We live in a caramelised age. Increasingly everything in western cooking must be fried hard. Maillard reaction is prized over succulency. I have been mulling this over in my mind for a while but it was brought to focus last night when I went to a Wellington Malaysian restaurant and ordered Hainanese chicken on rice….
Category: food
Life : The Garden Summer 23/24
I have been putting a lot of effort into the garden this year. During the warmer months each year I tend to spend a lot of time in the garden . This year in addition to the normal veg cultivation I have embarked on a compost project and I have started using the no dig…
Food : Prawns , Feta, Fennel and Orzo
It’s interesting how Christmas Traditions start. There is something about the Pagan then Christian ritual of Christmas that seems to encourage us to do and eat and drink things in a ritualistic way as well for sustenance and hedonism. This warmed salad of prawns, feta, fennel and peppers tossed through barley shaped orzo pasta has…
Food : Bamberg Onions and Obatzda
I have been in a German frame of mind recently. We are running a small Oktoberfest and we have brewed an Oktoberfest lager and our annual rauchbock . These two food recipes both are inspired by Schlenkerla who amazingly post recipes to some of the dishes in the tavern on their website, you can find…
Food : Black Country Faggots
“Faggots remind me of the less-comfortable pubs that are better for it: hard, dark-wood bench seating, whitewashed walls and a low ceiling, a small crackling fire and the low murmur of locals leaning against the bar. I come alone and like a corner table and a pint of bitter with a pickled egg. The faggots…
Cider : Wassail
Every year on the first or second Saturday of July I celebrate wassail. What the hell is wassail? Well it is a couple of things. There are broadly two traditions of wassail both of which would occur on either the eve of the feast of epiphany or on the old pre Georgian calendar Twelvey Night….
Food : Cabbage Rolls
Lahanodolmades, Töltött káposzta , Szárma, Balandėliai , Halubcy , Golubtsy ,Gołąbki, Holubtsi , Kāpostu tīteņi , Holubky , Holishkes , Prakas , Krouv Memula , Kåldolmar, Kaalikääryle , Kapsarull, Japrak , Sarma, Сарма , Japrak , Јапрак , Punjeni kupus , Arambašići, Сарми, Sarmale , Lahana dolması, sarması, Kələm dolması, Kaghambi tolma (կաղամբի տոլմա) ,…
Food : Scotch Eggs
A descendent of the Mughal Nargesi kebab of Lucknow? The creation of the Fortum and Mason Department Store in London? Originally made with minced fish in Whitby ? There are many theories about the origin of the Scotch Egg. Personally I choose the Nargesi origin, hard to look at these Indian kofta with boiled eggs…
Food : Baechu-kimchi
This my basic Kimchi recipe. I make large batches as I have extensive fridge space and I make for a friend as well as for myself. You can of course scale it down. For me the game changer to fermented veg method has been topping the ferments with water. Most recipes say you have to…
Food : Königsberger Klopse
An old Prussian recipe for aromatic veal, pork, anchovy meatballs simmered in a tart caper broth which is then turned into a sauce with the addition of herbs and sour cream. The meatballs buck our contemporary obsession with frying everything and are deliciously succulent as a result. The broth self-thickens from the flour the meat…
Raise the Dawn 