All recipes, both our own plus those reprinted with permission from cookbook publishers
We love visiting our friends Mark & Martine, not least because we always eat well and it’s nice to have a late night soak in their outdoor hot tub after a day pottering about. We’ve known them since uni days (longer ago than needs to be mentioned). Back then, I’d never have pegged Mark as ... Read more »
Oh brioche, how I love thee! I love thine fine golden colour and amber crust. I love thine rich buttery flavour. I love thine soft, yielding fibrous texture. I love thee! I yearn to eat thee! Pete’s been promising to make me brioche for ages. Why does Pete have to make it, you might ask, ... Read more »
My family call this sauce imli (tamarind) chutney. The word chutney comes from the Hindi chaatni which describes a tangy condiment that makes you lick your lips at it’s flavour! Although the verb chaatna means to lick I think lipsmacking is a better translation.. I refer to it as a ketchup or sauce because I’ve ... Read more »
I’ve been desperate to cook some of the delectably tempting recipes in Cuisinier Gascon by Pascal Aussignac since I got my mitts on it just before leaving for the Falklands. It’s a really, really beautiful book, full of mouth-watering recipes and beautiful images, not just of some of the dishes but also of life in ... Read more »
Eggs! One of the most versatile ingredients available to us and one of my personal favourites and yet, I’ve shown such a lack of imagination in using them. Yes, I enjoy them boiled, fried, scrambled and as omelettes. Yes, I have made eggy quiches and flans. And yes, I use them plentifully in baking. But I’ve really ... Read more »
Lately, every time we’ve had a roast chicken dinner, we’ve made stock from the carcass, skin and giblets (except the liver, which I’ve fried as a snack). And the next evening we’ve enjoyed a tasty risotto made with some of the stock and leftover roast chicken. But last time we had roast chicken, we’d had ... Read more »
As I posted a couple of days ago , we cooked the whole chicken (sent to me for review by Abel & Cole). The cooking liquid turned into a fabulous stock, which was frozen in two generous portions. The meat was divided into four portions, with two of those frozen as well. The carcass and ... Read more »
Eating our first home-grown sugarsnap pea seconds after picking it was quite a thrill. That was two weeks ago and we harvested about 12 pods and munched our way through them as we picked. A week later, just before leaving for France, we picked another 15 or so. They never made it into the house ... Read more »
Unusually for someone who didn’t grow up eating them (so I’m told) I love the big black tapioca pearls often served at the bottom of ice cold drinks in Chinese cafes. (Yes, I like grass jelly too!) In China Town for dim sum last week, but arriving earlier than my friend, I stopped for a ... Read more »
One one of our numerous trips to France Pete & I enjoyed some wonderful meals at a cheese and wine restaurant in Bordeaux. One getting home, Pete attempted to recreate one simple dish we ate there and this is his rather tasty result! It’s a dish we both love so we have it once every ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]