Language evolves, nouns turn to verbs. Recent Olympics have given us to medal, now from Covid we have to bubble. Not as in sparkling wine or simmering stock, but to enter a bubble. Even before the great easing of 4 July, and the free-for-all as sure as eggs is eggs to precede it, we were…Continue reading The Joy of Bubbling
Category: Eating In
Guardian Recipes for a Meat-free Month
Meatfree January is now a big thing. It’s actually a habit we’ve had for several years. We don’t have any major ethical motivations, it’s just that we eat so much meat in December and it feels right to rebalance. And we find that the habits of midweek non-meat-eating stay with us through much of the…Continue reading Guardian Recipes for a Meat-free Month
Thoughts on Festive Food
In the midst of the onslaught of cooking that accompanies Christmas, I have been pondering why many of us seem so fixed on offering a static, unchanging menu – whether just the main event or a sequence of meals over a few days – despite the inducements of magazines, newspapers and TV shows. And why,…Continue reading Thoughts on Festive Food
A South African Braai: Two Dishes from Chef Reuben
Reuben Riffel is not well-known in the UK (although he did work in Cambridge in the early 2000s), but in South Africa he is regarded as the king of the braai or barbecue. Reuben – he seems usually to be known only by his first name – did come to British attention earlier this year…Continue reading A South African Braai: Two Dishes from Chef Reuben
Peas Please – Two Recipes for new season’s peas
Last weekend was another of those food milestones that mark the year’s progress: the first English peas. And the crop from Puntarelle in Bermondsey Spa Terminus was great – plumper than expected for this early in the season, but sweet as they should be. I had to stop myself popping as many into me as…Continue reading Peas Please – Two Recipes for new season’s peas
Asparagus is not just for weekends – Two asparagus suppers
We eat asparagus as much as we can during its fleeting season – for weekend starters, for brunch and for midweek suppers too. Here are two recent supper dishes. One of these goes back pretty much to the start of my interest in cooking, the other is a new take on asparagus risotto. Asparagus…Continue reading Asparagus is not just for weekends – Two asparagus suppers
Weekday Soups for Winter
Spiced Vegetable Soup Spicy Chard Soup with feta-Sourdough Dumplings A benefit of going meat-free in January is that it makes us more creative about midweek cooking. One consequence is that we eat more soup – substantial soups that we make in big quantities and eat over more than one day. Should we do this…Continue reading Weekday Soups for Winter
A first guest in meatless January
Cream of Watercress Soup Celeriac & Salsify Salad with Boiled Lemon Aioli Cod with Shellfish, Garlic & Parsley Butter, Sauté Potatoes, Kalettes Time to get this blog back on the road… In January, we try not to eat meat. We stick to vegetarian on weeknights and veggie or fish at weekends. We have no…Continue reading A first guest in meatless January
BBQ Lamb – Garlic or No Garlic?
One of our most regular summer barbecue main courses is a butterflied leg of lamb, marinated in thyme, rosemary, lemon and chilli plus – but here’s the issue that we’ll get on to – garlic. Of all the barbecue dishes we do, this probably counts as my favourite, perhaps because of its simplicity. I loosely follow…Continue reading BBQ Lamb – Garlic or No Garlic?
Farewell Asparagus. Welcome Broad Beans
Gratinated Asparagus Oven-Roasted Chicken with Sumac, Pomegranate Molasses, Chilli & Sesame Seeds Lightly-Stewed Broad Beans, Peas and Gem Lettuce Turkish Spiced Pilaf In hindsight, since I was cooking the day after the referendum result, we should have eaten a plate from each of the other 27 EU countries, plus one for Scotland and one for Northern…Continue reading Farewell Asparagus. Welcome Broad Beans