I thought I had read everything there was to read on cooking until I opened a copy of The Sunday Times Style at the weekend. The Christmas Food Special has taken the 'here's one I made earlier' on to a whole new level. Soon keeping up with the Jones's will involve bored housewives making their other halves travel to far flung corners of the world to actually hunt and gather their own raw ingredients. Please read on....
Would anybody seriously ever admit to making their own smoked salmon as was suggested in this week's Sunday Times. This takes cooking onto a new and quite frankly scary level - you have to build a smokery and then involved in a process that potentially takes days. You 'simply' have to build the smokery using 'two loaf tins, wood chips, tea bags, ice and a cardboard box - carefully smoke the salmon - in fact a delicate and slow process that can last about four days and involve lots of fiddling with things like wiping down the fish.
Even the article suggests it could be a palaver, but here is this wonderful line from the chef Heston Blumenthal: 'Once you get your head around making your own smokery - and frankly a perfect job for the boys - its a doddle' However the article also carries crafty reference to: 'Where to buy the best smoked salmon'
I wonder.... will this Christmas see the rise and rise of the frustrated Blue Peter Brigade or will we simply slope off and buy the best...?