

Smidgens
"a very small amount" Dictionary.com "Just a smidgen" - it's one of those mildly irritating things that people say when you are offering them a treat of some kind - some cake, some cream to go with the cake ... isn't it? In this case it's going to be a number of smidgens - little things from here and there. Almost exclusively recipes from here and there this time. But isn't English a wonderful language? I looked up the etymology of this rather cosy sounding word - and var
Feb 10


Thickening with flour
"Once the water has bonded with the flour and gelatinised, there’s no going back." A Life of Geekery I have returned to my sometimes series of how to thicken things - and flour. And I am confronted with a dilemma, because, I'm sure you all know how to thicken things with flour - or cornflour and maybe arrowroot - the other contenders shown here. I'm also not really into all the science behind how cooking happens. As soon as I start seeing those incomprehensible chemical na
Jan 26


Coq au sauvignon blanc
“This popular dish may be called coq au Chambertin, coq au Riesling, or coq au whatever wine you use for its cooking.” Julia Child Based on, based on, probably ad infinitum is the story of tonight's proposed dinner. And for want of a better description I'm calling it Coq au sauvignon blanc - or 'sav blonk' as some would say.. But of course it's not coq at all, so let's begin there on this tiny ramble around a classic french dish. For every group of chickens that actually ha
Dec 17, 2025


Cheating at cassoulet
"Sometimes in life, we have to make a choice: Idealized fantasy or achievable reality." Adina Steiman/Food and Wine I've been thinking...
Sep 16, 2025


Pizza cooked on a volcano - Guatemala
“Through the narrow streets of Antigua, the ghosts of Guatemala’s colonial past still wander” Francisco Goldman My family has a somewhat...
Sep 15, 2025


Stews, a Belgian one and Jill Dupleix
"Old food. Favourite food. Above all, food that makes people fall in love with us. That's what cooking is all about as it always has...
Jul 28, 2025


Tfaya
Above is Tfaya baked chicken from Nargisse Benkabbou - now British, but born in Brussels to Moroccan born parents - chef and food...
Jun 20, 2025


Onions, potatoes, carrots - comfort
"the heart-warming glow that comes from cooking cheap ingredients slowly." Nigel Slater I'm determined to be better at emptying my...
May 7, 2025


Culinary (con)fusion - pasta adobo
"It is always funny when we realise our cultures overlap more than we differ." Greatist My sources for blog posts come from all sorts of...
Feb 24, 2025


An Elizabeth David recipe - some thoughts
"It is her recipes that I am grateful to have found as they are not traditional and they are not precise" The Simply Luxurious Life...
Oct 17, 2024


A Google doodle - rendang
I now know that this is a Google doodle , and you can browse their collection of doodles at that link. Loved their little humorous digs...
Aug 22, 2024


Panackarty, Pan Haggerty ...
"If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers." Doug Larson I have just...
Jun 10, 2024


A lucky dip, a website, lamb and avgolemono
"Avgolemono is just so important to Greeks. But maybe it’s even more important to Greeks who’ve left Greece." Simon Glofit So it began...
Apr 11, 2024


An abject fridge raid failure
So Ok the selection of ingredients that needed using did not look that enticing - indeed when I looked closer the eggplant just had to go....
Mar 18, 2024


Norway - stewed mutton and cabbage or Grandiosa frozen pizza?
"There remains a clear gap between the blossoming fine dining scene and the everyday food eaten by most Norwegians and visitors to the...
Mar 3, 2024


More than potatoes? Irish food.
“I would make the argument, not that it is ‘meh’ but that there isn’t much of it. We do not have a sophisticated cuisine – we just...
Nov 15, 2023


Not a cassoulet - leftovers 3
"The cassoulet is a dish which may be infinitely varied so long as it is not made into a mockery with a sausage or two heated up with...
Nov 1, 2023


Hodgepodge
"Hodgepodge: a jumble, a heterogenous mixture" Merriam-Webster Dictionary "a confused mixture, a hotchpotch" Oxford Languages...
Jun 5, 2023


Beginnings
“Meat is used. You prepare water. You add fine-grained salt, dried barley cakes, onion, Persian shallot, and milk. You crush and add leek...
Apr 27, 2023


Stewing - when, how, what?
"Believe it or not, there are no right or wrong ways to make stew" Pip Spence on the Jamie Oliver website I'm planning to make a beef...
Apr 15, 2023

