

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


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


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


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


Sfouf cake
Working my way through my email newsletters and looking for something relatively quick and simple I came across the above in a newsletter...
Jul 14


Belize - do you know anything about it?
"Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints. Eat nothing but fry jacks!” Anon I'm continuing my world foodie tour and have...
Jul 12


I found it - sort of
"Passing time adds false memories and modifies real ones." Stephen King Remember yesterday my despair at not finding the tube of hot...
Apr 26


Chaat
"anything – crisps, samosas, leftover chana masala – can be chaat" Diya Mukherjee/Vittles I have been increasingly aware of late of...
Apr 8


A gallimaufry
Gallimaufry: "a confused jumble or medley of things" Oxford Langauges "a meat stew called galimafrée" Merriam-Webster There's your new...
Dec 2, 2024


Chicken and green peppercorns for dinner
“It was there all the time: That small, green, aromatic, fresh berry that eventually becomes our common black or white peppercorn was...
Nov 30, 2024


Nigel's essential marinades
"little kitchen lifesavers" Nigel Slater This is the last of my Nigel's A Cook's Book Essentials - a group of first recipes, and these...
Nov 16, 2024


Last night's dinner
'A mashup between a Western steak and a Chinese stir-fry" Marc Matsumoto/No Recipes In an attempt to tick off my 'new' dish for the week,...
Oct 13, 2024


Coffee rubs
"It works particularly well with chilli, smoky foods, barbecued meat and chocolate" Tom Hunt/The Guardian Well we sort of knew that...
Aug 1, 2024


Chicken, saffron, almonds - a Spanish lucky dip
"I felt a little dubious about the combination of ingredients before testing it, the red wine gives a rich colour and flavour, the...
Jun 24, 2024


Chermoula - and fish
"The object of the chermoula seasoning is not to mask the natural taste of the food, but enhance it." Robert Carrier I'm pretty sure I...
Apr 12, 2024


Tajín - a quickie
"So why should you use Tajin? Simply put, it just makes so many things taste better." Nancy Lopez-McHugh/The Spruce Eats I'm not a huge...
Mar 21, 2024


Allspice
"Everything is in there: it gives you a hint of cinnamon, nutmeg, that pepper-y, clove-y taste, all of these different flavours out of...
Feb 12, 2024


Cauliflower, saffron, anchovies + ...
"As always, we never seem to do the ingredient du jour by halves" Nigel Slater It's an unbelievably, considering it's summer, wet,...
Dec 9, 2023


"Comfort food stepped up a bit"
"Deb is a firm believer that there are no bad cooks, just bad recipes." GoodReads You can probably tell it's a mildly uninspired day -...
Nov 26, 2023


Hot and crunchy - black pepper
"as with olive oil, salt and other basics we once considered boring, pepper is going gourmet." Jon Henley/The Guardian "Hot beans on...
Nov 25, 2023

