All posts tagged: Recipe

seville orange marmalade

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Okay, it might be a little late in the Seville Orange season to be taunting you with marmalade. Actually, it’s passed. But taunt I must. It’s just that good. After all, you can always ignore me now and come back next January and February armed with kilos of those marvellously golden-orange globes. I got so excited when I saw them in the market that I gathered them up by the armful. I think I made it home with around 4kgs, not to mention a few blood oranges and ruby red grapefruits for good measure. I love making marmalade. I’ll just say that now – it will explain everything that is to come. There’s just something so soothing about peeling oranges. The bright, sunshine-scented oils mist in the air, making everything smell hopeful and happy – including me. When making the Seville batch, I wafted about on a orange-scented cloud for days. And then there’s the slow, meditative process of boiling, and stirring. It’s just the perfect activity for when it’s freezing cold, with flurries of …

Kitchem Gremlin – A New Year, A New Recipe

chapter 3: on being a hibernating kitchen gremlin

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So, it’s been a while. I’d like to blame the weather. Maybe work. But I think it all comes down to wintertime hibernation. I mean, there have been storms. (FYI: the best way to spot the English woman in Glasgow is to look for the one wearing a non-waterproof wool coat and charging into gale-force winds and torrential rain with a mini folding umbrella). And I’ve had work to do – after all, bills come with alarming regularity whether you’re in the mood for earning money or not. But mainly my flat was cosy, if not wholly warm (having all the windows ripped out and replaced in mid-December was hardly a barrel of laughs), and I was somewhat shocked by finding myself in a new country where I didn’t know anyone and where I still hadn’t quite got an ear for the local accent. So I stayed inside. We invested in a fleecy electric blanket and covered the sofa in it; quite possibly the best decision ever made by hibernating humanoids. I ordered more and …

tomato and lentil soup

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Reader, meet Big Bob. He is my giant, shiny, totally lust-worthy Le Creuset casserole pot and I have a love for him that is bordering on the obscene (so look away now if you’re of a prudish disposition). But this zealous passion is ameliorated somewhat by the fact that he was given to me by my very own lust-worthy J; my love for them is intermingled and ardent. A present from J for my birthday last summer (presented to me Godfather style – tucked down at the foot of our bed, the sheets serving as wrapping paper), the Le Creuset known as Big Bob is now the head of my Kitchen Pantheon. The Zeus of Kitchen Gadgetry. The Odin of Cast Iron Cookware. And I am not ashamed to admit that there was much bouncing involved when I saw the tell-tale box. Some ladies may squeal and bounce for a jewellery box – me, I go for Le Creuset every time. It’s sexy stuff, I assure you. I pondered how best to inaugurate and celebrate …

Clementine Drizzle Mini Loaf Cakes

clementine drizzle mini loaf cakes

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I‘ve been making some variation on this recipe since I was a kid; my family are now connoisseurs of this particular baked treat. Fairy cakes were one of the first things I ever learned how to cook and this recipe has evolved out of those first messy, gloopy attempts. Aged seven or eight, I remember baking them at a friend’s house and scrawling down the recipe we used on pink notepaper to take home with me. There’s something magic about the alchemy of baking and I am firmly of the opinion that if you bake with love (or – at a pinch – just a smile), you can taste it. Like something fresh and sparkly behind the buttery goodness. I kept that little pink recipe for years, eventually absorbing the recipe and merging it with one from Nigella Lawson, I think. It’s one of those recipes that I’ve now been making for so long that I kind of do it without thinking. As I got older, baking became my stress relief and this recipe got …

courgette gratin

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This is a gratin that signifies and celebrates life is on the upswing. More or less, anyway. After all, how can anything with dill and cinnamon in it be anything other than spectacular? A new flavour combination for some, to be sure, but trust me on its magnificence. For others, it’s tried and true for a good reason. Especially when served with sausages, or perhaps – as we’re going to have it – with prosciutto wrapped chicken breast. As I said, things are on the up. It’s been a few weeks since I’ve been able to form coherent thoughts about what’s going on. Turns out quitting one’s job, moving to a new city, and creating a new life has its challenges. Whoda thunk? So our move-out date rolled around and everything we owned went to Scotland… without me! It’s all currently stuffed in a storage locker, awaiting liberation. But – happy days – after a substantial dose of stress, hard work and several pages on the calendar rolling past, not only do we now have …

Egyptian tomato salad

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Tomatoes are glorious. There, I said it. Whether fried green ones or cherry ones sliced on buttered toast, in soup or salad, tucked in a burger or the main event – I love them. I’m always on the lookout for new tomato recipes, and I’ve crossed paths with this one more than once recently so I took it as a sign from the universe. (That and I had a big bowl of ruby red tomatoes sitting on my kitchen table). This is a great dish to have up your sleeve for summery lunches with friends, especially as you can prepare it the night before and just liberally sprinkle it with herbs before serving in the manner of the totally cool, collected host that you are deep down inside… deep, deep down, if you’re anything like me. (Just be sure to let it come to room temperature before you eat – it will taste much better for it). I actually made this sitting at my kitchen table on a Sunday night while I was absentmindedly watching …

Maya Angelou’s lemon meringue pie

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I found myself awake and at my kitchen table at 6am this morning – and a Sunday morning, no less. After making coffee and toast, I sat at the kitchen table to read Hallelujah: The Welcome Table, Maya Angelou’s book of recipes and memories. And I read the whole thing – barring, of course, the hour and a half that I’d driven around London (driving lessons in the city, I find, are better when no one else in their right mind is awake and on the roads). So before most of the city was even awake, I’d concocted a plan to make Maya Angelou’s Lemon Meringue Pie. Having not really made pie many times before, let alone one that involved not only pastry, but lemon curd AND meringue, this was a bold decision to make before 9am on a Sunday. But I loved the story that went with it and I had a desperate desire to know what it tasted like. And that’s good enough for me. Maya Angelou’s Lemon Meringue Pie Ingredients Pie 200g …

seafood linguine

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Today was not a day for Basics spaghetti. Don’t get me wrong – some days are absolutely that, I would be the first to recommend it – when the spaghetti gets buried, perfectly crushed under the weight of a rich tomato sauce and lashings of cheddar. But today was not that day. Today was a day that started with hitting snooze for an hour. A whole hour. Followed by a day of work, which, granted, was not as bad as J’s work day, but still was hefty on the “suck” factor. In fact, because the day was what it was, I know that today is a day for linguine. De Cecco linguine. Tossed about in a light, but buttery sauce, made with shallots, garlic, lifted by parsley, before being drenched in a pale, dry rose, peppered with bright, cherry tomatoes and finally assaulted by king prawns. Maybe even some other crustaceans and other creatures of the deep. It’s that kind of day. All of which will be served with the aforementioned wine. Lots of it. …