The ultimate spaghetti and meatballs recipe in a rich tomato sauce. Slow cooker/crock pot method
“Wow! This is the best spaghetti and meatballs that I’ve ever tasted.” Danny was reaching for seconds before he’d even finished his first portion. Now before you reach for your shopping list I just want to make one thing clear. I have never sampled American spaghetti and meatballs. My recipe tasted pretty good to me too but this recipe is just how I imagined perfect American spaghetti and meatballs should taste. As a child I’m certain that we didn’t eat spaghetti with meatballs. I’ve always thought of it as an American dish....
read moreEasy recipe for Yorkshire puddings – the puffiest in the world
I’ve always been rather proud of my Yorkshire puddings. But this recipe new puts my usual offerings totally in the shade. These puds puff up, keep their shape and are 100% guaranteed to be a success. I was given this recipe by a checkout lady at Tesco many months ago. It is such an easy, no fuss recipe that I didn’t even bother to write down the measurements of ingredients. This weekend I decided to finally test it out. I put the trays into the oven to heat up. It’s well known that the secret of great Yorkshire puds is to have the fat or...
read moreHow to make dried breadcrumbs and a few recipes that use them
90% of people throw out the ingredient for homemade dried breadcrumbs every week. I mean of course stale bread. White bread is best for breadcrumbs and if you include the crusts you will get a good colour in the crumbs. The bread needs to be dried in a warm place for several days before being turned into breadcrumbs. My mum used to have an oven with a slim drawer at the base to store roasting pans and so on – she used to pop hers in there. I put my bread to dry under the grill/broiler pan. We use our grill to make toast in the morning so the...
read moreRecipe for delicious breaded cod and a simple love story
I must have been about five or six years old when I first noticed The Man. We were on holiday in Hunstanton. A favourite family holiday destination when I was a child. My childhood memories are of weeks of sun, shrimp nets and feeling a bit embarrassed about my knitted woollen bathing suit. I hated that knitted suit. When it was wet it would droop in heavy folds towards my feet and the thin straps cut into my shoulders as I exposed my chest to the world. In fact these holidays were just a long weekend and once a whole week. It was during this...
read moreRecipe for sausages baked on a nest of cannellini beans, hot smoked garlic and bacon
There are two ways of smoking food – hot smoking and cold smoking. The difference between them is that hot smoking cooks and smokes the food whilst cold smoking just smokes the food. In the case of garlic, cold smoking preserves the garlic and adds a subtle smoked flavour. Hot smoked garlic is soft and quite delicious – it needs to be vacuum packed to last more than just a few days. Hot smoked garlic has a much milder flavour than ordinary garlic and a wonderful, deep and smoky taste. It’s excellent spread on a piece of toast as...
read moreRecipe for meatballs and spaghetti with red wine, tomatoes and bell peppers. Foolproof slow cooker/crock pot recipes
“Please don’t buy mince again. I just don’t like it.” Danny grumbled out of the kitchen. “But you like spaghetti sauce made with mince! That’s what I bought it for.” The last comment wasn’t exactly true. I wanted to make another cottage pie and Danny had somehow sensed this in the ether. “I know that you liked the cottage pie but I didn’t care for it.” “Oh.” My mum always says that I thrive on a challenge. I was determined to make something utterly delicious with the offending pack of mince. Meatballs sprang to mind...
read moreRecipe for Fiona’s vegetarian cheese and potato pie: delicious hot and even better cold
“What is that wonderful smell, Conchita?” I had just taken my potato and cheese pie out of the oven when Danny arrived back from a day in Birmingham. I knew that he would have already indulged in some fast food so I took a chance this afternoon and worked on a new recipe for cheese and potato pie. Although this is supposed to be very filling, Danny might consider this a snack, as he does pizza. I wonder if he’s the only person in the world that regularly asks for chips as a side dish for pizza? “I did have a burger but give me a shout...
read moreBest shepherd’s pie recipe: leftover roast lamb
As a small child I remember watching my mum mince cold roast lamb using an old metal mincer that was screwed onto the kitchen table. It was magical to watch big pieces of lamb turning into mince. I assume that she was making shepherd’s pie back then. Danny has similar memories too, standing in his big Irish kitchen, watching the mincer in operation – the air full of the smell of freshly baked soda bread. That’s why we both thought that we had to mince our leftover roast lamb to make a shepherd’s pie. Wrong! Thank goodness I had a...
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