10th July 2014

 

So, working from home today.  Before I started I had time to make a couple of loaves of bread, dead head some geraniums and think about what super powers being bitten by a radioactive ladybird would give me.  Not entirely sure I want a large gaily-coloured carapace and the ability to eat my body weight in aphids every day so let's just hope it doesn't happen.   Anyway just before I start my daily grind, I thought I'd share my basic bread recipe with you... I haven't gone into techniques etc as there are plenty of good resources out there already... Look in the "Other Stuff" section. 

 

Also managed to get my Chilli Con Carne recipe up.  Groovy.

 

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Stop The Press!  I have also had a stab at a resources page, which will tell you about many and diverse books and websites.  Well eventually.

 

 

28th June 2014

 

Hey, how's it going?  Me?  Well seeing as you ask so nicely I'm taking advantage of waking up at 4 in the a.m. with a chronic hay-fever attack to do a bit of an edit.  It's only been 9 months since the last one but you can't have too much of a good thing.

 

We've had summer in the UK.  Two glorious weeks of warm sunny weather!  I took advantage of this boon to use our BBQ as much as possible.   I was bought a rather good book last Christmas: The Barbecue! Bible by Steven Raichlen.  I saw his series on one of the obscure Sky channels and he really knows his stuff.   I think the thing that stands out for me about this book is that it is almost a global cookbook but aimed at, as you can guess, cooking on an outdoor grill.  He covers all the techniques and methods in early chapters and then goes on to describe hundreds of recipes.  The whole book is written in a very engaging style, with plenty of stories of Steven's travels and how he first discovered some of the recipes.  Each recipe itself is written very methodically, starting by describing which cooking method to use and BBQ temperature. It's also rather inspiring and I found myself using it to make the most of the predicted weather and plan each day ahead.  Strangely enough, it also made me a lot more confident about BBQing (or grilling to be precise).  Did it change my life and make me a better, more contented person?  Just maybe...

 

So, no new recipes in this update but I am collecting some to put up soon.  Also I want to make a few changes to the site, such as having this blog bit as the opening page, so it is easier to see additions. I'm also going to sort out a resources section full of links to books and websites I use, won't that be fun? But for now I am off to play some early morning LOTRO.  Or maybe learn how to use an editing tool so I can move away from Wix :o)

 

Have a good one!

 

 

30th September 2013

 

Happy Birthday to my sister, Lizzy!

 

Now that frivolity is out of the way where shall I start?  Why have I not updated this site in seven months?  Because I'm lazy.   So what's been going on in my crazy life?  Well we've tried the 5:2 fasting diet and I discovered that having only 600 calories a day makes me extremely toxic and hazardous to those I come into contact with, so we gave that a miss after a few weeks.  Seems like people either love it or hate it.

 

The upside to it was the book which we got to help us: The Fast Diet Recipe Book.  There are some pretty good meals in there for a scant amount of calories. I guess the other points to make would be that it has got us to look at portion sizes again – and shrink them obviously.  Again, I think common sense rules the day.

 

I can also recommend Rick Steins latest book Rick Stein's India.  I really enjoyed the series and the book doesn't disappoint either, with plenty of great things to try.  I always judge an Indian cookbook by the fact that I don't recognise any of the recipes in there from our local curry house menu.  Anglicised curries are great, don't get me wrong, but it's nice to try something authentic.  If there is such a thing as authenticity in food.

 

I've been getting into baking a bit recently.  I have recently made both cookies and muffins and it's not as scary as I thought it would be.  My main two problems are I'm used to handling bread dough and cake mix behaves counter intuitively – if you try to knead it, it runs off the counter and onto the floor.  I also don't have much of a sweet tooth, so I don't really get excited about it.  That said, I'm going to keep at it.  I want to learn to make profiteroles damnit!  And it seems that offering sugary things to the people at work placates them...

 

Finally, this update has four new recipes:  Chocolate Cranberry Brownies, Flatbreads, Mango Coconut Curry and a rather spendid Marrow Chutney.   Hopefully you'll like them.

 

Stay tuned for another update in May!

 

Stop Press!  I was in the mood so I have also just added Zhoug.  You can thank me later.

 

 

14th Febuary 2013

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Happy new year!  And have Happy Valentines Day as well while I'm in a good mood.   Was asked at work today if I'm going to put more recipes up, and I will be shortly.  I'll be posting some bread recipes and maybe some middle eastern delights, so keep coming back.  The other reason for posting is the whole meat scandal.   There is nothing I can say that you already don't know.  If we pay £2 for a chicken or £1 for a "beef" lasagne then we must expect corners (and bridles) to be cut somewhere.  These people are in in for profit, what do we expect?  We should happily pay more for good quality meat, where animal welfare has been given a high priority and providence can be determined.  This will cost us more money, so simply eat less of it.   I genuinely hope this whole kerfuffle will do nothing but strengthen the foody movement and get more people caring about what they stick in their mouths.  Stop sniggering at the back.   Eat some chickpeas damnit, they won't kill you!

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It's all good :-)

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30th December 2012

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​Well, the year is drawing to a very welcome close and it won't be long before we find ourselves being disappointed by spring.  To cheer you all up I have posted my crayfish paella recipe.  It's got crayfish in it and it's a paella.  The photo is actually one I took myself, long live Instagram!    All of my staple recipes are pretty much up here now and if there is one thing I manage to do next year it's increase my repertoire.  If there are two things that I manage to do next year it will be to increase my repertoire and to be a bit more elegant and less rustic.  That and bring about the collapse of civilisation with my army of robot conches.  Have a good New Year's Eve and see you back here soon!

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25th December 2012

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​Merry Cristmas, mortals!  It's half six in the evening and the turkey is nearly done so will keep this brief.  Really just had to post about an amazing foody book Sam bought me: Jerusalem.   The city is a mind blowing mixture of cultures and history and the book really brings it all to life.  I spent most of the afternoon reading it and salivating over the recipes!  I'll keep you posted as I venture forth into the middle east :-)  Apart from that got a new oven stone which I have been playing with... really good for baking flatbreads on and a rather cool Boba Fett figurine who will be coming to work with me.  Right, I'm off to peel some spuds.  Keep it real people!

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25th November 2012

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Been hiding from the weather today and feeling rather glad I live on top of a hill. Made a nice Kedgeree last night using kipper fillets. I'll type it up and get it on here when time allows. Realised I'm almost out of quite a few spices so need to do another online shop,  I use Spices of India.  They have a massive range or spices, herbs utensils etc  and provide a brilliant service.  Also much better value for money than buying those silly little glass jars from your supermarket.  Go and have a look.  Now.

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Still trying to work out what to do with the trout tonight.  Definitely going to pan fry it, leaning towards some form of couscous now though and maybe a bit of fennel and cumin on the wee beasties.  We shall see.

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I've started tweeting, the usual nonsense that people write up I guess.  The upshot is I don't have to update this blog so often and the entire world can see What I Had For My Dinner as it actually happens, splendid!  While on the subject of blogging, better tell you I have posted my meatloaf recipe up.  I believe you may wish to try it, I created it especially for you...​

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17th November 2012

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OK so two new recipes posted today: Kefalonian Meat Pie and Lamb Rogan Josh.  Both are rather lovely, however I have to say my heart belongs to the meat pie.  Had it earlier this year in Kefalonia and I think I've pretty much captured how it tasted,  Try it and let me know what you think (That means you Miss Woolley).  Have also added one of Sam's, Beef Stifado.  Very good stuff indeed.

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I've also now changed all the recipes to the new format which is a bit cleaner.  Still not perfect but it will have to do! Gyros for dinner tonight, so I'm off to chill with a pint of Marson's Old Empire.

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By the way, I ended up using a portion of the hamhock I mentioned last time in a spontaneous vindaloo.  Vinegar, chilli, tomato.  It was fantabulous!  Now if only I hadn't been drinking and had bothered to write the complete recipe down...

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Be kind to badgers.  You never know when you might need one.

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11th Novmber 2012

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Word up my fine fellow hominids!

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So thanks for the feedback I have been given about this site so far...

Jools - I shall be hunting down spelling errers (do you see what I did there, was it not clever?).  Could people let me know where they see any?
Jo A.- Thanks for the advice on my excessive wordiness... I shall try harder :-)  I'm going to try splitting out the ingredients element and broken the recipe into stages.
Mr Kendall – Thank you for enlightening me on the Evils Of  HTML 5.

Mostly today I have been cooking a ham hock. It's been bubbling away in a pan for three hours and I have no idea what it will be like, or even what to do with it when it's cooked.  I've put some carrots, celery, bay, peppercorns, cloves and cardamom pods in to keep it company.   Smells good but then so does petrol and tarmac.  Mmmmmm tarmac.

Meanwhile, I have also got some haddock fillets marinating in olive oil and a blend of hot and smoked paprika.  Might do a paella tonight and gently combine them in at the last minute.

Will be putting some more recipes up today as well, including the fantabulous Tserepa Chicken!

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5th November 2012

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OK, so the new website is coming along nicely.   Well I think so anyway - it is what it is.  I still can't quite decide how to present the recipes.  At the moment I have a copy of the home page with sub pages if you click the button.  May change that later as it doesn't seem to work that well on an iPad.  I'm also struggling to find decent photos of the recipes on the Interweb, I've started taking my own as I cook them.  However until the day when I have them all, I have taken to, ahem, borrowing photos from other sites.  Shhhhh don't tell anyone!

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Hopefully unless I get bored, which does happen, I will get all of my recipes up here and start to actually get some use from it!

On  foody note I cooked M'choui last night, using lamb shoulder.  It's is a Moroccan dish of slow cooked lamb with a spiced butter marinade, really good stuff.  Took longer than anticipated, about 3.5 hours all in all, and the lamb did dry out on the edges slightly but that gave a rather nice crispy contrast to the tender bits in the middle.  Served with some couscous - bliss.  I'll get the recipe up as soon as possible!

I tend to stay away from lamb shoulder as it's very fatty, but for that length of cooking time, the fat had rendered out completely.  I shall be revisiting The Shoulder Of The Lambs again.  I'm working out how to do a lamb donner.
I also need to get around to making Kefalonian meat pie form my recent holiday there - henceforth to be known as The Great Eating Of Beasts.  So much to cook, so little time and I'm sure there is something I am supposed to remember...

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