Easy-Peachy-Pudding

Over the weekend I made this ridiculously easy but very scrumptious pudding when we had a barbeque with friends. I just halved and de-stoned some ripe peaches (easily done by running a sharp knife all around the middle of the peach, then twisting the halves in opposite directions to prise them apart, then just digging out the stone with a spoon), sprinkled on some sugar, wrapped them in little foil parcels, and put them on the barbeque. They took around 25 minutes to heat through and soften and I served them with a choice of mascarpone cheese or extra thick double cream.

Although we put these on the barbeque you could just as easily bake them in the oven. I reckon 20 minutes at about 200c should do it.

Mushroom and Savoy Cabbage Pasta

It was one of those ‘what shall I have for lunch, the cupboard is bare?’ days. A pasta day, in other words.

Fortunately the cupboard, or rather, the fridge, wasn’t entirely bare and I did manage to put the field mushrooms, half a savoy cabbage and half a small tub of sour cream sitting in there to good use.

Onto the hob went a pan of salted water for the pasta and then I turned to making the sauce. I finely chopped a shallot and sautéed it in a knob of butter and olive oil with a sliced garlic clove, then chopped the mushrooms and added them. When they were about half cooked I sliced some of the cabbage leaves and added them to the pan. Next I stirred in the sour cream and a dash of the pasta water, and simmered it until the sauce was a good consistency. A grinding of black pepper and sprinkle of sea salt finished it off nicely.

Despite the rather dreary grey colour the mushrooms turned the sauce, it was really rather good!

There’s a New Rat in Town

The other week I was invited to a press screening of the new Disney Pixar film, Ratatouille, which is due to be released in the UK on 12th October.

Ratatouille follows the story of Remy, a rat with a refined palate and an unlikely dream - to become a chef. Remy finds himself on an adventure that takes him to the heart of Paris and to the kitchen of the most famous 5-star restaurant in the city, where he teams up with Linguini the garbage boy and together they create dishes that dazzle and delight.

The film has everything you’d expect from Disney Pixar - lovable characters; fantastic animation; warmth; fun and adventure, along with an exploration of emotions and values as Remy is torn between his family and following his dream, giving real meaning to the story.

The characters are full of life, robust and memorable. They include the punchy Colette, the sole female chef of the kitchen who gives as good, if not better, than the guys; Auguste Gusteau, the deceased-yet-cheery restaurant owner who becomes Remy’s guide; the somewhat goofy Linguini and the dark and dusty restaurant critic, Anton Ego, ‘The Grim Eater’.

With Paris as a backdrop this is a beautiful film. 4,500 photographs were taken to help create the realistic Parisian scenery like you see in the following still from the film:



Now, to the food. The film makers spent a huge amount of effort in bringing gourmet food and the workings of a professional kitchen to the big screen. They consulted with the highly acclaimed chef and owner of The French Laundry, Thomas Keller, on French Cuisine, they took cooking classes where they learned knife techniques and they visited the kitchens of restaurants in Paris. The film’s director, Brad Bird, even spent two days on an internship at The French Laundry in order to see how a restaurant kitchen really works. Thomas Keller explained “Brad wanted to see what a real kitchen looks and feels like, the energy, the dynamic, how people work together and move around the kitchen – “the dance” as we call it in our restaurant”. Clearly it paid off, as Brad certainly managed to create that movement and energy in the kitchen scenes of the film.

Of course the real challenge with making an animated film about food is with making it life-like and edible-looking. As supervising technical director, Michael Fong, said “The only way to recreate what the dishes look like when the sauces are bubbling and the steam is rising off them was to actually cook the dishes on a real stove and then photograph them”.

The efforts of the film makers have resulted in enthralling kitchen scenes and stunning looking food, probably the best seen in animation yet. Ratatouille is sure to be a big hit with food-lovers everywhere.



Here’s a sneak preview for you to enjoy, along with a couple of films of members of the film crew talking about the film and creating the food:

Sneak Preview
About the film
Creating the food

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Bake these as you would white potatoes, just for a little less time - about 45 minutes, depending on their size. Prick their skins with a fork, wrap them in foil and put them in the oven at 200c. When they're cooked, slit them open and grind over lots of black pepper, add a sprinkle of sea salt and a good dollop of sour cream or cream cheese. They are very sweet and very comforting and would be great with sausages or grilled chicken on a cold and dreary night, like the ones we seem to be getting at the moment.