

Vindaloo - sweet and sour, not hot
"A Goan vindaloo is not the mind-blowingly spicy curry as it has come to be known in the UK, but a rich, hot, slightly sweet and sour...
Jun 14, 2022


Bubble tea - so much to learn
"I always find people spit out their first bubble tea. They're super reactive to it. Then the second one, they're like, 'this is so...
Jun 11, 2022


Nigel Slater's pies
"The problem I have in describing his writing is that I can’t bear not to quote vast tracts of it. It’s just too good not to glory in." ...
Jun 8, 2022


Clafoutis
"This seemingly simple recipe baffled me for many years, as I endlessly ended up with a leaden duffer of a pud, so much so that I quite...
Jun 5, 2022


La daube provençal - so very, very good
"I have executed, with loyal respect, printed formulas for daubes in the interest of analysis and comparison but, left to my own devices...
May 30, 2022


Full marks for concept, middling for taste - an Ottolenghi recipe
"Whatever adaptations you may be making to the dish, follow the methodology" Ever Open Sauce Two days ago in my post about an ordinary...
May 28, 2022


Devilled eggs
"a culinary amalgam of history and taste" Food Timeline Continuing with the retro thing which has been appearing here and there in...
May 25, 2022


Nationalist sausages
"Pride is all very well but a sausage is a sausage" Terry Pratchett There was a short article in The Australian Financial Review at the...
May 23, 2022


Blasts from the past in the Dandenongs
Yesterday I wrote no post - the one I posted was really from the day before - because I spent the afternoon up in the Dandenongs meeting...
May 21, 2022


An English last meal
"Feasting is about how you eat as much as it is about what is on your plate. It is rarely about greed or ostentatiousness, large numbers...
May 16, 2022


Jalfrezi - fusion, leftovers - what's not to love?
The picture here is from The Times of India, and so, one assumes a truly authentic version. Well yes and no, because Jalfrezi is another...
May 14, 2022


Pasta con le sarde
"I have never experienced this dish in its native country. Paolo Moelli (Il Ghiottone Errante, 1935) describes it as 'discordant but...
May 12, 2022


Trifle - no little thing
“A trifle consoles us because a trifle upsets us.” Blaise Pascal, Pensées This is for you Jenny after your disappointment that morsels...
May 4, 2022


Curry from the jungle - a lucky dip
The dish shown above is not Jungle curry. It is a dish called Pork curry with eggplant from an old Women's Weekly booklet Easy...
Apr 26, 2022


Grains in a salad - ancient or new?
"The vast array of grains marketed as ancient—from quinoa to millet to spelt—are, yes, old. Maybe 3,000 years. Maybe 8,000. Who knows?...
Apr 25, 2022


Why don't I make curry more often?
"The complex flavours of curries are governed by just three things: generous spicing; onion, ginger and garlic done just right; and...
Apr 24, 2022


Scary carbonara
"A dish whose principal ingredients are eggs and bacon was always going to be a shoo-in for the British palate: certainly spaghetti...
Apr 23, 2022


Is there such a thing as mulligatawny soup?
"a cornerstone of the classic British Indian restaurant repertoire, always there, yet never ordered." Felicity Cloake I think this...
Apr 18, 2022


Welsh rabbit - or is it rarebit - or English or Scottish?
"Rarebit or rabbit? I like the latter; which (so the story goes) is what the hunter had for his supper when the rabbits had escaped his...
Apr 16, 2022


Scraps
"Winging it with what's to hand can be so liberating - flinging in this or that with the joyful abandon that comes from not trying too...
Apr 14, 2022

