asparagus and badger risotto*

Ah, asparagus – food of the gods. We eat loads of it when it’s around, but we won’t have imported asparagus, so it’s a short season for us. This serves 2 Take half a bunch or so of English asparagus, trim off the woody bits, slice into 3cm-ish chunks, and blanch for about 5 minutes,…

unseasonal soup

It has rained here (near Bristol, UK) since Sunday, and the forecast says rain as far ahead as I can see (which is next Sunday). And so last night, I made some soup for our lunches. It seems ridiculous, given that it’s almost June, but we were actually sitting watching television last night with a…

drop scones

Having been to Pizza Hut for lunch (first time in many years, and not particularly nice, especially not the (possibly mildly autistic) screaming child at the next table), we didn’t want much for supper. So we had drop scones. 8oz self raising flour 1/2 generous teaspoon of cream of tartar ditto of bicarbonate of soda…

a simple veg stir fry

Stir fries are indeed quick to cook, but they are not necessarily quick to prepare. The secret is to do all the prep first, as the cooking is very swift. For this one: Take one red pepper, some rather tired mushrooms, two courgettes, and chop up as you will. Finely chop ginger and garlic –…

Words. Fail. Me.

This was drawn to my attention by my mate Budley. It has to be a spoof, but it’s a pretty disturbing one. Ewwww. dinnerinabottle.com

what to do with the leftover asparagus

Make an omelette! Three eggs, some asparagus blanched for about 4 minutes, salt, pepper and some shavings of gruyere. Lovely. Had it with home made soda bread – this is a useful recipe, as you can use pretty much any combination of bread flour, and it will work. And it has no yeast, so is…

spring greens with coconut and chilli

A lovely simple dish, very quick to prepare.  We always have it with basmati rice. A bunch of spring greens, sliced thinly – I take the big stalks out too, but it’s up to you 1 tin of coconut milk 1 or 2 dried chillis, depending on your palate – seeds removed ditto, chopped [some]…

rhubarb crumble

As always, bits of this are fairly random.  Serves 4 if they’re not overly greedy. Take 3 good sticks of rhubarb, clean, trim, and chop into chunks.  I do mine in different sizes so you get a different texture when it’s cooked.  Some might say this was accidental, but it’s not.  No really. Put into…

banana and bran muffins

Who stole the muffin? We always have a surfeit of bananas here – Riverford deliver them regularly, and I’m not a big fan.  We generally make banana bread or banana muffins, and I found a new recipe on the back of the bran flake box that I tried out yesterday for breakfast. I suspect they…

asparagus and brie quiche

Somebody on CIX drew my attention to this recipe on Great British Kitchen yesterday.  We had all the ingredients in the house, amazingly, so I thought I’d cook it last night.  Although, I must confess that after an hour and a half of Wii Fit and Sport, I ran out of steam a bit, and…