

Scacce ragusana
"a bit like a lasagne crossed with a focaccia and pizza." Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella This is just one of those short posts,...
Sep 6, 2025


First day of spring - time to think about salad?
"Choose one hero ingredient and let it lead the way." Ottolenghi I'm really not a salad person. There I've said it, as my son would say....
Sep 1, 2025


Thickening with bread - a ramble
"Where there is stale bread there is home." Juls' Kitchen This was going to be a blog about the different ways you can thicken things. ...
Aug 29, 2025


Cauliflower and chicken - different approaches
This is one of those 'I've got to use up something so what am I going to make?' pieces with some other random thoughts about this and...
Aug 28, 2025


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, 2025


Un mélange
Mélange: a mixture, or a group of different things or people" Cambridge English Dictionary time for some oddments, and it's amazing how...
Aug 25, 2025


Leftover roast lamb - Jamie to the rescue
"Lamb leftovers are slightly trickier to use up than beef or chicken. The meat is very fatty, which makes it unctuous and flavoursome...
Aug 22, 2025


A lot of fuss - but maybe worth it
"as I'm a pastry cook at heart, I've been making all sorts of herb-laden tarts, including this lovely tomato one. It's very simple." ...
Aug 21, 2025


Matar paneer
The dish above is not matar paneer - it's paneer pasanda - which means favourite paneer. I was about to finish my 'research' on matar...
Aug 15, 2025


How to begin a cookbook
"an ode to the food of my childhood, a mash up of food from Bahrain and the surrounding countries, with a slightly Westernised take,...
Aug 13, 2025


Mushrooms and Chinese costermongers
This is a first recipe post - one from Beverley Sutherland Smith in her book simply called Vegetables . In this case, however, I first...
Aug 12, 2025


Mediterraneanism - it's all Elizabeth David's fault
“While I roast as many Mediterranean vegetables as the next person, I worry about what the ‘Mediterraneanisation’ of cooking is doing to...
Aug 11, 2025


Piri piri chicken
"It seems we just can’t get enough spicy grilled poultry. Popularity, however, breeds contempt " Felicity Cloake Inspired by a Feast ...
Aug 8, 2025


Wild rice
I have been reading my chosen book for book group - The Sentence by Louise Erdrich a multi-award winning author - including the Pulitzer...
Aug 6, 2025


Nuggets
" nugget - a small piece or lump, especially of gold in its natural state" or "something small but valuable or excellent" Cambridge...
Aug 5, 2025


Lessons from a recipe
Yesterday we celebrated my older son's birthday here with the now almost traditional and compulsory spaghetti and meatballs - and a cake...
Aug 4, 2025


A german soup begins a world tour
"Soup not only warms you and is easy to swallow and to digest, it also creates the illusion in the back of your mind that Mother is...
Jul 31, 2025


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, 2025


Fusion or confusion? - two dinners
"a twisted kind of sense" Jay Rayner This is last night's dinner - simply called Fried beef kerala from my other The Food of ... series...
Jul 27, 2025


Leftovers of leftovers of leftovers
David has more or less insisted I write a blog about last night's dinner because he loved it so much. He also said I should write down...
Jul 24, 2025

