Some recent highlights, food wise: Barbecue with friends last Sunday, immediately breaking my rule about bbq's during the day - see last blog - okay, it wasn't that hot and we had to do it during the day because its the only way I get to see G and B and L, who had school the next day and so could not come in the evening because they live a long way away. Did spiced mackerel and herbed sea bass on the barbie accompanied by lemon/fennel/olive potatoes - see blogs of about a year ago - which L adored, so much that he left me a little note and drawing and a FB message the next day. Shame my sons have grown out of that kind of thing.
Used mashed leftover mackerel to make crostini on Monday for lunch, with salad. Leftovers make the best food, sometimes.
The spiced mackeral was made using something I have discovered in Turkish (actually Kurdish, I suspect) shops around north London. I was told Kayseri Cemen was a dip - they keep it in the chiller cabinet next to the humous and taramalsalata - or should be spread on toasted pitta. But it is almost too spicy for that, although you can do a little bit, but seems best suited as a more earthier, full bodied version of harissa, the north African spice paste I adore. I used it instead of harissa in a marinade for the mackerel - mixed with olive oil, cumin and salt and pepper and it was terrific, with a real depth of flavour. I did the same this weekend on some chicken. Fabulous. Middle Eastern-flavoured food does seem to work better on warm summer nights. A small, foodie, discovery of the summer.
Have been drinking - since my palate returned -some lovely, lovely white wines for an Independent Ten Best White Wines column, due shortly. A couple of weeks ago, I took some around to my old friend and colleague Mike Durham's for a tasting of Italian cheeses - he was inspired by something I wrote earlier this year for the Wine Society newsletter - http://www.thewinesociety.com/Wine.aspx?PageCode=enjoy&PageName=How%20to%20Enjoy%20Wine&SubPageCode=match&SubPageName=How%20to%20match%20wine%20and%20cheese - so arranged for an evening spent tasting cheeses he had brought back from a stay in Italy. After a bowl of pasta, we ate two hard pecorinos, a very soft, smelly cheese and a medium hard cheese wrapped in vine leave, all brought back from Rome and all excellent. The two pecorinos - salty and tangy -worked very well with an organic Chianti and the others with two contrasting pecorinos (the grape, not the cheese) - the lovely, lightly fragrant Colline Pescarse IGT 2007 from M&S and the much more full bodied, nutty, complex Colle Die Venti, Terre Di Chieti 2008, from Wine Rack. Mike reckoned he knew the village, close to his Italian home, so it just about the got the vote for the Ten Best on that alone.
A footnote on the Wine Society piece: I write - and have written for many years - about many complex and often difficult subjects for national newspapers. As a journalist, one of the ways you get to judge your impact is by the amount of what you might call reader response and is fair to say that I probably have had more response to that piece, in a limited circulation newsletter, than I have had to many serious news reports and features in national newspapers. It may reflect better on the Wine Society than it does on national newspapers! I had one reader email me to say that, prompted by my piece, he and some friends had embarked on a five hour cheese and wine matching marathon - all the combinations carefully thought out - and that they had a splendid time. I only wish all my writings had been so inspiring.