My new guilty pleasure appears to be turning whatever leftover roast meat we happen to have into biryani. Christmas 2020 was a strange one; with the covid-19 lockdown and restrictions in place, we took a detour from the traditional turkey dinner. Instead, we opted for a delicious roast duck with morello cherry and red wine… Continue reading Leftover roast duck (or turkey, or chicken) biryani
A new Christmas creation this year! This one stemmed from an idea to create a veggie pate to sit alongside the cheeseboard this Christmas. Having tasted it, I doubt this will last until the big day. It is sweet, earthy and delicious. Super quick and easy to make too. Ingredients 180g vacuum pack of cooked chestnuts… Continue reading Chestnut-chestnut mushroom pate (vegan)
This one does what it says on the can! Perfect use for leftover beer. Ingredients: 340g / 12oz self raising flour 50g sugar (I used soft brown but just use what you’ve got!) 400ml beer Method: 1) Preheat oven to gas 4 / 180c / 350f 2) Grease a loaf tin 3) Mix above ingredients… Continue reading Easiest ever no-yeast leftover beer bread
Situation: Had a couple of beers on the boat the evening before, accidentally fell asleep leaving most of a can of beer (a delicious milkshake IPA, as it happens). Woke up to the realisation that we had forgotten to bring the bread for the bacon sandwiches, but really fancied a cheese scone. We had the… Continue reading Drunken cheeseboard scones
No apologies here, I’m fairly sure this isn’t anywhere close to being a “traditional Indian” recipe but it tastes pretty good. This one came about while driving home from work, hungry and pondering what to make for dinner. I wanted beef mince, but not the usual boring bolognese, chilli or burgers. I wanted spice, but… Continue reading Keema Mattar (sort of)
We’re just back from touring Southern Spain for a few days, returning from the lovely sunshine and good wine to a UK weather warning for snow on Easter Monday and a surplus of onions in the kitchen! It seemed that the only decent thing to do was attempt to create the delicious onion soup I… Continue reading Spanish-ish Onion Soup
I love cheese scones, especially the ones I grab in Marks and Spencers’ bakery from time to time. I’ve tried several recipes, taken the best bits from each and come up with what I believe to be the perfect cheese scone. Best eaten smothered in real butter, I reckon these give the M&S ones a… Continue reading Perfect Cheese Scones
Proper carbonara doesn’t contain cream. I experimented with a few different recipes before settling on this as a final version. This is comfort food at its best and only takes around 20 minutes to make. Ingredients 25-30g finely grated cheese per person, ideally a 50/50 mix of parmesan and pecorino 1 egg per person Black… Continue reading Proper spaghetti carbonara
I made this for our Christmas day starter and was really pleased with it. So much so that I’m writing the recipe down here so I can recreate it next year. You could make it healthier by leaving the cream out, it still tastes good without it. Ingredients: 1 leek 1 onion 2 carrots 2… Continue reading Sweet potato and squash soup
I discovered a tub of ricotta at the back of the fridge that I’d completely forgotten about. A love for cheese scones and determination not to waste food led me to invent these beauties which are so delicious I’ll most likely be buying more ricotta in the near future to make them again. I added… Continue reading Ricotta, chorizo and herb scones
I first discovered cheese and lentil pie while staying on some friends’ vegetarian farm in Derbyshire for a festival. We’d been working hard and this was the perfect warming, filling comfort food served with a selection of tasty salads. I did have their recipe but lost it and had to recreate from memory, so this… Continue reading Cheese and lentil pie
In the summer, I love making burgers for the BBQ and play around with recipes quite a lot. Being winter here in the UK there aren’t many BBQs happening at the moment but we had a pack of mince in the fridge a few days ago so I decided to make these for a change.… Continue reading The Best Burgers
Messing About In The Kitchen 