The Friday 5 #135

Best buys from the Wine Society, this month's cookbook giveaway and maybe the best mushrooms you've ever cooked.

This is the first Friday 5 for those of you who joined recently (for which many, many thanks) so just to explain. It’s a round up of five things I’ve eaten, drunk or found out about in the previous week. You have to be a paying subscriber to get the recommendations but there’s always a bit of chat first.

The last Friday 5 contained a mini-survey on what you wanted from this Substack. It was good to find out that I’d got the wine content about right though I was surprised that only 8% agreed with the statement “I’m only here for the bargains.`’ Most of you wanted some better quality wine recommendations and general wine knowhow too.

There was a pretty unequivocal 82% in favour of sticking mainly to words rather than introducing more video content for which I’m profoundly relieved though it does seem that a minority of you would enjoy an occasional cookbook chat. Maybe let’s try one and see.

Turns out you like the more personal posts too 😉

The section that perhaps needs most attention is recipes with two thirds of you saying you’d like a few more. Message received! You may have noticed there was one in this week’s well-loved cookbook challenge (a spring lamb stew with herbs and lemon) and I’ll try and include an extra one or two a month going forward.

The recent online tasting on grenache was great fun (there IS a recording. I just have to find a way of linking to it 🙄) and the consensus was that the next one should be rosé. Given there’s a whole raft of spring and summer supermarket tastings coming up I’m going to postpone the next one to a month from today, i.e. Sunday May 11th at 7pm, Sunday having been quite popular before.

Also in this week’s Friday 5:

My top buys from the Wine Society under £10

This month’s cookbook giveaway from one of Ottolenghi’s henchwomen, Noor Murad.

Magic mushrooms (no, not that kind)

And why I finally succumbed to a microwave.