

A lucky dip quickie
"This is Réunion. A union of people from everywhere, blended with vanilla, sugar and rum." Yasmin Khan I am running out of time today,...
Aug 27
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Stews, a Belgian one and Jill Dupleix
"Old food. Favourite food. Above all, food that makes people fall in love with us. That's what cooking is all about as it always has...
Jul 28
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A template - scones - savoury ones
I love templates of all kinds. This entire blog is made from a template. Alas it is no longer in Wix's vast library of templates, so I...
May 9
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1973 baked bean hotpot for kids
"The recipes in this book have been specially chosen for you because they are easy to follow. Cooking is a wonderful hobby for boys and...
Apr 28
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Punjab - five rivers, five spices
No I haven't jumped from the Caribbean to India on my world tour of food. This is a lucky dip recipe which has led me here and there,...
Mar 18
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New now old
"Vegetables are savagely beautiful things." Jill Dupleix This is a quickie - something simple to end my day of hard labour over those...
Jan 31
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Roasting vegetables
"Clearly, roasting is really the only way to treat vegetables if one hopes to be modern." J. Bryan Lowder/Slate In 1993 Delia Smith...
Jan 12
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Guilt leads to pistachios - and pasta
It's a long time since I've done a lucky dip. I had one sitting on my desk - Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food was the...
Dec 7, 2024
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Radicchio - from weed to luxury item
"That doesn't look like a salad to me! Where's the arugula? Where's the radicchio?" Will and Grace I'm talking about radicchio because...
Nov 8, 2024
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The frustrations of lucky dips
“I tell my students there is such a thing as ‘writer’s block,’ and they should respect it. It’s blocked because it ought to be blocked,...
Sep 24, 2024
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A Turkish? salad - collected or created?
"a thrilling mix of flavours, textures and colours that is almost too glorious to look at." Claudia Roden Geography is what has guided...
Sep 22, 2024
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A new pastry trick
"This is a revelation and one for which I will be forever grateful!" Creative Cooking in the Time of the Corona This is a lucky dip post...
Sep 9, 2024
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Different noodles, different dish
"What matters is balance" - Nigel Slater I began with a dish - Curry mee from Madhur Jaffrey's Far Eastern Cookery - quickly became...
Aug 27, 2024
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A decor book
"It's not just what's inside them that counts – books are also the underrated heroes of home décor." Bed Threads This is my next Lucky...
Jul 3, 2024
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Chicken, saffron, almonds - a Spanish lucky dip
"I felt a little dubious about the combination of ingredients before testing it, the red wine gives a rich colour and flavour, the...
Jun 24, 2024
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That lucky dip - lamb and Greg Malouf
"In some ways, the name of the recipe builds a level of excitement and expectation of the dish that can improve the experience of...
Jun 5, 2024
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Ruminations on what we eat - a project?
"Writer's block is having too much time on your hands." Jodi Picoult I have now been writing this blog for almost eight years, so...
Jun 4, 2024
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Trying to make a lucky dip interesting
"Writer's block is having too much time on your hands." Jodi Picoult "Read a lot. Write a lot. Have fun." Daniel Pinkwater My lucky dip...
Apr 21, 2024
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A lucky dip, a website, lamb and avgolemono
"Avgolemono is just so important to Greeks. But maybe it’s even more important to Greeks who’ve left Greece." Simon Glofit So it began...
Apr 11, 2024
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Roasting garlic and shallots
"People always seem to eat incredible amounts of this" Nigella Lawson "It's hard to imagine now, but it wasn't until the middle of the...
Mar 4, 2024
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