February 24, 2011 – 5:10 pm
High up on my long list of things I love sits champagne and exploring. Not far behind you’ll find the English seaside and all food associated with it. Three years ago I discovered a place that combines all of these things. That place is a wooden shack on the edge of an Essex salt marsh […]
February 21, 2011 – 10:26 pm
My recent ‘Retro Puddings Workshop’ at Leiths School of Food and Wine was by no means ground-breaking in content. I can already whip up fairly respectable meringues, lemon curd and profiteroles and my pastry is improving with practice. Being back at cookery school was simply an excuse to mess around for five solid hours in […]
February 4, 2011 – 11:29 am
Brownies – and the content thereof – is a subject of much ongoing debate. A friend on Twitter recently asked for a good recipe and received a number of wildly differing recommendations. Some people vehemently argue the case for the use of 75% cocoa solids chocolate, others fight the corner for the addition of fruit or […]
February 1, 2011 – 11:46 am
Regular readers of this blog will realise that while I love cooking in general, creating puddings, sweets and bakes is what really gives me my culinary kicks. Almost a year since my first visit, I’ll soon be heading back to Leith’s School of Food and Wine. This time it’s courtesy of my best friend (and devout […]
January 13, 2011 – 11:00 am
These days, I’m getting more and more adventurous with my cooking. Not just with what I eat, but with what I buy and how I cook it. This may well stem from recently receiving two cookbooks as presents that are poles apart when it comes to the ingredients required and the skills needed to create […]
January 12, 2011 – 5:12 pm
I can say with confidence that we have dined at the most British of British restaurants. It’s in the capital overlooking the site of the 2012 Olympics, it dishes up salmon that’s been ‘London cured’ on the premises since 1905, it serves glorious syrup sponge puddings steaming in individual Tate & Lyle tins. Oh, and […]
Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew. Or, in our case, grow ’em on a third floor balcony in Hackney and tuck into ’em fresh out of the earth. We’d been tending these glorious potatoes (Organic Orlas and Maris Peers) since early March and enjoyed a continuous harvest from mid June until the […]
On holiday in the south of France last week with four other foodie types and some clever bod had an idea: why not make use of the local produce and the villa’s fab kitchen in a Come-dine-with-me-style cook-off? The Channel 4 TV show is one of my guilty pleasures so I was pretty excited when […]
There comes a point in your life when you have to ask yourself this one, vital question: why am I reading the internet when I could be tucking into a lip-smacking bowl of smoked mackerel dauphinoise potatoes? I asked myself that very question when I came across this recipe on Domesticsluttery.com last week and immediately […]
Everyone has their own interpretation of a basic tomato sauce that can be used in all sorts of recipes. My version might find itself stirred into penne served with spinach and parmesan, added to a flavoursome soup, mixed into a vegetarian lasagna filling, poured over patatas bravas or smothering a homemade pizza base. It’s super-easy […]