A few years ago, I drastically cut back on the meat in my diet. Not for any ethical or dietary reason, I just wanted to inject a new perspective into my cooking style, and omitting meat meant that I had to approach my recipes from a brand new angle – taking into account flavour profiles … Continue reading TURMERIC YOGURT ROAST CAULIFLOWER
This is not, not a risotto? Right? Even typing that I can feel the weight of disapproval from my Italian cooking mentor, Antonella, who would absolutely tell me this is not a risotto, but I can’t help myself and I’m sure she’d understand. There’s a time and a place for a proper, stove side stirring … Continue reading MUSHROOMS & PEARL BARLEY
I swear, anything under a hot, crunchy, buttery crust is going to sound like an edible prayer. But despite it’s holiness, a pie just feels like it’s going to be a lot of effort, and this is usually what stops me from making them. Can I actually be bothered? Then I remind myself that all … Continue reading LEEK, LENTIL & KALE SKILLET PIE
One of the real joys of being home cook is that I don’t have to cook for a focus group. When I cook, I don’t have to consider innovation or creation to impress, I can just potter at my own free will, experiment according to my own personal preference and learn from my own findings. … Continue reading GOCHUJANG BUTTER BEAN STEW
“It’s just cheese on toast.” Let any food writer, that is not Welsh, write a recipe for rarebit and they will somewhere, without fail, denounce it down to being ‘just cheese on toast‘. Well in that case, a Mazda is just a car. A mansion is just a house. And Beyoncé is just a singer. … Continue reading CHARCOAL SALT RAREBIT
A dal should be admired for its simplicity and adored for it’s potential, in my opinion. Not only is it an absolute breeze to make, but the dense little morsels of lentils absorb whatever flavours you throw at them, creating an eating experience that is as complex in flavour as it is wonderful to eat. … Continue reading TOMATO & COCONUT DAL WITH CRISPY SHALLOTS & BLACK ZA’ATAR NAAN BREADS
I’m dubious as to what positioning a burger has in the context of modern day vegetarianism. We have the 90’s and early 00’s to blame for vegetarian burgers being shunned to frozen boxes of only Lord knows what microwaveable bags of vegetables and sweetcorn. There are always kernels of corn in frozen veggie burgers, aren’t … Continue reading CHICKPEA & PARSNIP BURGERS
Let it be any given day of the week and I would have no umbrage with polishing off a meal consisting of nothing but meat and the juices it expressed in the pan while it cooked. Maybe a few chunks of good bread, for dippage. However, the meat-n-two-veg ideology that I was raised on in … Continue reading POTATOES & GREEN BEANS WITH GARLIC BASIL OIL
‘Pass the pumpkin, please’. Said about three British people over the course of centuries. And why? Because the pumpkin is now nothing more than a Halloween decoration and seldom will it see the interior of our ovens. Think of it as a pissed off bauble. And it has every right to be. Us Brits tend … Continue reading TARRAGON & BROWN SUGAR PUMPKIN WITH ALMONDS & BLUE CHEESE
I’m going to do a really annoying bloggery thing now and not only reminisce about a country I visited that inspired a recipe, but also call for an ingredient within it that I bought from said country. Sorry. But also, not sorry at all. When I was in Greece recently (not sorry) I consumed my … Continue reading BEETROOT & OUZO SOUP
MIKEY AND THE KITCHEN. 