No-Cook Apple, Date and Onion Chutney Recipe
Our old friend, Kate Auty, makes this excellent chutney every year. It does not have to be cooked at all. In fact all you do is mince, mix and leave to mature. If you can leave the chutney longer than three months it will continue to improve. We let a jar mature for a year, it is treasured and strictly for family consumption. It’s great for children to make, under supervision. By the time it has matured for three months the daily bleat of, “Is it ready yet?” has died down completely and they have forgotten that it is lurking...
read moreMy favourite Min Pin. Dr Quito D.Phil (Buda).
Dr Quito is my favourite dog. He is the steadiest, kindest dog that I’ve ever lived with. He was the first pup that we chose together. And as Danny says, “Our best boy.” When he arrived as a tiny eight week old pup Danny insisted that he slept beside our bed. He’d let Quito drift off to sleep on our pillows before lifting him gently in his palm and tucking him up in the half avocado box that was his basket at the time. At 10 months old he had a terrible accident on the Newmarket Gallops. He was coursed by a lurcher. The...
read moreMoving to the country (part one)
Gazing out of the back door this morning into the garden and the pouring rain, I remembered the first autumn that I spent in this part of the world. Twenty three years ago I threw up my fast paced life in London, sold my flat and moved to the country. My small house had been converted from some loose boxes and overlooked a working livery stable. I thought that the outlook would be perfect as there would always be something going on. But tiny figures trotting past my window soon lost their charm when summer came and the smell of muck wafted...
read moreThe best crispy baked potatoes that I’ve ever tasted
These poatoes in their jackets are superb. This simple recipe must be the fastest, easiest and tastiest base for any busy midweek meal. Pop them in the oven and forget about them for an hour. I’ve cooked baked potatoes for years and they’re definitely comfort food for me. It took me ages to twig that the secret of great baked potatoes is in the skin. The timing in this recipe is as important as the spicy rub. To eat them at their crispiest they mustn’t hang about in the oven past their cooking time as this softens their...
read moreShopping with Hitler
Rushing around Waitrose this afternoon with only twenty minutes to do the big shop, I spotted that the barbecue section is now dedicated to Christmas. Today, I didn’t have time to potter there. Each year I’m attracted by the pretty pots of apricots in brandy until I see exactly how much brandy they contain. I’m a bit sniffy about the “gift” selections, such as the miniature bottle of whisky sitting cosily beside a decent sized tumbler or the two Chinese bowls with chop sticks, nuzzling a bottle of soy sauce for...
read moreGrowing shallots
I love this time of year, everything winding down from the rush of the summer. A sunny day seems so much more precious now that the days are shorter. I was down in our kitchen garden this morning planning to lift two rows of shallots. I knew that I should have lifted them in August but assumed that they would be happy to be left in for a few more weeks. It was difficult to spot them at first as the nasturtiums have romped across half the vegetable patch. When I did find them they were disappointingly small and had started to sprout. What a...
read moreGrape Jelly recipe
When I first came here I planted a spindly grape vine on a trellis at the back of the pond garden. This was part of a master plan to disguise a neighbour’s rusty corrugated iron fence. I was purely interested in the look of the vine. Large leaves through the summer and decorative gnarled stems in the winter. Pottering by the pond last summer, I spotted a tiny bunch of grapes peeking out from under a vine leaf. Closer inspection revealed a mini harvest of grapes, puny but fat and dark. Thrilled with the prospect of making wine with our...
read moreOverwhelmed by fruit flies. Time for ‘Baked Bananas in Rum’ recipe
When I got back this evening, Danny was muttering about the fruit flies in the kitchen. Unfortunately one had taken a nosedive into his whisky. He paced the room looking for the source of the invasion. Could it be the tomarillos, the wild plums, the carrier bags of grapes, the tiny greengages that Jocelyn and I had picked on Wednesday that were ripening on the side? I nervously pointed to a bag of elderly bananas that were sitting on the wood-burning stove, just behind his chair. Danny just laughed and asked, gently, “Why do you keep on...
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