Wednesday, May 9, 2007 at 17:10 
pizza is something that i could happily eat every week. i love making it at the weekend, when i know david and i can have a slow and lazy evening to pull it together.
but writing about it every week isn’t so easy. i’ve already given you my pizza dough recipe, which i still love and use every time. and there isn’t much else to say.
Monday, May 7, 2007 at 10:06 i’m not an expert on japanese food by any stretch of the imagination but when it comes to recognising fresh, high quality, delicious food i can do that. and kiraku, a japanese restaurant that sits opposite ealing common tube station, provides exactly that.
the menus at kiraku – one with words and one with photos – are comprehensive but if you are unsure what to choose the friendly staff are more than happy to help with suggestions.
we over-ordered but, apart from the unexciting warm buckwheat noodles which arrived as we’d finished everything else (and were hoping it had been forgotten) there was nothing that i would have been willing to give back, in return for feeling slightly less full when i left.
the stars of the show were the soft shell crab special rolls. four large maki (also called roll sushi, this is where the fish - or other filling - is surrounded by rice and wrapped in seaweed) were provided, two filled with the body of the crab and two with tantalisingly tasty crunchy crab legs peeking out. the other maki we ordered – tuna, salmon, toro, california and prawn with roe – were all excellent and sparklingly fresh.
accompanying this we had perfect, and obviously freshly cooked, mixed tempura (3 large prawns, some cod and several vegetables), grilled prawn skewers (two enormous flavoursome prawns which both looked and tasted delicious) and light and fluffy agedashi tofu.
i’m not a beer fan and wished i’d not bothered with the house white wine. the plum wine, on the otherhand, arrived complete with plum and tasted great.
if you’re interested in having good japanese food – go to kiraku. and if you’re not, you should still go! just make sure you book ahead as it was very busy. our feast came to just under £25 a head.
kiraku
8 station parade, ealing common, uxbridge road, london w5 3ld
tel: 0871 426 8446
Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 09:04 
one of the best things about visiting friends, especially when they too are interested in food, is rummaging through their book shelves and seeking inspiration from any cookery books or magazine which they have - i’ve been known to settle myself in a quiet corner, scribbling furiously on a notepad, as inspirational ideas appear...
of course, if a friend is generous enough to lend a book that they own (usually prompted by a pleading request as i clutch the desired book to my bosom!), that’s perfect. which is how i got my hands on alastair hendy’s cooking for friends.
Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 07:49 
most of the time when i cook it’s about drawing on previous things i’ve cooked, read about or tasted and creating my version of something new. but then there are the times when i’m drawn to recipes and following the paths that other people have created and seeing where they lead me. this is the place i’m in at the moment.
every time i get a spare moment and am musing about the food (the two are closely correlated!) i am drawn to recipes in books, magazines, newspapers and online. and when i get the time to cook it’s the piles of recipes that i’ve gathered that call to me.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007 at 08:01 it was a lovely sunny weekend in london but i spent most of it inside – i had an essay deadline that i needed to meet. so, what better reason than that to go through my kitchen cupboards, cleaning them, throwing away out of date things and spotting others which i really should use.
these are the top 5 things to get into my cooking over the coming month:
goji berries – these were massively hyped as a super-berry at the end of last year so i picked up a packet to include in my blogging by mail parcel, plus an extra one for myself. having opened them to take the photo, and therefore only just having tried them, unless david is a fan of the flavour, or i can find a way to disguise it, i think these super-berries might end up in the bin! they have an odd taste, almost like that of green tea. accompanied by seeds that get stick in your teeth. i’m really not keen.
white urid dal – these are the only lentils in my cupboard that i’ve not tried and i really must – i think they’ve been there for several months now. apparently they are particularly good in creamy soups and dumplings.
valsamica - aged balsamic vinegar, port and vanilla extract, i’ve not tried this yet and really should!
spaghettata indivolata – i bought this in italy last year and it’s a mix of dried herbs, chilli capers and garlic slices which you cook in oil and toss with spaghetti. it smells potent!
napa valley belgian chocolate sauce with cabernet sauvignon – this was a gift from my friend kirsty and really shouldn’t be too difficult to use up! i’m thinking strawberries and vanilla ice-cream
i also thought it might be quite interesting to list what i have in my cupboards – I find this sort of thing fascinating and remember reading a similar post by sam from becks & posh. and if you have any thoughts on ways i can make use of any of the things on the list, especially those top 5, let me know!
