How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time by Gill Holcombe: a review
I woke this morning feeling low and dispirited. I haven’t felt inspired in the kitchen for days. After a large mug of tea I reached for Gill Holcombe’s book – How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time. I was looking for inspiration and a much needed lift. We don’t have a family but Danny has a huge appetite. So I follow family recipes. I got this book a few months ago. After a brief enjoyable scan it has lain on the bed, waiting for the intense treatment that it...
read moreSimple Seville orange, ruby grapefruit and lemon marmalade recipe
When I was a decorator I’d often dream about decorating as it was an integral part of my life. I’d often wake exhausted in the morning having been ‘decorating’ all night. Decorating was the backbone to all these dreams overlaid with the classic dramas. Anxiety dreams – would I finish painting the room in the allotted time? Adventure dreams – scaling roofs and walls with a pot of paint and a brush. Travel dreams – decorating around the world. Even frightening dreams – decorating alone in a haunted house. The decorating...
read moreBest recipes for leftovers: Spectacular goose, red pepper and tarragon risotto recipe
“Would you like goose risotto tonight?” “Oh yes please!” We eat a lot of risotto at the cottage. The perfect easy comfort food. What I didn’t mention was the age of the goose. I’d found some last week in our freezer left over from Christmas 2008. It looked a bit stringy and unappetising so I hid it from Danny as it defrosted. Leftover goose – even if it’s been lingering in the freezer for months makes a risotto to die for. It smelt and tasted fine and once it was chopped up and stirred into the risotto it transformed the...
read moreEasy Seville Orange Marmalade recipe
“I want to make a marmalade that looks pretty. Like this.” I pushed our copy of New British Classics by Gary Rhodes across the table. “It looks stunning but it would take hours to remove the pith and cut the peel that fine.” “Not if I poach the oranges à la Delia. I could probably scoop out the pith with a spoon.” I’d been researching making marmalade in depth. Having been brought up in a dark chunky marmalade household I’ve steadfastly continued with the tradition. Assuming that this is the best marmalade. Until last...
read moreRaspberry vinegar recipe
My friend Teresa introduced me to raspberry vinegar. She had made a dressing for a hot goat’s cheese salad using olive oil, raspberry vinegar and honey. It was out of this world – sweet yet tart. A raspberry lover’s dream dressing. The dressing had me searching the shops for raspberry vinegar the next day. As far as I remember it was quite expensive. And after an extended period of over indulgence in warm soft goat’s cheese salads it fell out of favour and got lost on the shelves in the larder. Following the success of the...
read moreSeville Orange and Quince Marmalade recipe
After discovering that Seville orange marmalade wiped quince marmalade off the map I was intrigued. I love the taste of quince jelly and quince marmalade might be good. I had 700g of quince pulp left over from making jelly. Rather than make Membrillo I thought I’d experiment with combining Seville oranges and quinces in a rich marmalade. As there was no recipe to tell me how to do this I had to invent my own. Quinces are harvested in September and Seville oranges appear in the shops in January in the UK. But with the help of a freezer you...
read moreUpdate on the pine needle vinegar
Unless you are a truly dedicated reader of the blog you will have forgotten Hunky, Nirvana and Anne. These were the names for the three different types of pine needle vinegar that we made back in November. Apparently a good pine needle vinegar can taste similar to balsamic vinegar. This vinegar has been maturing in the barn since then. Last night we decided to sample it so I pulled on my boots and searched the preserves shelves with a torch. The first we tried was Hunky. Aptly named as it took Danny a good ten minutes to open the metal...
read moreCalves liver with a delicate Puy lentil sauce recipe
Years ago Danny and I had an unforgettable meal in a Soho restaurant. As far as I remember we were the only customers that evening but the restaurant was designed so that we sat in our own little section – the atmosphere was intimate and the food delicious. The star dish of the evening was calves liver with a sauce of puy lentils. The combination was astonishingly good. Melt in the mouth liver combined with the texture of the lentils was a perfect partnership. I’ve tried to recreate the lentil sauce many times since that memorable meal...
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