Lemon Chard Aloo

"The unfortunate thing about working for yourself is that you have the worst boss in the world" - David Eddings When I started this blog I had this rather grand expectation that I would post two or three times a week. That's what they tell you, the internet people. It's what they say you need to do to get anybody to read it. Something about search engine optimisation. It's what you need to do so that you ...

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4 Ingredient Fig & Blueberry Maple Compote

Jump straight to the recipe → Tediously enough, I can't eat most fruits unless they are cooked or meticulously peeled. This is a relatively new development in my life and while I don't expect any sympathy (as medical conditions go it isn't exactly that terrible, is it?), it is still really bloody annoying. Especially so for somebody who is trying to hit their 7 a day target but who is also pathologically lazy. Peeling an ...

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Spicy Sichuan Stir-Fry

"China is a big country, inhabited by many Chinese" - Charles de Gaulle I have always been skeptical of those introductory sections in cookbooks on how to stock one's 'larder' (although I like the implication that we all live in Downton Abbey). The ones that pretend that if you maintain a decent supply of pulses, anchovies, soy sauce and jarred sun-dried tomatoes, you will always be able to rustle up something utterly delicious with whatever decaying ...

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Beetroot, Courgette & Feta Fritters

There are times when parenthood seems nothing more than feeding the hand that bites you" - Peter Vries I don't tend to write much here about what I feed my son. This is very much a deliberate thing. Nutrition is a minefield at the best of times but talking about feeding kids is, in common with 97% of all parenting related matters, just so intensely political that I vowed not to do ...

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leiths, scandinavian

What to do with Beetroot

Jump straight to the recipe ideas → "The beet is the melancholy vegetable, the one most willing to suffer. You can't squeeze blood out of a turnip" - Tom Robbins, Jitterbug Perfume So here's a Thursday factoid for you. The biggest beetroot ever grown weighed 71kg. It was grown by a man in the Netherlands in 2005.  This beetroot therefore weighed just slightly more than Tom Cruise (so the internet tells me. I haven't ...

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david lebovitz chocolate cake dulce de leche

Salted Caramel Molten Chocolate Pots

"I love the smell of juice boxes in the morning" - Robert Duvall I was at a seminar thing recently where one of the speakers was Martha Swift, who turned her home cupcake operation into the hugely successful Primrose Bakery. I asked her whether she thought that her business, and those like it, were being negatively impacted by the War On Sugar that is currently being waged left right and centre. ...

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Vignarola (Roman Spring Vegetable Stew)

"Let’s leave to the English the taste for eating boiled vegetables without any seasonings or at the most with a little butter; we southern types need our food to be a little more exciting" - Pellegrino Artusi (1891) I am suffering from possibly the most middle class complaint of all time. Farmers market envy. Yes, I actually said that out loud.  I keep stumbling upon blog posts with photos from US farmers ...

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What to do with Artichokes

Jump straight to the recipe ideas → "These things are just plain annoying. After all the trouble you go to, you get about as much actual food out of eating an artichoke as you would from licking 30 or 40 postage stamps. Have the shrimp cocktail instead" - Miss Piggy So that 7 a day series I mentioned. A new vegetable each week and all that. Not really happened, has it? I ...

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Incredible No-Knead Bread

 "A lot of people don't eat gluten because somebody in their yoga class told them not to" - Jimmy Kimmel You should make this bread. You really should. Really. That is, of course, if you haven't done so already. Because you probably have. Because, unlike me, you probably don't live in a cave and you found out about this amazing no-work bread technique around 150 years ago. Or at least at some point since 2006 ...

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Diana Henry fennel, feta, almond salad

Fennel, Feta, Orange & Almond Salad {+ thoughts on growing my own veg}

Jump straight to the recipe → "Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are" - Alfred Austin I consider myself to be a fairly logical, rational sort of person. I have become pretty boring since turning 30 and am not prone to random spontaneity or great frivolity these days. But every so often I go through phases where I am sure, convinced in fact, that every idea I have ...

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Donna Hay Pickles

Neon Pickles

“He looks as though he’s been weaned on a pickle” - Alice Roosevelt Longworth (on Calvin Coolidge)* Hello! It’s been a while. Sorry. I won’t pretend I’ve been terribly busy - I mean, some of you actually know me – but you know those weeks when you look up and suddenly it’s Friday and WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ALL WEEK? Well, it’s been a bit like that. And it hasn’t been greatly assisted by my son ...

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A is for Asparagus

"Marriage? It's like asparagus eaten with vinaigrette or hollandaise, a matter of taste but of no importance" - Francoise Sagan  So first up in the 7 a day series is asparagus. Not because it is alphabetically expedient but because it's brilliant and because it has an extremely short season and will be gone again by the end of June. Asparagus basically screams Spring. Arriving after the UK "hungry gap" of March/April where there is ...

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