What the experts recommend
A foodie institution gets a podcast
Eating at The River Cafe, where prices for antipasti start at around £22, may not be an option for everyone, says Mark Landler in The New York Times. But there’s now another way to sample the restaurant’s cosily glamorous atmosphere: through a podcast produced by its co-founder Ruth Rogers. In River Cafe Table 4 (named after the restaurant’s “most coveted seat”, and available on Apple Podcasts), Rogers interviews a selection of her A-list regulars about the role food has played in their lives. Her “gentle” inquisitorial style elicits some intriguing nuggets: Paul McCartney recalls his mother (who died when he was a teenager) teaching him to make mashed potato; Victoria Beckham traces her own indifference to food to the fact that her mother so loathed cooking, she used the oven as a filing cabinet (“If it didn’t go in the microwave, she wasn’t interested”). Michael Caine reveals that sausage and mash was his favourite food during his working-class London childhood, but that these days “it’s caviar”.
Vinegar isn’t just for dressing
Many of us have shelves crammed full of vinegars, but really only use them for salad dressings and chips, says Anna Berrill in The Guardian. That’s a shame, because as experts testify, the condiment is far more versatile than that. “I use vinegar in almost everything,” says Angela Clutton, author of The Vinegar Cupboard. As a starting point, she recommends adding a little bit of any vinegar (except balsamic) to roast veg, either at the start or end of cooking. It will make “those vegetables taste the best possible version of themselves”. From there, try adding lighter varieties (perhaps cider or sherry) to roasted fruits: “The sweetness of the pears, peaches or whatever you’re using is going to enjoy that hit of acidity.” Andy Harris, of online emporium Vinegar Shed, adds red wine vinegar to stews and roast meats (“I always splash a bit over a roast chicken in the oven”), and uses white wine vinegar in seafood salad dressings or for “deglazing the pan when cooking fish”. As for balsamic, it too – when used sparingly – has a number of roles. Clutton adds it as a finishing touch to watercress, celery or pumpkin soup, and also suggests slugging some in the pan (along with oil) when roasting sausages to create a “wonderfully flavoured dressing to serve alongside”.
A simple fruit pie for autumn
Many fruits – nectarines and peaches, raspberries and mangoes – are “probably at their best fresh”, says Olivia Potts in The Spectator. But not blackberries: though “delightful” eaten straight from the bush, they really “come alive when cooked”. And there’s no better way to enjoy them than in a “plate pie” – a pie, that is, with a top layer of pastry but no “bottom”, which the blackberry juices would make soggy. Making a plate pie could hardly be simpler: this is a “pudding that removes rather than increases stress”. Peel, core and cut up three Bramley apples, and add them to a generous pie dish along with 500g of blackberries and two tablespoons of caster sugar. Then top with rolled-out shortcrust pastry made from 250g flour and 125g cold, diced butter, plus half a teaspoon of fine salt and a little water. Crimp the edges, make three slits in the top, brush with a little water and sprinkle over two tablespoons of demerara sugar. Bake at 200°C for 40 minutes – and enjoy the result with pouring cream.