Category: Autumn
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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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Prune and fennel sausage rolls
Quite often, the best things in life are wrapped in pastry. These prune and fennel sausage rolls can attest to that. We can all agree a pain au chocolat is a thing of beauty, especially if the chocolate is slightly molten. Apple turnovers and eclairs were mine and my sister’s chosen bakery treats – as…
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Blackberry and Bay Brownies
During these endless days of lockdown it’s good to find the little joys. In the last few days I’ve been carrying vases of tulips around the house so I can see them wherever I go, it snowed and as I write this the garden is still topped in what looks like a blanket of fondant…
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Vegetable and pearl barley soup
January is a month of slurping soups. There are thick parsnip and apple soups, practically white with cream and a brightness of flavour that makes you suddenly sit up and eat your lunch more alertly than usual. A butternut squash soup drizzled with turmeric yoghurt, in an attempt to coerce flavour into this despondent vegetable…
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Bramble Jam
I love jam. That may not be a mystery. My friend Hannah can testify. When we lived together I had a collection of seven jams in the fridge. One for each day of the week you could say. Looking back, I admit it was excessive. Jam on toast, jam on scones, jam on my face,…
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My problem with Veganuary
January started with a jolt. It was a bumpy return to work what with the two fresh burns to my forearm – I genuinely think I have a hazard perception issue, there’s something hot there so don’t knock it, oh look I’ve knocked it – and the sudden reappearance of those bothersome bags under my…
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Beef stew with dumplings
Although the air is crisp and fresh, the food I intend to eat at this time of year certainly isn’t. I love to walk outside and breathe in lungfuls of the autumnal wood-smokey air (reasonably far away from the roundabout on which I live, there is an abundance of pollution here), bundled up in coat,…
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Authentic Italian Bolognese
Dear reader, I had an elaborate plan for this blog post. Something seasonal and adventurous to compete with the high-brow food you find on Instagram these days. Reader, I was going to give you the recipe for butternut squash gnocchi, drizzled in rosemary and hazelnut butter, and a sprinkling of Parmesan. And it was a…
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Sticky pear and treacle cake
Please excuse me for the autumnal tribute song I am about to warble. Like a fawning fan-girl, I simply can’t get enough of it. Even though autumn still hasn’t quite started here in Manchester – by which I mean the leaves are on the cusp of yellow-gold and the temperature isn’t low enough for me…
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Swedish meatballs with blackberry anise sauce
It’s a game we all play. We’re all guilty of it. If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me, dear reader. You’re at the supermarket checkout. As you laboriously pile your groceries onto the conveyor belt, you can’t help but furtively cast your eye over your neighbour’s purchases. As you spot the family-sized multi-pack…