The Cook bookshelves are too short. Our desks have become fortresses made of cookbooks. If your cookbook collection is also getting out of hand, then you’ll be delighted to learn of cooked.com – a new subscription website from publishers Bloomsbury, Hardie Grant and Quadrille. The site (which launched this week) has 22,000 recipes curated and streamed direct to your device for £2.99 a month, or £36 a year. Contributors include Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Skye Gyngell and Jason Atherton to name but three. Intrigued? Cooked is offering Guardian readers 50% off an annual subscription. The offer is valid until 30 April 2015 and can be redeemed with the promo code GUARDIAN50.
We love this story: one evening in Swampscott, Massachusetts, an off-duty police officer slurped a spoonful of seafood stew, and spat out an odd-shaped pebble. He pocketed the foreign object and moved on to dessert. Six years later, it turns out the cop had almost ingested a rare, six-carat lavender pearl from a quahog clam. Auctioneers estimate it could net the cop around $15,000 (£9,600) when it goes under the hammer in March. The lot will be available to view at kaminskiauctions.com in the next day or two. A nicer story than that of the poor woman who discovered a “dark furry object” in her Topic bar ...
Cook loves a spoonful of nut butter, so the recent delivery of Pip & Nut nut butter shots caused quite a stir. They make individual, 30g pouches of coconut almond butter and palm oil-free peanut butter to “squeeze on the go” (as you would Frubes). Cook’s guess is you’ll be all over these little squirts. A pack of 20 peanut butter shots will set you back £10, or £20 if you prefer almond.
Cooking with the stereo turned up on a pumping tune is happiness itself (Cook does it to Kashmir by Led Zepp – try it), which makes the Turntable Kitchen Pairings Box quite inspired – a monthly delivery of mixtapes and food, paired for your culino-musical pleasure.
