Category: Vegetarian
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The Best Picnic Food
Like buying an ice cream or building sandcastles, picnics are a rite of passage for the summer. Eating outdoors is a novelty, especially in this cloudy little country, so we grab those warm afternoons and evenings with both hands, venture outside and load our paper plates high. Summer essentially equals messy eating and we all…
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How to make a great salad
Every year we yearn for summer’s arrival. In mid-winter’s clutches we shiver like huddled penguins and strain to remember those warmer times. Winters last eternity, much like a never-ending winter in Game of Thrones. Slowly but surely our wishes have been granted and at last, it’s summer! And with it came the sweat. Was everyone…
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Handmade Pesto Without Equipment
I think it is time to confess. Dear reader, I must admit something… something I have been trying to conceal from you all this time. Here it goes… I don’t own much kitchen equipment. I am so ashamed. As a chef I am embarrassed to admit that no, I do not own a pestle and mortar,…
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Homemade butter
Once again, I am late to the party. Sometimes I don’t get the memo or in other cases, I snobbishly reject it. In this case, I’m sorry to say, I rejected it. The most popular food of the next three years just didn’t appeal. And when this food is a jar of old cabbage and…
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Prawn, tomato and garlic spaghetti
For once my focus hasn’t been on the food. It has remained in that area – general food and eating (what do you take me for) – but instead, it has been on how to serve it. You see, dear reader, I am without a dining table. This bothersome conundrum has meant a lot of…
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5 a Day
At last spring is here! Hands up; who’s excited about all the fresh veg? Just me? Not that we all don’t love a muddy turnip or beetroot, but the dense, sweet, earthy flavours of winter are now too hearty for the season. So long to soups, stews and pies (unless you live in Manchester where…
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A slice of bread
Somehow, tartines passed me by. For someone who claims to be a food-obsessive and, for that matter, work in the food industry, this is quite embarrassing. I think I was confused as the word looks so similar to ‘tarte tatin’ (it does), which is structurally the same – a carby chewy base, topped with flavourful…
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Eat the Seasons: Spring
Spring is here. The Beast from the East – although tremendously tiresome and dangerous – is a mere blip on our radar now we can do the important things, like wear trainers instead of winter boots. My feet actually feel lighter as I skip along through the overcast British drizzle. I wouldn’t go as far…
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How to make the perfect scrambled eggs
The first lesson at Leiths School of Food and Wine taught us how to scramble eggs. Our tutor was meticulous, regularly repeating, ‘Now, this is VERY important’ which I would immediately scribble down in my notebook margin, ‘very important!’ with lots of aggressive capital letters, and, like the good pupils we were, we all leaned…
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Roasted Pepper and Sweet Potato Soup
This time of year reminds me of the front cover of a Sophie Dahl cookbook. Wrapped in a cosy thick coat (in a pink print much like a rug you’d see in a vintage shop which you’d immediately notice then avoid) her elegantly crossed legs ending in some sturdy wellies, she’s sitting on the steps…