Travel tips-Restaurant reviews-Recipes
Once a friend sought some advice and when I’d given my thoughts she said she was so pleased she’d asked me as she knew I’d think the same way as her, and you should always seek advice from someone who will tell you what you want to hear. I was reminded of this exchange as […]
Read MoreLamb is perhaps a more traditional roast for Easter Sunday but I fancied a nice roast chicken so bought one in the farmers’ market yesterday. I didn’t want to do anything very fancy with it so decided to flavour it simply with just some lemon and thyme and add a dash of cream to the […]
Read MoreIf I’m on my own on Sunday, I often roast a chicken portion. I buy the chickens in the local farmers’ market and joint them and it’s easy to pull one out of the freezer early in the day to defrost. I seem to rarely roast a whole chicken these days; even if I have […]
Read MoreI had a wonderful couple of days at my daughter Nicola’s over Christmas. I hope you had a good Christmas too! Arriving on Christmas Eve, I’d gone up to Birmingham quite early to try to avoid the Christmas rush on the M40. Nicola was busy cooking; Rachael was at work. I acted as sous chef […]
Read MoreYou can take The Single Gourmet Traveller out of Italy and return her to London … but you can’t take Italy out of The Single Gourmet Traveller. I arrived home from wonderful Bologna late Friday night and Saturday I was back eating Italian in a Carluccio Caffe near Russell Square with a friend; today I was […]
Read MoreHaving a birthday over Easter, and particularly on Easter Sunday, has good points and bad points. The bad part was that lots of my favourite places were closed; the good part was that I had my family around for the whole weekend and birthday celebrations started on Saturday evening with a meal at the lovely A […]
Read MoreNigel Slater must be on holiday because I found some Claudia Roden recipes in my Observer Magazine today. And much as I love Nigel’s recipes I couldn’t be disappointed because Claudia is a culinary hero too. The recipes were from her new edition of The Food of Italy to celebrate its publication 25 years ago […]
Read MoreThe sun has been shining and suddenly it’s summer in UK – even though we’re only halfway through March! I bought a chicken at the Twickenham Farmers’ Market yesterday morning and decided to cook a summery tagine flavoured with preserved lemon, fennel and green olives. I’d seen a a recipe I liked the look of […]
Read MoreThere’s some controversy as to whether Twelfth Night is 5 or 6 January but arguments come down in favour of the 5th, stemming from the practice of Christmas celebrations beginning at sunset on Christmas Eve – 24 January – and ending on the 5 January, the eve of the Epiphany, the day when the three […]
Read MoreWhen I was at the wonderful Moro pop-up at Possessed N1’s Supper Club early this month the main dish was a duck fattee with chickpea pilaf, pomegranates, aubergines and walnuts. A fattee is a Lebanese dish in which pitta bread is toasted and crisped in butter then layered with various toppings, ending with some garlicky […]
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