Category: Store Cupboard Ingredients
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Focaccia (and a heat wave)
The heat wave came without warning. I can’t really say the same for the focaccia though. That came from an all-consuming craving and addiction for salt-crusted cushion-soft bread, and no matter how many heat waves we suffer, there will always be a focaccia in this house. I have not experienced many heat waves in my […]
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Pear, chocolate and hazelnut scones
There’s been a week’s intermission from blogging and from France, but I can offer you some pear, chocolate and hazelnut scones as compensation, dear reader. I don’t look like a French native. My cheeks are almost ruddishly pink – something even my dad pointed out recently in a fairly critical manner (‘why are your cheeks […]
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Strawberry-miso French toast muffins
We have all heard of French toast. But French toast muffins? With strawberry and miso? What is this madness? Last weekend, I hosted a brunch. This wasn’t my first foray into breakfast parties as I’d cooked a spread of pancakes for my 26th birthday, and we all got drunk on Bloody Marys. As usual I […]
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The ultimate tuna melt
In my opinion, lunchtimes don’t get any better than a tuna melt, full of molten cheese. But can such perfection be improved? Nostalgia is a peculiar thing. Flavour is a major culprit. Just the smell of certain foods can transport us back to our childhoods – whether it’s a snack, drink or particular ice cream, […]
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French cooking: Tartiflette
I’ve eaten an eye-watering amount of processed meat recently. They say a diet of processed meat is bad for you, but when push comes to shove, I bet whoever ‘they’ are would submit to that meat coma with the rest of us. I emerged from this pork-induced fog after eating four-days’ worth of rillettes, saucisson, […]
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French cooking: Cherry clafoutis
And so, finally, six months later, I’m back in France! It’s almost unbelievable to think the last time I saw my boyfriend was on a dark, wet morning in December as he dropped me off at the airport, our last kiss between two face masks. At long last – Christmas, a birthday, and, oh yeah, […]
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Rice pudding pancakes
At the beginning of this little hiccup known as Covid, panic descended on the world’s population and people stormed the supermarkets. A natural instinct, sure, although I still can’t understand the toilet roll wipe-out but that’s for another day. In the general rush of stockpiling, everyone went mad for tinned goods, just in case we […]
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Caramelised onion and feta galette
Lunches are never easy. You open the fridge and hope something delicious jumps out, provocatively dancing the salsa, shaking the tubs of parmesan and olives like maracas. After a year of this working-from-home madness, I repeat, A YEAR, I decided to bake a caramelised onion and feta galette which I had been threatening to do […]
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Cauliflower, pine nuts, salsa verde
I made a cauliflower dish for lunch the other day. It was roasting in the oven, the salsa verde was patiently resting, the pine nuts were on the right side of toasted, when I looked in the fridge to see what else I could grab for us to eat alongside. Aside from a wedge of […]
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Babaganoush
Pyromania is a curiosity we all possess. We all went through that worrying childhood phase of literally playing with fire (I refuse to believe I was the only one) and I think a love of cooking is simply an extension of that. Take blowtorching something for instance. It really is a dangerous tool to give […]