The slow cooker chef: Carnivores on a budget soup recipe
Cayenne pepper is not something I have used very much over the years. In fact, until last week, we were using a jar that I had bought when I moved into my first flat in 1979. It was just sprinkled on egg mayonnaise as a garnish. It still smelt spicy to me. Cayenne seems to be a handy ingredient for vegetarian dishes so in two weeks we used the final 95% of the small vintage canister. When I opened a new jar I instantly twigged that we were dealing with a much livelier beast. I was using our new slow cooker to make soup for Danny’s lunch...
read moreBlogs worth visiting: Moonroot
I was back from work late and by the time I had made a tasty cauliflower blue cheese and bacon melange, Danny had given up and repaired to bed. Deeply asleep, shoes on. So the laptop was my companion at suppertime. I already had a post written for the blog tonight. But when I reviewed the last few, I saw that they were all about food. So I opened up Google Reader for inspiration, a nifty piece of software that lets me see who has recently posted on their blog in seconds. I spotted that Moonroot had written a post. This blog is intriguing....
read moreGuest spot: Sauce Maker by Rodney Tibbs
I recently met Rodney at a dinner party. Like us he is a foodie. He has been a journalist for over 50 years and is still a motoring correspondent. We have just discovered that we live in the same village. Sauce Maker There are some things in the kitchen that are so useful you worry that they might break and leave you floundering. In my case that thing is so rare that I wonder how other people manage without it. I am talking about the Tefal sauce maker or “Le Saucier”. I was reminded of this when I read of your efforts with Bechamel...
read moreAnne Mary’s recipe for Magimix pastry
I learnt how to make pastry at school. I didn’t enjoy the experience. It seemed to take forever. I think that I made it for Smart Wife. Once. Heavy ponderous stuff that shrank alarmingly away from the sides of the quiche dish when baked blind and guaranteed a soggy bottom. Light years later I discovered Jusrol. Not having a rolling pin or a board I rolled it out on my worktop using an empty wine bottle. Perfect. But not quite as perfect as the pre-rolled Jusrol. I had inherited a rather dashing rolling pin by the time I found the long...
read moreFarmer’s marrow rum recipe update
Marrows were half price in the supermarket last weekend. I hovered by the stand, wickedly tempted. It wasn’t the prospect of stuffed marrow that had this magic effect. We have completed stage one of our marrow rum experiment. It has finally been transferred to a demi john and is now skulking in the airing cupboard. It smells delicious, just like rum. Suddenly I joined those triumphant Neanderthals who discovered they had inadvertently made something delicious. When I appeared in The Rat Room with a very long plastic bucket and a marrow...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: Tasty steak and kidney pie recipe for alpha carnivores
As the mention of steak and kidney led me to buy our slow cooker, there had to be a ceremonial christening of the beast with meat. Last Saturday I motored into Newmarket to buy the essential ingredients for this mission. I had two alternatives on my list – oxtail or steak and kidney. “Well I’ve got both, so which would you prefer?” Smiled our excellent butcher, Fred Fitzpatrick. I dilly dallied as both were equally tempting. I finally plumped for steak and kidney. Having chomped through several vegetarian days, just...
read moreHyacinths
It’s my T.S. Eliot time of year. Three large blue hyacinths loll beside the laptop on the kitchen table. Their scent is as overwhelming as the weight of their waxy flower heads. My old edition of Eliot’s complete poems is just out of reach. Slim and tempting and almost as worn as the hands that turn the pages. The book now smells musty. I have opened its covers and dived in for nearly thirty years. The long intermittent journey has been more startling and intriguing than most. Hyacinths and The Waste Land are a heady mix. This...
read moreSkinflint soup recipe: broccoli stalk, last week’s courgettes and post Christmas Stilton combine and rule
I hate throwing out the thick broccoli (calibrese) stalks. The Penultimate Paramour used to chop them and use them in stir fries but they always tasted a bit rough and to be quite honest, stalky. They are tough miniature tree trunks and probably needed a bit more time than a quick whisk in a hot pan. This morning I tottered downstairs. Before you could say “bacon sandwich” I was chopping an onion. I had an hour before leaving for work. The broccoli stalk was going to be the heart of a tasty soup. Poking about in the fridge I found...
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