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- Aug 29
A guru in retro fancy mode
"This is a book for the discerning host or hostess who takes pride in serving attractive, memorable meals with that extra 'touch of...
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- Jun 6
Carne assada or asada?
This is a guru week - a week in which I return to one of my early cooking influencers/teachers for a recipe to try out for dinner. This...
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- Feb 4
Brown but so much more
"Colour fades as flavour deepens: a metaphor for much of life I suggest." Nigella Lawson Which is, indeed food for thought. In her book...
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- Jan 30
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...
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- Oct 19, 2022
Picada - a non-Ottolenghi extra
"anyone who has tasted a dish before and after its addition will understand that picada 'seems to fill in all the holes, plug in all the...
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- May 5, 2022
Aspic - a first recipe and surely a dead one?
"Jelly covered piles of carved food are an excellent visual shorthand for absurdly poncey cuisine." Tim Hayward - The Guardian This...
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- Apr 9, 2022
First recipe, first impressions and a Belgian salad
"we all know how first impressions linger the longest." Robert Carrier I'm not particularly uninspired today, but I'm in a clearing out,...
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- Mar 10, 2022
Beauty for the street library?
"For me, good food comes about only if you put yourself in it. Food is for giving, and the act of cooking is a gift from the cook to the...
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- Mar 1, 2022
Does anyone make soufflé anymore?
"It feels more like magic than cooking." Nigel Slater I'm attempting a bit of a tidy up of my desktop pile of books of potential...
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- Jan 28, 2022
Did consommé die?
"Consommé shows skill and panache without shouting, like a Savile Row shirt: crisp, understated, but oozing style and class. Consommé is...
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- Jan 11, 2022
Scrambled eggs
"Scrambled eggs are eggs at their most egalitarian: socialism in inexpensive, edible ovoid form." Tony Naylor - The Guardian Life is...
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- Jan 1, 2022
A favourite fish - first recipe
"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster" Ferran Adria I know I've done sardines before - a...
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- Dec 14, 2021
Back - to basics and beginnings
It's been almost a week since I have created a post for this blog. Why? Well all sorts of reasons, most of them being just that I have...
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- Nov 28, 2021
Hors d'oeuvre variés - a first recipe
"The real purpose of the hors d'œuvre cours is to stimulate the appetite, not to drown it." Robert Carrier The picture at left is from...
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- Nov 5, 2021
Satay sapi - a first recipe
"Inherent in the great tradition of satay is the tendency to tweak—to take a classic recipe and make it your own." James Oseland -...
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- Oct 18, 2021
Robert Carrier triumphs again
“the first taste [that] may surprise.., but adventure your palate as your ancestors did. And remember the history of the world in this...
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- Jun 10, 2021
Robert and Betty's simple apples
"The Brown Betty is one of those homespun desserts you don’t often see anymore, the kind that travels under countless names and is...
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- May 4, 2021
Preserving capsicums without poisoning yourself
"Consider, for a moment, the sweet pepper. No other plant demands so much, gives so little, yet keeps us coming back for more." Hank Shaw...
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- Apr 21, 2021
Old English apple pie
"the apple pie is one of the great dishes of this island, and one that has spread right round the world, recognisably British still,...
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- Nov 16, 2020
Spinach and cheese
You're probably getting a bit fed up with 'simple' and food combinations, so I will make this one the last for a while. But I wanted to...
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