The Guardian’s Word of Mouth blog offers it’s best food books of the past ten years. The reader panel, which includes Matthew Fort, Tim Hayward and Jay Rayner have picked some great titles: HFW’s “River Cottage Meat Book”, Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential” and Jeffrey Steingarten’s “It Must Have Been Something I Ate”.
Monthly Archive for December, 2009
Here’s a great cocktail to serve at Christmas. I made this recently after discovering the recipe in GoodFood magazine. I like to serve cocktails in pitchers - it saves all that faffing around with measures and cocktail shakers. Put plenty of ice in a pitcher and add 150ml gin, 300ml cranberry juice, some mint leaves and a bottle of sparkling wine (or champers if you’re feeling flush). Add some mixed berries for an attractive garnish. Very tasty and no fuss.
This makes a subtly spicy cranberry sauce, with a little added port for some festive cheer. I made a couple of batches of this last week which are sitting happily in the freezer, waiting for the big day. Vastly superior to the ready-made version.
Put 500g fresh cranberries in a small saucepan along with 100g golden caster sugar, 100ml water, 100ml port, zest of 1 orange, 2 cloves and 1 star anise. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer gently until the cranberries have popped and the sauce has thickened. Cool and serve.
Serves 6.
I’d read about IN-N-OUT Burger on various food forums and was determined to visit a branch during my trip stateside. The marketing blurb is to be believed. This place was set up in 1948 and the stores, staff uniforms and (most importantly) the food hasn’t changed since then. This place is a step above “retro” - it was always like this. Smartly dressed and polite staff, proper french fries and very tasty burgers. The boss, a strawberry shake conisseur, gave hers a definite thumbs-up. In my opinion, the acceptable face of fast food in America.
Finally, I’ve often wondered what root beer tastes like. Maybe I watched too much “Happy Days” in my youth. Well I finally got to sample it. Jesus. If this stuff was in a medicine bottle you’d chuck it down the sink…
Find out more about IN-N-OUT Burger’s history here.
