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Showing 15 results for the author: Paul.
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CUCA always holds a Chairman’s Dinner during that Chairman’s term. This one was held for the chap in the title, and began with a Champagne reception in the Old Kitchens of Queens’ College, after which, we popped across to the Ancient Dining Hall (as I like to call it, as they have a new one, too, and the decoration in there is truly ancient).
After finding our places, we began with a charcuterie platter of smoked and cured meats, accompanied by a Tuscan-style pazanella salad, unless you’re one of those vegetarian wimps, of course, in which case you got endive salad....
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The previous article about grating cheese reminded me of this. Somebody mentioned to me the other day that they’d grated an egg and it worked beautifully with a salad. They waxed lyrical about it, explaining that they couldn’t understand why nobody had thought about it before. I was utterly confused as to precisely how this could happen. Surely the egg would be too soft, no matter how hard-boiled it was? Wouldn’t it just gunge up the grater? The confusion was resolved when it eventually tuned out that when they said ‘egg’ ...
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“Big, soft and bursting with blackcurrant flavours,” was the description of this wine on the menu. Frankly, I can’t disagree with them. My notes were: blackcurrant on the nose, the same but spicier on the body and a finish of pepper. What more can be said? Well, it was 14.5%, which is strong, and that strength often contributes to the flavour. Astonishingly, you’d expect it to be a Shiraz given those qualities, but it was a Merlot from Sicily called ‘Cusumano’ – kind-of appropriate for a Cambridge restaurant, given that ‘CUSU’ here stands for ‘Cambridge University Students’ Union’. Twas from ...
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Recently opened, I thought it’d be a good idea to try out Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant in Cambridge. The immediate impact is the astonishing beauty of the place itself. It’s in part of one of the council buildings (tidy profit for the government, no doubt) and it must have previously been a very grand hall for something, with a magnificent dome at the top of the main room. It is, however, a very wildly varying restaurant, with several spaces. On a personal note, I knew ...
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Another excellent Cambridge feast. One of the great advantages (sorry to make some of you jealous) of being involved with Cambridge University at any stage is absolutely, without any doubt, the magnificent dinners the colleges put on. Some are private affairs, some are official college functions, and some anyone can go to. They’re highly variable in cost, from literally zero up to (at least in my experience) £80 per head. This one was at Peterhouse College, and the title of the post is its official name.
It has a long ...
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It was a scratch lunch, and I wanted to keep it light, so I put a few non-fattening things together in something of a hurry (as I was being impatient, trying to think something through, but hungry at the same time). These included: a slice of goat cheese; a slice of cheese, within which were contained some ‘autumnal’ fruits (they were various berries, in case anyone’s confused); some green olives, beautifully marinated, courtesy of Tesco; a few slices of cured sausage; sun-dried tomatoes, similarly marinated to the olives; and a cup of low-fat yoghurt, within which I put sunflower and ...
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This was an Ash Tree Estate Shiraz/Monastrell blend, made by Freixenet and therefore Spanish. It was from 2008 and a decent 13.5%. Its predominant features are blackcurrant and spices. It had full and firm tannins (perhaps one to save), but wasn’t too dry for immediate drinking. The nose really was excellent, and went very well with the body. The finish was sort of drowned out, had it changed at all, by the potency of the body – a first for me in wine. That’s the only picture I could find ...
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I’ve never understood the fuss with egg-poaching. All I do is take a small pan (as small as I have), put in some water up to about one and a half inches, make sure it boils, then turn it down to simmer level. Then I take a shallow cup, break the two eggs into it, and carefully pour this into the simmering pan of water. No extra ingredients, no fancy stirring. The eggs tend to come out better when fresh, however. After about three minutes, I take them out ...
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I opened a tin of tuna, put half of it onto a plate, then added balsamic vinegar and olive oil, to my usual tastes. I then mixed these things together. To this mixture, I added freshly-ground black pepper, then diced cucumber and tomato and some red pepper. Pumpkin seeds added a different texture and the twist was a squeeze of lime juice, straight from half a lime that I’d been saving in the fridge. Alongside the Australian Chardonnay from 2008 at 13%, this was a treat for an incredibly quick, healthy and tasty dinner. Then I rushed out for the ...
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Good recipe if ingredients to hand: Half a tin of tuna, one diced tomato, pumpkin seeds, almonds, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and freshly-ground black pepper. Change proportions to suit temperament. Toss. Serve. Done. (Smacks back of right hand into left.)
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I enjoy making massively customised salads out of whatever I have left in the fridge. Otherwise, I’m sufficiently disorganised when I go shopping that there would be huge amounts of waste. This time, it was the following collection of entertaining treats:
Two pieces of ham, served, of course, with mustard (this time English, as the Dijon had run out). Alongside was some red onion, which I first sliced and soaked in balsamic vinegar. Then I quartered two small tomatoes. I also boiled an egg, for precisely six minutes, then cut it in half and put salt on the runny yolk halves. ...
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I roasted a chicken. It was excellent and lasted for three days. Here’s how I did it, and the stuff I did with it: Firstly, I defrosted the chicken from the freezer. This I started in the fridge for 24 hours, but this wasn’t long enough, so I turned the fridge down and put the chicken on a plate on the draining board instead. Once it was thawed, I put it in a specially prepared oven dish. Specially, because I screwed up three pieces of foil into sausage-like shapes and placed them parallel to each other in the dish along ...
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When I read the name on this bottle, it reminded me immediately of Milford Sound (not that I’ve ever visited), so I looked up that precise thing. It’s named after Milford Haven in Wales, so not too far from home, as origins go. However, this wine was from Marlborough, which avid readers will well know by now is in New Zealand, and this wine is named after the place there. It was a Sauvignon Blanc (or should I say is, as I haven’t finished it yet) and from 2009. The ...
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The Hairy Bakers made ’scotch eggs’ the other day. They explained that the origin of the name has nothing to do with Scotland, but from the verb, meaning ‘to cut’. That’s certainly something I’d never known before. They cook their egg for five minutes, then plunge it in icy water to stop the cooking, as there will be more cookery later. I’m sure cold water from the tap will suffice.
They take sausage meat, and in their case, from their favourite sausages, squeezed out. Their peeled, partly-cooked egg ...
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Well, it’s that time of year again – I’ve gone up to t’North to spend some time at the family seat. Before meeting them, however, I stopped off on the way to join some ex-Sixth-Form friends from my mathematics group. We always enjoy seeing each other again, and it’s made all the more special because we invite along the mathematics teacher we had back then, to whom three of us largely attribute our successes in getting into Cambridge University.
We met at The Lower Buck, in Waddington. I ...
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