I don’t know if it’s because of the unrelenting heat these last several weeks, making us yearn for cooling ice creams and sorbets, or because the theme of herbs really resonated with you but I’ve loved the surge of Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream entries and am delighted to share this wonderful round up of ... Read more »
Sweet Potato Curry
It was a mini Ready Steady Cook challenge. My ingredients consisted of a large sweet potato, a white onion, plus tinned tomatoes and a can of coconut milk from my store cupboard and a wide selection of spices on the shelf. A sweet potato curry was the answer! Sweet Potato Curry Ingredients 1-2 tablespoons vegetable ... Read more »
Chilli Growing Tips from Edible Ornamentals
Serendipity and silver linings. That’s how Edible Ornamentals came into being. Joanna Plumb, who runs the business with her husband Shawn, told us the story. Many years ago, her parents (who were commercial cucumber farmers) were approached by a national DIY store to grow 3000 chilli plants for their shops. Unfortunately, the DIY company ... Read more »
A Turkish Lunch: Pera Ocakbasi, N12
A picture tells a thousand words, so here are a selection from a lunch we had back in May. We’d done a few hours at the allotment that morning and went back to continue our efforts once fortified by a delicious lunch at Pera Ocakbasi. We ordered starters of garlic mushrooms and ... Read more »
Lemon, Limoncello & Thyme Sorbet
I was recently sent a copy of The Flavour Thesaurus, in which I looked up herbs that might be a good match for lemon. The book was alright… To be honest, I already thought of the obvious pairings before I read it – lemon and thyme, lemon and lavender, lemon and mint, lemon and rosemary. ... Read more »
Feather Light Smoked Cheese Gnudi
This Smoked Cheese Gnudi recipe is from Giancarlo & Katie Caldesi’s book Amalfi Coast, where it is titled ‘Gnocchi Ripieni’. Although these aren’t actually stuffed (ripieni), the alternative name comes from the way the cheese centre melts in the mouth, giving the impression of gnocchi stuffed with cheese. We love this recipe and have made ... Read more »
Watford’s Best? Introducing Rodell’s Mac n Cheese Sushi Style!
“Mac n cheese sushi style”? Er… what the hell is that? Well, for one thing, it’s a menu item guaranteed to cause sharp intake of breath amongst those convinced that classics must never be meddled with and that twists and fusions are an abomination… But I think life’s too short to be too narrow-minded and ... Read more »
Bettys of Harrogate Bakery & Cookery School
This Easter I ran a competition to win a Bettys chocolate badger and was overwhelmed by the popularity of the giveaway! I loved reading the responses to my entry question of which woodland animal people wanted to see similarly immortalised in chocolate. Following the competition, I arranged with Kelly Young (Engagement Manager for Bettys) for ... Read more »
Cookie Dough Crumble
When we headed up to Islay for a week’s holiday recently, I took along a jar of my home-made apple pie filling, canned a few months ago using apples from our allotment trees. The plan was to make a pie for dessert one evening. A fruitless supermarket search for ready-made short crust pastry (and a ... Read more »
Fresh Crab & Squat Lobsters
As soon as we drove off the ferry and onto Islay, we headed straight to Lagavulin for the first of distillery open day of Feis Ile 2013. Yes, even before we headed to our self-catering house and unloaded the car! There I happily spotted the mobile Seafood Shack and quickly bought myself a portion ... Read more »