Another Food Blog

Lunch was at the Puzzle on Westminster’s Horseferry Road. It has outside tables and ample inside ones, and has a sort of puzzle theme with prominent quiz nights. They have overhauled the menu to very good effect, and there is now a tapas section as well. I had the vodka and lime fish goujons — about ten of them with a sharp tartare sauce with lime in it. I also had the escalivada, or roasted vegetables drizzled in olive oil. It featured aubergines, three colours of pepper, red onions and courgettes. Very nicely done, baked just enough to lightly char parts of the surface. The dishes cost £3.95 each and were quite filling, so I ended up giving away about a third of each.

The Daily Express has a fantastic headline and front page splash (not on line, alas). It’s about the diet that keeps the brain youthful. To keep your brain young and supple, they tell you that you need a diet rich in (wait for it) oats, fish, red wine, berries, and the like. The advice comes from Dr Paul Clayton, President of the Forum on Food and Health for the Royal Society of Medicine. Red wine and berries contain flavinoids which help prevent plaques forming in brain tissue, while oily fish has phospholipids which keep cell membranes healthy.

I eat a lot of these foods out of taste preference, but it’s nice to know they are good for me as well. It says the occasional curry might help, too, if it contains curcuminoids like turmeric. I don’t eat much curry, but I eat the fruit and vegetables which also help. I note that most things children like are bad for the brain, including cakes, pastries, chips and sugary drinks. Could be that they’ll get old before I do.

I was so tempted by Jackie’s paprika chicken with cannellini beans that I decided to give it a go. I followed her recipe faithfully for the first half, cutting chicken breast into broad strips and flash frying before a generous dusting of paprika, then adding lemon juice. I did the onions and garlic, too. Then I thought, “How would this work in a casserole?” One way to find out. The chicken went at the bottom, then onions & garlic. Next I added the cannellini beans. Now the variations came thick and fast. I put in sugarsnap peas, mushrooms, aubergine, and then the chopped tomatoes. Half a stock cube in half a cup of hot water, and into a hot oven with the lid on. One hour later it looked and smelled delicious, but as I was eating it I regretted I hadn’t included the optional cayenne pepper, so I added it then. It made it even better.

I had scrambled eggs on a muffin. Sunflower spread & milk heated in the saucepan while the muffin is split and toasted. Two large free-range eggs, stirred in with wooden spatula. Then, crucially, while still runny, take it off the heat and rest it for a minute. Then resume. This gives it a fluffier texture. Then onto the buttered muffin with a little salt and Marmite. For the uninitiated, Marmite is a yeast and vegetable extract you put on things. Some people put it on toast; some don’t put it on anything at all.

That’s the point: you love it or hate it with no half-way position. No-one “quite likes it.” A recent TV ad showed it as a giant brown blob rolling down the high street. Some were running screaming from it, others throwing themselves into it with ecstasy. Those who dislike it can’t stand the smell. Many a marriage has hit the rocks because the marmophobe couldn’t tolerate the dietary habits of the philomarm. For the record, I like it. It was made in heaven for scrambled eggs.

I started lunch by whipping up a semi-bogus tomato soup. The half can of chopped tomatoes was simmered with a vegetable stock cube and a mug of boiling water. Everyone adds basil to tomatoes, so I added marjoram. After ten minutes I added a big squirt of tomato purée and then put it in the blender to fine chop the tomatoes even more. After another 20 minutes of simmer it tasted very plausible.

It set things up for the salad niçoise. Finely chopped firm lettuce, then fresh spring onions. Cherry vine tomatoes, halved, then purple onions. Next came the tuna, from a can, and lightly flaked before adding. After that I put in pieces of a firm goat’s cheese. The dressing was mayonnaise with parmesan. I tossed and served the salad before adding two hard-boiled eggs on the side. This was so that the eggs would be a ‘taste rest’ from the dressing. I didn’t have any anchovies, but it tasted quite good even without them. It occurred to me that this was a very low-cost meal, and it reminded me of when I lived for months on cheap salads in my impoverished days in DC. I do them a lot better now!

I decided to reverse engineer one of those succulent goat’s cheese tarts which I sometimes choose at restaurants. The base was puff pastry rolled very thin into a circle. Leaving about half an inch at the edges, I lined the rest with thin strips of a hard goat’s cheese. On top of it I spread chopped spinach, and on that some sun-blushed tomatoes. I then put thin slices of aubergine and red onions, brushed with olive oil, and finally thin shavings of roulade chèvre to cover the top. As an afterthought I brushed the pastry edges with egg yolk before baking in a hot oven for half an hour. After 11 minutes I covered it with foil until the last 5 minutes.

It was succulent to a satisfying degree. But perfection is not given to mortal man, so next time I will slightly pre-fry the onions, and will top the tart with a goat’s cheese which melts more readily. These are quibbles, though: it tasted superb.