John Mole is a poet and a jazz clarinettist. Here are his poems on batter, bass, curry and fish:
Better Batter
What you're going to need for a dish that can't fail
Are a bowl, a deep fryer, flour and ale.
Stir the mix in the bowl, give your fillets a coating,
Heat oil in the pan then watch the fish floating.
Turn up the heat, hear the sizzle and spit
Serve them with chips and hey presto that's it!
Baked Sea Bass
Sea bass is great wrapped in foil
With a coating of butter and oil.
A few herbs to savour
Will add to its flavour
As it bakes while your vegetables boil.
Curry in a Hurry
For an intimate meal - exotic, dreamy -
Chicken Tikka Masala is rich and creamy.
Add marinade to each diced breast
In a bowl to give it zest.
Fry it with fresh cream (not too thick!)
And don't forget the turmeric.
Sniff the aroma, taste the spice
Then serve it up with naan and rice.
What the hake?
Sea bass is great wrapped in foil
With a coating of butter and oil.
A few herbs to savour
Will add to its flavour
As it bakes while your vegetables boil.
A lesser-known fish is the pouting
Which deserves to be given an outing.
Best cooked as a fillet,
You can fry, poach or grill it,
And of its good price there's no doubting.
Salmon an excellent dish makes -
Fresh fillets, smoked slices or fishcakes.
But if these do not suit
It's delicious en croute -
Whatever direction your wish takes!
Ian McMillan is a passionate poet, writer and broadcaster. He was also the first poet in residence to a football club, his hometown Barnsley FC. But forget about the football, here are his poems about food:
Humble crumble
Grab your apple and chop it and core it
Get some butter from wherever you store it.
Melt your butter in a pan that’s hot.
Add the apple and some sugar: not a lot
Get more butter and rub it in flour
For five minutes to a quarter of an hour
Stir more sugar in then sprinkle on top
Of the apples and the butter from the shop
Then stick it in the oven till the top turns gold;
Then eat it when it’s hot or save it till it’s cold!
My vegetable almanac
If it’s January it’s got to be sprouts
In Feb I’ll reach for me leeks
If you know what seasonality’s all about
You eat a different fruit or vegetable every single week!
In March I march on me rhubarb and pears:
April is the month for kale
No strawberry or quince catches me unawares
Cos I know when they’re on sale!
In May I chew me spinach and me rocket
June I’m chomping peas
July I’ve a pound of plums in my pocket
In August here’s me Aubergines!
In September, October and November
There’s loads of things to buy
Cos it’s a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
And I’ve a basket full of salsify!
December I’m turned on by turnips
Then the year spins round again
And with the help of my seasonal almanac
I’m the most satisfied of fruit and vegetable men!
Baking bread
Flour salt water yeast
Will make you a feast
So:
Add yeast to the water: let’s go!
Mix salt in the flour. Make dough.
It’ll seem so surprising
When it starts rising
Just leave it to swell and to grow.
Then heat up your oven: put in
The dough that you’ve placed in a tin
After 25 minutes
Your joy is infinite
You’re a baker: let eating begin
Waste not want not
A cool dark place will be enough for many;
Your spuds will love it if you keep ‘em in the gloom
And always put your peppers far from your fruit,
even in a different room.
Place some in the fridge but my no means all;
And if you put ’em in the fridge use a bag with holes:
Spinach likes it there and so do peas
And you don’t have to touch the temperature controls!
Your cool dark place can be Onion Heaven;
Your fridge can be the Land of the Long-Lived Bean
Your cool dark place can make your apples happy
And your fridge can be the centre of the soft-fruit scene!
Peter Sansom is another award winning poet who eats, sleeps and breathes poetry. So it really comes as no surprise that he is married to poet Ann Sansom. Let his poem about the perfect roast inspire you:
A rattling good roast
Seal the beef with seasoning.
Lower it in a sizzling pan,
Preheat your oven, gas mark 6
Now here’s the plan:
Pop it in a roasting tin
Baste it and jacket it in foil
Park it in the heat for a couple of hours
Off with the foil
Half an hour to cook it through.
And that’s you.
Let it stand. Then you can
Raise a toast
And carve the roast!
