Traditionally Lent and Easter must have been a bit of a culinary rollercoaster. Indulgence on Shrove Tuesday followed by fasting from Ash Wednesday through to the Easter Weekend, followed by a feast and chocolate eggs on Easter Sunday. Easter isn’t Easter without Hot Cross Buns. The smell of the fragrant spices and fruit as you bake/toast [...]
Posted in Baking, Breakfast, Recipes, Vegetarian on Apr 15th, 2009
Chilli Con Carne is one of my favourite dishes, not only because it’s so hearty but also because it’s fun to cook and there are lots of different ways of cooking and serving it. I rarely use the same recipe twice but I’ve started getting a feel for what works well, so this more like [...]
Posted in Drinks, Main Meals on Apr 14th, 2009
This recipe is one I adapted. I stumbled upon the original when we were low on ingredients and short of time. I did an online search for the random leftovers we had to see if anyone had done any recipes with them, it came up with a Yahoo Answers page with some ideas with similar [...]
Posted in Lunchbox, Main Meals, Recipes on Apr 5th, 2009
The idea of having challenges to come up with recipes with a set of ingredients was something Paul had been thinking about since we started the blog. I noticed recently that A Slice of Cherry Pie and Real Epicurean run such a competition, In the Bag. For March, the ingredients were Leeks, Eggs and Cheese. [...]
Posted in Breakfast, Main Meals, Vegetarian on Apr 3rd, 2009
A while ago, I got a comment from Mario suggesting another recipe to make use of the Date Syrup. Simply put, Dibis W’rashi is a mix of Tahini (Sesame Seed Paste) and Date Syrup (Rub). It originates from Assyria (a region encompassing Iraq), although variations occur in other places. In Turkey, they mix Tahini with [...]
Posted in Breakfast on Mar 31st, 2009
This is a family recipe my mum made up, one I grew up with which would always be a special treat. My family are huge seafood fans, especially crab. You need whole crabs so we usually only eat this when we can get a fresh supply. On our last visit home mum prepared it for [...]
Posted in Main Meals on Mar 17th, 2009
This is the time of year when forced rhubarb starts to make an appearance. I thought this recipe looked like an interesting one to cook – three distinct parts – pastry, filling and meringue. This is a quick recipe in that the constituent parts are quick. However, you need to allow extra time to cool [...]
Another Sunday, another Roast. Last Tuesday I woke up with the idea of making a very slow roasted joint of lamb marinaded in yoghurt, mint and garlic. By Friday though, unable to find any similar recipes I decided to make something up. Inspired by the Lamb Mechoui I made a few weeks ago, the roast [...]
Posted in Main Meals on Mar 3rd, 2009
On the back of my previous success with Peanut Butter and Date Flapjacks, I decided to try another experiment with the date syrup. I’m not a huge fan of desserts in general but ever since we finished the flapjacks I’ve been having a craving for something similar. Usually I tend to leave the making of [...]
Posted in Desserts on Mar 1st, 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