Hello! Welcome to this paid edition of Small Wins. Thank you for being here. For more — including free recipes such as this seasonal rhubarb and vanilla quick jam — check out the recipe index.
The rain is unrelenting.
Fair trade, perhaps, for a stellar summer, glorious autumn and a suspiciously mild lead up to Christmas… Still, I’m ready for it to be over. Spring, please sprung.
Until then: continuous comfort food. This chicory gratin — Belgian in origin, but also claimed by northern France, the Netherlands and Germany — will meet you where you are now: cosy, yes, but with half an eye on the fresher, brighter flavours due in Springtime. Gratins can veer blandly rich, but chicory fixes all of that here with its bitter flavour and crisp, hydrated leaves — this one’s a gratin with a point of view.
Love,
Alexina
Coming up on Small Wins — Tiramisu, but not as you know it; a dreamy pasta dish (plus a question: should your pasta water really be as salty as the sea?); a menu for Easter (with all the prep lists done for you), plus Earl Grey hot cross buns.
The five tastes (bitter, sour, salty, sweet, umami) interact with each other in different ways, some more consistently and predictably than others. Research has shown that salt can knock back bitterness, for example; meanwhile, sweetness and sourness are a particularly compelling combination because sugar balances acidity without taking away that puckering quality that makes it so addictive to us.
In most cases, however, more is not more:
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