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The beautiful beef cheek lends itself to long, gentle cooking, and is a thing of majesty when slow cooked or casseroled. Add either some beer or wine, stock and vegetables and you can easily create winter one-pot dishes of delight on a budget.
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This love for the charcuterie board began at a young age. It started at grandmas house with good old fashioned turkey slices (I’d eat them by the packet full) but I quickly graduated cold meats school and now proudly scoff all manner of cold cuts, my favourites including Sopocka, salt beef, air dried Parma ham, mortadella and last but not least, crumbly Yorkshire ham carved off the bone.
Read moreHot, smoky, sweet, rich, spicy, juicy, tender. Prepare yourself, for your neighbours may well be scaling your garden wall and stealing them straight off the BBQ bars. Nuff said.
Read moreIt adds a dash of Italian sunshine to all it touches and is an easy and fast way to inject flavour into mealtimes.
Read moreCoq au vin is simple, homely and hearty, great for lazy rainy days and boozy Sunday afternoons with friends. And the homemade article beats the shop bought variety by a country mile, whether sous vide or conventionally cooked.
Read moreUnlike the crispy skinned, deep fried deliciousness of the Chinese spring roll, Vietnamese summer rolls are super light and healthy, crammed with great textures and fresh Asian flavours that take no time at all to prepare and leave you feeling guilt free.
Read moreAnd having now tried the sous vide variety I think I could be facing a new food addiction. Move over noodles.
Read moreI’ve many great memories from my visits there over the last 10 years. Of course I love the sunshine, white beaches and crazy but laid back vibe, but it’s the food that holds the biggest draw.
Read moreIt can be all too easy to get stuck in a dinnertime rut. The same old favourite dishes cropping up time and again – if you’re not careful you can love them to the point of extinction. No popular meal should have to suffer this fate.
Read moreLast year I visited Greece for the first time, and down by Fiscardo harbour in Kefalonia, night after night I managed to scoff many delicious local ingredients. It’s there I discovered my addiction for proper homemade tzatziki, how amazingly grassy Greek extra virgin olive oil can be, and the joy that is real, locally made feta cheese. Between that, the weather and the landscape it’s a wonder I made it home.
Read moreIt doesn’t have to take long to make tasty dishes full of world flavours. Rich and fatty fish fillets like trout or salmon are ideal for cooking quickly and briefly in a very hot oven, sprinkled with herbs and spices.
Read moreWhether the post club straight out the kebab shop variety, the posh restaurant gourmet try hard kind, or the super stacked sort that come with a whole host of misogynistic sides. Yep, the Americana-hamburgerology mega trend of the last couple of years has kind of passed me by.
Read moreYou can make many a tasty meal from this thrifty cut. Lamb shoulder is traditionally reserved for the slow cooker, casserole pot or a slow oven roast, where after several hours cooking the meat falls apart beautifully, thereby lending itself to wintery meals and comfort food.
Read moreThose super special steak experiences that come around once in a while and stick in your mind happily ever after. Well, without wishing to show off, last night I had multiple steakgasms. I am a very lucky lady.
Read moreJay Rayner wrote recently about ‘foodie machismo’ and our increasing pretentiousness when it comes to nosh. Seems we’re a nation with a predilection for showing off how far we’ve gone in the quest of adventurous eating and new experiences.
Read moreJeans, jewellery and cars are all better in the inky dark cloak that is black. I love how it can be glamorous, serious and dramatic, in fashion I like how easy it is to wear (I especially like how it tries to make me look thinner), but I’ve never really been drawn to black food – until now.
Read moreI first cooked this a few years ago after a summer visit to Cornwall to stay with our friends Amie and James. The combination of tender chicken, sweet and firm broad beans and peppery creamy mustard sauce are perfectly English and deliciously light, just the dinner ticket as our little island begins to thaw and thoughts of spring and summer start to appear.
Read moreBouguignon for me is the king of casseroles. Meltingly tender beef gently cooked in a marinade of smoked bacon lardons, shallots, mushrooms, carrots, bouquet garni and Burgundy wine. It is rich. It is intense. It is comforting. It is utterly delicious. And best of all? It is easy peasy.
Read moreWhen I return to Nottingham I often schedule in a (boozy) lunch with my good friend Zoe. For a few hours our pursuit is gassing and gossiping over food and (invariably) fizz, and recently we’ve come to frequent a particular restaurant that does a cracking dish of cod on Calabrian sausage.
The sous vide is teaching me something that no one else has managed before. No, it isn’t punctuation or maths, this new found skill is patience. And using my new Polyscience sous vide kit from SousVideTools.com requires bags of it – it’s been a case of learn some or be disappointed with dinner. And when dinner doesn’t go to plan I turn into a pain in the ass. And no one (least of all poor Mathew) wants that.