Baked pork chops with summer vegetables and white wine recipe
“I’ve always been suspicious of those.” I was reaching for some Romano peppers. Curious, I glanced round. The lady beside me was smiling. No one ever talks to me in the supermarket, apart from the staff at the checkout. In an elongated split second I twigged that she was probably chatty, not mad. “Are they very hot?” She queried. “No, they have delicate flavour. Light years beyond the bell pepper.” We talked for a few minutes. Her daughter had flung a pork chop into the garden at seventeen and...
read moreCraster Kippers
It was years before I twigged that kippers are smoked herrings. I’ve never been keen on herrings but I’d attempt a cartwheel in return for a couple of kippers. It would have to be two kippers. When it comes to a kipper you just can’t share. We have Craster Kippers for breakfast on a Sunday. This is the most relaxed breakfast of the week. Comparing notes over the newspapers and savouring every gram of flesh from our kippers. The dogs enjoy the skins. Over the years we have tried many different kippers and consistently the...
read moreTransform your pastry scraps into delicious cheesy biscuits
Optimistically, I always save my pastry scraps to make these melt in the mouth cheesy biscuits. They usually lurk in the back of the fridge and are forgotten. Danny eventually hoofs the bag of tired pastry scraps and I feel really bad. We have missed out on a superb delicacy. Today I was more galvanised and made the biscuits whilst I was waiting for a tart to bake. These biscuits are simple to make and everyone loves them. They are a delicious appetiser before a supper party. At other houses they have been served at the end of a meal in lieu...
read moreA quiche in tart’s clothing. Tasty Spinach and Cornish Yarg Tart recipe
“I do hope this quiche is tasty,” I carelesly remarked as we sat down for lunch. Danny was just about to sample my concoction and paused fork in air. “You said it was a tart.” “Well, yes. It is a tart.” I had slipped up. Danny won’t eat quiche, but he’ll wolf down tart. “Isn’t a quiche supposed to be bland?” “Of course not. People wouldn’t eat them if they were bland.” “Well most men don’t eat them. This is definitely a tart.” He cut himself...
read morePotato salad recipe
I love a good potato salad. Jersey Royals were half price on Saturday. They were ideal. Unpackaged, mud still clinging to the skins. I got home and decided to have a sniff on the internet for a good recipe. I was looking for something simple yet chic. My mum was coming to lunch and, to be quite honest, I wanted to impress her. I found a great potato salad recipe on Delia Online involving lemon and olive oil vinaigrette and loads of spring onions. I had bought three quarters of the amount of potatoes but made the full amount of sauce. While the...
read moreJudy’s recipe for elderflower and lime jellies
My sister has just come back from France. She was visiting friends who have retired and moved there. She came back bursting with sun and stories and this recipe. I halved the amount. It filled three 100ml glasses. I used two small limes as I reckoned that the limes in France would be bigger than those that I found in Waitrose this evening. Our flowering elderflower heads are small – clearly young, first of the season. So I used what I thought would be the equivalent of 2.5 large French heads. This was the final course of a snacky lunch...
read moreHow to cook perfect poached eggs
We’re very keen on a cooked breakfast at the cottage. This is now largely restricted to the weekend. Our chickens give us a good supply of fresh eggs. We used to buy our bacon in 1 kilo packs. A dangerous move as the great slab like pack looked so inviting that we had bacon sandwiches most mornings. A delicious way of jumping a couple of dress sizes in a year. Now I buy just enough bacon for the weekend. Poached eggs have been a favourite with me since I could say “egg”. I always thought that you had to have a special poached...
read moreAsparagus, haddock and prawn risotto recipe
It was my turn to cook tonight. On the way down to Essex this morning, I decided to cook kedgeree. I had found some traditionally smoked Haddock in the freezer. The bag looked small so I poked about for something else. We had the remains of a pack of uncooked tiger prawns. Danny is 54.5% keen on kedgeree as a supper dish, this might tip him over to 64.5%. Especially if he had a starter of asparagus. On the journey home I changed my mind and decided to make an asparagus and smoked haddock risotto. Everything would be in the one dish. The...
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