It’s an amazing year for soft fruit this year in the UK. The dose of heat early on kicked started the raspberries, red currents, blackcurrents, white currents and even the cherries, and the damp patch we’re having has filled them out beutifully. Thus the problem of a glut. We’ve had so much soft fruit our [...]
I’ve no pictures for this, because I was doing it as part of a dinner party, so you’ll have to just imagine. I should just the nod to Beer Reviews for pointing me in the direction of cider gammon. Take a 1kg ham, or gammon joint. I used an unsmoked one, wanting to bring the [...]
A couple of years ago I bought myself a breadmaker, and I’ve never looked back. I love bread, I love making bread by hand, and take great therapy in kneading and resting, working to find that beautiful silky texture of the dough. However, time is my master at the moment, and being able to wake [...]
That last post was because I could hardly contain myself. Messing about with hardware, scripting and growing things all on the same project was right u my street and I couldn’t resist. I’m working my way up to producing a much bigger and high-res time-lapse project later this year, and this was something of a [...]
I love jerk chicken. In fact, I love Jamaican food. Jerk chicken, curry goat, popperpot stew, Saturday soup, I love it all. There’s something ever refreshing about cooking without cream or thickened sauces, avoiding thick and sticky glazes and having hot food without it being nose-pinchingly spiced. Ideally jerk should be cooked on a half oil drum barbecue, [...]
I love popcorn, but I’ve never been a big fan of sweet popcorn, and I do like spicy food. So tonight a new TV dish was born.. Manly Salt and Vinegar and Chilli Popcorn Handful of unpopped popcorn Teaspoon of sunflower oil Half teaspoon salt Half teaspoon of whole black pepper corns Half a dried [...]
[updated] 30th June 2010 MushroomCam is now off line, the still below is the last image it took I’ll explain more about this over the next few weeks, until then, there’s a live (well, updates every 15 minutes) feed from my spare room. Also, the camera is only on from 6am until 8pm, because otherwise [...]
A few years ago I went out to Texas to a festival ( No, not SXSWI), Austin City Limits, and had an amazing time. One of the things I completely fell in love with was the TexMex and Southern food, and this week I’ve been getting craving. Step in youtube, to teach me the joys [...]
Years ago I used to get an amazing soup from a little cafe. When I left I asked for the recipe, and the owner actually gave it to me (I didn’t think they would). After years of sitting on it, it seemed like a good time to go public with it. This is for making an [...]
I’ve been eatting fajitas all week. As per normal when I become facinated with some sort of food, I’ll eat it all week (sometimes all month) until I get bored and latch on to something else. This week fahitas, last week baked red cabbage, the month before that juices made in the blender, last year clear [...]
I’ve no idea exactly what this stuff it, it’s not crazily hot, but it is crunchy and has that slightly soapy taste of Chinese pepper and is amazing on top of noodle, soup noodles and grilled meats. Go to your local Chinese supermarket and hunt it down. Possibly Related Posts: Homemade flavoured spirits Slow baked [...]
A few years ago I wrote a post at some ungodly hour of the morning about food. I love food. I eat a strange mix of fast-as-I-can-get-it-out-of-a-pan fast food, and strange and sometimes complex things I slave over. I dream about food at night, playing ideas over in my head and ruminating. I wrote it [...]
I love the sticky, spicy, tastey ribs you get at Chinese “all you can eat” type places. I’m convinced they’re bad for you, and thats what I love. This is as close to the flavor and texture as I’ve managed to reproduce so far. I’ve not actually used ribs yet, but left over roast pork worked well. [...]
I’m not really a gadget fan. I use devices every day, but I’m not a man to get excited about about my megabytes of RAMsomething has, or quite how many megapixels have been crammed into anything. I’ve not got an iPhone, or an iPod for that matter, I have no intension of spending money on [...]
Healthy cooking has it’s place, and given the state of the nations waist line, that place might be more and more pressing, but I am sick to death of the War on Fat. Too many times I have been served meat which is dry, tough and flavourless, primarily because it has been grillind to within [...]
I pride myself on being able to make cake with the wrong ingredients, no recipe, no weighing scales, no timer and limited amounts of clue. Thus I am throwing down the gauntlet. There are rules: Tell everybody Cake Club Tell everybody about Cake Club Use only the ingredients in your kitchen right now Use no [...]
I’ll add photos just as soon as I find a cable in the depths of the bag of cables under my desk. So, this weekend I bit the bullet and set about juicing all the fallen apples from our tree. It’s not a complex proceedure, but it is one that has taken us three years [...]
Well, I arrived home on friday to a box from Berocca. I must have registered at some point to recieve it, but I don’t really remember doing so. However, freebies are freebies, and I don’t think I’m endangering my credability by (ab)using their products and telling the world about it. The thing that I remember [...]
As the weather gets colder, and your boiler packs in leaving you freezing your bits off*, its a great time to make sure of some seasonal vegetables and make soup. Pumpkin lanterns might be one of the most dreadful imports to this country from America, but they are damned tasty, and in a few weeks [...]
Many many years ago, I used to make flavoured spirits from fun and profit. One of my most successful (in both catagories) was made at Christmas. I called it Mince Pie Vodka, but one of my good friends renamed it Christmas Spirit. The instructions I kept hidden, telling no man, but now this all changes. [...]
What a strange day. I got locked out of my house. My spare keys were in my car. My car keys were in the house. Epic fail on so many levels. Anyway, life got a bit better when I opened my rss feeds: Flickr Panda - truly this is a very strange thing. The prime number shitting [...]
I’m pretty sure I’ve bitched about the “celebrity chef” use of foam before now, but I blooming hate it. Foam is not food, at best it’s savory Angel Delight, fit only for children and people too infirm to have teeth. This morning on “Great British Menu”, (a program so pretenious that I hope one day [...]
Cocktails. I love making them, but I don’t really drink them (though I enjoy a good martini) but the white russian, and its grumpy teenage child the black russian, captive me at the moment. With their coffee tones, and warming goodness, even though they are cold, they are like a hug. Possibly Related Posts: Homemade [...]
Image via Wikipedia I’m staying in a hotel this evening. It’s rather nice, with a great room and a lovely view. For £150 midweek it should be however, especially as there is little to no reason to stay here on business as far as I can tell. I don’t begrudge them the 150 notes, it [...]
So, today I’ve been smoking hard. Smoking trout, smoking salmon, smoking cheese, smoking garlic, smoking onions, smoking everything under the sun. No ladies and gentlemen, I’ve not completely lost the plot and bought a massive pack of Rizlas, I’m been on one of Smoky Jo‘s food smoking course. It’s a one day course, starting with [...]
My god, I love love love Char Siu Baau. They’re light fluffy white dough balls, a little bit like the inside of a doughnut, but filled with barbiqued pork. Sweet and sticky inside, fluffy and tacky on the outside, you buy them and steam them at home. They were brilliant. Possibly Related Posts: Homemade flavoured [...]
Put a bottle of cheap dark rum in the freezer. The next day, mix 5 parts fiery ginger beer (not ale), 2 parts dark rum, and one part fresh lime juice. Pour over ice. Slip. Shout Yaaarrrgh and stomp round in circles! Possibly Related Posts: Homemade flavoured spirits Cold Water Swimming Trailing : One Slow [...]
I am not Irish. Really. Not even slightly. And this is why I’m not out drinking myself to destruction tonight, on some vague claim to be decended from the people over the water. This however is a subject for another day, probably tomorrow, in all honesty. No, tonights diatribe is reserved for American cooks mutilation [...]
Pies are deeply unfashional at the moment it seems, with chavs munching down (and silencing their offspring) with Gregs Dummies, and every Food Nazi from Queen Gillian McKeith downwards loathing their fat laden fillings and pastry topping, so I was quite proud of Jamie Oliver when he set about making a beef and cheese pie [...]
Aparently you should do the following… Eat breakfast like a king (one assumes this it talking of fresh fruit, yoghurt and such like), lunch like a prince (a salomon sandwich), and dinner like a pauper (rice and veg). However, working away from home is more conductive to the following: Eat breakfast like an artic explorer [...]
The other day I had a brainwave. Pickled onions are great. Cheese is great. Pickled onions and cheese together are really great, but is it possible to pickle cheese? I’ve never heard of it, but much like smoking, I think it’s a process that can be applied to many things. Everybody has heard of smoked [...]
I found this blog entry about milk labelling absolutly shocking. Monsanto manage to get through a court ruling meaning farmers are specifically barred from saying if their milk does/or does not, come from treated animals! Amazing, truely amazing. I’m half hoping a farmer starts selling milk which explains that it definatly does not contain fish, [...]
Somebody I’m working with is fasting, not because of his religion, but because his flatmate is fasting and he’s showing him support. As part of his fasting, he is only eating biscuits and fruit during the day, and a sandwich at lunch. Possibly Related Posts: Homemade flavoured spirits Cold Water Swimming Trailing : One Slow [...]
tea! Possibly Related Posts: Homemade flavoured spirits Slow baked ham with cider and spice Give us this day our daily bread(maker) Home-brewed time-lapse fungus growing 101 Jerking it
I’ve just had a phone call from the production team of the brilliant “Kill it, cook it, eat it” asking if I could make the filming tomorrow of the Christmas edition (turkeys and geese). Annoyingly its too late, which is a real shame as I’d kill (probably without the cook and eat sections) to be [...]
I went into Fenwick’s this lunchtime to buy a sandwich form their very excellent sandwich counter. As we found though the aisles of ladies fashion and then the chocolate counter, I realised I was facing the wrong way and had lost the sandwich counter. This was followed up by realising that actually, I hadn’t lost [...]