Leftovers #99
"I love the flames, but not the embers"
Virginia Woolf required a room of her own in order to write. And Joan Didion said that she wrote in order to find out entirely what she’s thinking. I believe in both sentiments, although I require the room to be a kitchen and that cooking – as well as writing – is how I have always figured out my feelings. I wield a paring knife like a pen. In order to complete this act – the complicated, endless pursuit of understanding oneself – I must be left alone in front of a set of pots and pans, a fridge full of ingredients and a cupboard brimming with spices, oils, grains and legumes. This is my lonely kitchen. A world, a body, a vessel, a whole home, where the collision of flavours enables a shedding of some sort. By the end of a meal, I’m brand new.
I try to remember this every time my mind goes like this 🌀. The kitchen holds the key. I’ve been embracing eating at the counter, taking time to put a meal together at lunch, saying yes to meals with friends and getting all my vegetables in (always keep cabbage in your fridge!).
There are quite a few new subscribers here, so just wanted to say thank you for reading my words. This newsletter is a weekly round up of all the things I’m eating, drinking, reading, saving and listening to. It’s saved for paid subscribers but I’m opening this up for now just so you get a flavour of what’s behind the paywall.
Shout Outs
– My brilliant friends Becky & Huw run a jacket company called Paynter (you might have heard of it? It’s only been featured in the New York Times, nbd). They kindly ask me to model for them from time to time and featured a recipe for gochujang butter pasta that I made on our last shoot in their newsletter yesterday, which brought an influx of new and wonderful subscribers. Thank you B&H for shouting me out and letting me cook for you even after I slip in the mud and make you wash your sample jacket…
– Thank you
who recommended SNOA on her publication and has sent so many wonderful subscribers my way. Read her newsletter !– Also to the babe of a human who sent Thomasina Meyers my Leftovers newsletter from last week – much appreciated! Thomasina posted a screenshot of it on her Instagram and I was disproportionately starstruck. I think it’s mad that actual chefs might read what I write about food.
– Big love to
who I interviewed for Since You Asked and answered the questions so wonderfully. I’m meeting up with Chloe (who writes the wonderful ) in LA in May and I can’t wait to cook something up with her.
Food I want to cook but will probably just roast a chicken
– Molly Baz’s ramen noodles with mushrooms and soy butter because she was so cute showing Drew Barrymore how to cook it on her show!
– I will actually make this nước chấm (a sweet, salty, fiery Vietnamese dipping sauce) so I have it on hand to pour over noodles, salads or dip dumplings into.
– Just discovered
when looking for a Dan Dan noodle recipe. Now religiously following her Substack .– Thinking about spanokopita a lot. This recipe from
is on the list!Things so good I eat them standing up at the counter
Congee with miso butter mushrooms and mayak eggs
I ate this on a Sunday night watching the Aiden season of SATC (him in the double denim get-up at the furniture store with his dog in a bandana is my KRYPTONITE) and it truly hit the spot. In a pan, add a big knob of butter, a drizzle of olive oil and a splash of water with 1 tsp of miso, whisking it as the pan heats so it all melts and bubbles. Add sliced mushrooms and spring onions and cook on low-medium until the mushrooms are soft and caramelised. To make the congee, all you need to do is add leftover, cooked white rice to enough chicken stock to full cover it. I usually pop in thick slices of ginger and two spring onions as aromatics, put the lid on and let it sit on the stove for about 40 minutes so the stock breaks down the rice like porridge. It’s good to stir it every 15 ish minutes. Add a splash of soy sauce (maybe 1 tbsp) then serve with mayak eggs, a spoonful of the mayak marinade, some chilli oil and more sliced spring onions.
Cabbage salad with grains, feta and avocado
Slice up white and red cabbage, throw into a salad bowl and dress with lime miso vinaigrette (recipe at the bottom of this page). Add a handful of rocket, a few spoons of this grain packet, 1/2 avocado and some crumbled feta. Extra dressing if you want it more saucy. Chilli oil if that’s your thing. Eat it from the salad bowl because washing up sucks! I also made the exact same thing the next day but replaced lime miso vin with tahini caesar: two spoonfuls of tahini, a splash of water, juice of 1/2 lemon, about 1 tbsp grated parmesan, a pinch of salt, a crack of pepper, 1/2 grated garlic clove, whisk, mix, go.
Gochujang Butter Pasta
I guess this counts as a version of Sad Pasta™️, but with only six ingredients. I made it for friends on the latest Paynter shoot in Wales, knowing we had a beautiful big kitchen, a fireplace and that the weather would call for lounging on the sofa drinking wine and eating big bowls of pasta. It’s the
The Sicilian wine you’re drinking with gochujang butter pasta
I don’t claim to know much about wine but I do know what I like (light reds, minerally whites, oranges that don’t taste like orange wine). Catarrato is one of my absolute favourites. It’s a Sicilian grape, and thanks to its island-status, and from my limited knowledge of terroir, I truly do think you can taste the sea (although not specifically the Mediterranean, but what do I know?). It’s amazing how affordable this one is (but galling to know the mark up in pubs and restaurants; spoiler alert it’s almost 300%), and its bold but earthy taste makes it a perfect pairing with the gochujang butter pasta recipe I posted earlier this week. Just saying!
Food for thought
I am a woman obsessed with delineating and decoding my personality into binaries (anxious attached, so sue me). Recent favourites have been: are you a black cat or a golden retriever (one guess which one I am; it’s the dog) and ‘you’re either more cool girl than hot girl’ (undecided). Here’s an essay from last year that I wrote about another favourite personality trope question:
Now listening
To my wonderful friend Billie who performed this pitch-perfect session in Nashville. The first song (Vanilla Baby) is one of my favourites off the record she had just finished recording when we went on a week long California road trip in 2018.
i love reading what you write & stand strongly behind the recc of your newsletter. sending love! x
Thank you! So glad to have found your newsletter too! Your meals look so cozy!