Well Fed Network

Posted by Alex Prichard on Paper Palate.

This month’s AGT features ‘Winter Classics’ which is, depressingly, almost appropriate for those of us in England.

While there are a lot of tempting recipes, not least of all the pan fried mulloway with leek sauce featured on the cover, this month I finally ventured into Perfect Match territory. Food and wine matching tends to be sorely neglected in so many food magazines that I am always on the look out for new, interesting combinations - especially for harder to match foods. This month AGT went down the risotto and single malt whisky route. The dish was inspired by Icebergs‘ Robert Marchetti, who produces a lobster and Islay example. So far so good, as I even had an Islay to hand! I had to do a bit of substitution (Balmain bugs are tricky to come by in northern England!), and the finished result was … interesting. Hopefully next month will represent a slightly less confronting combination.

Fare Exchange, where readers request restaurant recipes, pulls out the big guns: Rockpool’s potato and cabbage gratin (having made Neil Perry’s macaroni cheese I bet this gratin is great!), a beetroot leaf and ricotta rotolo from Fifteen, a cartoccio of skate from Icebergs, and, to finish a blood orange and Campari panna cotta from Fratelli Paradiso. So that’s one dinner party all sorted out.

Masterclass features the globe artichoke and the Classic Dish is chilli con carne, with a huge list of ingredients, as well as restaurant suggestions, in case you’re a little frightened!

I wasn’t that happy to see that the magazine has introduced a ‘Gourmet Fast’ section. A lot of English food magazines focus on ‘quick’ or ‘fewer than 5 ingredients’ or ‘under 30 minutes’ dishes which, by and large, anyone with a fridge and a modicum of cooking nous would devise themselves, without paying for a magazine. What I’ve always loved about AGT is that the recipes extend the cook. Sometimes you have to start a day in advance, or source unusual ingredients, or spend an hour stirring a pot (or at least hovering over it). No apologies - broccoli, lemon and almond orecchiette just doesn’t cut that mustard. Neither does a very pedestrian carrot soup. I’m not intrinsically opposed to quick and simple dishes, but there are so many other sources for this type of cooking that it seems a shame to try to make an otherwise generally challenging magazine be all things to all people. Perhaps the editors will see fit to start informing us of calorie or fat content, GI ratings, or even whether the orecchiette above contains nuts … I sincerely hope not.

Back into the realms of more sensible eating, there’s a visit to Aux Lyonnais, Alain Ducasses’s bistro in Paris, where (the lucky) Kendall Hill munches his way through crayfish bisque, cod, calves liver and finally forces himself to eat dessert (what? no cheese?).

The eating (and cooking) for the rest of us focusses on shellfish, some lovely looking duck recipes, and a selection of recipes for market finds. There’s also a selection of recipes featuring apples: the apple, ginger and almond cake looks stunning, but I’d also be very tempted to try the cider roasted spatchcock with potatoes, apple, garlic and sage. And there’s a whole section on pudding: fig and brandy rice pudding, choc-malt self saucing pudding or steamed peaer and ginger pudding …

Travel does its usual scout around: New York City, the Maldives, Florence, the Northern Territory, Abu Dhabi, Kerala and Uruguay! Exhausting!

Quick, weeknight recipe reservations aside, this is another AGT packed with interesting recipes. The one I find most intriguing is a Nicola potato soup, made with just potatoes and milk, scattered with shredded sorrel - fewer than 5 ingredients, on the table in under half an hour but not in the ‘quickie’ pages of the magazine …