09 January 2011

Review Of Food Blogs - December 2010

• A Slice Of Cherry Pie,
• baking,
• Blog,
• Cannelle Et Vanille,
• Chocolate And Zucchini,
• cooking,
• Cooksister,
• David Lebovitz,
• food and wine,
• foodandwine,
• foodie,
• foodie news,
• Fuss Free Flavours,
• recipe,
• Recipes

At A Slice Of Cherry Pie, Julia Parsons has been relishing our wintry weather here in England with a warming, earthy Rabbit Casserole recipe that has a quaint olde worlde charm.  I love the taste of rabbit, especially farmed rabbit, which has a light gaminess that has more depth of flavour than chicken, for example.

At Cannelle et Vanille, Aran Goyoaga made a summery sounding Fennel Leek and Arugala risotto (rocket to you and me) that has an intriguing layering of flavours with the anise of fennel and the peppery bite of the rocket, but what I was really drawn to was the link back to an earlier Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcake recipe that has that deep richness that I love in baking - I am not a fan of light, airy cakes, but need a bit more moistness and body to the things I bake and the buttermilk will give that.  Then, there is a to die for Pear And Hazelnut Tart that uses a gluten free pie dough, but you could substitute this for a sweet pastry per my recipe for A Simple Sweet Pastry Recipe.

At Chocolate And Zucchini, there is an intriguing Black Radish And Potato Salad, which sounds a good way of adding colour and some bite to potato salad, something which I find often bland and stodgy.  If anyone can guide me to where I might find a black radish that would be great, or I could substitute a few of the smaller red ones and give it a whirl.  While Clotilde Dusouiler's Christmas Sablés which have all that Christmassy spiciness coming through from cinnamon (you should use baker's cinnamon a.k.a. cassia here) and vanilla extract, which are reminiscent of the Spekulatius biscuits that I indulge in over the holiday period.

I am intrigued by Jeanne Horak-Druiff's recipe for Feta, Sage And Pappadew Scones at CookSister, but it might be a little overcomplex in the flavours that come through and I would be tempted to drop the sage and stick with black pepper as the only seasoning which should offset the cheese nicely.  However, I do like the taste image I have of Jeanne's French Beans With Toasted Almonds And Garlic and you could substitute the pumpkin seeds for toasted pine nuts or sunflower seeds.

But the Apricot, Almond And Lemon Cake at David Lebovitz's Blog sounds a great melding together of sweet and savoury flavours into a sweet loaf that really might work.   I like the flavours of Gruyère cheese and fennel that would come through, but might dice the apricot up to make finer bites as the mouth feel of great chunks of apricot sounds unappealing to me.  And how about Chocolate Persimmon Muffins which sound so elegantly delicious and give that faint feeling of exotic Baghdad Nights way back when, but where to find a persimmon, except the local builders who also go by that name.  Or how about a link back to James Beard's Persimmon Bread from 2005.  Then David conjurs up a rich, chocolatey Pecan Pie for a late Thanksgiving treat which is reminiscent of Pierre Herme's Chocolate And Nutella Tart, or Barbra Austin's rich Carrot Cake With Cream Frosting that are great for expanding your waistline in these austere times.  And finally, there is a fascinating account of How Comte Cheese Is Made.

While at Delicious:Days, Nicky has been busy with the finickety details of making finely decorated cookies for Christmas; I wish I had the patience and time to spare.  And at Fuss Free Flavours, Helen Best-Shaw has been making another cheese flavoured bread recipe (this seems to be an inadvertent theme for December 2010), making Serbian Kiflice Cheese Rolls, which sound wonderful and savoury.

So much wonderful cooking and so many great ideas overflowing in the final days of 2010...