From the category archives:

Starters

Why Does My Pastry Shrink? Step-by-step Guide to Shortcrust Pastry

November 26, 2010
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Your pastry shrinks because it contains liquid which will evaporate during cooking. There’s a lot of advice out there to tackle the problem with shrinking pastry.  Advise given is usually along the lines that your pastry is being overworked, let your pastry rest, make sure you blind bake, don’t over roll it, working fast, keeping […]

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Lentil, Shiitake and Chestnut Soup

October 30, 2010
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I’ve been thinking about this soup combination since last winter but failed to try it until now.  It’s the sort of soup you can make a meal out of, perfect to warm your belly after a good long walk on a cold sunny day like today.  The first time I made it last week it […]

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Work In Progress: Gluten Free CornCakes

October 7, 2010
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I’ve been obsessed with fresh corn throughout this summer, I have these food obsessions from time to time.  It has coincided with my discovery that you can microwave fresh corn in its husks in just 3 minutes or if already peeled on a plate with clingfilm.  This gives me the time to throw a salad […]

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Aubergine (Eggplant) Rolls In Tomato Sauce

June 5, 2010
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It’s frightening blogging about this dish because the very first time I had it it was made by my Sicilian friend Antonina when she was pregnant with her first child…he’s about to go to university this autumn…where has the time gone? Isn’t it funny how you associate a dish with a time and place in […]

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Red Pepper Hummus / Humous

May 14, 2010
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Do you know the reason I ended up making this?  Because it’s one of my favourite flavours of hummus I buy in the supermarket…I know…strange to be inspired by the supermarket …but hey I’m never one to turn down a good idea.  Bikerboy says if he sees me eating hummus is because I’m on a […]

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Gabriela’s Pesto – Two Ingredients

April 26, 2010
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In my house I live two separate lives with regards to food.  One part of my life is the food I like to cook, experiment, share and maybe post about and then there’s the second side of my food life where I need to feed as best as I can a child with multiple-food allergies. […]

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Beetroot Chickpea & Herb Fritters

April 2, 2010
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My idea for these beetroot and chickpea fritters came from Simply Recipes blog’s beetroot humous, Elise made a humous  with such a gorgeous vibrant colour and the two earthy ingredients beetroot and chickpeas sounded in my mind a perfect match.  It’s so satisfying when you picture food together in your mind and then it turns […]

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Scallops & Chorizo Bites

March 9, 2010
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These little bites are not dissimilar to the dish of black pudding and scallops which has becomes a new classic.  I came across these wild scallops and couldn’t resist doing something.  I have a soft spot for chorizo, if I’m at home one of the dishes I make for lunch is a salad toped with […]

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Blue Cheese Sablés, Cheese Biscuits, Cheese Crisps or Cheese Wafers

February 28, 2010
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Any recipe that starts with equal amounts of ingredients always makes my ears prick up and pay attention….it’s my simple mind you see it needs all the help it can get, the less I have to remember….the less I forget! I had a good blue cheese sablés recipe in a book I’ve lost, and I […]

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Salt Cod Fish Cakes – Bolinhos de Bacalhau

February 22, 2010
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A  SMALL  COMPENSATION  FOR  MUM  LEAVING…while I’m writing this my mum is ironing the last pile of our clothes, she made Paõ De Ló this afternoon and tonight she made bolinhos de bacalhau, her last act of love before boarding a plane in the early hours of the morning.  I love bolinhos de bacalhau along […]

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From Ordinary Mushrooms to Sublime Mushrooms

January 19, 2010
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This is a delicious dish, an intense earthy sweet mushroom dish which can be used any which way you so wish, lots of flavour for little money.  You can add stock to it and turn it into soup or make pasta sauce with it, you can evaporate the juice further and put them on bruschetta/crostini, […]

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Coconut & Cardamon Soup

January 16, 2010
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This soup came about with the madness of the snow and siege mentally in the shops, people buying everything in sight, at one point I couldn’t get hold of any eggs.  I hadn’t been out for while was running out of everything and these were all the vegetables I had left, sweet potato and leeks, […]

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Two Granddads And A Baby – Spinach and Pea Soup

January 10, 2010
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Yesterday Bikerboy and I went to see Gordon Giltrap and Virginia Lu at the Southbank Centre, it was part of his Christmas present along with his new classic Spanish guitar, he’s now into his classic guitar ever since receiving guitar lessons as a present last Christmas. For the years we’ve been together he’s been the […]

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Gravadlax and Dill Sauce

January 6, 2010
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I’m sitting here, it’s quite late and Bikerboy and I have been discussing the outcome for the morning if it snows heavily overnight, this will change our plan for the morning and re-arrangements will need to be made, the girls’ school will probably close. We’re feeling the cold, although we’re not cold you feel you […]

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Butternut Squash and Coriander Spice Soup

December 16, 2009
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First day of snow today and it could not be more appropriate to be making a big pot of soup. As I was chopping away the vegetables and thinking about making leeks to go with the roast chicken for tonight’s meal it slowly started to snow. Like a kid I find it enchanting looking out […]

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