

So simple but so cheffy
I almost gave up on writing a post today. I dabbled with a couple of ideas, but could summon up no enthusiasm. It's the sort of day on which it's difficult to be enthusiastic about anything. Just too much rain to go for a walk and so therefore a mild feeling of disappointment with myself for not being braver. After all, how hard is it to hold an umbrella over your head if the almost mist turns to almost rain? So I decided to just chill out with a game of sudoku, but befor
Oct 24


So much from one plate of food
Somewhere or other I had a quote about there being a whole world on a plate of food. But I have lost it. Mostly this kind of quote -and I have seen this kind of sentiment in several places, refers to the history of the dish itself, and its ingredients. What I am looking at today is rather more personal but it has indeed been a ramble. As I have intimated in the last few posts I'm working in my head towards a post on Robert Carrier classics but then the night before last I
Oct 18


A massive bunch of silver beet
"They encourage you to stretch boundaries, take a few chances , and be a bit left-field with your combinations and seasonings." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Yesterday we went on an excursion with our friends into the Dandenongs hinterlands, finishing up in their house, where the lovely Monika handed me a massive bag of goodies from her superproductive veggie garden. Flowers too on this occasion. The star was this massive bunch of silverbeet - it's just one plant - she had s
Oct 9


Spanakorizo - Greek comfort food
“a little rice for a mountain of spinach” Tessa Kiros Having now investigated this Greek bit of home cooking, I have come to the realisation that when one explores a dish like this, and finds lots of variations of course, one ends up by thinking that the very first one that inspired you to write the post is of course the correct way to do it. Never mind everybody else doing it differently to a greater or lesser degree - the first is the truly authentic one. In this case it
Apr 23


Torta Pasqualina - an Easter tradition
"The quintessential spring dish." Stefano Arturi I have now been trawling the net for examples of this Italian - no - Ligurian - Easter dish - a pie filled with cheese and greens and eggs. I now have a large number of examples and a few things to say about it but didn't know which example to use as my header picture - so in the end I decided to go for the very first one I looked at from a website called Marcella in Cucina - after all, she's Italian and it looks pretty goo
Apr 10


BTW
"BTW - by the way: used, for example in emails, when you are writing something that relates to the subject you are discussing, but is not the main point of the discussion" Cambridge Dictionary It's also the name of an Indian food company that has fast food outlets, a catering service, and a whole range of snack foods, based in New Delhi. I'm not going to go into it in detail. Suffice to say that there are amazing people in the world who come from nowhere and build an empir
Jan 13


Sorrel - from weed to haute cuisine
"Sorrel bridges the divide rather splendidly between herb and vegetable." Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall This is one of the photographs I...
Sep 26, 2025


Poor shopping = dinner challenges
"Nothing good will come from getting too fancy with these greens. They bask in simple treatment and become shy when long lists of...
Nov 28, 2024


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


A green sauce for almost everything
"There are no green sauce rules — only what tastes good to you." Margaret Eby/Food and Wine Today I'm back to Nigel Slater's batch of...
Oct 10, 2024


I have cabbage, carrots and mushrooms. What should I make?
"Frugality, creativity and mindfulness - mindfulness - of perfectly imperfect produce" Tara Wrigley /OTK Shelf Love The heading is a...
Jan 26, 2024


Changing the form, but retaining the spirit
“When I opened up my first restaurant it was never to cook Greek food the way most people had seen it.” Peter Conistis The dish at left...
Jan 17, 2024


Venice leeks and what's for dinner tonight?
"Perhaps no one ever gets to know Venice as much as they remember her, recall her from an episode in some other dream." Marlena de Blasi...
Oct 1, 2023


Cabbage rolls from long ago
Once upon a time I sat in this very spot and gazed upon the Mostar bridge. Well I am 90% certain it was in this spot - although, when I...
Sep 20, 2023


Cabbage, potatoes, Portugal, soup - basic
"I have written this book to introduce Portuguese dishes to cooks in this country, rather than to tell them what to eat in Portugal." ...
Sep 19, 2023


Half a jar of sauerkraut
“When life gives you cabbage, prepare sauerkraut.” popular saying Sauerkraut is extremely fashionable at the moment - all that...
May 9, 2023


Fashionable foraging
"If it's had something urinate on it, it's good to eat." Mike Eggert "The face of Mussel man, a.k.a Lance Wiffen from the Sea Bounty in...
May 2, 2023


Do as you're told
"Do what you're told and everything will be alright" Norman Jewison When it comes to cooking it's a dilemma. Do you do what you're...
Mar 6, 2023


German food - is it really that bad?
"During the last 50 years that nation has changed more than any other in Western Europe. Yet it has remained German, because everything...
Feb 27, 2023


Wedge salads
"America's silliest salad. It's built upon the back of the least flavorful and least nutrient-dense lettuce available and blanketed in...
Feb 16, 2023

