"So much of the very best food is like this, which is to say a huge bloody mess. It lies on the plate or in the bowl, looking like something requiring the attentions of the emergency services or a swift burial. And yet, it tastes marvellous." Jay Rayner
Well David said it tasted marvellous and I should blog about it, and so that's what I started to do - with this awful photograph.
However, as usual, I started looking for inspirational or semi-inspirational quotes and articles and fell into a gloomier rabbit hole than usual, which led to the self-doubt.
So what have we here? - my starting point. It's last night's dinner and it's a terrible photograph I know, which is why I started looking at the whole food photograpy - important or not - thing. One reason that the photograph is so awful is that I had had no thought of a photograph when I put it on the table. It was just dinner after all and I was hungry so I just brought it to the table and tucked in. But yes it was pretty tasty and David was enthusiastic - he gave it 4 1/2 stars, and said I should write about it. I wasn't sure but took the photo anyway. I guess the only good thing to say about it is that you can at least see the interior. If I had photographed it as it came all bubbly from the oven it would have looked far more tempting - even with my poor photography skills - which are the second reason the photo is so awful of course.
I started to make myself feel even worse by looking at the winners of the world food photography awards - the Pink Lady awards. There are lots of categories and most of them are not of food on the plate - but here are just three in that kind of genre:
I digress of course, but if you like photography check out the awards. The link is just to a Guardian selection.
However, at this point and feeling so bad about my shoddy photos, I tried to find out more about the desire to photograph food and fell into a Reddit conversation which asked the question why people do it. There are of course, dozens of reasons, but mostly the Reddit commenters answered it with 'me, me, me' - that was the actual response of one particular commenter. There were others in a similar vein - lots - indeed most - which basically said that we posted photos of the food we cooked to boast of our achievements, or for the attention - to validate what we had done. Which plunged me into a bout of questioning the reasons I do this blog. I suspect there is an element of truth in the Reddit commenters posts although in my defence I would say that I have a mere handful of readers, and don't really want to have thousands, even hundreds or twenties. But here I am already falling into the trap of 'me, me, me.' This blog is hopefully about food more than me, although I inevitably insert myself. And really is the dark truth that the whole enterprise is because of narcissism? Hopefull not, although yes it is personal in that it's an attempt to keep my brain active.
I was therefore, somewhat encouraged, to find - a long way down the list of commenters this one:
"First, the food is all gone forever after a few minutes, but the pictures last. And that’s nice if you have made the food, or paid good money for it.
Second, it is a way of sharing something nice. There's plenty of misery in the world, and I think it is nice to sometimes be able to share something positive, harmless, and upbeat." Michael Willems/Quora
Besides, as I did indeed try to be more upbeat about it all as I did my morning walk, I told myself that those negative commenters are also saying 'me, me, me' aren't they? Most people don't spend their time putting their opinions out there - on Reddit, and Quora, Facebook et al. Why do they want their opinions to be heard? Moreover, when I think about the cookbooks that I really like, it's often the ones which include a lot of personal writing that are the most appealing. Yes, the food has to be good too, but it's the personality of the creator which is sometimes the main attraction. I think it was Anthony Bourdain who said that the best cookbooks which have obviously given joy to the writer. And sometimes I find the most personal posts that I write have the most readers. I don't think it's because they want to know about me, I hope it's because it touches a chord.
And one last comment - this time from Quora:
"People have been obsessed with food since the beginning of civilization so that obsession is now just translated into the digital world. Everything is digital so why not food?" Mike Schiemer/Quora
Enough of that. So what was this supposedly awesome recipe? Well it was one of those 'what's in the fridge' meals. My starting point was pumpkin, ricotta, spinach and cauliflower, so I cruised the net looking for inspiration, or maybe confirmation that probably a tart or a pasta, maybe gnocchi was going to be the solution. And pretty rapidly I realised that lasagne was the go, and also that pumpkin and cauliflower was not so innovative as I had thought - and neither was the addition of spinach. Great minds think alike, there's nothing new under the sun, everybody's doing it ...
These are just some recipes from whom I gleaned an idea here, an idea there: Roast pumpkin, spinach and cauliflower lasagne with roasted garlic béchamel/Of Oat and Earth; Pumpkin lasagne with lots of twists/Well Nourished; Cauliflower and sweet potato lasagne with roast garlic cauliflower béchamel/Donna Hay; Pumpkin, gorgonzola and watercress lasagne/Tim Siadatan/The Guardian and Freeform vegetable lasagne - Lucy Tweed/The Guardian
None of them quite suited what I was thinking about, but they were all valuable in giving me ideas about bits of the process and ingredients. A couple used coconut milk - but then I think they may have been vegan, but it would be different. Two or three, roasted a whole clove of garlic with the pumpkin - which was always roasted - and mostly the cauliflower was too. Sometimes the garlic and cauliflower were puréed and added to the béchamel - the pumpkin too occasionally. And someone didn't make a béchamel but just poured cream over the top. It was an interesting idea gathering exercise.
Here is what I did. I roasted the sliced pumpkin which had a smidgen of nutmeg and Kashmiri chilli powder added (it's very mild) - some chopped sage, and the grated zest of an orange too - with oil of course. The cauliflower was roasted on another tray with just oil; and a large chopped tomato. A whole bulb of garlic was put in foil with some oil. All roasted for half an hour, with a bit of turning around. And here my memory fades. I think I mixed the pumpkin with the tomato, maybe the spinach too - the spinach being frozen spinach from Aldi. I buy that because it's in neat little rounds, so you can just use a small amount if you wish. Into a mini food processor I put the cauliflower the squeezed out garlic, about a large handful of ricotta and a smaller one of Parmesan and whizzed it all into a purée, with the help of some milk. It's possible I added the spinach to this rather than the pumpkin, but I guess it doesn't really matter.
The lasagne sheets were semi-cooked in water, and then everything was layered in an oiled dish with the pumpkin and the tomato, and the creamy cheesy mixture. Grated cheddar on top and cream poured over the whole thing. Bake in 180°C oven for about another half and hour and there you are. I suppose it's not a quick and easy thing - well easy but not quick. Another messy looking photograph - this time from the top. We ate half of it - it's difficult to make something like this for just two, so it will be reheated and consumed later this week. Maybe tomorrow, maybe Friday with a glass of wine.
The lasagne was Delverde - because I actually think it is nicer than the competition.
I should write it down before it's all gone from my head, as I can see it already doing, because David said he wanted it again some time in the future. Horrible to look at but lovely to taste - or as Jay Rayner says:
"Making ingredients taste of themselves is of course virtuous. But slamming them together with other ingredients so they become something else is where the real action is. Messy makes flavours talk to each other. Messy makes them bounce off each other. It works."
Tonight I'm going to have another go at that slamming together process with a chicken breast - and for some reason I thought about my wild plum jam. Also not an original thought it seems, though mostly with Asian flavours. I was thinking more along the lines of stuffed with more of the pumpkin and leeks, braised in red wine and plum jam on top of potatoes ... Brussels sprouts somewhere too ... perhaps not.
Late in the day I found another reassuring mini article in The Guardian by Nell Quizzell which talked about how she had learnt to cook by watching her mother:
"She would simply open the fridge, stare at its contents for about six minutes and then start feverishly peeling, pouring, crushing and chopping until, about an hour later, a meal appeared. ... every meal should involve something dry, something wet, something green; a carbohydrate, a protein and lots of veg. To this day, she uses butter and salt like other people use water. As a result, everything she makes is delicious." Nell Frizzell/the Guardian
I wish. Almost but not quite me I think. With me it's cheese and cream not butter and salt.
POSTSCRIPTS
When I begin a new post, Wix has now taken to offering AI generated suggestions for topics. One of those today was: Recipe fusion: Osso buco spaghetti pie. Now there's an original and somewhat awful thought, so I checked it out. I found someone who had made an osso buco pie and there were lots of recipes for serving osso buco with pasta - sometimes cooking it with the pasta but liquid, not a cake. I don't think AI is there yet, or should be come to that.
Those years gone by - July 24
2023 - Wee drams - one of those oddments posts. This one included Water sommeliers, Expensive books, Fancy crumpets, Ballarat's best pie, Quick tips for leftovers, Yacon syrup, What happened to Tobie Puttock, Cara cara oranges and a recipe from Ottolenghi for a watermelon salad. I must have had a lot of free time that day.
2022 - Pomelo
2021 - A suprise moment in time
2020 - First buy your mandoline - from my digital archive
2019 - Duck à l'orange - "the culinary equivalent of flared trousers" said Gordon Ramsay
2018 - a day off it seems
2017 - L'Hostellerie de l'Abbaye and Logis de France - a hotel near Nice and how to find a very pleasant hotel in France
2016 - Another day off
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