Book Review: The Taste of Belgium by Ruth Van Waerebeek

May 12, 2024.Reading time 13 minutes.

The cooking of Belgium isn’t one of those cuisines that springs immediately to mind amongst the foodies of UK. We’ve been in love with the cooking of France and Italy for a long time; more recently Spanish food has become popular with great tapas bars appearing everywhere; and, of course, chefs like Ottolenghi have inspired […]

Aldeburgh in April

April 27, 2024.Reading time 21 minutes.

As you will have realised if you’re a regular reader of my blog, Aldeburgh in Suffolk has become one of my favourite places for a short break. I’m just back from my third visit and although April brought more than a few showers, and there were still lots of March winds blowing, it was still […]

A Day on the South Bank & Bankside, London

April 12, 2024.Reading time 13 minutes.

It started with Ben (6) coming back from school a couple of weeks’ ago and wanting to tell me they’d been learning about Roy Lichtenstein and David Hockney in school that day. As he started a drawing, reproducing for me the Lichtenstein painting they’d be studying, he recognised ‘The Splash’ on the front of a […]

Easter Lamb for One

March 31, 2024.Reading time 11 minutes.

I don’t mean this as a sad heading, but I live alone, and that means inevitably many solo meals. However, it is quite unusual for me to be home alone over an Easter weekend, but with my birthday weekend not far away in April, when all the family will be here, and a particularly large […]

Lamb Kofte with a Butter Bean Mash & Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

March 21, 2024.Reading time 10 minutes.

Ottolenghi’s Bulgur with Tomato, Aubergine & Preserved Lemon Yoghurt from his book Simple has become one of the family’s favourite dishes and we cook it often – to serve with lamb, chicken, sausages. I’ve been making it so often lately that the other day I thought I should take another look through Simple and see […]

Griddled Lamb Chops with a Melange of Summer Vegetables

March 11, 2024.Reading time 11 minutes.

I’ve greatly enjoyed watching Rick Stein’s new TV series, Rick Stein’s Food Stories, in which he travels around UK exploring food traditions and the country’s favourite foods. In each episode, he heads back to his kitchen in Padstow, Cornwall a couple of times to cook up something which reflects the foods he’s been looking at, […]

Organic Seville Orange Marmalade

February 5, 2024.Reading time 13 minutes.

This is my second batch of marmalade this year – and we’re only into week 6 of 2024. But actually, if I’m to be completely honest here, as I always try to be, today’s marmalade was really batch 3. Batch 1 was a complete disaster. I’ve been making marmalade for more decades than I’d like […]

Restaurant Review: Frenchie, Covent Garden, London

January 19, 2024.Reading time 6 minutes.

I saw Greg Marchand, chef/owner of Frenchie on BBC TV’s Saturday Kitchen last month, in Christmas mode and making a rather wonderful stuffing for chicken. I looked up his restaurant on my iPad and made a note that I must visit sometime. Then serendipity stepped in soon after and in an exchange of emails with […]

A Day in London: Art, Ballet & Food

January 4, 2024.Reading time 10 minutes.

As a child, I was taken to The Nutcracker ballet at Christmas every year. I began ballet lessons at the tender age of three and carried on until I was 15. Of course, as I watched Tchaikovsky’s magical ballet, I wanted, like many other little girls, to be a ballerina … but I was also […]

Red Pepper & Tomato Soup

December 31, 2023.Reading time 8 minutes.

The phrase ‘out with the old and in with the new’ came to mind as I made this soup – a phrase often heard at New Year, so very appropriate for today, New Year’s Eve. In my case I was taking some rather sad, ageing red peppers out of the fridge and before they were […]