Best of the Week

Tracey Emin, The Darling Buds of May, scrabble cookies + more

What have you been doing and cooking this week, dear pals? I have been battling the dreaded M.E. for most of the week, but had a couple of okay days where I was able to do things. I started packing properly for one, although I didn’t get very far. That’s okay though, because I don’t have a lot of stuff this time (I got rid of most of it when I left Melbourne). Max is helping and I am sure we can make a red hot go of it before the 2nd, when the movers come. We have to get our things shipped early, because of Christmas schedules and things like that. But that’s also okay because we can just manage with the bare minimum and then pack up the minimum and pets and drive up to Devonport to get on the boat. Then we sail across the Strait to Melbourne through the night and drive to our new place, where all our things will be waiting! Exciting! But also sad to leave for lots of reasons. But happy to among friends and nearer to other family also. If that makes any sense. God I really need to get packing!!!!

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Look at that lovely picnic!

This week’s best things …

1/ A brand new season of Downton Abbey is coming! (Link)
2/ Artist Tracey Emin recently appeared on the River Cafe Table 4 podcast. (Listen)
3/ I am busting to watch the new The Darling Buds of May series. It’s called The Larkins.
4/ A book I want to see inside of! (Link)
5/ A delightful idea for edible end-of-year gifts? Flora Sheddon’s Scrabble cookies. (Recipe)
6/ How to make quick pickled onions over at The Guardian. (Recipe)
7/ And while we’re talking River Cafe Table 4. Listen to the Michael Caine one too. He reads a recipe and tells a story brilliantly. (Listen) One of this year’s best!
8/ Roast veggie pot pies with crispy potato tops. (Recipe)
9/ Perhaps you could dye some napkins for your festive table? (Link)
10/ This book looks excellent. (Link) I love an outdoorsy memoir, don’t you?

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“Sit down and tell me everything, child. Hurt feelings and hopeless despair are no match for tea and biscuits.” - Elizabeth Jane Howard, The Beautiful Visit

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Tool of the week: A thing to cook rice in

I never knew how to cook rice properly until I met my mother-in-law Dure. She had a big rice cooker and I soon realised that was a very easy way to get fluffy rice with zero glug. I bought a rice cooker and have cooked rice in it ever since. But I also really love stovetop rice, cooked the way Adam Liaw makes it. You rinse your rice a few time and then pop it in a pot with enough water to go up to your knuckle. Then you simmer it and then you turn it down. Here’s Adam telling it like it is.

So I wonder, if you eat a lot of rice, how you like to cook it? Do you go for the rice cooker, or just eyeball it and simmer on the hotplate, or make it knuckle-covering style, like Adam. I’d love to know!

And if you have a rice cooker, which kind do you have. The last one I bought was a cheap supermarket one, but I am very open to buying a more expensive one if people have good ideas about those.

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This week’s paid subscriber recipes were for claypot roasted chicken and potatoes boulangere. (Recipes here)

If you’re not in the market to pay for a Hungry Hungry Pippo subscription, here’s a free recipe for you too, chums! Something for everyone here, I tell ya!

How to make chewy and delicious bread-in-a-pot! (Recipe)

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Chatty highlights

We recently talked about favourite cookbooks and here’s what a couple of pals said:

“Aran is one of may all time favourite cookbooks, I just love the photography and styling. The last books I bought are by Lazy Baking by Jessica Elliot Dennison, Herb a Cooks' Companion by Mark Diacono and the Modern Preserver's Kitchen by Kylee Newton.” - Michelle

“My go-to cookbook depends on what I’m looking for. I use Jamie’s Ministry of Food a lot because it’s full of really basic, everyday meals & a lot of what we eat is that kind of fare. Sometimes I reach for a Bill Granger book for the same reason. Emilia Raffa’s sourdough book is my most used bread book. Any time I’m looking for some kind of Asian dish I reach for a Adam Liaw book. He makes things seem much more doable.” - Reannon

So that’s a bunch of new titles for my library and wishlist!

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Three good things:

1/ Hobnobs with a giant cup of tea.

2/ Bubbly, burnished cheesy toast.

3/ Having half an eye on the SBS Food channel all day.

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Best wishes and squishes to you, dear reader.

See you back here very soon!

(And don’t forget to tell me how you cook your rice in the comments!)

x Pip