Oven roasted cheese toasties recipe
“August has been terrible, this year. It seems to have rained every day.” My prospective client stared out of the window into the greyish, damp gloom. I’ve only had outside work for the last few weeks. I know the Met Office site better than our redundant garden table, where we used to eat our supper most summer evenings years ago. This morning I rambled through the blog archives. August was cold and wet last year and 2006 had its low points too. When summer weather turns chilly, an indulgent treat can lift the spirits in just...
read moreLeftovers: Summer Shepherd’s Pie recipe
“Do you like carrots in your shepherd’s pie?” “Yes please!” Danny looked suspicious, “What else are you going to add?” I was planning to cook a traditional British Shepherd’s Pie with the leftovers from a shoulder of lamb. He visibly relaxed. But when I went to the fridge that evening the shelves were bare. For weeks Danny had been stockpiling carrots, buying every bag that he found on the Tesco condemned food counter. At one stage the fridge was bursting with them and I’d considered making...
read moreIndulgent treats: Prawns, spinach and crème fraîche linguine
A couple of years ago we became addicted to Tessa Kiros’ recipe for linguine with prawns and asparagus. Delicious and almost worth crawling the five miles to Newmarket to buy the ingredients. Tonight we decided to eat Clare’s scrumptious quick spinach and prawn gnocchi recipe and then I spotted that we had some linguine in the larder. “Let’s try Clare’s recipe but use the linguine rather than buy gnocchi.” Linguine is the perfect pasta for soaking up a sauce. Danny has a horror of what he describes as...
read moreLeftovers: Spicy new potatoes and cabbage on the side recipe
I’m not a great one for being imaginative about small leftovers. They are usually shoved into the dogs as a relish on the top of their complete dog food. In the past I used to put them into small bowls, hoping for inspiration and they would be forgotten as they were gradually pushed to the back of the fridge. Danny calls these “offerings to the fridge gods” as he removes them two weeks later. Now I’m enjoying using up everything that I can. The little scrappy handfuls are the most fun to transform into something that...
read moreThe slow cooker chef: low fat summer vegetable and bean casserole recipe
So many vegetarian recipes are high in fat with an emphasis on cheese and eggs. These ingredients can pull a flagging recipe round in seconds. We sometimes eat these dishes – the cheese and eggs make tham tasty, I’m cooking for an alpha carnivore foodie after all. Last night I woke at three a.m. and mulled. Surely, with a bit of thought, I could make veggie food that’s low fat and delicious. This morning I opened an eye to the promise of thunderstorms. I was suddenly kitchen bound as I’m working on an outside job at the...
read moreThe Pickled Walnuts project. Stage one.
“What on earth are you doing, Fiona?” I was sitting on the floor on a large plastic sheet, wearing rubber gloves and stabbing green walnuts on an old bread board with a carving fork. No wonder Tessa was intrigued. I’ve been desperate to get my hands on some green walnuts for years. About 10 days ago I spotted some on a friend’s tree. It was just at the end of the picking green walnuts season. “Take all you like but hurry or they’ll be too hard to pickle.” She picked one and sliced it firmly with a...
read moreLow fat Saag Aloo recipe
“A typical meal at home doesn’t consist of a main course and vegetables. Rather a pot of rice and a lot of side dishes,” Danny’s friend Dipak confided, a year or so ago. I remembered the remark this week. Had I started making side dishes for curries and frozen some portions, I would now have a selection in the freezer for mid week meals. On days when I long to reach for the telephone and order a takeaway. I make a good raita but this has to be run up and eaten immediately. Why not add some other dishes to the freezer...
read moreCauliflower and broccoli cheese with socks on recipe
I’m not keen on naked cauliflower but cauliflower cheese has been a staple for years. Somehow dressing the cauli in a cheese sauce and grilling the top transmogrifies the ingredients into something delicious. Or so I thought before I presented my old traditional version to Danny with a flourish. He wasn’t overly impressed. “Can we have it with baked potatoes next time? It’s not really a proper meal on its own. More of a snack.” This was a bit of a body blow. D is very particular about his baked potatoes. His...
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