I have decided to make the ‘best of the web’ link collections a weekly event, alternating each week between the Gooseberry Fool (foodie links) and Roaming Tales (travel). I hope you enjoy it!
Recipes
An intriguing idea for salsa – a blueberry salsa! The recipe, tested by Alanna from Kitchen Parade, also includes serrano chilli peppers, jalapenos, cilantro (coriander) and onions. She says it tastes better the following day so it’s one to make ahead.
I love the sound of this recipe for salad with picota cherries, serrano ham and manchego cheese from Spittoon Extra. Not too sure where I could get Spanish picota cherries in California but I guess I could substitute another sort of cherry – it’s the season for stone fruit.
Lydia from The Perfect Pantry gives the low down on rice vinegar – not to be substituted for seasoned or sushi rice vinegar – and a recipe for cucumber ribbon salad.
I have a thing for gooseberries – hence my food blog was called The Gooseberry Fool (now the food section on Roaming Tales). I love the sound of this recipe for duck breast with gooseberry sauce from Lizzie at Hollow Legs. She cooks the duck breast exactly as I learned to do on the Leiths Course – scoring and frying to render the fat and then finishing it off in the oven. It’s much less greasy to do it this way rather than keeping it in the pan the whole time.
This simple recipe for grilled lemon chicken and courgettes (zucchini) from Fiona at The Frugal Cook looks tasty and healthy. For budget busting, Fiona points out you could make two chicken breasts stretch between three people, or substitute chicken for halloumi cheese.
Sophie from Mostly Eating brings us a recipe for Mediterranean sausage, fennel, cannellini bean and tomato gratin. She suggests using vegetarian sausages since they are a bit player in the recipe rather than the star of the show, pointing out they are lower in fat and more environmentally sustainable than their meat counterparts.
How is this for an unusual dessert idea on A Forkful of Spaghetti? A Provencal pastry dessert with chard (silverbeet)! I bet it’s one of those things where it sounds really weird but it tastes great.
I’m down with the Meatless Monday program – it’s all about meat reduction for the sake of the planet. A few other food bloggers have been getting into it too and here’s Rebecca from Ezra Pound Cake‘s most recent contribution – portobello burgers with pesto, provolone and roasted red peppers.
Linda at eatshow&tell tries her hand at Adriano Zumbo’s chocolate mousse cake. It is a lot of work but it sounds like it was well worth it – this dessert is a stunner!
Restaurants
Helen at World Foodie Guide reviews Salt Yard, a London tapas restaurant serving Italian and Spanish fusion cuisine. (I have also written about Salt Yard in the past).
Meanwhile, it’s handmade soba at Jugemu & Shimbashi in Neutral Bay in Sydney from Teresa at eatshow&tell. I have a thing for soba but not sure I’ve ever had the handmade kind – sounds great! The other side of the restaurant has teppanyaki.
Travel & food
Liz from Perceptive Travel writes about wine tasting in Napa Valley in California – just north of my new home of San Francisco. I caught up with Liz in town last week and hope to make it up to wine country soon.
Also on Perceptive Travel, Antonia takes us on a trip through Portugal with cheese. Mmm cheese…
Jeanne at Soultravelers3 rates the pancakes in the Aland Islands of Finland as the best in the world. (It’s not exactly the same thing but I do have a recipe for a baked Scandinavian pancake on the blog).
The most Cameroonian of Cameroonian dishes is, according to Steve from Our Man in Camerooon, achu soup – featuring the secret ingredient of limestone! Hmm, I don’t think I’ll be making that any time soon. Worm-infested cake doesn’t sound much better.
Christina shares her favourite Colombian sweet on Intelligent Travel – a caramel spread called arequipe, a bit like dulce de leche.
Other
Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil baked 300 cupcakes for her own wedding – and she did it in Colorado at an elevation of 7,300 feet. Apparently altitude changes the chemistry of baking – who knew? So here’s adventures in high altitude baking part one and part two, as she learned how to do it, and here’s the story of the big bake-off the day before the wedding. Personally, I’m not the world’s biggest fan of cupcakes, but I’m still in awe of what she accomplished! The day before my wedding, I did a pilates class and got my nails done.
Sydney nutritionist Kathryn Elliott of Limes & Lycopene and Melbourne food blogger and artist Lucy Dodds of Nourish Me have joined forces to create an electronic magazine called An Honest Kitchen, showcasing healthy, seasonal recipes. The winter issue is out now – at $AUS19.95 it’s priced more like a book than a magazine, but I’m sure it would be packed full of beautiful recipes and inspiring food ideas.
Ever wondered what the Colonel’s eleven secret herbs and spices were? Now KFC has spilled its secrets. It’s a teaspoon of this and a teaspoon of that and two whopping great big tablespoons of MSG! No wonder people find it moreish, even while simultaneously being disgusted by it.
I’m currently reading Julie and Julia, the book by food blogger Julie Powell about the Julie/Julia Project, where she cooked her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blogged about it. The movie version with Amy Adams and Meryl Streep is coming out soon and it’s definitely on my viewing wish list. I love the way Powell writes and her sense of humour and take on life, so I’m a bit jealous of Susan from Food Blogga getting to spend the day with Powell and executive chef Brian Malarkey (is that a real name?!) in Hollywood.
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