Perfectable food, comfort food, Recipe Perfectable food, comfort food

Posted the 17/08/2007 22:04:00 By the floating kitchen (Visit website)

I ventured into Lancaster city centre for the first time today. Leaving the car, I passed my old school as I headed towards the shopping streets. Wandering around gave me a strange sense of detachment - the unfamiliarity of all the people, and the knowledge I wouldn't bump into anyone I know or knew. I held myself back from entering any shops that would somehow persuade me to spend money which has been earmarked for travelling to meet friends and return to Japan, and headed for the library.

I spent about an hour leafing through a book by Heston Blumenthal, 'In Search of Perfection', in which he goes about finding the best ingredients and cooking methods (employing rigorous scientific testing) to make a number of classic dishes including pizza, roast chicken and treacle tart. Although the book read a little dry (perhaps just because I was skimming it...), and I couldn't help feeling that for most of us cooking is and should be a little more simple than what Blumenthal makes it, I have admit there was plenty in there of interest. And I suppose that the assumption is not that the reader is going to start doing pH and electrical conductivity tests on their ingredients, rather just benefit from an informative read and apply whichever of the distilled findings is practical...

Dad has been talking about making pizza recently, so I made a few mental notes: dough needs superfine (type '00') flour, soft, slightly alkaline water, and the pizza needs cooking on a hot stone or cast iron base at inhuman temperatures that our conventional oven can never hope to reach.

I came home, started watching downloaded trashy TV, and promptly fell asleep. When I woke up I was woozy and a bit blue, so I pulled out a recipe given to me by a Japanese friend. Yuki works at the cafe his parents run, which is dedicated to the love of fine, home roast coffee and jazz. It's named Paragon, after the sound system that forms the centrepiece on one wall of the cafe; it's like some kind of crazy wooden sculpture, and I've never seen anything quite like it. To it's right jazz LPs are stacked from floor to ceiling. Yuki kindly wrote out for me the recipe for their Caramel Pudding (basically a rich creme caramel), several months ago, and I've been dying to try it since. The recipe indicates an ungodly quantity of egg, and honey replacing part of the sugar normally added to the custard, both of which must contribute to its heavenly taste and texture.

The first batch are out of the oven now, and I can't wait for them to be cool enough to tip upside down on a nice white plate and taste-test.

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