Tom Cooks!

You may or may not recall a recent On The Side column on the subject of dahl. These are usually followed up on the Friday with a recipe; however, I was on a roll with the sandwich series and didn’t want you to get crusty if I interrupted it. But today is the day. Now…

Thanks to good friend and ace cook Liz Turnbull for today’s recipe. A tart – definitely not a quiche. The history of this dish is of some interest (well, to geeks like me). In Britain we have had savoury tarts for centuries. One can trace recipes going back to medieval times. Originally they were made…

Last week I advanced the proposition that the American sandwich as we know it today has its roots in Italy. An Italian food lover would, I suspect, turn up his nose in disdain at the transatlantic fare, choosing instead to marvel at what his country has to offer. Let’s explore. Tramezzini In the past couple…

Properly let down I am. Disappointed, nay, betrayed even. After last week I was expecting an inbox filled to the brim with your inspirations for The Great Tom’s Food! Sandwich. One miserable response! (Thank you, GS.) You will all be familiar, I’m sure, with the story of how today’s hero came to be. The 4th…

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich If, come the Day of the Dead, you are able to bring back for one day a lost one who died in the 1970s, what would amaze them most? There are many possibilities, obviously, but here’s one you may not have considered. Take them to a supermarket and watch…

Believe it or not, I do attempt to have some themes for these columns, some thought even. Today’s inspiration went something like this. We have, in case you haven’t noticed, been on a bit of a bread thing of late: a pizza base is basically bread dough: and with the Easter holidays not that far…

Our diet of late, I reflected, had been fairly meat heavy. Chicken is always a staple here, and it’s hard to resist the deer blandishments available from our chums at Castle Game. When the young came up for the rugby I reprised the Caribbean Jerk Chicken. I also made for the first time in ages…

Another delight inspired by a visit to my chums at Castle Game. I’ve cooked venison most ways, but it had never occurred to me to use the shanks. By that we mean the lower part of the leg, the calf if you will. It’s a hard working muscle, and great value. It obviously requires a…

Sometimes the stars or, more accurately, the random contents of your fridge can lead you to unusual culinary destinations. I’m not sure if I had ever cooked duck breasts before. Duck legs often: a regular favourite and unbelievable value. So for a wee while, the pack of mallard breasts from Castle Game had lain untouched…

When I first discovered that oxtail stew is a great favourite in Caribbean cuisine, I confess to being surprised. But then I stopped to ask myself why? After all the Creole kitchen doesn’t abound in prime cuts. Think of any area where there is a need to make much from not a great deal. Rome’s…

Just back from St Martin in the Caribbean. With it being half French, most of the restaurants were nodding in that direction. So, local grub? These days, the first thing I do on arrival is engage with the taxi driver, Francois Le Taxi didn’t let us down. Rosemary’s, he said, down by the waterfront in…

Hello and Happy New Year. I planned to let January pass me by, to enable us to take stock and regroup; however, I had an idea for a Tom Eats! piece. To maintain symmetry, I thought we’d chuck in a recipe as well. Yes, more pie. And why not? January is for comfort food. In…

Tom Johnston by Edwin Horalik I know I told you that Tom Cooks! was finished for the year; however, there are a couple of reasons for the change of heart. Firstly, an opportunity to unveil the new Tom Cooks! logo, a portrait of me by grandson Edwin. Worry not, that’s a chef’s hat, not a…

Let down by my own website. The horror, the horror! After ten years, most of my standards have found their way into this column. By no means are all of them off the top-of the-head. Today, the brain said fish pie. (May I assume that all of your brains give you food messages regularly, or…

Last week, On The Side featured beetroot: this week it had a tribute. Today I’m going to combine the two. While this is the Tom Cooks! column, today’s first two recipes are taken from Christopher Trotter’s book, Beetroot. As regular readers will be aware, Christopher died three months ago. A fabulous cook and a lovely…

Yes, I know I said we were going to do beetroot today. But come last night I still hadn’t written anything and I happened to create a small dish of genius (actually two, but you know how I hate to boast). Chicken Traybake I don’t know why I haven’t done that many traybakes. They are…

An older, wiser friend, a man of the world, once took me to one side and told me that there were two of life’s pleasures which one would never get at home. The first of these was lobster Thermidor. I forget what he told me to be the second, but I’ve worked it out to…

This dish is inspired by, but rather different to, a Claire Macdonald recipe. Lady Claire uses whole pheasants suggesting, rather ambitiously, that two birds will feed 6 to 8 people. Secondly, she uses flour to thicken her sauce, which I dislike. Thirdly, she recommends cooking in the oven. While this is perhaps better for a…

In her recent review of The Soup Solution, Cat Thomson name checked two famous Scottish varieties, one of these being Scotch Broth. Truth be told, it’s not my favourite. It’s also very fiddly to make, which may explain why we don’t see it so much these days. This recipe comes from a cookbook written by my…

It’s been a bumper year for apples everywhere around here. Even our own recalcitrant tree yielded a record crop – at least seven whoppers. Wander around my leafy suburb and there are many help yourself baskets on garden walls. What to do with such bounty? Over the past few years I’ve made rather more chutney…

After Cat Thomson’s recent review of Charlotte Pike’s book (The Soup Solution), there could be only one topic for today’s Tom Cooks! Coincidentally, I did bring back a soup recipe from my Spanish travels, but it’s now completely out of season. See more below. But I’m 100% with Cat saying that October marks the beginning…

In last month’s article, Oysters At Home Part 1, we highlighted a problem if you aren’t prepping them yourself –  your fishmonger will open them for you, but you’ll probably lose the “juice” What to do? Simple idea – cook them. Do that and the juice is no longer essential. This is one of the…

Did Wednesday’s article about the Stranraer Oyster Festival tickle your taste buds? Let me pose a few questions. Dear readers- How many of you like oysters? How many consume them regularly, say once a month or more? and How many of you have ever prepared them at home? Now if you say you don’t like…

August in Embro’s/A time to remember The best of all Festival fringes/So rich that the visitor cringes, or goes off his hinges An absolute plethora/You’ll gasp for breath/Or abandon the game But don’t worry – each year it’s exactly the same Words by J O Drife Every year at Festival time here in Edinburgh I…