Oh. It's January. How has that happened? It was June last week, then I ate some turkey, and now everyone on my social media feed is making vegan beef forerib out of beetroot and cashew nuts. I decided long ago, on the grounds of an irrational hatred of the Gregorian calendar (base twelve makes me … Continue reading Curried Cauliflower Puffs and Why Christmas Isn’t Over Yet
Part I: the context It started with a message from my pal Sophie around midday: "We are bringing venison to the bothy. Would you like to help cook it?" I squealed with delight, in the same way that someone might respond to finding out that they’re going to barbados on a surprise holiday, or have … Continue reading Roadkill ramblings: venison is usually deerer than this
Hankering is a fabulous concept. It encapsulates a culinary quest; a determination to carefully hunt down and savour whatever delicious morsel might have lodged itself in your consciousness this week. Like its younger cousin, the craving, hankerings won’t go away until they’re satisfied - but that’s where the similarities end. A hankering can wait, humming … Continue reading Pineapple Downside-Up Cake: A Hankering
Honk honk, have a swift and punchy introduction, followed by a swift and punchy recipe. *** This chilli, tomato and olive pasta sauce is so mouth-fillingly rich that your tastebuds will be able to afford an all inclusive to the Seychelles straight after eating it. And while it might look a bit like puttanesca from … Continue reading Turbo-Umami Pasta Sauce
Hello all. In the spirit of continuing my summer of frugal fun, I’ve just spent 4 and a half fabulous days on a trip to Copenhagen with my former flatmates. Praise be to Ryanair, and to Danish friends with spare rooms - so far, so cheap. But what about feeding ourselves? How would we* experience … Continue reading The Dearest Diary: Copenhagen Cuisine on a Kroner
For those uninitiated, this series is about the time I spent cooking on a goat farm in France. It was bonkers. This is part IV which, happily, comes after parts I, II and III. Part IV is about The Sanglier That Came to Tea, and you’ll get a courgette fritter recipe too. I think this … Continue reading The Sanglier That Came to Tea (Plus Courgette Fritters)
The plums. It was the the plums that convinced me to stay. There were hundreds of them, pops of colour peeking out from the foliage and weighing the branches down with their beckoning plumpness. The thought of filling clean jars with hot jam danced around in my frontal lobes, replacing any feelings of panic or unease, so I went back to the barn to ask Evelyne what she usually did with them
This is the second in a series of blog posts about my time on a goat farm in France. The introduction (which explains most of the madness) can be found here. I'd read that before this one if you want to get the full picture, but this will still be entertaining for you nonetheless. "Veal?" … Continue reading The Goat Shit & Courgette Chronicles II: Veal Steaks (I know, I know)
I recently spent a week cooking lunches and dinners for a handful of workers on a goat farm in the Ardèche, an undulating, forested region in the south-east of France. I ended up here for various reasons, most of which boiled down to "I physically cannot spend another day hanging off a mountain considering my … Continue reading The Goat Shit & Courgette Chronicles: an introduction
When you sleep at airports, you bump into weirdos. Then you have a long hard look at yourself because you are, by design, one of those exact weirdos you’ve just bumped into. I’m writing this as two Turkish pre-teens run around after each other and occasionally offer me some of their Haribos, while a bloke … Continue reading Coq Au Vin in a Tin in a Van
Student Cuisine for the Gloomy Teen 