

Mashed potato
"The topic of mashed potato started a heated debate among my colleagues. Half of them insisted it had to be creamy, buttery and have...
Feb 1, 2023


Robert Carrier, tomatoes and indexes
"Cook dinner with Robert Carrier and you’ll need butter, cream, wine and quite a lot of cognac" Jay Rayner It's guru week - by which I...
Jan 30, 2023


Whim whams
"This kind of thing is more a delicious mouthful at the end of a meal, than a pudding." Jane Grigson It's not the end of a meal - I'm...
Jan 27, 2023


French/Indian - did it happen?
"even while the European powers ruled, none of them had any effect on the basic diet of the local people. Rice, mainly 'boiled' rice ,...
Jan 26, 2023


A new favourite thing - baked polenta
"While these days polenta often appears on menus, I don't think I'm the only one who's struggling to get round to cooking it at home....
Jan 21, 2023


Grilled fish Bali style
"Barbecue may not be the road to world peace, but it's a start." Anthony Bourdain This is a lucky dip because I am completely uninspired...
Jan 15, 2023


From peas to plin and a cookbook
"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be." Douglas Adams The eternal question -...
Jan 14, 2023


The umami battle of the 'mites' (mar,vege,pro,aussie...)
"Marmite is a British icon. Vegemite is an Australian icon. Since Brits and Aussies have sporting rivalries, mischievous senses of humour...
Jan 12, 2023


By the way
"By the way - used to introduce a new subject to be considered or to give further information" Cambridge English Dictionary Yes it's one...
Jan 11, 2023


A summer afternoon with Elizabeth David
"After all, it is summer. You are on holiday. You are in company of your own choosing. The air is clean. You can smell wild fennel...
Jan 10, 2023


An almost perfect tomato tart
"Use of lime juice, tomatoes and spice in some recipes is amazing!" An Amazon reviewer I've spoken about tomato tarts before - how...
Jan 7, 2023


Twelfth night
"On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me A partridge in a pear tree." It's Twelfth Night. Well the day that my family...
Jan 6, 2023


Rambling around a bread challenge
"the satisfaction of one answer merely leads to asking another question, and so on into infinity." Alberto Manguel David bought this...
Jan 4, 2023


First recipe, first book
"The only way to eat superb Indian food, with a guarantee of variety, quality and freshness of ingredients, is to learn to cook it for...
Jan 2, 2023


I have six egg yolks
"they are a magical ingredient that can transform a drab dish into something divine and spectacular." Tom Hunt You might remember that...
Dec 30, 2022


Reading recipes
"mistakes can sometimes have wonderful outcomes" Barbara Sweeney I think I have sort of done this a long, long, time ago, but a couple...
Dec 28, 2022


Dinner on 9 June 1979
"You are going to love this : I unearthed the menu you served on 9 June 1979" Wendy Wendy is a friend from long ago, and now a faithful...
Dec 27, 2022


Christmas dilemmas
“A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.” Garrison Keillor I'm...
Dec 20, 2022


So much lettuce
"Lettuce is not mere padding or blank backdrop for more exotic or shouty salad ingredients – it's a summer vegetable as worthy of...
Dec 16, 2022


Bubble and squeak
"As kitchen recycling goes, this is probably the most useful of all, neatly dispensing with those most difficult of leftovers." Nigel...
Dec 15, 2022

