Food Porn

(The above picture is my favourite shot I've taken so far of one of my recipes. This apparently is food porn, but we'll get to that in a moment...)

Does anyone really want to see people actually cooking on TV? Is it that important to see how it's done? I mean most of the great recipes are not that difficult and the only reason to see someone actually doing it is to get it right. Good food is all about simplicity and not some major fucking campaign to construct a piece of art. This is where food porn comes into it. Apparently people only cook the recipes from books that have colour photos of the finished dish, and most people only cook one or two recipes from each book. Does this mean that the cult of food porn is all about the voyeurism and not the participating in the actual cooking?
If it is then I call bullshit on this. For me food is all about actually doing something that creates something, unlike sitting on a computer all day surfing, watching, reading, which is what a lot of us fuckers do in our down time (as well as at work). I love cooking because it is the antidote to the virtual world of instantly available nothingness. You really produce something that is of use. I mean, once a you've given up the 24-hour drinking, the drugs, the orgies, what is left? Food... that's what!

The Happy Mondays

It's wicked to get up on a cold Northern Monday morning and knowing that you've got a day of hard yakka of pure creation in front of you. My working life is divided into food, travel, and people and I love them all. The people bit covers everything: talent, stories, and often leads to the discovery of new food. This in turn is linked to travel and so the circle is complete. It's a good job I just don't do one thing as I get bored very easily and bouncing from one thing to another keeps me distracted. Talking of getting distracted and into trouble, this leads me to The Happy Mondays, who are on my list...

Pesto Pastie

Had some pastry left over from the steak pie and so made a proper fusion of street food - Cornwall meets Rome - mushroom, cheese, and red pesto (with optional bacon/ham) pastie.
Okay what you do is roll out an oval piece of short crust pastry (or puff - whatever you have) and spread a decent teaspoon of red pesto, like a mini pizza. Fry some mushrooms and bacon or ham up in a pan with some butter for 3 mins and then wack on top of the pesto. sprinkle with cheese, salt+pepper and pull up the pastry around the edges, making it into a pastie-like shape. Brush pastry join with milk and then stick in the oven for 20 mins at 160. Makes a change from the usual!