nutty brown bread

Soda type breads are a great way to use up old milk, and don’t need yeast. This recipe comes from an old book of mine entitled the Irish Baking Book – no sign of it on Amazon or anywhere else, but it has a lot of recipes from my childhood in it. I have no…

thai vegetable curry

Using up: butternut squash, green beans, courgette This is vaguely based on a recipe I saw on Come Dine With Me, a television programme here in the UK.  I was very struck by the potato element, which is: One potato, boiled then cut into dice and deep fried.  Set aside for now. Made a paste…

fennel risotto

Using up chicken gravy, feta, salad leaves, fennel Yes, another risotto^H^H rice based dish. These are just a great way to use up vegetables and so forth, and I love the texture – real comfort food stuff. The chicken gravy/stock was left from Sunday’s roast chickie!, and was a much thicker liquor than I’d usually…

green beans with mustards

Another reminder of childhood – my grandparents grew green beans in the garden of their little terraced house in Gosport, on the Hampshire coast.  They trained them up a sort of teepee arrangement of canes, and I can still see their bright red flowers. Riverford sent us a big bunch (were they a bunch?  Well,…

broad bean wrap

Using up: broad beans, cashews in salt and black pepper, salad leaves, roast chicken Riverford brought us broad beans last week (I think these are fava beans in the US).  They’re not something we get excited about, and so they languished in the bottom of the fridge.  Last night I fetched them out and podded…

sunday breakfast

We often have a cooked breakfast on a winter Sunday – although we usually do so much food that we lie groaning on the sofa for the afternoon, and just have some scones or something for supper. We fancied something more substantial than usual today, but we were more restrained – four eggs scrambled with…

Tesco: Nothing will stop them …

“Tesco has been accused of using underhand tactics after it used a local retailer to “front” a planning application for a massive supermarket development. The application for an 80,000 square foot store in Barnstaple, Devon, was submitted in the name of local retailer Brian Ford’s, despite Tesco having acquired the independent retailer a year earlier….

pan gallego

This is a Spanish bread from Galicia.  I made it to use up an ounce of fresh yeast left over from the weekend’s foccacia … 350g strong white bread flour 115g wholemeal bread flour 2 tsp salt (I think this was a bit too much myself) 2 tbsp olive oil 20g fresh yeast 275ml lukewarm…

Tesco being vindictive?

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has tabled a resultion at Tesco’s forthcoming AGM; he duly obtained the statutory support of 100 shareholders and tabled the resolution before the final deadline on 16 May. “[This resolution]. would force it to adopt RSPCA standards or renounce its claim to allow its birds a life free of pain. The motion was…

apricot, almond and lemon sponge pudding

As always, I was looking to use up something; in this instance, a bowl of apricots that were going a bit wrinkly – I sometimes think this blog should be subtitled “reactive cooking”.  In fact, I think I will do just that! [later] And I have, if you look at the address bar! A bit…