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[themodernhusband]

Lemongrass and ginger soup

Lemongrass and ginger soup

Soup is troubling. When is it lunch and when is it just a hot drink? There is the thick, blitzed to a purée type, imagine a carrot or tomato soup, a butternut squash one, the kind you may serve cold when the baby moves on to solids. Then the one full of things, a minestrone for example, or a Greek three bean soup where there is plenty going on and it there is actual food in the bowl. Or the thin…

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[themodernhusband]

Green, green tomatoes of home

Green, green tomatoes of home

I’ve had to leave quite a few tomatoes behind on the vines. Some are half eaten by snails, some of whom no bigger than half a fingernail, the others giant snail sized, fully fattened on my fruit.

In truth, I should have cut the vines back weeks ago, some are now starting to blacken in the damp October rain and there is no chance of them ripening outside now. If I were to ripen them on the…

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[themodernhusband]

Annual shrubs The grapes have always been as much pip as fruit from our garden, this most likely being down to my lack of thining them out in the early summer as they start to bud on the vine.

[themodernhusband]

Kale of the century

Kale of the century

The kitchen cupboards are full of butterbeans, lentils and chickpeas and the pot-bellied white wire basket on the counter kept loaded with eggs as much possible. There is mild panic when it starts to look empty, each one being precious. If I were to list things this kitchen should never be without, eggs would be right behind onions. It may even be a photo finish.   To keep things running smoothly,…

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[themodernhusband]

Daily stock take

The basement kitchen, reached via unfriendly and claustrophobic corridors lit with a cold blue neon glow, was busy from about 6am when Patrice the pastry chef arrived, until the final clean down ended the day around 11pm. All the prep for the top floor restaurant was done here. To reach it, there was a shabby and creaking grey steel lift whose folding, concertina door slammed shut with the type…

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[themodernhusband]

The peanut vendor

The closest I’ve been to Tijuana is my possibly over enthusiastic collection of Herb Alpert and his brass band’s albums. But I’ve always fancied sitting in a dusty tavern, gently weeping, with a group of mariachi musicians slowly singing love songs in the corner. We have tacos quite often in our house, mainly chicken, occasionally shredded beef or pork and sometimes fish or prawn. And there are…

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[themodernhusband]

A glass of lemongrass

The Indian supermarket I use in Tooting is always busy, nearly every till has a person on it, and one at the end to pack for you. It’s on a quieter road away from the main high street which is never not full of traffic. I’ve been stuck in a jam there late at night, mid-afternoon and very early morning. That’s it’s nature as one of the main ways to get in and out of south west London I suppose.…

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[themodernhusband]

Who pears wins

There is a real stillness to the air and the warm sun feels unusual for April. The car, unmoved from the driveway in weeks, has a flat tyre and battery. Not that there’s anywhere to go, any need for the car. And it wouldn’t surprise me if in this strange haze a snake slithered past, a small farm wind turbine creaked and a wildebeest skeleton’s bleached bones glinted in the afternoon light.

Thi…

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[themodernhusband]

Don't go nuts

The kitchen is blissfully silent. Unless you really listen. Then you can hear birds outside or the occasional car (this is not the same as an occasional table). Every now and then there is a click from the fridge, followed by a hum. Then there are the many unidentifiable sounds the house makes. Among this, and behind the general sounds of life there are noises I can’t hear that the dog alerts me…

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[themodernhusband]

In the soup

At the back of the cupboard, being saved for who knows when, was the tin of Norwegian fishballs I’d bought from the Christmas market over a year ago. It was, I think, mainly the tin that appealed to me. I’ve never been that much of a fan of quenelles, which is what these essentially are, but I am a fan of fish in tins. So it came back with me and has patiently sat there, waiting it’s moment of…

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[themodernhusband]

Les miso rabbles

One of the most celebrated dishes on the menu at Nobu, the black cod, is dismissed by Yuki with a smiling shake of the head as “common, everyday food for us in Japan.” I’ve just sat down in the airy, white kitchen of her Victorian flat in Crystal Palace where she has invited me to take part in an evening learning about –and how to make– miso. It’s one of the many courses that chef, food writer and…

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[themodernhusband]

Take the tube

Maya and I got up early this morning. While Noah slouched around in his tartan pyjamas watching the cricket highlights, we made pasta for today’s lunch.

Most of the tray is filled with ‘sedani rigati’, ridged and slightly curved tubes that are a little larger than maccheroni. ‘Sedani’ comes from the word for celery. We used what little dough was left —the bits that wouldn’t squeeze…

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[themodernhusband]

A Soho sausage

Amid the shortcuts and alleys, the bright lights and dark doorways Soho still exists. At least a kind of Soho that is a familiar memory. There are still a few run down shops that they couldn’t buy from owners who refused to move. They have built around them. Now it’s a sad walk along Berwick street, past the space where the market used to be, the road now in the shadow of architectural boredom.…

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[themodernhusband]

Pasta, banana bread, peace

Pasta, banana bread, peace

It’s the time of year when you only have to look at a banana and it gets black spots quicker than Jim Hawkins in the Admiral Benbow. Six of them, covered in a lace circle to protect them and us from the cursed fruit flies — as we know, time flies like an arrow and fruit flies like a banana — have reached the point of no return. There is an equal amount of yellow to black. It was time for a banana…

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[themodernhusband]

Midsummer night's rain

Midsummer night’s rain

It’s June. At least the calendar says so. You wouldn’t know from the amount of rain we’ve had. The garden has plenty of flowers blooming, and even the redcurrant bush is fruiting, but there has not yet been a single balmy evening to sit outside and have a light, summery meal. Thankfully, this aubergine dish has perked up our spirits. It’s rich and so full of flavour that you can forgive the grey…

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[themodernhusband]

I've bean losing you

I’ve bean losing you

Garlic green beans It’s the smell of the garlic that does it. And the way the deep, shining green of the beans reflects the light, inviting errant hands to dive in and grab one or two as if they were going to disappear, evaporating before your eyes like sweets at a children’s party. Unless you’ve just picked the beans from the garden, though, you’re already losing. The way to get the best out of…

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[themodernhusband]

Holy molee

Mr E. P. Veerasawmy, founder of Veeraswamy’s in London’s Picadilly tells me that the molee is a “Southern Indian, Ceylon or Malay dish.” Perhaps he had trouble making his mind up, but as is the way with many dishes along trade routes, a little bit of this from there and a little bit of that from here often add up to make a dish that differs slightly in each place yet that everyone claims as their…

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