squeeze his ego through his own restaurant door. Similarly there are many kitchens where there…
Read MoreMiranda Heggie Reviews Drinks Offers: Part 2 – Beers & Spirits
Miranda Heggie Last week, journalist Miranda Heggie shared some tips on wine offers available from online drinks companies. This week she turns her attention to beers and spirits. Let’s begin with beer. Beer52: Founded in Edinburgh back in 2013 and now the world’s most popular beer club, Beer52 will send you a mixed case of…
Read MoreTime to Celebrate? Reach for the Lobster
We were fortunate that the beginning of the end of lockdown coincided both with some cracking weather and the 70th birthday of a good friend. As a result we were able to fulfill a promise to cook and serve a celebratory meal while sticking to the rules. Nothing shouts swank! more loudly than lobster, so off…
Read MoreVictory In The Kitchen by Annie Gray – Book Review
So many books, especially biographies, disappoint. It is therefore the greatest of pleasures to read one which delivers far, far more than it promises. The subtitle of Dr Annie Gray’s latest book is, accurately but prosaically, The Life of Churchill’s Cook. In the introduction we learn that it is a biography of a lady named…
Read MoreRaspberries and Ice Cream and Coulis and Yoghurt…and Balsamic?
This week I saw the first British raspberries in the shops. Kent, in case you were wondering – I don’t think ours up here are quite there yet. For a cook at my level, I find it hard to write inspiringly about soft fruit. The reason is very simple: when the natural product is sublime…
Read MoreMiranda Heggie Reviews Drinks Offers: Part 1 – Wine
Miranda Heggie Since lockdown it has been reported that retail sales were at a record low and that off licence sales had soared. Journalist Miranda Heggie points out that as pubs and the majority of shops were closed, this hardly counts as news. Like the rest of us Miranda is restricted to drinking at home.…
Read MoreRestaurants Post Lockdown – What Next?
The slight easing of the lockdown rules combined with some summer weather has lifted the national mood. For us foodies who most miss the joys of eating out, what does the future hold and when? On The Side spoke to three players in the Edinburgh restaurant scene, Vikki Wood of The Wee Restaurant, Campbell Mickel…
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