Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many

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I am a devoted fan of Artusi’s masterful book, “ Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well”. This title of a favourite book by an estimable epicure sums it all up for me. The company required for almond tart, mostly inspired by my dad, it must be said, is a jug of custard, warm or chilled, Jersey cream, whipped cream and ice cream.

A few rules, well, musings really, on the business of choosing, preparing and cooking beetroot. There are so many varieties of beetroot in gorgeous pinks, purples and a gold, a particular variety I love called Flaming Badger. The cook can indulge in all manner of variations with different varieties and colours. I like the small new season’s tender beetroots both steamed and baked in foil, or, if there is time to soak, in a diable. Steaming beetroot results in a delicately cooked vegetable, while roasting beetroot in foil or a diable results in a rich intensity. Ensuring the beetroots are of a similar size and shape and regardless of which method of cooking chosen, beetroots take roughly the same time to cook. Larger beetroots, later in the season, are best boiled until tender.

Donald Sloan, Chair of the Oxford Cultural Collective, chooses a few dishes he has often enjoyed in Quo Vadis, which he will now be preparing at home. Make the frangipane and the pastry for this tart the day before for best results. Jeremy Lee’s almond tart This makes enough dressing for two salads for three people. What I usually do is serve it the first night as written, and then to ring the changes, the second night we have it without the potatoes in the salad but with baked potatoes on the side.

The huge rise in interest in food in recent years has books appearing with such speed that keeping up with the new is in itself a great occupation. Photography changed the production of books dramatically. Now a book illustrated with a couple of ink drawings and the occasional frontispiece may well seem challenging beside a lavishly photographed volume. It is worth pausing to consider whether reading a recipe alongside a glorious colour photograph depicting the dish might diminish the imagination slightly? Subsequently possibly the writing is diminished too. Arriving at Bibendum, years later, I was overjoyed to discover that Simon Hopkinson had an ace almond tart as a permanent fixture on the menu. At Alastair Little it was an exemplary prune and almond tart, the prunes steeped in Armagnac for days (they were equally excellent in ice cream, which was often how they were served up too). I think it’s worth noting that it is a long time since I bought almonds already ground, preferring by far the resulting coarse crumb from grinding whole almonds myself. I favour the whole blanched Marcona almonds from Spain, where the almond is almost a religion. If the almonds are unpeeled it is not such a chore to steep them in boiling water to loosen the skins to facilitate peeling. The difference is remarkable. But almonds are not only for confectionery and puddings, creams and ices; they are also good company in compounds redolent of a pesto – leaves and nuts and cheese ground with olive oil.

Jeremy Lee Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many

That’s why the TS Elliot poem seemed very lovely and very appropriate to include. Cooks being naturally curious creatures, we’re always excited to explore and to try different things. But what is really interesting to me is when after you’ve done that, when you do come home again and see those old familiar things again, you are reminded of how lovely they are.