Travel tips-Restaurant reviews-Recipes
It’s a few years since I last made a Christmas pudding. And I’ve never actually made many in my life. When I was a child, my maternal grandmother was the Christmas cook, making the pudding and Christmas cake. After she died, my mother started making the pudding and I made the cake. But not many […]
Read MoreMost people are fairly traditional when it comes to food at Christmas. The wonderful and great late cookery writer Jane Grigson wrote: ‘In my experience, clever food is not appreciated at Christmas. It makes the little ones cry and the old ones nervous.’ I think things have changed a little since she wrote that and […]
Read MoreI bought Nigel Slater’s The Christmas Chronicles as early Christmas presents for my son and daughter. But then I decided I liked the book so much, I had to buy a copy for myself! The recipes aren’t just for Christmas, it’s as much a book for the winter, indeed the book’s subtitle is Notes, stories & […]
Read MoreWhen it comes to Italian and Middle Eastern food – which are pretty much what I cook most of the time – I’m quite purist. I like to search for the most authentic recipe, seek out a bit of history for traditional dishes, and will spend time ‘getting it right’ as far as I can. […]
Read MoreIt started with Nigel Slater’s column in the Observer yesterday morning; although you might also say it started over a hundred years ago. For a family that rarely cooks ‘British’ food (perhaps the odd Cottage Pie and only the very occasional roast with Yorkshire pudding) and delights mostly in the tastes of Italy and the […]
Read MoreI first came across fregola in the summer. My lovely local Italian restaurant, Masaniello, uses it to thicken their wonderful fish stew. When I asked what it was, the waiter described it as small pasta, a bit like large couscous. And once you eat it, you understand the description because it has a silky softness […]
Read MoreI had half a large round yellow courgette left over after cooking my pasta dish yesterday. I wanted to do something special with this home-grown vegetable, given to me by my daughter who’d grown it in her garden. To stuff it seemed such an obvious choice because once you’ve cut it in half and removed the seeds from […]
Read MoreIt was lovely to have my daughter Nicola with me for the night, en route from Birmingham to a week-long course in Tunbridge Wells starting this morning. Birmingham to Tunbridge Wells for a 9.00am start isn’t great; Birmingham to Mum’s in Twickenham for a night and supper and on to Tunbridge Wells the next morning […]
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 MoreThere’s been rather a lot of Christmas food about, even for someone who didn’t cook the Christmas dinner and therefore has no turkey leftovers! Thus I felt in need of something completely different tonight, touching on the healthy. I generally eat healthily. In my eclectic working life, part of it is spent as an alternative […]
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