Best recipes for leftovers: duck breast risotto with summer vegetables recipe
I reckon that the best risottos contain a range of textures as well as combination of flavours, This risotto hits the mark on both fronts. We scoffed the lot – even I had seconds. But this could easily feed four, with a starter and a crisp green salad. As it only uses one duck breast this recipe is both economical and tastes divine. At one stage this summer we had four ducks in the freezer. All free range and bought for a song as they were nearing their sell by date. Danny makes a wonderful roast duck stuffed with plums. If we cook this for...
read moreStill laid up but I’ve been bottling foraged fruit
I’m getting to the end of my third week being in bed. Finally last week my doctor discovered that I have a problem with my kidneys. I was beginning to wonder whether I’d just fade away like one of Dicken’s heroines. So now we are waiting for more test results. Meanwhile I languish in the big spare room bed feeling lousy. I get up for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I’ve been out on two mini foraging trips to harvest wild plums and have bottled (canned) six kilos to eat in the winter months. I’ve also been harvesting the chubby...
read moreAnother deluxe cheese on toast recipe
Last night Danny went out for a meal with his brother Mike. “You can have your cheese on toast thing.” Danny thinks of this as a snack but it was a staple supper with me for years. Last night I supplemented the cucumber with thinly sliced raw courgette and used a mild goat’s cheddar. The result was a superb combination of flavours. The trick to this delicious light dish is to grill the layered toast very gently for about 20 minutes until the cheese layer is just melting. Its perfect partner is an ice cold beer. Deluxe cheese on toast...
read moreOrange vinegar
I’ve been warbling on for months about the virtues of lemon vinegar in salad dressing. Last night our lemon vinegar finally ran out and I decided to make some more. It originally came in a dinky quarter carafe with a sturdy cork. I shook out the pieces of fruit, the equivalent of two chunky slices cut lengthwise into eight pieces. Then I removed the pretty label to check the ingredients. I discovered that it was orange white wine vinegar or rather Condimento all’ Arancio, as it was made by Raffaelli in Tuscany, Italy. No wonder it was so...
read moreHow to cook the perfect baby squid recipe
Buying squid in the UK usually means pointing to a pile of tentacles, each with a baby squid inside. As these arrive frozen they are often sold off very cheap at the end of the day. Danny has always been squid master at the cottage. To be quite frank cooking squid seemed to be a bit of a palaver. Grilled (broiled) or fried they needed 20/20 attention. So if I was cooking, I always avoided a squid bargain. A few weeks ago I was shipping with my mum in Waitrose, Cambridge on a Saturday. It was like shopping on a Sunday in Newmarket. Loads of...
read moreBest recipes for leftovers: Crisp potato salad with saffron, salad onions and chives recipe
Danny and I are not Salad People. I don’t know quite what Salad People are – I imagine them chomping quinoa and feeling rather smug about their bowel movements. We tried quinoa once. This summer I have been seducing D with salads and dressings that have made this meat and two veg man finally throw down his fork and rush for the salad seed section of the garden centre. This salad was an experiment that turned out to be a bit of a winner. I’ve been playing with saffron quite a lot over the past couple of months. I decided to slice some...
read moreSam Raithatha’s gently spiced rice (for three)
Danny snaked back from the post run last night holding a Waitrose curry aloft. Like the Olympic torch. “£3.99 down to £1.49. We couldn’t make it for that price,” he beamed. Danny is a chicken Korma sort of guy. He doesn’t like hot, spicy food. “But you only eat mild curries and this is a Vindaloo – look, it’s got a 3 chilli rating.” “Oh.” “Never mind. I’ll whistle up some dishes that will cool down the heat. And we can try Sam’s rice dish.” Apart from having healing hands in common, both Sam and I adore food...
read moreWalnut vinegar recipe
Last year I was a bit late picking walnuts for The Grand Pickled Walnut Challenge. Not wanting to waste the nuts that were clearly far too hard to pickle, I flexed my muscles and cut a few in half. I added these to some white wine vinegar, popped the experiment onto a shelf in the barn and forgot all about it. About a month ago I was searching the shelves for empty vodka and gin bottles to make raspberry liqueur. My hand slipped and the bottle of walnut vinegar smashed on the ground. I managed to wipe a drop onto my forefinger as the vinegar...
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