Observer Food Monthly in 60 Seconds

by Andrew Barrow, Posted Feb 26th 2006 @ 1:33PM

A Vegetarian Special with 10 pages to cook up a meat-free feast. One thing I did notice was that a picture is labeled Potatoes with dill and chicken stock; the recipe is titled Potatoes with Dill and Vegetable stock - I guess you can use either.

Any-road-up the recipes for those with a vegi-bent include Sweet Potato and Coconut Polenta with Asian Vegetable Fricassé (which sounds lovely except I seriously dislike sweet potato, coconut and polenta... no hope really). The Tuscan Tomato Bread Pudding with Peas and Broad Beans sounds more my thing as does Spice-Roasted Nectarines with Pistachio Milk Sauce.

Nigel Slater has all the potato recipes suggesting the chicken/vegetable stock one as a stand-alone dish or, for the carnivores, great with grilled mackerel, flash-fried lamb's liver (thats the one for me!) or bacon. His Crushed Potatoes with Cream and Garlic I am sure has appeared in several of his books but I don't recall seeing Sea-Salt Baked Potatoes with Parmesan Greens before. Nice.

A fascinating piece on life in China during the Cultural Revolution with food as the only safe topic of conversation... Jamie Cullum picks Fifteen as his Favourite table... a big piece on fair trade products... sushi... how chef Fergus Henderson suffered from Parkinsons before 'they drilled into my skull. Now I can cook again"... a piece on the Diesel fashion brand's wine. The taste test on chocolate and the best buys for wine need an article of their own...

Filed Under: Magazines
Tags: british isles, food and drink, FoodAndDrink, nigel slater, NigelSlater, observer food monthly, ObserverFoodMonthly, potato, recipes