Gordon White

London life skills learnt the hard way. Also recipes for some reason.

Genoese Squid For People Who Never Cook Season

This recipe is Genoese-inspired, from Diana Henry’s life changing book, Food From Plenty. The dish is for people who -like me- actually really like seafood but never really cook it because they’re too chicken shit.

Radish And Olive Salad For A Confusing Detox

In between catching up with business partners, family and friends over the new year there are evenings at home spent crying into my XXXL muumuu about how much weight was gained over Christmas.

A Very European Union Of Sausages

Chorizo, for instance, goes with everything and appears fun and exciting and vivacious like a hot Spaniard you meet at sunset by the beach.

How To Do Burns Night At Home

Of course, if you are going to be racist and turn your nose up at the fine people of Scotland’s proud heritage then I am going to make you work for it. This Highland stew is much more hassle but will begrudgingly serve as a delicious replacement.

Seventies Party Food For People Who Weren’t Alive In The Seventies

Quite a number of this year’s food trends have a seventies feel to them… chopped liver, wines made of things other than grapes…

Voodoo Sweet Potato

Posted by Gordon White

This recipe gets its name from a way of cooking sweet potato I first read in a voodoo spell book.

There’s something about cooking them for a bit longer than you otherwise would, in their own skins, whilst ensuring they don’t split that almost turns their insides into an ultra-sweet mash. Do try it.

Basically, it’s a classic baked potato except with an -I don’t know- vaguely cajun influence? Let’s just say authenticity isn’t its strong point.

It makes up for that in deliciousness and ease. In fact, this was a storecupboard throw-together because I was too lazy to make …

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How To Survive Harrod’s At Christmas

Posted by Gordon White

This is how you can tell it’s Christmas: I’m going into Harrod’s rather than sniggering from outside at the Russian billionaire wives leaving the store with their new £5000 dogs.

But a successful Harrod’s run is mandatory if we’re to be serving the -sigh- obligatory Christmas pudding this year. (And we are.)

Trick 1

Avoid school holidays. It’s possible I only managed this for the UK as the place was crawling with adorable French schoolkids.

Trick 2

Go on a Sunday. The place opens for browsing at 11:30am and buying from 12pm. If you do this right you …

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Carrots Of Awesomeness

Posted by Gordon White

This dish is a revelation!

Carrots Of Awesomeness trace their origins back to two main ancestors:

One, the amazing Veg Every Day cookbook which I want to stop people on the street and talk about -Hare Krishna style.

Two, the peculiar inability of the British to understand that a kebab should be wrapped rather than limply mashed into a pitta bread. Drives me nuts.

Ingredients

500g carrots. Unpeeled and sliced into half centimetre slices. This is extremely therapeutic prep if you’ve had a bad day.
1 can chickpeas. Drain and leave to dry for an hour.
1 tablespoon

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Cake-Free Christmas Cake

Posted by Gordon White

Accidental perspective shot. It's not really seven feet tall. (It's six.)

This seems to be a rant I get into every December… I just don’t like Christmas Cake. Or pudding. Or mince pies. Really anything that insists dessicated fruit is in some way a delicacy when it clearly isn’t.

Hence I spent years avoiding anything containing dried fruit.

But in 2008, while watching Nigella Christmas, I found a recipe that was simply too easy not to try.

And now it’s officially a tradition. Because it turns out it’s the horrible, last-forever, store-under-a-bed “cake” in Christmas cake is the bit that I just don’t like.

However, whip up a batch of …

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Pasta With Leek And Mascarpone

Posted by Gordon White

The golden rule of weight loss is “no white at night.”

This is an incandescent violation of the golden rule.

Eating great, heaping bowls of this autumnal goodness is a flagrant act of protest against the inevitability of our human physiology.

If you’re wondering why this recipe gets a much more hyperbolic introduction that most of the rest it’s because I invented it. Completely. Based on nothing. And it is smooth, subtle, comforting awesomeness.

I know a lot of you will want to replace the mascarpone with something more typical of pasta, like ricotta, but don’t. The whole point here …

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Chickpea And Coriander Burgers

Posted by Gordon White

Best served with wine on a coffee table in an apparently very dark room

Not strictly sure where this recipe came from -I have a feeling it’s a BBC one- but that’s neither here nor there.

Sorry to whomever for the violation of your intellectual property but really, if you’re putting recipes on the internet, your legal case doesn’t have an extremely lonely leg to stand on.

It’s good, it’s cheap, it easily scales up into large amounts and it makes use of both mine and James’s combined culinary ‘talents’. Me: stealing recipes from the internet. Him: burger assembly.

Ingredients

Can of chickpeas. Drained.
Medium bunch of coriander, Base of stalks trimmed.
Lemon

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Corn Chowder

Posted by Gordon White

Should have taken more photos. You'll see this one again.

This is easy, cheap and voluminous -just like me.

Actually it’s an adaption of an even easier Nigella recipe but I feel the addition of some slow-cooked onions suit the autumnal feel of the chowder better than spring onions.

Whatever, that’s between me and her. You should probably stay out of it.

Hers is here.

Ingredients

1kg bag frozen sweetcorn. Fully defrosted. Take it out in the morning.
1 brown onion. This is where we differ.
1.5 litres bouillon. Or a vegetable stock. I use bouillon for everything that says vegetable stock.
50 grams semolina.

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Orecchiette with Tomato, Basil and Garlic

Posted by Gordon White

One day I'll own nice things. But not today.

Another summer dish. But maybe it’s summer where you are?

This Puglian classic is brilliant for feeding people in large volumes because you can affordably scale up the ingredients.

It’s the perfect thing for a summer evening in the backyard, served in a large communal bowl, accompanied by rivers of Primitivo.

We initially served it in bowls underneath some grilled Italian pork sausages -inspired by a similar meal James and I had in the Campo di Fiori in Rome.

But we’re not really eating much meat at the moment and it occurs to me now that it really doesn’t need …