It would be easy to dismiss my friend Sig’s new book as jumping on the Scandi band wagon, but it’d be completely wrong to do so. Since June 2008 Sig has been sharing the joy’s of Scandinavian cooking via her blog, Scandilicious. Describing her heritage as Scandinavian-English-American-Irish-German-Jewish-Lithuanian (and born to a Norwegian father and English-American ... Read more »
Burgers & Beer at Byron
Fast growing chain Byron Burgers has gained a loyal following in the 3.5 years since they opened their first branch, me included. On a recent visit, we took our friend Gothick, who declared his classic Byron burger the best burger he’d ever had! Byron’s burgers are mighty fine and certainly blow competitors such as GBK ... Read more »
Ice Cream Wednesday: Chloe’s Candied Bacon, Toasted Pecan, Maple Syrup, Southern Comfort & Salt Ice Cream
Fellow chocolate fiend Chloe, The Faerietale Foodie, was unable to make the Gaggia coffee and ice cream event I attended several weeks ago. (A 5pm start for a blogger event does rule out most bloggers, who have full time jobs alongside their food blogs). Initially, she was most disappointed about missing the coffee half of ... Read more »
Pickled Rock Samphire & Pork Rillettes + Rules For Foraging Safely & Responsibly
There’s something deeply satisfying about making a meal of ingredients foraged directly from the earth, not by some faceless stranger who’s sold his lucrative hedgerow hoard to a restaurant chef, but by your own hands. Common mallow Of course, there’s the thrifty delight in a free meal. £3 for a bundle of asparagus or marsh ... Read more »
Jolly Olly’s Chicken Veronique
Olly Smith is well known as a wine writer and presenter, respected for helping the nation to find and appreciate good wine. But he’s also a keen food lover and has written his own cookery book Eat and Drink full of his favourite recipes, with an emphasis on food that’s great to drink with. The ... Read more »
Ice Cream Wednesday: Store Cupboard Ice Cream Recipes
As I’ve mentioned on a previous #icecreamwednesday, I was recently given a Gaggia ice cream machine to review for a few weeks over summer. One of the things I love about the machine is not needing to freeze a bowl or disk 24-48 hours in advance. I can make ice cream whenever I want as ... Read more »
BBC Gardeners’ World Live: Highlights
Back in June, Pete, mum and I spent two days exploring the BBC Good Food Show and the BBC Gardeners’ World Live Show at the NEC. Buying a ticket for one automatically gives you entry into the other, which makes it a great value day out as there is plenty to cover in both shows. ... Read more »
Small Fruits
Popping over to the allotment yesterday to show it to a visiting friend, we harvested a small box of fruit and some pretty borage flowers, for use as a salad garnish. (The lettuce is growing in the kitchen garden at home and is very nice indeed now it’s hearting up, meaning lots more crunch). Fruit ... Read more »
BBC Good Food Show: Highlights
I’m afraid I didn’t think much of the BBC Good Food Show (Summer) this year. Compared to last year, there seemed to be far less of the smaller, artisanal producers that I remember coming across last year and less exhibitors over all. There were, of course, a few stalls that I enjoyed visiting. Nougalicious were ... Read more »
The East India Company: Then & Now
Then I know you aren’t all fellow history graduates, and didn’t necessarily study the history of the East India Company, but I’m sure you’ll have heard of it. In its very long history, it’s also been referred to as the East India Trading Company, the English East India Company and the British East India Company. ... Read more »