I was after something that would make a relatively straightforward week-night dinner, and this pasta dish looked just the thing. It needed only a handful of ingredients, all of which I had to hand. This recipe is another cheat – it apparently comes from The River Café Cook Book. I have a copy somewhere, I […]
It’s shocking, I know, but I don’t think I’ve ever had minestrone that didn’t come out of a can. I’ve certainly never made one. I have looked at this recipe many times, but there’s always been one ingredient or another that I didn’t have to hand and so I just moved on. Well today’s the […]
This lasagne recipe is an old favourite. I used to cook it regularly, and whilst it takes a bit of effort, we’d comfortably get three meals out of it for the two of us. It’s rather fallen off the radar a bit just lately though and it’s been a good while since I last made […]
With good ingredients, this is an impressive dessert. It’s also one of the simplest recipes in the book. You really can throw it together in a couple of minutes. I ordered some strawberries from Riverford in this week’s veg box. I wasn’t sure at the time what I was going to do with them, but […]
I’m somewhat ambivalent about liver. Now, liver in things is great – the addition of chicken livers to Spaghetti Bolognese, for example, is delicious, and I do love a good pâté. It’s eating it on its own that I’m less enamoured of. There are a few times when I’ve had liver and it’s been absolutely […]
There were two courgettes in the Riverford veg box this week, and I remembered that The Prawn Cocktail Years had a recipe for Zucchini Fritters. It seemed like the perfect excuse to use them. This has to be one of the simplest recipes in the book. Thinly slice the courgettes, sprinkle with salt and leave […]
Sue’s been in a play for the past couple of weeks, so I’ve not been cooking evening meals for her much just lately. (For the curious, the play was Abigail’s Party at the Loft Theatre. I do some photography there, and you can see my photos for this production over on Flickr.) So, Saturday was the […]
Sage is one of my least favourite herbs. I have too many memories of bad childhood dinners consisting of dry roast chicken served with cardboardy Paxo sage and onion stuffing to ever really be comfortable with the flavour. As a result, I’ve always shied away from making this recipe, with its whole leaf of sage […]
When it is good, calamari is a fabulous thing – crisp exterior, meltingly tender inside. When done badly, it’s like chewing on a mouthful of pencil erasers. On holiday recently, we had a fair amount of really good squid, and so I was determined to make some at home. For a little while now, I’ve […]
Sue is out in the evenings a lot at the moment, helping out with the current production of Steel Magnolias at the Loft theatre. Sunday, however, is a night off, so I thought I’d push the boat out and cook two things from The Prawn Cocktail Years for dinner. Spaghetti Bolognese, followed by Oranges in […]