

With or without? - speculaas/speculoos
"Loos in old Dutch means without. Speculaas is with a lot of spices, speculoos is speculaas without most of those spices." reddit As I often do I started with a random, well a few, in this case, random recipes from somewhere, and you travel the world in time and space, learning a few fairly trivial and mildly interesting things along the way. Mind you I have sort of done this one before with my Biscoff for a rainy day post - and apologies for the missing pictures - I accid
4 days ago


Some party time recipes
I've spent the morning, no - most of yesterday afternoon as well, making marmalade from a gift of home-grown mandarins, from friends, and a whole lot of lemons that I had in the fridge - 12 assorted jars seen here being the result. It's very satisfying when you get to this point, although there's always the worry it won't set, although this time I think I marginally worry about the opposite - too set. Anyway it's left me feeling lazy, so I thought I would just provide a few
Nov 17


Green bean casserole
"The word “gloopy” comes to mind" Alison Roman This is in no way 'gloopy' looking but I'm starting with Ottolenghi's Blistered green bean casserole with parmesan and rosemary because this was my starting point - a recipe in Ottolenghi's newsletter, which was sort of about Thanksgiving, one American festival that I don't think will make it to our shores because it's specific to a historical American event. I also saw that this looked like a really good thing to try some day
Nov 16


Hawaij, spice mixes and marketing
The other day I bought this expensive jar of Ottolenghi hawaij paste. It was on a special, I was just filling in time waiting for David for some reason I cannot now remember, wandering around Woolworths when I spied it. I had noticed Hawaij a lot here and there, or so I thought, and I was feeling a bit down, and so I thought 'why not?' and put it in my trolley. I feel a tiny bit cross at myself, because there are lots of recipes online for a hawaij spice mix, and it's not
Oct 23


Krispy Kreme and doughnuts in general
"one of those deep, childish pleasures you never grow out of." Felicity Cloake You might have thought that I had forgotten those...
Sep 11


A supermarket label
A comment from my sister sort of inspired this post. Well I suppose it was barely a comment, just a statement that she hated shopping in...
Sep 7


Samples
"a small amount of something that shows you what the rest is or should be like" Cambridge Dictionary Samples is perhaps particularly...
Jul 19


What is it with kewpie mayonnaise?
"umami incarnate" Ian Knauer/Grub Street This post actually and somewhat indirectly comes from one of Nigel Slater's first recipes -...
Sep 16, 2024


The comfort of Heinz tomato soup
"I can still remember the taste of those Scottish rolls and butter and the warm, tangy tomato soup, a real childhood treat." Man Has a...
Sep 4, 2024


Hot wing rambles
"One cannot fix one's eyes on the commonest natural production without finding food for a rambling fancy." Jane Austen I do have the...
Jun 2, 2024


Beans, toast, an expanding world
"On toast, they are nothing short of sheer culinary genius. They are, I would argue, at their point of perfection when you can catch them...
Jun 1, 2024


The laughing cow has the last laugh
"The peeling of a Dairylea triangle and its taste transport me back to my childhood à la recherche du triangle perdu." Simon Majumdar...
Mar 25, 2024


Butter chicken cheats
Spurred on by that article about Cooking as a game I have decided that this month I shall look at Chicken butter cream, or Butter chicken...
Mar 8, 2024


Gubbins
"gubbins - various things that are not important" Oxford Dictionary "gubbins - another word for stuff" I Swear English Gubbins Yes...
Oct 23, 2023


Being clever doesn't necessarily mean being right
"It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language." Michael Pollan That statement is in Michael Pollan's book Food Rules:...
Apr 17, 2023


Spam - yes spam
"the ham that failed its physical" American troops WW2 The human animal is a creative soul is it not? Also very adaptive. It can make...
Apr 10, 2023


The wonderful world of ramen
"For all that Japan has invented in the 20th century, the digital clock, Walkman, Nintendo and Pokemon, the Japanese consider their...
Apr 4, 2023


Should we abhor stock cubes?
"I've had several friends with romantic notions of writing down their bubba's chicken soup recipes, only to discover that the 'secret...
Mar 11, 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


The ethics of shopping
"Is anything sustainable foodwise?" my sister Jenny I know I've talked about this before - the difficulty - no downright impossibility...
Nov 19, 2022

