

Tuscany doesn't really do pasta
"all'etrusco on a Tuscan menu is not mere whimsy. these dishes actually forge a solid link with the past and incorporate the three basic...
Nov 30, 2023


From murgh ka soola to chicken tikka
"There are many variations of this particular dish. The one here happens to be the simplest. I have adapted it so the cooking can be...
Nov 28, 2023


Pictures, words, irritations and detours
“A picture is a poem without words.” Horace Today's post was going to be a riff on this painting, which turned up on my desk calendar...
Nov 27, 2023


"Comfort food stepped up a bit"
"Deb is a firm believer that there are no bad cooks, just bad recipes." GoodReads You can probably tell it's a mildly uninspired day -...
Nov 26, 2023


Hot and crunchy - black pepper
"as with olive oil, salt and other basics we once considered boring, pepper is going gourmet." Jon Henley/The Guardian "Hot beans on...
Nov 25, 2023


Should I wear a bib?
"Life's too short to worry about what other people think" This week one pair of trousers has been washed twice because I spilt some food...
Nov 24, 2023


The food curriculum - Literature
"Literature is the thought of thinking souls. Thomas Carlyle I chose the picture above as my pictorial hook for two reasons. The first...
Nov 23, 2023


Cutting up onions
"People who are knowledgable are said to "know their onions". It's a great phrase, yet nobody knows exactly where it comes from. It's...
Nov 22, 2023


Noble thistles
"The thistle is a prince. Let any man that has an eye for beauty take a view of the whole plant, and where will he see a more expressive...
Nov 21, 2023


Chaff
CHAFF: "1: the husks of corn or other seed separated by winnowing or threshing. 2: worthless things; rubbish." Oxford Languages Well...
Nov 20, 2023


Search but you may not find
"Google is search. It’s the verb, to Google. It’s what we all do, all the time, whenever we want to know anything. We Google it." Carole...
Nov 19, 2023


Frozen mangoes to Urban Nanna
"We believe that positive environmental and cultural change is ultimately possible, but that it will be infinitely more attainable if we...
Nov 18, 2023


Focaccia - very old and also new
"Of all the Mediterranean breads, focaccia (fugassa in the local dialect) - one of the great triumphs of Ligurian cooking - is the...
Nov 17, 2023


I need a bigger table
"Christmas is coming the geese are getting fat." nursery rhyme This is a roast goose. It used to be what we ate at Christmas, but I...
Nov 16, 2023


More than potatoes? Irish food.
“I would make the argument, not that it is ‘meh’ but that there isn’t much of it. We do not have a sophisticated cuisine – we just...
Nov 15, 2023


Take five - from maths to Jamie
I began this post yesterday, inspired by the painting on the left, but I didn't finish it and anyway I was very dissatisfied with what I...
Nov 14, 2023


Old or new? - En papillote
"The team in the Ottolenghi test kitchen took some persuading about the benefits of cooking en papillote – they thought it was way too...
Nov 12, 2023


Piccalilli
"Piccalilli is the most strange and wonderful of British condiments. Its mere neon-yellow presence evokes a world of tea cakes, tennis...
Nov 11, 2023


The internet does not know everything
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." Daniel J. Boorstin This was just going to be...
Nov 9, 2023


The passing of friends - and time
"Our friends - how distant, how mute, how seldom visited and little known. And I, too, am dim to my friends and unknown; a phantom,...
Nov 8, 2023

