

When politics creeps into cooking - Maqluba and Yotam Ottolenghi
"Thanks to Ottolenghi’s best-selling books, we now have 'Ottolenghi hummus' and — believe it or not — 'Ottolenghi maqluba.' The latter...
Mar 15, 2022


From a website to the whole cultural diversity thing
"I just started with curiosity and kept asking questions, eating out and metabolising lots of facts from articles and books – anyone can...
Jan 17, 2022


My pissaladière story
"just add spring sunshine and a glass of wine" Andrew McConnell Tonight my local book group is meeting to choose our books for next year....
Dec 1, 2021


When is gin really gin?
"It’s actually required by law for gin to contain juniper berries as the predominant flavor. If a spirit does not contain juniper berries...
Nov 27, 2021


Elizabeth David's Carbonnade Nîmoise
is it 'authentic' or did she make it up? On Saturday we finally ate Carbonnade Nîmoise - a very old favourite recipe of Elizabeth...
Nov 15, 2021


Coronation chicken, Anglo-India, curry powder and back to Coronation chicken
"There is a vast difference between curry-powder-flavored dishes and Indian cuisine." Punita - Poppies and Persimmons This post has been...
Nov 11, 2021


Jerk chicken
"Jerk is freedom manifested in food.” Gariel Ferguson Having discovered a new 'family fave' as one member of my family said, I thought I...
Oct 19, 2021


Spag bol and beyond
"playing with traditional flavours (rich braised meat and tomato)" Simon Tarlington of Doot Doot Doot My sources for this post are two,...
Oct 14, 2021


First recipe - sesame prawn toasts
"This has to be one of the worst represented dishes on the Chinese takeaway menu. Too often you open your container to reveal...
Oct 6, 2021


Worrying about aioli
"Casting salt and a squeeze of lemon juice aside, the recipe only has three ingredients: get one of them wrong and the whole thing loses...
Oct 3, 2021


"Perfect until you make it better"
I wrote that quote down recently as a potential subject for this blog. However, when I decided to do it today - inspired by something...
Sep 23, 2021


Nduja
"you can—and probably should—be incorporating this stuff into almost everything you cook." Elazar Sontag - Serious Eats Not in this...
Sep 10, 2021


Espatlla de xai al forn/Cordero asada - Catalan roast lamb
“Dishes are passed on like Chinese whispers, ever-evolving, but never new.” Joe Trivelli – The Guardian Or in this case they don't even...
Sep 5, 2021


Cream buns
“The fisherman fishes as the urchin eats cream buns, from lust.” T.H. White Almost the last item in the current Coles Magazine is this -...
Aug 20, 2021


Egg sandwiches - better than you think
"The beauty of course lies in the simplicity, which means that it’s incredibly easy to balls up." Helen Graves I've been browsing the net...
Aug 19, 2021


Cassata - history on a plate
"'the sum' – of all Sicilian culinary adventures, a culinary palimpsest in which you can see the layers of influence – Phoenician, Greek,...
Aug 3, 2021


Chip butties - the north/south divide
"Hard liquor and soft drugs aside, the chip butty is the most reliable way we human beings have to mentally shut out this harsh world...
Jul 21, 2021


Pithiviers - a first recipe
"The top is rounded and higher than the edges, and slashed, typically in a starburst pattern. It is meant to look like the sun." Dana's...
Jul 11, 2021


A recipe - cultural appropriation?
This is a Tarte Tatin - they are truly everywhere it seems to me. But of course it is also very definitely not a Tarte Tatin - that...
Jul 10, 2021


Messing with cultural cuisine
"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" Proverb This is a lucky dip - the book being Gary Mehigan from the Lantern Cookery...
Jul 9, 2021

