Back when I launched #BSFIC I drew the cartoon for the challenge badge, featuring a scoop of green ice cream, drizzled with chocolate and served in a waffle cone. I’ve never been a good artist so I was rather pleased with my efforts! Since then, it’s presided over more than 14 challenges. When I [Read More...]

Ask an Argentinian or Brazilian to recommend their favourite cut of beef and there’s a good chance they’ll choose picanha. Most commonly it’s barbequed or grilled, and is a core churrascaria menu item. With it’s thick layer of fat comes lots of flavour, and it’s tender too. Yet this prized South American cut is one [Read More...]

Guest Post by my friend Monica Shaw. Arthur Potts Dawson has a really big heart. Sustainable. Seasonal. Responsible. He ticks all the right boxes, and has done some fantastic things for London by creating two sustainably aware urban restaurants, Acorn House and Water House, which exemplify the diversity of the city and London’s, what he [Read More...]

The May Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream challenge is all about edible ice cream containers. So much so that you can opt to fill your home-made cones, cups, biscuits, baskets, wafers and waffles with your favourite ready-made ice cream (or sorbet) if you don’t have the time or energy to make your own, this month. [Read More...]

Baked Alaskas are a little intimidating. This challenge garnered quite a few comments from those who loved the idea but were too nervous to give it a try. The response, from those of us who gave it a go, is that Baked Alaskas are not as complicated as they seem nor as prone to failure [Read More...]

Kit Kats are a quintessentially British chocolate snack, originally launched in London and South East England by Rowntree’s back in 1935. They quickly spread around the world and are now a popular sweet in many countries. The iconic “Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat” advertising slogan appeared in 1958, cementing the brand’s identity. Although [Read More...]

A nice, fresh but rather small fillet of fresh Norwegian skrei cod we were sent recently necessitated a recipe that could stretch it into a filling meal for two. Pete remembered the cookery book we bought after our day at The Billingsgate Seafood Training School and sure enough, their fish pie, bulked out with eggs [Read More...]

Like quite a few dishes in Japan, katsu originated elsewhere in the world but, as with many so-called yōshoku (Western) foods, the Japanese made it their own. Based on a European breaded cutlet, it was originally called katsuretsu (a phonetic representation of “cutlet”) but was quickly shorted to katsu. Pork (ton)katsu is the most popular [Read More...]

Fellow blogger and food writer Rejina is a friend of mine, and one I’ve long thought deserved a cookery book deal, so I was delighted to be sent a review copy of her first title, Gastrogeek (What to eat when you’re in a hurry, hungry or hard up). Her blog of the same name has [Read More...]

When I set April’s Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream challenge as Baked Alaska I had plans to make everything from scratch. I settled on the idea of individual chocolate cherry versions with a chocolate sponge base, cherry jam and a chocolate cherry ice cream. Several weeks of poor sleeping and a rather nasty cold left [Read More...]