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
Recently we decided to sort through our mountain of cookbooks to separate the wheat from the chaff and provide us with a bit more space. Whilst going through this we’ve rediscovered some of our more sporadically used books. Flicking through The African Kitchen by Josie Stow and Jan Baldwin I spotted an exciting looking alternative [...]
Posted in Lunchbox, Main Meals on Feb 18th, 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
More adventures in baking with Andrew Whitley’s Bread Matters book. This time I tried out some Italian pie technology (or is it pizza technology?). The calzoni were really fun to make and tasty too. You need: * 160g of basic savoury bread sponge – there’s plenty of recipes for this on the web. * 120g [...]
Posted in Baking, Lunchbox, Main Meals, Recipes, Vegetarian on Feb 15th, 2009
I’m not entirely sure if this is technically a pizza or a tart. It’s was a pretty nice lunchtime snack though. Firstly, cook and mash 4oz potato, let it cool. In a pan melt some butter and fry a sliced onion until golden. Let it cool. Rub 3oz butter into 5oz plain flour. Once you’ve [...]
Posted in Baking, Food on the Go, Lunchbox on Feb 14th, 2009
A while ago now, whilst visiting some of the local asian shops I found a jar of Date Syrup. Being quite into Dates I decided to buy some without anything particular in mind to use it for. It’s sat at the back of our cupboards for a few months now, partly because I keep forgetting [...]
Posted in Baking, Desserts, Lunchbox, Vegetarian on Feb 13th, 2009
I watched an episode of the Hairy Bikers‘ recent TV series “Hairy Bakers”. It was about Pies and Pasties. I was inspired to make my own Pasty because it looked so incredibly simple. I loosely followed the recipe from the programme which can be found here. I par-boiled the potatoes and swede (which were in [...]
This recipe is a king of thrift and simplicity. Quite often if we’re making a quick meal utilising some time saving pie technology (shop bought pastry) we end up with a surplus of puff or shortcrust. We’ve started trying to use it up by making lunch time snacks. There really wasn’t much to it – [...]
Posted in Baking, Food on the Go, Lunchbox on Feb 9th, 2009
My friend Emma from work went away for a few days, leaving some bananas on her desk. By Friday afternoon, they were brown and squasshy and headed for the bin – ideal for a banana cake I thought! I didn’t know a recipe, so I searched through some books at home. There is a great [...]
I know I’m not Scottish, but Burns Night is a food event I always look forward to. Unfortunately, I usually tend to go without partaking in the Haggis, unable to find anyone willing to share it with me – this year however Jenny gave in since I promised to get a nice one from our [...]
Posted in Main Meals on Jan 28th, 2009