During our recent trip to Lyme Regis, we found loads of great places to buy local produce and enjoy a nice bite to eat (more info in my previous Lyme Regis Post). However, I don’t think anything compares to fresh food which you’ve grown, caught or harvested for yourself. I particularly love oily fish on [...]
Posted in Hints + Tips, Main Meals on Jul 29th, 2009
A couple of weekends ago, I had a weekend morning with nothing much to do but wait for the Cricket or Rugby to start. I ended up watching Saturday Kitchen, which we’ve not done in ages. On the show they showed a recipe from Rick Stein’s Food Heroes series which caught my eye. Mr Stein [...]
Posted in Books, Hints + Tips, Main Meals, Restaurants, Cafes and Pubs on Jun 16th, 2009
The nature of the coastline in the Gower, with very gentle beaches and tides that go out a long way, means fishing boats don’t launch from most of the sea-side towns, only the Marina at Swansea. The Mumble Pier looks a little odd at low tide. If you do fancy a spot of sea fishing, [...]
Posted in Books, Drinks, Hints + Tips, Recipes on Jun 11th, 2009
In preparation for a dinner party we held, we headed to the local Indian shops for ingredients for our largely Atul Kochhar based menu. Jenny and I had been having some debate about whether to opt for fresh coconut as Atul always lists in his ingredients, or dessicated coconut. Eventually I convinced her to let [...]
Posted in Hints + Tips on Apr 24th, 2009
I guess we’ve all heard the stories about the extreme lengths some professional food photographers/stylists go to make us drawl over their photos. Creating steam with cool air nebulisers, using special browning agents to colour meat, or using toothpicks to hold food in place is more than a step too far for the amateur food [...]
Posted in Hints + Tips on Feb 27th, 2009
Each month, Masterchef’s Jon Torode writes an article in BBC Olive Magazine ”Meat Masterclass” where he focuses on less common or less popular cuts of meat. This month was Shin of Beef. Shin of beef makes an ideal cut for pies, stewing and slow cooking, as the connective tissue breaks down during cooking to enrich the gravy. [...]
Posted in Baking, Drinks, Hints + Tips, Recipes on Feb 21st, 2009
This is the first recipe I have tried from the River Cottage Preserves hand book I got for Christmas. I fancied making some marmalade in celebration of the end of citrus fruit season. There were two methods for making marmalade given in the book, I went for the whole fruit method (as opposed to the [...]
Posted in Hints + Tips, Vegetarian on Feb 16th, 2009
Provided with leftover ham from roast gammon, I set about assembling a suitable lunchtime feast. To accompany the ham I went for apple, goats cheese and poached eggs. I’ve always had issues with poached eggs. I’ve tried numerous techniques including Delia’s frying pan method and Hugh’s vortex attempt. I’ve experimented with varying room temperature, egg [...]
Posted in Hints + Tips, Lunchbox, Recipes on Nov 5th, 2008